The Flight I found out Delta's international baggage fees are pretty ridiculous. I like United more, so I looked at their policy -- 2 free bags, and $50 for the next. I guess that was still in my head after I bought a more convenient/cheaper ticket on Delta... cos when we got to the airport, Delta only gave one free bag, and you had to pay $75 for the 2nd, and $200 for the 3rd. Because my third was carry-on-sized and everything in it could be re-bought or mailed for <$200, we rearranged some things (put some into other bags, left some at home). One bag was a few pounds over (a $90 charge), so I took out my leather coat and wore it under my peacoat. Anyway, the Delta flight definitely wasn't $200 cheaper than United, so if you've got a lot of baggage, United might be cheaper overall.
The Airport Last time I was in Korea, Incheon seemed small. After pushing (thanks, free carts at baggage claim!) my body weight in baggage from one end to the other... I no longer think that. :) Immigration/customs dumps you out in the middle. My cellphone rental pickup was way at the one end. (Sroaming has a prepaid student plan that's $50 for a year. All incoming anything is free, outgoing domestic texts are 9 cents each, outgoing domestic calls are about 48cents a minute - so obviously it's better to receive than to send.) I plan to stop using this once I get a smartphone, but that could be a while. Then the international taxi booth was back in the middle. I only had to wait 10 minutes for an English-speaking driver to come. (The Int'l Taxi offers reservations, but they charge a mandatory $9 fee to have the taxi driver hold a name placard at the Arrivals door. As I had to pick up my phone, I didn't want to do that, so I just walked up to the booth, expecting a long wait.) One of the benefits of the International Taxi (besides the English-speaking driver) is that it's a flat rate based on zone -- $60 total to SNU. The regular metered taxis are $2 for the first mile, then $1 for each mile after that, but there's also a timed meter that's running when you're sitting in traffic. And the passenger has to pay a $7 toll in cash, which, until I get a Korean bank account, I'm using sparingly (I have Capital One Venture card with no foreign transaction fees). I couldn't find an exact distance from Incheon to Seoul, but it took about 2 hours with traffic to get to my room. Oh, there's also a bus that goes pretty much everywhere in the city for $13. I took it last year because it had a stop right in front of the hotel. This time, the closest stop was SNU's main gate - so I'd have to hail a taxi from there, or catch a bus with bags. Neither sounded appealing in the dark and cold.
The Drive The taxi driver couldn't find the address I gave him on his phone's GPS (the neighborhoods in my area were recently broken up and renamed, and a new Western-style address system is starting to be used, so things are a mess), so I had to guide him from SNU's main gate. Thank goodness for my pre-trip research. As I wasn't expecting to have internet at first, I took a bunch of screenshots of Google Maps and dumped them on my tablet. We eventually found the place. The taxi driver helped me carry my bags up to my room. :) I think it's because we had a nice chat on the way. He pointed out some places as we went past. And he took some side roads to avoid the main highway's rush hour traffic (apparently it goes from 6-9pm, as people here start work later and work longer hours).
The Room It's about what I was expecting from the description on SNU's website. The main room is probably 13'x9', the kitchen is 5'x5', the bathroom is 4'x4'.
The entranceway. Clothes washer under the sink. Bathroom to the right. And one of the nice
things about Korea -- no house keys required. My building and my room both have keypads.
The bathroom is entirely tile with a drain on the floor. The showerhead is above
(and attached to) the sink. It's actually not a bad setup, except it stays wet for a while.
Closet, shelves, desk, mini fridge and microwave. Sadly, facing forward the microwave
cord doesn't reach the plug, so it's sideways.
Someone before me left some stickers from Singapore on the glass... and the view isn't exciting
(plus there's a guard that sticks out), but... you know.. it lets light in, as a good window should.
Bedding is apparently hard to find in Korea. And their idea of a bedsheet is more like a paddingless
mattress pad. It is thicker than a regular sheet and isn't fitted. And there's no top sheet.
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