On Airports

I just got home from sending-off a friend at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, and realized that I’ve been to the airport more than I have been to any place in South Korea in less than six months. That’s not considering my workplace which will obviously take the number one spot in my top recurring destinations in South Korea. That’s four times so I could fetch people arriving here, and four times to send them back home to the Philippines.

Okay fine, so my weekly trips to the church may take the real second spot, but I guess what I am just trying to get here is the airport’s just been too much, and I don’t seem to like the feeling of it.

But to set the record straight, it’s not like I have qualms over welcoming or sending-off people at the airport, nor such tasks have been much of a disturbance to me.

I had these thoughts upon getting back to the apartment because as I was walking my way to the AREX tonight (the train connecting the airport to Seoul’s metro rail system), I had the same pangs of sadness, which doesn’t really feel good when you’ve just been from a good kind of high from seeing family and friends who came over to visit and tour with you.

It’s a long walk from the airport departure grounds to the AREX area, if I may tell, and it’s usually that dark, wide and barren area in the airport, so those moments of sadness can really take a toll on you.

I never liked airports. My childhood memory has branded it as such a taboo, a place for sure- ball traumas. Visits to the airport for me meant the end of fun weekend mall trips and complete family dinners. It meant no more chocolates on the fridge and no more splurge of new stuffs to be fancied from a dad who’s willing to give it all. It’s because dad needs to go back to work, in a place far away from home. The airport is, always in my mind, the one who can always take my dad away.

I remember telling myself one time when I was a kid that I will never marry a soldier, a pilot, a seaman, or anyone who has to be away for a considerable amount of time for work. A week or two for some work-related trips may do, but I said I would not want to apply the term “monthly allotment” to my everyday life. Being the kid that I was, I cared so much about the uneasiness that such situation may bring, devoid of the real painful reason why so many people, including my father, needed to do it.

Never did I realize that I have actually tried to dodge on being the one who’s left behind by being the one who needs to leave. But here’s the thing. What made it painful for us family before was that we cannot afford to visit our father in that faraway workplace. Now that I have people who can afford to visit me, I still get that feeling of being left behind.

Just my two cents of emotional rollercoaster high.

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My Choo-Choo Train

I still have this slight hangover from last weekend's trip to Busan, since the place has been the closest that I have gotten to feeling even a bit like home. Well for one, it drew me near to a pretty decent beach. More importantly, I got to see my sister.

Now what I think contributes to a generally good trip is an equally memorable mode of transportation that brings you to and from your destination. What I thought would be a dragging, late night train ride back home actually turned out to be a lively one.

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I Love Busan! (Part 1)

I know, I know. I’m sorry that I actually underestimated Busan's charm. It’s just that the people I have talked to mostly gave me so-so ratings when I asked them about it, that I settled for a just-for-the-heck kind of trip in South Korea’s largest port city. I wasn’t even expecting much from its brown-sand beach. But hey, it all changed when I finally reached the place. Busan has the warmth that makes you want to embrace it, not to mention a beach prowess to impress! I want to go back!!!

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Biking in Korea

Statistics Korea recently reported that bicycle prices in the country has risen 21% YoY, as the public’s interest in exercise grows and the economic recession that still plagues automobile sales is keeping the prices of cars at lower rates. There has also been an apparent increase in demand for bikes made out of the people’s desire in achieving a healthier and eco-friendlier way of living.

I find this an interesting piece of information and see it as a faint sign of how economic and environmental challenges are moving us more to consider a shift in our lifestyles. For one, I have never seen the world banner this much on reducing carbon emissions, and bicycles present a simpler and fuel-less way of providing transportation. Not only that, bicycles help us keep up with our physical fitness by giving us the right exercise for our legs. In Korea, where I have temporarily been spared of seeing dark car exhausts, breathing fresh air while biking may also prove to be healthier...

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