Weekend and Monday

Saturday I slept in and met some friends from Langley at an event on base. They had free BBQ and live music! The food was alright, and the music was good but it was REALLY loud!

After listening to some music I went back with the friends to see their apartment. I think this place might be a winner for us to live in. It is really close to base and has 3 bedrooms. Afterwards the 3 of us walked around downtown and they showed me some of their favorite places and I showed them some of mine. Sunday I slept in again and then did homework and watched TV and movies online. In the evening I got to talk to Mary and Maddox on the phone and see Maverick (he doesn't talk too much).

Maddox is getting so big and her new haircut is super cute! Maddox was so happy to write her name on a piece of paper and then show it to me. She also showed me her little toy pony and I showed her my Donald Duck toy that she used to play with. She also wanted to see out of my window because she didn't believe that it was dark outside here.

Monday was probably one of the best Monday's I've had in a LONG time! I woke up early and went to the gym. After the gym I showered and got some breakfast. I had the brilliant idea of taking a few of my instant coffee bags to work with me. I made some coffee as soon as I got it. It was wonderful! Work started and everything was going great. It was my last day with my trainer (a good friend of mine from my last trip out here). Before I got too far into my work I had to go and get a flu shot and a TB test. I got back to work and continued with my work. About half way through the day we got into a discussion about whether we should use the word 'to' or 'and'. After about ten minutes we decided there were certain circumstances for each... That means nothing anyways, but I am re-qualified now!

After work I went back to the gym then back to my room and showered and got some dinner. Now Im watching The Unit online and relaxing.

Chipper Chuseok!

Today 22 September was the Korean holiday known as Chuseok. In Hangul (the written Korean language) it is 추석. Good luck on reading that one! It is the 3-day Korean holiday celebrating the harvest. Chuseok always falls on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Lunar Calendar (confused yet?).They usually travel all over the country to be with their family. On the first morning on Chuseok, they take food and drink to the tombs of their ancestors. They believe that the bountiful harvest is attributed to the blessings of their ancestors. A main food of Chseok is songpyeon (송편). Songpyeon is crescent-shaped rice cake that is steamed over pine needles.

Since we are here in Korea, we were given the day off! I decided to make the most of my day! I slept in, did homework, and went to 2 classes at the gym. i also watched some NCIS online and watched some music videos on youtube, to include The Old Crow Medicine Show, The Avett Brothers, Michael Franti, and Ok Go.

All in all I would say that it was a good day. I think Ill go to bed in a bit and then get up early and go to the gym before work tomorrow.

Happy Chuseok and enjoy the rest of it! That is all from Korea, goodnight!

Free beer and good friends

Friday night my friend Jody was in town. Jody and I were stationed here at Osan together back in 2007. He has since gotten out of the military and become a contractor. He travels all over but we usually miss each other. One time I went TDY down to Robbins AFB (where he was working and living at the time), the day I got there he went to Langley AFB (where I was stationed). We just missed each other and might have actually been in the airport at the same time.

Jody and Me

This was the first time we have been able to meet up. We went and got a beer at a place called Corner. Oddly enough the bar is on the corner of a block, who would have though? This bar just like all of the other bars has beer, soju, pool, darts and loud music. However, Corner brings something a little extra, something no other bar has here. The bottom of their beer mugs unscrew and ice drops out of them. This comes in handy for throwing! When you finish your beer, a waitress unscrews it and walks you over to the throwing line. She then hands you the ice. You throw the ice at the wall and if you hit the sensor the lights flash and everyone congratulates you! Then when you get back to your table, they bring you a free beer. Its great, but not too many people are able to hit it. When I finished my beer, she walked me over and handed me the ice. I threw it and all of a sudden the green lights all around it started flashing. Everyone congratulated me and when I got back to the table she brought me a fresh beer! It was great. However, when I threw the second piece of ice I missed the buzzer. I was about half a foot off... Oh well.

Trivia and whatnot

Thursday I decided to take the train to Itaewon, a shopping district in Seoul. A friend of Mary's, Chris, invited me to go play trivia there. It was a long and crowded 2-hour train ride. When I finally arrived, Chris met me right outside of the station. He took me to a small bar that was full of American and Canadiens. I had a delicious spicy chicken sandwich! Afterwards we went down stairs to play some trivia. There were 4 categories with 10 questions each. I only knew the answers to maybe 5 or 6 questions, but some of them were really difficult. For instance: What island received the George Cross in 1942? Im sorry the what from who??? The final category was titled 'Shit I Found on the Internet'. I don't remember any of the questions from this category, but I liked the name. Around 9:30pm or so we found out that we had lost. Since I knew that I had at least a 2-hour train ride home, I decided to go ahead and leave. The train ride was going well until the train stopped and there was a long announcement (in Korean) and then the lights turned off... I thought about it and remembered this happening when I was here last time. However, last time it happened to me I was with Korean linguists and they were able to figure out that we just had to board the next train. This time though, the train had taken an alternate exit. Instead of stopping on the main line, the train had pulled off a stop. I had to talk to a Korean that spoke very little Engrish to figure out what I had to do. I had to take a taxi to the previous stop and wait for the next train. This detour added at least half an hour to my trip and an additional 4,500 Won (roughly $5). That sucked, but when I got to the correct train station and looked around I remembered it was the station that we always had to stop at to switch trains late at night.

Work today was non eventful... I filled out some paper work and got some stuff set up. An airman asked me some career questions that I was happy to answer. It is still weird to be called Sgt, but back and Langley everyone knew me as Mac, so they very rarely used my rank. Even my Commander, Chief, and Shirt called me Mac.

When I got back to my room, I found out that one of my friends from when I was in Korea last time is TDY for the week. I think Im going to meet him for a beer later this evening.

internets

Well I guess I have to get the internet access in my dorm room turned on... I had been 'borrowing' a neighbor's, but this evening he blocked my computer's IP. Since my internet stopped working I decided to go to the enlisted club to do some homework. I walked in and heard a lot of cheering. I guess tuesday night at the club they replay football games, who knew? I got a little bit of work done, but not enough. I'll go to the BX tomorrow and make the appointment to get my internet turned on. That is all for now from the ROK

dorm and school

I was given a dorm room Friday morning. My accommodations are nothing like I had last time I was here. Last time I shared a kitchen and bathroom with one other person and I lived in a fairly new dorm. Now, I live in an older dorm, I still share a bathroom, but now I share the kitchen with the entire dorm. This makes it very undesirable to cook.

My science class is very non-informational. The instructor hasn't given us any grades, so I don't know if I'm doing the assignments to her liking. This is definitely a class that I want to be over, and soon. After this class I will have roughly 14 more classes left to take. However, minus a 200-level English class the rest will be 300-level Criminal Justice classes, that means lots of case studies and lots of writing...

I haven't started working yet, so I don't have too much going on. I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll try to keep everyone informed on as much as possible.

GREEK!!

It was 8pm Wednesday night and I was having trouble keeping my eyes opened. I hadn't eaten and I knew it was too early to go to sleep. So, I put on shoes and went downtown to get some food. When I was here in 2007 I used to go to a little Greek restaurant. Two Korean sisters ran it, Sunny and Honey are their names. Next to this Greek place is a bar called Happy House. Happy House is one of the bars that you can sit outside and drink, so we would go there, drink and when we got hungry Sunny and Honey would bring us food. It was great. I always find it funny when I go to the Greek place, or a Chinese place or anything besides a Korean place. I find it funny that a Korean serves me Greek. I sat down and was eating my gyro and I noticed another guy there eating and drinking a Dos Equis. I started mentally making fun of him for drinking a Mexican beer in a Greek restaurant in Korea. Then I realized I was eating Greek waiting for a Chinese side dish to arrive. So I began mentally making fun of me also.

After dinner I went and met one of Mason's friends from Little Rock. He was throwing darts at a bar called V.I.P. I talked to him for a minute and then walked back to my hotel room. While I'm staying in the hotel, I can't use the chow hall, so Im having to eat out all the time, luckily I get paid for it!

That is all from Korea for now, I hope everyone is enjoying their September!

Travels to Korea

At the request of my Uncle Doug, I will be starting this blog back up. I guess leaving the country is the time to start it back up... right?

Mary, Maddox and Maverick dropped me off at the airport. They parked the car and went in with me. Maddox didn't want me to go and I think this was the hardest that it has been for me to leave. After I got through security and was grabbing all of my 'stuff' out of the bins the TSA lady told me I should keep my cash in my pocket. I guess they have had thefts here... who knew???

I then went to find my gate and make sure I knew where it was. Call me OCD, but I want to know where Im going before I get food. I found my gate, and then went to go get some lunch. I ordered my food and then tried to use the wireless in the airport. But the wireless didn't work in this restaurant. They did have ESPN on, so I watched college football. Good stuff, I haven't had the chance to watch too much football in the past 2 years or so... I wish I had left more stuff in my checked bags and less stuff in my carry-on. I didn't need to fly with my school bag, I could have checked it. No big deal, I made it alright with no issues.

As I boarded my first flight I heard that there were lots of open seats. This made me happy since I don't always like to sit next to people. As I walked down the aisle to my seat I noticed that some D-bag was in my seat, but the back 3 rows were open. I asked the flight attendant if I could sit in the back row, she told me that I could. I was happy to be secluded from people! After we took off, I ordered a whiskey and coke, I like whiskey, don't judge me! After I showed her my ID and asked how much it was, she told me it was free since I was military... Thank you Delta flight attendant!

Once again I had an underbooked flight. I ended up getting an aisle seat with another little dude that was going home to see his momma. The flight attendants thanked me many times for helping out with him. But he was no bother.

I got to Seattle, all of the restaurants were closed, it was 9:30, but they were all closed... jerks! I checked into my flight and went to the USO. They had wifi, food, bathrooms and showers! I took advantage of all of it! The ramen was mediocre at best and all food had to be consumed in a separate area from the couches. The bathroom was nice, and the shower was refreshing. For some reason I was only able to sleep for about half an hour or so. Then I left the USO and went through security and got a turkey sandwich. After the sandwich I went and laid down on the floor. I was able to sleep for about an hour or two. We boarded our flight and took off on our LONG journey. I slept a little and tried watching the movies on the big screen. However, the audio was messed up for the movies and there was a loud crackling sound through most of the movies so I stopped watching.

When we got to Korea, it was a huge cluster getting our luggage. But, I finally got it! I met up with my sponsor, Walter, he said that he wasn't able to get a dorm room for me but he would drop me off at the base hotel to get a room. The guy that he had driving us around was the dorm manager. I don't know why the dorm manager couldn't just get in his office real quick and get me a room, but hey what do I know?

I got a hotel room and was going to shower before meeting Walter and the dorm manager at Chili's for some lunch. I was just about to get in the shower and the power in the hotel went out... What the hell? I put my dirty clothes back on and was going to wait until after lunch to shower. Then the power came back on. After a shower, I got some good Chili's food. i came back to my room and began trying to contact people to tell them that I made it safely. After a few hours I couldn't keep my eyes open. It was only 5pm but I decided to lay down for a quick nap. I slept for 5 hours! After being awake for a few hours I laid back down around 1am. I slept until 5 or 530 Tuesday morning.