Zombie Survival Mode

The Story: 
A person has a lot of time to think and reflect when they are strapped to a 75 ton (according to Google) moving vessel. Add to that the strange sleep deprived thoughts that float in and out of your mind, a person can reflect a great deal.

After two VERY quick layovers (like 10-15 minute layovers) I was finally able to sit for 11 hours and do nothing. YES! this is what I have been waiting for! Or was it? The truth is, as a teacher, I am terrible at sitting still. I am a fidgeter. I like to move. I can’t sit for long without inducing physical pain and stiffness. Though, I enjoy being lazy, I like to be lazy sprawled out on my bed or have the ability to move about my house. That is the reason why I spend the extra money on a premium seat (I NEED the leg room).

Fast forward to hour 8 of sitting in my designated seat: I have began to get a little crazy-bored. You know the kind of boredom where your imagination kicks in and you begin making up insane stories in your head about clouds, tvs, and a pen….wait am I the only one? Oh!…hmm. I had tried sleeping throughout the 8 hours and only was able to get in an hour or so. The attendants scared me awake because they insisted on walking through attempting to sell duty free stuff. Really! We all could do without buying more stuff. I may or may not still be a little annoyed by this. On this flight we did not have individual tvs (though we could use our individual devices to watch a set of shows). My headphones decided to break. I was too tired to read and follow a story.

Soooo, needless to say I was slowly going crazy! I had three hours left and I had to pull myself together to make it through. I went into what I call the travel survival mode. Have you ever experience this mode?  Where you take everything you think you never had and put it all together to form some kind of zombie like person (only you don’t eat people’s brains….that would be bad). Well I went there and survived!

Landed. Felt awful. Went through immigration. Didn’t have to wait for my bags cause I only carried-on. Which was the best decision I have every made! Once I got home (through a crazy set of bus tickets and broken Korean-English exchanges) I realized I looked wild, it was hot, I had no water at home nor food. So I pieced myself together ran to the store and impulse bought Kiwis.  I was so tired, but I forced myself to stay up till a reasonable bed time (8:30). The Zombie survival mode SAVED THE DAY!

The Moral

As I sit in my normal corner coffee shop (yep, didn’t take long for me to settle into my normal routine….I bought kimpab for dinner last night.) I began to think of the intensity of traveling. I mean really, I travel so much I should be use to it by now! I figured out on the plane, during my zombie like survival mode, that I have been on at least 53 different planes in my life. Even with all that experience, from flights being delayed, canceled, snowed in and mechanical issues, I still struggle with “living” my travels. During those three hours of attempting to distract my brain from the travel fatigue, that was well settled in, I decided that I am a “hurry up get there and then enjoy life” kind of person. Which is why I have no pictures of myself on the plane or any of that. I am not sure I’ll be able to change that aspect of myself. I think I’ll always think that the destination is worth rushing to, getting there early and then taking the time to explore.

What kind of travel person are you? Do you have your own zombie like stories? Share them below! I’d love to hear them….you know to make me feel more normal. 😉

Note: All pictures in this post have been taken at a previous date. As I said I am not good at enjoying the travel, so I didn’t take pictures when traveling. Just enjoy a bit of Korea.