OSU-PNU 2006

I left for Pusan on Sunday morning, 7/10. I flew from Columbus to Detroit, then from Detroit to Tokyo. On the flight from Columbus to Detroit, I sat next to an Kenyan woman, Alice, from Minnesota. She was dressed very beautifully, so I asked her what the occasion was. She said that a friend of hers got married in Columbus over the weekend, and she was in for the wedding. We had an interesting conversation, in which I discovered that she's a single mom, studying and working full time. She shared with me that her husband died nine months after they arrived in the States, and she's had to do everything more or less on her own since then. She says that it's only by the grace of God that she can do it.

The flight from the States was uneventful. The seat next to me was empty, so there was no one to talk to; however, on my frequent stretching jaunts, I talked with a social work professor from the University of Alabama who was headed to Hong Kong to do a three week intensive program on social work.

Once arriving at Narita, I discovered that the flight to Pusan had been cancelled due to a typhoon. Consequently, I took a flight to Incheon, Korea and spent the night in an out-of-the-way hotel, not knowing how I was going to get to Pusan the next morning. However, everything worked out. I was able to get on the first flight out.

Once arriving at the Pusan airport, I was met by one of our team members and one of the students, Eun-A. We went directly to a spacious four bedroom apartment in Lotte Castle that we would call home for the next month. Later that same day the other members of our team finally arrived, after also being delayed by the typhoon.