Chicago Airport.....Yawn!

I left home yesterday about 3pm and arrived at STL around 5pm for my 8pm flight. Yeah, I know--really, really early, but I originally had planned on stopping for dinner --but wasn't hungry and decided to just keep on moving. Stopped by Starbucks at the airport for an iced coffee which I hoped would keep me awake until my 1am flight time.....but it isn't working. It is 10:45pm and I am tired.....my flight boards at 12:30am so I thought I would watch a movie. But I discovered that I put all my DVD's in my suitcase, so I am striking out on everything.

While enjoying my iced coffee in STL I wasn't paying attention and managed to spill my coffee down the front of my shirt. So I was 25 hours from my destination and I had a huge coffee stain on the front of my shirt. I quickly ran into the bathroom and whipped off my shirt and soaped up the spot and rinsed it off. I thought I would just dry it using the hand dryer and put it back on. At that point I noticed that they only have paper towels.....so now I am wearing a T-shirt I stuck into my bag as a backup. It isn't stylish, but at least it is clean! My wet shirt is stuffed into my bag.....rolled up in paper towels. I am hoping it will be dry by the time I get to Seoul.

I managed to snag an earlier flight to Chicago and landed about a hour earlier than scheduled. I stopped at Macaroni Grill for dinner....salad and a $9.50 glass of wine. After dinner I moved to the international terminal and waded through the pulsing mass of Koreans waiting to check in. I am always amazed by the amount of luggage people have--lthough I shouldn't complain. I have one large suitcase that was 2 pounds overweight...so I had to open it and move a baggie to my other duffle bag in STL. Checking in at Asiana airlines was interesting because they weigh your carry on. Again, I was 2 pounds over weight...so I pulled out my computer and put it in my backback. That made them happy and I didn't have to pay any extra. So I made a quick stop at duty free for a bottle of Bombay Blue Gin...and now I am sitting next to the only unused electric plug I could find in the international terminal. There are clusters of people sitting all over the place .... and if you look closely, each cluster is gathered around a wall plug.

My throat is a little scratchy....hope I am not coming down with Swine Flu! That would be interesting..... Otherwise, I am feeling pretty good. I am a bit anxious about this teaching assignment. I am going to be teaching a technical mapping course and I don't have any idea about the level of the students I will be teaching. I have a couple of day's lectures prepared...actually two days worth. So I am going to run with those and see how it goes. I start teaching on Thursday....so I will have the weekend to regroup and try to figure out exactly what I am going to be doing for the next month. The real killer is the schedule. I teach a three hour class --four days a week. So my daily pattern will be teach....eat lunch and prepare for the next day. I am hoping that I don't end up spending all my time preparing for class and not getting to know the city and the students. We shall see....

So...... I am going to try to stay awake and hopefully I will be ready to sleep once I am on board. The flight is 14 hours....so it is going to be a long haul on the plane followed by another long bus ride. not fun.......