Aimee’s World Tour

eat it up!

oh it was bustling

all about this monastery which is also a school for monks

all about the home of the 5th ane 13th dhalai lamas

Here’s my wonky montage of the palace:

where i will describe a number of experiences before heading to the Potola Palace and several other monasteries

The Road to Lhasa isn’t a road at all. 

It’s an adventure of air and land.  Fly high over the Yellow Sea.  Then chug patiently along 4064 km of tracks.

Check your bag in at Incheon International Airport whose highest point is an antenna atop a 22-story control tower at 100.4 meters.  Pick up your bag in Beijing at 43 meters above sea level. Hop a train to Lhasa and deboard two days later at approximately 3650 meters above sea level.

You’ll need your passport, Chinese visa, plane ticket, and hot water bottle, as well as your wits and a lot of patience.   Oxygen will be provided on the train and hopefully you’ve gotten a tour package that provides you with several bottles of O2 once you reach Lhasa.    From Beijing to the capital city of Tibet you’ve gone up approx. 3600 meters, which is equivalent to over 11,000 feet, or 2.2+miles.

http://www.world66.com/asia/northeastasia/china/beijing

Eight minutes till boarding my final flight outta this place. 

It feels good to be leaving the ROK and my spirits are high despite learning I had overlooked a second stop-over en route. 

Incheon to Narita to Chicago to Atlanta.

I will miss you Incheon International airport, my reliable hub for Asian travel. 

And your accomdating internet cafes. 

I now sit in the very spot Justine and I printed out our Tibetan permits. 

This time the printer isn’t having such luck and the Korean girl on duty is sulking.  “Misprint.  You made misprint.”   

I need to print a copy of my itinerary for the hotel I’m staying at in Japan during my layover.  Thank gawd.

Once I land in Narita there will be no more “…mmmmkneedah’s” linked to every word.  I can’t wait!!

~Captain Planet.  Team America.  

Where to now? An impossible question to answer with any degree of certainty.

This isn’t entirely true as I know where the next couple weeks will lead me.

Today marks my final full day in Korea. I fly out tomorrow. 

At long last I will leave Korea with ALL my belongings.  It is only now that I feel like I’ve finished despite graduation a month and a half ago.

Tomorrow at 1:45 pm I fly out of Incheon International to Nartia in Japan. Beloved Bona (my flight finding friend!) surprised me with overnight hotel accomodation for my 13 and a half hour layeover.  On Friday I fly out and land in Atlanta, Georgia around 1 pm. 

After several days with my sister and lil’ nephew I am hoping to visit friends and my brother in MD outside of DC.  My friend Colleen will meet me for a couple days and then we’ll hit the open road to Jersey. 

After hugging my mom and dad, getting a pay as you go cell phone and making a million calls it’s up to the attic to clear out all my “crap” as my father calls it.  I have papers saved as far back as 4th grade (all A’s btw).  My parents have been more than patient with me. 

With a number of nannying offers for the summer, the option of attending a bootcamp out in Thailand, and a promised visit to my family in Poland, the summer will prove to be another adventure.  Hopes of going back to school this fall are as strong as ever.

I don’t know where or when but that’s the life I lead. My dad has always told me that sometimes when a decision is too difficult it is because it doesn’t matter much which you choose.  I know I will accomplish what I set out to but the order need not be exact.

Korea was just one of those decisions.  Had I chosen differently I  would be writing a different sort of blog.  No biggie. It’s just life. 

Korea has a most interesting culture. This nation reveals itself in architecture of past and present.  In faces of generations young and old.  In shops and markets of fresh fruit and fish.  In bustling cities and natural retreats – serene mountain peaks and stacked shopping plazas.  In customs and attitudes so remote from my own.

Amidst all of these elements, the real treasures aren’t palaces or the streets of Seoul, but the pint-sized children I have come to know and love.  There is no contest.

The love, caring and compassion I have found with them will never leave my heart. And if I’m lucky, a few of them will remember their beloved Aimee Teacher.  If only.

Here is where I’ll find time to talk about my visit.