Now that we've been here a week, Jay and I decided to get brave and attempt to go somewhere on the subway. You need to understand just how brave we are by attempting this on our own, since we have no clue where we should go, how to get there by subway, what we would do once we got there, or how to get back on the subway once done. We are brave and adventurous, and probably a little full of ourselves.
We walk to the subway following the picture signs since we can't read Korean, and once there we stop, taking in the chaos and trying to decide what to do next. Jay sees the money machines, okay, then he mentions that you can buy a card somewhere where all you need to do is scan your card to get on the train and put more money on it when it runs low so you don't have to keep buying tickets. Cool, so how do we get those? No clue... great. We found a ticket booth, and as we walked to it, we were approached by a nice gentleman who was wearing a "Volunteer" vest and asked us, in English, if we needed any help. "Yes, thank you!" was my reply, and Jay gave me an annoyed look. Men... they always act like they know what's going on even when they don't have a clue. The man showed us how to work the ticket booth (an electronic touch screen), how to select English, how to select which route we wanted, how to pay for the ticket, and even where to go to catch the correct train. All the while, Jay was very annoyed and acted as if he had known all along what to do and where to go. When the helpful volunteer left, I asked Jay what was wrong and he replied that he wanted to figure it out on his own, no matter how long it took him to figure out, no matter how impatient his wife and toddler were getting, it was just very important to him to be able to figure this stuff out on his own. Now it was my turn to be annoyed, and in a pissy attitude, I told him, "fine, figure it out on your own, I won't ask questions, I'll just let you figure out what we're supposed to be doing, and if we get lost, you can ask for help, because I'm done with this." Yeah, I can be temperamental...
With Jay and I bickering the whole way, we made it to the gate of the train we wanted to take, and Jay went first through, inserting his ticket, and then I watched another woman go through, and she just scanned a card, "oh cool, I thought, we need to get one of those cards." Then I inserted my ticket, and pushed my way through the gate, and we walked to the train, which had just pulled up (great timing) and boarded the train. It was very crowded and with my adrenaline pumping from the adventure of it all, I stopped feeling pissy toward Jay, and started enjoying the experience. We figured out how to know when we were at the right stop, and we got off on our stop. Everything was working out really great, then a thought hit me as we walked up the stairs to exit the subway... "Jay, " I asked, "how do they know we paid for a round trip fare when they took our tickets at the beginning of the trip?" But before I could finish my question, we came to the gates to let us out, and I watched as Jay inserted his ticket, pass through the gate, and take the ticket out of the top slot of the gate booth. WTF?!!! I didn't have my ticket, so I just tried to go through the gate (I'm leaving the subway, not getting on, anyway), but it wouldn't let me through. Jay turned around and asked, "where's your ticket?" Realizing my incredible mistake, I blushed, and answered, "at the entrance gate, I didn't know you had to pick it back up at the top...". Jay found this hilarious, especially b/c I had been so pissy with him just a few minutes before, and started laughing at me as I was stuck behind the gate. Not knowing what else to do, Jay ran to a ticket booth and bought me another round trip ticket, and laughing, handed me my new ticket, just as we watched a little old lady push open a side gate to get through with her cart. Oh, I didn't need a ticket to get out, after all, so I followed the old lady out, clutching my new ticket, feeling like a total idiot. I also felt like a jackass because I had been giving Jay a hard time about things before, and even though I had asked for help, I still didn't have a clue what I was doing. Ooops, live and learn, right?
We explored a little, realized we had chosen a really boring stop to get off on, and got back on the subway, heading back to the hotel, and decided we would take different routes next time. On the train, an older Korean gentleman was watching us (which we're used to by now, I guess there aren't a lot of blondes around here and understand we're a bit of a side show attraction to them) and before he got off his stop, he bowed to us and gave us a calender he was carrying. "A gift to you," he said as he presented it to us. Utterly taken by surprise, Jay and I took the calender and bowed back and thanked him. I felt like we should have given him something in return, but we didn't have anything to give him. I didn't know if we should have introduced ourselves, or offered him anything else, but I thought it was so incredibly nice of him to give us the calender. It's one of those basic desk calenders that sit on top of your desk or work area and you can write on it and such, and it's all in Korean (which I think is pretty cool). I really need to get a book on Korean customs so I'm not caught off guard anymore and respond appropriately. I think the thing that causes me most anxiety is that I'll unintentionally offend someone, and not be able to apologize for it. I don't want to come off as the rude, arrogant American. The Koreans are very graceful and polite and I'm glad Mia will be living here, so hopefully some of that will rub off on her.
I guess I'm going to have to get the Rosetta Stone for Korean after all, so I can learn to communicate here. How do you say, "sorry, I'm just an ignorant American" in Korean?
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Finding our way to (through, around, and back again) PUSAN!!!
Picture this... a rusted, blue 1994 Kia Sephia with leopard print seat covers, new tires, but BAD shocks, riding low to the ground, with a car seat in the middle back seat, and bags stuffed around both sides of the car seat, a blonde toddler in the car seat, a blonde man driving, and a highlighted blonde woman in the passenger seat, and a bright metallic-purple soccer ball in the rear window of the car, and you have pictured us on our highway adventure driving from Kunsan to Pusan, all by ourselves, not understanding a lick of Korean, and with poorly written instructions on how to get to Pusan from Kunsan. (How do I know they were poorly written instructions, you might ask, b/c half of it was spelled incorrectly, the other half was in picture form of the exits we would see, and they were 5 years old.)
Surprisingly, we made it to the outskirts of Pusan without a hitch. We managed to figure out when not to exit when the directions said to exit and find our way without having to stop for help which was HUGE for me. I even figured out the yellow signs with the picture of a camera on them with a white sign underneath that had a number of meters below it was a warning for a highway camera that many meters ahead. Jay did not know this, and apparently instead of being pulled over by a cop for speeding, they just take pictures of your license plate when speeding on the highways, and you have to pay all the tickets in one lump sum when you go to register the vehicle. That could be pretty painful and there are stories of outgoing pilots selling their POS Kunsan Special cars to incoming pilots for $600 bucks or less and then when the new owner goes to register their new car, they're hit with hundreds of dollars of speeding tickets the previous owner incurred and failed to tell the new owner about. It's a joke to them, but I could see how it wouldn't be so funny when you're the new owner and the old one is long gone. So anyhow, Jay got busted, I'm sure, a few times along the road, and it will be interesting to see how much he has to pay in speeding fines when he has to re-register the car in a year. It doesn't help that the max speed on the highways was only 60 mph (although it does look impressive when listed as 100 km/h).
So we get to Pusan, everything is going great, we switch from the 5 year old directions to the directions given to us by the guys Jay will be working with at Gimhae International Airport, and although the instructions were a bit sparse, we seemed to be following them easily. We went through the first toll, as instructed, and our next instruction to follow was to stay straight until we got through a second toll, then to take the first right after the second toll. Easy enough. What the instructions didn't mention was the highway was going to fork and you had to make the decision ahead of time to get into a left hand lane to stay straight (where the 2nd toll was) or go right and go into the city. I was looking at the city scenery around us, not aware of this conumdrum (sp?) when all of a sudden Jay started YELLING, "LEFT OR RIGHT?!! LEFT OR RIGHT?!! WHAT DO THE DIRECTIONS SAY???! LEFT OR RIGHT??!!" Confused, I refocused on the task at hand, saw what was happening on the road, quickly looked at the directions which told us to continue straight to the 2nd toll. Stupidly, I started yelling back, "TOLL!!! TOLL!!! TOLL!!!" not quite sure which way (left or right) was straight. Mia, of course, had no idea what we were yelling about and started her frantic, panicky scream-cry which only added to the tension Jay and I were suddenly feeling, and Jay took the command decision and veered right, while I kept yelling, "NO!!! NO!!! NO!!!" Too late, we were now in the midst of a city with no English street signs, no neat street markings, too many cars, too many pedestrians, too much chaos. We both knew instantly we had made a BIG mistake.
After driving around in circles for what felt like an eternity, yelling at each other about whose fault it was we were lost in the first place, and trying to shush or placate a crying Mia, we finally found our way back onto the highway we should never have gotten off in the first place. We have both agreed in the future, we will never drive in the city after this experience, and will learn to take the subways and buses if the need ever arises to go downtown. We did manage to get back on track, and we finally found the Lotte Hotel which is to be our temporary residence for the next 3 weeks or so. Of course, we drove to the wrong side of the hotel and stood around looking like idiots waiting for someone to come take our bags and park our car (our super stylish 1994 Kunsan Special), until Jay went into the lobby, found the guy who was to help us get settled, and drove to the right side of the hotel where we were met by the hotel greeters and everything started to fall into place.
Right away, we realized we were at a hotel far nicer to what we are usually accustomed to, and we both felt out of place in our "road trip" clothes of old jeans, pullovers, and sneakers. We also both admitted how silly we felt pulling up to such a nice hotel in our beater (and got valet parking for it, too) and wondered how silly we must have looked to everyone else as the hotel greeters pulled the massive amounts of luggage out of our car that was squished into every conceiveable space we could manage to fit something into. Yeah, we were feeling pretty "Beverly Hillbilly"-ish, and that feeling hasn't quite rubbed off, yet. I'm hoping soon it will. Oh well.
So the guy who met us, Paul, a very nice gentleman from Georgia, who likes to gamble and insisted we weren't putting him out, he came to gamble anyway, helped us find our way to check in, we went directly to the 33rd floor where they had an express check in for "club members" and we were given our keys and such for our room on the 34th floor. We went to our room, and were both astounded by how posh everything was. We have an incredible view of downtown Pusan with mountains in the background, everything is high tech, up to date, very, very nice. The bathroom alone is the size of Jay's entire apartment in Kunsan. The tub is one of those extra long ones, so we don't have to bend our knees when we sink all the way in. The commode is, get this, electronic, and it has a bidet (that has a pulsing feature, too), a butt spray, and a butt dryer, and... a HEATED SEAT! We both think Mia will be quite eager to potty train once she sits on the seated heat. I even have my own vanity to put all my makeup and hair crap so it isn't in Jay's way and the counters aren't cluttered. The bed is king sized so I can sprawl out and not kick Jay, and the mattress is so comfy, I could live in this bed!!! Mia loves the bed, too, but she has to sleep in her pack n play so she can't sneak out of bed during the night or in the morning (which she has done before when we forgot the pack n play on other trips).
This hotel also has a department store, with stores not found in ordinary department stores in the U.S. There's Prada, Gucci, Chanel (a lot of Chanel stores), Missoni, etc... . You get the picture, way too expensive for me. Not that I don't fantasize about being brave enough to shop in any of those stores someday, just not yet. There's also a supermarket on the bottom floor, and a subway right next to the hotel. There's a cinema on one floor, and loads of restaraunts like TGIF, Subway, and Krispy Kremes. There's also a CoffeeBean across the street from the hotel (SWEET!) although, I don't think I'll be spotting Nicole Richie or any other celebrities there.
Yep, we're staying in a 5-star hotel, in the middle of downtown Busan, and I'm feeling a bit spoiled. I'm glad I kept my expectations low before coming out here, because now I'm pleasantly surprised at how beautiful everything is, and eager to do some exploring and learning about Koreans during these next few years. Seriously, if any of you want to visit, I don't think anyone will be disappointed visiting Korea... just don't fly over with a toddler, unless you like your pleasure with a little pain and suffering...
Surprisingly, we made it to the outskirts of Pusan without a hitch. We managed to figure out when not to exit when the directions said to exit and find our way without having to stop for help which was HUGE for me. I even figured out the yellow signs with the picture of a camera on them with a white sign underneath that had a number of meters below it was a warning for a highway camera that many meters ahead. Jay did not know this, and apparently instead of being pulled over by a cop for speeding, they just take pictures of your license plate when speeding on the highways, and you have to pay all the tickets in one lump sum when you go to register the vehicle. That could be pretty painful and there are stories of outgoing pilots selling their POS Kunsan Special cars to incoming pilots for $600 bucks or less and then when the new owner goes to register their new car, they're hit with hundreds of dollars of speeding tickets the previous owner incurred and failed to tell the new owner about. It's a joke to them, but I could see how it wouldn't be so funny when you're the new owner and the old one is long gone. So anyhow, Jay got busted, I'm sure, a few times along the road, and it will be interesting to see how much he has to pay in speeding fines when he has to re-register the car in a year. It doesn't help that the max speed on the highways was only 60 mph (although it does look impressive when listed as 100 km/h).
So we get to Pusan, everything is going great, we switch from the 5 year old directions to the directions given to us by the guys Jay will be working with at Gimhae International Airport, and although the instructions were a bit sparse, we seemed to be following them easily. We went through the first toll, as instructed, and our next instruction to follow was to stay straight until we got through a second toll, then to take the first right after the second toll. Easy enough. What the instructions didn't mention was the highway was going to fork and you had to make the decision ahead of time to get into a left hand lane to stay straight (where the 2nd toll was) or go right and go into the city. I was looking at the city scenery around us, not aware of this conumdrum (sp?) when all of a sudden Jay started YELLING, "LEFT OR RIGHT?!! LEFT OR RIGHT?!! WHAT DO THE DIRECTIONS SAY???! LEFT OR RIGHT??!!" Confused, I refocused on the task at hand, saw what was happening on the road, quickly looked at the directions which told us to continue straight to the 2nd toll. Stupidly, I started yelling back, "TOLL!!! TOLL!!! TOLL!!!" not quite sure which way (left or right) was straight. Mia, of course, had no idea what we were yelling about and started her frantic, panicky scream-cry which only added to the tension Jay and I were suddenly feeling, and Jay took the command decision and veered right, while I kept yelling, "NO!!! NO!!! NO!!!" Too late, we were now in the midst of a city with no English street signs, no neat street markings, too many cars, too many pedestrians, too much chaos. We both knew instantly we had made a BIG mistake.
After driving around in circles for what felt like an eternity, yelling at each other about whose fault it was we were lost in the first place, and trying to shush or placate a crying Mia, we finally found our way back onto the highway we should never have gotten off in the first place. We have both agreed in the future, we will never drive in the city after this experience, and will learn to take the subways and buses if the need ever arises to go downtown. We did manage to get back on track, and we finally found the Lotte Hotel which is to be our temporary residence for the next 3 weeks or so. Of course, we drove to the wrong side of the hotel and stood around looking like idiots waiting for someone to come take our bags and park our car (our super stylish 1994 Kunsan Special), until Jay went into the lobby, found the guy who was to help us get settled, and drove to the right side of the hotel where we were met by the hotel greeters and everything started to fall into place.
Right away, we realized we were at a hotel far nicer to what we are usually accustomed to, and we both felt out of place in our "road trip" clothes of old jeans, pullovers, and sneakers. We also both admitted how silly we felt pulling up to such a nice hotel in our beater (and got valet parking for it, too) and wondered how silly we must have looked to everyone else as the hotel greeters pulled the massive amounts of luggage out of our car that was squished into every conceiveable space we could manage to fit something into. Yeah, we were feeling pretty "Beverly Hillbilly"-ish, and that feeling hasn't quite rubbed off, yet. I'm hoping soon it will. Oh well.
So the guy who met us, Paul, a very nice gentleman from Georgia, who likes to gamble and insisted we weren't putting him out, he came to gamble anyway, helped us find our way to check in, we went directly to the 33rd floor where they had an express check in for "club members" and we were given our keys and such for our room on the 34th floor. We went to our room, and were both astounded by how posh everything was. We have an incredible view of downtown Pusan with mountains in the background, everything is high tech, up to date, very, very nice. The bathroom alone is the size of Jay's entire apartment in Kunsan. The tub is one of those extra long ones, so we don't have to bend our knees when we sink all the way in. The commode is, get this, electronic, and it has a bidet (that has a pulsing feature, too), a butt spray, and a butt dryer, and... a HEATED SEAT! We both think Mia will be quite eager to potty train once she sits on the seated heat. I even have my own vanity to put all my makeup and hair crap so it isn't in Jay's way and the counters aren't cluttered. The bed is king sized so I can sprawl out and not kick Jay, and the mattress is so comfy, I could live in this bed!!! Mia loves the bed, too, but she has to sleep in her pack n play so she can't sneak out of bed during the night or in the morning (which she has done before when we forgot the pack n play on other trips).
This hotel also has a department store, with stores not found in ordinary department stores in the U.S. There's Prada, Gucci, Chanel (a lot of Chanel stores), Missoni, etc... . You get the picture, way too expensive for me. Not that I don't fantasize about being brave enough to shop in any of those stores someday, just not yet. There's also a supermarket on the bottom floor, and a subway right next to the hotel. There's a cinema on one floor, and loads of restaraunts like TGIF, Subway, and Krispy Kremes. There's also a CoffeeBean across the street from the hotel (SWEET!) although, I don't think I'll be spotting Nicole Richie or any other celebrities there.
Yep, we're staying in a 5-star hotel, in the middle of downtown Busan, and I'm feeling a bit spoiled. I'm glad I kept my expectations low before coming out here, because now I'm pleasantly surprised at how beautiful everything is, and eager to do some exploring and learning about Koreans during these next few years. Seriously, if any of you want to visit, I don't think anyone will be disappointed visiting Korea... just don't fly over with a toddler, unless you like your pleasure with a little pain and suffering...
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Korean Adventures Continued...
So after arriving in Seoul, and finally getting to our hotel in Yongsan, we all fell right to sleep once settled in our room. I was sleeping peacefully, partly due to all the cold medicines I took on the plane, but was awakened by Jay at 3 o'clock in the morning. Jay had heard Mia moving around in her sleep and instead of letting her settle back down, he woke up, got her out of bed and proceeded to wake me up. When I was not so thrilled to be woken up by two hyper Bice's at 3 o'clock in the morning, Jay was like, "come on, Babe, I can't sleep, wake up, Mia wants to play..." Seriously... what are we going to do before dawn in Seoul, Korea? Go to the park? Get some breakfast? Explore the city or shop? No, it's a good time to sleep. Needless to say, Jay is still having some trouble getting his clock back on track though Mia and I seem to have adjusted well to the time change.
The next morning we ate some breakfast then decided to walk around the base to check it out. We went to the base PX (kinda like a Target) and they wouldn't let me in with my ID card. I guess I also needed a "ration card". Damn Army. So we decided to buy me a cell phone at the phone vendor outside of the PX. After carefully selecting a phone I could live with for the next 2 years from the slim pickings I had to choose from, we set up an account, filled out the paperwork, selected the phone plan, and the girl went to activate my phone. While she was calling the phone company to activate my new phone, Mia and I went to check out some of the other vendors nearby while Jay waited for the phone. When we came back, the girl came over to us and said, "sorry, this phone is no longer being sold, you have to pick a different phone." There were only 3 others to pick from and they all sucked. Jay and I were confused, why did they have this phone on display but then refuse to sell it b/c they stopped making them? They made this one, didn't they? Don't they want to sell it even though they're not making new ones? So feeling frustrated, and the bored look on the girl's face making me more so, I said, "forget it, we'll buy a phone somewhere else." Jay was also frustrated and told the girl to give him the paperwork we had filled out. The girl didn't want to hand over the papers, so Jay made her rip them up in front of us. As we walked out, Jay said he farted when Mia and I went to look at other booths, and that it had been really bad. He suggested that might be why the girl didn't want to sell us the phone all of a sudden. I could understand that.
From the PX, we went back to the hotel and looked around the shops at the hotel. Whaddya know?! There is a cell phone shop in the hotel, and they gladly sold me the same phone the other girl wouldn't sell me, set me up with a plan, and Jay didn't fart in the shop, so the deal went through without a hitch! Yay... I have a new cell phone! They even programmed a calling card and showed me how to use it so I can call overseas without using my plan minutes.
We took a taxi that afternoon to the shopping district, InTaeWon (I think that's how it's spelled), and it had been a cold but sunny day all day. Once we got out of the cab and started walking along the shops, it started to snow, then rained and snowed, then just rained... sweet. But we did find a CoffeeBean (woohoo) and my greentea latte kept me nice and warm as we walked the cold, wet streets of Seoul. One thing I've learned very quickly is Koreans are VERY pleasant people, I'm feeling pretty optimistic about things.
The next day we loaded up a cab with our massive bulk of luggage and drove about 100 meters to the bus stop. There we waited for our bus while eating lunch. While we were eating, I noticed others getting on a bus and I asked Jay, "what time does our bus leave?" He answered "11 o'clock". I asked what time it was, he answered "ten fourty-five". Then it hit us, oh crap!!! We've gotta go! Jay jumped up and started grabbing our bags to put on the bus, while I tried to clean up Mia, throw away our trash, and help Jay. Mia, being the independent spirit she is, would not cooperate with us, and at one point ran away from me. I went after her, but she darted out the open door quickly and started running toward the bus. Two privates (? I don't know army ranks, so I'm assuming that's what they were), were watching us as they talked and the guy looked at me like I was crazy and yelled, "your daughter is running into the street!" as I ran by him with my arms full of crap yelling for Mia to stop. Thanks, Asshole, do you think you could help by grabbing her as she ran by you, rather than looking at me, pointing out the obvious, and making me feel even more helpless than I already did? Needless to say, this pushed me over the edge, because Jay came over and gave me a "WTF?!" kind of look when he heard what the guy said. I would like to point out that Mia stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, as I taught her to do, b/c she knows she's not aloud to step onto asphalt without holding mommy or daddy's hand. She never ran into the street. But I was still upset, and when we finally got on the bus, Jay handed Mia to me to sit with me, but I said, "no, she's sitting with you." Then I sat in the seat behind them and put on my big, oversized designer sunglasses and cried silently. It took Jay a while to figure out that I wasn't okay, but by the time he did, I think I cried all the stress out of me and was feeling better. He apologized when we got to our room in Osan, for being a dick earlier, and I felt a lot better.
In Osan, we were able to get our passports stamped with the proper visas so Mia and I are no longer illegal and I'm not coming home in February after all. We also got a stamp on his orders that says I'm allowed to shop in the BX since I don't have a damn ration card. We then went to the BX in Osan and I bought some running shoes and work out clothes, and Jay and I went for a long run while Mia took a nap. Ahhh! My body is still sore (4 days later) but it felt so good! We went exploring around the shops in Osan later that day. I found some paintings that I think would be gorgeous if professionally framed. I also found a LOT of good things to buy for everyone for Christmas. It's going to be a Korean Christmas, everyone!
The next morning, we were going to be leaving around 11 again (to the famed Kunsan, Jay complained about so much) so I went for a run while Jay stayed with Mia in the morning. It was awesome b/c the running path is along the flight line and 2 Blackhawk helicopters and a C-17 landed overhead while I was running. Once again, I'm sore, but it felt great.
We got to Kunsan without any problems. Jay's old room was still empty, so we stayed there and I got to see where my man was living for a year without us. I've got to say it was pretty dismal. The buildings all looked like they were the same from the Korean War, and there really isn't anything to do on base. I guess the good thing was the flight line was along the running path again, but my workout gear was dirty (and still is) so I couldn't go running. Mia and I walked along it, though, and stood at the end of the runway so we could watch the F-16's take off over our heads. It was so cute b/c Mia would get so excited everytime she saw a plane, and she would wave to them as they were taking off. We also got to watch Jay take off both days he had to fly and that was pretty cool. I've never watched him fly, and it was surreal knowing my husband was flying one of the jets flying over our heads. Mia now points at F-16's and yells, "Daddy!" I guess one good thing came out of Kunsan!
Tuesday afternoon, after 2 1/2 BORING days in Kunsan, Jay finished his last flight, and came home, changed clothes, and started loading up our 1994 Kia Sephia (a Kunsan special with rusted blue paint and leopard print car seat covers and new tires) with our copious amounts of luggage (the car was riding low after it was fully loaded) and we set off for the biggest adventure of all.... finding our way to Pusan, all by ourselves on the famed Korean highways!!! YEEEHAWWW!!! Stay tuned... more adventures to come!
The next morning we ate some breakfast then decided to walk around the base to check it out. We went to the base PX (kinda like a Target) and they wouldn't let me in with my ID card. I guess I also needed a "ration card". Damn Army. So we decided to buy me a cell phone at the phone vendor outside of the PX. After carefully selecting a phone I could live with for the next 2 years from the slim pickings I had to choose from, we set up an account, filled out the paperwork, selected the phone plan, and the girl went to activate my phone. While she was calling the phone company to activate my new phone, Mia and I went to check out some of the other vendors nearby while Jay waited for the phone. When we came back, the girl came over to us and said, "sorry, this phone is no longer being sold, you have to pick a different phone." There were only 3 others to pick from and they all sucked. Jay and I were confused, why did they have this phone on display but then refuse to sell it b/c they stopped making them? They made this one, didn't they? Don't they want to sell it even though they're not making new ones? So feeling frustrated, and the bored look on the girl's face making me more so, I said, "forget it, we'll buy a phone somewhere else." Jay was also frustrated and told the girl to give him the paperwork we had filled out. The girl didn't want to hand over the papers, so Jay made her rip them up in front of us. As we walked out, Jay said he farted when Mia and I went to look at other booths, and that it had been really bad. He suggested that might be why the girl didn't want to sell us the phone all of a sudden. I could understand that.
From the PX, we went back to the hotel and looked around the shops at the hotel. Whaddya know?! There is a cell phone shop in the hotel, and they gladly sold me the same phone the other girl wouldn't sell me, set me up with a plan, and Jay didn't fart in the shop, so the deal went through without a hitch! Yay... I have a new cell phone! They even programmed a calling card and showed me how to use it so I can call overseas without using my plan minutes.
We took a taxi that afternoon to the shopping district, InTaeWon (I think that's how it's spelled), and it had been a cold but sunny day all day. Once we got out of the cab and started walking along the shops, it started to snow, then rained and snowed, then just rained... sweet. But we did find a CoffeeBean (woohoo) and my greentea latte kept me nice and warm as we walked the cold, wet streets of Seoul. One thing I've learned very quickly is Koreans are VERY pleasant people, I'm feeling pretty optimistic about things.
The next day we loaded up a cab with our massive bulk of luggage and drove about 100 meters to the bus stop. There we waited for our bus while eating lunch. While we were eating, I noticed others getting on a bus and I asked Jay, "what time does our bus leave?" He answered "11 o'clock". I asked what time it was, he answered "ten fourty-five". Then it hit us, oh crap!!! We've gotta go! Jay jumped up and started grabbing our bags to put on the bus, while I tried to clean up Mia, throw away our trash, and help Jay. Mia, being the independent spirit she is, would not cooperate with us, and at one point ran away from me. I went after her, but she darted out the open door quickly and started running toward the bus. Two privates (? I don't know army ranks, so I'm assuming that's what they were), were watching us as they talked and the guy looked at me like I was crazy and yelled, "your daughter is running into the street!" as I ran by him with my arms full of crap yelling for Mia to stop. Thanks, Asshole, do you think you could help by grabbing her as she ran by you, rather than looking at me, pointing out the obvious, and making me feel even more helpless than I already did? Needless to say, this pushed me over the edge, because Jay came over and gave me a "WTF?!" kind of look when he heard what the guy said. I would like to point out that Mia stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, as I taught her to do, b/c she knows she's not aloud to step onto asphalt without holding mommy or daddy's hand. She never ran into the street. But I was still upset, and when we finally got on the bus, Jay handed Mia to me to sit with me, but I said, "no, she's sitting with you." Then I sat in the seat behind them and put on my big, oversized designer sunglasses and cried silently. It took Jay a while to figure out that I wasn't okay, but by the time he did, I think I cried all the stress out of me and was feeling better. He apologized when we got to our room in Osan, for being a dick earlier, and I felt a lot better.
In Osan, we were able to get our passports stamped with the proper visas so Mia and I are no longer illegal and I'm not coming home in February after all. We also got a stamp on his orders that says I'm allowed to shop in the BX since I don't have a damn ration card. We then went to the BX in Osan and I bought some running shoes and work out clothes, and Jay and I went for a long run while Mia took a nap. Ahhh! My body is still sore (4 days later) but it felt so good! We went exploring around the shops in Osan later that day. I found some paintings that I think would be gorgeous if professionally framed. I also found a LOT of good things to buy for everyone for Christmas. It's going to be a Korean Christmas, everyone!
The next morning, we were going to be leaving around 11 again (to the famed Kunsan, Jay complained about so much) so I went for a run while Jay stayed with Mia in the morning. It was awesome b/c the running path is along the flight line and 2 Blackhawk helicopters and a C-17 landed overhead while I was running. Once again, I'm sore, but it felt great.
We got to Kunsan without any problems. Jay's old room was still empty, so we stayed there and I got to see where my man was living for a year without us. I've got to say it was pretty dismal. The buildings all looked like they were the same from the Korean War, and there really isn't anything to do on base. I guess the good thing was the flight line was along the running path again, but my workout gear was dirty (and still is) so I couldn't go running. Mia and I walked along it, though, and stood at the end of the runway so we could watch the F-16's take off over our heads. It was so cute b/c Mia would get so excited everytime she saw a plane, and she would wave to them as they were taking off. We also got to watch Jay take off both days he had to fly and that was pretty cool. I've never watched him fly, and it was surreal knowing my husband was flying one of the jets flying over our heads. Mia now points at F-16's and yells, "Daddy!" I guess one good thing came out of Kunsan!
Tuesday afternoon, after 2 1/2 BORING days in Kunsan, Jay finished his last flight, and came home, changed clothes, and started loading up our 1994 Kia Sephia (a Kunsan special with rusted blue paint and leopard print car seat covers and new tires) with our copious amounts of luggage (the car was riding low after it was fully loaded) and we set off for the biggest adventure of all.... finding our way to Pusan, all by ourselves on the famed Korean highways!!! YEEEHAWWW!!! Stay tuned... more adventures to come!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Adventures in Korea...(fake smile)
Well, Jay promised me Korea would be an adventure, and he hasn't disappointed!
First of all, the plane ride...
12 hours on a plane with a toddler is an ungodly amount of time to spend on a plane with a toddler no matter how comfortable the seats or courteous the flight staff (thank you, Korean Air), or how many DVD's you have on hand, or how many books you have crammed into a back pack, or how many cheerios, grapes, apples, pears, etc... you have stowed away for her to snack on.... 12 hours is an ungodly amount of time to spend with a toddler on a plane.
Seoul...
We arrived in Seoul late in the afternoon (Korean time) which was actually 0100 back home in Utah, so we were all a bit tired. First thing we do is go through customs which was actually really smooth and fast. Especially considering we weren't sure if Mia and I would be able to get into the country since we didn't know if we had to have visas or not since we have no one helping us get all the info and paperwork needed to make this move. Just a part of our "adventure". Luckily we got our passports stamped and we made our way to baggage claim... all very easy, but then we started hearing announcements of how the luggage for our flight was being delayed due to a "mix-up in baggage..."? We were a bit worried wondering if we were going to get our luggage or if the "mix up" pertained to our luggage being on a connecting flight to Mumbai (b/c there were a LOT of Indians on our flight). We were only in jeopardy of losing 6 big ticket items... 4 suitcases, the pack-n-play, and carseat, no biggie, right? During this time we decided to check out our passport stamps and noticed we only got a stamp for a temporary visa for 90 days... Mia and I were going to have to leave by Feb 2009 according to our passports... uh oh... oh thank god! There's a bag (after 40 min of waiting)!
So YAY!!! We have luggage, a over-tired toddler and now we have to go to the "military" baggage customs check, and are lucky enough to be greeted by a retired AF ("Air Force" for those "civilians" out there) guy who likes to talk and made an army guy wait while he chatted us through the baggage claims. (The army guy was there before us... heee heee heee, army sucks!) So I'm feeling more optomistic, so far everyone is very friendly, things are very clean and modern, I feel safe and cared for.... this could be a great place to live.
We make our way to the bus stop for the courtesy bus to Yongsan (an army base in Seoul where our hotel is) and Mia and I sit and play while Jay gets our tickets. Jay came back after less than 5 minutes (wow, he is fast and efficient, I'm thinking) and I'm then informed that the bus leaves in about 10 min, to which I jumped up and started collecting our things, but then Jay finishes with, "but there are no more seats, so we either have to wait until the 9pm bus or take a city bus to one of the hotels downtown in Seoul then get a cab to Yongsan." Well the next bus was a 2.5 hour wait (nope, not gonna do it), or a city bus, which Jay has never taken and we don't even know which hotel to get off on, in a city neither of us are familiar with or speak the language of (we can't even read Korean), but the obvious choice was the city bus b/c who in their right mind would wait 2.5 hours in a airport with a toddler?
(Yay!!! Adventure!!!) So we make it to the bus depot for the city buses, to which there was a long line. It was FREEZING cold and all the signs were in Korean. Right then I had a change of heart and decided 2.5 hours wasn't so long to wait b/c I had benadryl in my purse (a tablet, but I could break it up and crush it into Mia's orange juice), and I had noticed a CoffeeBean in the airport close to where we would have to wait... the long wait in the airport didn't seem so bad with those options compared to the long lines of chaos in the freezing cold night of the city buses. But, no, Jay was now determined that we would figure out these city buses and get to the hotel so we could all sleep. Note to self, don't be so quick to turn down options without fully realizing what the other options are.
So luckily, there are a lot of helpful Korean airport employees at the bus stop who guide us to where we need to be and help us get our luggage on the bus when it arrives. So we board this bus, blindly trusting that these helpful, Korean, gentleman are indeed getting us to where we need to go, and we set off on the first leg of our Korean "adventure" scared of where we were actually going to end up, but too damn tired to do much about it.
After a 2 hour bus ride (b/c traffic is INSANE in Seoul), we finally get off at a hotel, and immediately find a cab willing to take us to Yongsan. Luckily we're only about 5 min away from Yongsan, but quickly learn at the gate to Yongsan that only "base approved" taxi's are allowed on base, and we were not in a "base approved" taxi. Our taxi driver didn't speak English, and there was much confusion between him and the Korean security guard and I began to become very worried. Luckily, both Korean men insisted Mia and I stay in the taxi (b/c it was "too cold" for the baby) while Jay got to freeze his balls off trying to figure out what to do. All I understood was we had 9 pieces of luggage (carry-on's included) and a toddler and only 2 adults to carry it all, to get to the Dragon Hill Lodge which was less than 100 yards on the other side of the gate. Finally, after about 10 min of arguing between these 3 men (Jay included), a "base approved" taxi happened by, and the security guard flagged him to us rather than allowing him into the base. Sweet. So Jay and I stuffed that little taxi full of our monstrous luggage and crammed ourselves in and the taxi drove us the full 2 min ride to the hotel.
It was a nice hotel (surprising, I know, since it was an Army base), but although there was a concierge service, there was no one willing to help us with all our luggage into the hotel. Now I hate the Army again. So I was given one of those luggage carts that I took out to Jay, we loaded it, and made our way into the lobby to check in. The whole time I was giving the bell hop at the concierge desk the evil eye, but I don't know that he noticed between his apathetic gazes through his coke bottle glasses (nerd). We did finally get to our room, and we stayed awake just long enough to set up Mia's pack-n-play and change into PJ's and then we all passed out at 9pm Korean time. I guess it was good to take the adventure rather than wait for the American bus, after all.
First of all, the plane ride...
12 hours on a plane with a toddler is an ungodly amount of time to spend on a plane with a toddler no matter how comfortable the seats or courteous the flight staff (thank you, Korean Air), or how many DVD's you have on hand, or how many books you have crammed into a back pack, or how many cheerios, grapes, apples, pears, etc... you have stowed away for her to snack on.... 12 hours is an ungodly amount of time to spend with a toddler on a plane.
Seoul...
We arrived in Seoul late in the afternoon (Korean time) which was actually 0100 back home in Utah, so we were all a bit tired. First thing we do is go through customs which was actually really smooth and fast. Especially considering we weren't sure if Mia and I would be able to get into the country since we didn't know if we had to have visas or not since we have no one helping us get all the info and paperwork needed to make this move. Just a part of our "adventure". Luckily we got our passports stamped and we made our way to baggage claim... all very easy, but then we started hearing announcements of how the luggage for our flight was being delayed due to a "mix-up in baggage..."? We were a bit worried wondering if we were going to get our luggage or if the "mix up" pertained to our luggage being on a connecting flight to Mumbai (b/c there were a LOT of Indians on our flight). We were only in jeopardy of losing 6 big ticket items... 4 suitcases, the pack-n-play, and carseat, no biggie, right? During this time we decided to check out our passport stamps and noticed we only got a stamp for a temporary visa for 90 days... Mia and I were going to have to leave by Feb 2009 according to our passports... uh oh... oh thank god! There's a bag (after 40 min of waiting)!
So YAY!!! We have luggage, a over-tired toddler and now we have to go to the "military" baggage customs check, and are lucky enough to be greeted by a retired AF ("Air Force" for those "civilians" out there) guy who likes to talk and made an army guy wait while he chatted us through the baggage claims. (The army guy was there before us... heee heee heee, army sucks!) So I'm feeling more optomistic, so far everyone is very friendly, things are very clean and modern, I feel safe and cared for.... this could be a great place to live.
We make our way to the bus stop for the courtesy bus to Yongsan (an army base in Seoul where our hotel is) and Mia and I sit and play while Jay gets our tickets. Jay came back after less than 5 minutes (wow, he is fast and efficient, I'm thinking) and I'm then informed that the bus leaves in about 10 min, to which I jumped up and started collecting our things, but then Jay finishes with, "but there are no more seats, so we either have to wait until the 9pm bus or take a city bus to one of the hotels downtown in Seoul then get a cab to Yongsan." Well the next bus was a 2.5 hour wait (nope, not gonna do it), or a city bus, which Jay has never taken and we don't even know which hotel to get off on, in a city neither of us are familiar with or speak the language of (we can't even read Korean), but the obvious choice was the city bus b/c who in their right mind would wait 2.5 hours in a airport with a toddler?
(Yay!!! Adventure!!!) So we make it to the bus depot for the city buses, to which there was a long line. It was FREEZING cold and all the signs were in Korean. Right then I had a change of heart and decided 2.5 hours wasn't so long to wait b/c I had benadryl in my purse (a tablet, but I could break it up and crush it into Mia's orange juice), and I had noticed a CoffeeBean in the airport close to where we would have to wait... the long wait in the airport didn't seem so bad with those options compared to the long lines of chaos in the freezing cold night of the city buses. But, no, Jay was now determined that we would figure out these city buses and get to the hotel so we could all sleep. Note to self, don't be so quick to turn down options without fully realizing what the other options are.
So luckily, there are a lot of helpful Korean airport employees at the bus stop who guide us to where we need to be and help us get our luggage on the bus when it arrives. So we board this bus, blindly trusting that these helpful, Korean, gentleman are indeed getting us to where we need to go, and we set off on the first leg of our Korean "adventure" scared of where we were actually going to end up, but too damn tired to do much about it.
After a 2 hour bus ride (b/c traffic is INSANE in Seoul), we finally get off at a hotel, and immediately find a cab willing to take us to Yongsan. Luckily we're only about 5 min away from Yongsan, but quickly learn at the gate to Yongsan that only "base approved" taxi's are allowed on base, and we were not in a "base approved" taxi. Our taxi driver didn't speak English, and there was much confusion between him and the Korean security guard and I began to become very worried. Luckily, both Korean men insisted Mia and I stay in the taxi (b/c it was "too cold" for the baby) while Jay got to freeze his balls off trying to figure out what to do. All I understood was we had 9 pieces of luggage (carry-on's included) and a toddler and only 2 adults to carry it all, to get to the Dragon Hill Lodge which was less than 100 yards on the other side of the gate. Finally, after about 10 min of arguing between these 3 men (Jay included), a "base approved" taxi happened by, and the security guard flagged him to us rather than allowing him into the base. Sweet. So Jay and I stuffed that little taxi full of our monstrous luggage and crammed ourselves in and the taxi drove us the full 2 min ride to the hotel.
It was a nice hotel (surprising, I know, since it was an Army base), but although there was a concierge service, there was no one willing to help us with all our luggage into the hotel. Now I hate the Army again. So I was given one of those luggage carts that I took out to Jay, we loaded it, and made our way into the lobby to check in. The whole time I was giving the bell hop at the concierge desk the evil eye, but I don't know that he noticed between his apathetic gazes through his coke bottle glasses (nerd). We did finally get to our room, and we stayed awake just long enough to set up Mia's pack-n-play and change into PJ's and then we all passed out at 9pm Korean time. I guess it was good to take the adventure rather than wait for the American bus, after all.
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