Weekend Wrap-Up (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Days 301 & 302

Saturday I slept in, but it seems I always get up before my kids. I spent the morning doing my schoolwork. When everyone was up and ready to get started with the day, we all met with their cousins and my mom at a local 50’s style diner called the “Big Apple Diner”. Food was good and my wife and I even saw an old co-worker of ours back from our newspaper days. After lunch we went to the movies and watched “Non-Stop”. It’s pretty cool going to the movie theatre somewhat early and seeing a movie that has been out for a while…we had the entire room to ourselves to watch the movie! It was a pretty good action packed movie too! About an air marshal who has to try and find a killer on board the plane.

Sunday I slept in once again and then did schoolwork. A similar start to yesterday. We headed over to my sister’s house so the kids could play with their cousins. We also ended up going out to have an early dessert at Cold Stone, then for dinner we went to a Chinese buffet that everyone loves called “Kings Wok”. I’m stuffed! Back at home the kiddos decided they wanted to watch “Now You See Me”. A pretty good flick with some good twists about magicians who are constantly out-smarting the police. We had all seen it before except for my oldest daughter, but the movie is good enough to watch a few times for sure.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Days 274 & 275

This weekend was pretty uneventful and laid back. I think once the weather clears up a bit, we’ll be doing more. Saturday was spent sleeping in, then doing some schoolwork. We all went out and watched the movie “Pompeii”, which was a cross between gladiator and the end of the world. It was pretty good and entertained us all. My wife then taught my daughter how to cook one of her favorite soup recipes, which we all had for dinner…she did pretty good! Sunday consisted of sleeping in and then making our traditional big breakfast (pancakes, bacon, and eggs). I always enjoy just taking the time and having a meal together with the family. It seems everyone is in a rush all the time, so we make sure to have meals together at the table whenever possible. In the afternoon my kids left to go home and then I sat down and started schoolwork once again…it never ends now that I’m taking two classes at once.

Recovery - (Germany) Day 290

This morning I finished up my staff duty shift, I left off yesterday while still doing the shift. The shift ended at 0900. I spent the morning trying to read my book which became increasingly difficult with each passing hour. I found myself reading a paragraph over and over until I finally gave up. I was getting too tired to concentrate. I sat in my staff duty chair listening to music, then decided to try and play some games on my iPhone. That passed the time for a while, but the longer I played the more uncoordinated I became. About 0530 I played janitor for our S-1 & S-3 offices where staff duty is located. This is one of the things that always piss me off when I have staff duty. I have to clean up after these people who just get up and leave when their shift is over. Our office and every other office I know of cleans up after themselves, but because we are here on staff duty, we have to clean up after them. So I got up and vacuumed, then emptied all the trash cans including the three bathrooms. It's not a hard job, but I think it's just stupid that they don't clean up after themselves like everyone else.

Anyways after I finished, I just basically listened to music for a while. I was too tired to do much of anything else. I felt like an uncoordinated drunk by this point. Even my thinking process was slow. Finally the folks started coming in for their normal shifts in both the S-1 and S-3 offices and I was told I could head home. I called my wife to come pick me up, so I could give her a ride back to work and then drive myself home. It's kind of ironic that the army requires a soldier to submit a form if we driving anywhere over the weekend on pass. This form is done on a website and evaluates the dangers of our trip, it's required that we take rest breaks after every few hours of driving and it's also required that we get a good night's sleep the night before our drive…If we don't promise to do these things we could actually have our pass denied. The army doesn't give a crap that I'll be driving home after being awake for a 25.5 hour shift. I actually feel drunk and almost took a wrong turn, then almost ran a stop sign. Luckily I made it home safely.

When I got home I pretty much headed straight to the bed and passed out completely. I slept until 1500, when I got up and readied myself to pick up my wife at 1600. Staff duty really messes up your schedule. Yes I'm happy that I have today off from work, even though I slept for most of the duty day, at least I wasn't in the office. I also got a call from SPC Mac later on letting me know the uniform for Monday. We will not be having PT, instead we'll be forming up in our ACUs, then heading out to Landstuhl for a change of command ceremony practice. Our company commander is changing and the ceremony will be on Tuesday. I guess he has such an ego that he is requiring 100% participation. We have soldiers with appointments that have to cancel them. We also have 3 that will be going to the Intel-34 course in Vilseck for two weeks and they were going to cancel that for a while, until the command finally changed their minds. All this so we can stand in a field and listen to a bunch of boring speeches. I'm not looking forward to that.

My wife and I headed to the theatre on post and watched "Taken 2". The movie was action packed and a lot of fun to watch. A good way to end the night…date night with my wife.

Weekend Wrap-Up (Mainz) - (Germany) Day 283 - 286

Burg Rheinstein...one of the castles we visited this weekend

Friday: This 4-day weekend was unlike most of the 4-Day weekends we've had here. Usually we have big plans, but this time we only planned a small day trip on Saturday to try out some Mexican restaurant. The truth is that this 4-Day kind of snuck up on me, I actually thought the holiday was later on in October and not right at the beginning. No worries though, my wife and I spent a lot of time just being lazy and relaxed almost the entire weekend…which turned out to be a welcome relief. As for Friday, my wife had to work. I drove her to work, then ended up just doing a lot of housework and schoolwork during most of the day. I caught up on some UFC and then picked her up from work. We did some shopping out on the economy for a bunch of stuff to send back to family. We then checked out the holiday bazaar here on post. There was a lot of vendors, so much that it was a little overwhelming. It seemed as if they bumped up the prices though, everything just seemed a little too expensive…so all we did was window shop.

Saturday: We headed off to Mainz for a small day trip. We had seen a spotlight a while back on AFN about a Mexican restaurant up in Mainz, which supposedly has good food. Good Mexican food is hard to find here in Germany. So I did a little research to see what there was to see in and near the city and we took off. We checked out downtown, along the river, and the Mainz Cathedral. We then took off about a half hour out of Mainz to check out some castles. We were able to visit and tour two of the three castles we set out to see. One of the castles we missed the last admittance by two minutes! All the castles were pretty awesome to tour. I'm not sure what it is about the castles that interests me so much, maybe the history, perhaps the fantasy books I've read…but anyways I really enjoyed myself. We then headed back into Mainz and found the Mexican restaurant "Mexico Lindo". We had dinner and the food was decent, definitely not as good as our local Mexican restaurants back home…but certainly the best we've had here in Germany.

Sunday & Monday: I'm combining these two days because they were basically the same…not a whole lot going on except being lazy, hanging out on the couch and watching TV and movies. We did end up going to the theatre on post as well…twice this weekend. We saw "Looper" and "Total Recall (2012)". Both were pretty good movies. The weekend was nice and relaxing. We've already made plans for the next 4-day and also for 2 of the 3 weekends left this month…so this was a nice weekend to totally just chill.

Inside the Mainz Cathedral

Inside the Mainz Cathedral

My wife posing on one of the castle walls

AAM - (Germany) Day 193

This morning we did not have PT, instead we formed up at 0815 for Days of Excellence. The event actually started at 0900, but like everything in the army we had to hurry up and wait. The colonel told someone to start at 0900, the next person down told everyone to be there at 0845, and it kept going down the line until our NCOIC told everyone to be there at 0815…and of course we had to be there 10 minutes early, so make it 0805. So we headed into the theatre and waited…and waited. I brought my coffee, so I at least had that to drink to try and give me a little jolt.

Days of Excellence, a monthly event I've written about before always includes some sort of training, some speech by our battalion commander, and then awards. Our training was two hours of anti-terrorism training, I needed every ounce of my coffee to try and stay awake for that. PowerPoint…slide after slide of the same stuff we've seen over and over. We then heard from the battalion commander who is about to leave, so he had a very long winded speech about his time here and everything he's accomplished.

After that was the awards, of which there were a lot. Since the battalion commander is leaving he had a number of people (soldiers and civilians) that he wanted to thank and give a coin to. We then went through a number of other various awards, PCS awards for folks who are leaving and good conduct medals for people that haven't been in any trouble for three years. I was then called up and given an AAM (Army Achievement Medal) for my work at the FTX I did back in May. I was actually surprised because I've been told many times by both NCOs and officers that I'm getting an award only to find that something happened and it never went through. So this was my first actual award, which was pretty cool.

After Days of Excellence about 1230 we were released to our NCOs. Our company was then split into two groups…NCOs and junior enlisted. One group went with the commander and the other with the first sergeant. The commander wanted to know if everything was going alright and if there were any issues he needed to fix. He also went over the safety brief…basically don't be stupid over the weekend. We switched and talked with the first sergeant for a bit…he wanted to know how our supervisors were treating us and if there was anything he needed to do to fix it.

Finally we were released for the day at about 1300…nice. I headed home and hung out with the kiddos until my wife got off work. We picked her up, had dinner and then headed out to Mannheim to watch a movie. My wife bought the tickets online, but we headed to the wrong theatre…D'oh! We found out the theatre we needed was only a couple minutes away and we were able to make it in time before the movie started. We watched "The Amazing Spiderman". A pretty good movie, but I"m not sure why they felt the need to remake another Spiderman movie so soon.

When we left I could not find the parking coin. You see…in Germany at a "Parkhaus" (Parking Garage) when you enter, you are either given a coin or a ticket. You take that ticket or coin with you and when you arrive back, it has to be put into a machine to make your payment. Once you pay, you get the ticket or coin back and head to your car. You use the coin or ticket when leaving to have the gate open. We looked all over for the damn coin, even went back to the theatre to see if it fell out near our seats. No luck! So we had to call an attendant at the Parkhaus and wait for him to arrive so we could get out. Unfortunately when you lose a ticket or coin, you have to pay a full day's price in order to get out. We ended up paying 24 euro, which is probably about $34 or so for a couple hours of parking. That sucked!

Independence Day (2-Day Holiday) - (Germany) Day 191 & 192

A view of the setup at PHV for the 4th of July...lots of vendors and lots of people

Wednesday: We were not able to sleep in as much as we thought we would be able to. The kids are still a little off because of the jet lag and were all up pretty early. In fact they had already had cereal for breakfast and were watching TV by the time we got up.

We hung out and took it easy for a while before making a run to the commissary, then off to SPC Whirlwind's house for a BBQ. We then headed off the the center of PHV to check out the setup for the 4th of July. At the center there was a stage with a band playing and vendors all around the outside. Across the road in the bowling alley parking lot there were a number of games and rides that you see at your normal town fairs. The weather was a bit hot and my kids were still a bit jet lagged, so we headed back to the house to let them rest until it was closer to fireworks time.

We headed back out to see the action near dusk and watched the fireworks show along with some guys from my shop. It was a decent show along with music, which had to be selected by a Star Wars fan…because there several selections were from Star Wars movies during the show.

Thursday: We again took it easy today. My wife had to work, and the rest of us basically just stayed in. The weather was too hot and melted my kid's desire to head outside. We just stayed in and watched some movies. "Iron Man" and "Drillbit Taylor" were the selections as well as some home made movies we made from our previous vacations…always fun to look back on.

We headed over to the skate park on post and watched my son scoot around on his razor, then headed back to the house for dinner and a family movie…"Jumper".

The two days off were nice and it leaves just one day of work left before the weekend!

Last Day in the Mailroom - (Germany) Day 95

Just another random note hanging on one of the mailroom walls next to the boxes

We had no PT this morning because of "Days of Excellence". One of the nice things about being assigned to the mailroom is that I do not have to go, however I did have to get up, get dressed, and attend a formation our company was having at 0645 before leaving. I can't complain too much though because with a donation to The Army Emergency Relief Fund we were allowed to wear civilian clothes all day. My boss actually made a donation for each of his soldiers so we could all dress in civilians without even having to think about it. So I showed up, waited around for a while, then went back home to get ready for the day.

I worked once again in the mailroom on my official last day being tasked out to help them. I had thought about wearing my kilt since it was civilian clothes day, but I think I'll save that for another day in the office. I spent the morning getting out mail that was not put in people's boxes the day before, then chatted for a while with the boss. I found out some interesting details on the work situation in the mailroom here. There are a total of 8 civilian employees that work there and only 3 of them are permanent. The rest are temporary, there is a hiring freeze for any permanent workers. The temporary folks time is limited and will probably be out of a job before the end of the year. I guess once you get a permanent job with the government, it's best to hang on to it for as long as possible.

I worked customer service by myself once we opened at 1100, my helper the SSG who is going to get med-boarded had some appointments to start the day. It was a lot more comfortable working in civilian clothes and I have to say that I also instantly got a lot more respect from everyone. It's a lot different when you look like a civilian rather than when you are just a PFC working behind the counter. Soon however I will be promoted to specialist, in fact I would have been "pinned on" today at the Days of Excellence but I wanted to have my wife there and she had to work. An easy enough excuse, so they will do a small ceremony with just the office next week. I don't even think any ceremony should be done at all because I did nothing special to deserve it, other than survive for 2 years. I can see having a ceremony for any early promotions or E-5 and above because they have to actually do something in order to get promoted. E-1 through E-4 is just time in service unless you get an early promotion.

So the day went by without any issues and the last couple hours I worked in the back sorting mail that will probably sit in sorting containers for about a week before they get delivered to their boxes. I used to work for UPS a long time ago and we had to make sure everything went out each day, so this is a whole new experience for me…and also why I keep mentioning it (it just blows my mind). I also took a break when my boss came in. We went outside and he gave me my quick monthly counseling statement. Basically good work and in the future he wants to start preparing me to go to the promotion board. I really have mixed emotions about that. On one hand it will be nice to have the higher rank and be an NCO, on the other hand an NCO has a lot more responsibility and crappy work they have to do. It seems NCOs get tasked to do training that has nothing to do with their job, they get tasked with all sorts of other miscellaneous things, and also have a whole level of supervisory work that needs to be done. This means if I ever do get to a place that actually does I.T. work, the chances of me doing it as an NCO is drastically less…and I have no desire whatsoever to stay in the army. We'll see how it goes.

I went home and after my wife and I ate, we left to Mannheim to go watch a movie. Here in Germany at the Mannheim Cinemaxx theatre, they play movies in English and you can also reserve seats via the internet. My wife reserved the seats and we went and watched "The Hunger Games". The theatre is much nicer than the one on post and it also has stadium seating which is also very nice. We had both read all the books, so we were excited to see the movie. The movie was pretty good and kept pace with the book for the most part, but there is just so much more detail in the books. I can see where someone who hasn't read the books may not get as much out of the movie than people who have already read the books. My wife was surprised they served beer in the theatre, I had to remind her we are in Germany…they even sell beer in the McDonalds here!

Weekend Wrap-Up (3-Day) - (Korea) Days 271 - 273

Our "Victory Dinner" Korean BBQ with scrambled eggs & kimchi...Very Good!!

Saturday: I woke up around 0830 after 13 hours of much needed sleep, a great way to start a three day weekend. We get Monday off as a training holiday because of the exercise. I did my usual Saturday morning ritual of laundry and then video chatting with the wife and kids. I caught up on everything and spent a couple hours video chatting. It was nice to see and hear everyone. I wonder all the time if I've made a huge mistake joining the army because of all the time I will end up being away from my wife and kids. I will be missing so much of their preteen and teenage years. So many don't realize the everyday sacrifices that go into being in the military.

Today is our office's enlisted "victory party". The top brass are all having their own posh victory party celebrating their virtual win over North Korea during the exercise, so our NCOIC thought our office should do the same. We met up at the office at 1800…that is everyone except for Special K. He is notorious for not being able to do any after work activities because his wife has him on a very short leash. His excuse was that his mother was sick, but I'm not buying it. I'm pretty sure his wife told him that there is no way he's going.

The rest of us (our NCOIC, SPC Mick, & our KATUSA) headed to the subway and after about 4 stops we got off and headed to our NCOIC's favorite Korean BBQ establishment. The place is a little different than others because in addition to the BBQ, there is egg poured around the edge. While the meat is cooking the eggs start to scramble and kimchi is thrown in with it. It all tasted wonderful. Our NCOIC's husband (Mr NCOIC) joined us and we had quite a bit of soju and plenty of food. Everything was going swell until all of a sudden Mr. NCOIC got very pissed at our NCOIC. I won't go into details (it involved their kid), but he went from nice guy to yelling and cussing very loud. I felt bad for our NCOIC because I know she was pretty embarrassed. Not quite the night she had planned for us. Their fight eventually led them outside and finally they ended up leaving. Our NCOIC apologized and paid the bill. So we were sitting there wondering what to do the rest of the night.

We ended up going to a somewhat famous night club in Seoul called "Monkey Beach". Not really my scene at all, but fun to people watch. Young folks dancing to pop music on all the tables. We all ordered drinks and they were served to us in buckets. I can tell you that this was the start of what would later become a bad hangover. We hung out for a while and then our KATUSA said we should go do karaoke. Not wanting to waste any alcohol, I quickly finished my bucket…not a good decision.

Karaoke is very popular in Korea. They have a number of places you can go and rent a small room and sing karaoke. These places also serve food and beer to your room. We all got a room and started singing…well I laid down for a bit…something just wasn't quite right with my stomach, but after a couple of songs I was good to go. We all had some beer and we all sang…and by sang I mean we all sounded terrible. It's a good thing we had our own room. Our KATUSA was actually so bad, I didn't have any inhibitions about singing at all because nobody could be worse than him…lol.

We then got a call from our NCOIC and she said she wanted to meet up with us in Itaewon at a place called Seoul Pub. We took a taxi there and met up with her and her husband. They had worked things out and we all sat at a table and chatted for a while. We didn't drink anymore which is a good thing. I did use the unisex restroom there which was pretty interesting. This was the first time both sexes used it at the same time. I had to go pee so bad, I didn't really care. I do remember thinking it was kind of odd going pee in the urinal and having girls walk in and out to use the toilet. Stuff that just doesn't happen in America.

We headed back to our barracks at some point after 0230 or so and I promptly got in bed and passed out.

The Monkey Beach...where they serve alcohol in buckets!

The bathroom at Monkey Beach complete with CCTV...
big brother likes to watch you pee

SPC Mick singing while our KATUSA searches for the next song...in our private room

Our "Resered" table at Seoul Pub in Itaewon

Sunday: I woke up with a sick feeling in my stomach and a raging headache. The stupid thing is that I know I should hydrate a lot more especially if I'm going to be drinking alcohol, but I didn't hardly have any water yesterday. I paid the price for it today. I took 3 Excedrin and drank some water. There was a UFC playing so I headed to Starbucks to get coffee and then took a taxi to PFC Pickle's room. Normally I walk there, but I thought I may throw up if I walked too far. I arrived and quickly grabbed the nearest chair in his room. I didn't move much from that chair for the entire UFC. I drank my coffee slowly and then also drank 2 liters of water before the UFC was over. I was hoping the water and the Advil I had in PFC Pickle's room would help. I finally lost the headache, but that sick stomach feeling never left. We headed out and caught a taxi to head to the USO, but found out that there was a demonstration going on and we couldn't get there. The taxi brought us back on post and didn't charge us anything. We wanted to go to the USO to purchase tickets for a Martial Arts Festival next weekend. Not sure what exactly it is, but it's something to do.

I headed back to my room and video chatted with my wife and kids, then did some schoolwork. I thought about taking a nap, but the schoolwork I had to do took too long. I then checked with PFC Pickle to see if he wanted to see "Super 8". I knew nothing about it, but saw it was playing at the theatre on post. We walked there and by this point my nausea was doing better, but I was still no where near 100%. We watched the movie, which was nothing what I expected…but it was good and entertaining. It basically centered around kids in a small town that uncover an alien. Kind of like a modern version of E.T., but with a huge freakin' alien that kills people instead of a cute little alien with a glowing finger.

By the time we headed back to our rooms I would say that I was feeling about 75%. Definitely much better, but it sure takes me a lot longer to recover than it used to. I never plan on drinking much when I go out, but I have to make sure I get some water in me if I ever even think I'll be drinking again.

Monday: I woke up about 0830 to my roommate coming into our room. Normally he leaves for the entire weekend, but for some reason he came back early. It's OK though because I was about to get up anyway. I got up and video chatted with my wife for a while. I feel 100% again! After video chatting with my wife I did schoolwork again.

I met up with PFC Pickle at the food court for lunch where we both ate foot long pulled pork subway sandwiches. For some reason we were both very hungry, but those sandwiches were very heavy. We both sat there for a bit feeling stuffed and bloated. I made a mental note to only order 6 inch sandwiches from now on.

We then headed over to the MWR at Moyer Rec Center and signed up for the Martial Arts Festival. Funny thing is that originally we were going to sign up at the USO and then found out that the MWR was offering a free trip…can't beat that! We then headed to "The Point" and worked out. After working out we sat in the hot tub for a while and relaxed. I love this place, it's going to be hard to go back to the normal gym after this.

We headed back to our rooms and I spent the rest of the day watching TV shows and doing SkillPorts. Back to the grind tomorrow….

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 257 & 258

Fight The Power!!! This was a protest going on outside one of our gates into the post.
Although most are peaceful like this one, we are always advised to avoid them. I believe
these protesters were angry over what some believe is agent orange in the environment 
stemming back from the Vietnam war era.

Saturday: Today I woke up around 0830 and did the usual Saturday morning ritual of laundry and video chatting with my wife. SPC Roy called me and said he's going to come over in a little bit. It turned out to be more like an hour, but he did finally arrive. We went and got our hair cut, then he asked if I wanted to go to the commissary. I try never to pass up a chance to go to the commissary when someone is driving, it's so much easier than going on the bus.

After shopping he dropped me off at my room and not too long after, PFC Pickle called me and wants to go to lunch. At this point I'm getting pretty hungry because it's now about 1400 and I haven't eaten yet. I also got a call from PFC Pink Eye from my platoon in basic training. (He was the first guy to get pink eye in our platoon). He is stationed in Korea as well…down south at the Humphreys garrison. He had made the trip up to Yongsan to check out the war museum and Seoul as well as to see the movie "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" which was playing at our post. We all met at the food court and hung out a bit. I gave PFC Pink Eye directions on how to get to the war museum and then we made plans to meet up for the movie later on.

PFC Pickle and I then headed to "The Point" which is the fitness center located under "The Dragon Hill Lodge". PFC Pickle has been raving about it and I decided to join since the first two months are free. Normally I wouldn't pay for something I get to do free, but they will be closing Trent Gym which I usually go to for about a month for renovations. Not only is The Point a lot nicer, it's less crowded and they have more equipment. We then went swimming and enjoyed the hot tub. I'm looking forward to using this facility during the rest of my stay here.

Later on we met up with PFC Pink Eye and his buddy at the theatre and watched the movie. It was a pretty good movie. It basically shows how everything started with the whole Planet of the Apes saga. A virus is created to help brain function, it turns out to make primates really smart and actually kill humans…and that is how it all begins. After the movie we walked PFC Pink Eye and his buddy back to the bus station on post. PFC Pink Eye then proceeds to tell us that during his first field exercise here in Korea he got pink eye again…lol!!

Me, PFC Pickle, and PFC Pink Eye (from my platoon in basic) getting ready
to watch "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

Sunday: I woke up around 0845 and cleaned up my room before video chatting with my wife and kids for a while. The rest of the day was pretty chill. I watched some TV shows and did a SkillPort before meeting up with PFC Pickle to head to The Point to go work out. They have a scale there so I got on and found I was at 197 pounds. This is good because I got all the way to 204 during my leave when I was gorging on all that food. I'm usually around 195. We headed to Quiznos afterwards for dinner and then headed our separate ways.

I watched some more TV and then did another SkillPort before getting a call from SPC Roy. He came over and was a little upset. He was still in uniform because he had to make a run out to CP Tango today. His sergeant thought the exercise started a day earlier than it did. SPC Roy tried to tell him it was a day later because of a ROK holiday, but his sergeant would have non of it. They drove out to CP Tango and it wasn't until they all arrived and saw nobody there, that his sergeant realized that SPC Roy was indeed correct. Now with SPC Roy's Sunday ruined he was pissed off and wanted to have a drink or two. He needed my help at the liquor store on post because he had already used up all his rations for liquor. We then went to the Navy Club and had a couple beers before calling it a night.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 194 & 195

Our individual pies at Tartine in Itaewon...mmm mmm good!

Saturday: I woke up with a hangover at about 0930. I guess I shouldn't have mixed the makkoli and the beer. Or more likely I should have drank a lot more water throughout the night! Anyway I did my normal Saturday morning thing which is laundry and a long video chat with my wife which is always nice. I then did schoolwork and took a nap.

I woke up feeling better and was invited to go to the movies with our air force master sergeant and Ms. Q. We went to the theatre on post and watched X-Men: First Class. It was a pretty cool movie and both of them were as big of fans as I was, so it was a lot of fun. The movie shows where a lot of the story lines start and it was cool to see how they tied everything together. Also I learned that it was the mutants who were responsible for the Cuban missile crises!

We then went out to Itaewon and ate at a Chinese restaurant called "Panda King". The food was good and the place wasn't too expensive. We each ordered an item and then shared our plates. After that we had dessert at a place called Tartine which specializes in individual pies…I had mine with ice cream of course. After that we called it a night and headed back.

Sunday: I woke up at 0800 and video chatted with my wife for a bit before heading out. I stopped by and picked up Starbucks for me and PFC Pickle and headed over to his room to watch UFC 131. This has sort of become a tradition now anytime there is a UFC on. As usual it was a pretty good UFC. We headed to the food court after it was over and had lunch. I then had to get my haircut as it was getting a little long. I had promised PFC Pickle that I would watch X-Men with him, so we headed to the theatre and I watched it for the second time this weekend…lol. It was still good the second time around. We then went to the food court for dinner and parted ways. I did some schoolwork and then watched some TV shows before calling it a night.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 166 & 167

Spicy Ramen which was very good and spicy. I ordered a #2 on a 1-3 scale of hotness.
I'm pretty sure I could have handled a #3

This weekend was a pretty laid back weekend. I have plans for ones coming up, so I'm not bummed out or anything that I didn't do much.

Saturday: Woke up around 0830 and did laundry. I hate the dryer here (you may hear this every weekend until I'm outta here). There is only one dryer that actually has heat and it was in use when my clothes were finished washing. So I stuck mine in a dryer that just spun my clothes around and blew cold air on them. I kept checking and as soon as the clothes in the good dryer were done, I took out their clothes and placed them on top of the dryer. I then stuck mine in there so they could actually dry. A half hour later they were good to go and the other person's clothes were still on top. I started laundry at 0830 right after I woke up and wasn't able to finish until about 1230…good grief.

I was able to video chat with my wife though and then do a lot of schoolwork. I usually try and reserve Saturday to finish a lot of my schoolwork. The young hawaiian gave me a call and asked if I wanted to see "Fast Five" (the fifth installment of The Fast & Furious movie series). It is playing at the iPark Mall which is not too far from post. We left with another friend of his and headed out towards the mall. When we arrived we found the theatre in the mall (it's a huge mall). The way they sell tickets for the shows is interesting. You take a number and wait until your number is called. There is no line, just a small crowd of people waiting for their number to be called. We waited patiently and then purchased our tickets when our number finally showed.

We had about an hour before the show, so we found a place to eat in the mall. I had some spicy ramen which was excellent. (I did find out later that it comes out just as hot). We went into the show which was being shown in 4D. There were no 3D effects at all, but what we did experience actually made you feel like you were in the movie. The seats move during certain sequences and may even jerk or jump when a car slams against the wall or something. We could feel air blowing and different scents came for instance when they were on the beach. There were also little parts of the back seat that would move, especially during a fight scene when a person was thrown against a wall. The whole experience was pretty cool. I've been to similar ones at Universal studios and DisneyWorld, but this was the first normal movie that I've been to in 4D. I would recommend it for sure. It brings a new level to the movie watching experience.

The young hawaiian got a call from a a girl (that is a friend) and planned on going out with her to some club later on. He asked both me and his other friend if we wanted to join them. We both declined. As for me, the club scene is just not my scene. I also do not want to stay out until 5 in the morning either. I don't mind going out for a few beers, but not anything crazy like that. I chose to head back to my room and relax while watching a couple TV shows.

Sunday: I woke up around 0830 again. I had all intentions of even sleeping later, but my bladder and my body wouldn't have it. I got up and video chatted with my wife for a while. I then cleaned my room. Sweep, mop, and wipe everything down. I only clean my side and the bathroom, I don't touch my roommates side.

I got out for a bit and headed to get my hair cut. I went to the food court and had some ice cream, then headed to the library just to check it out. I haven't been to it yet and wanted to see what they had to offer. After that I headed to visit the young hawaiian who was on CQ duty at his barracks. I took my laptop so we could swap TV shows and movies. I asked him how last night went and he said he stayed out until 3AM. That seems pretty early for his usual weekends, but then again he did have a CQ shift today. When I asked him how the night went he said it was full of lies and deception. He's starting to get worried that he's going to forget everything he's told this girl. The girl is 27, so he told her that he's 26 (he's much younger). He also told her he's not in the army, he's a contractor with the US government. He lives in an apartment off post (but his roommate's parents are over, so they can't go there). Oh and he told her he's half Korean. When she asked about his last name, he said he took his mother's name. The guy is in pretty deep now…it's going to be hard for him to keep everything straight when he's around this girl…lol.

When I got back to my room I watched a movie the young hawaiian gave me. OMG! The movie (based on a true story) is called 127 hours and is about a hiker that goes out and gets stuck in a canyon. His arm is crushed by a boulder and pins it so he is trapped. He ends up cutting his own arm off in order to free himself. It's pretty crazy, I'm not sure if I could do that!

I now am under the 200 day mark for my stay left in Korea, I can’t wait to be reunited with my family!!!

Overheard Quote: "They don't even have normal people on the billboards here, you know black or white...they are all Korean!" (A black lady in the young hawaiian's barracks who was complaining about being in Korea. She couldn't believe that all their billboards and advertisements had Koreans as models. She felt that they were not very inviting to foreigners)

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

31 Below - (Korea) Day 121

It's interesting the things you come across when in another country.
I have never seen Aloe juice before...it was pretty good!

Work call this morning was at our normal time…0830, it's nice to have a somewhat slow week this week. When I arrived to work not a whole lot was going on. I helped out SPC Mick wrap some frames. Our office is also in charge of all the awards that go out, so we end up putting certificates with medals and coins in frames for the award. Normally this is something our KATUSA does, but he's now on leave. The frames were all done, they just needed to be wrapped in order to protect them.
I did a little 25B work as well. I am now getting computer and network related emails. I was informed that we have a laptop that will be quarantined unless it receives some updates. Luckily it was a secret laptop and we don't have too many of those, so it was pretty easy to find. I hooked it up to the network and waited. We also had another one that is an unclassified machine and I wasn't so lucky finding it. It seems only about half of our computers are labeled with their name on them, so it can be a little hard to find. If it's turned on I can check the name in the OS, but if it's not I will have to turn it on and then check. I didn't have a chance to check our sister offices yet, so it looks like I may be visiting them tomorrow.

We setup a meeting this afternoon in a conference room located over in the 8th army building. I hadn't been over there yet since we don't do meetings there very often. The building is nice and you can't even get in without a card and a code which none of us have, so we have to wait for someone to open the door for us. The setup was quick and painless, then we headed out to lunch. We went to a KATUSA snack bar and I had a pretty good dish…I just can't remember the actual name of it. It comes out in a sizzling hot bowl and is a mix of rice, beef and vegetables. Good stuff!

When we got back SPC Roy and I took off to go to PT. Before PT we headed to Baskin n' Robbins, they have a new item called 31 below which is basically a blizzard treat like they have at Dairy Queen. I love those things. I bought one for me and SPC Roy. Am I a bad influence on him? He didn't want to go work out right away and I wanted desert. He ended up dropping me off at my room and promised he would go home and work out in the gym that's in his building. I thought about working out, but decided to take a day off. I'm still coughing quite a bit and need to get better before my PT test. When I walked in my room there was an odd smell…it smelled like a swimming pool. I looked around and found the shower curtain pulled away from the bathtub. All of our soap was on the floor as well. After closer inspection I saw that the black mold that had been accumulating inside the shower wall was gone. I'm grateful for the cleanup, but I think they should have at least warned us that they will be doing this. When living in barracks you are at the mercy of whoever is in charge and they don't really care about your privacy, they just do what they want when they want. I have the window open and the fan going in the bathroom, but that smell of chlorine is just not going away. So much for breathing easier.

I did schoolwork and then took a nap. After waking up I decided to watch a movie again. To continue on my Rambo theme I watched "Rambo First Blood Part II". Ahhh it was fun to watch. It was pretty funny watching some of the scenes because it's old and some of the acting is a little sub-par. Lots of action though, blood and guts, things blowing up and communists dying. Basically Rambo gets out of prison so he can do a recon mission in Vietnam to see if there are any POWs left there. He is betrayed by the guy in charge and left out there to die. He ends up rescuing them all and bringing them back to safety after killing all the bad guys and blowing up almost everything. Fun times.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 116 & 117

Our CQ desk on high alert! LOL - I couldn't help stopping and taking a picture of this guy.

Saturday: I slept in as usual for a weekend. I have not much planned this weekend at all except relaxing and getting healthy. I felt a bit better, except when I stood up I felt some mild nausea, not too excited about this new development. I video chatted with my wife for a bit, then headed to the food court to hang out for a while. I watched some of the NCAA basketball games and also brought my laptop so I could download some extra entertainment. I have to be careful when downloading in my room because we have a limit each month and I don't want to go over it.

PFC Pickle ended up calling and came to visit. We had lunch and then dropped everything off at my room before venturing down to the movie theatre. We gotta get in our free movies while we can. The walk took quite a bit longer than usual, I had to take a few breaks. The nausea would come and go and the coughing fits would occur here and there, but we finally made it and on time to watch "Paul". A comedy about an alien who gets picked up by a couple on a road trip. It has some funny parts, but is one of those movies I wouldn't have paid money to go see at the theatre. Good for a Netflix queue addition or a watch when it comes out on TV.

On the way back to my room I bought a big jug of orange juice and a bottle of NyQuil. I'm going to beat this sickness one of these days. I did some schoolwork and then relaxed and watched a couple TV shows. I then took my NyQuil and fell asleep.

Sunday: I slept in even later that usual thanks to the help of my NyQuil induced mini-coma, that stuff really knocks me out. I woke up and thankfully the nausea was gone. I just have the chest congestion and the coughs still hanging around. The day was not very exciting as I just wanted to rest and get better. I started laundry and then video chatted with my wife and kids. After that I took a nap, then checked in with the new guy in our office SPC Mick to make sure he's doing OK. I let him know to bring all his orders and ID tomorrow so he can get all in-processed. I also let him know I'll come meet him and we can walk to the office together. Next up…another nap. I then did my schoolwork and took another nap.

My roommate came back and said he's been sick all weekend as well. Sounds like he has the exact same thing I have naturally. Except when he is describing the phlegm in his throat he calls it fire. "I have a lot of fire in my chest". It's the small things that make my day….LOL. The day ended with some more TV shows and then going to sleep. Hoping tomorrow is much better. I'm starting to get a little nervous now that April is coming, which means my PT test is coming soon. I normally wouldn't be worried, but I can't imagine trying to run 2 miles with my chest like this. I want to be healthy and have a week or two to get back in shape.

What The French - (Korea) Day 108

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 59-61

A photo I took while inside "The Naked Bar". It was still very early in the
night, so not a lot of people there yet. It looked like a bar you would see
in a science fiction film, where the characters visit a bar on another planet...
except instead of aliens, there were only Koreans.

Friday: Work call this morning was 0900 for driver's training once again. When I arrived we all sat in the conference room with the instructor and talked about movies until lunch. We discussed our favorite movies, good movies, bad movies and just about everything you could think of. One of the guys next to me stated that "12 Angry Men" was one of the great movies he loved. Everyone looked at him with a questioning look as if they've never heard of that movie before. I quickly added "It's a gay porn". That had everyone laughing. We were then dismissed for lunch, which brings up something that came up in our class today. We have two girls that work in the DFAC on post. The one that has been sitting next to me said that she doesn't ever eat at the DFAC! That is interesting a person that works there, but will not eat there. I guess maybe it's a good thing that I don't eat there either.
After lunch we came back and we then took turns driving around post with the instructor. I was in the first group. We were told it was going to be a stick shift, but it turns out that it was in the shop. My guess it's getting repaired from the previous classes that couldn't drive a stick. The three of us took turns driving around post. We didn't do anything special, the instructor just wanted to make sure we could in fact drive. When we got back I headed up to the barracks and did some schoolwork. The class I'm taking now "Introduction to Programming" is not my cup of tea. I find myself struggling every step of the way. I've never cared too much for programming, and I'm not quite sure why I even have to take it for my degree. I just hope I can struggle through it and pass the class to move on to the next one. Usually I want to get an A, but I don't really care at all about this class…just as long as I pass.

Later on I met up with the young hawaiian and we went out to Itaewon to find a place to eat. We checked out a number of restaurants. There are so many it makes it hard to choose. We were also on somewhat of a budget, so we ended up choosing a place called "The Naked Bar & Grill". Tonight's special was rib eye steak for 13,000 Won (about $13). It was an interesting place and the food was really good. We headed back to post after that and watched "No Strings Attached"at the theatre. This may be the first time I've watched a chick flick with another dude. I'm secure in my masculinity though :). It was a romantic comedy and wasn't too bad. It had it's funny parts. Instead of the usual romantic comedy where the guy loses the girl and then gets her back, it was the girl who lost her guy and had to get him back.

Saturday: I was told my sergeant was coming this morning, so I woke up at 0800 and made sure my room was clean. I mopped the floor and wiped everything down. He came looked around really quick and then asked if I was doing OK and if I had any questions. It turned out to be somewhat of a wellness check I guess. I heard there was a suicide on post and this is in response to that. They want to check and make sure everything's going well with the soldiers.

I lost internet today as well. I had just cancelled my service which cost me $60 a month in favor of sharing my roommate's service which will cost me $20 a month. Little did I know we hit our 30 GB limit and he was gone for the weekend. Grrrrr. I've grown to rely on the internet for a lot of my entertainment, communication, and school needs. It's kind of impractical not to have it in our room now. I talked to my roommate and he's going to see if he can up the limit and we'll try to monitor our usage a little better. I won't know if he can or not until this Monday. If he can't I'll have to go back to my more expensive, but reliable internet. So until Monday I will be back to using the food court internet. Ugghhh

I've been watching a ton of TV shows lately (perhaps part of the cause of going over our internet limit). I've been trying to catch up on everything that I've fallen behind on since going to basic. I love being able to watch one episode after another without having to wait a week for a new one to come out.

Sunday: Woke up at 0800 and got ready. I then went over to the young hawaiian's room and we waited for his sergeant to come pick us up. His sergeant (I'll call him SGT Chamorro) asked if we wanted to go shopping with him in Osan. He said there is some good shops up there. I figured I would go just to get out and do something different. We drove to Osan which is about an hour away, it's the air force base we flew into Korea when we first arrived here.

SGT Chamorro wasn't kidding when he said there was good shopping there. Right outside of the base are a ton of shops lined up block after block selling everything you can think of. I'm not much for shopping, I'm your typical male. I usually know what I want and go in to get it and get out. It's a little different here in Korea, there is just so much stuff it can be neat to just window shop. I just wish it was a little warmer out (more on that in a bit). I also would like to roam free next time. I just followed the guys I was with into each shop, but there are so many more that I'd like to check out just to see what kind of stuff they have in there.

I was able to get my wife what I think is a pretty cool present, but I can't actually say what it is cause she'll read this before she gets it. I had her present in a bag. It was actually wrapped in a plastic bag, which was placed in another designer bag, then placed in a plastic shopping bag. I am very glad this was the case. Each of the shops we went into usually had some sort of space heater in them. I guess central air, or any type of heat isn't an option in these shops. Well it was so cold I would usually migrate next to the space heater. I was doing this while the other guys were looking at some sort of questionable video game device (some sort of usb stick that you could plug into a Wii and play a number of video games…didn't sound very legit). All of a sudden the owner says "you're on fire". I wasn't actually on fire, but my bag had started to melt to the space heater. I guess I couldn't feel it because I was still too cold. I also couldn't smell it because my nose was running too much. After inspecting my bag I found that it had melted through everything all the way to the gift I bought, but there was no damage to the gift. I was literally seconds away from ruining the valentines day present I just bought my wife! That would have sucked!!! The shop worker had to wipe off his space heater because there was melted plastic still all over it…lol

We then ate at a place called ThaiLand which was very good. I had some spicy noodle dish, then we headed back on base and checked out their PX before heading back. On the way back I fell asleep, but woke up when our car decided to die right in the middle of the hwy. SGT Chamorro was trying to get it started back up as people were driving by honking at us. One guy even had a loudspeaker and I think he was cussing us out as he drove by. The car finally started and we made it back without further incident.

I had to go to the food court so I could use their internet to do some school work and video chat with my wife. I need internet back in the barracks…that sucks!