Fun on the Slopes

Although the weather right now is in the balmy 30's with wind chill factor's getting into the single digits at night there isn't much snow to speak of. Oh we've had a few days with some snowfall but it melts away fairly quickly. And yet today our church group went out sledding at the Mubongsan snow park located outside Jinui and Osan City. We guessed that they must have an artificial snow machine, because it was the only place around with the white stuff on the ground and it was probably a good foot thick... and hard. There was also a Buddhist temple that was up on the hill opposite of the park (you can see it a little bit in the background of picture number 6). Maybe one of these days I can make a trip out to see that as well.

When we first arrived there were not a whole lot of people there, but that changed pretty quickly. You can see that in picture number 4 with the crowd on top the hill waiting to go down. It seemed that everyone in the area came out for a day of fun in the snow. The hill was a little small, but was mostly set up for kids, so a bunch of crazy American adults flying down the slope was a funny sight for the Koreans to behold I'm sure.

We spent a few hours there and had a blast! We all got a little snowy from crashing down the hill and had a lot of laughs. It was a fun weekend activity. So now enjoy the few pictures I was able to take before the camera froze up on me (I tried to take a video of one of my runs, but that didn't work out, but I had fun trying).

Ghost of Exercises Past

So, just my luck... I got here to Osan just before an Operational Readiness Exercise. That's right, this week was one of the many exciting military exercises we get to endure, I mean take part in, during our tour here. Since I was still going through my base inprocessing that meant I didn't have to participate in the exercise. What a shame. Good news there is that I didn't have to don all my chem warfare equipment, wear the gas mask, or any of that "fun" stuff. Bad news... I had to wear my blues (service dress) all week instead of my BDUs. Let's just say that the number of times I've worn my blues during my career is not a very large number. And considering that I haven't had to replace any parts of my blues since Basic Training they tend to be "slightly" tight and a little on the uncomfortable side.

The exercise is also the reason I didn't update anything the last week. Nothing happened. I was either inprocessing or I was sitting in my dorm room. Woohoo! What an exciting time. But the exercise ended yesterday so everyone was jumping for joy. I had to laugh a little bit though. The base commander had issued General Order (GO) 1 during the exercise. That means no drinking alcohol during the exercise. None, Nada, Zip, Zilch. Of course this makes no difference to me since I don't partake, but others of my workmates were disappointed. Following the end of the exercise GO1 was amended to GO1A... meaning no drinking of alcohol off base until 1200 (noon) Saturday. This had some folks miffed, but I'm sure the on base clubs were loving it.

I made the most of the exercise's end and headed off this morning for Seoul to go to the temple again. Peaceful and serene as always. I don't know what more I can say than that. I am certainly glad I made the committment to Veronica, and myself, to attend the temple once a week while I'm here. And to take part in sessions there in Korean is really interesting. I'm certain that regular participation will help out my own language skills. The Lord blesses us when we put forth effort and when we keep our eyes single to His glory.

I wish I would have had my camera again this week though because in exactly the same spot as I saw the bus last weekend there were about 5 cars parked on the sidewalk. Thankfully Jake reminded me in his response to last post of something I had forgotten... this is the Land of the Not Quite Right. Still it made me laugh as I saw that.

Hopefully this next week I will have more to say and update. I have some time off during the MLK Day holiday so I'll have to see what I can get out and do.

I'm off... base that is

So I finally got the chance to take my first outing off base. Today I travelled up to Seoul to go to the LDS Temple there, as shown in the picture above.

It was quite the exciting adventure for me since I was going up there on the subway and this was my first time using it by myself. I had been on the subway here during my previous tour, but never alone. So, armed with my newly acquired T-Card (a Seoul public transportation discout card) I headed out. Luckily for me the subway system here is really good. I rode Line 1 from Songtan station (about a 20 minute walk from the base) to Sindorim station. After getting off the train there I followed the signs down the stairs to transfer to Line 2 and rode that all the way to my final destination at Shinchon station in Seoul. This was where my big concern came into play... where did I go out to walk the last little bit to the temple? Thankfully there was a big map of the area with a "You are Here" spot, so I easily found the exit I needed. The whole subway process was dummy proof (thank goodness!) which makes me excited to use the system again.

Anyway, I followed the directions I had gotten from the Church temple website and my memories from travelling there during my last tour. 10 minutes later I was at the temple having met with no complications. It was also quite a nice way to spend my first time off base this time. It was peaceful and relaxing as always in the temple.

Once I was done at the temple I headed back out for the return trip to Songtan. That's when I saw this:















Now, I can understand those little motorized scooters and the food carts that Koreans ride up and down the sidewalks... but a bus? Why in the world would anyone in their right mind park a bus on the sidewalk? Yet there it was. I couldn't pass up a picture like that.

So all in all my first expedition off base was a huge success. I am looking forward to my planned weekly trips up to Seoul as well as many more outings.

Back on the ROK

Well, after a massive bout of jetlag I am finally getting around to posting here about my flight to Korea. It was quite an adventure so I'll start at the beginning.

Of course the whole thing began with tears. Veronica, the kids and I all shed tears as we said our goodbyes at the Sacramento airport, and little Katie didn't want to let go of me for anything. It probably wouldn't have been as bad if it hadn't been for the airline people. They had announced that the flight was delayed until 10:45am, so we figured we had some more time together. But a couple minutes later I hear my name being called over the PA system to hurry up because the plane was loaded and ready to go. No call for loading before that. It took us by surprise and kind of made it more difficult to say bye.

Then after I got on the plane we sat there on the tarmac outside the gate for about 10 minutes. Thankfully I was on the side of the plane that could see the terminal and I could see Veronica and the kids all waving and blowing kisses. I did the same and could tell that they could see me just as well as I could see them.

The flight down to San Francisco was uneventful and pretty relaxing. After getting off the plane though I noticed that my flight to Seoul was delayed until 2:40pm.

Hopefully you can all read the wording in the picture. It says:

UA893 G2 6615
Seoul/Incheon
DELAYED TILL
14:43 PM

and the clock on the wall reads:

1:43 (that was about the time my flight was originally scheduled for)

So I had about 3 hours until my next flight. It gave me some time to get lunch and relax a little bit more.

Finally they started boarding the plane for Korea. Then after about 20 minutes they told us they had some mechanical and computer problems that needed to be fixed before we could go. So we sat there... and sat there... and sat there until about 4:15pm. So my initially 2 hour layover turned into a 4 and a half hour layover. This was a concern to me as my itinerary showed us getting into Seoul at 7:30pm Korea time. I also knew that the last bus to Osan AB left the airport at 10:30pm. I was worried that this extra 2 and a half hours would put us into Seoul at... about 10pm.

I don't know whether my arival time in Korea had been exaggerated or maybe the pilots knew a quicker route, but we landed in Korea at 8:30pm... only an hour later than my original arrival time on my itinerary. Of course getting there involved a 12 hour flight. And 12 hours in coach does not lend itself to a very good sleeping environment. Throw in a couple periods of heavy turbulance and a cup full of ginger ale and it made for quite some fun. Luckily I was able to keep my beverage from spilling all over the place and was still in a fairly good mood after touching down in the Land of the Morning Calm.

After waiting in line to get through Immigration, waiting to get my luggage at the baggage claim, and waiting in line for Customs, I finally made it to the USO counter where I... waited in line to get my ticket for the bus to Osan. The bus ride added another hour and a half to my travel that day, but at about midninght we drove through the gate at Osan AB.

But wait, there's more. This wasn't the end of my trip. Once we got to the reception center on base we had to sign in and wait for our sponsors. And me? Yeah, I didn't have a sponsor even though I had requested one. They had never assigned anyone to be my sponsor. I guess they thought since I had been here once I should be fine. But they still wouldn't let me leave the reception center without someone coming to sign me out. So I waited some more for someone from my squadron to come and get me. After another 45 minutes I was lucky enough to get signed out and made my way to the Turumi Lodge, the hotel on base.

Seeing that room and the bed was like a dream. After nearly 21 hours of travelling I finally got to rest. It wasn't the best sleep (I was still working against my internal clock), but it was comfortable.

Well, that was my trip over. I will write more later and keep you up to date on all my doings while I'm here.