I can now have some Fahrvergnügen - (Germany) Day 16

Woke up at 0700 again this morning and readied myself for the day. Lately I have no idea when I'll be picked up, so I just try and be ready by 0800 and see what happens. This morning was not much different. I was ready and then my wife and I watched another episode of Sons of Anarchy…a great way to start the day. Then I skimmed through the study guide for the drivers test. I received a call about 0900 and was told a girl from my office would be picking me up. This is one of the girls we met on New Years Eve, so at least I have met her before.

We headed to CIF and picked up all my issues gear. It was a pretty simple process since I already have a number of items that were shipped with my stuff from Korea, they only issued me some basic items such as a ruck sack, some wet weather gear, a sleeping mat and of course my body armor. We put all the stuff in the van and brought it back to my house. The girl from my office ran some errands before coming back and picking up my wife and I to take us back to Central Processing. Central Processing is also the same place that has the PX and other shops, since my wife was getting cabin fever the girl in our office invited her to come along. I had to take my test to drive a POV (Privately Owned Vehicle) in Germany.

We all ate lunch together and then I headed to take my test and my wife checked out the various shopping venues. I thought I was going to just take a test, but it turned out to be a little instruction via a movie, then some PowerPoint slides before the test. I am not complaining because I kept hearing about people that failed the test multiple times before passing, so I wanted all the extra instruction as possible. Some German driving laws are a bit different than in the US:

You can get fined if you leave your car parked and unsecured. So for instance you leave your car unlocked and have some valuables in it and they get stolen…not only are you losing the valuables, but if you report it, you can get a fine for not securing your car.

All drivers must carry a reflective triangle and a first aid kit under the passenger seat or in the glove compartment. If you get caught without these you can get fined.

Do not run out of gas on the autobahn…if you get caught…you will get fined.

The German police can use physical force to test you for drugs or alcohol if needed.

There are a lot more, but I don't have all night to write them all out…LOL. Basically a lot of the laws and general rules are similar. You have to focus on the various road signs and the "right of way" because it's a little different. That makes up the majority of the test, which I passed with flying colors…only missing 3. The entire process took about 3 hours

The surprise came when I went to get my license in the next room over…I had to wear my glasses in order to read the chart. My eyesight is going downhill.

I met up with my wife and the girl from my office and she brought us back home. We ended up walking to the commissary and then eating dinner before watching a few shows. Not sure what tomorrow has in store for me as I've now finished everything except for the rescheduled briefings in central processing.

Health and Wellness - (Germany) Day 10

Goofing around at the PowerZone during an extended break while in-processing

This morning I was picked up by my sponsor at 0820. We headed to the main processing facility once again. The briefings started at 0845 and today's topic was health and wellness. We were briefed on diet and exercise, but unlike the other days which were just "Death By PowerPoint", today we actually all had to get up and be involved. After the brief we had to line up for two stations. The first station measured our body fat percentage and body mass index (BMI). The next station took our blood pressure. We were then briefed about the results…all of mine fell within the normal category, so I guess I'm doing OK.

The next briefing was given by the self proclaimed "Condom Queen". This lady came in with a bag that had various condoms all over it. She was pretty funny and went through her "shock and awe" presentation showing us all the gross stuff that STDs can do to you with some very graphic photos that I could have done without. I don't care to see penis, vaginas and butts all messed up with diseases. During the brief anyone that answered a question from her was given a condom from her condom bag. She had various colors, flavors, and even glow in the dark ones.

We waited a bit for the next brief, but they never showed up so we were let go early around 1100. I headed to work on getting the rest of my in-processing done. We have a sheet that has a number of things we need to get checked off before we can finish in-processing. These briefs are part of them and they have specific times, but there are numerous others that require no appointments and we can just go in and get the in-processing done. I was able to turn in my medical and dental records. I finished Tri-Care, Transportation, Army Community Services, and also the drivers licensing office which set a date for me to take my test to get a license so I can drive here in Germany.

I ate lunch with a guy from my battalion and a young girl that sat next to me. We headed to Popeye's and then wasted some time at the PowerZone and the book store. This young girl is only 18 and is here on her first duty assignment. It blows my mind when I think that I have a daughter who is only 3 years younger. I still think of her as this young child, but in three years she is going to be out and about in the world…pretty crazy!

A specialist I hadn't met yet from our battalion came and picked us up and dropped me off at my place. I was home about 1530. I guess I'm lucky because the other guy always has to go to the PT formation each morning just to check in and the evening formation as well. He also has to go to his office each day, but doesn't have a computer account yet so he can't do much.

Once home I walked to the commissary to pick up some items and then had dinner with my wife. I then started to read my study guide for the drivers test that I'll have to take next week. There is a lot of stuff I have to learn. I hear a lot of people fail it the first time…I'm hoping I'm not one of those!

Licensed to Drive - (Korea) Day 72

Work call this morning was at 0345 for an early meeting that we had to setup for. After we had it all setup and had everything prepared for the next meeting we went back to the barracks where I was able to lay back down for about an hour before going back to work. We spent the rest of the morning preparing for the rest of the days meetings. I left and went to battalion for a Korean drivers ed pre-test at 0800. We spent a little time reviewing and then took the test, which I scored a 100% on…it's pretty easy stuff. We were then told to study and come back to the testing building at 1300 to take the real test (which is the exact same test as our pre-test). I went back to work and helped out. This week has been extremely busy because of the upcoming training exercise, there are more meetings than ever and everyone is getting worn out.

We had to get in our full battle rattle and form up outside for an inspection. Our sergeant checked to make sure we had everything including our weapons card, ID, and dog tags. Our KATUSA forgot his dog tags and was rewarded with some push-ups by our sergeant. He also did not have cat eyes for his helmet, but that was not his fault because KATUSA were not issued them. After the inspection our KATUSA, SPC Roy and I took our TMP van that our office signed out and went to get it cleaned up. There is a place on post that we can wash the cars and vacuum them out without being charged. The normal place we went had all the hoses frozen, so we had to go where the buses are washed and use those hoses. We cleaned it inside and out until it sparkled all because we'll be picking up the general tomorrow at the helicopter pad and transporting him into the bunker. Everything has to be perfect.

I then ate a quick lunch and went to take my real Korean drivers test. I passed without even having to think, but surprisingly 3 people failed! How can you fail a test that you have taken already and have all the answers to for a week before the test? I don't understand. I thought we would be through after that, but we also had to take a number of other tests as well. We had to take a color blindness test, an eye test and a reaction time test. The reaction time test had us use a little machine in the room that had a gas peddle and a brake peddle. The instructor would show a green light and when the red light came on we had to press on the brake as fast as possible to simulate an emergency stop. You basically can't fail this because if you don't score high enough the instructor has you keep trying until you pass.

On the way back I called my wife to let her know it's going to be another long day and there would be no video chat tonight. Yesterday I didn't get to video chat and today I will not be able to either which really sucks. I have had no time to do much of anything besides work. When I got back we had to take another van out and get it cleaned just like the first one. We will be heading out tomorrow to Tango for some meetings and we'll be taking both vans.

When we got back me and SPC Roy headed to the PX. I went to the clothing store to pick up some rank patches (I bought some yesterday, but when I opened them I found they were the sew on kind and not the velcro kind….grrrrr). I also bought our KATUSA the cat eyes he was missing and had them sew on his name and blood type. I did my good deed for the day.

There has been network issues on post all day. Nobody has been able to use email or get to hardly any websites. Strangely people can get to Google, but not much else, so there has been a lot of frustration throughout the staff. I'm sure the 25B people who are actually doing computer work are busy now too!

We wrapped up the day at work by cleaning up from the last meeting of the day and I left around 1930 close to the same time as yesterday, but because we came in earlier it was an even longer day. You can tell the lack of sleep and the long days are already wearing on the staff. I bought me and SPC Roy a big monster energy drink earlier in the day and for a while we were both feeling like we were on speed, then when it wore off we both were dragging. We get to do it all over again tomorrow as work call is again a very early 0345! At least it's Friday, I'm going to sleep in late on Saturday morning.

The night consisted of doing the minimum amount for my schoolwork, checking Facebook, and writing this. Now I'm going to crash and take a nap before I start all over again tomorrow.

Whiplash - (Korea) Day 65

A random photo of a guard tower right outside my barracks.
It's not used and all fenced off, but ever since I arrived here
at Yongsan, I've had the desire to climb it and take pictures....
I wonder how much trouble I would get in....

Work call this morning was at 0800 for Korean Drivers Ed once again. The plan was to take another pre-test and then take the official test. However, because of the "Lunar New Year" holiday all the Koreans on post were off…including the building where we were going to take our test. So instead of testing we were going to go out driving again. I asked if I had to stay and was told yes, because today we were driving a stick shift van and they wanted to make sure everyone could drive a stick. No problem, my last truck was a stick. I would soon find out that there were plenty of others that had never driven a stick before and it turned out to be pretty funny.

*Side Note* Lunar New Year is a big deal here in Korea. The ROK and KATUSA end up getting a number of days off. This week the KATUSA were only here on Monday and then got the rest of the week off. We even get Friday off as well for it. Most of the post is shut down because of this on at least Thursday & Friday

All 14 of us piled into this van and the instructor drove us to the Dragon Hill Lodge where we took our first break. We went inside and a number of people went down to Subway and got some breakfast sandwiches. I used the facilities and then waited around with everyone else in the lobby. There were a number of Houston Texans cheerleaders walking around which caught everyone's eyes. They are here for the Superbowl and will perform during the show for the troops and their families. A similar event took place last month with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, but I didn't make it to that show. I guess cheerleaders in Texas like Korea???

We started off with one of the girls in our class trying to back out of the parking spot. It was a mess! She would move about an inch and then kill it. It was pretty funny as we all started giving her 10 points every time the van would die. She had 70 points when the instructor finally took over. He drove out of the parking lot an onto a roadway where she could start over again. She ended up with 85 points. Surprisingly this was not the winner. The winner was a female sergeant who is a chaplain's assistant. I guess she needed to pray a little more because she ended up with 130 points! Everyone had a fun time, there was lots of laughter and whiplash for everyone. One girl was taking a drink out of her plastic bottle and the whole thing went into her mouth as the van lurched back and forth. I drove fine and got 0 points as well as two others in our van, everyone else got at least 30 points or so. The instructor at one point had to tell a driver to "keep your hands on the wheel at all times". The person would let go and put their hands in the air every time the van would die as if saying "it's not my fault".

After lunch I headed into the office and then went to the company to try and get my finances straightened out. After spending a good hour or two there and printing off multiple copies of everything, I think it's all good to go. The specialist helping me out was very nice and thorough, so I'm hoping it all goes through this time. I need to check back with her next week to make sure it's all good.

When I got back we setup for the last meeting of the day and then cleaned the office. We were out by 1600 and I left back to my barracks to video chat with my wife for a bit.

I borrowed a DVD from the guy on CQ shift which I had never heard of. It's called "The Great Raid" and is described as "The most daring rescue mission of our time is a story that has never been told". I had to check this thing out since I like war movies and it sounded pretty good. The movie was inspired by true events and at the end during the credits it showed a lot of real footage from what really happened which was pretty cool. It's a World War II movie that takes place in the Philippines. As US troops were advancing the Japanese would kill all the POWs they had instead of turning them over. Knowing this a group of rangers went out ahead of the force in the Philippines, planned and executed a rescue operation of over 511 POWs from the Japanese. It was a pretty cool flick, I'm really surprised that I never even heard of it before. It wasn't Oscar worthy or anything, but still worth seeing.

Overhear Quote: "When I start drinking I like to hit on black chicks" (one of the guys in the van talking about going drinking for the four day weekend coming up)

Half and Half - (Korea) Day 62

This morning I had PT at 0600. I was the only one there from our office because their work call was at 0600 for some early meetings. Since I had Korean drivers ed today, I was able to go. The problem was nobody in the office new where the PT formation was supposed to be. It's usually in front of the company which is about a 10 minute walk, or right in front of our barracks. I was planning on going to the company, but luckily on the way out of the barracks I saw a girl from our sister office and asked her if she knew where the formation was. She said it was in front of our barracks…so glad I ran into her. I wasn't too worried though, I figured if I missed the formation nobody would know because there was nobody from my office lol. We did some sprints, jogged around the block at a slow pace, ran up the stairs a few times, and did some push-ups and sit-ups.

Work call this morning was at 0900 for Korean drivers ed. Our class all started showing up in battalion, but nobody knew where to go…so we all just sort of hung out in the hall way. Finally our instructor showed up and said both the conference room and the classroom were being used. We ended up going on a motor pool field trip. We all walked up to the motor pool and were shown how to do an inspection of the vehicle. This is something that is required before taking any vehicle out. It includes basic checking of all the fluid levels, lights, and other basic stuff. After this we broke for lunch.

When we came back we ended up going to the little gym and taking our pre-test on a racket ball court floor. The pre-test turned out to be a total waste of time. I had my paper graded and missed quite a few, so I started checking the answers and they were correct. I showed the instructor and he confirmed. Turns out they didn't have all the correct answers, so we were told we'll get a new copy tomorrow. After that we were dismissed for the day. Any other day I would have just went back to my room and chilled, but SPC Roy is moving and had to leave at lunch. I went into work and helped cover for his absence.

I ended up covering our sergeants desk taking calls and doing SkillPorts. I also had enough time to check in on my schoolwork. After that I helped setup for a meeting that is going on tomorrow morning. I will not be attending tomorrow's Korean drivers ed because it is on tactical driving (driving the hummers and bigger trucks). I just need my TMP license which will let me drive the government car. I will check in with the sergeant though and get those correct answers at some point during the day. I was told we'll have our official test on Thursday.

After work I headed back to my room. I still have no internet, but my roommate said it should be up tomorrow afternoon. I'm so happy because if he said it was going to be any longer, I was going to go back to my old expensive service. Not having internet really sucks. I would say it's a must when you're living in the barracks. I was able to call and talk to my wife and kids today, but video chat is so much better. Also just checking in on Facebook helps me see what my friends and family are up to. It helps me not feel so far away from everyone. Plus I need to be able to download and upload stuff for school. I'm already not feeling comfortable with this class.

So what did I do to pass the time? I watched a whole crap load of TV shows that I had downloaded (probably what put us over the limit with the internet…lol) I'll be keeping an eye on our usage from now on.

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!

Summer & Winter Driving - (Korea) Day 58

Wow…today was pretty slow. Work call was at 0900 for the Korean driver's ed again. I showed up and we went through a couple of PowerPoints (winter & summer driving in Korea). I think the instructor had more planned, but had to do something else. After a short break he came in and said "OK…see you all tomorrow at 0900". It had hardly been an hour. I came back to my room and pretty much hung out there for the rest of the day. I did some school work and some SkillPorts.
I then video chatted with my wife and watched shows. Not a whole lot to report on today except that I'm pretty sore from the PT we did yesterday. I think the "iron mikes" got me. I'm not used to doing all the squatting and now my butt and legs are feeling pretty sore.

On a side tech note...after a little more research it seems as though the google analytics that I installed may be the culprit for disabling the commenting feature on this blog. I installed it a few weeks back to see what kind of information it shows. It’s really a great tool for webmasters, but from what I’ve read it can mess with iWeb’s commenting features. I’ll have to check into this a bit more. Until then if you have questions or comments you can always reach me by E-Mail 

FS MILLER

Yea I have tried to comment a few time, but to no avail.

Friday, January 28, 2011 - 12:17 AM

Korean Drivers Ed (Rollovers) - (Korea) Day 57

Here is a copy of one of the training videos we watched in class during a more lighthearted moment.

This morning I attended the company PT for the first time. Formation was at 0600 and it was cold. Even though I had on full winter PT gear by the end of PT my fingers, toes, & face were numb. We marched back up to our barracks and did some sprints back and forth in the parking lot. After each sprint we would do a set of 15-20 push-ups. We then did some runs up and down the small hills leading up to our barracks with stops for some push-ups in-between. After that we marched back to the company headquarters and then dismissed. The PT wasn't hard and as much as I hate to say it, it will probably benefit me in the end when I have to actually do my PT test. I know we will be doing some running which I'm not too terribly fond of. This will force me to get out there and run.
Work call was at 0900 for my Korean driver's training class. Today we watched a number of video clips one right after another. I brought my coffee, but I was still barely able to stay awake. We learned what to do in case of a rollover and we also learned that Korea is the most dangerous country to drive in. I hope I don't have to do that much driving while I'm here…after seeing what it's like out there on the streets I have no desire to drive a car out there.

We were dismissed at lunch time for the rest of the day. I had lunch with SPC Roy and Special K, then came back to my room and video chatted with my wife for a bit. After that I fell asleep. I was so tired, I couldn't keep my eyes open. After a good nap I woke up and was refreshed and ready to go. I did a little school work and then just kicked back and watched a bunch of shows on my laptop.

FS MILLER

Ah hahaha I am going to have to use that on my next post.

Friday, January 28, 2011 - 12:18 AM

One Eyed Buffalo & Terminators - (Korea) Day 56

A photo of a "one eyed buffalo". We saw a few pictures in class
of different variations of these driving down the streets.

Work call this morning was at 0900 at the driver's training class. I headed to the classroom we were in yesterday and was told class was no longer in this room, go down to the conference room down stairs. OK…so I went downstairs and found the very small conference room. There were about 15 of us in the class. The sergeant teaching the class seems like a pretty cool laid back dude. He skimmed through a lot of the slides and said we can eat and drink in there as long as we clean up after ourselves.

The main stuff we went over today was drinking and driving. Alcohol is available to purchase here in Korea 24/7…there is no "last call". "Soju is very cheap and effective". The Korean police setup DUI checkpoints at various locations where they just randomly use a breathalyzer to test drivers. I've heard this before from SPC Roy who (with good reason) will not drive at all once he's had a drink. If you get caught you can get in pretty big trouble with the army.

Another point was to never touch Koreans after an accident. There have been many examples of Koreans saying they were injured after the fact by someone trying to help them. I've heard many stories of similar acts by Koreans here. I've heard they have a very high rate of insurance claims from accidents. I've also heard that you should never hit one with your car…or it's all over for you. Even if you barely bump a person they will fall over and exaggerate that they were practically run over. On a similar note I've also heard that you shouldn't get into a fight with them because they will just fall down and tell the police you attacked them.

We went through some slides about the different road signs here in Korea that we may see. We saw a number of photos of crashes of military vehicles. There were also some photos of what can happen during the rainy season here, one in particular showed a US tank in the middle of what looked like a river being swept away. Now that's some pretty impressive rain!

We were told to watch out for "one-eyed buffalos" and 'terminators". One-eyed Buffalos are basically a rototiller modified with some sort of trailer. These are slow moving vehicles usually carrying big loads. The terminators are basically a semi or dump truck that has a very impressive motor. They can hall ass and if you get hit by one…you'll be terminated.

We had a two hour lunch, when we came back we sat around for about a half hour waiting for the instructor. When he came in he said "see you tomorrow at 0900". So I took off and went back to my room. My plan was to get a jump start on my school, but every time I started reading my programming book, I fell asleep. This may be a tough class to get through. I finally gave up and video chatted with my wife for a while.

Drivers Ed - (Korea) Day 55

Today was a little strange. PT was cancelled this morning because of all the snow. I had a drivers training class this morning (and all week). I saw a report on the Yongsan Facebook page that said everything on base was going to open two hours late. I checked with my sergeant and he said he didn't know if the class was going to be late, so I needed to go there at 0800 just in case. I went and sure enough they told me to come back at 1000, so I went back to my room and video chatted with my wife for a bit.

When I'm finished with this class I'll be able to drive a GOV (Government Owned Vehicle) in Korea. This isn't something I'm actually looking forward to after seeing the people drive out there. I headed down to the class and waited for everyone to arrive. Class was being held in a room at our battalion building. The sergeant started asking everyone if they've been studying and if they're ready for the test. I started to think I was really missing something, nobody gave me anything to study. Oh crap! Turns out that I was one of the new people in class. There were a few of us and the sergeant instructor told us we wouldn't be doing anything today and to just report back tomorrow at 0900. Well that is good news, I was starting to get a little worried.

I headed back to my office and ended up doing SkillPorts and school for most of the day. I helped setup for a meeting that is going on tomorrow, then we all took off about 1530. We had PT at the gym since it was cancelled this morning. Me and SPC Roy and I took on 3 ROK honor guard soldiers in a game of 3 on 2 basketball. They were not that good, but smart enough to pass the ball around until they got a good shot. We just couldn't keep up with them and ended up losing all three games we played. We had very close games, but just couldn't win. It turned out to be a great workout though, the two of us trying to keep up with the three of them.

The rest of the night was me relaxing, doing a little school work and watching some shows. I also got two boxes from my family. I'll tell you that it doesn't matter how old you get, it's always nice to get a box in the mail especially when you are far from home. I got some clothes, a warm coat (perfect for the weather here) and some other goodies. I love my family!