Weekend Wrap-Up (4-Day) - (Korea) Days 215-218

The Doosan Bears vs LG Twins baseball game in Seoul

Saturday: Woke up at 0830 to video chat with my wife for a bit before playing basketball with the ROK soldiers again. SPC Roy joined us and we ended up playing 3 on 3. A good workout, and even though we didn't keep score I think we won! I then headed back to my room to video chat some more with my wife.

I then spent a large part of the day doing schoolwork as Saturday is when I have the most time to do so. I then met up with PFC Pickle and we headed to the hotel on post (The Dragon Hill Lodge). We met up with the air force master sergeant from my office as well as my NCOIC to catch a bus to a Korean professional baseball game here in Seoul. It was the Doosan Bears vs the LG Twins. The game was a little unique in the fact that I believe both teams share the stadium. The fans were divided with the Twins fans on one side of the stadium and the Bears fans on the other. Chants and songs would go back and forth throughout the game. Even though I'm not a huge baseball fan, this was a great experience, I was impressed with how crazy all the fans were! Lots of fun was had by all.

We took the bus back and ended up eating dinner at The Dragon Hill Lodge. We walked out just in time to see the fireworks show the post was putting on for the independence day celebration. After the show we headed back to our rooms and called it a night.

At the baseball game: My NCOIC, Me, & PFC Pickle

They know how to serve beer at the baseball game here in Korea. Strap a
keg on the back of a vendor and turn 'em loose

Sunday: I woke up at 0830 and headed to PFC Pickle's room with a pit-stop at Starbucks before hand. We watched the UFC event in his room. It was a great card with a lot of good fights! The rain was non-stop on the way to his room. Even though I had an umbrella I still ended up getting pretty wet. I had to borrow his umbrella again for the walk back to my room. I'm getting a little tired of this rain. People think I should be used to it coming from the Seattle area, but at least there I had a car to protect me from the rain. Here I walk pretty much everywhere I go.

When I got back to my room I video chatted with my wife for a bit before watching some TV shows and then doing some schoolwork. I headed over to the PX and got my haircut. It was a slow day at the salon and my barber started attacking every hair in sight. Not only did she shave my head, she cut the hair coming out of my ears, trimmed my eyebrows, my neck hairs, and even my nose hairs. This lady was dedicated!

I finished off the night with some more TV shows and some SkillPorts.

Monday: I woke up at about 0700. I video chatted for a bit with my wife before being picked up by SPC Roy. We headed to the iPark Mall and met up with the army major and his wife from my office as well as the air force master sergeant and my NCOIC. The army major had purchased tickets in advanced with reserved seating for Transformers 3 in 4-D. Watching a movie in 4-D brings a movie to a whole new level. The seats move, you smell different scents, you feel wind blowing and also get the occasional spray in the face during a wet scene. It was a lot of fun and the movie was great…much better than Transformers 2.

After the movie SPC Roy and I took off and headed back to the post to catch a taxi. SPC Roy's sister-in-law bought him a Thai massage and he wanted me to go with him. So we went once again to have a "couple's massage" (really…we're not gay!) I've never had a Thai massage before, I was just expecting something similar to the normal massages I've had before. I was in for a bit of a surprise. We both slipped into the provided shorts and t-shirt and headed to a room where we both laid on the floor. Two older women came in and started stretching our legs in all different directions. We were massaged, stretched, and walked on for two hours. You could hear both of us at times groaning as some parts were a bit painful. Both of us had to stop the old ladies at times to tell them to stop cause it was too much pain to bear. Afterwards we both felt like jello. The massage wasn't a relaxing massage, but I can say that I felt pretty good afterwards.

We then headed to have dinner which ended up being some boiled pork and kimchi. Since SPC Roy bought dinner, I told him I'd get us dessert. He chose Cold Stone, so we headed to Itaewon and enjoyed some ice cream. It's been a long time since I had Cold Stone…I savored every bite. He then dropped me off at my room where I passed out. I took a two hour nap before getting up and doing some schoolwork, then watching some TV shows. I also did a SkillPort or two between shows just to get in a few for the day.

Tuesday: Today I finally got a chance to sleep in as long as I wanted to, and I took advantage of it. I slept in until 1000! I then video chatted with my wife for a while before meeting up with SPC Roy once again. His wife heard how good the movie was yesterday and wanted to go, so SPC Roy was left watching his kid alone and wanted company. We hung out and waited for her to finish, then ate lunch together at the food court. After that I headed back to my room and took a nap. I think my body was still pretty relaxed from the crazy massage yesterday. After the nap I met up with SPC Roy once again to run an errand with him. We dropped off a laptop at his uncle's company and then went to a Costco. Unfortunately we took the subway there because SPC Roy was afraid of all the traffic, so I didn't buy anything.

We ended up eating at one of his favorite restaurants nearby having "beef and leaf". A very popular dish that I just love here in Korea. You cook the meat at the table and wrap it up in a lettuce wrap along with some spices and eat it. Of course we had to have some soju with dinner. I found just how well cider chases down soju! After dinner we took a taxi back to post and I headed back to my room. I did my schoolwork and only one SkillPort.

It was a pretty good weekend!

GreenJackets (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 24

The internet has finally come back up, it's been down for two days. There are rumors that some people here tried to change some settings on the router to give themselves more priority. Don't know if they're true or not, but ever since it came back up it's been slower than ever. I can't wait until I get my new iPhone, I'll use it to tether and it will be cheaper and it will not be bogged down with all the people here playing online games.

I was surprised to be woken up at 4AM to find out that I had a 4 hour hall guard shift to do. The schedule has not been up on the wall on our floor, so I haven't been paying attention. They also changed the hours to 4 at a time for the weekend because there are less people here. So I got up, got dressed and guarded the hall. I didn't have to do it for the entire shift though because all the new people had to get in formation at 7:00 for a financial briefing that was scheduled for most of the day. 

A little before 7:30 I ran in and quickly shaved and went down stairs. Once at the bottom of the stairs they posted the results of the knowledge test we took last night in order to phase up. I checked and found that I scored a 33 out of 50. 35 is passing, so I failed. What a bummer! I really felt confident when I took the test. After speaking with the guy who graded them, I found out that they were really strict with a number of the answers. So if they asked a name of the a person in the chain of command and I only put the name without the rank in front of it, then it was wrong. I had a number of little things like that. I guess I'll get a chance to to retake the test next Friday. Turns out that all 4 of the people in our room who took the test scored a 33, so nobody will be phasing up in our room. We will next time though for sure, I'm going to try and get everyone together to study before we take the test again.

We headed off to the financial brief. Once there the instructor introduced himself. He sounded like a guy trying to impersonate Tom Hanks in Forest Gump. The class went from 8:00 until about 16:00. A long day of everything from how to maintain good credit to saving for your future and retirement. I think it's a great idea for the young bucks, but I've already been around the block a few times and everything he went over I already either knew or experienced already.

We then had to go to a baseball game. Yes we had to go, it was an order from our company commander. Mandatory fun. I thought this was a little strange that they can force us go to a baseball game. I really didn't want to go, I have a lot of homework and I'm not the biggest baseball fan in the world. We left at 17:00 in about 10 or so buses packed with soldiers from Ft. Gordon.

We watched the Augusta GreenJackets beat the Kannapolis Intimidators 3-2 at Lake Olmstead Stadium. It turned out to be a little better than I thought it would be. It was military appreciation night there and it was cool to be one of the people that were being appreciated for serving my country. It made me proud to be a soldier. Sometimes that can be overlooked when I'm dealing with a bunch of crap all the time. It was also nice to get off base and see actual civilians. We had the illusion of being free….LOL. 

The ride home was long and I was in a bus full of young guys all jacked up on Mountain Dew and sugar. By the time we got back to the company area it was 23:30. I jumped in the shower and crashed.

Overheard Quote: "I don't remember being this stupid when I was younger" (One of the older guys talking to me on the way back to the company before getting on the bus. A number of soldiers were arguing over the stupidest things)