My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.

The reason behind my whirlwind trip back to the United States was to celebrate with my family my brother Kelly's marriage to his girlfriend Cheryl. Kelly and Cheryl met in college and had only begun dating before they were separated by the military (Kelly) and graduate school (Cheryl). After 3 years together they were wed in an intimate ceremony along the lake in Door County, Wisconsin.

For those of you who aren't familiar with my family all of my brothers have served in the U.S. military and two are currently active duty. Though the wedding was not necessarily military themed the groom and all the groomsmen are military men and the ceremony was presided over by a Navy chaplain. So I guess you could say the underlying theme was red, white and blue. It was a lovely wedding with a lot of personal touches and an enjoyable evening for everyone.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

While making my travel plans to return to the United States for my brother's wedding I decided to spend the 1 1/2 extra days I had available in Chicago.  I grew up in a small town outside of the city and visited only sporadically over the years while I was growing up and into my early 20's. However when I moved there a year or two after moving back from Japan I suddenly realized why I never quite felt  settled in all the other places I've lived - they weren't Chicago. The city has a vibrancy and life force with which I instantly fell in love and still haven't forgotten. The chatter of voices in multiple languages, the eclectic neighborhoods the incredible food and immeasurable diversity all make it an enchanting city. Since leaving the city when I return for a brief visit I would always feel a resurgence of vitality and I would become smitten all over again. The cadence of the city was music to me - even now I miss the sound of El which used to lull me to sleep when I lived in Lincoln Square.

Though I didn't get to spend a lot of time in the city and do everything I had hoped to do I did get to visit a few of my favorite places. I was able to take an early morning stroll in Millennium Park, visit Kuma's and Molly's and walk through the city in the evening enjoying the brief respite from the high temperatures of the day. While there my friends Joshua and Chaitanya came up to spend time with me and we spent the day shopping, chatting and overindulging on tasty food.

I truly wish I had more time there - I was overwhelmed with how much I missed the city and how I felt part of it as I walked along the streets - a far cry from the isolation and exclusion I feel in my daily life in Korea. For me, Chicago is and will always be home.

My first international flight was from Chicago to Schipol Airport outside of Amsterdam. If I remember correctly I flew British Airlines which provided it's passengers with a hot meal, an inflight magazine and movie and a thick blanket which accompanied a small pillow. I can't really remember any other details from the flight so overall it was probably a pretty average experience.

Flash forward nearly 15 years and I've flown round trip to Europe 3 times and to Asia on 5 separate occasions in addition to the flights I've flown throughout the United States, Mexico and in and around Europe and Asia. I've flown numerous airlines including Southwest, Continental, Air Canada, Swiss Air, KLM, American, Asiana, United, JAL, ANA, Singapore, Vietnam Airlines, and Air Malaysia. Out of all those airlines (and the few I've probably forgotten) none of them have worst service on the ground or in the air than United.

I can't remember my first flight with United but I do distinctly remember my flight in 2009 from O'Hare to LAX where I was meeting up with the rest of my class so we could depart on an ethnographic field study in Vietnam. The plane for my 7am flight had mechanical difficulties and was delayed by two hours which led me to question whether I would be able to make my flight in L.A. I asked an United representative on the ground what the procedure would be if I would miss said flight so I could call and notify my professors and she was incredibly rude to me. Based on that experience and the overall unpleasantness of the flight attendants and ground staff I swore never to fly United again.

When I moved to Korea I spent over $100 extra on a one way ticket in order to avoid taking United and instead took advantage of flying with the extremely efficient and pleasant people of Asiana. However when I was booking my tickets back to the U.S. which required a tight schedule and budget my travel agent recommended United and I decided to give the airline a second chance.

My first impression of this recent flight was that United's trans-Pacific (and probably trans-Atlantic) planes hadn't been updated since the 90's. Unlike recent flights with Asiana, Singapore Airlines or JAL my seat lacked the individual TV screen or entertainment center (you can watch a selection of movies at your discretion, play video games or even hook up your own electronics to enjoy your personal selection of movies and music). It seems like a minor complaint but when these items are the norm on international flights with other airlines and you're paying $1500 to sit in a seat for 12 hours - well an entertained passenger typically makes a distracted and therefore more pleasant and satisfied passenger.

However, the lack of entertainment amenities could easily be ignored if United offered top-notch service. Sadly United's customer relations has been by far the worst I've ever experienced on any airline. The flight attendants are unpleasant, snarky and even times incredibly rude to passengers. They neglect to realize that a smile and pleasant tone of voice go a long way with weary travelers many who, like myself, don't particularly care to fly. Instead their surly demeanor just help passengers feel every minute of that 11-13 hour flight. The ground crew, especially in Chicago, is equally awful. When I was recently at the self check-in terminus in United's area I received no further instructions after my boarding pass printed out which left me to wonder do I take my luggage to a designated person like I did in Incheon or does someone come to me. I politely asked a woman behind the counter who was grooming herself and her dismissive response was followed by grumbling under her breathe for my apparent intrusion on her "personal" time. If you're standing in front of an United counter you are not on personal time - you are the face of the company you represent.

While not all United employees are as rude as the aforementioned woman even their "friendly" and "pleasant" flight attendants are actually mediocre when compared to the service of Asiana, Singapore or even Vietnam airlines (yes, Vietnam, a country with its tumultuous past which has been playing catch with the Western world and it's neighbors to the East in terms of  modernization has an airline whose service puts United to shame).

I realize that working with the public can be a difficult job and people take out their annoyances and frustrations on those around them - specifically those people that the customer views as "serving" them. I am not blind to how many of my peers on flights disregard flight attendants instructions and have bad attitudes. I also understand that a flight attendant's primary duty is to ensure that passengers get to their destination safely and it's an important job that most take seriously. However, what the people working for United seem to not understand is that a pleasant smile and positive attitude can not only placate a surly passenger but also encourage polite and respectful passengers, like myself, to continue to patronize their business.

I plan on flying quite a bit over the next year - to Japan, China, Hong Kong, throughout South east Asia and in the fall of 2013 back to the U.S.A. and I will not consider United for any of those flights or any others in the future. Perhaps if more people are willing to pay a few extra dollars for a better flight experience the people at United will realize their deplorable customer service is effecting their bottom line and they will change their way of doing business.

As I indicated in my previous post I returned to the United States for a brief trip for my brother's wedding. I'll update my blog with photos from my trip to Chicago in addition to the wedding but in the meantime here's a quick photo from the trip ~ my niece with a Hello Kitty doll dressed in hanbok, a gift from Korea.

I'm posting this Friday Photo a bit early (ok, really early) because I'll be out of the country on Friday ~ and back in the USA! I'm heading home for 5 very short days for my brother's wedding. I won't have my lap top with me and I'm unsure whether I'll have access wi-fi so I can use my phone so I might not be updating the blog for at least a week.

My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.

Over the past month the brown dull fields of farm land have become lush green rice paddies. I've been enjoying the transformation of the countryside throughout the spring and have been snapping the occasional photo while I wait for the bus in Gaeun. The photo on the left is from late May while the one on the right is from Friday the 15th.

My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.

A couple weeks ago my co-teacher advised me that some men would visit my apartment that following Sunday around 10am  " for repairs." It was all a bit cryptic since I hadn't approached him recently about my apartment needing any repairs but I said ok and got up early Sunday morning so I'd be ready for the visitors. Around 10am the apartment next to me sounded like it was under major construction with constant hammering. It was only then that I realized the "repairs" they might be doing involved the mold problem.

I'm not sure if I mentioned in previous posts how poorly insulated my apartment is but even I, someone with little to no knowledge regarding construction, know that insulation is an integral part of a building. I could feel the cold air blowing through the supposedly well sealed windows and had an accumulation of condensation on my front door all throughout the winter. Now that things have warmed up and the humidity is beginning to increase I've discovered mold along the baseboards of my apartment. I leave the window open constantly to keep the room temperature on par with the out door temp and the heat and humidity are still relatively low (for me) but I spent day after day scrubbing the mold and watching it regrow. I neglected to check behind my headboard until that Sunday when the repairmen were going to arrive and when I did I was disgusted to discover that mold was growing behind the entire headboard - 3 feet high!

I ended up leaving my apartment that Sunday afternoon for three hours so the men could work and when I returned I discovered that they had replaced a portion of the wallpaper on each of the walls. Much to my surprise though they had completely re-wallpapered one side of the room - and my formerly demur wall of cream with pale purple flowers (pictured above on the right) became a monstrosity of bright pink with a plethora of white mums. While I'm thankful the mold problem is somewhat under control I suspect it was more of a "patch-job" than a real solution because I've already found mold growing along the baseboards again. I am so happy that by mid-September I will be in a different apartment ~ one which I've been assured by it's current resident doesn't have a mold problem.

My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.