Weekend Wrap-Up - (Germany) Day 430 - 431

A photo of Löwenburg castle from the side...after I climbed up a small hill

This weekend we decided to finally get out of the house for a while. With the crappy weather and sickness, it seems like we keep spending each weekend at home. I made a list of various places that I want to visit while we're here in Germany and picked one from the list. We ended up taking a road trip to the city of Kassel, which resides at the edge of our 150 mile radius that we're allowed to travel without a pass. I read an article about some of the best castles to see in Germany and Löwenburg Castle was one of them. Löwenburg Castle happens to be located in the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe. This park is huge with the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe (a palace filled with antiquities and arts) at one end and the Hercules statue standing at the top of the hill. Everything in between is filled with various trails, water, and a Roman aqueduct. The Löwenburg Castle is located within this park and we checked out all the scenery taking pictures all over the place. We arrived at the castle and purchased the tour, which is the only way to see the inside. Even though the tour was all in German, I understood enough to get the basics. It was also pretty apparent what was what, just by looking around. We had to pay an extra 5 Euro in order to take pictures as well, but I figured we'll only be here once…we might as well get some pictures while we're inside.

The trip was pretty cool and I look forward to doing more things like this before we leave Germany. I got a call on Sunday telling me that I have a PT test tomorrow. Thanks for the advance notice guys. Usually we know a week or two out. I usually eat a little better and drop a few pounds to get under the weight limit, but not this time. This will be the first time I actually have to get taped…unless I magically lose a few pounds while sleeping tonight. I'm a little pissed off that they are even making me take a PT test. I'm on my way out via the medboard process and only giving me a night's notice is crappy too. They will only get the army minimum standard tomorrow when I take it. It's just a bunch of BS!

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Weekend Wrap-Up (Frankfurt & Heiligenberg) - (Germany) Day 222 & 223

A view from the Main Tower of Frankfurt and The Main River

Saturday: This morning we got up with the plans to head to Frankfurt for a day trip. My girls have been staying up late watching movies and texting with their friends back in the states, so when I tried to get them up and they didn't budge, so we just left them. We took my son and headed off to Frankfurt. I've told my girls over and over again not to stay up late, they can chat with their friends all they want when they are in the states…why not take advantage of everything they can while here in Europe?

So my wife and I headed off with my son to Frankfurt, which is about an hour drive from Heidelberg. We first headed to the "Main Tower" in the middle of the city. This skyscraper is 200 meters, the building is pretty high and is very "visitor friendly". We purchased tickets for 5 euro each to take a ride to the top via an elevator. We were granted spectacular views of the entire city of Frankfurt and the Main River.

Our next destination was the Frankfurter Dom (the Frankfurt Cathedral), but along the way we ran into an Italian festival in full swing. There were plenty of vendors and music going on, so we stopped and had lunch. We then proceeded to the cathedral and checked that out as well as the Roman ruins outside of it.

After that we headed down to the river where they had a sort of carnival going on. There were vendors and rides all along the river. We checked everything out, my son played a few games and we all went on the ferris wheel. After that, we called it a day and started to make our way back to the car and then back home…a fun day had by the three of us.

The night consisted of "cosmic bowling" at the PHV bowling alley. By this time my girls were up and about and came with us. We met up with SPC Whirlwind and bowled from 2100 until after midnight. I say we, but most of us quit after the third game…then everyone except my son quit after the fourth game. My son continued to bowl six more games before we finally left!

Street performers in Frankfurt

Sunday: Today we slept in, then had a big breakfast before heading out to "philosopher's way" in Heidelberg. This trail is long and offers many scenic views of the city of Heidelberg as well as the castle and the old bridge. We hiked up to "Thingstätte" the Nazi amphitheater at the top. This was built in 1935 by the Nazi party and was used for rallies and festivals. It's an amazing structure still and has great acoustics. We broke out our picnic basket and had lunch, but the most requested item was water…everyone was pretty thirsty after the long hike.

Not too far above the amphitheater is the ruins of St. Michael's Monastery. This place was built in 870! The place is pretty cool to walk around, and you can still climb up a couple of the small towers that are still standing to get an aerial view of the ruins. The top of the tower seemed to be the place to hang out and relax as there were a few German kids just hanging out up there talking on the phone and relaxing.

We made the trek down the hill (which is called Heiligenberg) and back to our car parked in a garage back in the altstadt (old city) of Heidelberg…of course on the way we stopped for ice cream and enjoyed the various street performers along the way back. I love just walking around the altstadt on the weekend….lots of people and things to look at.

A view of the Heidelberg Castle along with the old bridge 

and altstadt from Philosopher's Way

A view from the top of the "Thingstätte" a Nazi amphitheatre

A view from one of the towers looking down at one of my 

daughters and my wife exploring the ruins of "Klosterruine St Michael" 

(Monastery of St. Michael)

Weekend Wrap-Up (4-Day) - (Korea) Days 360-363

I'm finally together with my wife once again!!

Thursday: we woke up about 0800, but didn't get out of bed until 0830. Headed to get some coffee at Starbucks and then started getting ready for the day. It's so nice having my wife here with me. I'm loving every minute of it. We met up with SPC Mick, PV2 Charlie, and our new KATUSA. The army major in our office invited everyone over to his house on post for a nice Thanksgiving day meal. Our NCOIC showed up as well as the other officers in our office...and even our old KATUSA. It was an awesome meal and the generosity of of the army major was much appreciated. Everyone enjoyed themselves and everyone left extremely full.

We took the post shuttle back to The Dragon Hill and ended up just relaxing for the rest of the day in the room.

Friday: We woke up and headed downstairs and had the breakfast buffet. We then headed off to catch the bus for the "Black Friday" tour I signed us up for. We headed out to Osan for a day of shopping right outside of Osan Air Force Base. The shopping there is amazing with a number of small shops and businesses selling everything you can imagine. My wife had a great time looking through all the shops. We ate lunch at a Brazilian grill, which was just great. It was an all you can eat meat fest! The servers kept coming to our table with various barbecued meat and kept piling it on our plates. We left extremely full!

The tour was scheduled from 1000 to 1700, but we ended up getting back at around 1800. We ended up just relaxing in our room after that.

Saturday: We ate breakfast in the buffet at the hotel, then went to The Point and worked out. If that wasn't enough we then hiked up to Seoul Tower. Seoul Tower is a tourist attraction for lovers, so I came prepared with a padlock complete with our names and date written on it to lock on the fence at the top. The fence is loaded with a ton of "locks of love" which we attached ours to and then threw the keys over the edge to symbolize how we will always be in love. Kind of corny, but it was sweet and I think I scored some points with my wife :)

We hiked back down and met up with the young hawaiian for dinner at a local Korean restaurant he liked. The food was delicious and we sat for what seemed like hours just chatting about everything. I'm going to miss him and a lot of others here that have kept me sane during all this time away from my friends and family.

We took the stairs up to Seoul Tower...that's a lot of stairs!!

Sunday: We had the breakfast buffet once again in the hotel, then we walked to my barracks so I could show my wife where I used to live. We visited PV2 Charlie so she could see an actual room. Even though it was well after noon, we still woke him up when knocking on his door…lol. Ooops! We then took the subway to Myeong-dong which is yet another shopping area in Korea. I wanted to make sure my wife experienced riding on the subway in Korea. I also wanted her to experience Myeong-dong which is a little overwhelming. It's basically an outdoor mall with just a ton of stores and street vendors. There are characters dressed up walking around and the streets are full of people. The trip was a success and my wife also has a new wardrobe!

We then headed back to The Dragon Hill and headed to the hot tub. Our muscles were sore and we were tired from all the walking and hiking we've been doing. We've walked all over since first arriving on post, so the hot tub felt great! We then ate dinner at Bentley's which is a little pub in The Dragon Hill Lodge and always has some sort of special going on each night. Tonight's special was 3 pulled pork sliders (mini-sandwiches) for only 99 cents. You just can't beat that! I would recommend anyone that has to stay in Yongsan to check out the nightly specials there, I found out about them a little too late or else I think I would have been there every night for the last year!

Looking down at one of the intersections in Myeong-dong

Eating a big ice cream cone from a vendor in Myeong-dong

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!!

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.

Eye Check - (Korea) Day 197

The Garrison Flags up for the change of command ceremony. There was just never
a big enough gust of wind to get all three flags up at once.
(South Korea, United Nations, & of course the U.S. flags)

We had PT this morning at 0545 and hiked to Seoul Tower with our body armor and assault packs on. It seems like every time we go up we find another way to get there. This time we actually hiked up trails instead of using any paved or padded paths. It was a lot quicker, but it was also a lot tougher…a good workout! On the way back our sergeant bought us all a kimbap for breakfast.

Everyone had work call at 0830 except for me, I had an appointment to see the optometrist at 0815. When I arrived I only had a short wait and then a KATUSA did the initial exam on me. An LTC then took me back to his room and did a more thorough exam. I guess the machine the KATUSA used wasn't very accurate for me. It also turns out the exam I received in basic ended up giving me a prescription that was a little too strong for me. The LTC did an exam the old fashioned way and was a very nice guy. I got my prescription and ordered my glasses which should arrive in 4 or 5 days. The frames they had were decent and I was extremely happy with the service. I didn't know what to expect because I think with military health care it can be hit or miss. So far every time I've done anything it's been in a TRADOC environment and it hasn't been a very good experience.

I arrived back to the office shortly before a change of command ceremony was about to start, so Special K and I hung out at the entrance to stop any cars that tried to get in during the ceremony. (Just one of my many side jobs here…directing traffic). I then headed up to my computer and worked on SkillPorts until lunch.

Lunch was in my room and I was able to video chat with my wife. It's always nice to see her and chat. I really can't wait to go back on leave! I headed back to the office and did a little IMO work. I setup our new NCOIC with her new computer. Mapped our shared drive for her and gave her permissions to access it. I also did the inventory for our supply office. I had planned on doing our protocol office as well, but supply took longer than expected. I'll try protocol tomorrow. I then had to figure out the procedure to wipe a blackberry for our new colonel that is coming soon. It turns out he pretty much has to be here in order to do much, so I guess I'll be doing that next week.

I worked on SkillPorts a little before calling it a day. I only finished 3 or 4 today, but that does put me over the "10+" limit that we now have each week. I turned on the TV and watched MTV Hits. This is kind of unique with AFN I believe. They actually play a segment for an hour or so of just music videos from MTV. There are no stupid "VJs" or cutting off videos before they finish, just a few videos with some normal commercials, the way MTV used to be back in the day when they actually played music.

We then cleaned up and took off for the day. I headed to the PX to pick up some last minute stuff to mail. I then headed to my room and relaxed. I take Tuesday off from school and just watched TV shows and one movie…."Bloodsport 3". This is a total B movie…maybe even a B- because the story line is just so bad. It has the same actor as in Bloodsport 2, but the acting seems to be even worse with everyone. The Kumite does take place and the fighting scenes are OK, but it seemed as even these were not as good. The basic storyline is that the main character's teacher gets killed by the host of the Kumite, so to get revenge the main character trains and wins it. I really wouldn't waste your time watching this one unless you are a diehard bloodsport fan.

Bringing Up The Rear - (Korea) Day 148

The hike down from Seoul Tower this time of year is not too bad...lots of trees
in bloom. (Our KATUSA, our sergeant, SPC Mick, and the LT leading the way)

We had to meet for PT this morning at 0535 in front of the office. As my little sister would say…"That is the butt crack of dawn". We had to wear our full body armor with plates as well as an assault pack which I had packed with 4 liters of water. We headed off to Seoul Tower once again with the normal crew from our office as well as an LT from some other office…I'm not sure where. The pace was much quicker than previous hikes and we soon started to break into two different groups with me and my sergeant bringing up the rear. We made it to the top and rested a bit, then proceeded to head back down. Keeping up with everyone on the trip down was no problem…lol. It was a great workout, I could feel every muscle in my body all worn out. In fact my legs felt like jello pretty much the rest of the day.

At the end of the hike our sergeant bought everyone breakfast at a local Korean store. We all had "kimbop". It's a popular Korean food made from steamed white rice and various other ingredients such as meat & radish all rolled up in seaweed. It is then cut up into bite size pieces. We each received two of them. Since we had a meeting, we took them to go and headed off to shower and get ready for work. We setup a meeting in our conference room and then I had a chance to sit down and eat my breakfast. It may sound a little strange, but it's actually pretty good.

I spent the rest of the morning working on SkillPorts and then headed out for lunch in my room. I was able to video chat with my wife for a bit before heading back to work to do some more SkillPorts. We then setup for a ceremony which is usually a pretty easy thing, but this time it turned into a mess. An air force general was the host and we didn't have a flag for him…or at least we didn't have one on a pole ready to go. We contacted the honor guard to have them get one for us and they were taking forever. The brass started to get nervous and freak out a bit. I had to go check with the honor guard once again to get the status on the flag, CPT Hooah! got on the phone and used his rank to try and persuade them to move faster. All this time the deadline of the meeting is getting closer and closer. The air force brass at this point are sweating bullets wondering what's going to happen without their general's flag in the front. During all of this Special K was in the back with some duct tape and the flag we did have. He was able to rig up the flag redneck style and it worked. We got it up with about 5 or 10 minutes to spare. Then came the honor guard a couple of minutes before the general was about to walk in with the flag. After all the harassing they got about getting it, they were then told we don't need it anymore. LOL. I know that corporal was pissed, but they were just too slow.

We then were told that the company decided to move the PT test to tomorrow instead of Thursday. Since we just did the big hike today, our sergeant said we will not be doing it. We'll now be doing it sometime in May. I later told him that I'm trying to go home and I need to get this done. He said he would try and get a special PT test so we can do it a bit earlier. We'll see how that goes.

We then cleaned up and left the office. I headed over to the PX to get some supplies for my TV (cable and a power strip). I then headed to the food court for dinner and some downloading. As I was sitting there a guy in my barracks sat down and started talking with me. He's leaving at the start of June and is starting to wrap things up here. He was actually SPC Short's roommate when he first arrived here in Korea. Turns out he has a German wife and he knows a bit of German. So we had a little conversation in German. We then headed back to the barracks and he let me go through his DVD collection to borrow before he leaves.

When I got back to my room I tried to hook up my TV, but to my despair I found out that the TV was purchased here in Korea. They use a different plug in here in Korea (except on post of course), so I was unable to get it all hooked up. I now have to see if it's worth getting the necessary equipment to make this work. Grrrr.

Overheard Quote: "I tell my wife I don't mind if her ass knocks the lamp of the table" (SPC Short's old roommate stated this after talking about how he doesn't care if his wife gets big and fat)

A photo of my Kimbap, I ate two of these logs for breakfast today.
Good stuff...and healthy too!

SPC Mick doing some push-ups because a letter he received had
stickers all over it. (I may have mentioned that we had to do
a number of push-ups in basic for every sticker that was on a piece of mail...lol)

Hiking & Bonding - (Korea) Day 142

Our group at one of the first breaking points during our hike.

Work call this morning was at 0800. We had our normal weekly Wednesday meeting in the secret conference room. I ran both the unclassified and the secret laptops for the meeting. I finally got my account all setup and straightened out, so I can now log into the secret network without issues. It's about time…I've only been here for over 4 months now.

After the meeting I headed back to my room to change. My sergeant had volunteered me and himself to go on a hike with the ROK sergeant major. The ROK sergeant major put together a hike with half US soldiers and half ROK soldiers from various offices. We were told we would be leaving around noon and getting back around 2000. Holy cow!

We boarded a bus and went for a long ride through the city of Seoul. I am starting to think it's the city that never ends! We drove for about an hour and a half before we finally reached our destination "Bukhansan National Park". The hike started off with a very steep incline and I was a little worried that it was going to be a long tiring day. Once the first initial climb was over however it turned into a very nice hike. There was plenty of scenery with lots of gorges and peaks to check out. It's also spring time, so the trees and flowers all added to the experience.

We stopped a few times for some pictures and some speeches by the ROK sergeant major about this bonding experience. It actually was pretty cool to get out and see folks away from work. I learned there is a ROK military unit that is stationed in this area and does a lot of mountain training. We could actually hear them echoing through the mountains.

At the end of the trail our bus was waiting for us and we all boarded for a short trip to a place that had a sauna. The ROK sergeant major invited everyone in, but I think only Koreans ended up going in. There is something about getting naked and sweating next to a bunch of dudes that Americans just don't get. We were near either a training area or housing area that was created for the 1988 Seoul Olympic games which was pretty cool. When the ROKs all got out of the sauna we all went to a restaurant. We sat on the floor...traditional Korean style as a big group. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to get back up! The ROK sergeant major paid for everything. We had dinner, makole & soju along with roasted duck and kimchi. We cooked the duck ourselves a the table, very similar to the Korean barbecue I've had before with the lettuce to wrap it up in and the sauce to dip it in. It was all very good. I had only planned to drink a couple glasses of makole, but there were a number of toasts and some of them were mandatory soju toasts. It was all a lot of fun and a pretty good bonding experience. In fact it may have been a little too good. There was a Korean dude next to me that said my eyes were beautiful. He assured me he wasn't gay, but throughout the night I got a couple shoulder rubs and a pat on the butt while going pee in the bathroom. He's a little suspect…but I'll chalk it up to different cultures for now.

My sergeant was feeling extremely good by the end of the night, in fact he needed some help getting off the bus and back to his house. Luckily a sergeant from the command group was able to give him a ride. I went back to my room and spoke to my roommate and his friend for a while. I was sure to tell them all the new bad Korean words that I learned….lol.

Me standing in front of the scenic peaks in the distance

Me and some more scenery

My sergeant posing next to a big rock

During our hike

Some of the remnants from the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul

The ROK sergeant major giving a little speech during dinner

One of the many toasts that were made today. All the bowls are full of Makkoli

Hike To Seoul Tower...Again - (Korea) Day 141

Before our hike up to Seoul Tower. From left to right...
our KATUSA, Special K, & SPC Mick

We had to report in front of the office this morning at 0530 for PT which was a hike up to Seoul tower and back. We wore our body armor (without the plates) and assault packs full of crap. I had two 2 Liter bottles of water in mine along with some other miscellaneous items to fill it up. It was a pretty good work out.

When we got back I headed to my room and got ready for work. I was able to video chat with my wife for a bit and then arrived at work by 0900. The help desk was finally able to reset the local admin passwords for all our machines, so now I can finally get some work done. I started in the admin office by installing Adobe Acrobat Pro on all the new machines. The versions they gave me were all upgrades, so when it came time to start them up they wanted an older serial number to verify that an older version is owned. None of the numbers they had typed out on a little piece of paper would work. Grrrr. Luckily they did have one full version (non-upgrade) that I was able to install on all their machines. What a pain in the neck.

SPC Roy called and wanted to go to lunch. We met up and went to the food court. He's loving his new job. They focus a lot more on PT because they have a regular schedule which he needs. He said PT was really tough this morning as they carried a litter (a stretcher) with a person on it. They had to run all over and carry it all sorts of ways.

When I got back we setup for a meeting in the top secret conference room. I then checked my email and updated the events calendar. So many things are duplicated and done so stupid here it can drive me nuts. There are a number of events calendars that are created for various purposes among a number of labor intensive time consuming projects that have to be done quite a bit. I then put in a couple of help desk tickets to get some problems fixed. Since I'm the alternate IMO I am one of the few people that can now put in these tickets.

We then cleaned up the top secret conference room and then cleaned up the office. Unfortunately we couldn't leave because there was a ROK meeting going on in our conference room and we had to stay until they were done so we could shut everything down and lock up. It was almost 1800 by the time they left.

After I got to my room and changed, I decided to treat myself to a Baskin n' Robbins 31 below (Oreo flavored). I also brought my laptop and downloaded some entertainment.

Hiking PT Part Deux - (Korea) Day 127

A snapshot from RunKeeper showing the path we hiked down from 
Seoul Tower to our office on post.

Work call this morning was at 0630, not because of any meeting but because of some mandatory EO training we had to attend. Me and SPC Mick arrived at the office at 0630, picked up the office car as well as SPC Roy who just arrived in the parking lot. We drove to the movie theatre on post which doubles as the training center during the day for any training events. We watched some PowerPoint slides and learned all about "POSH" (Prevention of Sexual Harassment). The army is obsessed with acronyms, they use them for everything it seems. Half the time when I'm updating the events calendar, I have no idea what its for because all the titles are only acronyms. The training lasted only an hour, but was scheduled for two…so we were let out early. The best news I saw while I was at the theatre had nothing to do with sexual harassment though, I saw that they pushed back the free movies for a month. This means we get free movies through the month of April…that is good news.

When we arrived back at the office we had to setup for another meeting. Speaking of acronyms…this one was DADT. I had no idea until today it was for the removal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy that has been in effect. I guess we can ask now...and people can tell. This particular meeting was for the air force, I'm sure the army version will be coming soon.

After setting up for another meeting in another conference room I had a little free time to finish one SkillPort. I then went to lunch with SPC Roy and had Burger King of all things. I usually don't eat there, but a hamburger just sounded so good. Sometimes you just have to indulge. I ended up getting the burger, but I refrained from getting a milkshake…which took a lot of willpower.

When we got back I was asked to help bring back the new computers from being imaged. I was also asked to stay and help out so we can get them all setup. All of a sudden I get a call…it's an emergency. What's the emergency? They need my help to clean up from one of the meetings. This has to be one of the most frustrating parts of my job here. They give me a lot of lip service about having me help out doing anything computer related (i.e. 25B work), but there never seems to be any time for me to do so. After we finished cleaning up for the meeting we ended up leaving the office to change for another hike today. We started to run some other errands, but were called back to work to change some audio visual settings in our conference room for another meeting that was scheduled at the last second.

Once we finished with all that we headed out for the hike. This time we left with a KATUSA from some other office, a sergeant I had never seen before, our sergeant, SPC Roy, SPC Mick, and myself. It seems there are many ways to get up the hill to Seoul Tower and we took a different route up and a different route down than yesterday. I found out when we were at the top that my iPhone app “RunKeeper” actually works without my cell phone service on. I didn't think the GPS worked, but low and behold it does. So I was able to use it to track our decent. It took longer than normal because of a smoke break and a bathroom break for the unknown sergeant, but it was kind of neat to see the path on a map.

After the hike it was about 1730 and I headed back to my room. I was able to do what has become my nightly ritual…schoolwork, then watch a movie. Tonight's movie was Rambo 4…the last installment of the Rambo series. I had actually seen this when it came out on video, but I had to watch it again. There is lots of action, it starts off showing the brutal actions of government soldiers in a civil war in Burma. The scenes are very graphic and instead of just blood and guts you actually see people explode. Rambo is living in neighboring Thailand and ends up rescuing some aid workers who get kidnapped in Burma. Lots of heads and other body parts get blown off in the process. After the rescue he ends up going home and visiting his father for the first time in years…maybe since the Vietnam war.

The RunKeeper App mentioned above can be downloaded here

Brandon

I noticed on the picture above it states the climb was only 91 feet. I'm not sure how it grabbed that information, but it's way off. I had to do some research to find out how high it actually is. Seoul Tower sits atop Mt Namsan which is 243-meters high, which is about 797 feet. Much more than 91 feet and a lot of it is at a steep grade, so it is a pretty good workout...but not unbearable. I would suggest anyone who happens to find themselves visiting in Seoul to do the hike.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011 - 08:51 PM

Hiking PT - (Korea) Day 126

A stairway we climbed on part of our hike up to Seoul Tower

Work call this morning was at 0650. We met at the office in civilian PT clothes along with our assault pack filled with whatever we could stick in it. Our sergeant said he wanted at least 20 pounds in it. This morning our PT was going to be a hike up to Seoul Tower from our office. We were all there except for our new guy SPC Mick. Our sergeant asked where he was and Special K gave him a call. SPC Mick says "I knew we were hiking up to Seoul Tower today, but I didn't know when". OMG! …and he didn't think to ask. Our sergeant told him just to get ready and go to the office. I sure hope we all don't get "corrective training" for this.

No worries…we headed out, our sergeant, SPC Roy, Special K, two sergeants from the command group, and myself. We started off on the streets of Seoul once we were off post, and it was all pretty much uphill from the start. Once we arrived at what I guess is the base of the main hill, the city kind of stopped and it was just a main road and a number of trails. We picked a trail which led to what looked like a never ending staircase. After the top of the staircase we took the road the rest of the way up. Once we got to the top we rested for a bit, took in the sights and then headed back down. The view would be much better if there wasn't any smog around. We headed back down a different trail, and when I say trail, that is exactly what it was. There were moments I thought I may start sliding down the hill, but luckily nobody fell or got hurt. It was good exercise and it was nice to do something a little different for PT. The whole hike took almost two hours including the break at the top.

After we got back me, Special K and SPC Roy headed to the Dragon Hill Lodge to grab some breakfast. After some breakfast and coffee I headed back to my room to shower and change into my uniform, then headed to work. There were no meetings scheduled for today, so I updated the events calendar and checked my email. I then worked on some SkillPorts and was able to finish 2 of them before I was told we could clean up and leave early….nice!

I went to my barracks and started schoolwork. When I finished schoolwork for the night I decided to watch Rambo 3. I was surprised, but I had never seen this one before! Interestingly it takes place in Afghanistan during the time when the Russians were fighting there. Kind of interesting how things change and now we're the ones fighting there in real life. The movie has Rambo going in and rescuing his old commanding officer and friend Colonel Trautman. Rambo ends up rescuing the colonel and helping the rebels defeat the Russians. Now I know what turned the tide of the Russian war in Afghanistan :). It was your typical action movie with lots of things blowing up, guns firing and blood spurting.

I found out I have an early work call tomorrow for some mandatory EO training, doesn't sound like that much fun.

The End of The World (Pre-Basic Training) 4 Days until Basic

I still keep in touch with the folks at my previous job and when I told them I was

joining the army, this is what they came up with...complete with a windows laptop with the

"blue screen of death" LOL

 

Today was my last day working for The Wenatchee World newspaper. It was hard to get much done, but surprisingly I was able to close about 5 or 6 help desk tickets! The day was full of my fellow employees wishing me well and saying goodbye. I went to lunch with a few co-workers and their significant others, and then attended my going away party complete with apple pie (I politely said no to the standard sheet cake. I love cake, but those big sheet cakes are just gross. They taste like cardboard and there is so much frosting on them it makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about eating it) Short speeches were said and I received a few nice cards. I really do work with some great people!

Even after all the goodbyes and the pie it still doesn’t seem real. I guess I haven’t mentally left yet. I still feel like I’ll be coming back to work next week. It’s a strange feeling. I think reality will come soon once I arrive at Ft. Benning for basic combat training.

Took another hike up to the top of Saddle Rock after work. I wanted to see if I could beat my time from last Saturday with my friend Matt. It was a good hike and I tried to jog anytime the grade wasn’t too steep. I ended up beating my last time by a minute and a half! Very happy about that. This will probably be the last time I make the hike up that hill. I will miss that, it’s a great workout and the reward is some awesome views. This place really has some beautiful scenery!

At 9PM I met up with some co-workers for happy hour at Applebees. We shared a few drinks and a lot of stories.

Wow…I no longer work for The World.

Back in the Saddle Again (Pre-Basic Training) 9 Days until Basic

A view of Saddle Rock on the way to the trail head 

My best friend Matt drove up from Portland Oregon to remove his car from our driveway and pick up the last of his stuff from out house. (He stayed with us for a few months before making the move to Oregon). It was nice to see him again. After we took care of business he asked if we could hike Saddle Rock before he took off. (Now I have to give you a little history of my friend Matt and Saddle Rock) Matt used to be a cross-country runner back in high school and has always been running since I have known him. Back in high school I never even came close to staying with him on any runs. We were always competitive, I could sprint faster and basketball was always back and forth, but any distance running was no contest - Matt would easily win every time. During the few months that he stayed with us last year, he started to hike a local trail that led up to a peak called Saddle Rock. The trail up to Saddle Rock is well used with most of it at an incline of course. He would do this about 3 times a week, each time trying to run the whole thing. Although he was never able to run the whole thing, he did make it to the top pretty fast only taking 3 or 4 rests along the way. I went with him the first time just to show him the trail and we hiked up at a normal pace together. The second time I went up with him he ended up leaving me in the dust.

Fast-forward to today… since moving to Portland Matt had some family emergencies and other stuff that took up his time. Long story short he pretty much stopped all forms of exercising and ended up eating out a lot.  We took off on the trail together and not too long after we started he was out of breath and had to take a break. I kept up my walk and even jogged a little here and there until I made it to the top. Matt finally made it, but it took him quite a while.

I have to say that it felt good to beat him to the top even though he had put on a few pounds and was totally out of shape. I think it motivated him to start running again, so this may be the only time I can savor the victory.

A view of the trail from the top of Saddle Rock

 

The view of the Wenatchee Valley from the top of Saddle Rock

Hew

brother that has been the lowest day in my life lol! and not because of you, because of me. i was so disappointed in me, but so happy for you, i could honestly see the improvment youve made in fitness( and we had quite a few delicious beverages the night before remember!) bro i have had 20mile runs that were easier than that day! and im 100% not kidding lol.. i kind of hope you keep the house so i can visit saddle rock annually :)

Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 10:42 PM