First Korean subway ride....whew

We ventured out of the city we live in for the first time today, it was a little adventure. Thank god for young Koreans who are happy to practice their English with bumbling, lost Americans. We didn't even have to ask, we apparently wore the confusion all over our faces. We did okay, kinda, leaving the city we live in, the subway station is small and hard to get lost in. When we left the city we went to, Pyeongtaek, it was a different story. Its so weird how turned around you get when you cant read anything.

We went to a mall in Pyeongtaek, which was actually connected to the subway station. It was really nice, 8 floors but a somewhat deceiving 8 floors. The floors aren't very big so its not like it was some insanely huge mall. We ate there which was pretty cool. The restaurant looked out over the city we were in. We realized that we need to learn some basic Korean if we are going to venture out. Between the subway station and trying to order dinner, it is evident that it would do us some good to listen to Rosetta Stone. Dinner turned into us pointing at pictures on the menu saying "that looks like chicken". Lovely.....thank god it turned out to be really good.

I couldn't tell you the amount of people who looked at Liam and said something to whoever they were with. They would look at him, say something to whoever they were with then say "cute" and smile. I think seeing a blonde little kid here is pretty rare. They don't tell Myndi and I that we are cute though :(

If the weather is okay were going to venture to either Suwon or Seoul this weekend. We will definitely take lots of pics there....both are big cities with pretty sights apparently.

Today.....

We went to the other side of the tracks today, literally not figuratively....we walked to where the train leaves for Seoul. The further we got from base the more foreign it got. You can tell around base is definitely geared towards Americans....We went to a street market that had all sorts of fish, spices, veggies, basically everything. We bought some nice big sweet potatoes and grapes for Liam. I think we got ripped off on the grapes. 5000 won for one bundle of grapes, which equals about five bucks.

The first picture of the store 'J Rider' I was actually trying to get a pic of the guy you see in the picture. It was weird, there was a bunch of Korean guys standing around in chaps with their bikes parked out front. It looked like a Korean biker bar. 

We had traditional Korean for lunch today, pizza...:) it was very good. We are thinking of going to Seoul next weekend to see the Coex mall which is supposedly amazing. It is an underground mall that has everything apparently. It will be neat to see Seoul because I believe it will be greatly different from where we live. As you can tell in some of the picture it looks very old and run down while Seoul is the opposite.

We will be trapped inside for the next few days, there is an exercise on base which basically means they do mock attacks of the base so everything is shut down. I could technically still go places since Im not in the military Im not taking part in the exercises but most people would probably assume I am in the military and wonder why Im not taking part in the exercise which would probably lead to getting yelled at. I dont want to get yelled at.

Thats all for now:)

More pics...

Random pics

Jet lag

Wide awake at 2am. Jet lag is crazy! Apparently it takes about a week to get on track. Liam is up too! Gonna have to try hard to not nap during the day. I got a cell phone yesterday so I will be able to call home regularly. Had my first Korean meal yesterday. It was very good. Hopefully we will get out tomorrow and I can take some pics to post.

Finally in Korea

What a long day. Six hour flight to San Fran, 12 hour flight to Seoul, then an hour or so bus ride to Songtan City which is where the base is....Liam was a champ the whole way. Korea's interesting. The first thing I noticed in the airport was complete silence. I got to customs and everyone is so quiet. It was all soft, gentle hand gestures. As opposed to someone at home yelling next! I wasnt sure if I was allowed to talk, Liam was cool with still yelling though:) He wanted to let them know he was here.

The drivers are INSANE here. We were on a bus and the driver was flying and cutting people off and singing and honking. It was intense, I was actually too tired to worry.

Its 3AM here and Im wide awake! Liam and Myndi are sleeping so thats good. Hopefully I can sleep soon. I am excited to see what its like walking around and trying some Korean food. I have learned "thank you" in Korean and they are very appreciative if you try to speak to them in Korean. Well now since were all here I will officially being posting pics, thoughts, videos etc here.....til morning.

Jordan