The last day (December 17) in Korea was tough. We had to get rid of our mattress, clean up our tiny apartment, go to the phone company to disconnect our lines, and then wait for my friend Erik to pick us up to go to the airport. Eunhee's sister, mother, and brother-in-law came and they said they would follow Erik to the airport to say goodbye. Unfortunately, Erik was stuck in traffic and he was about an hour late. Thankfully, we left early enough to still make it on time. We said goodbye to Erik and he drove away. Eunhee's sister, mother, brother-in-law, and our nephew came into the airport and waited for us to check-in. Then we said goodbye to them and it felt a bit strange because we knew we wouldn't see them for a very long time since Eunhee would be in the green card process. Then we got in line to get though security before arriving at the immigration desk. For the first time in 17 years, I gave up my alien registration card for good. Bye bye, South Korea....
Since Incheon Airport was fairly quiet, we didn't have any major problems getting to our gate. The weird thing was seeing most of the restaurants closed, and less than 20 people on our way to our gate when we got through immigration. Observing an airport that empty was a little surreal and a bit sad. Once we got on the plane, the plane was HALF full. California was in its peak period for the pandemic, so this worked out really well for us. Eunhee was able to lay down and sleep from Incheon to LAX. I was too energetic, so I watched a few movies. Sadly I can't remember what I watched at the moment.
When we arrived at LAX, it was a ghost town, but not quite as bad as Incheon Airport. That also worked to our advantage since Eunhee and I were able to stand in the same line in the immigration line (Normally they separate US citizens from non-US citizens as most countries do). Eunhee went ahead of me and talked to the immigration officer. He asked her who I was with and she said "my husband" and he asked where I was and she pointed to me. He then asked me to come over and he asked where we were staying and I told him we were staying with my dad. Apparently, he asked Eunhee the same question and when I confirmed it, we both passed through immigration without any issues. The Lord was right there with us guiding us back to the U.S.!
Scott Worden
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy
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