August 28, 2018 – August 29, 2018 –Â This day actually started at night. Our flight to Seoul, South Korea from Atlanta, Georgia wasn’t until Midnight so we both worked a full day and still had time to go home to shower before we left for the airport.
Around 9:00 pm, we called a Lyft to take us to the Atlanta Airport. Now, this wasn’t just your any old Lyft, oh no, this was the kind of Lyft that had no AC and smelled like urine. Windows down THE. WHOLE. WAY. On the interstate. Pure joy.
We arrived safely at the international terminal around 9:45 pm and headed to security. There was only one person ahead of us! But there’s no going through ATL security without some kind of entertainment.
I think a nun was in front of us based on her attire. She didn’t speak English and was arguing, or trying to argue, with the TSA agents about water in her bag.
The nun was getting angry that the TSA agents wanted her to remove the water. She explained that it was holy water and couldn’t be removed. There must have been a little miscommunication on both sides. Once she realized they just wanted to look at the bottle, she relaxed. This ordeal took about 10 minutes.
And then I forgot I had protein bars in my bag. *SIGH* Atlanta recently decided to add food to their ever growing list of things we have to take out of our bags at security. Such a pain!
The ATL lounge was about to close at 10:30 pm so we ran over there quickly to grab some waters and snacks. Then we made our way to our gate.
Weeks prior to our flight, we had been religiously checking our Delta apps to see if someone would choose the dreaded middle seat in between us. That’s right, we decided to try the trick of picking window and aisle to deter people from picking us as their plane buddies. We even chose a row way in the back to deter even further. Minutes before boarding, there were still 6 souls on standby without a seat. We kept refreshing and finally, those 6 lucky ducks were all placed in first class leaving us with a free middle seat! SCORE!
I forgot to mention our flight was on Delta’s brand new Airbus A350 (just started flying in May 2018). It was Fancy with a capital F. Here are a few fancy extras normal people get: bigger screen, bigger windows (they are almost double the size of normal plane windows), cool lighting (it’s supposed to help with jet lag… we’ll see about that), memory foam seats (spoiler alert: not sure what their definition of memory foam is, but my butt felt just as uncomfortable).
So our journey began. Our flight started with dinner. I got the ravioli with a salad that looked like it was 2 weeks old and Eric got the chicken. Every meal was served with Asian crab and seaweed salad which I thought was interesting; not exactly the side you’d expect with ravioli, but when in Atlanta, right? Nope, still doesn’t make sense.
We watched the movie A Quiet Place while we ate dinner and then decided to try to sleep.
I woke up a while later thinking I had slept quite a bit. So I checked the flight tracker. Two hours. I had slept TWO HOURS. We weren’t even over Alaska yet.
Want to know why I woke up? A foot. The tiny foot of the little Korean girl in front of me resting on my hand. Proof you ask? Here you go. At least she had socks on.
I was able to sleep a little more, then we were served a “snack”. I can’t tell you what time it was because at this point we had crossed the international dateline and it went from bright and sunny to kind of dark again and I was SO confused. The clocks all said one thing but outside said something different. I shouldn’t have opened the window, but it was really pretty.
Our snack was a cheese frittata and yogurt. I should have brought more food with me.
After the snack, I watched 13 Hours (the story about the attack in Benghazi). Excellent movie if you haven’t seen it. I’m a huge war movie fan so take that into consideration.
At this point, we both had been getting up to walk around and use the restroom about every 2 hours. If you couldn’t tell from all my Europe posts, I’m a worrier. I worry about everything before it happens so that I’m prepared or can avoid those things from happening. I guess that’s what makes me a good assistant and what will probably give me gray hair when I’m a parent.
Anyway, I was so worried about blood clots. I know what you’re thinking, “You’re young and active! Why would you need to worry?” Well, I read an article about a 29-year-old who got a blood clot after her flight from Iceland. It’s a real fear and with this long of a flight, I wasn’t taking any chances. Each time I got up I made sure it was when someone else was in the restroom so I could stand outside and do calf raises and small squats by the exit door while I waited. “Didn’t you feel stupid?” I looked cooler than the little old lady doing lunges down the aisle.
Here’s where my organization for these posts gets a little weird. When we landed, it was actually Thursday. So I’ll be finishing up the flight as well as telling you all about Seoul in my next post!
– Bisous!
Lauryn
Hi, Loved your tale of the nun in the Atlanta airport with the bottle of water and your scheme which worked of leaving the middle seat in between yours and how that worked for you. We have never tried it. We haven’t been an an airbus 350, sounds like it is better than what we usually travel on. I thought about the Asian crab and seaweed salad being served on your flight and since the destination was Seoul, South Korea, I would bet that is a dish that is common in that country.