Wiiiiiiiiiiii!!!

I am proud to announce, that after about 2 weeks of stalking the Osan BX (like more hardcore than I have ever done before), I was the lucky person who arrived at about the time the Osan BX opened and got to pre-purchase a Nintendo Wii! So how did this come about? Lets see....

After Cara and I moved to the new apartment on the 9th, we decided that we wanted an LCD TV as well as a Nintendo Wii. The TV was no problem, just go to E-mart (이-마트) and buy one. However, we didn't realize how popular/understocked the Wii was until we wanted one. Around the 15th (day after our TV was installed), I started walking into the BX daily and asking if they had a Wii in stock. I figured they might get it in whenever, and not announce it too much. I was wrong. I was always told to come back on either Tuesday or Friday, which where the BX shipment dates. Since thanksgiving was around the corner, I figured I'd try my luck on Black Friday--oh sorry, I'm not suppose to mention black anymore, it might cause an HR issue at work--The friday after thanksgiving. So I got up with the crowds, and stood in line at the BX, which was an impressive line considering this is Korea--but with $399-$499 laptops, I can see why. So I got to the head of the electronics department line, and... yup, no Wii. Oh well, at least I knew without a doubt that there were no Wiis. Not wanting to waste anymore effort, I started asking more pointed questions like: "Do you have any Wiis? No? When are you going to have them?" and after they gave me an answer, I'd repeat it back. Even if on Tuesday someone said come back Friday I still asked everyday. Sometime earlier this week I had gotten information from one of the clerks that the BX would be receiving 6 consoles. (wow... not a lot for the entire base of Osan...) So I decided to be very agressive, and eventually got some good intel that the Wiis would be coming in on the 29th @ 11am. So I decided I was gonna get there @ 10am and try to buy those. So I got up this morning @ 0940, and realized that I should have gotten up a little earlier to make it to the BX before all the Wiis are sold out. I jump outta bed, throw on some clothes and haul bootie to base. Luckily I live 6-7 mins when going the speed limit and like 4 when speeding (too many turns). And on a side note, I slowed way down when I saw a car turn over on the side of the road where I started to slow anyway. I think he wanted a Wii too. (j/k). I get to the BX around 0955, and its already open! ARGH! So I jet inside (after showing my ration plate of course) and jog back to the electronics section. I see a line, with more than 6 people in it... I almost give up, but someone mentions to another guy who's leaving the line that there are more. So I as I cut the guy off to get in line, I realize that it's just a Wii, and if I don't get one now, I can wait, so I let him get his spot back. But not the guy behind him. Turns out that there were 12(?) consoles, and I got the 9th one! Yesssss!!!! However, this was a pre-purchase line... the Wiis weren't at Osan yet. So I went back at 1730ish and picked it up. Ahh.... a Wii for Mii!!! (and cara too...) :-P

Happy Thanksgivings! And more...

Yes, we survived our many Thanksgivings! I baked a 26lb turkey (my first turkey ever!) made gravy which I wasn't sure about, but it was salvaged by a lady at church, made 3 pans of stuffing, and a cherry-glazed ham. Everything turned out well, thank goodness! Though, I was up baking fairly late several evenings. Mom called my grandmother for her stuffing recipe, and it was a hit for sure. We went to the squadron Thanksgiving on Wednesday, our church lunch Thanksgiving on Thursday, followed by a short stay at the Thanksgiving for Will's coworkers, and then a supper Thanksgiving with some friends from work - complete with the movie Swingers. Friday we had a post-Thanksgiving with some couples from church. All were fun, and the food was wonderful! It'll be awhile until I'm hungry again...

In our non-eating life, we now have a 42in LCD HD-tv on our wall, made by LG and with Korean menus. It's fun to be able to watch movies on something other than the computer screen! Also, Will is trying to get ahold of a Wii, but that has proved to be difficult. They are crazy expensive online and the BX is getting 6 of them at some undetermined (or just unreleased!) date in the near future. First it was 'Tues or Fri'. Then '1st week of Dec'. Each time Will asks, the employees try to avoid the question. Interesting. Hopefully we can get one soon, they're supposed to be super fun!

I'm taking another class online, and I'm keeping up so far which is great - I hate being behind. My next class starts in a few weeks, and I'll have an overlap, so hopefully I can handle that. I may intentionally fall behind in the next class so I can finish this one, which ends around Dec 28. The class starting in December ends in late January, and my next class is supposed to start in February and go through late May. I don't think I'm going to take that one, as I'm due in early June, and I'm pretty sure I'll be worn out by the rest of life at that point!

So far, the baby has been really nice to me, I was overly tired for the first month or so, but never really sick, and I'm not so tired anymore either. I'm 12wks, and I'm hoping it stays easy for the rest of the pregnancy :-)

Registry Woes

So, I spent an entire weekend - and I really do mean an entire weekend - building a baby registry at www.babycenter.com. I was so excited! I picked out all the perfect furniture that would fit in the Korean-sized nursery in our apartment, I researched strollers and car seats until I was confident I had found exactly what I wanted, every category was covered. We had some extra money this month, so I was going to get a head start and order a few things for the nursery - I figured the glider and ottoman were a great first purchase since I could enjoy them now. Well, I went to buy them, and I can't ship them to Korea! If I were to ship them to the states and Fed-Ex or DHL them, it would be the same price over again for shipping! I looked at several other items in my registry, and many of them can't be shipped over here. :-( So, it looks like I'll be stuck using whatever the BX decides to stock (and we looked at that the other day - in general, there are very few choices, with one high-end model and lots of cheap styles, none of which are what I want) or what the Korean version of Wal-Mart (aka E-Mart) sells. We're checking that out this afternoon. In the mean time, I'm sad because a good chunk of my registry can't be shipped to me!!! I looked at other places online, including the AAFES website which stocks the BX, and none of the big stuff can be shipped over here, even through the BX. I just get what they choose to stock :-/. And, there's no use asking them for certain styles, people try that, and get very evasive non-committal answers. So, hopefully the Koreans have cute baby furniture, or one of you has an imaginative way to get large items over here without paying ridiculous prices.

Pregnant

So for all who have been asking, or who are simply curious... I'm around 8 1/2 wks pregnant, and I haven't really dealt with any morning sickness thus far (thank God!). In the mornings between getting up and breakfast, I don't feel 100%, but not even close to being 'sick'. The one thing I do feel though is super tired, all the time! Although I don't always want to go to bed right away in the evening (because that's no fun!), neither do I want to actually do anything more than sit and read or sit and watch a show. Hence why I haven't taken time before this to write about being pregnant! I'm on my way to bed now, but I wanted to drop a line to all of you and let you know how I'm doing :-)

Moving!

So, after Cara and I finally get more or less situated in our apartment, get stuff put away, buy a nice wall closet, what happens? That's right, our lease ends, and we find another very nice apartment for very close to what we are paying now. It has a dishwasher (finally!), full size washer (yes!), dual voltage (woohoo!) and, and wood area on the wall in the den that is put there to mount TV's etc. Its very sweet. Anyway, we'll send pictures of the new place when we move in. But its funny, since leaving for the academy in 1999, the longest I have stayed in a residence was for 18 months in '04 when I was living in Torrance, CA (ahh, those were the best 18 months of my brief AF stint...) and the shortest during Summer Period of the Academy (~3wks). It does get old at times, and I'm sure this move I'll wonder why I didn't just stay at 대옥 7차 아파트?

Now the view in our current apartment is wonderful. On the 16th floor you can see all of Songtan. Its quite cool. However, when you are in a rush because you left something home, it really sucks to have to wait for the elevator to come to the first floor from the 12th or so floor, then travel from the 1st floor to the 16th floor. Once you get what you left and return to the elevator, its already at the 15th floor headed back down to the 1st floor. Yeah, that's when we take the stairs.

Anyway, that's all for now. Yay!

Sunday School

Cara and I teach Sunday School at Mission Baptist Church. Its pretty fun, and at times it can be pretty interesting. We teach the 4&5 year olds and, in my opinion, these are the cutest kids because they're getting pretty intelligent at this point and are just fun to talk to. Today we mentioned to a woman named 'Nita that we taught 4&5 yr olds, and she was like "I guess it'll make you guys wanna not have kids for a while huh?" Cara and I looked at each other and laughed, and 'Nita picked up on it (it = Cara is pregnant) pretty quick.

Anyway, one of the first things that makes it so interesting is that our class has both American and Korean kids. The Korean kids don't speak English very well (if they even speak cause some are shy), but they are 4&5 and speak it better than I speak Korean. But it helps that I can read and write Hangeul! Its actually come in handy a few times. For instance, today, we had done our craft, story and activity time, and had to think of something else for the kids to do. Well, the Korean kids are the better artists of the group and they enjoy making crafts and coloring pictures, so I decided to draw their names in Hangeul blocks. Boy that worked! One kid, Jae Ho (재호), wanted two of them! Sweet. But, nonetheless, we still had too much time left, so that didn't work too well. Now where was I? Oh yeah, Korean and English kids. Right. So I don't speak korean, and they always speak korean to me. So, I generally try and guess whats going on. I sometimes get it, sometimes don't. Also, I borrowed a friends book and looked up a few phrases. Guess what the first phrase I looked up was? "Sit Down!" Though they are good at crafts, boys will be boys, and boys like to run around and hit peeps/things. Well, I can't say much Korean, but "anjeuseyo" [앉으세요] worked like a charm.

The American kids are definitely a handful. You put certain combinations together and madness ensues. Today was probably the worst. Instead of 1 set of friends we had 2. (three actually, but the third set of friends behaved wonderfully) Some of the children who sat together play off each other and things would get progressively louder and more obnoxious. Cara could hear some of them in the bathroom across the hall from our classroom. So when story time came around, we separated them. However, some of the ones we separated would just stop dead in their tracks and not do anything cause they were sad and mad I suppose. Then crayons start getting thrown around, along with paper getting ripped, and random things getting water colors on them. One of the more annoying things the kids can do is when you say something like "let's stand up!" or "lets clean such and such!" they say "no!" I'm thinking "You don't have a choice kiddo..." but obviously a.) they're not my kids and b.) its truly not that serious. So i find another way to convince them pick it up, or they come up with an alternative. Fine by me, as long as you pick up those crayons ;-).

Well, I have a 0600 swim workout with a co-worker, so we'll see how much swimming i remember from USAFA. probably not too much, but, I'll get a work-out none the less.

My Week in Pictures

We drove to Seoul on Tuesday during the Korean holiday of Chusok, which is comparable to our Thanksgiving. The Koreans all travel to their 'grandfather's farms' if they still have them, and visit the graves of relatives. Many Koreans follow some shamanist traditions, believing that the dead interfere in the lives of relatives if their souls are not satisfied, so when they visit the graves they bring alcohol and food to leave, and bow in worship of their ancestors. We hiked up a mountain in downtown Seoul and saw much of this. The pictures of the traditions are on my film camera, but here are some of the scenery shots.



















































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Here are a few of the flowers on the walk from base to our apartment.





And this is the continuation of the Mattress Video you have all been clamoring for (especially you, Grandma!)

Our New Mattress

So, remember that earlier post about the tale of two mattresses? Well, here's part two to that story.

For labor day weekend I'm heading back to the DC area because my Best Man is getting married, and my parents have our mattress sitting in the house ready for me to pick it up. Cara and I have done some research and assume that since the mattress is too big for APO/FPO shipment, that the only route is air cargo shipment. My dad mentions that its too big for a small car, so I change the rental car I have already reserved from and Mid-Size to an SUV.

So I get home, and place the mattress in the back of the SUV and drive from Bowie, MD to Fairfax, VA for Ty's wedding festivities. Fairfax is pretty close to Dulles so I figure I'll have no problem shipping it by air cargo. Boy was I wrong. As it turns out, unless you are a company, Delta or Korean Air Lines doesn't want to talk to me. I have to talk to a freight forwarding company, like FedEx. Great.

So, after all the wedding festivities are all over, I head back to Bowie with the mattress in back of my car. I do some more research on FedEx.com and after creating a fedex.com account, I find out that my package is too light to be shipped by freight forwarding. Then it hits me... I could have had FedEx come and pick the mattress up from my parents house as soon as they received it. I could've had our mattress over a month ago! Oh well, water under the bridge. So dad and I take the mattress to FedEx Annapolis and ship it. Dad mentions that the clerk wasn't the brightest, but I thought everything was cool. That was labor day, and I flew back to Korea the morning of the 4th.

Cara receives a message from FedEx Annapolis that says I forgot to sign the waybill and it can't go out. Great... But, thank the lord, they send it anyway. After about a week has passed, we haven't heard anything, and wondering whats happening to our mattress. I realize that I've tossed my tracking number, and try calling FedEx Annapolis and corporate, but nothing. So I'm completely lost and worried about the location of the mattress.

Well, FedEx calls us and informs us that our mattress is stuck at customs, so she gives them my cell number and FedEx calls me that afternoon. They ask how much it was worth, whether it was brand new or whatnot, and after all was said and done, I was on the hook for a 20% tax! Whoa! So I mention that I'm under SOFA (status of forces agreement), and that changes everything. No import taxes!!! :-D. It gets released through customs and the very next day, we have our mattress!

So we've been sleeping on our new mattress for a while now, but we finally transfered the video of us opening it from the camera to the computer. So, here it is: The "jack-in-the-box" mattress.

Tiger Crawl

This is a video from the recent 'Tiger Crawl', when my squadron toured some of the more interesting bars off base. This is one example of that 'interestingness'. They are 'jaeger bombs' which is Red Bull and Jeager, and the bartender put the shot on toothpicks so it would balance at the top of the glass. Watch to see what he did next!

Classes

Just a quick note to say... I aced my first master's class! Woohoo!

As many of you know I have been writing a paper for the last two months for my Research Methods class. I finally turned it in late Sunday night (or was it early Monday morning?), and got the grade back today. That means I am officially done with my first masters class! I don't mean to brag, but I feel like it, and this is my page... I got a 100 in the course :-) including rave reviews from my instructor about my approx. 30-page rational choice analysis paper on the Chonger (as we affectionately call Kim Jong Il, also known in acronym-ese as KJI).

My next class (which is Intelligence Profiling - should be super interesting) starts in November (the school wisely doesn't start classes in October because most of the students depend on government funding), so now I have ridiculous amounts of free time. I've been in this class since April, before Will got here, so it'll be interesting to have worry-free, and homework-free, evenings again!

Umm... Kia?

So... this is what I do when I'm procrastinating while supposedly writing a paper... I went to the site to see if I could find out what 'Kia' really means, because in Korean it means 'a rejected child' or something similar. Turns out, it's a combination of Chinese characters that means 'to arise and come up out of Asia'. Or so they say. Anyway, like all Korean corporate websites, if they don't have some random anime interaction nobody would buy their products, so here is my contribution to the gallery of Kia oddness. Enjoy!

We're still here!

Hello again... it's been awhile! I have often sat down to write about something only to decide I was tired or got distracted by something else I've had to get done. This week and last week have been ridiculously busy, as I've been working 5am-5pm shifts plus an extra hour or two following that. It has been fun, but more challenging than I'm used to - which is a good thing! I'm learning a lot, that's for sure.

The other thing that has kept us busy is what I like to call 'adult parties'. Will and I started this trend when I decided our apartment looked 'homy' enough for me to want to host. We decided to try out our hosting skills by inviting several of the Lts I work with over for lasagna and board games. There were 12 of us, and it was a great time - we played pictionary, boys vs. girls (guess who won? :-)). The lasagna got rave reviews (my dad's recipe), and it was the perfect amount. We had salad and pie as well, and all received compliments. Everybody agreed that events like that have to continue, and the next week our friends Tom and Katie had everyone over for scrabble and homemade pizza, but it turned out to be socializing and homemade pizza. That was another fun evening. Hopefully, this trend will continue, and everyone living off base in apartments will take turns hosting.

This coming weekend, Will is headed to DC for a wedding (our best man is getting married, and Will is a groomsman). I am staying behind to have an intense 4-day writing session. This is also keeping me busy - I'm working on my masters, and I have to write a research paper by the 18th. I finished the first part for a grade a few weeks ago, but I haven't been able to work on it because of how much it has picked up at work these two weeks. A 4-day weekend, followed by a 2 1/2-day week, will be a much-needed break for all of us.

We had considered the possibility of my going to the states with Will, but decided it wasn't worth the money and using up my last 5 days of leave for the year. Instead, we're planning to spend a long weekend in October hiding on a little island in Thailand. I'm looking forward to it!

While Will is in DC, he will also be getting some things accomplished. He'll ship his Corolla to Korea (literally on a ship... it will take a few months to arrive), and hopefully send our new mattress (see post below) via air cargo.

All summer our church was having VBS on Sundays, and it's been a whole lot of fun. Since all of us who could run a traditional week-long VBS work all the time, they stretched it out over a few months and only did the activities on Sundays. I didn't help out other than buying some of the snacks for the kids, but they did have adult VBS sessions. These were focused on the books 'For Women Only' (about men) and 'For Men Only' (about women). They are truly excellent books, written to explain the inner workings of the opposite sex, based on hundreds of surveys and scientific research. They are very accurate, and it was incredible to discover that something I thought was natural and normal, most guys don't even think about, and vice versa. I knew some of it, but hearing both books taught to a mixed audience highlighted how true the findings were; everyone was surprised at one point or another and we all were enlightened. It's interesting how much we assume guys should know about women, and how much we don't know about men! The authors are Christians, and they highlighted the findings with Bible truth, demonstrating that God made us this way - and many of the traits unique to men or women are found in Bible characters. We learned once again that we are different, it is wonderful, and our Lord is so good as to make us perfect for what we are uniquely called to be and do! Men and women truly do complete and complement each other.

Last weekend, we went up to Seoul to see Cats, the musical. I've always wanted to see it, since I watched it on PBS as a girl, and it was wonderful. Even though we miscalculated the subway ride and arrived 20min late, and had seats in the very back row because we bought the tickets too late, it was an awesome show. The theater was fairly new, and every seat in the house had a good view. The acting was a lot of fun, and of course the music is wonderful. We bought the soundtrack and the dvd, I'm sure we'll enjoy them!

As we left the theater, a stage had been set up in the courtyard and a free concert was beginning. We stayed just to see what it was, and it turned out to be really neat. A group of guys played percussion instruments, a combination of drums, xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and piano. They were excellent musicians and great performers. We ended up getting sandwiches from a stand and sitting at tables in the courtyard until the end of the show. It was a very pleasant day!

So. I think that about covers the month we've been absent from the blog... sorry if it's too long, though those of you who used to get my emails should be used to this! I hope you are all enjoying fall weather (ours should be starting soon - it's still too humid and hot most days), and are doing well.

A Tale of Two Beds

So... the beds here in Korea are super hard, because Koreans who don't sleep on beds sleep on mats on the floor. Our bed is like this - very firm. We bought a mattress pad, butit doesn't help much, so we started shopping for a mattress. For awhile we've wanted to buy a Tempurpedic-type, but not so expensive. I searched all over the internet and finally found one we wanted. And, it is shipped vacuum packed in a box so we figured we had a better chance of getting it to Korea than most beds which come shipped as a full mattress. We called the company, and they don't ship out of the US, so we decided since Will is going back to DC in September for a wedding, we could ship it to his parents and then Will could somehow get it to the airport and ship it cargo. Ok, so we hadn't figured that part out quite yet, at least not the details. But it was gonna work somehow! Will emailed his parents and mentioned that we were shipping a bed to them. This was about a week and a half ago.

In Maryland, a couple received a large box labeled 'mattress', but they hadn't ordered a mattress. They put the box in their house, but as it was very large, they kept thinking about what it could be, for almost a week. They called all their neighbors to find out who ordered a mattress which got delivered to the wrong address, and finally decided to ship it back to the company. They searched the whole box for the shipping label, so they could find who to return it to, and when they finally found the small label on the bottom, it was addressed to them, by name! So they said 'hmm! what a surprise! I wonder what nice person sent us a mattress!' and opened it up. Out of the box came a rolled up mattress, and they carried it upstairs. They took the mattress off their own bed and opened the bag on the newly-shipped mattress. It unrolled and became a 10" thick wonderful tempur-foam mattress. They thought, 'this is wonderful!' and slept on it that night, the best sleep they had in a long time.

Now, as I'm sure most readers are aware by now, these two mattresses are actually one mattress. The couple in the second story is Melvin and Peggy Jones - and in the morning they thought, 'hey-didn't William say something about a mattress?' and sent him an email. He replied and said, 'yes! and here is the email I sent awhile ago, don't you remember?' And they said 'oooo... umm... it's a great mattress, son.... i guess we'll have to get you another one!' So we called and all laughed about it, and warned them it was going on the blog.

I hope you enjoyed the story. I'm glad our mattress is wonderful, and hopefully we can figure out how to get it (the replacement mattress- not the original one which is already being enjoyed thoroughly)!

Top Ten Reason Leaving the AF wasn’t so bad

10. I get to live with my wife in another country

9. During Exercises, I start work after wifey, and get home before wifey

8. MOPP Gear Everyday? …is that in our Contract?

7. BX/Commissary isn’t off limits during exercises

6. Shave? Haircut?

5. Meetings — CCS-C: 7/wk, SYERS: 2/wk (maybe)

4. Death by PowerPoint is no longer in my vocabulary.

3. Compiling code one minute, working on an airplane the next.

2. $100k+ >> $68k

1. Doing what I’m good at is actually my job

The Volvo revisited...

Well, my attempts to fix the Volvo yesterday didn't fair so well, so I gave up for the day. The car has had a problem with the fuel pump relay, no door handle, and a broken mirror. The latest was that the starter wasn't working. So I tried to fix it. While I was working on the car, it was quite hot, and so I rolled the windows down to get some air in. Unfortunately it didn't help much because there was no wind blowing. So that prompted me to go inside and do something else. Well, I didn't roll the windows back up, and it is Monsoon season here in Korea. (you can see where this is going...) I woke up a few times last night to the sound of thunder, flashes of lightning and a lot of rain, but I didn't think about the windows. When I woke up and decided to try to fix the car again, I couldn't remember if I had rolled the windows up. In fact, I knew I hadn't. I went down to the car this afternoon and looked in it. Oh man, there was water everywhere! On the dashboard, the side of the doors, on the insides of the windows. I sat down to try and do some more troubleshooting, but before I could start, the seat of my pants became very cold and wet. Crap. The seats are soaked. At that point, I called the Sam's Car garage and arranged for a tow truck to pick up the car.

After the car was at the repair shop, they started looking at the car and found out the wiring to the battery was not as good as it could be. So they fixed that. Then the car was engaging the starter, but the engine wouldn't run. I told the repair guy about the fuel pump relay. He took it out, looked at it, and then fixed it by resoldering it! So that problem was solved. I had purchased a new door handle to fix the door, but had no hardware (nuts & bolts) to fix it. They saw it in the car, and installed it also. Woohoo! All we need now is a new mirror! Those guys were great, and it only cost 80,000 won! Awesome. We finally have two cars again. Sweet.

Cars in Korea

Well, Cara's car is having issues at the moment. First her car completely stalled and then would crank, but never physically run on its own. That was solved by jiggling a fuel pump relay so it would supply fuel to the car. Now, the car won't even turn the ignition on. Grr.

But, to take my mind off of Cara's car being broken, I'll tell you about the cars we have now, versus what we had while we were back in the U.S.

Cara's old car was a 2000 Audi A4 1.8T. Oh man, that car was sweet. It was comfortable, looked good, and drove very very nice. The windows were tinted pretty dark, it had a tiptronic transmission, 5 Speed Automatic (which made it very fun to zoom on the highway in the middle of Texas...). The only problem for me was that if we weren't using cruise control, I couldn't fold my legs, and well, it got uncomfortable real quick. That didn't matter since it was Cara's car.

I did discover a few interesting things about owning an Audi though. First, maintenance is expensive. If anything had to be fixed on the car, you can guarantee that it cost $250+ to get it repaired. Most we paid was around $1k to get an airbag fixed that was on the passenger seat. Of course you're probably thinking why we'd pay that much to repair 1 airbag. As it turns out, the Audi was programmed to disable all airbags if one was not properly functioning. Not much of an option there. But that was by far out of the norm.

Second is that if you pull up to a car dealer, you are treated completely differently than most people. If you can buy an Audi, you must have money. When I was getting ready to buy a car my junior year, I remember going to a few dealerships with my friends Explorer. The car salesman would talk to me, but more often than not, I had to stand around or ask for someone to help me. Let's contrast that with my recent experience when my corolla's transmission was getting repaired. I drove to the Toyota dealer to check on my car, and when I parked, a salesman came walking out from the show room.

"Good afternoon sir, how are you today?" He glanced at the license plates and started some small talk. "Wow, North Dakota...that must've be a long trip."

"Actually my wife is from North Dakota, I'm from Maryland," I replied.

"Oh, that's even farther...Is there anything I can help you with today?"

"Well, not really, my Corolla is being repaired and I'm just checking on it." I was surprised for a second, and then remembered I was driving an Audi that was old enough to look like I was in the market for another, but new enough that it looked like I had money. I was in Manhattan Beach, CA (Ritzy L.A. Suburb) after all, and it was nothing to see high-end Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Audi cars. But, alas, we've sold the car to Cara's parents, and is no longer in our inventory. (Audi A4 1.8T, nicknamed Roxy, primary function multi-role road transport...)

My car in the U.S. was a 2004 Toyota Corolla S. Not as nice as Cara's but I had my reasons for buying it. First, I blew a little too much of my $25,000 cadet loan to have enough of a down payment on a 2003 Honda Accord EX-V6 6-Speed Manual Coupe. Also, I wanted to be able to tinker with the car and have to worry about breaking something because it was so complex. Compared to Cara's 26(ish) MPG, the Corolla was supposed to get 42MPG. I had fun while I drove, so it ended up being 34-36MPG. Once I started driving in LA, it dropped to like 29 or so.

As I neared graduation at USAFA, I started looking at the radio console and realized I could put an LCD in place of the radio. Thus beginning my Car Computer Project that I worked on from 26 June 2004 -16 April 2007. One of the only things (besides Honor Guard) that I actually had fun with. When I started, I had a simple volume control scrollbar, and Windows Media Player as my music player. No radio, no easy way to power down the computer. By the time I had finished, I had installed the following:

• a music player designed for in car use
  
• Character LCD and software interface I programmed
  
• FM & XM radio tuners,
  
• a power supply that powers down the computer safely after the car is off,
  
• GPS
  
• Internet Access

When I traveled to Oklahoma City, OK from Los Angeles in March, this whole setup was very nice. It made the drive so much more bearable. Needless to say, I miss my car. Its sitting in Joe's driveway, and we're hoping to ship it to Korea when I go back for Ty Russell's Wedding.

Well, those were the cars we had in the U.S. Now what about the cars we have now?

Cara has a 1992 Volvo 940 GL. Not a bad car. However, there are about two key things that are wrong with the Volvo. First there is no driver's side door handle. We have to pull on a hook to get the door open. The second is there is no Driver's side mirror. Apparently parking on the street in Korea is bad for the mirrors. So much so that folding mirrors aren't a luxury on cars. Any car made in Korea has folding mirrors. Luxury determines whether your mirrors automatically fold in or out by the touch of a button. Nice, eh? Not having the mirror doesn't bother Cara because she doesn't use it that much. I, on the other hand, rely on that mirror when I'm parking in tight spots. I tried to use that mirror plenty of times when I first got to Korea, and it bothered me a bit. Oh well, such is life.

The previous owner put in a CD player, which is cool, but instead using screw on wire connectors (whatever they're called) he used electrical tape. So depending on how you turn, brake, etc., different speakers go out, or turn on. Regardless of all that its still comfortable for long drives, and the gas tank does not lie. When it says empty, it really means empty. We found that out the night I arrived in Korea to stay. Her car cost about $750 which is pretty good for a GI Mobile.

My car presently is a red 1994 Hyundai Accent. Well, it was initially red, now it seems more like pink or something. When I started working with Goodrich, one of my co-workers was driving me around in the car. I was looking at it, and was like this would be a cool Korea car. It was low maintenance, small, fuel efficient and had a radio/tape player. What more could you ask for. Literally seconds after thinking that, Dave (co-worker) asked me if I liked the car, and then offered to sell it! After all the paper was finally accomplished, I paid him $100 for the car. basically everything he had to pay for to make the car sellable. (paperwork, inspections, etc.). My car is a five speed manual, with power front windows. Everything else is unpowered. No powered brakes, no power steering, no power mirrors. Makes me appreciate driving the Gold Car ('83 Honda Accord) during high school, even if it was one of the most beat up cars in the parking lot. Now, the funniest thing about the car is that the previous owner was somewhat paranoid. He thought that someone was stealing his gas, despite the fact the fuel door had to be released from inside the car. Yeah, talk about a piece of work. So in order to make sure no one was stealing gas, he would fill the tank up, put a piece of tape over it, and then sign it. I still look at it and crack up. Too funny.


Having said all that, our cars are actually pretty good for a GI car. People are typically only here for a year, and the people who are allowed to have a car already have a nice car back in the states, or don't feel like buying a new car for just a year. So if these cars fail us, there are plenty more to choose from. Especially since I'm part of the 'contractor mafia' now. (He made me an offer I couldn't refuse....)

Exec Work

My commander is gone for the next week, so I finally get to work on some of the larger projects he's given me. I'm the Exec, if you didn't know, which is kinda like the secretary, or office manager, but actually much bigger. I found out my job when I called into my old job to ask when my next shift was, and they told me I didn't work there anymore. So I called my new office, and they said I should have been there already! Nice to know, guys! BTW...for any of you who remember this from my earlier emails...yes, this is the job I was fired from in February. Apparently the new commander needed a new exec, and the old commander, who fired me, recommended me, ending my 'rehabilitation period'. Good to know they like me! Too bad they all assume I'm going to spend a career in the Air Force but never actually ask. But, that's a whole 'nother blog!

Back to my new job... I answer the phone, run the commander's calendar, and review all of the paperwork which needs his signature. Some of my current projects: policy letters, personnel reports, tracking taskers which come down from higher echelons, writing thank you notes for a bunch of contractors who saved huge servers from a burst water pipe. Today I successfully updated all of the recall roster information. Our squadron is in the process of splitting into three different units, so our organization has changed quite a bit, and everyone's phone numbers have switched around. Our old list of numbers was pretty much useless.

I know this whole job doesn't sound that exciting...but at the moment, it's better than 3-on, 3-off night shift work, and my projects are my projects...nobody can touch them. The front office is my domain, I make sure things get done and set my own policies for routing paperwork, and I am the direct supervisor (and rater) for a MSgt and a TSgt. I always have 20 things going on which I need to get done...I thrive when I have lots of tasks. I work normal days, with weekends and holidays off - it was quite amazing the first time I realized it was Friday, and I had the weekend off. It's my first 'real' weekend since I've PCS'd here, over nine months ago!

We got a new commander while I was on leave, and he's slowly seeing things he wants to change about how things were done in the squadron, and I'm the main person who gets to take on these projects. I either do them myself, or task them out. While he's gone, the DO is in charge. This is the deputy, and he has an office in a different building, so it is very quiet in the office. Very nice and conducive to finishing big projects, which I need. I work 9-6 (the TSgt works 6-3), and I hardly ever get to work on anything until 4pm, because of the phone, emails, and random 2-minute taskers.

Transformers

Will and I went to see Transformers after work today. The theater was almost full, because it was the first showing here. A few of my friends had seen it already in the Korean theaters, and had said it was pretty decent, and pretty AF-sponsored. Will and I both enjoyed it: I thought it was good, he thought it was great.

The acting was well done, I had a few critiques about the camera work, but the CG was pretty much amazing, and it is definitely an 'AF' movie. Most classic line, said by an Army guy: 'We can't make a stand without the Air Force!" Right. Exactly what he would say, I'm sure. Plus, all the 'good guy' transformers were GM cars, and the leader of the 'good guys' was a red, white, and blue semi truck tractor. The 'bad guys' pretended to be US military vehicles, infiltrating our forces like terrorists.

The AF gave a lot of money to the movie, and let them use 2 of our 3 operational Ospreys, as well as a few F-22s complete with pilots, and land in the desert of Nevada for both a mock Qatar air base and bombing scenes. A-10s and a gunship saved the day in the beginning. It is probable the best AF movie I've seen. Much better than Iron Eagle, of course! It wasn't completely, obviously, ridiculously AF at all. Us AF people probably noticed more than any one else, and it may help recruitment some. There was one really random Bush-bashing moment which wasn't quite necessary.

I'm sure Will is gonna have more to say :-) He was way more into it, because he actually watched the original Transformers. Kurt and I had the semi-truck that turned into a robot...but I didn't know the Transformers were anything but a cool toy that turned into another cool toy! Turns out Will really wanted the truck when he was little but never got it...poor guy, it was at my house all along!

The Journey to Seoul for Computer Parts!

Well, for my first post, I'll tell you about my adventure to Seoul to visit Seonin (sawn-in) Mall. Seonin Mall is basically the place to go if you want to buy computer parts and accessories. It has many shops that sell all sorts of computer odds and ends. You can find computer cases, power supplies, all sorts of graphics cards (well, not the nVidia 7950...but thats another story...) processors, memory, etc. When I walked in, I was like a kid in a candy store, but with a mission. Oh, and don't worry, Cara said I could :-P.

So the easiest way to get there is by taking the metro; however, I knew I'd be buying a hefty case. So I ended up traveling the crazy roads of Korea. Which aren't that bad, once you leave the city areas. I took an expressway North, and it was pretty open the whole way. Despite my mapping the whole trip and determining what landmarks to look for, I ended up getting lost twice. Once on the way to the expressway, and the other I missed my exit because I was gazing at all the big bridges the Koreans have going into Seoul.

After driving around and finally finding parking, I made my way over to the mall. When I walked in, it was exactly what I had hope for. Needless to say, I was a very happy camper...okay, computer geek. There are four floors in the mall, and it has a triangular shape to it. I decided to browse around at all the stores and see what they had before I purchased anything. I was pretty impressed, there was a store for almost every kind of computer part you could ever want.

As I said, there was a reason I came to Seonin Mall with my car, I was going to buy a case, and didn't feel like dragging the case home and through the metro and having everyone stare at my case. Now all the cases I had seen when I walked in were pretty boring and/or too small. After making my way around the mall, I arrived on the first floor (I entered on the second floor) and found the case I wanted. Unfortunately, I found it before I had bought any of my other components. So I went back around to the stores and began to buy the other components.

The first items I bought were two Samsung 320GB 7200 SATA drives. That was a cool experience. The couple I bought it from would actually say the numbers in Korean, and actually let me try and understand, and say the other numbers. Initially I asked for a 사백 (sa baek) GB drive, which is 400GB (sa = 4, baek=100). When they told me the cost, I was like whoa, never mind, so I tried to ask for a 300GB. Well, 3 & 4 in the Sino-Korean numeral system are rather close: 3 is sam (삼) and 4 is sa (사). Confident I knew what I was saying, I asked for a "sa baek GB" thinking I was asking for a 300GB. I was actually asking for a 400GB hard drive again, just after they had just shown me a few 400GB models. They looked at me a little strange and started reaching for the 400GB pile. As they reached for the 400GB stack, I wondered why, and so I went over the numbers in my head. "...il, i, sam, sa, o...oh crap!" So I, quickly corrected myself. " 삼백! " (sam baek!). They laughed and reached and got a 320GB. It ended up being 79,000 per hard drive.

Now, before you freak out, that's 79,000 Won. 1 USD = about 931KRW. So, divide by 1000, and you get the approximate dollar value. There's a quick lesson in Korean/US economics. Probably the last, too.

Now, where was I? Ah yes, Hard Drives. I paid the couple and went out to find my video card. as I walked around, I noticed that everyone had the same brands of Video Cards. So, I looked extra hard for the nVidia 7950. I went from store to store looking for it. And then I saw a box for it! Sweet! hard work pays off! So I went in and asked the man at the desk for it, he replied that they didn't have any in stock. Grr. Gotta keep looking. I went to another store, and this lady asks me in english if she can help me. I think to myself this will be an easier exchange.

"Do you have any nVidia 7950s?" I ask.
"No, we don't." She pauses a bit and continues, "but why do you want that when then future is the 8000 series?" She had a little condescending tone in her voice.
"Because I don't want top of the line, I just want that one." My brow became furrowed as replied. I left that store and never went back. Don't get me wrong, the lady was right, I was asking for a great video card that had reached its EOL (end-of-life), but she could have tried to convince me in another way. Oh well, her loss.

I finally found another store that had two 7950 boxes. I asked the man in the store if I could buy one, and he called his stock room, and replied "Discontinued." Discontinued?! Why do you show a box on the shelf if you're never going to have it again? I asked about the other one, he chuckled (he could tell I wanted that card), and called again. Same answer. Discontinued. Grr. Why do these people tease me with their empty boxes?! Oh well. Such is life. I picked up a 8500GT & 8600GTs for < $90 a piece, so I could at least have some video (and Cara wanted to be able to use 2 screens). Now all I had to do was find the case store I had passed by earlier. That would prove to be the hardest part of my day. I walked the 2-4th floor looking for that case, cause I knew I had seen it. You remember me talking about it above, right? Well, if you've already scrolled up, or remember from what I told you, it was on the first floor. It took me over an hour to find that store again.

But before I found it, I ran across this LCD vendor who had a nice 20.1 inch Square Monitor. Which was cool cause I'm trying to make a Square-Wide-Square monitor arrangement, and when the widescreen is 24", its hard to find anything smaller than 19" that comes close or anything above 19" that isn't widescreened or a small fortune. it was $230, but I needed to make sure I had enough money for all of my case. Which I did. So, after buying my case, I lugged the case and other hardware back to my initially-red-but-now-rather-pink car. I counted my won, and decide to head back. I walk back inside, and right as I enter is the LCD vendor. So I pick one up and head back to the car very happy because I had accomplished what I had come for.

As I left the parking lot, I had to pay the teller "manobaeg won" (만오벡원). I had think to myself... I knew it was 10,000 something.. but what did he say after 'man'? So I asked him again. He could see me thinking, so he helped me out "Ten thousand five hundred!" he says with a smile. "Oh, right, man o baeg won!" He smiles and says yes in korean. (네/ne).

So I break out my already proven valuable Seoul map and navigate my way back to the Olympic Expressway. It was 6:30pm, and wowsas, talk about traffic. Luckily, as a former resident of Los Angeles, it wasn't too big a deal. I just didn't have any music. (K-pop anyone??). Once I left Seoul, traffic was non-existent. And I drove back home having bought my hearts content of computer parts. Well for now at least. ;-).

Moving In

We are in the process of unpacking, and we continuously realize we have no place to put anything. The downside of Korean apartments - no built-in storage space. So, Will's shirts are hanging up on the rolling clothes rack, and our dishes are on a wire shelf from the BX.

We have picked up a few bookshelves from a great little furniture store we found just a few blocks from our place. We scoped it out along with a few other places, then came back and purchased a great (and huge!) dresser for Will's stuff. It was super cheap, they delivered it, and it's really well built, especially compared to what's available in the BX for twice as much. So, we went back and bought two bookcases. Then we went back and bought a smaller 4-shelf deal to put our random pocket stuff, mail, and (my) purses on when we come through the door. By that point, she was excited to see us walk in! We went back today and bought two more bookshelves, so we could unpack Will's trunk which was full of heavy books. Will found a super nice chair as well, it's quite amazing actually.
We hadn't been there in awhile, but we walked to the door and she got up and smiled and probably figured we would buy something since we always had before! They even broke out the catalogs, so when we get to the point that we need things they don't have in stock, we'll see if we can figure out how to order things from them. Their prices are hard to beat, and we really like them.

We have a few more purchases planned, including a wall closet for the rest of Will's clothes. I already filled the wall closet that was here when I moved in. I also had a desk, an orange couch, two orange chairs, a tv-stand dealy with drawers, two beds, and a kitchen table but nothing else. Will's stuff and what we've bought definitely make it feel much more like home! In the living room, we also have brand new curtains and a rug we bought in Dubai! Yes, a real one, hand-made in Iran. And don't say anything about our money paying for nukes!

(This is before Will's stuff arrived...the living room's a bit different now)

But, as I was saying in the beginning, we have no storage space. Our extra bed is currently covered with all kinds of random stuff we have no real place for yet. Slowly we are getting rid of the garbage, but we're going to have to make sure we don't collect too much unnecessary junk while we're here - and that could be a challenge!

Here we are!

Hi everyone! I decided I may be better at blogging than at sending group emails. It got to the point where I was too busy to send emails, and then by the time I got around to it, I had too much to say for one email, so it would either be really long or I'd have to simplify everything. So I gave up and didn't send any emails at all! Not the best plan :-) So, the point of this blog is to tell the stories as they happen, and not be so pressured to say everything at once. Hopefully that'll work! Also, Will and I can both talk in the same place.

For some background, we're both here in northern Pyongtaek, South Korea, also known as Songtan. We work on Osan Air Base - Will is a contractor and I'm in the Air Force. Because of his job, we'll be here for a few years, though we aren't sure how long. I was here for almost 7 months before Will arrived, and I lived on the minimum essentials I had brought with me (all in my luggage!). We finally received Will's shipment of household goods, so we're slowly putting things away and rearranging furniture, and our little apartment is starting to feel like a real home!

Will got here in April to start his job (which he loves), then we went on vacation in the month of June. It was my mid-tour, so Will's company let him leave (we made sure he could before he took the job!). We were gone for 25 days, and went around the world. Starting in Seoul, we flew to Tokyo, then Seattle and DC, drove to NY, flew from JFK to Frankfurt, took the train to Berlin, flew to Estonia, came back to Berlin, then back to Frankfurt, then flew through Dubai back to Seoul. A lot to do in under a month! It was an awesome trip, we had lots of great experiences, and we'll both share some of those, along with our favorite pictures, in the next few posts. I don't want to make this first one too long!

Please leave comments, we love to hear from all of you back in the states. I don't often have time to write personal emails, but I promise I think of you often and even if you don't hear from me, I miss you! I hope this can help us reconnect, as it's so hard for me to keep up friendships long-distance. I know I probably won't see any of you for awhile, but keep us up on where you live, so if we're in the area we can meet up. Also, if you're headed to Korea for any of the upcoming exercises, let us know, or if you're stationed in Japan, we're a short hop away. Of course, you can come stay with us anytime you happen to be in Korea, we have an extra bed waiting, just let us know! We'd love it if you came to visit!