Home Sweet Home

So I know this post is WAY overdue but please let me explain why I have not been updating the blog as promised. Moving is challenging for anyone. You're out of your comfort zone, your life is a tad chaotic, and it's unavoidable to become a tad homesick at times. Moving overseas is a whole different beast! Add culture shock, time zones, unemployment, and other oddities to the mix...

Every military base has barbed wire around the perimeter but it creeps me out here because it's so OBVIOUS. Not very welcoming at all....but maybe that's the point...

Nothing says 'Welcome Home' at your housing complex more than barbed wire and an unmanned pedestrian gate that requires a fingerprint scan once it locks you inside.

 

 Somebody PLEASE tell me what 'fingered seasoned pork' is....

Bigtoria and Hulk...for all your plus-sized needs...Koreans just LOVE plays on English words no matter how politically incorrect it may be. By the way..American size 6 and up..this store is for YOU!

 I believe one of Michael's co-workers described PERFECTLY what spouses experience in their first couple months in Korea.  The first month is exciting. You're on a high. It's a new place! New experiences, new friends, and a very busy time! Then after the first few weeks you you peak. Suddenly, your emotions spiral uncontrollably downward and an unavoidable depression sinks in. The reason for this is simple. Korea is not like being stationed in Germany or Japan or any other OCONUS (Outside Continental United States) location. Only roughly 20% of the service members stationed here are approved to bring their families. It's typically a hardship tour (unaccompanied). With that comes less opportunities and infrastructure than typical military bases. Smaller housing, longer shifts, smaller PX and commissary, a base an eighth of the size as a typical military base, no jobs for spouses, and less support for spouses are just a few of the hurdles you encounter. Top that off with we're an AIR FORCE family stationed at an ARMY post which means following Army regulations (yes, they ARE different in each branch). Once this all sinks in you wonder why in the world did I ever agree to come here and how many days do I have left? Top that off with the few spouses that are truly miserable here and take it upon themselves to make everyone else miserable by reinterating daily how much this place sucks and add insult to injury by including a countdown to when they're leaving Korea for good. Nothing is more discouraging than seeing a facebook status EVERYDAY that is something along the lines of "175 days, 8 hours, 10 minutes, 25 seconds until we leave this place!" For my fellow military spouses reading this, you ALL know someone at your duty station like this. :-)

But suddenly, LIGHT at the end of the tunnel! After about 3-6 months, you start to accept Korea and all of its quirks. You separate yourself from the wives who hate this place because you've made other friends and you can finally pick and choose who you associate with. You get into a rhythm, your household goods and car arrives, you learn not to gag in every public place because the smell of kimchi and sewer overwhelms you! And you finally see the beauty and simplicity that life on the peninsula offers. 

There are some SERIOUS perks to this place......

 And that brings us to today. After three months of fighting our new life in Korea, I have accepted it and am oddly quite content and happy here. I have an amazing group of girlfriends who are all amazingly unique in their own way and go through or have gone through the same emotional hurdles that I've been through. There's 'M' who loves a good adventure and knows just about EVERY cool place in Seoul to explore. And 'K' who just had her first baby and shares my guilty pleasure of terrible reality TV that we watch together online while our husbands work.  And 'C' who just arrived and is incredibly fun to sit and chat with over a cup of coffee. And 'E' who might be the sweetest woman alive and has an adorable set of twins that make for some hilarious facebook status updates with all of their antics. Unfortunately one of my other favorite ladies PCS'd in April back to the states and I miss her and her awesome cat 'Tim Bob' terribly!! But such is life in the military as I'm learning. 

Michael and I haven't explored as much as we'd like to but that's because his work has been a tad unpredictable since he spent the first three months training. Now, we're on a set schedule and we hope to get out more and share our experiences with you! The mid shifts, however, are KILLING me. He leaves at 6pm and comes home at 7:30am. He sleeps until 5pm, wakes up, and does it all over again. When he's on mids, I'm on mids and I rarely get to sleep before 2am and sleep until 10am. Last night we had our first date night and went out on the town for some Italian cuisine and desserts. Yes...desserts. Waffles and chocolate cake to be exact. Koreans do some amazing things with waffles and its about as common on a dessert menu as cheesecake is in the United States. I highly recommend chocolate blueberry waffles which is a waffle sandwich with crushed Oreos and chocolate crust on the outside and gooey chocolate and blueberries on the inside. After hitting two dessert places (waffles at the first, chocolate cake at the second) we cruised home where Michael took a power nap at 11pm for an hour and I went to sleep at 1:00 am while he stayed up all night on his day off to keep on the same sleep pattern for the remainder of his week on mids. Thank goodness he's back on days next week!

Now....for what you've all been waiting for. The homestead.....with OUR furniture!!!!!! What a long, frustrating road this has been.  As you know, our shipper, COASTAL TRANSFER (I think they deserve a shout out, don't you?), forgot to send our shipment to Korea.  The average ship time for household goods is 6-8 weeks depending on where you're shipping from. We shipped our furniture on January 11 with a 'receive no later than date' of March 4. It arrived on May 3.  You do the math.  What bothers me most about their shady service is how little they did to follow up with us (DEBBIE from COASTAL TRANSFER) and how we have YET to receive an apology for their error. Seriously, is this world so lawsuit/liability happy that a simple 'I'm sorry' is too risky when it is very much owed?  No worries Coastal Transfer, you'll be receiving our Inconvenience Claim for all of the items we had to purchase to get by. Now wouldn't an apology have been cheaper? Moving on, this seriously contributed to my 'Woe is me, I'm in freakin' Korea' attitude before I got over my slump. But now that's it's here, I couldn't be happier. Unfortunately, we were only allowed to send 50% of our household goods due to weight restrictions and smaller living quarters overseas. So it's not completely home. But I did bring the decor to spruce up the loaner furniture in our bedroom (our set was way to big for the tiny master bedroom so it's in storage along with another living room, guest room, office, and odds and ends). All in all we sent about 30% of our household goods and I'm so glad we didn't over do it because storage is scarce in our concrete block!  So.....without further ado, here's our place! Well...sort of...unfortunately you'll have to wait on two of the rooms because we only have our living room, dining room, kitchen, and bedroom fully set up. The office and guest bedroom is still a bit of a mess. But check out the before and after! Man, what a difference your stuff makes in these concrete blocks! Is it any wonder how easy you can sink into a slump when you have bare walls to look at everyday for three months and have only the clothes you packed in your suitcase and only the PX and Bigtoria to shop at?

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

BEFORE

 

 AFTER

 

Well, to end this post, I'd like you all to know we're doing fabulous. Yes, it's been an adjustment but things are definitely looking up and we couldn't be more excited about exploring Asia. We're planning a trip to Japan this Fall, maybe Singapore next year, and hopefully Hong Kong, and China. And in June, we're going to see WICKED the musical!!! I'm so stinkin' excited about this that I deem it blog worthy.  The Australian tour group is performing in Seoul for three months so it will be in English. Yay!!!  Michael, being the masculine guy that he his, is wary of the show, but I'm sure he'll have a great time! And as extra insurance, I've given him names of other masculine dudes who we know who loved the show to convince him it's not a chick show. Haha!  I'm still looking for a job even though jobs are scarce and it's completely doable to live on one income here.  We don't have kids so my days can drag by sometimes when I don't have plans.  Although I'm sure some of my friends here with kids would be more than happy to loan me theirs for a day! I miss the 'distraction' of work from everyday life and I hope to find something soon to give me something to do. And if I can't find something, I have a sewing machine, a fabulous multi-floor fabric market in Dongdemun, and an awesome mom that can sell my creations in Charleston! Plus substitute teaching is always an option too. Michael genuinely likes his job here and unfortunately that's all I can say about that because truthfully, that's all I know! Oy....I just hate secrets!! Don't you? But he wants you all to know you can rest well at night knowing that he's here 'defending your freedom.' :-P

Don't worry, Shelia...this is standard issue for everyone here. Promise you he doesn't wear that bullet proof vest to work!

Michael's Big Boy Sport

Michael loves sports.  He would watch ESPN all day if he could and he does on NFL Sundays.  Aside from watching sports he also loves playing sports. This is a huge perk in the military!  There are lots of opportunities to play on your Squadron's sports teams.  Michael plays year round alternating between volleyball, softball, basketball, and flag football.  So it was no surprise that he was eager to join a team at Yongsan. 

The opportunity presented itself a few Saturdays ago when we went to an Air Force Squadron function at the bowling alley on base.  This gave us both an opportunity to meet the folks in his AF Squadron as well as their spouses and kids.  As I was lacing up my super sexy rental bowling shoes, Michael shares with me that he's just been recruited for a mixed military rugby team (all branches of military). They practice three times a week and their first game was approaching.  Michael has never played rugby but he went to the practices and was chosen to be a kicker.  I'm not exactly sure if that's the actual position, but basically he stands at the end of the field and kicks the ball towards the other side of the field and is the last defense if the other team tries to score.  Their first game was Saturday.  I've never been to a rugby game so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I show up and see my husband...in THIS.

 

I couldn't control my laughter! Thank goodness he had on biker shorts under his teensy weensy rugby shorts! Contrary to what you're thinking right now, the team's name does not involve the word bumble or honey bee anywhere in it.  I confess, after seeing the outfits I kind of hoped it would.  This team is called the All Yanks and their sponsor is Hooters Korea (notice the logo on the back of the jerseys). Appropriate for a bunch of American military dudes who play other rugby leagues in South Korea! The not so fun part of being in Korea is that only 20% of the military folks here can bring their families.  So this means there aren't a lot of spouses to sit with at the game. Luckily there was one Army wife there who came to support her husband. I told her this was my first rugby game and my husband was the kicker. She smiled back and said, "Oh good! He'll likely avoid all of the hard hits and injuries." Come again? I thought this was like any intramural sport!  Tame..no tackling...flag belts......I mean, up to this point the warm ups looked tame! What could she mean?  

Then the whistle blew...WHAM! My head filled with visions of the battle scene sound effects from the 1960s Batman and Robin episodes. BIFF! BAM! CLASH! THWOP! CRUNCH! This is possibly the most violent sport I have ever seen in my entire life! There are no pads. And there's tackling. Lots of it. Cleats in the head, scratches, men's heads in other men's butts (see pictures below), and odd lifting of one's teammates.  I thanked my lucky stars that Michael was the kicker away from the action. A goalie of sorts you could say.  It didn't take long for the guys on the field to start dropping like flies. Busted heads that required stitches, possible fractured bones, concussions...soon there were no extras on the sidelines and Michael was taken out of the kicker position and thrown to the wolves. I was a hot mess. Michael, however, loved every minute of it.  At one point I'm pretty sure I watched him jump on a pile of dudes that were already tackled to the ground just because. 

Unfortunately the Seoul Survivors won the game.  At the end of the day, the entire team suffered at least one injury. Michael came home with a swollen knee and a bloody thigh from someone's cleats. The poor guy can't even ice it down since we have no ice in our freezer (someone didn't think about freezers needing to be hooked up to a water line during the remodeling process).  And yet he can't wait to get out there and do it again! I on the other hand will require a drink or two before the next game. :)

The New Homestead

Our dream home it is not.  But for the next two years, it's home.

Welcome to Hannam Village.

 In all fairness to the Army, Hannam Village recently underwent a major renovation and the upgrades are nice.  I appreciate my new dishwasher and my 'hard wood' floors.  But I can't help but be a tad homesick for our 3 bedroom townhouse in Maryland.  We're living apartment style in 1100 sq feet and you hear and smell everyone around you.  Hannam is gated and has its own gym, pool, playgrounds, grill/picnic areas, baseball field, library, and mini commissary. Although small, the commissary is very well stocked and only a five minute walk from our building!  Hannam is not on post like most military housing.  It's a mile or two away in Itaewon.  Itaewon is a very westernized area where almost everything is in English and you can find any kind of food you want. Mexican, Italian, KFC, desserts-it's all there!  There's a shuttle that runs hourly to Yongsan and the subway is right outside the gate.

 Moving on! Follow me on a tour inside our simple home.  Please bare in mind that we have not received any of our furniture so the furnishings you will see is loaner furniture issued by the Army. Also, it's hard to get pictures of the full room since there are lots of narrow turns and odd angles to shoot from.  I tried to get as much in the shot as possible. :)

This is our living room and dining room (notice dining room table to the left). There is a porch attached to the living room that is enclosed with glass. 

Next is our kitchen which is in its own little hallway at the other end of the dining room table.  Our washer and dryer is also in the kitchen.  Michael has planked for you to demonstrate the width of our laundry room/kitchen.

 

Next is the hall bathroom.  Notice there is absolutely zero storage space with the exception of the medicine cabinet.  The shower isn't bad though.  Great water pressure, a lower bidet-like massager that resembles a sprinkler when its on, and built in glass shelves!  The toilet  has two buttons on it...one for um...'small' messes and one for 'larger messes.'

 

The flower tile isn't so bad and I especially like that the toilet paper holder has a built in magazine rack. Haha!

This is the master bedroom.  There are built in book shelves to the right. This room is actually bigger than it looks.  We moved the bed to the wall on the left to open things up a bit and it looks great.  More pictures to come once we receive our furniture shipment!

 The picture above is the two closets in the master bedroom. In between the dresser and closet is the entrance to the master bathroom.

 Notice how there's no tub? It resembles a cruise ship bathroom. :) This is where Michael gets ready in the morning.  But he uses the shower in the hall bathroom.  I'm not sure that we'll ever use the shower in the master bedroom!

 This is bedroom #2. Pretty uneventful.  And there's a smaller third bedroom that I didn't take a picture of. 

 The inside our our closets. Ummm...yeah.  Thankful we have ample drawers and extra closets in other rooms.

The hallway. Bathroom is the first door on the left. Master bedroom is second door on left.  Bedroom 2 and 3 are directly in front and on the right.

    And finally our view.  It's a tad hard to see the Olympic size swimming pool that our porch faces because there is a moving truck blocking it.  But it's there!  And we can't wait to use it in the summer time! 

 Speaking of moving trucks, everyday I watch moving trucks loaded with crates pull up to my building with everyone's household shipment but mine.  You have no idea how frustrating this is.  We have been living out of a suitcase since early January and we're ready to settle in!  We do have our express baggage which included DVDs, a TV, blu-ray player, kitchen stuff, sheets, and towels.  But we're ready for our furniture so this can finally start to feel like home!  I'll take new pictures once we receive our stuff! But for now, I'll leave you with this....(I couldn't resist-fierce, isn't he?...bahahaha!)

Namdaewho? Namdaemun!

The first two nights of sleep were fantastic...until we woke up at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep.  Ahhh...the joys of jet lag.  But that's okay, because Michael had in-processing to do and I had a breakfast date with a wife who gave me beaucoups of tips and information while we were still in the States.  I was so excited to meet her finally!  She brought along another wife and we went to breakfast in a restaurant at the Dragon Hill Lodge (our hotel).  I can not stress how important it is to have friends when you're stationed overseas, because they're you're family away from family.  I may have only been here for two weeks but it didn't take me long to figure out that the women here are amazing!  As mentioned in my previous post, I had no makeup, no hair brushes, no shower stuff whatsoever.  I couldn't run to the PX for a quick shopping trip because you need a ration card before you're allowed in the door.  

What is a ration card?  It's another form of ID that you present at the PX and Commissary when you're stationed overseas for purchases and it tracks how much you're spending per month on groceries and enforces that you don't purchase more than what one needs of certain 'black market' items (alcohol, perfume, designer purses, etc).  

The Hair Dryer

I had women who I had never met Facebook me from the Spouse's Club and ask if I needed them to make a PX run for me.  It was truly humbling how quickly these women were there to help.  :)  But back to my delicious pancake breakfast with the wives.  They were so sweet to take me to breakfast-greasy hair, no makeup, and all.  They listened to me gripe about the trip over and shared their similar experiences.  It was great!  Luckily, the lady with the beaucoups of information also knows beaucoups of people on base!  And she knew just the right people to call and ask if I could shop at the PX if I presented my passport, military ID, and orders since my rations card wouldn't be available until later in the afternoon.  So off we went to the PX where I purchased a hair brush to get by because as you ladies with thick hair know, you can't wash your hair and dry it unless you have a hair brush!  Luckily, the hotel had a built in hair dryer that resembled a vacuum cleaner.  Whatever, it got the job done!

Around Sunday, Michael and I were itching to get out of the hotel and explore!  So, I went downstairs to the front desk and grabbed some brochures on places to visit.  We decided on the Namdaemun Market since it was a quick walk to the subway followed by a quick subway ride that emptied you in the middle of the market.  This was my first experience out and about in Korea; and what an experience it was.  The Namdaemun has everything you could possibly want:  purses, socks (not sure why, but everyone sells socks here), clothes, hair accessories, food vendors, etc.  

The food vendors were the most interesting because you certainly see a wide variety of 'tasty snacks and treats' that we do not typically eat in the good ol' USA.  Chicken feet, squid jerky, silkworm pupae, etc.  But let's stop and focus on the silkworms....

Beondegi is what the Korean's call silkworm pupae.  At first glance they look like pecans; but when you get a tad closer you realize that it is not pecans but rather a big ol' pan of roasted bugs.  The smell is awful.  It triggers your gag reflex.  Even my adventurous husband, who will try almost everything at least once, refuses to eat the Beondegi.  Yum....doesn't this look tasty?

We did, however, find something that looked quite scrumptious so we decided to try it.  It's called hoddeok and it's basically a Korean pancake with delicious goodness inside.  We tried two different varieties. One had sugar and brown sugar in the middle and the other had a mixture of vegetables and glass noodles.  

After a few hours, we were ready to wrap it up and go 'home' to the Dragon Hill Lodge. 

I'm Leaving.....On A Jet Plane!

Hello family and friends from freezing cold Korea!  Welcome to our blog where we hope to keep you up to date with our Korean Adventure!  Michael is stationed at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul.  This will be our home for the next two years.

Yongsan Garrison

February 8 at 4 am is when our journey began.  Our first leg of the trip was a cross-country flight from Charlotte to San Francisco at 7:30am.  Our parents drove us to the airport where we said our many tearful goodbyes on the curb of the departure terminal.  It's an eerie feeling knowing you might not see your loved ones for two years or even American soil for that matter, or that your furniture and car is somewhere in the Pacific Ocean on its way to Korea and you have absolutely zero control over anything at the moment. We've been planning for this adventure for months and thought we'd be ready for this day.  However, nothing can truly prepare for you saying, 'Goodbye,' or the twenty hours of flying to Korea.  :) 

We did have a few bumps in the road at the airport.  I was thoroughly searched by TSA at security (and I do mean thoroughly) and my carry-on luggage was too.  Everything was taken out of my luggage and left for me to squeeze back in including a ten pound bag of jewelry that a witch with a power trip felt the need to go through at DROP IT on the ground breaking two necklaces.  When I calmly pointed out to her that she broke two of my necklaces, she suggested that maybe they were broken before the fall.  Ummmm, yeah.  Because everyone packs broken necklaces for their trip. She then had the audacity to mumble, "Have a good flight," and sauntered off to snicker with her fellow TSA buddies.  Well, at that point my calmness melted.  There was NONE to be had.  I emptied every last broken bead into the tray my jewelry was left in and packed the non-broken necklaces.  I then stepped aside, grinned my, 'watch and see what happens' grin to Michael, and watched the witch with the power trip pick up the tray as she continued to snicker with her TSA buddy.  Beads EVERYWHERE.  It looked like something out of movie. Thirty or so marble sized beads scattered all over the TSA security check point.  I had vindication.  I had won!  And with that, I gave the witch one last smirk, zipped up my carry-on, and headed to Terminal B to catch my flight to San Francisco. Hey...it's the small victories, folks.

Moving on, as you know most airlines board by zones.  Michael and I were in the dreaded Zone 5 where you almost always have to check your luggage at the gate because they run out of overhead space; and as predicted, that's precisely what happened.  I honestly wasn't thrilled with the prospect of my carry-on going under the plane since I had in fact packed everything in it that I absolutely, positively, did not want to get lost or couldn't live without.  But, I conceded and confirmed with the gate attendant that I could pick up my bag plane side in San Francisco.  Everything was fine.....until...(insert evil witch music...da da dummmmmm) another witch on a power trip jerks the claim ticket off of my bag and informs the gate attendant that picking up bags plane side is a First Class privilege only.  Well, excuuuuuuuuuse me!  I begged this woman to let me pick it up in San Francisco by the plane.  I even pulled the military card; but she refused.  Policy is policy.  My options were check it all the way to Korea or pick it up in baggage claim in San Francisco.  Unfortunately, our layover didn't allow enough time to pick up the bag in San Francisco and catch our flight to Seoul, so I stuffed as much as I could into my purse and handed over the bag as she announced the final boarding call.  Thank you, US Air.

The flight to San Francisco was the hottest flight I've ever been on.  Beads of sweat dripped on every passenger's forehead and the flight attendants went about their business acting as if we weren't flying 25,000 feet high in a sauna.  We had our sweat pants rolled up to our knees and half way through the flight I went to the bathroom and took off every unnecessary layer of clothing on my body.  It was miserable.  Five and a half hours later, we arrive in San Francisco and make it to the International Terminal with just enough time to grab a sandwich to take on the plane and board.  Now, why this might seem insignificant to most people, let me point out that this was the last time for a long time that we would get to eat American food on American soil, and when there wasn't a single fast food restaurant in sight on the International Terminal,  I wanted to drop kick someone.  I was stuck with a pre-packaged tuna salad sandwich as my last meal.  Grrrrrr.......We made it to the gate with enough time to choke down most of our sandwich before our zone was called.  In my mind, I thought, 'Here we are. We finally made it! Three months of planning, three sets of movers, endless paperwork, a not so good start to the day, and we've made it! This is the final leg, what can go wrong now?  Wait!  My window seat doesn't have a window?!'  Yeah.  Our row was the only row in the entire plane that did not have a window, and it had less leg room that the other rows.  Perfect.  I almost cried at this point; but my super awesome husband talked to the flight attendant and asked if we could move to a vacant row since the plane was only half full, and she granted us permission.  This was the only positive to come out of our entire trip.

The flight to Seoul was the longest 13 hours of my life.  No one can prepare you for how long that flight is, especially after coming off a five and a half hour cross-country flight.  When we finally arrived in Seoul, it was February 9 at 5 pm (3 am US Eastern time).  I don't remember much about this part of the trip since Michael and I were basically zombies at this point.  We went through customs, headed to baggage claim, grabbed our baggage off the belt and realized with horror that my carry-on did not make the trip.  Michael took one look at the steam coming out of my ears and took charge.  Off to Asiana's lost baggage claim he went while I sat with our five other bags that did made the trip.  Now, here's the fun part.  It's a tad hard to put in a claim for lost baggage when you don't know your address and don't have a phone number. It's right about now that I realized we are in a foreign country, with a language barrier, and absolutely helpless for lack of a better word.  A million emotions ran through my head, but I kept it together, and truthfully at that point was too tired to care about my lost bag.  I was drained--emotionally and physically.  Michael gave the airline the name of our hotel which is the only hotel on Yongsan Garrison (Army Post).  They promised to find the bag and off we went to the USO area where Michael's sponsor (another Air Force person who takes care of little details before you arrive and answers any questions you may have before you get there) agreed to meet us and drive us to the hotel.  Even though we had a ride, Michael was required to sign in at the USO letting the military know that he had arrived.  Somewhere in the midst of that, a Korean soldier who worked at the USO handed Michael a stack of papers to fill out and told him he would need to board a bus to Yongsan.  What??  Well, our sponsor wasn't there, we had no way to contact him, and had no other way to get to base, so he did as told.  There were around twenty or so US Military men and women waiting for buses too with their spouses so we figured we must be in the right place.  Twenty minutes later the Yongsan bus pulls up and we're directed by the Korean soldier to board.  About that time, Michael's sponsor shows up and tells us not to get on the bus.  Thank goodness he did, because the bus was for Army only (even though Michael told him the Korean soldier numerous times that he was in the Air Force) and we would have been taken to God knows where on base for Army in-processing.  

We finally made it to the hotel at 8 pm (6 am US Eastern time). We were tired and starving. Luckily, since our hotel is on base, it has a Pizza Hut and Subway. One large beef thin crust pizza later, we were off to bed! Our Korean adventure had began.  :)

And by the way...in case you were wondering what happened to the lost bag......

Asiana found it in San Francisco and put it on the next flight to Korea which arrived two days later! All of my jewelry, prescriptions, medical records, make-up, toothbrush, shower stuff, savings bonds, birth certificates, social security card, W-2 forms, other important documents we pulled from our safe before we shipped it with furniture, spare check books, and back up credit cards were all there! Phewww! Big sigh of relief!