Kimchi, not for me

As the pre-vacation days have passed, I've become aware of something. I'm rather nervous about leaving - not about going to China, not about flying, but about the airport. Actually, about security, to be specific. I just checked my blog's archives to see if I gave details about the absolutely horrendous experience I had trying to get out of Israel, and surprisingly, I didn't. It was so many different kinds of terrible though. I actually missed one flight because I was detained in security for so long. At at Ben Gurion airport, before you can go to the flight counter and check in, you go through security check #1. They look at your passport, your tickets, x-ray all your bags, and go through them if necessary. I'm not sure why they target females traveling alone, but they do, and I was detained in security for long enough to make it impossible for me to catch my plane. Attempt #2 (attempting to leave the country, that is) was successful, but only just. I boarded my plane as they were giving the final boarding call after spending a whopping FOUR HOURS in security. And I don't mean going through various security checkpoints, I mean FOUR HOURS in the same security checkpoint #1. They had to have a security guard/agent/interrogator walk me through the rest of the security checks and immigration so I could make my plane in time, and even then I had to run to make it. They also broke lots of my stuff. It was a really really bad experience. At one point I was crying (it wasn't even 5 AM at this point) because I was just utterly frustrated. I thought I was going to miss my plane again, and they wouldn't let me leave the security checkpoint and walk the ten steps to go pay for Daive (the charge for her to go in the cabin with me). My luggage wasn't even there. They had gone through it all, x-rayed every single item/object, and sent the suitcases themselves off somewhere to be tested for....something. So then one particularly unpleasant man came up and demanded to know why I was crying. Having lost all dignity due to the tears, I just said, "I'm frustrated and I'm probably going to miss my plane when all I want is to get out of this country." His reply was, "Well, if you haven't done anything wrong, there's no reason to cry." Get a grip, man. Hardened terrorists probably don't cry during searches. I'm pretty sure they're trained to avoid that kind of thing. They probably also don't bring animals along with them. (Especially the kind of terrorists they're worried about - dogs are not a popular pet among the Muslims I met and associated with in Israel. They preferred birds and maybe fish.) Eccentric, I am. A terrorist, not so much. It was just horrible. They took me into a separate room and wanded me, then patted me down - nearly made me take off my bra to make sure it was just the underwires setting off the metal detector wand thingy. Then they made me hold Daive and walk through a metal detector. I'm suprised they didn't stick her through the x-ray machine.

I'm sorry for going on, but it was really a humiliating and wretched experience. And I know that, thankfully, Korean security is nothing like Israeli security. I've flown to Japan since then, I know security isn't that bad. I'm still a little anxious though.

Okay...just had to get that out. The graduation present Bethany gave me (a delightful collage and poem) hangs over my bed, glass still broken from the fools at Ben Gurion, and it's been this ever-present reminder of my airport security-related anxiety for the past few days. I'll be fine though, I swear.

Of course, if I don't get my apartment cleaned in a very short amount of time I won't have to worry about security, because I couldn't possibly leave someone else to live in it in its current state. So on that note, off to clean. I have to go pick up my passport and tickets tomorrow, meet Jenny at the duty-free store so she can order what she wants (I'll be picking it up on my way back) and finish whatever cleaning is left. Too too much to do. Now I'm off though...