Got Orders - (Korea) Day 345

The start of the Seoul Lantern Festival

Work call this morning was at 0830. We had a pretty hectic morning with the usual Wednesday morning meeting in the secret conference room as well as another in the top secret conference room we had to setup for. I helped PV2 Charlie setup most of the secret conference room, then left him to finish while I helped everyone else setup the top secret conference room. Once that was all finished I went up to my office and checked my email. To my surprise I received my orders! I truly thought it would take them another couple of weeks, but I guess having our NCOIC go over yesterday helped out. I nervously checked them out to make sure they included my wife this time and the shipment of all our household goods as well as our car. Surprisingly it was all in order!

Now that I have my orders I needed to find out exactly what I needed to do and in what order I needed to get everything done, so I went to lunch with SPC Roy. We went off post to a Chinese restaurant. Chinese food is different in Korea than it is in America. Just like we alter Chinese food in America to better suit our tastes, the Korean's do the same. It was pretty good, we had sweet and sour pork and some noodles that I call "black death". They are good, but they come in this black sauce with various items in it. SPC Roy let me know what I needed to do first and so on, so it was an informative lunch. Even though I'm not technically clearing until 5 days before I leave, there are a number of things I need to get done before hand.

1st I took my orders to our company along with my leave form, a copy of my LES, and a copy of my ERB. This will start the process of getting my leave setup, because I'm doing a continuing overseas tour (COT) I get 30 days of leave that do not count towards my earned leave which is very nice.

2nd I filled out a form at the company to get the process started to get a memo that I will need to take over to our battalion in order to get the out-processing checklist. I will get an email letting me know when the memo is ready to be picked up.

3rd I took a copy of my orders to the official travel office and got my ticket back to Seattle via the Patriot Express. I then got reservations for my wife and I from Seattle to Frankfurt. It's starting to finally seem real!

There were a couple other things I wanted to do, but was unable because Special K had the office car the rest of the day. I'll get back on track next Monday since we have a four day weekend. We cleaned up the office and headed out. I went to the gym and had a good cardio workout. Later on that night our old KATUSA picked up me, PV2 Charlie and SPC Mick. We all took the subway to see the 2011 Seoul Lantern Festival. It was basically a large number of hand crafted "lanterns" all on display along a small river. These weren't just normal lanterns either. There were various characters and themes all along the river.

We then had dinner at Mr. Pizza. I've seen the signs many times, but never visited one. Pizza in Korea is a little different than pizza in America…but as I like to say…pizza is kind of like sex, even bad pizza is still pretty good. This pizza was different but tasty. We headed back to post and I spent the last part of the night doing schoolwork before turning in.

Some of the characters at the lantern festival

More of the characters at the lantern festival

A whole lotta lanterns over one of the bridges over the river

Weekend Wrap-Up (4-Day) - (Korea) Days 313 - 316

On the way up to Seoul Tower...me with a view of the city behind

Saturday: Woke up around 1000 and did my normal Saturday routine of laundry and video chatting with my wife. This weekend is a four day weekend, so I'm looking forward to relaxing and sleeping in each day. I ate lunch in my room and then met up with PV2 Charlie and PFC Pickle to hike up to Seoul Tower. PV2 Charlie hasn't left the post yet and wanted to visit the tower, so I figured I would count that as my cardio for the day.

Once we got back we split up and I met up with the young hawaiian to watch some fireworks. I'm not sure what the occasion was (either fall harvest season or the birth of the Korean nation), but there was supposed to be a big fireworks show along the river. The young hawaiian knew the park to go to and we boarded the subway and headed there. Once we made a transfer to another subway line the crowd started to gather. It was bigger than the crowd at the Linkin Park concert that boarded the subway earlier this year…and I thought that was a lot of people! There were a number of police everywhere for crowd control. It started to sink in that this was a big deal. The subway train arrived and people started to board, but they all couldn't fit and the doors would not shut, this is when the police got involved and forced the ones keeping the doors open to exit the train.

The next train came and the young hawaiian and I made it on…just barely. The subway train was so full! I've been in full subways here before, but this was unlike anything I've experienced yet. I couldn't move my arms…it was similar to being in a rock concert in the general admission section close to the stage. Just so many people squished into one place. It was pretty crazy!

A few stops later everyone departed the subway and we just followed the crowd. The streets were full of people. When I say full of people, I mean there were more people than I've ever seen in one place before…ever. In every direction I looked there were just crowds and crowds of people walking down the streets. When we made our way to the riverside park, the scene was more of the same…people everywhere you looked. We stood and watched the fireworks, which was a pretty impressive show for a little over an hour and then decided to head back. We weren't sure how long the show was going to last, but after a while it was all pretty similar stuff. We headed back and the crowd was still large, but not nearly as bad as when we came…..what an experience.

PFC Pickle, Me, and PV2 Charlie at Seoul Tower

A view down one of the streets full of people during the fireworks show

Some of the fireworks at the park on Hahn River

Sunday: The morning consisted of watching UFC 136 in the young hawaiian's room. His roommate is TDY until at least January, so he rearranged all his furniture. He now has quite the setup and it's all his room for a long time. He moved all the furniture to the outside walls and joined the two beds to make one big bed. He has a big screen TV in the middle which made a great setup for the show…which was great as always.

We then headed to Walker Hill's Paradise Casino and did the poker tournament. I have come to the conclusion that I'm not a very good poker player. I'm glad it's a free tournament. Granted I didn't get any good hands, but I lost pretty quick…it took the young hawaiian a bit longer, but he eventually lost as well. He came in about 18th place, while I was more like 50th or so. Unfortunately you have to be in the top 5 in order to win the 100,000 Won.

We headed back and got to our rooms about 1830. I watched TV shows (CSI, Falling Skies, & Survivor). Falling Skies is a new show (for me). I saw that it had Noah Wyle in it, whom I always liked in the show ER. The executive producer is also Seven Spielberg...plus it's about aliens invading earth, so I had to check it out. We'll see how it progresses.

Monday: I slept in until 1000 and video chatted with my wife for a while. The day was a pretty chill day consisting of watching TV shows, going to lunch with SPC Roy and then watching some more TV shows. I then then went to dinner with PFC Pickle and followed that up with even more TV shows. Not a lot to report on except it was a nice relaxing day.

Tuesday: I slept in until about 1000 again and video chatted with my wife for a while. I then cleaned up my room a bit, I'll save the more extensive cleaning until next weekend. I met up with the young hawaiian and we took the subway to Myeongdong. This is a shopping district that is pretty cool. There is a lot going on everywhere you look and they have a number of shops to check out. The young hawaiian wanted to do a little shopping, then we stopped and had lunch.

SPC Roy ended up calling and wondered what I was up to. He actually lives close by Myeongdong, so he ended up meeting up with us after a bit. We did a little more shopping and then had dinner together. We ate at one of SPC Roy's favorite spots and had makkoli (rice wine) with dinner. I enjoy drinking makkoli so much more than soju.

We then headed to a bar and had a couple beers. We discussed the current events with the US military and the couple of rapes that have happened. SPC Roy said the Korean news has been reporting about it a lot. What the news states though is that these guys were investigated and then the military just came in and took them away. SPC Roy said his family (all Korean) have been asking him what is going on. To the Korean's it looks like we're just taking these guys and protecting them from the Korean justice system. The news doesn't report on the trouble they are getting in with the military and the jail time they will be serving. Instead it just looks like they are being protected by the military. So of course there are a lot of Koreans that aren't too happy with the US military in Korea at the moment.

We called it a night early since it's a work night and headed back to post. The end of a nice 4-day weekend!!

Weekend Wrap-Up (3-Day) - (Korea) Days 102 - 104

Screen Golfing - SPC Roy getting ready to tee off at "Pebble Beach"

Saturday: Woohoo we have a three day weekend! We get Monday off for a training holiday I guess because we just finished the exercise. I'm so looking forward to it. My first morning didn't start off as planned. At around 0630 I hear a banging on my door, so I get up to see who's there. Some guy asks if Jane (I think) is here. I look at him and say "mum….no". Since he was in civilian clothes I didn't know if he was an NCO or if was was just a private or else I may have told him to get the heck out of here and come back at a decent hour. Turns out he found the girl he was looking for which happened to be next door. I hear them yelling back and forth. Oh great…I guess I will not be sleeping in today. The guy left and came back a few times, finally I told the person on CQ to call the MPs if he comes back.

Since I was up I did some schoolwork and then video chatted with my wife. A little after noon SPC Roy came and picked me up. He was free for the night and wanted to go have some fun. We were going to go golfing, then changed it to the driving range, and finally decided on screen golf which is basically like a big interactive video game. I had never done anything like that before, it was actually pretty fun. They set you up in a room with a couch and table and the big screen in front. You use a real club and ball, but when you hit it into the screen it shows a virtual ball travel along the golf course. It was a lot of fun. We ordered some Chinese food and played 18 holes at Pebble Beach. We both are not very good…I was 40+ over par and SPC Roy was 50+ over par for the course.

We then drove around Seoul just checking everything out. SPC Roy had rented an SUV so he could drive his family and wife's friend around earlier, now he just wanted to chill away from the office. We must have listened to the Far East Movement's "Like A G6" a hundred times! For those of you who don't know the Far East Movement, they are a bunch of Asians that have had a couple of hits on the radio. I think SPC Roy is totally addicted to them. SPC Roy wanted to hit up a bar, so we went to The Rock n Roll bar in Iteawon (my favorite bar) and heard some good rock and roll to even out the night. We played some pool, some darts and had a few beers. We then headed off to SPC Roy's apartment where we watched "The Expendables" and ordered some chicken delivery. I ended up staying there on his couch for the night.

Sunday: I woke up with a bit of a headache. I'm not sure if it was the love seat I was sleeping on, or the lack of water from yesterday. We headed downstairs to the 7-11 where SPC Roy bought me some drink that was supposed to "help my liver". We drank one before the bar last night and he said it's good to drink the next day too. I'm not sure what it was, but it didn't taste bad. Unfortunately you can't purchase aspirin or any other drugs in Korea except at a pharmacy. That sucks! Guess I'll wait 'til I get back to my room before getting some aspirin. On our way out of 7-11 we heard a big BOOM!!! I looked up and saw a guy on a scooter had just ran smack into the side of a car. The wheel of the scooter flew off and was rolling down the road, the scooter driver himself did a few rolls as well. Holy Crap!!! I can't believe that just happened!! The scooter guy laid there for a bit, then kind of sat up and started rubbing his butt. The car driver got out and checked on him. SPC Roy and I ran out to the middle of the road and started directing traffic around the accident. The scooter driver stood up for a bit, but when he heard the ambulance coming, he promptly laid back down and stopped moving around. SPC Roy said Korean's are notorious for milking the system. They will stay in the hospital as long as possible for any reason. Once the cops arrived we took off and headed back up to his apartment.

SPC Roy gave me a ride back to my room and I was able to video chat with my wife and kids for a while which was nice. I later had to turn down the young hawaiian when he called and wanted to go out. I had to work on a paper for school. I got about half of it done before I heard a knock on my door. To my surprise it was SPC Roy again. He asked if I wanted to go anywhere…do I need a driver…anywhere you want. I laughed and told him my only plans were to go to the theatre and watch a movie later. He said he was down with that and we took off, he had to go to a Korean grocery store called Lotte Mart. The place was crazy, I would have taken some pictures…but I forgot my iPhone in my room. It was like black Friday but in the grocery store. I had people hitting me with their carts, their baskets, themselves…they navigated the store like they drive here in Korea…with seemingly no rules. There were workers giving out not only samples of food, but wine and beer as well. The place was a madhouse, and SPC Roy said it's like that every weekend! That was quite an experience.

We then went and watched Rango at the movie theatre. When we got there we saw a sign that said starting April 1st due to reduced funding they will start charging us to go to the movies. That really sucks! I think that was one of my favorite things about being stationed here. The movie was cute and had me laughing a few times. It's about a pet lizard that gets thrown from a car in the middle of the desert and how he survives. It has Johnny Depp doing the voice of the lizard. This is one of the movies that I would probably not go and see if I had to pay money for it, but because it was free we checked it out. I'm going to miss a lot of movies now.

I came back to my room and then finished my paper, that was it for the night.

Monday: I finally got to sleep in a bit on Monday. I was all out of sorts this weekend. I did my laundry while video chatting with my wife, but never got around to cleaning my room. I usually do a good cleaning each weekend, but I just never got around to it this weekend. When I finally thought about it I just didn't have the motivation. I did go work out for a bit, then it was back to doing some schoolwork which wore me out, so I took a nap…lol. I woke up and headed to the movie theatre once again and watched "The Fighter" with Marky Mark and his funky bunch. It was a pretty good flick, based on a true story. It's about a boxer late in his career with a crack addict brother and a pretty crazy family. He has to deal with all of that and try to make his final run in his career. Fun to watch, but this time I was all alone. It's just not the same going to the movies alone. Sometimes when I slow down and start thinking about my wife, my kids, my friends and family it gets really lonely. I try to keep busy and hope the time will pass fast.

A quick video I made to show those who don't know how screen golf works.