The plan was originally to fly out from where I live in Texas to Denver, Colorado, and from there get on a connecting flight to Francisco, California. I would spend the night in San Francisco and, along with approximately 40 other members of the Field Trip's Group A, which was all going to fly together to Korea.
I was travelling with a fellow Soshified member who I am close friends with in real life. While we were on the first flight from Texas to Denver, my friend passed out and, according to witnesses sitting around him, had a seizure. With no family history of seizures, the paramedics who met us in Denver recommended that he be taken to the hospital to determine the cause of the seizure.
I accompanied him to a hospital in Denver, at which point we both knew that we would miss our scheduled flight to San Francisco. With my friend in the emergency room being checked out by the doctors, and with myself calling the trip coordinators to figure out the best course of action, I suddenly found myself afraid that we would miss the trip altogether.
The doctors determined that there was nothing medically wrong with my friend, but given the fact that he has a history of anxiety relating to airplane travel, he elected to skip the trip. It was an extremely difficult decision and a most unfortunate turn of events, but he was worried that if it were to happen again while on the 11 hour flight to Seoul, that there would be no medical assistance on the plane. This left me scrambling to figure out how to get myself to San Francisco in time to make the 11am flight to Korea.
Ultimately, I took the earliest flight from Denver to San Francisco, which arrived at 10am. International flights have greater security measures to deal with, and they tend to close the gate and stop boarding sooner than flights that do not travel outside of the country. As a result, I found myself literally running through the airport to try and reach the Korea flight on time. I heard the airline representative on the intercom saying "final boarding call" for my flight. Luckily, I managed to BARELY make it to the flight, saving my trip.
Once we arrived in Korea, it was already nearly 4pm, so the rest of the day was spent going through immigration and customs, checking into the hotel, and having our welcome dinner.
Arriving at Incheon International Airport
Arriving at Incheon International Airport
Perhaps the strangest part of the entire experience of going through Incheon International Airport was the fact that there was a large group of Korean media there waiting for us. The Korean media has posted several news articles about the Soshified Field Trip in the past month, but we didn't expect to see TV camera crews, photographers, and reporters waiting for us. Strangely enough, we experienced, on a small level, what Girls' Generation themselves must experience at airports, with camera flash bulbs popping in our direction at a feverish pace.
After that unusual and unexpected event, we got on a bus to take us to our hotel, where we found the Charming Asia Tours company representatives waiting for us with Soshified-branded pamphlets detailing our trip itinerary.
The welcoming sign at the hotel from Charming Asia Tours
The view from my room
The pamphlet given to us along with our Global Generation t-shirt
Finally, the night ended with a welcoming dinner, where all of the nearly 100 total people attending the field trip gathered together for the first time. Friends were reunited or were able to meet in person for the first time, and it was a wonderful get-together for everyone, even as most (including me) were feeling the exhaustion of the overseas flight. Some are heading off to a night market to enjoy some late night shopping, but after the crazy events of yesterday and today, I'm getting some good old-fashioned sleep to prepare myself for the full schedule of the rest of the trip.
Gathering together at the welcoming dinner
Yum
More yum
Good times together with SONEs
Stay tuned for more daily updates (I hope I will have time and energy to consistently do them) from the trip!!
- Fanaccount and photos by [email protected]
Day 2 fan account here.
Day 3 fan account here.
Day 4 fan account here.
Day 5 fan account here.
MoonSoshi9's fan account here.