San Francisco

I should be on a plane to Seoul right now. Instead I'm in a swanky hotel room in San Francisco, blogging and thinking about taking a nap. I caught my flight from Jacksonville to Chicago this morning with no problems, although after I was in the air, I did notice something weird: I was looking over my baggage claim checks, and discovered that they'd only been checked through to Seoul, not Daegu. I figured I'd just ask about it in Chicago or SF, depending on when I got the chance. It also occurred to me that on my previous blog I'd mentioned that I'd be arriving in Korea on Thursday, August 2nd. Silly me, August 2nd is a Wednesday. It seems that I may have inadvertantly cursed myself! Anyway, in Chicago, I ran across the airport and reached the gate just in time for boarding to begin... had it begun on time. But instead boarding was delayed by almost an hour. I suppose I could've asked about my luggage then, but the gate area was packed with several different outbound flights preparing to board, and I just decided to wait until SF. I knew I would have little more than an hour for my layover in SF, so I was getting pretty antsy the longer we waited around to board. Finally they said they'd fixed the problem - whatever it was - and we could go ahead and board. We were encouraged to board and take our seats as quickly as possible, in order to facilitate a rapid takeoff. Everyone complied... only to then sit on the tarmac in an unairconditioned plane for another hour! By the time we took off, I knew there was no way I'd catch my flight from SF to Seoul. In SF, the group of about 7 or so of us who had been booked on the 1:33pm flight to Seoul learned that we'd have to wait until tomorrow. Apparently, United only has the 1:33pm flight from SF to Seoul, so none of us could get anything earlier. We've all been put up in the Crowne Plaza hotel (for free, of course!), which is far nicer than the Days Inn where I slept last night! Anyway, when I was getting my ticket straightened out, I asked why my luggage had only been checked as far as Seoul. Turns out that was a mistake on somebody's part. I was told that the best thing to do was to go ahead and claim my bags and re-check them tomorrow when I check in, making sure that they're checked all the way to Daegu. So perhaps this delay is good after all; at least I'll arrive with all my things. I hope. It's 4:00pm local time right now, and I should really go out and see the sights - or at least see the part of the bay which is near my hotel - but to be honest, I'm about to pass out. We'll see how I feel after a nap.