Weekend Wrap-Up (Thanksgiving 4-Day) - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Days 173 - 176

This Thanksgiving four day weekend was just plain awesome. I had my kids with me for Thanksgiving and we enjoyed the holiday together with my extended family for the first time in years. My family has a tradition of playing bingo after we eat. Everyone brings white elephant prizes to win. It sounds like a funny tradition, but it sure is a lot of fun. Watching people open the presents which usually contain some pretty funny surprises is half the fun. I really enjoyed the time with my family, I tried to soak up every minute of it. For so long it was just a normal event, but missing everything while I was in the army has really made me appreciate how special it is to hang out with family. This was the best Thanksgiving holiday I can remember!

Weekend Wrap-Up (Thanksgiving in England) - (Germany) Day 331 - 334

I knew it was going to be an awesome thanksgiving when we were the
first family to arrive and there was already this much food out!

Thursday: (Thanksgiving Day) We slept in, then our portion of the food was prepared. We headed over to another house to celebrate Thanksgiving with 70 people! My wife is an island girl, as is her cousin of course. I noticed very quickly when I joined the army how fast island people find each other and hang out. It doesn't seem to matter which pacific island they are from, they have a special bond and when away from home all the island people seem to get together and form a surrogate family. I was of course the only white guy there, an island person by marriage :)

The meal was huge, not only enough to feed all 70 people, but feed them about 4 times over! It also had an island flair to it with lumpia, rice, and many other dishes besides traditional turkey and stuffing. It was awesome. I headed to the garage at one point and hung out with the guys, had a few beers, listened to some island music, and just chillaxed for a while. We stayed until about 0100.

In our boat heading down the river on our "punting tour"

You can see some of the other boats ahead of us.

Friday: We all slept in, which was nice after staying up late last night. I woke up and did some actual 25B work! I worked on a computer at my wife's cousin's house…LOL. We then headed out for "high tea" in a local town. The tea was brought out just like you see in little kids tea sets (although it was real and not plastic of course). Their selection of tea was pretty impressive. My wife ordered some mango/cinnamon tea (or something close to that), I ordered traditional tea, and our two hosts ordered chili tea and popcorn tea…some pretty crazy stuff going on here! We also ordered a sandwich for lunch, the tea and the food was great. 

We headed to Cambridge and checked out the city before going on a "punting tour". This is similar to a gondola tour where a guy in the back pushes you along in a boat with a long pole. He was also our tour guide giving us historical information all along the river and the university. It was pretty cool, I have to recommend checking it out if you ever spend any time in Cambridge.

We headed to McDonald's for dinner and had "take away" (to go). I had onion rings and a "Spanish Grande"…and learned the reason we don't have onion rings served at McDonald's in the US…they suck!. We then met up with some friends and watched "Expendables 2", an awesome guy movie! After that we finished up the night going to an English pub to have a pint. I had to have at least one before I left England.

Big Ben during our soggy trip to London

Saturday: Woke up early at 0600 so we could head to London. We took "The Tube" (the subway) and had to "mind the gap". This was said at each stop to remind people to watch out for the space between the train and the platform. It was kind of funny, because it was being said constantly. It was a soggy day, but we checked out all the tourist attraction sites anyway. Big Ben and Parliament, The London Eye, and Buckingham Palace. We then headed to Westfield Shopping Center. This is a huge mall and was packed full of people. So many people that I could barely get from store to store. I quickly gave up and just sat down and told the girls to meet me when they're done…it was out of control!

Sunday: Slept in and basically just had a lazy day. We hung out in the house, watched a movie and just visited all day. I did a little more computer work on their computers and also did some schoolwork…I'm a little behind because of the holiday and our trip. We left to the airport and headed back home…arriving about 2300.

Journey Into The Unknown (Korea) Day 0

The past couple of weeks have been awesome. Once I was out-processed from Fort Gordon, I spent the Veteran's Day four day weekend in Augusta with my wife which was nice. We then flew back home on different flights. Besides growing a pretty impressive beard, the two weeks after that were spent visiting friends and family. It's strange because it felt like both a long time, but too short. We pretty much had every day planned out on who we were going to see and spend time with. I am so grateful that I was able to spend thanksgiving with my kids and my extended family. We had lunch with my wife's family and then dinner with mine. I ate entirely too much food!

Each day that would pass would bring me one more day closer to leaving. It can get a little depressing thinking about being away from everyone again for so long. Dropping my kids off on the ferry to head back to their mom's house was especially emotional. We were running late to the ferry, so we had to kind of rush our good-byes. While watching them walk up the ramp and on to the ferry I felt like I got punched in the stomach. I almost broke down and cried right then and there. This has to be the absolute worst part about being in the army…the time away from my wife and kids. I really hate that. Tomorrow I will be dropped off to the airport and will have to say good-bye to my wife which will be unbearably tough as well. I'm not looking forward to that at all. We've already had a few emotional moments just thinking about it.

Tomorrow I will begin my journey into the unknown. I'll be leaving to South Korea. A country that is still technically at war with North Korea. North Korea has been in the news lately too, they recently sunk a South Korean naval ship and just in this last week North Korea rained down artillery on a small South Korean island killing and injuring marines. China is now getting involved and hopefully things will calm down. Other than the seemingly unstable communist neighbor to the north I've heard good things about being stationed in South Korea. People that have been there tell me that it's a lot of fun. I've also heard the shopping is great…although I'm not a big shopper.

I will be spending tomorrow getting all my clothes washed and packed. I'll go over my list of required items and make sure they're packed in my carry on. I'll also be copying some movies and other items from my home computer to my portable drive. I'll be trying to bring everything I'll need for a year…right now it's hard to even fathom. I will then head to the airport and get there by 9PM which will be a little over six hours before my flight out. I'll be in civilian clothes and I'll be checking in two bags with everything that I'll need for a year. I'll be in South Korea soon and then I'll be starting the post-training portion of my time in the army. Right now I'm scared…I'm excited…I'm depressed. I am a bag of mixed emotions.

Now that my leave is over I'll also be updating this journal a bit more. I'll be doing the writing, but I'm not sure how long it will take before I have internet again, so it may be a few days before I can get the updates posted.

Wish me luck….

robbijaq@comcast.net

I wish you the best of luck as well as the best of everything else.  I have been tracking your progress since the beginning and have been extremely grateful for all that you've shared.  My 18-year old son started basic at Ft. Benning around the time you were leaving there and your writings have been very insightful to me, and I can't tell you how much I appreciated them.  You assisted me in my quest to become a knowlegeable and good soldier's Mom.  I shall keep you, your wife and children and all your families (yours, your wife's and your Army family) in my daily prayers as you begin this new journey as a well-trained brave American soldier.  "Thank you" are two very small words but filled with an overflow of gratitude for you and all soldiers in all branches of the military.  Do take care.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - 05:48 AM