the weekend has come and gone which always means back to business...or....filling out my 5 lb. substitute packet. the party friday night was better than i anticipated. we had the fiendette (brant's squadron is called the fiends so the spouses are the fiendettes...ha ha) naming or show on the patio of the officer's club. kate was in charge and had the people being named sing karaoke to everyone with headphones in and connected to her ipod. since we couldn't hear the music, we just got to watch them make fools of themselves... such a great idea. they all danced it up and then we voted on whose performance was the best. we continued the show with some trivia and funny stats on the people getting named. it felt very sorority-like which got a little eerie for me... but needless to say just another fun thing to be a part of it and great company. after this their was a female crud tournament. crud is a game played on the pool table where you run to both ends of the table trying to prevent the other team's ball from going in a hole. i have yet to learn it, but it seems to be a really big deal here so i am sure i will learn very soon. after 4 rounds of games, the fiendettes won! did i mention it is brutal and somewhat cutthroat? everyone takes it seriously and comes out with bruises and sweating profusely. i watched and had a wonderful time doing just that. :) the guys finished their naming at 10:30ish and came to meet us at the officer's club. we watched a few more games of crud and brant played a couple of games and then we took off for the night.
saturday, almost a week after arriving here at osan, we still couldn't quite sleep through the night. we woke up early and headed over to checkertails, the 24 hour diner, for some breakfast and then came back to the hotel and watched blades of glory. after the movie, we went downtown with kevin and joe to get happy teriyaki. while we were eating we heard drums and sirens out the window, we looked down (the restaurant was a few stories up) and it was the korean-american friendship parade! brant's squadron, the 36th fighter squadron, had their spray-painted kimchi (cheap korean car) car in it driven by one of the other pilots. it was hilarious because in the US, if a parade is coming, the streets are blocked off in advance, well....in the "land of the not quite right" that just doesn't happen. as the parade was coming through cars were still driving, the korean police just kinda walked in the street and put their hand up and stopped traffic and squeezed the parade through. their were still scooters flying by on the sidewalks and trying to weasel around the festivities! after lunch, we picked up kevin's bike for brant to borrow during the week (luckily our jeep should be here next monday though!) and headed back to the hotel. we spent some time at the gym and then made plans to go to dinner with kate and kevin and then to a poker night at a friend's house off-base. we ate at thailand, once again, except this time brant did not sweat during his whole meal. we all stuck with the second to none pad thai. yum. walking back toward base to catch a cab, we saw something i knew we would see at some point but i was told not to look, but i looked...the boxes of puppies. some koreans have puppy farms where they mass produce puppies and then try to sell them out of boxes on the streets...most are or become very sick and we were advised not to buy them for health reasons...so sad. kate and kevin were going to watch a movie so they split from us and headed down the street to get the latest dvd from a street vendor... it's the same price as renting so everyone just buys a movie when they want to watch one. many are still in the theaters! we walked back on base, caught a cab (sparkling black sedans most with leather seats and drivers with dress shirts and/or suit jackets on...many carry feather dusters to keep the outside of their cab flawless... it is so funny...we always compare these to the US cabs and can't believe it), and headed to life apartments, where kat and rags live. big poker tournament, about 12-15 people...$20 buy in, all the guys except one fell out early, it was down to me, 2 other girls, and a guy. i went all in and lost. such fun though! we will for sure be back for the next tourney. had to be back on base by the 1am curfew (am i in high school again?) so we got a ride back. we tried our hardest to watch the michigan game and both saw it in bits and pieces...i finally shut off the tv at halftime since i was pretty confident they could pull it out being up 31-7.
sunday ate at checkertails AGAIN, cleaned up our hotel room, and ran at the gym. in our attempt to get in our best shape here, we checked out the class and intramural schedules. brant has already joined intramural football and i plan to do the pilates and yoga classes. unfortunately they are at really odd times, like 6:30am, but that will be do-able if i am subbing and tutoring/teaching english. we got some groceries for the next few days at the commissary and then headed off-base to kat and rag's house for dinner. after traveling for the past few weeks, a homemade meal hit the spot. we had all intentions of going to the theater on base (yes, we have been overdosing on movies, but when you are living in a hotel room with nothing but a couple outfits, sometimes it is the only option for entertainment) after dinner at their house, but we got there and neither of us brought money so we went home. we watched blood diamond instead....not the best movie to watch at the end of a day...i went to bed both angry and sad. compelling flick though. i recommend it. in the morning.
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