Siri - (Korea) Day 310

Work call this morning was at 0830. We setup for our normal Wednesday meeting in the secret conference room. Everything was fine until Special K didn't come down to call "stand-by". This could have been a pretty big deal, but luckily as the general was walking in he told the guard at the door not to call it..which is a little funny because it's not the guard's duty…he didn't even know what the general was talking about. It turns out that one of the ROK soldiers cut his hand pretty badly on the paper cutter and Special K was dealing with that in the office. This is the second time a ROK soldier has cut themselves using our paper cutter and have required medical attention.

The meeting which usually runs smoothly, seemed to have a bumpy ride all the way through. I control the machines in the back, but the speaker was not working correctly and I couldn't hear anything very well. This caused me to miss a couple cues to advance the slides and such. Anyway…I was glad when it was over.

I then checked my email and saw I had one from my branch manager. Let me go back a little here. Yesterday I saw my ERB (This is the Enlisted Records Brief and it shows all of your information including your current and next assignment). It changed from Frankfurt to Campbell. I freaked out because I had been planning on going to Germany this whole time and to see it changed to Campbell (Ft. Campbell is located in Kentucky) was a complete shock. I emailed my branch manager and stayed up late to try and call him last night but never made it through. Anyway his reply today said that he still shows me as heading to Germany, but I should check with my S1 shop to see about my ERB. I headed over to S1 and they looked at my ERB and then started looking up some items in the computer. To my relief it turns out that Campbell is actually barracks located in Germany and not Ft Campbell. It was a big relief. I have no desire to go to Ft. Campbell.

I headed to lunch after that and video chatted with my wife in the barracks and told her the good news. Crises averted. Back at work our new KATUSA picked up all his gear from CIF and I drove him to his barracks to drop it all off. He's pretty lucky, because our barracks were full he was assigned to another barracks that is just a little bit farther away from work. He has his own room with a shared kitchenette. That would be awesome to have your own bedroom! I'm so ready to only have my wife in the same room as me and not a roommate that stays up too late and is loud…but other than that a nice guy.

I then observed PV2 update the events calendar and after that we cleaned up the office and headed out at around 1600. I headed to my room and changed to work out, but I waited until 1700 for PFC Pickle to get off work because he wanted to join me at The Point. Had a great workout and then had Subway for dinner. I then headed to my room and worked on a Windows 7 SkillPort. Finally I watched the entire Apple Keynote address for the new iPhone announcement. The event was an hour and a half. I had started downloading it before working out, so it was complete by the time I got back. All I can say is that I want!!! The new camera looks completely awesome and the new voice activated humble assistant named Siri is very intriguing.

Status of move: Stress level is still pretty high because we still have not received the paperwork from my wife’s screening. They told us we would receive it by now, but still nothing. It’s so stressful waiting on someone else and having no control. My wife is going to call them once again tomorrow and try and get a status update.

the wife

Oh dear.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - 11:39 PM

Voluntold - (Korea) Day 309

The new ROK uniforms...I can't believe they went to a beret!

Work call this morning was at 0800. We were voluntold to participate in a ceremony. The worst part was that the ceremony was for something downright retarded. The name of our battalion is changing from STB-K to HHB. Big freaking deal! They have to have a stupid ceremony for it. Anyways you can tell how much I actually cared to be a part of this momentous occasion. We had to stand in formation and go through a rehearsal which consisted of us standing in formation moving a couple times from parade rest to attention and so forth. We then were released to stand around the field for about an hour and a half before the actual ceremony started. Once the ceremony started it took about a half hour to finish. What a joke…I really can't believe they had a ceremony for this. Anyway…on with the day.

I headed to the office and checked my email and such. I came across something that literally turned my world upside-down. Unfortunately I can't speak much of it right now until I speak with my wife first, but I can tell you my jaw dropped and I walked around in disbelief all day.

I did a little IMO stuff such as take a laptop to be imaged to the help desk. It would not boot from my netboot cd, so I was unable to re-image myself. The helpdesk will have to use alternative methods. I also pushed through the secure network access paperwork for PV2 Charlie. All the required documents have been collected and sent off. We'll see how long it takes to get him setup.

I headed to lunch with Special K and SPC Roy. On the way out to the car I saw who I thought was SPC Roy bent over tying his boots. The last name was the same, the body type was the same, so I stopped and waited for him to finish…only to find a LTC come up looking at me with a puzzled look…wondering why I was standing there hanging out with him. I'm really glad I didn't give him a "good game" slap on the butt or anything. That would have been a disaster. SPC Roy said he was watching me in his car wondering what the heck I was doing…anyway we all left and ate at the food court.

Once back I had to drive our NCOIC and PV2 Charlie to CIF so he could get all his gear issued to him finally. We then headed back and I helped PV2 Charlie unload everything into his room. Back at the office we cleaned up and everyone left except me, I stayed back with Special K to help him study for the board. About 15 minutes later our NCOIC comes in and says to recall everyone. Evidently there was a meeting missed on the events calendar and we have to setup for it tonight. Once everyone was back we all had to hear about it for a bit. I guess there was a mess up last week when we were on the tour and now this one. Pretty soon we'll start getting into some serious trouble when things like this happen. Unfortunately the possibility is high now with two new people training. SPC Mick and the KATUSAs stayed back to setup for the meeting because PV2 Charlie and I had to make sure to come in on time tomorrow for the normal Wednesday morning meeting.

Once back in my room I hung out for a while, we were supposed to have an inspection…but nobody reminded our NCOIC…on purpose…lol. I ate dinner and watched a Hawaii Five-0. I worked on a Windows 7 SkillPort, then watched some more TV shows….NCIS & NCIS LA. I love that the new seasons have all started! My roommate wanted to order chicken, so I ended up going in on it with him and we had a late night snack as well. Hopefully I'll get to work out tomorrow…I just hope we get to leave work on time and there are no room inspections.

Status of my move: I don’t want to talk about it right now....

Maxed Out! - (Korea) Days 308

Work call this morning was 0830. It is a Korean holiday (I believe their independence day or something to that affect), so there were no ROK soldiers at work and there were also no KATUSAs. KATUSAs have the best of both worlds because they get both the U.S. and ROK holidays off!

When I arrived at work I had a pile of email waiting for me since I had been off for the Hyundai tour. Both my Outlook and my AKO email had quite a bit to sort through. After getting through all of that I helped setup for a KUB in our conference room. Our system was all messed up though. I guess some ROK soldiers were messing around with it last week at some point and the new KATUSA didn't know to tell them to keep their hands off. The sound was all off and the projectors were not working correctly. We were able to get it working well enough for the KUB, but I had to make a mental note to do a system check when it was finished.

During the meeting I worked on a Windows 7 SkillPort and I also checked my current promotion point status for Military Education. I found out that I'm finally maxed out! Now I don't have to worry about ever doing SkillPorts again for the points, I just have to finish certain groups when I'm trying to get a certification like I'm doing now for Windows 7. I'm very excited about that!!!

The meeting ended and we cleaned up and went to lunch. I video chatted with my wife during my lunch break…always nice to see her :) Once back from lunch we started testing the conference room audio and video setup. We were able to fix the audio feedback issue with the table microphones, but could not figure out the video projector problem. Special K started fiddling with some wires in the back and we found that there was a loose wire that was causing the problem. What a pain in the butt, it all seems to be working correctly now…we just have to make sure the wires in the back do not get bumped.

I then continued to teach PV2 Charlie some of the other things we do and gave him all my notes that I've created over time to help me remember. From this point on I'll have him do everything and I'll just supervise, this way he'll get the hands on experience and be a lot more comfortable doing it when it comes time for me to leave.

We then cleaned up and headed out. I headed to my room and changed, then headed over to get my monthly hair cut. I tried going yesterday, but the place was packed…I guess the weekend right after payday is not a good time to go. Back in my room I ate dinner and watched CSI. It's kind of strange seeing Ted Danson now staring in the series and to boot he plays a hippie from Seattle…lol. I guess we'll see how the show progresses.

I then had to clean up my room a bit, we were informed that our NCOIC will be coming through the rooms tomorrow for an inspection. People that live in housing with their families never have to go through this crap, but because I live in the barracks it's never ending. I know I say this a lot, but I can't wait to live with my family once again. It can't come soon enough. After cleaning I worked on and completed another Windows 7 SkillPort. I have one more left and then the practice test before I've completed the entire portion, then I just have to wait to take the class which starts on the 31st.

I then relaxed and watched an episode of Flashpoint and Greys Anatomy. Flashpoint is a pretty cool series about a police "strategic response unit" that takes care of major issues that arise in Toronto Canada. Greys Anatomy I watch because it reminds me of my wife and we like to talk about the show during our chats…plus it's in Seattle, so it reminds me of home.

Status of my upcoming move: No real news yet, my wife did call again at the end of last week and they assured her that her papers are on the desk and flagged to be signed. They said it should be Monday or Tuesday. My stress level hasn't raised too much…running at about a 7.5 right now. I just don't know when it will actually be too late to turn in all the paperwork. I just hope it all works out like it should.

the wife

it's completely out of my control. :(

Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - 01:59 PM

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 306 & 307

This weekend I didn't do a whole lot, and it was very nice. I was a little worn out from the Hyundai Tour. We were going non stop from morning until night. I just slept in both days, watched a lot of TV shows and video chatted with my wife. During the Hyundai Tour I didn't have my laptop, so I was pretty much cut off from everything…which is fine for short periods of time. I spent the weekend catching up with everything on Facebook, I did my laundry, worked on my Windows 7 SkillPorts, and worked out both days. I also took PV2 Charlie with me on the post shuttle to the commissary. He wanted to do a little shopping and hadn't been there yet, so I took him and showed him the ropes. Other than that there isn't a lot to talk about, so I'll keep this wrap-up short. Back to work tomorrow after having 5 days off is going to be tough. I may also have to plan a little extra time in the morning to shave my beard that I've been working on for these 5 days.

Hyundai Friendship Tour - (Korea) Days 303 - 305

Me hanging out at Daewangnam Park

I signed up for a trip offered by Hyundai that arrived in my email box about a month ago. Our colonel told us it was a great tour, so of course I signed up right away. I would of even without his endorsement because it was three days off work and all expenses were paid by Hyundai. Not only this, but I love getting out and seeing the country of Korea whenever I get the chance, I doubt I'll ever have the chance to come back here and I want to experience everything I can while I'm here. Our NCOIC was going to go as well, but something came up and she was unable to attend. Surprisingly SPC Mick was the only other person from our office that signed up, but he was not the only person I would know on the trip, the young hawaiian also was able to sign up through his unit.

Day 1: The first day (Wednesday) started off with us having to arrive at Collier Fitness Center at 0700. There was a little confusion about this since different emails and different attachments all said various times from 0700 to 0730, so we played it safe and arrived at 0700. The young hawaiian met with me and SPC Mick outside our barracks and then we went down to the office and had Special K drive us all to Collier since it's on the other side of the base.

Turns out we could have been a lot later as we waited for quite a while before they had everyone go inside and then start the briefing. We were assigned bus numbers according to the units we came from. There were 6 buses all together taking about 160 military personal from all over Korea for this event. Unfortunately the young hawaiian had to ride on another bus. The buses were very nice which I'm grateful because the first leg of the trip was about 4 hours. They only had three seats across and each seat had plenty of room both width and for your legs. We were served boxed subway lunches for breakfast, but I didn't care. By this point I was starving and I scarfed it down.

We stopped and had lunch on the second floor of a Korean restaurant, then boarded the bus again heading for the city of Ulsan where Hyundai is located. We arrived at Hyundai Motor Company and were given a short video presentation and then a tour both outside the factory by bus, then inside where they make the cars. This was pretty impressive seeing just sheets of metal getting eventually turned into fully functional cars. We then headed over to Hyundai Heavy Industries and were also shown a short video before getting a tour of their shipyard on our bus. They are the number one ship builder in the world and build gigantic ships at this place. It was all very impressive.

We then ate dinner at a very nice hotel (Lotte World) complete with ice sculpture and a short hard to understand speech by the CEO of Hyundai. Basically he was thanking us for serving and they wanted to do what they can to help strengthen the alliance. We then headed back to the hotel we would be staying at which of course was The Hyundai Hotel…lol.

I think they purposely had us stay at this place because there is no nightlife whatsoever. The young hawaiian, SPC Mick, and I all headed out to see what we could find. There was absolutely nothing! We ended up at a tiny hole in the wall bar and had a couple drinks and played darts.

It did sprinkle at one point and we were all given blue raincoats.
This was near the Seokguram Grotto at Mt. Tohamsan

When feeding so many people, we took up the entire floor of this Korean restaurant.

The peaceful park that housed Cheonmachong Tomb

Lots of buddhas at the Gyeongju National Museum

Day 2: We had a buffet breakfast in the hotel and headed out to Gyeongju city. We first visited the beautiful Daewangam Park where we could go out and look around at the picturesque view of the ocean, rocks, and lighthouse.  From there we headed to the Bulguksa Temple and Sokguram Grotto. This is a buddhist temple which was built in 751 A.D. We then headed to another Korean lunch, then off to the National Museum of Gyeongju.

After that we headed to Cheonmachong Tomb which were mainly big mounds of earth that kings and noble folks were buried back in the day. We were able to enter one and look at some of the stuff they found in there. The entire park is quite nice and peaceful. The last stop of the day was Anapji Pond which was a man made pond built for an old king from the Silla period in Korea. The interesting thing about this place as we were walking around the pond (which was pretty huge by the way), was that there were students in their little uniforms everywhere. Most of these students were perched upon rocks with pads or books. They looked like they could have been a bunch of artists drawing pictures of the place, but I think they were just there studying.

Back to the hotel we had a buffet dinner and then were free for the rest of the night. The young hawaiian and I headed out in search of something in the opposite direction this time. We didn't find much though, pretty much the same except instead of playing darts in a deserted bar…we played pool.

Day 3: Our last day of the tour. We checked out and returned our keys, then had breakfast at another buffet setup for us at the hotel. We took the long bus ride to pyeongtaek naval base. This is a ROK naval base and it houses their salvaged ship "The Cheonan" which was sunk by a North Korean submarine torpedo. We had lunch right outside of the base and then went in and were able to see the ship.

We then headed to Suwon City and toured the Hwaseong Fortress. Part of this tour included getting to shoot a bow and arrow…lol. It was very similar to the palace in Seoul. We then took off and had dinner at another Korean restaurant and finally headed back to Yongsan.

The tour was pretty awesome. It was packed full of all kinds of modern and historical information all about Korea. I'm very grateful for the experience and I thank Hyundai very much for everything they did for us during the trip. It was great!

USO Surprise - (Korea) Day 302

SPC Mick after receiving his birthday cake from the USO

I had a dentist appointment this morning at 0830. It was only a cleaning, but it was nice to not have to wake up and go in for the early 0730 work call that everyone else had to do. The dentist was a little rough, but still bearable. I'm glad I don't have to go again for a while now.

I arrived at work and did my morning routine of checking my email and such, but was interrupted a few times to do minor things for various people. That seemed to set the tone for the entire day. It seemed like anytime I started anything I was called away to do something else. I tried working on a Windows 7 SkillPort, but couldn't even finish one section the entire day.

I had lunch in my room and video chatted with my wife, then headed back to the office a little early to make sure our conference room was setup for a "brief" from our colonel. This meeting had been setup for a while. Most of the folks knew it wasn't actually a brief, but a surprise for SPC Mick. His parents had worked with the USO here in Korea to help celebrate his birthday. The USO worked with our NCOIC to get everything worked out in advance. Once the conference room was ready, our office, our supply office, a couple from protocol, and our admin office all showed up for the "brief". When the colonel came in he said there would be a special guest speaker…and then came in the USO with a huge cake, balloons, and a bag of USO swag for SPC Mick. He was called up front and everyone sang happy birthday to him. It was pretty funny…especially since he had no clue what was going on until they walked in. What's funny is that the red, white and blue cake turned everyone's mouth and teeth either red, white or blue.

When we finally got back to working, the afternoon went just like the morning. It seemed like I could not get anything done. I started training PV2 Charlie on how to update the events calendar and it must have taken 2 hours because one of us kept getting calls to do something. Everyone except for me and Special K cleaned up and left at 1600. I stayed back and helped Special K study for his promotion board until about 1700.

When I got to my room I ended up not working out…somehow just lost my motivation. I instead went to the food court and ate Taco Bell volcano tacos. I then watched Greys Anatomy & Survivor…I can't help it…I love that show. I then packed my assault pack for a tour I'll be on with the young hawaiian and SPC Mick for the rest of the week. Hyundai gives a couple of tours to soldiers each year and we were all able to get signed up for this one. I'm looking forward to getting out and having some fun away from work. This also means it will be a few days before I update the blog again. I'll be busy taking pictures and soaking in the culture…plus I'm not bringing my laptop.

Hail, Farewell, Happy B-Day - (Korea) Day 301

Our colonel on the left presenting a plaque to our departing air force major.

Work call this morning was at 0730. We setup for a meeting and had the new guys do pretty much the entire setup while supervising. It's a pretty easy thing, they just have to do it a few times to get used to it. I then went to my office and checked my current promotion point status since it's the start of the week:

Military Education - 260 Maximum Points

Correspondence Course (Hours 1287) (Points 257)

OMG I'm only 3 points away from maxing it out! I thought after this last push I would have hit the limit. In fact I probably have hit the limit because it takes a couple days for the hours to update from SkillPort. Anyway I'm going to stop doing the normal SkillPorts and just focus on actually working through the Windows 7 SkillPorts. They will easily give me enough hours to max out the military education portion of my promotion points.

I then did some IMO work for the office. I pushed through some paperwork for the new KATUSA to get network access. Our NCOIC got a new CAC card since she was promoted, but that brings with it new certificates. This means she will not be able to open old emails that were digitally signed. I had to do a little research to find out how to download her old certificates as well, which I was able to do and make her happy…always a good thing to keep the boss happy.

Then all of a sudden SPC Mick is complaining that his computer will not start. I tell PV2 Charlie to go hold the power button down and make sure it's turned completely off. When I get over there I find that PV2 Charlie had completely broke the power button on the docking station somehow. Oh dear! Luckily we had another station in my office and we switched them out, then I was able to get his computer up and running.

By this time it was nearing lunch and we had to go to the food court and pick up an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. We then headed to the R&R Bar and Grill for lunch. Lunch was actually a "Hail & Farewell" for all the new folks and the air force major who is leaving. We then also celebrated everyone's birthdays for the month of September and ate the ice cream cake. I couldn't let any go to waste, so I had 3 servings…good stuff! After we were done eating Special K starts to tell me about the time he worked security at a hotel. He said there were a lot of old people there and they paid rent on a monthly basis. He said they would be up at all hours of the night because they didn't seem to sleep much, so he would always chat with them from time to time. One night he walks down the hall and smells something pretty bad. He ends up finding out who's room it is and none of the old folks had seen this guy for a while. So Special K goes in the room and finds the guy flat out dead on the floor. He said the smell was pretty bad and started describing all the fluids and stuff that was coming out of his mouth. I was like whoa Special K…we just got done eating! Pretty gross stuff!

Back at the office we cleaned up from the earlier meeting and then I worked on our Major's PC for a while, but it can be difficult to do much because we can't download anything from the internet. He can't burn CDs and even though I think I could fix it, if I could download the latest drivers from the vendors website, I have to put in a help desk ticket and wait for them to do the job.

I then helped Special K study for the promotion board until it was time to go. Our NCOIC is going to try and get PV2 Charlie separate rations. I told her good luck, I remember all the crap that I had to go through to get that and how it took 6 months! I did give her copies of everything that I turned in with my packet, so she would know everything that was needed. Maybe he'll have better luck.

I left around 1630 and headed to my room to change, then headed to The Point and worked out. Once finished I headed back to my room and watched some of my recently obtained TV shows….Flashpoint & NCIS. Excited that the new seasons have started finally!!

As far as my status for leaving Korea goes...I don’t have any news yet. Since it’s still the weekend back in the states nothing has been done yet. My wife will be calling tomorrow and hopefully someone will answer and then we can get some answers. My freakout level has reached 7 on a scale of 10 being the highest.