Jeju, Shanghai, Toronto, CHICAGO!

May 6th-8th
Jeju Island, Shanghai, Toronto, and Chicago

I guess I should probably conclude this blog as opposed to leaving it hanging in South Korea. I’m about 3 weeks late in doing this, but those last few days were primarily consumed with packing.
The 6th in Jeju I had decided to not even get off the ship. I really didn’t have anything left in that port that I needed to see, so I stayed on the ship and prepared for my flight the next day. That night I hung out with my friends fairly late into the evening for a final hurrah, which was probably a bad idea, but I figured I should be at least somewhat social my last day on the ship.
The 7th was my flight out of Shanghai. After waking up really early to go through Chinese immigration checks, I quickly realized how bad of an idea staying out late the previous night really was. Let’s just say I didn’t feel too great after waking up at 6 AM on the floor of my cabin (last time I let people buy me farewell drinks). I then hung around the ship till the afternoon when I was finally allowed to get off the ship and take the shuttle to the Shanghai airport. I still felt like garbage, and after missing lunch on the ship, I was slightly worried about how well I was going to do in the airport. I had a few hours of waiting when I arrived, which allowed me enough time to at least grab a water and some salad flavored thin bread sticks that I found in a shop (which were actually surprising good). My bread sticks held me over though, at least through the ticket line, where I was informed my flight was delayed. I usually don’t have problems with delays, and when I do, I’m flying home anyways, but this was different. This delay meant I’d miss my connecting flight in Toronto, resulting in a Toronto overnight with an early flight the next morning, not exactly what I wanted to hear. Anyways, I waited out the delay, bought some candy bars for an emergency “meal” that I felt was likely with this rescheduled connection, and made my 14 hour trip back to North America.
The flight was pleasant, I had enough space and the meals were all decent. I could even choose my own movies to watch on the touch screen TV in front of my seat, so that was nice. We arrived in Toronto, at which point, I was instructed to proceed to the connections desk and pick up a voucher for the Hilton they were offering me to stay at, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all! I got to the Hilton late that night, had a way overpriced sandwich that the airline gave me $15 towards, and went to bed.
I woke up four hours later to make my 7 AM flight, a time I’ve never quite agreed with. I left the Hotel around 5:00 that morning to make it through US customs, something I’ve never actually had to do before (I’ve never had to fly back into the US), and something that took forever. After getting though that, I boarded my nearly empty flight and made the 90 minute journey back home where my Dad was waiting at the airport. So I had made it, two foreign airports, a delay and an overnight later, I had made it back to Chicago. And here ends yet another cruise adventure. I’ll be flying out to the next ship June 8th, this time back to Southampton for 2 months in the Baltics and another month in the Eastern Med, putting me back home Sept 6th. I’ll post some pics online, lets say a collection of Asian highlights, and then be sure to come back in a few weeks when I start posting for my Baltic adventures. As always, thanks so much for reading and taking interest in my stories, keep in touch, and have a great one!