Magic Tape (Life After The Army)

I’ve been heading to the local YMCA and working out with my wife pretty consistently after work every day that we can. For the most part I do a lot of walking around the rack and using light weights on the universal machines with a lot of reps. I’ve been feeling good physically, but of course the pain is always a constant. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been taking a lot of Vicodin to compensate.

My wife has been using something called KT Tape to help with foot pain after hearing about it from a co-worker and it’s helped her out quite a bit. For those of you (like me) who had never heard of KT Tape, it’s “a lightweight, comfortable to wear, and can be used for hundreds of common injuries such as lower back pain, knee pain, shin splints, carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow, just to name a few…according to the KT Tape website (http://www.kttape.com/what-is-kt-tape/)

My wife suggested that I try it on my neck to see if it helps…and so I could try and play a little basketball. Yesterday she applied it to my neck as shown on their website (http://www.kttape.com/instructions/neck-and-shoulder/) and then we headed off to the YMCA. I did my normal walking and then instead of any weights, I went down to the gym and just shot around. I have to say it felt good just shooting jump shots and layups. I haven’t touched a basketball in so long, and it used to be such a huge part of my life. I was feeling good, making shots and working up a sweat.

Unfortunately I could tell by the time we got home that something was wrong. I could feel the pain in my neck and shoulders start to come on in earnest. I had my wife rub on some cannabis cream I had, which usually does a decent job of helping out with the pain. I then took muscle relaxers and went to bed. I had a horrible night’s sleep because of the pain. I ended up getting up and taking some Vicodin…then later on I got up and grabbed an ice pack for the back of my neck. I’m not sure how much I slept, but it didn’t seem like much.

Now I’m up and moving about the day after and still in a lot of pain. I took more Vicodin and will probably end up taking it all day long because I’m in so much pain. It really sucks because I had put a lot of hope into this tape and thought for a bit that I might be able to at least shoot around off and on, but now I know that basketball…even just shooting around is something I just can’t do anymore. I know the tape works for somethings, but just not for my neck injury. Click here if you're interested in buying some to try out yourself.

It just really sucks that something I loved, something that was such a big part of my life has been taken away from me. The closest I can get is watching my kiddos play or watching basketball on TV.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Days 231 & 232

This weekend was a kid weekend, but it was pretty laid back. On Saturday we all went to Olympic College (the local community college) and watched the men and women’s basketball games. Other than that, we just hung out at home. On Sunday my girls had to head back to their house, but my son stayed another night because he didn’t have school on Monday. Since he stayed with us, we decided to spoil him a little. We took him out to lunch, then went and watched the movie “Ride Along”, and finally we went out to eat dinner for my niece’s birthday. He stayed the night with my sister so he could spend time with his cousins.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Days 189 & 190

On Saturday I took the family to see a University of Washington Huskies Men’s basketball game. We headed to Seattle and had a quick snack at a Safeway before the game and then headed to the campus and watched the game. I’ve only been to the stadium once before about 20 years ago. During that visit I came with a friend of mine who was a sports photographer for the local paper. He got a press pass for me and gave me a camera to take pictures on the floor of the court. That was an amazing experience. Today was the first time I’ve sat in the stands. While not as good as actually being on the floor to watch the game, these seats were near half court, but 3/4 of the way to the nose bleed section. Still we all had a great view of the game and everyone had a fun time. I wanted my kids to see the difference between what a junior college basketball game and a division 1 basketball game is like. The Huskies beat Idaho State which was also a plus!

After the game we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for a special dinner. It was an expensive day, when you do everything times 5 it can get spendy, but I think the experience was worth it.

Sunday was of course watching Seahawks at my in-laws. This is always fun, especially when the Seahawks win…and do a great job while doing it. We beat up on the NY Giants pretty easily. It’s an exciting time to be a Seahawks fan!

Kilt Friday - (Germany) Day 471

This morning we formed up at Campbell gym. The normal folks all played dodgeball, in fact the entire battalion was playing so there were a lot of people in the gym. Those of us on profile that didn't want to just watch, headed to the gym and worked out. I hit the stationary bike and got some cardio in.

Today was civilian clothes day. Since it is now kind of acting like spring, I wore my kilt. I bought a kilt a while ago and the entire I.T. department would wear kilts on given days at my old job just for fun. Walking around in a kilt gets a lot of people doing double takes everywhere you go, especially if you're in a workplace. It wasn't a too big of a deal because I'm in my own office and I was in there most of the time. I did my schoolwork in the morning, then headed over to the ComSec office before lunch just to check in…and mainly let the platoon sergeant see my kilt. Everyone was a little surprised…especially the platoon sergeant, but they all thought it was pretty funny.

I headed home for lunch and changed into civilian gym clothes before heading back. The battalion was having an organizational day for the rest of the afternoon. It all centered around basketball with a 3 point contest, a half court shot contest, and a 2 on 2 tournament. It really sucked watching it all because all I wanted to do was get out there and play. I would have loved to stuff my first sergeant and kick some butt on the 3 point shooting contest. I know if I would have though, I would end up paying for it by being in pain the entire weekend. So I played it smart and just watched…it was tough!

I headed out around 1500 and visited my wife at work until she got off. Now it's time to start the weekend!

Prayer & Paintball - (Germany) Day 422

The chaplain starting off the prayer breakfast

This morning I didn't go to PT, instead I headed into my office to get ready for the prayer breakfast. The chaplain and I gathered the paperwork and headed over to the German Cantina on post. There was a side room reserved for us and I setup each of the bulletins in front of each chair, then waited. The chaplain offered to purchase me breakfast, but I had already had some at home…I didn't know exactly how much time I would  have to eat, but I did grab some coffee and orange juice. When the prayer breakfast actually started only 3 people actually showed up, not counting the two chaplains, the singer and myself. I guess I didn't need to have so many bulletins printed off! The event still was nice, the singer played his guitar and sang a few songs. The guest chaplain gave a little speech about personal courage, then our chaplain said a prayer. I used my camera to take a few snapshots during the event for the chaplain, then we packed up and headed out.

I headed home, hung out with my wife for a bit then took her to work. I went back to my office and did the usual administrative type stuff until about 1100. Now it was time for the Adventures with the UMT Paintball event. We had reserved the paintball field for the soldiers to use and play paintball on from noon until 1600. We arrived along with a TMP full of soldiers from Landstuhl. Unfortunately the place said it was too cold to use their compressor to fill the guns, so we had to cancel the event. It was snowing and well below freezing, so I guess it was probably for the best. Our platoon sergeant said everyone could go to Patton gym and play basketball as a consolation. We headed over and I shot around with everyone. It felt awesome to play around again, I was in the groove nailing 3's from all over. Everyone decided to play a game called "bump", which is basically a shooting game. Two people start at the three point line and shoot, the object is to make your shot in before the person in front of you to knock them out of the game. If you miss, you can chase down your ball and still try and get it in before the other person. As soon as you make it, you throw the ball to the next person in line. This process keeps going and going until one person wins. We played a number of games and I was able to win a good majority of them, it was a ton of fun. It really made me miss playing basketball all the time.

I then went back to my office and ended up doing my schoolwork. At about 1600 I heard the HHD company was having their safety brief and then getting released for the day. The chaplain never came in, so I decided to just leave as well. My wife was at work, but still feeling pretty sick and wanted to be picked up…no problem. Not too long after I got home, I started feeling the affects of playing basketball today. I thought just shooting around wouldn't be a big deal, but I was wrong. I guess the "jumping" part of the "jump shot" really got me. My back hurt, my knee was throbbing and my head was killing me. It was one of those times I wish they prescribed me some heavy pain killers. Instead all I could take was some Excedrin, some muscle relaxer, and some scotch. I learned my lesson and I will not being doing anything like that again!

The singer offering up a little entertainment during the prayer breakfast

Shooting Around (FTX Day 9) - (Germany) Day 120

Just a general photo to show the barracks we live in. 

The building on the end is the bathroom and showers

(Due to the FTX my posts may be a little sporadic, I found out the USO offers free Internet and will be toting along my laptop and uploading posts as I get a chance)

This morning we started at our usual time of 0900, the nice thing was I didn't have to worry about how or what I was going to eat for breakfast. The bad thing was that the DFAC food just really sucked. I tried some sort of omelet in a pita bread concoction. I only took a couple of bites before I had to stop. I thought about eating the bacon, but it was very limp and was just dripping with grease. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge bacon fan...but I just couldn't bring myself to try this stuff. Luckily the DFAC also offers other items such as cereal and fruit, which I decided to have instead…I think I'll be sticking with that from now on.

The work day was somewhat productive, I started off getting all the VTC (Video TeleConferencing) machines tested and ready to go. These are basically a large screen with a camera on top used to make video calls over the Internet…similar to Skype, but this is their sole purpose and they have better quality from what I have seen. I then helped get more SIPR computers up and ready on the network. We have a lot more SIPR machines and it seemed like we had a lot more problems with them as well. We had to have "the warehouse" exchange more than a few machines because of hardware issues that we kept coming across. Each time this happened it would take extra time. The process of getting a machine working good takes a few reboots and some configuration settings, but the machines aren't the fastest. So if all goes well we get a machine up and on the network in about 10 minutes. It always seems there is something that needs to be fixed though, the network cable is bad, the video card is bad, the image is bad, the bios is locked…etc. Each of these items takes time to troubleshoot and then resolve, so it was slow going…but we did make a lot of progress. I think we should be able to finish up tomorrow, or at least get really close to being finished.

We were given MREs for lunch, which we grabbed from the DFAC and brought back to the barracks to eat. Because we are in a training area we can hear and feel the explosions of either tanks or artillery around us. It's pretty crazy because sometimes it seems as though there is a tank right outside the barracks firing. It's loud and you can feel the rumble as the windows shake.

Back at work we continued our progress and worked until about 1745. Once we were let go, my co-worker wanted me to come play basketball with him at the gym. We decided to skip the DFAC and go play, planning on eating afterwards. I didn't actually play any games, I just shot around. For one thing I'm old and out of shape and I also didn't have my basketball shoes. To be honest though I really don't care for playing with people I don't know and I don't mean to be racist here, but I especially don't care for playing with black folks when I don't know them. Their style of play is a lot different, and being the only white guy playing I don't think I would even get the ball passed to me at all. So I just shot around and my co-worker played in a few games. I'm really glad I didn't play, because I can feel my legs are sore from just shooting around…that is pitiful, I'm so out of shape!

It turns out we left the gym too late and all the places to eat on post were closed. We decided to go off post and grab a bite because we were starving at this point. We went to a little restaurant that we had a brochure for about 10 minutes away from post. The place was nice and quaint. I wish we would have stayed there to eat, I would have tried one of their family beers and watched the soccer game on the TV. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but there were about 6 locals in there all excited and watching the game.

We got back at almost 1000 and I quickly ate and then prepared for bed. Hopefully I'll get some good sleep tonight and be ready for the another day tomorrow.

Overheard Quote: "Man….I'd rather get my prostate examined than eat that shit!" (A guy in our barracks after coming back from eating at the DFAC)

Getting Pinned - (Germany) Day 109

My wife "pinning" on my new specialist rank 

during the small promotion ceremony.

This morning's PT was a run off post in civilian clothes. We ran about 4 miles into downtown Heidelberg across the new bridge and then back to post. Even though I have never cared for running in my life, I do prefer running off post with some different scenery than just running around in a circle on post.

We then came to work in civilian sports attire at 0900. Today was a sports activity day for our company and about 1100 we headed to Patton Barracks where we had a barbecue, then ended up playing basketball. I have to say that after running, a ruck march, and another run today that my legs were shot. I played in a couple of games with our Heidelberg unit vs Mannheim and then against Landstuhl. Surprisingly…or maybe not so, we lost both games..even though they were close. My legs were pretty much numb after that, so I opted out of the football afterwards.

The whole event was nice and laid back which was perfect. Everyone enjoyed themselves and had a good time. I then had to change into my uniform at 1500. They picked today to do my actual pin-on ceremony. So my wife was able to leave work early and head over. Everyone got in formation and SPC Matrix read my orders. My wife then took off my PFC rank and put on my SPC rank. Then she took off my hat with the PFC rank and placed my other hat with the SPC rank on my head. I then had to give a short speech that I wasn't prepared for, so I spattered off something about thanking everyone for being there (like they had a choice), and especially thanking my co-workers and my boss for their support.

After that there were a number of people that came up and punched me in the chest. I wasn't prepared for the first one, but after that I was ready for it. After taking all the punches everyone was free to go for the weekend.

My wife and I headed out to Mannheim to celebrate. She wanted to stop by a store and do a little window shopping then we headed to a restaurant. We used TripAdvisor to search for and find a place to eat. We decided to eat at a German restaurant and chose one called Andechser Mannheim. It had pretty good reviews at average prices…remember I'm still a junior enlisted. I love technology! We were able to find a place, read reviews, then plug the address in our GPS and head out. The food was good and I had a couple of German beers to celebrate my promotion, then let my wife drive back home just to play it safe…after we both had some ice cream for dessert.

A good day and a perfect evening with my wife. I am now officially Specialist McGuire.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Germany) Days 75 & 76

My wife and I at the USC Heidelberg basketball game

Saturday: Finally took the opportunity to sleep in…it's been way too long since I was able to do so. Once up and moving we didn't do a lot except stuff that needed to be done such as laundry and schoolwork. Once finished with that we did make a quick drive into Heidelberg in order to pick up some souvenirs to send to friends and family.

Sunday: Sunday we didn't do a whole lot until later on in the evening. We then picked up SPC JayZ at his barracks and then headed off to see the pro basketball team here in Heidelberg. I knew it wouldn't be anything like an NBA game because basketball is just not as popular here, but I thought it would be fun. Once we arrived at the game we purchased tickets in the 4th row (small venue) and then proceeded to purchase some sausages at the food stand. I had previously looked at the team's website and saw there were some Americans on the team, I remember it said one guy went to Texas Tech. The quality of the game seemed more like a college level…and I'm not talking quality division 1, but still fun to watch. The most interesting part was the fans and the atmosphere. The fans were crazy and were really into the game, it was a fun experience all around!

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!

Lots of Ballin’ - (Korea) Day 206

A photo I took a while back. Just an example of some of the funny things you see
in Korea...I don't smoke, but if I did...it wouldn't be in a toilet! :)

Work call this morning was at 0730. We had to setup for a KUB in the Eighth Army Headquarters. It is now monsoon season, so it was raining at the time we headed over there. We had to wrap everything up in plastic bags to keep everything dry while walking over there. After we setup I headed back to my computer and worked on SkillPorts until the meeting was over, then we headed back to clean it all up. That was the only meeting scheduled, so we had a pretty laid back day.

At 11:15 we headed over to the gym to play basketball. We played 3 on 3 with me, our sergeant, SPC Mick, our supply KATUSA, our air force master sergeant and Seaman. We played until 1330! I could barely walk after that. My team did win two of the three games though :) After basketball I headed to my room to shower and eat lunch. I was able to video chat with my wife for a bit before heading back to the office. I did a little more SkillPort before all of a sudden we were told we could go. We were able to leave at 1530! Wow!

I headed to my room and took a nap for a while until my roommate came back. When he got back we talked for a bit. He's been on leave for a while so I had to hear all about his vacation and his girl problems. I ate dinner in my room and then my sergeant called and told me and SPC Mick to meet him at The Navy Club. We waited about an hour for him to arrive…lol. He bought us some long island ice teas and then gave SPC Mick some news. He said "I got some good news and some bad news for you, I think you'll be taking over my job as executive assistant when I leave". SPC Mick was a little shocked and all I could do was laugh. The executive assistant is basically the secretary to the colonel in our office. We sat around and chatted for a while. Our sergeant helped the new colonel in-process today. I may meet him tomorrow.

After that I headed back to my room to do some schoolwork and relax. My legs are dead and my body is sore. SPC Mick was surprised how much of a work out 3 on 3 can be. He was walking with a little limp on the way back. I think I'll sleep good tonight.

Burning Calories - (Korea) Day 199

Walking along the far side of Han River heading towards that bridge you
see in the distance to head back to the base.

PT this morning was at 0545. We had another ruck march (with body armor and assault pack) across the Han river, then made our way along a path down the river to another bridge where we crossed back. We ended up coming back through Itaewon which looks so different in the day, I just can't believe it. The whole thing was a little over 6 miles and by the end my legs felt like rubber. We climbed up a long flight of stairs and I could see my legs moving, but I couldn't feel them anymore. When I got back to my room I was totally drenched in sweat.

I got ready and ate breakfast in my room before heading to work at 0830. It was a pretty mellow morning with no meeting scheduled. In fact we had no meetings scheduled all day long. The first thing we did was re-clean the colonel's office. We did a bit more of a thorough job this time, even taking off the glass from the desktop and cleaning underneath. The new colonel is coming in this Sunday. I then checked my email and such for a bit. Some medical folks came into our conference room to pick up a lot of their stuff they left behind yesterday. The master sergeant was grateful for the work we did (which is the same for every meeting), but she hasn't had any meetings in our conference room before. She presented us all with a coin which was a very nice gesture. Sometimes people don't even notice everything we do to try and help everything run smoothly.

Shortly after that my sergeant asked me if I was going to play basketball. Holy cow…I wasn't sure how much I would have left in me, but I went anyways. It was about 1115 and I headed to my room to change really quick. There were some guys from honor guard there as well as the air force master sergeant, Seaman, and a ROK soldier in our sister office that wanted to come. The teams turned out kind of strange with all the young athletic black dudes on one team and all the other people on the other team. I can say we beat them the first time, but their athleticism won out in games two and three. Full court can be a great workout. I think I'll go pass out now!

I headed to my room to shower and eat lunch. As much as I wanted to, I didn't fall asleep. I was afraid I wouldn't get back up. I packed up a box and a letter to ship out, then promptly left my room without them. All that working out fried my brain I guess.

After lunch each day I've been trying to set aside some time to do IMO (25B - computer stuff). Today I was able to help our NCOIC get one of her secret accounts setup. I also got ready to do some more inventory, but Special K needed me to run some errands with him. We took the office car to get dispatched (checked out for another week). We also picked up a sergeant from the command group and drove him around the post to a few places for some of his errands. Once done we dropped him off and headed to the education center. We both had copies of our college transcripts. The education center will take those and create a memo telling our S1 shop how many hours to put on our ERB. I had my Associate's degree put on it, but I didn't realize the number of hours was important as well. While I was attending the junior college I did almost twice as many courses as I needed for the degree because I just kept going after I got the degree to further my personal education. The number of credit hours you have on your ERB factor in to how many promotion points you receive, so the more the better.

This entire process of errand running and going to the education center took the rest of the day. When we got back to the office we basically just wrapped everything up and left. I had dinner in my room and then was finally able to log into the University of Phoenix website. They had some major issues the last couple of days, but it looks like everything is back up and good to go. I received a few letters during the incident assuring me they were working on it and then finally letting me know it's fixed.

I then sat back, relaxed and watched a few TV shows to wind down the night.

Weekend Wrap-Up (4-Day) - (Korea) Days 180-183

Looking up at part of Lotte World. There are a number of levels, the bottom has an
ice skating rink. On the very top there are "hot air balloons" where you can ride
around and see everything from the top down.

Saturday: I slept in until about 0900 and then did my weekly load of laundry and video chatted with my wife and kids. I also called my dad to make sure he was OK after all the tornadoes hit. I heard on the news that some touched down in Arkansas as well. He said the closest one was about 3 miles away from him and that everything has been fairly well for now. I also checked my LES and found that my separate rations finally went through. Paperwork that should have taken a week or two ended up taking 6 months. It also took me going back to the company on 4 separate occasions. Luckily I had backup copies of all the documents. I also sent numerous emails to the guy who I turned everything into the second time at our company. Finally I will not have money taken out of my check anymore, and I received back pay for the last 6 months. What a pain in the butt!!

I did some schoolwork until I got a call from the young hawaiian asking if I wanted to go to lunch at the KATUSA Snack Bar. We headed there and had a pretty good lunch (love that place…good food and it's cheap). We then walked to Itaewon and I did a little shopping. I was looking for souvenirs for family back home. I wish I had more cash, I could have spent a lot! There are so many odd shops and street vendors out selling pretty much everything you can think of and plenty of stuff you would never think of.

I then headed back to my room and started doing more homework. After a while SPC Roy came over and we went swimming. Unfortunately the hot tub was out of order, so it was only the pool with no relaxing ending. We then came back to the room to change and headed off to the Main Post Club here on post to eat dinner, have a few beers and play some pool. Pool wasn't cutting it and SPC Roy needed to scratch his ping pong itch. We headed over to the Moyer Rec Center and played ping pong for a while.

Once I got back to my room it was time for more schoolwork…will it ever end??? When I finished I watched "Bloodsport". It's a great old Jean-Claude Van Damme action movie that I hadn't seen in some time. It's about a guy who participates in the Kumite which is a full contact mixed martial arts tournament. (Kind of like an early version of the UFC, but with no rules). Ironically the bad guy in the movie is a South Korean. I also forgot the movie is based on the life story of an actual guy named Frank Dux. Pretty impressive!

The entrance to Itaewon. The place looks so different during the day!

A performance of dancers in Itaewon. I guess during the summer they
always have something going on here.

Sunday: I woke up around 0900 again and made a pit stop at Starbucks before heading to PFC Pickle's room to watch the UFC. So glad they play them for free here on AFN. It was a pretty good show with the main event of Rampage vs. Hamill. I've always been a Rampage fan after seeing him as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter. He cracks me up. He put on a good fight and beat up Hamill.

I headed back to my room and video chatted with my wife for a while before starting schoolwork once again. I then headed to the gym to work out. PFC Pickle and the young hawaiian met me there. We were going to play basketball, but they had setup the court for volleyball use…grrrrr. We decided to lift weights instead. While lifting weights a guy was in there who I in-processed with when I arrived here in Korea. He said he already found out where he'll be heading and ironically it's Ft. Lewis which is about 30 minutes from my hometown. I wonder when I'll find out where I'm going. I was told not to even ask until July 1st. I guess time will tell.

The young hawaiian wanted to go see The Hangover 2, so we all ate dinner and met up to head off post to the iPark Mall. Unfortunately when we arrived we found out it wasn't playing. I thought the young hawaiian had checked, but he just assumed it was playing. SPC Roy actually met up with us at the theatre and said "Plan B" was to go drink. So we headed to a nearby restaurant and ate some chicken and drank soju. We then headed to Itaewon only to find out my favorite bar (The Rock and Roll Bar) is closed on Sundays. We ended up in a very poor excuse of a bar called "Spy Basement". We were the only ones there and the waitress was very old, she couldn't get any of our drinks right. What's funny is two of us were only drinking beers. We played a few games of pool before heading to another bar where we had another couple of beers before calling it a night. PFC Pickle stayed the night in my room using my roommate's bed since he was gone for the weekend.

This is one bar in Itaewon that I do not want to visit...
although it may make for some interesting photos.

SPC Roy on the left and the young hawaiian on the right playing pool in "The Spy Basement"

Sometimes the bathrooms in Korea are fully functional, but they lack privacy.

Sometimes the bathrooms don't want you to put the toilet paper in the bowl...
then it gets a little stinky!

Monday: I woke up about 0830 and started to get ready. PFC Pickle and I then headed to the food court for lunch and headed our separate ways. SPC Roy rented a car and picked me up. We then headed to the office to pick up our KATUSA and SPC Mick who had to go in to turn everything on for a ROK meeting in our conference room. (This is the meeting that pissed me off a few days ago when I found out we had to come in on our days off…I get to go in tomorrow). We headed off to a theme park in the middle of Seoul called "Lotte World". The theme park is about half inside and half outside. It has a couple roller coasters, some water rides, some big drop rides as well as a number of other smaller rides. It kind of rips off Disney in a few areas…their main castle looks very similar to Disneyland's Cinderella Castle. All in all we had a good time. SPC Roy brought his young son and I helped him watch him which was fine because I had a bit of nausea. I believe this was caused by riding in the back seat on the way in (motion sickness), or too much soju last night. It was probably the combination of the two. I went on a few rides, but was happy just people watching and checking everything out…am I getting old??

When we left we headed to a Thai restaurant…that was until SPC Mick spotted a TGIF. I thought we should eat anything except American food while here, but SPC Mick was pretty excited about it. It turned out to be pretty good, and I was able to get some ice cream over a warm brownie so I can't complain. We then headed back and dropped off SPC Roy's baby. Once we were baby free we headed to have some more drinks. I actually didn't want to drink at all after last night, but I was out voted. We drank a huge pitcher of beer and or course there was more chicken ordered. (SPC Roy tells me Koreans do not drink unless they eat as well).

I got home late, but stayed up a while…..I had plenty of schoolwork waiting for me.

The trolly in Lotte World. Just like any other theme park, there are a number
of employees dressed up.

Looking down at part of the inside portion of Lotte World from the "hot air balloon " ride

Outside with me posing in front of the castle centerpiece.

Tuesday: I woke up around 0900 and video chatted with my wife. I was planning on going into work at 1000, but got a call from SPC Mick telling me I didn't need to go in until noon. I video chatted a while longer. It is my second anniversary today (well in the states, since I'm a day ahead it was actually yesterday for me). 2 anniversaries and I haven't seen my wife yet. I'm hoping the third time is a charm and I get to spend it with her.

I headed to work and opened the conference room up, then turned on the system. The meeting didn't actually start until 1300, so I actually sat around watching TV for an hour waiting for the ROKs to arrive. I could have come in around 1245 and had time to spare. Once they arrive and were good to go, I took off. I headed back to my room and had lunch while video chatting with my wife some more.

I headed to the PX and then to get a haircut, but the place was packed. Everyone decided they needed a haircut today. I left, I don't have time to sit around for that. The rest of the week they will always be at least one or two people just waiting to cut your hair as soon as you walk in the door. I headed back to my room and did some schoolwork.

SPC Roy came by and we went to the gym to play basketball. The gym was packed, so we decided to go to the bigger gym "Collier Field House". This gym is much bigger with the main court and side hoops as well. The only problem is that it's located across the post, so if I don't have a ride I never go there. We started shooting around and about a half hour later the young hawaiian came in with one of his co-workers. We ended up playing 2-on-2. They beat us pretty bad the first game. SPC Roy didn't want to play again, but I told him we needed to beat them! I got on fire and from then on it was over. I lit it up and there was nothing the young hawaiian could do to stop me. We beat them 11-2 (one point per basket). Of course we had to play one more game as a tie breaker and we beat them again pretty bad. It gave everyone a good workout and we left happy because we kicked some butt.

We celebrated by going to Pizza School and grabbing some pizza and eating in my room...an end to a pretty eventful weekend.

CPT Hooah! - (Korea) Day 143

Our KATUSA asleep in the conference control room

Work call this morning was at 0800. I woke up with a stomach that was not happy with the mixture of Makkoli, soju, and roasted duck from the night before. Even though I tried to drink a lot of water and took some aspirin last night, I still felt a little queasy. I drank some more water and then got ready for work. Surprisingly my sergeant was at work and didn't look like he was suffering too much. He even said we would be playing basketball at lunch today. I didn't really want to play, but I was hoping that I would feel better as the day went on.

I helped setup a meeting and then headed to our admin office to check on a laptop. When the help desk reset all the local admin passwords they were unable to reach a few and we wanted to research why. We figured it out and I told him he could close the ticket because I could fix the others that were still out there and needed to be fixed.

I then went to TMP our office car with Special K, but when we got to the car, the doors would not open with the remote. It turns out that Special K left the hazard lights on last time he parked the car, so the battery was dead. Special K had to get his car and we were able to jump it and get it started. After that we were able to check out the office car for another week. When we got back I headed up to my room and changed for basketball. I was feeling quite a bit better, but not a 100%. When we got out on the court I could tell my sergeant was nowhere near 100%. That soju did a number on him. We had another guy playing with us for a few games of 21. I just couldn't miss any shots it seemed. The guy playing with us was a younger very athletic black dude and he ended up stuffing me a few times, it seemed that those were the only ones I missed. I ended up winning all the games except for one. I was able to get in one good stuff on the young black dude as well which is always good.

I then showered in my room and ate lunch. After lunch I headed to visit our supply sergeant since she is on the way back. She asked on Monday if I could take a look at her email because she was having some issues. I came in and she looked at me like "why are you here". She then said she had to leave and asked if I could come back later. It was very strange, I got a really weird vibe the whole time there and I can't quite place why. Usually when I go to help someone they are appreciative, but this was just strange to say the least. Needless to say I didn't go back today.

We setup for a meeting in the secret conference room and Special K said he overheard our sergeant and the new captain talking. This new captain is all hooah hooah and Mr. Super Army Man. I’m going to call him CPT Hooah. I guess he wants to make a lot of changes. A number of things were overheard such as uniform inspections, haircut inspections, ruck marches with 50lbs going many miles. He needs to just do his paperwork job and let our sergeant handle our training. I know I shouldn't let rumors bother me, but hearing all that BS just made me lose all my motivation. I went to our conference control room and took a nap. When I woke up I installed the active directory tools on the computer up in our office there. Now I can poke around and see how things are setup as far as users, groups, and computers here in Korea.

We then cleaned up the secret conference room and the office and took off. The young hawaiian called and asked if I wanted to play basketball with him. The last few times he called I haven't been able to do anything with him, so I said sure. We met up at the gym and just as I was about to play we were invaded by a bunch of women (and a few dudes who may have been gay) for a Zumba class. I'm starting to hate Zumba…they seem to have it at all the times I want to play basketball. We left and I went back to my room to do some schoolwork and then a little reading of a book I just got in the mail. I ordered it from Amazon a while back and it finally arrived. It's called "The Fleetwood Mac Story - Rumours and Lies". I've been a huge Fleetwood Mac fan for a long time and I thought it would be cool to read a little about them. I'm hoping the book will be good.

FS Miller

Well McGuire, I have found your entries to very useful and insightful. This will probably be the last time I will be able to read your posts for about two months as I will be starting BCT at Benning very soon. If you get a chance to read my entries, I hope you find my BCT journal about as amusing as I did yours.

Saturday, April 23, 2011 - 12:33 AM

Brandon

Great...good luck at Benning. I'm looking forward to reading all about your experience.

Saturday, April 23, 2011 - 10:13 AM

One Year - (Korea) Day 128

In the parking lot near our office. An old man rides this bicycle here and
has his own little mobile car wash service. He washes people's cars throughout the day

Work call this morning was at 0800. We had to setup for the usual Wednesday meeting in the secret conference room. This is also the meeting that I run the two laptops for it. I had SPC Mick hang out with me so he could get an idea of what is done. The meeting ended a little after 1100. After the meeting was over, our sergeant, me and SPC Roy headed over to the gym to play basketball. There were a few others from various offices and we played 3 on 3. There were a couple girls playing as well. It turned out to be a pretty physical game. SPC Roy was guarding me at first and was hanging on me, pushing me, running into me and anything else he could do to try and stop me. One game I had a female sergeant guarding me and she was worse than SPC Roy! Even though she was a girl I still stuffed her every time she tried to shoot near me, you're not going to get special treatment if you're playing with guys.

After basketball we took showers and then picked up some food to go from the food court. I felt like something a little healthy, so I had Subway. We took the food back to our conference room and ate in the control room. There was another DADT meeting going on, so we could watch TV..but we had to keep it down. Evidently radiation is coming our way now from the troubled nuclear plant in Japan. Because of all the radiation that is flowing into the pacific ocean we will not be eating any seafood. I'm sure they'll say any radiation that reaches us will not cause any harm, but it is still scary. I think the government would say that no matter what so there would be no panic. I may try and stay indoors a little more…at least for a while.

After lunch I headed down to our office to setup one of the new laptops we got. I then setup a desktop up in the conference room. This will give us two extra computers now which will be nice. We will not have 5 people fighting over 1 computer. By the time I finished I was told to clean up and go home. The young hawaiian called and asked if I wanted to play basketball. I seriously considered going, but I can barely move after hiking to Seoul Tower two days in a row, then playing basketball today. I think if I would have played, they may have had to take me out on a stretcher. Instead of playing basketball I took a nap…LOL

After I woke up, I did my schoolwork and then watched a TV show. Another day down, in fact this month marks one third of my time here in Korea finished. Sometimes it feels like time is flying by, other times it can't go by fast enough. I really miss my wife and family. It kills me that I have to be away for so long. Today is actually my one year anniversary of being in the army. I've done so much in this last year. I finished basic training, an old man amongst a bunch of mainly young kids. It was tough, but also had a lot of funny parts as well. I met some good people and proved to myself that I could still physically and mentally survive. It kept me away from my wife and family for about 10 weeks, with very little contract. I was able to see my wife for a week between basic and AIT, then I was off again…alone. I survived AIT a TRADOC environment that sucked quite a bit. I hated being treated like crap and I hated being away from my wife and family for even longer. I pushed through and graduated at the top of my class…distinguished honor graduate. I also met some good people and was able to hang with my good friends PFC Metal as well as the young and old hawaiians the entire time. I think without the close friends it would have been much worse. I was grateful that I could have a phone and a laptop though. Even though I couldn't be with my family I could still talk and video chat with them…AIT was about 6 months. Once I was finished with AIT I found out that I was going to Korea…unaccompanied. WTF? I was hating life at that point. I knew I would be away from my family for periods of time, but I didn't expect to only see them for two weeks and then be away for an entire year. I've tried to make the best of being in Korea. I love the food and the people are great. I don't care for being a private. It's strange that I've been sent to school fully trained in computers only to serve coffee to generals. I'm glad I still get to video chat and talk to my wife and family, but because of the time difference it can be tough sometimes. I'm still going to try and enjoy my time here as much as possible. I'll be sad quite a bit, but I'll push through.

I've been in the army for a year. Basic was pretty much what I thought it would be. AIT was quite a bit crappier than I thought it would be. Korea has been nothing like I thought it would be. We'll see where I am in another year…At this point I don't care where I go, I'm just hoping that I'm with my wife. In one year I've seen my wife and/or family for a total of about 3 weeks! If all goes according to plan I'll be at my next duty station as a specialist in December and I'll have been living with my wife for 4 or 5 months…that sounds so good.

the wife

One day over, one more day to go.

Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 12:28 AM

mom

It makes me so sad to read your comments about being so lonely. Just know we are missing you bunches also and cant wait to have you home. Hang in there, you are doing an awesome job

Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 04:08 AM

Brandon

It can get tough being here without family. I was just reflecting on this last year since I joined. I don't think a lot of people realize the sacrifices that are made by service members. I'll keep chugging along and taking it one day at a time.

Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 10:02 PM

Damn That Zumba - (Korea) Day 120

Waiting by my room (extra mirror in the hall - only one per room)
for the sergeant major to come and have us sign for our furniture

I had no work call this morning, instead I had to attend the mandatory barracks meeting. Just like in basic and AIT the rumor mill had been in overdrive up until the meeting. My roommate thought for sure they were going to rearrange people to match the places they work. This was the most common rumor, but there were others such as each room was going to be inspected and they were going to look for contraband etc. I tried not to listen to any of this talk. I really didn't want to pack all my stuff up and move and I didn't want to have to hope for a good roommate and also get internet again instead of sharing it with my roommate.

We went to the day room where the sergeant major of housing on post came in. She said as we knew that housing would be taking over control of the barracks from the company. All this meant was that we would go to them if we have any issues. We also had to hear all the rules of living in barracks housing and sign a number of forms. We then had to stand outside our room and wait for the sergeant major to come into each room. She just did a glance around and then asked if anything was broken. We then had to sign for the furniture in our room and wait for a couple of contractors to mount a mirror on the wall, I guess we can't have it leaning like it was before. That was it, it took about an hour and a half…and I didn't have to get up early so I'm not complaining.

I headed to work and arrived after the first and only meeting of the day was over. I went to the control room and watched some NIT basketball until lunch time when I went to go play basketball for real. When we arrived though it was a big disappointment, a small Zumba class decided to reserve the gym floor and do a little dancing. Our sergeant was pissed. We did some cardio work on the elliptical machines and then I did some weights. After that the Zumba folks had left so SPC Roy and I played some one on one. I beat him pretty easy every time, but we both got a sweat going.

We went back to my room and showered, then went to Quiznos for lunch where an older guy happened to come in with a Seattle Mariners jacket on. I asked if he was from Seattle and we chatted back and forth for a bit. He said he can't wait to head back so he can watch a game or two. I told him I never like to watch on TV, but I don't mind seeing a game live. He assured me that when I get older I'll like it…because it's slow. Hmmmmm…I still don't think so.

We went back to work and I was able to finish my SkillPorts for the week. This is good, one less thing to worry about. We cleaned up and left a little after 1600, but not before our sergeant called us all in his office to see if we were all doing the thrift savings plan (kind of like the army's 401K). Everyone was except for me. It's not that I don't believe in it, I think it's a great tool for soldiers to help build up their retirement plan. I just never signed up for it because I needed all the money…but I guess it's always that way. The new guy SPC Mick is saving 20% of his check! Very impressive! I told the sergeant I was thinking about it after the GI Bill stops coming out of my check, which is next month. He said he wants to see my paperwork once I sign up. I'll have to sign up and start small, funny thing is that I probably have more in my current retirement accounts than all of them combined.

I came back to my room and just could not keep my eyes open, so I took a small nap before doing some schoolwork and then just relaxing. I decided to watch an old movie…Rambo: First Blood. What an old flick and I haven't seen it for years. It was still entertaining after all these years. Blood, guns, knives…you can't beat it. I had forgotten a lot of the movie. John Rambo a former green beret gets his rights trampled by a local cop and then gets thrown in their little jail. When a cop tries to shave him he freaks out and busts out. After a big man hunt and a number of injured cops later, he finally turns himself in with the help of his old colonel…but not before he basically destroys a little quite town.

the wife

You guys should of gotten your Zumba on. Bet you would of got a good sweat going... just saying.

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:16 AM

mom

I agree with the wife, Zumba would have been a lot more of a workout than basketball. Go for it and try to keep up, lol

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 04:34 AM

Brandon

LOL...I don't think so

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 09:16 PM

Back to Ball - (Korea) Day 119

Celebrating Seaman's birthday! Seaman with the ceremonial birthday
candle and his ice cream with our colonel to the left and our sergeant to the right

Work call this morning was at 0800, a bit earlier than our usual time…but still not too bad. I was still able to get up and get ready, then video chat with my wife for a bit. When I got to work I helped our KATUSA finish setting up for the first meeting. I then flipped slides in the control room. It was a KUB meeting and took an extremely long time. I ended up having Special K take over for me because I had to go play basketball during our lunch break.

Basketball was pretty good. I was a little worried since I haven't done anything for a week except be sick. I still have a cough, but I didn't let that stop me. We had SPC Roy, our sergeant, our air force master sergeant, Seaman from the admin office and a sergeant from the command group upstairs. Got a good sweat going and my team won two out of three. After basketball I showered in my room and then went to the PX with SPC Roy to get a birthday card for Seaman. When we got back to the office we also picked up some ice cream from the Sweat 'n Treat which is almost next door. I put the ice cream in the fridge and the card in the plastic shopping bag on my sergeant's desk. (more on that in a second)

I then logged into a computer and updated the events calendar. I then let SPC Mick use it while I was logged in, so he could complete the required IA training. You have to complete the training in order to be able to log into the network here, but in order to complete the training…you have to have a computer with internet access. I then went with SPC Roy to the company to turn in some paperwork and while we were out we looked around for his new office that he'll be moving to. We may or may not have found it, just not quite sure.

When we got back SPC Mick finally finished his training and printed out his certificate. Our sergeant then asked me where I put the birthday card. I told him it was in the bag on his desk. He said he threw it away as there was nothing in it. So me and our KATUSA had to start looking through all the garbage because we had already gathered it all up for the day. A few minutes later we find out that Special K had already removed it from the bag and had everyone sign it. D'oh! So they call Seaman down to our office and we all sing happy birthday to him. He got the ceremonial candle along with the card and ice cream.

After that our sergeant gathered us all in his office. First he asks me if I enjoyed basketball today…I look at him a little funny and say yes…except for the excessive coughing. He then goes on to say that I dunked over him…then he revises it and says I snuck around him and dunked. I would call it more of a tip in on a missed shot where my fingers were on the rim than a dunk. He said after I did it I turned and looked at him…like yeah boy! I don't quite remember that, but I think he may give me a few more lowered shoulders and hard drives next time we go out there. Our meeting continued and he went on to state that we are all doing a great job. We will be doing a PT test soon and when June 1st comes there will be a lot of changes army wide. He wants to make sure we all succeed and wants to push us to do the best we can. It was basically a pep talk, but also a reality check letting us know that we are in charge of our destiny and we need to make sure we do what we can in order to get promoted. Most of it was for the Specialists there because there is not much I can do except wait.

I headed back to my room and did schoolwork as usual. There was no time to do SkillPort at the office, so I did one in my room. I then cleaned up a bit. My side of the room is clean, but my roommate's is still a mess. I guess Housing is taking over control of the barracks tomorrow from our company. They will come in and do an inspection and then have us re-sign for all our furniture. I hear our 1st sergeant is going to be here and I don't want any extra attention on our room. I'm hoping my roommate does a little before tomorrow. Everyone else in the office has a work call of 0630, but I have to be at my room at 0800…so I'll not be going in that early, I'll be waiting until everything is finished with my room.

Sweat it Out - (Korea) Day 112

This post and the next few posts are being updated a little late, I had been so sick during this week that I just couldn't stay up to update the blog. I should be back up to date by the end of the weekend.

Work call this morning was at 0800, still too early when I'm feeling this bad. I walked to work with my bag of over the counter medications. I felt a little better than yesterday, but still pretty sick. When I arrived at work I took over flipping slides for a KUB that was going on so Special K could go run an errand.

After the KUB I cleaned up and then then did some SkillPorts. I really didn't want to do much of anything, but we have to have 5 SkillPorts done each week…so I really don't have a choice. I then did something a little stupid…I went and played basketball during lunch. I thought maybe I could sweat out the sickness. (It didn't work) I was hacking and coughing the whole time.

I was able to head over to S1 to try and get my ERB updated now that I had my actual A+ and Network+ certificates printed out. When I arrived I started signing in as I have in the past, but I was quickly stopped and told I need to have a "customer service sheet" filled out by my company before I can sign in and get my ERB updated. Really? I've never had to do this before. So I walk over to the company and request a sheet, fill it out and head back over to S1. I then sign in and a PFC helps me out. I ask him if he needs my little customer service sheet and he says no. That was a waste of time. Anyway I got my ERB updated and was good to go…. I'm official now.

Our office got an invite to go on a trip to Jeju island. I guess it's the "Hawaii of South Korea". The price was very inexpensive, but when I checked it was during the same week I plan on attending my IMO class. Bummer. I think I would have enjoyed that trip.

When I got back to my barracks after work I was feeling pretty sick. I figured the best thing I could do was to go to bed early, so I let my roommate know and crashed about 2000

What The French - (Korea) Day 108

A photo I took earlier this year of Special K asleep in the office...lol

Work call was 0830 this morning. I arrived as usual a little early at about 0815 and was immediately sent up to our conference room to get everything started up and ready for a meeting. I went up and got everything started up including the TV so I could watch a little NCAA basketball, you know it's March Madness time. I sat for about 20 minutes watching the game before a ROK soldier came with a couple of laptops to hook up. I helped him get those up and projected on the screens, then I sat back and watched some more basketball. During any ROK meetings we have to have a person stay in the control room to make sure nothing goes wrong and also to make sure they don't mess with any of the settings. I guess they are notorious for messing up our equipment in there. So it didn't bother me any, I just sat back and watched basketball the entire time. At about 1115 SPC Roy came up with my bag so we could change into basketball clothes for our lunch PT. We changed and waited for the meeting to end which was about 1145. We quickly cleaned up that meeting and then setup for the next one that was going on at 1230, then took off to the gym.

We played basketball again, but this time it was a bit shorter than usual. After a few games SPC Roy accidentally stepped on a sergeant from the command group. It twisted the sergeant's ankle pretty bad and he couldn't play anymore. So I got a good sweat, but didn't die like I thought may happen. I need to play everyday to get back into basketball shape, but it's going to kill me for a while.

SPC Roy and I went back to my room and took showers, then went to Taco Bell for lunch. For some strange reason they don't sell my favorite item here any more…volcano tacos. The do however sell volcano nachos which I decided on. We then ran to the KATUSA snack bar to pick up a to go lunch for our sergeant.

When we got back I headed back up to the conference room and watched more basketball. I had to sit back there again and make sure everything went OK for a KUB (Korean Update Brief) meeting for a bunch of French folks that were visiting. Well actually I believe they were called The French Institute for Defense or something like that. They came in and had on their funny hats. SPC Roy was at the door and said as they walked by he almost threw up because they all really stunk. These KUBs are given to various VIPs and government officials to basically give them the lowdown of North and South Korea. Since we are actually the United Nations Command here we do get people from various governments around the world, but from what I’ve seen it’s usually folks from the American government. The meeting lasted until a little after 1700, then we finally cleaned up and headed down to our office.

We turned in our 3 SkillPorts each to our sergeant, only Special K turned in 5! Our sergeant said that is now the new standard, we all have to turn in 5 from now on. That's fine if we're not busy, but when we are busy and I have school work at night it's going to be tough. It also means that instead of doing longer harder ones, we'll be doing the shorter easy ones just to get a certain number of completions.

When we were about to leave we were stopped at the front door by security. I guess there were some suspicious bags left in the parking lot and the MPs were called to check it out. It was probably some of the French folks. I was able to leave because I could walk the other way, but Special K and SPC Roy had to sit and wait because their cars were parked out there…..bummer.

When I got back to my room I took a nap, I wanted to be able to do some schoolwork but just couldn't keep my eyes open. After a quick nap I was revived and worked on our final group paper that is due on Monday. I then watched Mad Max (3) Beyond Thunderdome in order to finish the trilogy. I hadn't watched it in so long that I totally forgot about the midget and some of the other stuff that was in it. It has Tina Turner in it as well as Mel Gibson once again. There isn't too much driving in this one and it has a little more humor. Set in the future after nuclear war, Max ends up helping a group of kids who are survivors of a plane crash. Out of the three movies in the trilogy, I would have to say that number two "The Road Warrior" is the best.

I ended up staying up late enough to video chat with my wife before going to bed…that's always a nice way to end the day :)