After a quick rush finalizing packing and attempting to fit my next several months into one small backpack, my husband drove me, my mom, and my cousin to the airport. We had to leave our house at 4:15 AM to fly out of MCI. After two way too short layovers (Denver and San Francisco), we arrived at ICN (very nice airport!) at 1:30 AM the next day (3 PM local time), which calculates out to be 14 hours ahead of home.  At the airport we met up with my brother and his girlfriend Jenna.  Together we took the train into Seoul and got to see some countryside along the way. After a train transfer, we walked 0.2 miles to our hotel at The Westin. Along the way there was a giant memorial to victims of the ferry that sank off South Korea’s western coast April 16, leaving more than 300 dead or missing. We got settled in by 7:00 PM that night, so we thought we’d walk around outside to see what how the area looked. We found that there were a lot of people out for late on a Thursday night. Stores were open and there were numerous street vendors selling food and other items. We tried these sausage dumplings on a stick and watched a local make these string honey pecan desserts (yum!). After walking for awhile, we went to a local joint where we had Korean fried chicken made with three different flavors. I only slept 45 minutes the night prior, so I was nodding off quite a bit. I was back to the hotel by midnight.