Weekend Wrap-Up (Veteran's Day) - (Germany) Day 318 - 321

A view down the Hauptstraße in downtown Heidelberg. A lot of people

out and about for the middle of a Monday!

Friday: I started the 4 day holiday still working. I had to finish up my staff duty shift until 0900. The good news is that I was able to sleep for short periods from time to time. I put in my headphones and listened to music drifting in and out of sleep either in my chair, on a very hard couch, and also on the floor at one point. Staff duty has to be one of the stupidest things we do. Why they can't just assign a cell phone to an NCO for a week or so instead is beyond me. No, two people have to sit and waste time for 24 hours doing nothing. It also takes two people out of the office for that next day's shift when they get staff duty on a weekday. The office is down people and our sleep pattern is all messed up.

After we got off shift, I headed home and slept some more, I didn't get up until a bit after 1400. So with the day pretty much over, I didn't do much. I still felt a little off for the rest of the day. My wife came home from work and we watched some shows together, but that is about it. Hurray for the first day of this holiday weekend.

Saturday: Today we headed off to downtown Heidelberg to grab some Starbucks coffee. Nothing like having some coffee while looking out at the rain, reminds me of being back home in the Seattle area. We also picked up a couple of sweatshirts from the Heidelberg University. This is one thing we wanted to make sure we got for ourselves before we leave. A souvenir we can wear and remember our time here in this cool city.

We then headed off to Ramstein air base to do some shopping at their large PX. We started our Christmas shopping and have to try and get it all done this month so we can ship it all back to everyone. We got a few people crossed off the list. Unfortunately the weather has been kind of wet lately. If it wasn't raining we had planned to check out a city we haven't been to yet, but I think those trips may be few and far between this fall and winter because of the weather.

By the time we got back we were both pooped and just watched some shows on TV.

Sunday: This was a day of cleaning. We cleaned pretty much the entire house most of the day. A good time to catch up on laundry and everything else that seemed to be falling behind. At the end of the day we sat down to eat and watch a show when all of a sudden the fire alarm in our stairwell went off…again. It goes off every now and then and is too loud to keep watching TV, so we paused our show and just ate. There have been so many false alarms, we don't even get up and go outside anymore. Normally the fire truck comes pretty quick and the firemen check out the building and turn off the alarm. Tonight I think they wanted to finish dinner before they came out, because it took over 40 minutes for them to arrive and turn off the alarm…talk about annoying. If there would have been a fire, the entire building would have been only ashes by the time they arrived. I guess that is government efficiency at its best.

Today was also Veteran's Day. It's a little different serving in the military in another country. I think at the best of times the relationships between the U.S. military and the host country it is occupying is cordial. There are always going to be a percentage of the population that thinks of the U.S. presence in their country as everything from a hassle or nuisance to an actual occupying force that is not welcome. Here in Germany the relations are OK, but there are still a lot of people that do not want us here. We are encouraged to not wear our uniform outside of the post. We are also encouraged to blend in as much as possible. With that said, Veteran's Day here in Germany is basically a non-event. We do get a four day weekend out of the deal, but that is about it. There are the posts on Facebook, but that is pretty much the extent of the holiday here. In the states there are parades, free food at participating restaurants, and a grateful nation. I'm not complaining that I'm here in Europe, just noting the differences.

Monday: Today I was going to meet a guy I went to high school with for lunch. It turns out that he lives here in Heidelberg and is not in the military. I was planning on finding out the rest of his story during lunch, but right before he was about to come his wife went into labor…LOL. I guess I'll have to wait on having lunch with him for a while now.

My wife and I instead decided to try a Chinese restaurant called "China Town Restaurant" we heard about downtown. The place was actually pretty decent, which has been hard to find here in Germany. We then spent the rest of the day walking around downtown and doing some Christmas shopping. 

I'm going to miss Heidelberg once we do get moved. The downtown is always fun to visit, the architecture is awesome, there are plenty of stores for all tastes, and there are enough restaurants to keep you busy all day and then some.

The weekend in general was pretty laid back. A lot of Christmas shopping was done, but that was about it. We have big plans for the Thanksgiving day holiday and we also plan to visit a lot of the Christmas markets that we have heard so much about. So I'm hoping I have a little more to write about in these upcoming weekends!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Looking down at one of the intersections in Myeong-dong

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

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 109 & 110

A view of the packed subway car we were in...people everywhere!

Saturday: I love weekends…I love sleeping in! After waking up, I did my normal Saturday routine of laundry and cleaning my room. I then video chatted with my wife for a while before doing some schoolwork. I met up with the young hawaiian for lunch at The Pizza School. I love that place, the pizza is pretty good and it's very cheap.

I heard that yellow sand was higher than normal today. SPC Roy had called me and told me that I may not want to hang outside too long today because of it. We were told about yellow sand during our in-processing. It looks just like smog around the city. The USFK website shows the current levels each day. It's basically a big dust storm that starts in China and blows down to South Korea. There are fine dry soil particles as well as pollutants from China in it, so it can be a little unhealthy to hang outside when it's high. It's also not a good idea to do any sort of physical activity if possible. I don't know if it was the power of suggestion or what, but I was finding it a little harder to breathe. I feel like I have a chest cold or something. SPC Roy mentioned that sometimes if there is yellow sand around (but not enough for a warning to go out) and we do a PT test, it makes it pretty tough to run the two mile. He said it feels like you're trying to breathe with someone sitting on your chest. Sounds like fun.

The young hawaiian and I decided to try something new and adventurous. We took the subway again and made our way to the COEX mall. This time we headed the right direction and made the switch to the correct subway line when needed in order to get there. The mall is huge. We had a good time just walking around and checking everything out. People watching is interesting as well. There is also a casino attached to the mall and we checked that out too. The young hawaiian showed me his favorite game of chance…baccarat. We played it a little while with $20 each. I just gave him my money and we agreed to split the winnings. I just wanted to see how the heck the game was played. After reaching around $250 with dreams of steak dinner in my eyes, we ended up giving it all back to the casino and instead we had $6 dinners that night. Luckily the mall had a lot of great places to eat and they didn't cost too much. Even though we lost, it was fun playing and learning the game somewhat.

SPC Roy called and decided to meet us at the mall on his way home from his in-laws. We had a few drinks and then we all went home.

Sunday: After sleeping in, I brewed my coffee and had breakfast. I then video chatted with my wife for a while. Just the easy going mornings with my coffee while video chatting with my wife is one of my favorite times during the week. I went over to the other barracks to watch the UFC fight which because of daylight savings now comes on at 1100, which still isn't bad. I was amazed at Jon Jones. I hadn't really watched too much of him before, but this guy has such a reach advantage nobody can get close to him. He just destroyed Shogun and took the championship belt from him with ease it seemed. Very impressing!

I then did a little schoolwork, video chatted with my wife some more and then went out with PFC Pickle. We had dinner at the food court and then went to the theatre to watch The Dilemma. A romantic comedy that was pretty decent. It's about a guy who finds his best friend's wife is cheating on him. He has to decide if he should tell his friend or wait until they finish a big deal first.

On the walk back SPC Roy called me and asked me to stop by the office to see when the first meeting is, that will decide when our work call is. I did and found out that there is a meeting at 0700…bummer, that means work call is at 0600. It seems no matter how early we go in, we always still get off at the same time or later.

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!

UFC 118 - No Hooters (AIT - Fort Gordon) Day 73

Army landscaping...around the base you will see sandbags used
in all kinds of ways :)

Have I said I'm glad I'm not at Charlie lately? LOL. There are a number of soldiers there that were required to have some mandatory fun today. They have to go to some concert. I have no idea even what kind of music it was, but it was required. Hopefully its not too bad for all of them.

I left the barracks a little early this morning so I could swing by the bank on the way to the PX. I wanted to make sure I got to it before it closed since its a Saturday. My grandma sent me a cashiers check for my birthday and I wanted to cash it. So I went in the bank and asked if they could cash it. Turns out they only cash checks from their bank or for their members. So I said you’re a bank that doesn’t cash checks?. The teller explained they cant because what if it was a bad check?. I said are you kidding me? Its a cashiers check lady. Still no go, so I walked out pissed off. Not a great way to start the day.

We walked over to the PX and I asked if they could cash it...sure no problem. Strange...a bank that wont cash a check, but a store that will. Whatever I'm happy now, I have my cash. First thing to buy...a haircut! Next thing I bought was some more PT uniforms. With all these harder workouts here at RBK I’ve been going through all my PTs and I've either had to do a wash in the middle of the week, or use my "for display only" PTs. The young Hawaiian was with me and we had breakfast at a little restaurant called The Huddle House. Pretty good and inexpensive breakfasts.

I came back to the barracks and worked on my SkillPorts until I finished all of them. What a relief to get all of those out of the way. We have to have them all done by week 12 and it was starting to get a little too close for comfort. I didn’t want to be scrambling to finish them at the last minute.

I had plans to go to Hooters tonight and watch the UFC 118, but PFC Metal went to a concert and everyone else either can't go or has hall guard shifts. Right when I was wondering how I was going to watch the fights the young Hawaiian comes into my room and says he has it streaming on his laptop. In true 25 Bravo fashion he hooked his laptop up to the day room TV. So we have a big picture and sound, not too shabby. Pretty soon we had a small crowd gathered around watching the fights, including the sergeant on desk..LOL. It turned out to be pretty fun, not a big Hooters crowd and no beer...but it was still fun. 

Near the end of the fights after midnight all of a sudden I hear “At Ease”. I thought someone was joking, but everyone jumped up anyway. Turns out the Command Sergeant Major came in the room in civilian clothes. That guy has no life...no life at all!

Overheard Quote: “I’m feeling a little down...I just found out my hero Neil Patrick Harris is gay” (while eating pizza with Pvt Celtic and the ex-cop. The ex-cop said this, and he was quite serious too. It was pretty funny because you could actually tell he wasn’t joking. He was taking it pretty hard too. I started laughing so hard I almost spit out my pizza)

the Wife

 
The Ex-Cop comment had me laughing so hard I had tears! Where has he been and was he really serious?
 

Sunday, August 29, 2010 - 09:35 PM