we made it, we're here...after an easy flight from dtw to tokyo narita (outer space) and an even easier flight from tokyo to seoul (sushi replaced customary turkey sandwich on plane!) we have now found residence at the turumi lodge at osan.
we were spoiled by our sponsors from the start...they picked us up inside the airport, took pictures of how greasy we had gotten time traveling, loaded us up in their borrowed SUV, and offered us all the food and drinks we would normally love if we had any clue what day or time it was...
osan is approximately 40 miles south of seoul, but it takes 2 hours to drive there due to the indirect route. our sights at this hour (10-11pm) were like any normal city...culture shock was only midly setting in due to the korean characters on billboards...most were in english as well though. we got to the hotel, they fixed us up in our room (from what i remember we were sleepwalking at this point) and we were out at midnight.
we were up the next morning, surprisingly, at 8 a.m. 60s and sunny...beautiful day. luckily it was a pacaf (not sure what this acronym means yet, but i will guess...pacific air control armed forces) holiday so kate and kevin (our sponsors) didn't have to work. we ate breakfast in our room (thank god they loaded us up with food) and then headed to the bx (base exchange) to check things out. we immediately ran into kate at starbucks (she is a regular...no, i guess i would say a fixture...at least 2 hours every day)...and discussed our day. kevin had gotten brant a cell phone, it didn't work, so we knew we'd have to take care of that and see songtan (our new city!) and get patches for brant's flightsuit and my new party suit (more later on this). kevin showed up so we let them be (it was their 2nd anniversary!) and bopped around the bx, brought brant a new watch (lost his on the plane), and headed back to the hotel. brant left to get a haircut (which included a back and neck massage all for $7) and i tried to pick up our disaster of a room. kate and kevin picked me up at 11:30 and we picked up brant from his haircut and drove to the main gate. from here, we got some won (korean currency), and walked off base. songtan is right there so no one drives off base since there is nowhere to park. we first went to the patch shop, got brant his flying patches (pacaf, squadron, US flag, MI flag, Korean flag), and got my party suit patches (US flag, MI flag, and Korean flag). i have 2 other spots to add other patches and they will make literally anything so i am still deciding what to get... people get some pretty crazy, or shall i say nasty, things made. from there we got our cell phone. it will be mostly for just talking to people around here since we have vonage (which we have yet to hook up) for long distance. they only allow prepaid for US military so we got 28 minutes for 10,000 won which is about $10. free incoming calls though...so that is great. we looked around at all the shops (you can get ANYTHING made) and waited while kate and kevin picked up some orders they had put in at different shops. i mean ANYTHING made. you can take a pic of a painting (picasso, van gogh, etc.) into this one shop and the man will replicate it for you on canvas. it will look identical and he will even make color changes if you want it to match your house. cheap. we ate lunch at a thai restaurant above a store that was called thailand (original, yes). i had tofu (wasn't quite ready to order meat) pad thai...undoubtedly the best thai i had EVER eaten. delicious. brant had some spicy garlic chicken dish. he picked a spiciness of 2 (kevin recommended not to go above 2) on a scale of 1 through 5....we were chatting it up and cleaning our plates when all of a sudden i looked over at brant and his face was red and there were beads of sweat surrounding his eyes and above his brow. he said it was sooo good, but just super spicy and he couldn't stop eating it...it took him four hours or so to cool down. after this we went to korea realty where kate did the talking and we hopped in our realtors ride and went to look at apartments around town. everything was UBER modern and/or just renovated and just as modern. there is no crime here, literally none, but every door was made of thick steel with a digital security lock and a camera with a flat screen tv inside so you could see who was ringing. i had never seen anything even remotely close to as modern as these places were. huge 4 bedroom units, heated wood floors, digital everything, and then came the bathroom...now i know why they call this the land of the "not quite right". in some of the tokyo airport and in many places in seoul the toilet is a hole in the floor. archaic, right? well, these apartments were anything but. i walked in the bathroom and the toilet looked like something that would be sold at best buy next to the plasma tvs. it was fully electronic, self cleaning by remote, and who knows but you could probably answer your home phone with a push of a button and adjust the volume in the room too. i was so scared i had to step out of the room. was i in outer space or just dreaming about the jetsons? why would you have a toilet in the floor at one place and a toilet that downloads mp3s in the next place? just not quite right. in the seoul airport, there was a courtesy bell in each toilet stall which you were to ring when you wanted to mask any other sound. now THAT is not a bad idea. well, we are still deciding on apartments based on proximity to base...we meet with the housing office today. we saw one apt. that wasn't in a high-rise. it was in a neighborhood. i was totally intrigued since we could truly absorb the culture if we lived there. it was awesome on the outside and newer on the inside but the army woman that was living there made it look and feel damp and dark on the inside. not very nice. it had a rooftop patio though that covered the whole house.
after this i napped and brant checked out the gym. i still wasn't quite adjusted since i slept only a few hours on the plane...brant slept 6 or more. i think the smell of the air nauseated me a bit also. i can definitely smell the pollution or maybe it's just the smell of the agriculture here...don't quite know yet. we then got some baskin robbins on base (trying to cure my sore throat from the day) and headed to dinner with our friend from shaw, tabby. we went to the bulgogi house which is where they give you meats and veggies that cook at your table and 5-7 side dishes with rice. very fun meal. i guess i am eating meat now! when in songtan...
after dinner, tabby gave us a walking tour of the city. she explained every little place. there are some german bars that she said you'll go in and the atmosphere is so amazing and hofbrau house-like that you won't even know you are in korea. tuesday is the equivalent of sunday in the US. not much is open. but every other day everything in songtan is open 24/7. there are US military cops all over the place.
after this, we visited kate and kevin's place. it is a couple of years old but soooo nice. we hope to get into the new on base housing which will open in march. we'd still have to live off base for a little bit, but it would be worth it to move again. they will be super nice and big. we bumped into someone we knew from shaw on the way down the elevator and he gave us a ride back to our hotel. it was his car that we rode in from the airport to osan...kate and kevin had borrowed it. his name is ned and they just extended to stay here at osan for 3 years... and they just adopted a 3 year old korean girl...lily.
today, wednesday, brant went to work for a bit and then we are getting my ration card for buying stuff on base, updating my id, meeting with housing, stopping in at the school, and getting our party suits made. brant's is a snakeskin suit i believe...or whatever crazy material he wants. mine is a lycra black dress with patches on that is supposed to resemble a flightsuit, but black...pictures to come...
ok, this was the most i have written in a looooong time...promised i would update you though! please keep us updated on your happenings as well...
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