Day Won

Alright! The background has been set, lets get into the meat and potatoes! Obviously the title is a play on a few different things (Korean currency is called Won). Man, what a crazy first day...

What idiot travels to a foreign country, let alone halfway around the world with no cash? Yeah...this guy. I did it, I regret it, don't make the same mistake I did. Lol, man what was I thinking? Well I'll tell you, I've never been outside North America, and guess what? I'm a sheltered boy from lily white Chicago suburbs. Doesn't everything run on credit cards these days? I'll be fine, Asia is highly sophisticated everywhere right? Especially when you're going to try not to use any data on your phone plan and just use Wifi applications to call/text, yeah I'm a genius.

Long story short, I'm here, I'm fine, but man did I have a bit too much of an adventure. This first day adventure begins with my wonderful mom taking time out of her day to drive me to the airport in the middle of the day (2:50pm takeoff).

My stuff all packed with a side of fake girl scout cookies for good luck!

I get to the airport and instantly get hit with some major suck. I was figuring on upgrading my seat for legroom since that just comes with being tall. I didn't also count on my bag being overweight. I had to pack my entire life for a year. Say goodbye to $300 for the seat upgrade/overweight bag.

Receipts for seat upgrade and overweight bag.

Anyways, put that behind me. These things happen and you live and learn. I had a 15 hour flight ahead of me and I only wanted to focus on getting to my destination. (At this point I hadn't even thought about the lack of cash yet). My flight was delayed about 30 minutes due to the plane getting in late, however they assured us that we would still reach Shanghai at the appointed time.

We finally boarded the plane, and yay, I had the entire exit row all to myself! Also, since this plane was so large, there was about 10 feet of legroom in front of me to stretch out. Life is good! I drowse off for a bit after takeoff, but lunch is served almost immediately. This is awesome! I've never been on one of these flights before, however there's a guy sitting to my left out of nowhere. I kind of resented him the entire flight because I knew he hadn't paid the upgrade fee. Turns out this guy trains pastors for a living too. Way to live the Christian life dude...haha not really all that sore. Until....HE STOLE MY PILLOW. Yeah, he did it. It wasn't enough to get a free $120 upgraded seat when he didn't need it, but he also felt the need to fall asleep with not only his, but MY PILLOW AS WELL. Whatever, he's lucky I'm nice. Anyways, these stewardesses were amazing. I wish I could have married them all and taken them home. Not really, but they were pretty cool. The food was excellent. I took China Eastern Airlines, and before the trip I was pretty worried having never heard of them. After flying with them though, I found out that they are trying to be the premier Asian airline, and doing a pretty damn good job of it if I do say so myself.

So 15 flight to Shanghai goes without a problem. Awesome, I'm in China! Now what? I gotta go through customs. I have a 13 hour layover, so I've booked a hotel. I don't have my e-ticket yet, but I show the customs agent my itinerary and they let me go. I was a bit surprised since all you hear on the news is about how China and the U.S. are at such odds about things. They were super cool though. Here's where it gets interesting. Brilliant Carl decides that instead of calling the hotel shuttle (which I kinda knew about), I'm going to ask one of these lovely people who don't speak any English which bus I should get on. Airport buses don't require any payment of any kind right? I ask 3 different people how to get to my hotel, and finally the nice young cop tells me bus 2. Cool, I'm on the bus with some Chinese people, and two of the older ones start chatting me up. They ask where I'm from and what I'm doing when all of a sudden I get a tap on the shoulder, and it's a lady asking me for cash to pay for the bus ride. What?! You can't be serious! Public transportation that costs something?! (I know it does in America too, my bearings and street smarts were clearly not on point here). I try to give her my credit card and she's like wtf is this? That's when I realized I messed up. Bad. I'm on this random bus, in the middle of Shanghai, with no idea what is going on. Alright, lets make a good decision this time. I decide to turn on the data on my phone so I know where the F I'm going.

Turns out the first stop isn't too far from my hotel! Only 1.5 miles! Ok so Mr. Policeman wasn't too far off. (I still don't know why I thought this bus would go directly to my hotel, I guess I somehow thought it was a magical hotel shuttle). So now I decide to call my hotel for a shuttle. I made it easy for them! Yay! Only 1.5 miles away! I call the front desk, and I get passed to 3 different people trying to figure out where I am and if they can come pick me up, and finally the guy gets on the phone and says "Nope Sorry" and hangs up. Oh. Shit. What now? A cab? I blew off the guy in the airport who was all over me about a cab ride, with credit card symbols on a sign around his neck. Sweet! That means cabs take credit cards here! I wave a cab over, the driver speaks zero English and when I show him the credit card he has no clue what it is. Great. Looks like I'm walking. How bad can 1.5 miles be? Well unfortunately I was toting that overweight bag with me. 60 lbs of luggage on my back and 1.5 miles to. Maybe this wouldn't have been so bad even 5 years ago when I was in better shape, but now? Well, it was a struggle. I basically took it 1 city block at a time, and did my best to put my trust in God to not give up. What was the alternative? Sleeping on the street in Shanghai? Not something I wanted to endure.

I got to see first hand how life was on the streets of rural Shanghai. It was very movie like, HUGE stadium sized screens advertising different things. A very cool atmosphere if I wasn't carrying around these two awkward and heavy bags. I got to a point where I was about half a mile away from my hotel and I was turned around looking at a river I was next to and I heard someone clearing their throat to spit. I turned around just in time to see a guy riding past on his bike, and I believe he was going to spit on me, but stopped last second when I turned around and he saw who it was. (I mean duh, its me.) Probably thought I was homeless and not American though.

So I get to the hotel around 10pm and immediately walking through the door of this 5 star hotel, the concierge wants to get my bags for me. Well, suit yourself buddy but I'll warn you they're heavy. As I walk up to the front desk to check in, I hear a giant grunt from behind me and the affirmation I needed that I had just done something superhuman by walking 1.5 miles with these things. I tell him it really isn't necessary and that I will get them, meanwhile in the back of my mind thinking "Oh shit I don't have any cash to tip this poor guy!".

We get up to my room, and I ask him what time the earliest shuttle is to the airport since I had an early flight (7:50 am), and he says 7 am. Well that's not gonna do the trick, so we brainstorm about a cab. I tell him I only have a credit card, and that I saw a guy advertising for that in the airport. He insists that cabs will only take cash, and wants to take me to a bank to get cash out. Well, my credit card is not a debit card, so we go down to the lobby and I try to figure out wtf I'm going to do to get some cash. It's 11 pm at this point, and all I want to do is go to bed because I have an early flight in the morning, and I want to enjoy this 5 star hotel I booked. (They put me in the executive club btw, no idea why, but wow this hotel was amazing).

I see some white guys in the lobby bar so I think maybe I can buy them a drink or two and they will give me some cash for it, or maybe if I'm lucky they'll be nice enough just to spot me some. Well turns out they're European and not having any of that. One even calls me a crazy guy for traveling without cash, which I admit I am, but their attitude was a bit uncalled for I'd say. Regardless, they suggest I charge an amount on my credit card and the front desk gives me cash. A legitimate idea, so I go for it. I walk back up to the front desk and the guy there is the "Guest Relations Manager", let's call him 'Hubert' since that's his American name anyway. Hubert is THE MAN, Though he has a long pinky finger nail, and I've come to learn in life that usually means cocaine. That's neither here nor there at this point however, and after conveying my plan to him and his broken English he says he will have to call his manager. The manager gives the plan the ok and I walk over to the desk grateful that this fiasco has ended.Or has it? Did I tell my credit card company I was going to China? No, no I didn't, so my credit card doesn't work at the front desk. OMG this can't be for real, WHAT DO I DO NOW?! Well thank God for Hubert THE MAN. He discusses with the concierge and lets me know that if I want to wake up super early I can catch the 4:30 special shuttle to the airport since they have to make a pickup that early. I say "Yes, of course!" what choice do I have? With that settled, I go upstairs to get a whopping 4 hours of sleep before the final leg of my flight from Shanghai to Daegu the next morning.

When I woke up the next morning there was the same lobby staff that had been there the night before. I was embarrassed, but Hubert THE MAN sat next to me on the couch and started asking questions. First he wanted to know how I managed to book a 5 star hotel without having any cash. Expedia is the one to thank for that, but he quickly got personal and asked if I was married. He stated that he was married with a 7 year old, but it wasn't for love. His mother had shown him a girl, and she was a suitable wife so he went for it. He explained that there were acceptable ages for marriage in Shanghai where he was born and raised. He got married at 28 and that was the upper limit for men. He is currently 35. This put marriage into perspective for me. Those of you that have the privilege of marrying for love, make sure you cherish it, and root your marriage firmly in Christ. Hubert THE MAN gave me his business card and asked me to email him when I get married, and to keep in touch with him. He wanted to be my friend. Those of you that ever travel to Shanghai, I urge you to use the Royal International Hotel. Not only is it absolutely breathtaking as far as amenities, but the staff goes above and beyond. I truly saw the goodness of people in my first day on this trip and I'll never forget it. God uses all things to His glory, and my lack of foresight is a small ode to that. Although you will likely never be able to read this, thank you Hubert from the bottom of my heart. 

Luckily the rest of getting there was relatively uneventful, though the poor Daegu University employee sent to pick me up from the airport misread my itinerary and showed up on Thursday to pick me up at the airport when I got in Friday. The part that made me feel bad is that I even thought about making sure he knew it was Friday, but I thought better of it. Well, I guess it wasn't better. Just a bunch of garbage all over the place, and most of it was my doing. I have certainly learned my lesson, and won't be traveling like this again. I thank the LORD for getting me here safe, and without major incident. Truly just more instances with which to trust in Him.

My dorm bed that saw a lot of use the first few days...cause I was sleeping guys. SLEEPING! Jeez, I know what you were thinking Tim.

This is only the end of day 1 and I still have so much more to tell! Stay tuned for the next blog entry and as always leave a comment or any questions! Thanks!

TL:DR I'm in Korea.