95 Days In Korea

THE end.

2009-08-26T03:39:00.000-07:00

Yep. Here it is...the end of 95 days in Korea. It was real, it was fun...but it wasn't real fun. My normal life is way cooler and I'm beyond happy to get back to it...just check my other blog for proof!

Here we go...gettin' on the bus to the airport!!!

Loadin' all the luggage...

Incheon Int'l...can I just say how happy I am to be here right now with a one way ticket to Honolulu?!??!?!?!?

Sittin' on the tarmac, ready to push back from the gate and get this show on the road!

HOME AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a great flight. Korean Air rocks. Free drinks, two meals, hot towels, sleeping masks, toothbrushes & toothpastes, snacks, free alcohol...what more do you want on a plane? Seriously?

Hope everyone enjoyed this blog. If you care what my real life is like you can always regularly check in on The Jumping Percheron. If not...thanks for reading!

Almost Outta Here!

2009-08-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well...the celebration continued last night. Me, Cox, and Diaz wanted to go out and just repeat 10 million times how happy we are for ourselves and each other that we made E5. The other night results came out so late that we were only able to go to beer and hof for an hour before we had to be back on base for curfew. And that night we didn't find Cox until later and then that's when we drank some more on base. So we kinda wanted to go out as the three of us together. We celebrated that we made rank, that we'll all be home in less than 24 hours, and also that it was my husband's birthday and Cox's wedding anniversary. We were just some happy mofos!

First we went drinking at a bunch of bars in Suwon:

Slammin' a bottle of cherry soju.

Which turned into 2 more bottles of lemon soju...

Weird corn nut cheeto things and chocolate rocks...

One alley of bars in Suwon.

We drank anything and everything. I lost count of how many bars we went to. We drank everything from Soju to Long Islands...THEN we took a cab to Songtan to the Osan bars:

This was at Lani's bar...we had to go say bye to her.

Pie.Eyed.

What A Way To End This Trip!

2009-08-21T06:20:00.000-07:00

Well, the list for the 09 E5 promotions came out early this morning, which was late last night for us in Korea. I was sleeping and two commanders, the 1st Sgt., and two of my NCO's came and woke me up to tell me I MADE IT! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FIRST TIME AROUND! YEESSSSSSSS!! I am officially a Staff Sergeant Select! To make it even better I found out I am in the top 30%! It feels good to know that I didn't just barely scrape in under the cut off line. I didn't want to be one of those people.

The 3 of us that made it from our team here in Korea. Me, Cox, and Diaz. WE ROCK! CONGRATS TO US!

A trip to beer and hof across the street for individual pitchers of soju was mandatory.

Me with celebratory straight soju!

So, I am now outta Korea in under 48 hours. I CANNOT WAIT. I get home the day after my husband's birthday so, not only are we celebrating his b-day Sunday evening but also that I made E5. I'm pretty sure I walked around with a silly ass smile on my face most of the day. Life is good.

I decided to take some random pics yesterday while I was walking to Osan...

Bye bye Songtan station and the damn Cheongyagni train that always pulls up to the platform right as I walk in the parking lot, forcing me to miss it almost every time.

Bye bye, weird ghetto butcher. This dude is always hacking something up on the cement floor. I've even seen him hacking up pig heads and I regularly see pig heads in a bag just sitting in the door way.

Ew, see there's a bag of animal parts by the red stool. Ugh.

Bye bye ghetto, broke ass Songtan streets.

These are restaraunts, I'm not making that up. Notice the most bad ass mailbox you've ever seen in your life on the left...that green antifreeze container nailed up by the door, yeah...that's a mail box.

Bye bye weird ass old fruit stand lady under the bridge.

Awww, my beloved Bengals! I walk by this store everyday to see them. I wish they weren't illegal in Hawaii, or I'd already have one. Thankfully, they're NOT illegal on the mainland so when we PCS next year...I'll have a Bengal already reserved!!!!!

Really, I'm so ready to get out of here. This place is filthy...as you have seen, and smells like 20 different kinds of nastiness every 5 feet. It's a mix between a trash dump and a flea market. I mean I have had fun and all that but Korea as a place...uh, the only reason I would go is if the military makes me. There's no way I'd spend my own money to come over here. I'm thankful that this was my "deployment" but will I miss anything about this place? Absolutely.not.even.for.one.second.

Two More Palaces and a Temple.

2009-08-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

Made it to two more palaces and stumbled onto a temple on the walk back to one of the subway stations today :)

Here's Unhyungung Palace:

Traditional wear of the King and Queen.

Pictures of palace visitors.

It's funny these palaces are right in the middle of downtown Seoul. You walk out the gate and you're back in a downtown metropolitan area. I mean duh, what do you expect, that palaces have been around for a long time, but still.

450 year old main gate.

Ok, this was Changdeokgung Palace. This is by far the coolest palace I have been to. The only way you can get into it is on a guided tour. I didn't know this when I got there but noticed the last English tour was in 30 mins, so I waited. There's only 3 English tours daily, so I happened to walk up at the right time.

Our guide spoke very good English. She asked me where I was from and I told her Hawaii and she started laughing and getting all excited and told me her sister had moved from Korea to Honolulu.

The tour was a total of 1.6 miles and took just over an hour. This palace has only been open to the public since 1996. The last people that lived in it lived there until 1989, until they died. The last direct descendant of the royal family died in 2005. She also told us that even though the palace is spread out the King and Queen hardly ever walked anywhere. They were always carried on their special chairs. They didn't even have to get up to use the bathroom. They would have servants bring tubs of water for them to use the restroom, the servants had to take the water back with them to dispose of it.

The main ceremonial court.

The King's throne.

The King's special house where he spent time with his concubine.

Walking to the forbidden garden.

Only the royal family was allowed into the forbidden garden, along with very few personally invited guests.

750 year old Juniper tree.

I'm not sure what the name of this temple is. I just happened to see it on my way walking back to the subway station.

Some weird old camera.

These are just a couple pictures I took when I was walking back on base.

Seoul Racecourse, again...I had to.

2009-08-09T04:48:00.001-07:00

I went back to the racetrack again today :) I can't help it...I HAVE to see some ponies! I MISS MY HORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any horses are better than no horses! Cox went with me today, she's never been to a track before.

Meet my horse of the day:

Ugh, like I said in the last post from the track, The World's BIGGEST SUCKER FOR A CHESTNUT WITH A LOT OF CHROME = ME.

Heh, and here is my boy winning the race by a nose!!!!
Click on the pic to enlarge and see how I caught him flying, all fours waaaay off the ground.

I will ALWAYS have lots of love for greys!

Seriously!!

We saw this hat at the gift shop, how random is that?!?!

Me with the happy horse family LOL.

Here I am putting the lock for Klein and I on the infield horse :)

Beautiful day.

Chi Koooooo!

A little paint mare that is a carriage horse.

Awww...

*SIGH*

Ahaha, two point on a hedge horse, with the most ass backward bridle I've ever seen in my life.

Uh?

Makin' a break for it!

Runnin' for the roses.

Seoul Tower, Round 2.

2009-08-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

Cox and I went back to Seoul Tower tonight to see the city all lit up. Of course, it had to be raining a little, but it didn't ruin the view.

View from the subway when we cross the river...

Waiting on the next train...

Looking out of the cable car on the way up.

Looking down :) Cox, you did good :)

Standing at the base of the tower.

Looking out over Seoul.

Those are not UFO's, they're just reflections off raindrops.

Hehe, I found our lock!

I also had Klein and I our own lock engraved for the wire horse at the Seoul Racecourse infield.

It's blurry, but it's looking up at the cable car on its way to the tower.

Seodaenum Prison and Gyeongbok Palace.

2009-07-29T04:31:00.001-07:00

First up today was Independence Gate and Seodaenum Prison:

Independence Gate.

Independence Gate was under heavy construction so we couldn't really walk around the actual park and check it out anymore. I guess some civilian had recently lit the park on fire in protest so now it has to be restored.

Seodaenum Prison was pretty much a concentration camp for when the Japanese forcibly occupied Korea from the early 1900s to the mid 1940s. Patriotic fighters were captured and brought here to be tortured and executed. This place is also under heavy restoration right now.

Solitary cell.

Video of an execution.

A torture cell.

Water torture cell.

The Wall Coffin.

Cell block.

The judges. Wtf is the point of judges at a concentration camp anyway?

The Corpse Exit Tunnel. After their deaths prisoner bodies were carried through this tunnel to the cemetary to avoid the chances of being publicly seen.

The tree is known as the Wailing Poplar. Prisoners were beaten against it. The brick was you see to the left is a small enclosure around the Execution House. We were allowed to go in and look but there were signs every where saying not to take pictures and that our actions were being monitored on cameras.

Ok, they are in their own country, so they can read this yellow barrier...yet they still ignore it and go right on through.

The tomb I went to the other day in Seoul, this is the palace of one of the kings buried there.

Petting the MEAAAAAAN kitty!

Aww, how cute :)

Sucks to be the dude that had to paint all that...

This last pic is for Lance :) Look dude I found the only real Indian in Korea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He plays his flute thingie in the subway LOL.

Seoul Racecourse Park.

2009-07-25T05:58:00.001-07:00

The line to get into the track.

Yes, finally...it was time to see some pony faces today! First, let me say that Koreans are SERIOUS about horse racing. I could tell the track was popular as soon as the announcement came on in the train that we were approaching the stop for it. A WHOLE bunch of people stood up. As soon as I got off the train there were people everywhere yelling out trying to sell race programs and all kinds of street vendors selling weird food. There was one nasty smell I could smell above anything else and when I got close to the source I found out it was some kind of BUGS they were cooking. People were buying them by the bowl. It was pretty disgusting.

Anyway...

I got there as soon as the track opened their gates, but later this entire area was PACKED! Oh and the admission to the track is a whole 64 CENTS.

I could just see this girl in the Hunter ring...

Ok, pet peeve of the day. Check this gorgeous grey out... Why in the HELL would you leave a horse unattended with DRAW REINS ON?!?! Notice he's spilled his water just by playing and being a horse. When he spilled it, he was pawing at it and almost got a hoof over those damn draw reins.

10 points for this rider, at least she put her reins through the throatlatch to keep them out of the way.

LOL, it's a international symbol ;)

This boy was left unattended with his draw reins on too...

This is how they roll, they just all set their mats out and chill.

Now, here is the reason I will end up with a light horse one day. I am THE WORLD'S BIGGEST SUCKER for a chestnut with a lot of chrome. Stockings ESPECIALLY. No, I'll never impulse buy a horse just because of color, this chestnut with lots of chrome will be put together nicely. I see one of these go through CANTER about every other month, so that'd be my easiest way to get that chestnut with lots of chrome. I'd like to say I'd never end up with at Thoroughbred because some where in the history of the breed some one thought it'd be a great idea to inject CRACK into their bloodlines and it never dilluted out. I have never enjoyed a ride on a TB, they're always on pins and needles, but there's an exception to every rule. Maybe I'll find one one day but I'm definitely not going out of my way to look...

Cutest colt of the day hands down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took some video, I made sure to include Mr. #9 in there:

They sure do love draw reins here...

You'd think they'd leave them off for the track because you'd think that'd be just one more thing to cause a wreck between these riders and a cracked out race horse.

The infield of the track has a huge garden, restaurants, and lots of kids stuff in the middle:

And old pony I had to stop and say hi to :)

A shrub horse doing his best piaffe.

FAIL.

DOUBLE FAIL. This has got to be the most backward I've ever seen a bridle put on. Holy christ, this is scary that these are at a track. I hope it was the landscapers that did this. WTF?!?!

Awwww more locks! I'm so making one for Klein and I to lock on this horse when I go back in a couple weeks!!!

Now, the grand stand...there's like 5 floors and every single floor is FILLED with betting counters. Check out the line...it's like this or worse at every counter.

View from a suite in the grand stand.

^^Haha, never thought I'D be the one that belongs in here...

But they hooked me up with my own private lazy boy type seat and the racing program in English!

Ok, there were a couple of races that had a half hour break between them and for that break they were showing races at another track in the area, Jeju. On the Korean racing website I had seen something about "Pony Racing" at the Jeju track. Well, we all call them the ponies, I even call Klein my pony. I thought for a sec I wonder if they really mean...nah...no way. YES WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Jeju track was racing PONIES:

OMFG, I almost fell out of my seat laughing!! How adorable! Those little ponies were acting every part of a high strung TB too. I had to take a second look the first time I looked up and was like "Oh look how cute they have a pony with race tack!" Then I realized he was in the paddock waiting for his jockey!!!!!!!!!!! How funny! The program said they were all 3 or 4 year olds. There was 4 or 5 televised PONY races. I wonder where the program is to adopt and OTP?!?!

A tall, dark and handsome I could see floating around a 4' course. This boy came from the U.S.

Another tall, dark, and handsome that would be a star in the Hunter ring...this boy came from Australia.

This pic is for Lisa.

Uhhh...I took this pic 4 hours after the first. This sweet boy had been in draw reins for FOUR HOURS STRAIGHT at this point. I know he had been because he was only going from the paddock to the track and back. I can't even put Klein in side reins or vienna reins for more than 20 mins. Not because she wouldn't do it but because I feel it's not right, but that is just me, I know. This grey was a perfect, quiet gentleman the whole day and a nice mover. He is in the video I posted, when they come out on the track. Everything about his movements said "I'm a Dressage horse." Click on this pic to enlarge it and look this guy's expression.

*SIGH* I hate pointing out bad stuff. I really do. THIS pony and his pony friends were all hitched to carriages that should be pulled by no less than a draft cross. AND they were trotting them EVERYWHERE on pavement.

Size reference pic...

After this pony was untacked. Come on man...what about a harness pad?! Some baby powder atleast?!!?! And...I'm not sure if this is true but I've heard it in more than one place from experienced drivers; if the horse is pulling more than a 2 person vehicle they need to be in a collar harness. These ponies were all pulling Vis-a-Vis' (4 plus a driver) and they were all in breast collar harnesses. Something about the collar distributing the weight more evenly.

My favorite filly of the day! Of course, you know I have to go for every grey I see.

Pretty girl!

Even the subway had racehorses in it :)

Even despite the not so great points, overall I had a ton of fun at the track just being in the presence of horses. I miss my Klein mare SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. Less than a month and I'll be home to spoil her :) Not even all those horses added together today would come close to equalling my Princess Percheron!!!!!

Ohhh yeah and I forgot to mention I got the stare down all day no matter where I went. Light skin, light hair, light eyes...they think the mother ship just beamed me down. I was the only American I saw all day, even in the Foreigner's Lounge it was a bunch of Brits. I guess Koreans don't go by the rule of it's really rude to just stare. Oh well.

Samneung Park.

2009-07-25T05:44:00.000-07:00

It rained hard again last night and I was SO hoping that it would stop by day break and be another nice day like it was yesterday. I took the above pic this morning...good enough for me! I made sure I took my umbrella anyway though. The rain has been crazy around here lately. Monsoon season SUCKS.

Sooo before I hit the track today I decided to check the tomb of King Seongjong, his Queen Jeonghyeon, and King Jungjong.

This whole thing is in a little park about the size of a couple blocks. I walked the trails before getting back on the train to go to another tomb/shrine on the way back toward the track.

Unfortunately I guess this one was closed today...Cheonggwonsa Shrine. Oh well it's not too far, I'll go another day.

After this stop I got back on the train to Seoul Racecourse, I'm about to write that post right after I post this. It deserves its own post :)

Korean War Memorial.

2009-07-21T03:44:00.000-07:00

Today I went by myself to Seoul to see the Korean War Memorial. I didn't know it had American stuff in it too... Seriously, I really didn't learn as much as I could have. I kinda just walked around and looked at everything. I'm not the person to walk around and read every single sign, I'm way more of a visual person.

A drum painted for the 60th anniversary of armed forces in Korea.

The helo collection, with Seoul Tower in the background. That section was closed off but I got a good view from this window.

RoK AF still flies these F4's daily, even though they are from the 70's and earlier.

This one is for my Uncle Jim! He used to own one of these planes. (P-51 Mustang)

Weirdest bi plane I've ever seen...

I took these last couple pics on my walk back to the train station. Seoul is much cleaner than its surrounding areas. I actually feel like I'm in a halfway normal city when I walk around Seoul. It doesn't look like a flea market and there's not trash all over the side walks.

Seoul Zoo.

2009-07-17T03:11:00.001-07:00

Cox and I braved the crappy weather today and went to the Seoul Zoo. It was actually not too bad of an idea because there weren't 10 million people all over :) It was just sprinkling on us most of the time but toward the end it let loose like it hasn't rained in 500 years in Korea. Monsoon season SUCKS. But, Cox and I are gangsters like that and we don't care.

Chair lift through the park with Seoul Land amusement park in the background, yes that will be one of our next adventures :)

Heh, if it's equine, you know I have to take pics of it ;)

Some weirdo in the bug house...

Seriously...wtf is wrong with a normal toilet? I'm so tired of these things. I refuse to use them.

Bird island.

This pic is for my Mom <3

Fatty Lumpkin Pony #1. The zoo needs to get an education about Equine diet. You should have how insanely cresty this guy is in his neck :(

Fatty Lumpkin Pony #2. The zoo is obviously horse diet clueless and has never heard of Founder. Poor things.

And WTF IS THIS?!?!?!?!?! This poor little pony mare is so digustingly sick and underweight she could barely hold her head up. The filly next to her was trying to NURSE off her too! I promise you if I spoke Korean or had any idea how to contact some kind of human society here or call the zoo and make a complaint I WOULD. Animal neglect makes me feel physically ill.

I started talking to Fatty Lumpkin Pony #2 and he came right over, poor little guy. He wanted to go home with me! :( If you click on this pic to enlarge you can see he is so overweight that he has fat dimple in his sides.

Tigers napping, can't blame 'em. Nothing else better to do on a rainy day.

Cat naps!

I LOVE big cats (and any other kind of cat lol), they're just so beautiful.

The Boss Man. He was the LOUDEST Sea Lion! We could hear him half way up the hill!

Seoul has a beautiful zoo. Everything was really clean and kept nicely, except the ponies. The ponies' living area was clean and they had feed and water out, they just need to learn about proper horse care and diet. Besides that sad site we had a good day, even despite the stupid rain!

Seoul Tower.

2009-07-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

Seoul Tower! Pretty sweet! Cox and I have been talking about going to check this thing out and today would be as good as any other day.

We took the train to the tower and then took the cable car up the side of the mountain to it. We could have walked. There's a few paths that lead up to it. We weren't sure which one to take so we just rode the cable car...and that way Cox had to face her fear of heights :)

Lower view from the cable car.

When you get out at the top...

The way down...the very long way...which we did take on the way back. We walked all the way to the bottom through the gardens and stopped at different observation decks.

Walking up from the cable car house.

The tower. With one of many suspended wire sculptures.

From an observation deck at the base of the tower.

It took me a minute to figure out what was going on with all the locks. After wandering through the gift shops and seeing Eiffel tower figurines, all sorts of lovey dovey kinds of stuff all over, seeing girls walking around with roses, and couples all over I finally got it. Seoul Tower is the Korean version of the Eiffel Tower. It's a very romantic place. There's even a couple restaurants in the tower along with some nice cocktail bars.

And the locks...they are all from couples. There's hundreds of thousands of them locked all over the fence with special messages written or engraved on them.

Trying to choke out a teddy bear ;)

SAY WHAAAAAAT?!?!?! MARE Pizza?! It can't be, but it might be, considering where I saved Klein from ending up...maybe this is what happens to the too slow TB's at the Seoul track. I hope not. Shhhhh...no one tell Klein about this!

There's a few floors on the top part of the tower. An observation deck, which we went up to, along with a couple restaurants. One of them revolves.

Even the bathrooms are cool...

In one of the gift shops they sold locks and engraved them while you waited, so...

Our lock <3

Our lock with the souvenir keys <3

I actually found an area that wasn't already covered with 394,293,098,485,382 other locks.

I put our lock by this small table over looking Seoul in the open air cocktail bar, how appropriate, I know ;)

On our way down.

Lotte World.

2009-07-08T04:48:00.001-07:00

Today's adventure...Lotte World aka Korea's version of Disneyland.

Why is this dude trying to knock Pegasus out?! This fountain sucks.

The inside half.

Ice rink!! YES!!!!

My best crest release on a carousel horse.

"Magic Donkey"...yeah.

Kyle, LOL.

The outside half...

Another example of Korea needing to get a clue about horse tack.

This ride rocked!

The pathetic part is...this kiddie swing owned me. Things that spin horizontally and I, just do not get along :( Atleast I didn't get sick that would have been extra pathetic.

Trying to catch the roller coaster.

Stylin'. Running shorts, a NIN shirt...and ice skates.

Lotte world was fun, and we are so going back to ice skate some more!!!! The inside half of Lotte World is actually in this GIANT mall. It has EVERYTHING from restaurants, bars, every kind of store imaginable, a bowling alley, an ice rink, and a shooting range.

Hwaseong Fortress Part 2

2009-07-05T02:26:00.001-07:00

Today I decided to go back to Hwaseong Fortress to walk the other half. The other day Cox and I only did one half because we got kinda lost a couple times.

Instead of taking the train I walked to Suwon Station, it's only a couple miles and then caught the bus from there to the fortress.

River walk kinda thing that runs through out Suwon. I plan to run a couple miles on it this week.

Just Suwon and I.

Huge, creepy looking church...I thought about walking over to check it out but I just couldn't bring myself to care even that much about a church.

Crazy Suwon "mall."

Seriously? Blech...

Inside the "mall."

The most bling bling Buddah you'll probably ever seen in your life.

The Temple underneath Buddah's pedestal.

At Buddah's feet. I have no idea what it's for.

More of the Temple grounds.

Before any of you smart asses try to point out to me that Buddhism is a form of religion and I just mentioned above how I don't care about churches and want nothing to do with them, yet I stop at these Temples... These Temples are unlike any other "church." As soon as you walk onto their property everything is peacefully quiet. There's nothing but respect and peacefulness in the air. It's really strange, but cool. So I will continue to check out the Temples I come across. As for traditional looking church type places, no thank you. How many Monks have you heard of that are all about corruption, embezzling church money, perfecting the art of scamming/being con artists, are outwardly hypocritical, molest children, and use the "church" as a shroud to an elaborate life of crime?

Moving along...

After the fortress, the crazy mall, and the Temple I decided there really is no good reason for me to hurry back to the base...so I walked back. Sometimes it's good to go places by yourself because who else would have agreed to walk over 8 miles (actually I think it's more) with me today? I bypassed the bus, and the train and walked alllllllll the way from the fortress right back to my room on base.

On this long walk home I found the Korean version of a tuner shop and parked outside...a ricer, what a surprise. *rolls eyes* Where's the DSMs? I don't think they ever made it to Korea 'cause I haven't even seen an Evo around...not even an early version like a 4, wtf? Can I atleast get a 4?!

Bwahahahaha

Hwaseong Fortress.

2009-07-01T03:47:00.001-07:00

Today Cox and I went to check out Hwaseong Fortress in the middle of Suwon.

*HINT HINT*

Korean Independence Memorial.

Museum @ the end.

We had to ride the ghetto bus today...and we totally got lost on the way back and ended up at some random bus yard. Luckily, even for foreigners the bus system is pretty easy to figure out and we were only "lost" for about 5 mins :)

Where we ended up before getting un-lost :)

Everland.

2009-06-27T04:56:00.000-07:00

Today me, Cox, her brother, and some of his friends went to Seoul to the HUGE amusement park Everland.

Cox and I.

Haha, my shoes finally match something.

The Korean Mickey?

First, Cox and I went to Osan to meet up with her bro Kyle. Then it turns out we had to go back to Suwon on the train and get on a bus. Sooooooo...we did and it was a long ass bus ride, but oh well, it was worth it. The entire bus ride this guy that was with us, Omar, had a HUGE bottle of orange juice with 3 bottles of Soju in it. He finished the entire thing before we even got off the bus at Everland. He was hammered. So we knew something bad was gonna happen. But, we get on the first ride which was one of those giant boats that swing back and forth, pretty much a kid's ride but we just wanted to go on any ride. Another dude from our group who was hungover from the night before pukes ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL over the ride as soon as it stops. WTF?!?! How do you puke on a ride like that?!?! So we're all busting up laughing at him and they had to stop and hold up the entire ride to clean up. Ew.

While we were standing there laughing at this guy this Asian couple came up and asked me to take a picture with them? I have no idea. Maybe they think I'm someone else?

Then, the next "ride" we went on we lost dude that drank 3 bottles of Soju to come out and find him passed out in a flower bed with a janitor poking at him.

After we woke him up out of the flower bed...

This park is HUGE and we spent pretty much the entire day there. We left dude that drank 3 bottles of Soju alone 'cause he wasn't in a condition to go walking around in 90+ degree weather. He had a phone so we said we'd find him later, and we did...and he had puke on his shirt and shorts, so he was feeling better.

Anyway...

WTF?!

Uhh...how about we put the saddle on NOT backward.

Kyle and I rode a camel. I had to...I haven't rode a camel since I was a little kid at the Phoenix Zoo.

Next to the camel rides are the pony rides. They already have one strike for putting the saddle on backward on the fake horse but they can't get it right on a real one either. Poor little pony!!! I mean, it's cute and all they have a little dressage saddle on the pony but...damn, learn to put a saddle on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The pommel is damn near hitting it's neck :( The girth is so far up that it's probably rubbing his little legs raw :( Other than that the ponies did look like they were well cared for.

A PET drink? What?

Some crazy water show.

We walked all the way up this big ass hill to this roller coaster and it's CLOSED?! FML!

Chi Koooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I bought the glasses...

Some of the mountains around Seoul.

It was fun to go somewhere different, except that we had no idea what was going on because we couldn't read anything or understand any of what was being said. Oh well, that's part of the fun...jk. Me, Cox, and her bro want to go back before we leave. We missed the Zoo section completely! That place is HUGE! I guess it's a 2 day thing.

F-16 Up Close.

2009-06-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

I got picked to go on a tour today of F-16 launch procedures. Pretty sweet.

It was myself and 3 other people. We were taken out to one of the hangars where a crew chief had started his pre-flight on one of the F-16's.

The pilot getting in after his pre-flight.

Going through checklists...

Crew chief doing final checks after the jet has started.

LOL, the pilot throwing up THE CLAW to us.

Bye-bye birdie!

After that we drove out on the taxiway and watched all 4 of the F-16's that were about to take off taxi by us. This taxiway was right in front of the take off/touchdown point on the runway so while we waited for our 4 to go through their last checks at EOR we watched the RoK AF doing flybys, taking off, and landing. They fly T-38's and F4's. Yeah...F4's, as in the ones used in Vietnam. They taxied right in front of us with their canopy open and were waving at us. I would have taken a picture but, no pics allowed right on the flightline :( That's why I have no take off or taxi pics of the 16's either.

Even though my whole family flies and has always owned airplanes, I've rode in the Camaros a couple times for the launch and recovery of the U-2, and shadowed and FE to pre-flight an AWACS, I never get tired of airplanes...not even C-130's ;)

Drunk Before The Sun Goes Down.

2009-06-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

The night before last we went back around Suwon station to a couple of the new places we found.

Peach soju @ New York Basement.

After two pitchers of peach soju and a pitcher of pineapple soju @ Volume, we still weren't feeling it and decided to just get a bottle and take shots of straight soju :)

Pitcher of pineapple soju gone, straight shots of soju poured and ready @ Volume.

Then we went back to the corner store across from the base and bought another combat bottle to take back :)

Yesterday...
I had to go to Osan to pick up a surprise for my husband so Jessi and I decided to hang out at the Rhino and have a lot of drinks...

Ammo Bowl to start the afternoon off.

LOLOLOLOLOL, if you don't get it, see here.

Kettle #1 of 3.

Our names in Korean...I don't remember this part.

Our bartender got us our own kettles with shot glasses!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME!!! We have been trying to find a shop that sells them and haven't had any luck yet. We love the Rhino, and the Rhino loves us!!!!!!!!

A new business across the street.

All this stuff is supposed to bring good luck to a new business...

We were completely sloppy drunk by 6pm, good times!!!!!!! After we got back to base we kept the party going with more from that combat bottle ;)

Oh yeah this is way off topic, but it rocks anyway...

Cox and Chaney FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Hangout.

2009-06-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

First Jessi, JG, and I started at the Beer and Hof right across from the gate. We were ready to start the evening.

We decided to stay around Suwon and took a cab back to Suwon Station to walk around the area some more because it definitely looked worth our time.

At first we were starting to lose hope because we were seeing more shoe stores than bars but then we wandered into the right alley:

Haha, JG sucks at darts...

This alley is a couple of blocks full of bars, restaurants, and carnival type games. Not all of the places have soju either so we need to get familiar with this spot. We ended up walking in and out of probably 6 or 7 bars before we found Soju.

Nice inside, but no soju pitchers = fail.

S Bar, so nice that even though they had no soju we still all had one drink there.

The good shit, have to respect that...quite the mark up from America though. 650,000 is about $514. I usually see Johnny Walker Blue Label for about $300 in liquor stores.

They need a new translator.

Finally we went into a place called Volume and they had pitchers of soju...so we ended up getting 4 strawberry soju pitchers.

Inside Volume.

2 out of 4.

After we came out of volume some Korean in a suit walked up talking about some club. He was trying to bring people in so we followed him. We were in exploration mode anyway. He led us into this huge Vegas-style, theater-like bar with balconies and everything. But...no soju, just beer and cocktails. We were also in soju mode so we told him we'd be back, and we will 'cause that place was really cool. I would have taken a pic in it but it was too dark.

Next up, New York...and a pitcher of peach soju:

After New York we decided to take a cab back to our starting bar and have one more pitcher...

You know you'd do it too...

It's funny...

...because it isn't me!

More street vendors...they're every 2 ft!

Kiwi soju. Not the best, but don't want to waste it either.

Git it Jessi! I don't know what my problem was?

The end. Not really, after that we went to the rec center and made MORE pineapple soju!

Let Me Tell You About Running In Korea.

2009-06-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

Ready to roll out for atleast a 5 miler :)

I love to run. I really do enjoy it, but Korea makes it extremely difficult sometimes. Last night I went out in the evening for a nice 5.25 mile run. I wanted to do a long, slow 5.25 miles. I was reading some stuff from Jeff Galloway and was going to try to back my pace down to a 10 min/mile the whole way. First I just couldn't manage to slow it down that much because to me it really felt like I was running in slow motion. A 9:30 min/mile is the slowest pace I could manage (my usual pace stays around an 8:25 min/mile for distance runs). Not only is a 10 min/mile pace too slow for me I don't think I'd be able to spend that extra time out in the nasty air around here. It's HORRIBLE. Some nights are worse than others. Wind doesn't help, it just blows more nasty smells from some other place. Every quarter mile or so you run through a different smell. It is beyond disgusting. Maybe I should start running with my god damn gas mask on. I think I ran through trash, port-o-potty, cow crap, pig crap, dog crap, Tanuki crap, something burning, and rotting seafood smells all in that 5.25 mile run. Then I also think maybe the RoK AF decides to come out and use the ditches for their toilets too 'cause it sure smells like it.

BTW...my idea of a perfect lunch or dinner:

I eat this almost every day for lunch and dinner and I have yet to get tired of it.

VIPS, Round 2.

2009-06-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

Last night we headed back to Suwon Station to go to dinner at VIPS again :) JG and his mad camera skills took some pics when we came out on the 2nd floor of the mall.

This is a big, city center kind of place and one night soon, we're going to go out drinki...AHEM, exploring, in it :)

I Should Eat Normal Food For Once...

2009-06-14T04:15:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning on going anywhere last night but I did...right after a 3 mile run and some weights, and a protein shake for dinner...BAD IDEA. Yesterday was a typical day for me soup, fruit, salad, protein bar, protein shake. That's all I ate all day so that's not a very good environment to go dumping Soju into, and I finally paid for it last night. All I have to say is a big thanks to Jessi and JG and that I will be buying them dinner :) Here's all I have for pictures...

Street vendor, too bad everything has or is meat :(

Only way to get the night started...

One Ammo Bowl down! One more on the way...

This morning...waking up drunk is always interesting.

Short Trip.

2009-06-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

Went to Osan by myself yesterday. I had a to do list and had to find a friend of a friend. I got everything done :) That was my productive day for the week.

Songtan City.

Sunday is our buddy Graves' birthday...uhhhhhhhhhhh ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Fail and Some Real Food.

2009-06-10T17:53:00.000-07:00

A couple of us went to Osan because we needed to go to the BX. When we got there...the BX was closed for some random organizational day?!?! What?!?! Weaksauce. We had to make something out of going up there, so we went to the Rhino and had an Ammo Bowl :)

This is totally normal here...

We headed back to Suwon and met up with a couple other people to go to dinner at Suwon Station. Suwon Station is a subway stop but on top of it is a 5 story mall with some nice restaurants. Even Outback is in there! We went to a place called VIPS and it was awesome! Thanks Sgt. Escobar for telling us about it. It has a big salad, pizza, and soup bar or you can also order a steak dinner. So I finally had some good salad and veggies and they had veggie soup out. I will definitely be going back to that place!

Ok, I got steak, event and VIPS.

The Ammo Bowl was a good one earlier and I don't think that even after dinner any of our buzzes had worn off yet so we went to a couple different places outside our gate looking for a kettle. None of them understood what we were talking about so we stopped at a corner store and got a HANDLE of fruity Soju and then Graves bought an entire case of Red Bull to go with it.

All that Soju, and it was less than 10 bucks! I love it!!

While we were drinking at the rec center these Comm guys came in and brought these:

We are in the land of Soju...and you walk in with THOSE?! Who does that?

Seoul.

2009-06-07T13:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday a couple of us rode the train into Seoul. We went to the Coex mall which is a massive mall with an aquarium and a couple museums.

What's up with the green hallway??

I probably have a curse on me now.

Seriously??

It definitely gets more and more crowded the closer you get to Seoul. The train was packed and the train stations were just as bad. People here are so different. There is no organization. You know in the U.S. just like a road, people going one way stay on the right the other way stays on the left. Not here. I swear people aim for you. They'll run into, they'll shove you up and down the stairs, they're just rude. They have no respect for personal space. Even in the mall, people just walk out of nowhere right across your path like you're not even there. It's annoying but you start to get used to it.

First we went to the Coex Aquarium. It was cool but way crowded. They need to learn about occupancy limits here.

LOL

A seal eatin' some seal snacks. So cute!

On the left, normal jellyfish, on the right the Mama Flores jellyfish ;)

A Dressage figurine in the gift shop at the aquarium? How random is that?

And a Jumper!

Then we went across the street to a Buddhist temple. Don't ask me the name of it. It was something long and something I could never pronounce. I guess I should have taken a pic of a sign with it's name.

Important people's graves...

A wall full of golden Buddhas.

Smart kitty. If you're gonna be a kitty in Korea, live at a temple so you don't end up on a dinner plate somewhere!!

Largest Buddha statue in Korea.

Typical Night In Korea Town...

2009-06-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

Another fun night! Jessi and I started at the Rhino...

Jessi and I starting the night the right way.

Then we met up with everyone at Cheers where there was another Ammo Bowl and some Strawberry Soju drinks and of course, Hookah. We had mixed fruit this time in the hookah and it was NASTY. So...note to self, don't ever get mixed fruit again.

Lani!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sherrod, King of All Gamers.

Sherrod and Mama Flooooooooooooooooores!

Another Ammo Bowl down!

Get it Lani!

Our song at Cheers!

How we roll...

Then we stopped by Jumi's cause my friend that was stationed here said I had to go say Hi for him. Jumi was awesome, she made us some special drinks and everything.

Me...two Ammo Bowls and a bunch of Soju fruity drinks, and whatever Jumi made us later...and Jumi!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we bounced around from The Whiskey, to Yongchons, to some other place...

Shelley lookin' lost.

Wtf am I doooooing?

This girl and her phone...I swear.

If you don't love Mama Flores, there is something wrong with you.

Other Stuff.

2009-06-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

Just so you guys know...aside from all the party time I do stuff that is good for me. I always have. I love to run, thanks to my Mom.

Normally when I'm at home I'm riding 4-5 days a week. And anyone that knows me knows I have a young mare in training and we don't go on wimpy trail rides or stay on the rail in the arena.

On the days I don't ride there's working my 1700lb, opinionated mare on the longe. For you non horse people the longe is a 25 ft long line from which you can do schooling on the ground. So basically I have a 1700lb horse on a string that I only have my weight to counter with if she feels like getting strong.

Me longing Klein mare on the flat. Sometimes there's jumps or ground rails out that I longe her over. Depends on her work out schedule.

Put that together with all the daily barn chores of boarding at a self care barn and on top of that I would run atleast 3 miles a couple days a week and going to Spin Class twice a week.

So, now that I'm here...I am not one to be lazy. I can't stand sitting around, or being inside all day.

Since I've been here I am in the gym 6 days a week. My day is not complete without serious physical activity. My day will be wrecked with out it. I do cardio every single day and atleast 4 or 5 of those days I also do weights.

I will usually go out and run atleast 3-4 miles around the base or I'll run on the treadmill if the sun goes down (the base isn't too well lit) before I get my run in, then it's on to weights. Some of the days I will ride the spin bike usually 45 mins. I miss spin class! Atleast we have a couple spin bikes here!

The other day I ran 4.1 miles in 37:23. My 5k is at about 28 mins right now. I know I can improve on that. Today I rode the spin bike for 30 mins then ran another 2.25 miles, then did weights.

As far as diet, I think it's been mentioned in one way or another like 10 times already that I'm a vegetarian. That goes for seafood too, NO seafood of any kind, I hate that stuff, even the smell of ANY of it is disgusting. Aside from that I refuse to eat any junk food. I don't eat candy, ice cream, cakes, pies, potato chips, fried foods, etc... I don't drink soda, energy drinks, coffee or even juice because of how much sugar is in it. I also write down everything I eat every day.

So no, I don't just sit at work and then go party.

Being Productive.

2009-06-03T04:34:00.000-07:00

This evening a class began that is taught by the KATUSAs on base. Sherrod, Cox, and I decided to check it out. It is a weekly class that teaches some basic Korean and also about the Korean lifestyle, as well as helps the KATUSAs with their English.

There were several KATUSAs in the class tonight. They did introductions and some of them you can understand very easily, some of them, need a little help but we could understand the general idea of what they were saying.

Tonight they taught us to count and say hello and "Give me a discount." They talked a little about Korean life. One thing I didn't know is that from the day they find out a Korean woman is pregnant that counts as the baby being a year old already. So when the baby is born it is considered a 1 year old. I found out they are treated like the race horse industry when it comes to personal birthdays. Instead of celebrating their actual birthday, all Koreans have a universal birthday of 1 January. Strange...

I also registered with AMU (American Military University) this evening. The degree plan with them is a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice with a concentration on Forensics. No, this doesn't mean I'm not going for Mortuary Science anymore. I am. I have tons of money the Air Force has given me for school. I could get several degrees for free if I wanted to. AMU is just much easier to deal with while I'm here than the school I will enroll with for the Mortuary Science degree. A lot of the Forensics classes can also transfer over to count toward the Mortuary Science degree :)

Another Day...Another Ammo Bowl...

2009-06-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

Went to Osan again yesterday afternoon. We got a ride from SFS since they were going up there anyway and they needed to take us to Pass and ID. It was cool to see some more of the city. Even though it all pretty much looks the same, rice paddies mixed in with high rise apartment complexes and little downtown areas.

LOL check out this pimp ride, a turbo van, wtf?!

After we did what we had to do on Osan we went to the Rhino for some Ammo Bowls :)

Then back to Suwon with two combat bottles in tow.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiter!

Theme Song.

2009-05-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

What Happened - Sublime

3, 4

Wake up in the morning
clock says half past one
I have no sunglasses as I step into the sun

There's no recollection
of the evil things I've done
my head feels like I must have had some fun

what happened?

Last thing I remember
I was chillin' at a party
pinchin' girlie's asses
I was drinking recklessly

I know I did something
Lord what could it be?
woke up in the morning
and all my friends hate me

what happened?

oh yeah, play it for them wonder

What am I doing here?
who is this girl in my bed?
what is this shit on my face?
my god, what is that awful smell?

She may be an angel
she may be a queen
she might be
black, white, american, indian or japanese

what happened?

Threw a bottle at the bouncer
didn't think that he was cool

pissed in someones drink
and threw a bike into a pool

drivin' down the side walk
like a drunkin' possesed fool
I broke every single traffic rule

oh, what happened?

what happened?

Let's go!!!

She may be an angel
she may be a queen
she might be
black, white, american, indian or japanese...

Randomness.

2009-05-31T04:08:00.000-07:00

A couple pics from yesterday's trip to Osan, no drinking involved for once.

OoOoOoOoO!!! I'll be back for you guys later!

These little food stands are on every corner. I haven't eaten at one yet because I'm not even entirely sure what it is they are selling. Some of the stuff looks like it could be vegetables but there's really no telling.

The train ride home.

Some weird, old blind guy. He was on the train to Songtan, and hours later on our way home he was still wandering the trains trying to get money. I don't get it. Blind people can get jobs. You want me to give you my money that I had to work for because you're blind?! Uh, no.

Just Another Night...

2009-05-29T22:52:00.000-07:00

LOL, I found my store.

Ok first, let me tell you guys I promise I will make some worthwhile posts at some point. As in pics of Korea and not just partying. There's still gonna be a ton of party pics but...I am going to take some trips to temples and caves and rivers, the DMZ etc...

First, we managed to find that Filipino place so we could get some more of that awesome garlic rice. Last time we went we weren't sober so we just followed Cox's brother and neither me or Jessi could remember where the hell we went to get to it. We stopped and asked some one in a store.

After that Diaz, Jessi, and I were off to the Rhino for a couple ammo bowls to start the evening.

Then on to Cheers of course...meaning, another ammo bowl, hookahs, lots of Soju, then the kettle drinks started showing up.

We decided we aren't ready to die yet so we didn't put Soju in there.

You give a dude a camera and he can't concentrate for 2 seconds to take a pic? Weaksauce.

Chi Kooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

The drunk robot? Lance this was for you.

Standley and Diaz.

We made it through the night, got a cab on time, made it through the front gate, thought were home free without incident then...

Soju + Pineapple Juice = Pwnage.

2009-05-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

'm postin gdrunk....pics...

Huh???

Korean V8?

So Uhh...Last Night....Was FUN!!!!

2009-05-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

Sooo smoggy!!

I guess I'll start with us taking the train to Osan. We finally are figuring the train out. It's taken a couple trips but I think we get it now.

We went to the base in Osan for a while 'cause we wanted Subway reallllly bad LOL. It sounds stupid until you've experienced the Army's food at our base.

We had a drink at Chili's after that then headed out for some real drinks. We noticed that there was about 235,948,384,678 idiots lining the street drinking and we wanted to avoid them so we spotted an empty upstairs bar called the Rhino. It was awesome! The people were really cool and they hooked us up on our Ammo bowl.

Heh, that was the second bottle of Soju she put in there :)

Hittin' it with 3 straws!

All done.

Jessi and I did good. Cox had a couple drinks out of it but Jessi and I killed 98% of it by ourselves. One of the bartenders was convinced we would be falling down the stairs out of that place after that Ammo Bowl. But nah, we walked out and went to some stores then went a really good Filipino place. By then our favorite bar was open so we were on our way for more drinks.

Lani gave us a rose for our pic LOL.

A couple of the Marines we drank with the other night came back and after a couple rounds drunk Jenga appeared?

Had to add to the collection.

Then the hookah came out of course:

Then more Soju...

Then the Beer Bong Challenge...

Then more drinks...

There was a Kettle after this of some kinda blueberry drinks. Lani's a bad ass she's always making us something :)

We were going to TRY to take the train home but as usual, we got beyond hammered and our drunk dumb asses probably would have ended up somewhere far away from from Suwon. So, we did the smart thing and got a cab :)

Of course we had to stop and terrorize the rec center first.

Ok let me explain the above pic. Diaz is ALWAYS wanting to hug everyone in sight when he gets drunk so we were getting him back LOL.

No idea.

Chi Kooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Little Walk.

2009-05-24T04:05:00.000-07:00

I wanted to run tonight but I have really put the hurt on myself with weights the past two days and my legs are still so sore running wouldn't be comfortable :( I had to walk on the treadmill for cardio last night and tonight I decided to go for a walk out the gate to have some entertainment during my walk. Hopefully I'll be good to go out and run atleast 3 miles tomorrow. But for today, I went for a 3 mile walk this evening and took the camera of course:

On my way out.

RoK AF stuff...

Tunnels into the base.

I took a pic of a street sign right outside the gate, in case I got lost. That way I'd have a pic of the exact street I needed to be on to go back to base.

Trash on every corner...

This IS a store.

Daycare?

TINY streets! Everywhere!

This is someone's house, seriously.

More cramped housing.

There is a store on your left and on your right, and they are normal stores here.

Some one lives in there!!!!!!!!!!!!

A nice place for your kids to play...

A garden.

Suurre...the cops can try to use cute cartoons but they it is well known that they don't carry guns. They roll out with BATS and they WILL club you first and ask questions later.

Sunset.

A front yard.

One swirlie = no fun.

TWO swirlies?!?! You're in luck!! Two swirlies = happy ending!
^_^

So after my walk I had a box of wine that wanted to be opened...it's no Almaden but hey I'll take what the shoppette has!!!

Just kidding, I swear I got a plastic cup ;)

Flashback To Hawaii.

2009-05-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

I had to work today and while I was at work a bunch of guys came in to bbq. They brought an entire pig on a stick!!!!!!!!!!! It looked like they were about to have a Luau in there! I think it's gross. But I don't eat meat either and when I see stuff like this is just reminds me of how much I really don't like meat. Bleh.

But it is a bunch of men, what can you expect? I'm sure they got this from a local meat market.

Here's a pic of our dorms:

Some Army stuff:

The RoK AF playing Soccer:

These guys LOVE soccer!! They play everyday rain or shine. They'll be out there in the mud and everything. They LOVE soccer.

Tonight and tomorrow will be recovery nights. I need to catch up on sleep! So sleep, work, work out then Monday we have a date with Lani for free Soju all night! w00t w00t!

Kettle Drinks!

2009-05-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

We took the train back to Osan again last night. We ate at a REALLY good Thai food place across from our new favorite bar. After that we headed over to our favorite bar and started with the Soju then The Best Bartender Ever started a hookah with SOJU IN THE BOTTOM instead of water! AWESOME!

The theme of the night seemed to be Kettle drinks. Kettle Drink = Soju, energy drink, and a little 7up. We met up with Cox's brother and his MUNS buddies.

How cool is that? You're on a deployment and you just happen to be close to your bro so you can party? I'm jealous. I wish my bro in the Coast Guard was deployed over here so we could party :( But noooooooooooooooo they had to send him to Gitmo to escort terrorists, wtf? Miss you bro!!

After hitting some more bars and drinking the hell out of some kettles we headed back only to find this at our work:

This Is Only The 4th Night.

2009-05-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

Four of us wandered out last night. We needed to go to Osan for some stuff and we wanted to eat at Chili's. We decided to take the train and that was a trip in itself just to find out which train to take. We walked back and forth a couple times trying to figure out by the pictures and maps where the hell to go. Finally we got it and we got on the train. At the first stop we knew it wasn't ours so we didn't get up and the lights turned off and another passenger pointed for us to get off the train. Wtf? I guess that was that last stop for THAT train. Great...so we took a guess and got on the next train going the same direction.

We made it to the Osan station and caught a cab. The cabbie spoke NO English and kept talking about Camp Jackson and we were like "NO!!!! Osan, Osan!!!!" Then he called someone on his cell phone and handed it to Cox. It was his son. I guess his son is in the Korean military and he's stationed at Camp Jackson LOL.

We checked out the little alley around the Osan gate.

Pretty sweet, they will custom make you ANYTHING. I was already planning on having them make me some custom riding boots. I walked by this one place and they actually had a pair of tall FIELD BOOTS!!!! That's EXACTLY what I want!!!! YES! I know who's going to make my boots!!

After we went to dinner at Chili's we came back out exploring and trying to decide which bar we wanted to go in. I saw one that said they had hookah too, so we went upstairs to it. We defninitely picked the right one!!!!!! The bartender was AWESOME!

Some hookah and a strawberry Soju drink.

Chi Koooooooooooo!!!!!

We noticed the tradition of drawing on a Won and adding it to the wall so we drew a couple.

We made a special one for our buddy at home in Hawaii and the bartender even put it in it's own special spot by itself so every one can see LOL.

We started with flavored Soju drinks and a hookah. Then the bartender hooked us up with a free Kettle drink and we got a couple more after that. Some EOD Marines came in and they were actually cool. They were really nice and suprisingly not one of them tried to hit on any of us so we drank with them. They bought us a Kettle because our friend won in a beer bong contest against one of them :)

Yes, this was for one person.

More chi koo.

Throwing up our best chi koo LOL.

Jessi and the guy SHE WON AGAINST at beer bonging :)

Instead of trying to find our way back to the train station we just caught a cab and asked how much just to go all the way back to Suwon. He said "Suwon? Ehh...Suwon 20,000!" We said ok 'cause 20,000 is cheap. The cabbie was hilarious he said "Suwon 20,000!!!!!!!!!!!" We were yelling and cheering like "Yeah Suwon! Yeah Suwon!" The the cabbie would said "20,000!!" Like he just won the lottery or something.

My friend Alex didn't do so well on the ride back. This is where it gets ugly. She got sick out the window...hey atleast she made it out the window. The cabbie was pissed. We got to the gate and he got out and started yelling to the Korean guards. We started telling them we're sorry and they were laughing and said it's ok. Then Alex got sick two more times and the guards said we had to clean it up before they'd let us on the base. They didn't have a broom so we had to go across to the Korean equivalent of 7-11 and get paper towels. We kept saying we're so sorry and they kept saying it's ok it's ok. Alex is paying for it today, but I still think she owes us a Kettle :)

I think we're gonna go back to that bar tonight, if not we are definitely going Monday. The bartender, Lani, said she'll drink with us and serve us free Soju all night if we come back Monday night. Done and done :)

The First Of Many Adventures Outside The Gate.

2009-05-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

Last night myself and 3 friends decided to go wandering get an idea of where the hell we are. We walked out the gate and it was...ummm...interesting. But definitely a cool experience. Except, this is definitely the DIRTIEST place I've ever been in my life. It's up there with downtown L.A. The smog is OUT OF CONTROL, there's trash all over and every block has a different sewer smell to it.

We walked around about 2 hours just being tourists. We stopped into a bar and of course had to have some Soju aka Devil In A Bottle, Liquid Satan, etc...

Some of the sights:

WTF?

Everything is really cramped and crowded. In these alleys you have to constantly look over your shoulder to make sure a car or scooter isn't about to hit you. It's also like everything is on a smaller scale here, houses, shops, even doorways and tables. It's strange. Some places you sit on the floor to eat. Even though there's weird food every where I hear that Koreans include tons of veggies in their food. Ahh so this vegetarian won't be on a rice diet after all. There were some shops with tempura veggies out on a ledge for sale. I'm gonna have to try them :)

Eventually we ran into a huge intersection with an outlet mall on the other side so we went to check that out too. The mall is way different. Instead of walking in and out of stores it's like a GIANT 5 story dept. store and all the stores are in it together and it's hard to tell when you walk out of one and into another.

No One Ever Knows What To Do On The First Night.

2009-05-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

Until you get into a routine at your new home away from home you're not really sure what to do or where to go first. My team was tired, jet lagged, and we were all trying to get our bearings. We decided to have a drink that turned into emptying an entire bottle of Seagrams 7:

Diaz and Keating.

Sherrod, glued to his games as usual.

There's more pics on Sherrod's camera I think...he's REALLY bad about sending people their pictures though. He still owes me some from our last deployment.

All gone.

Oh yeah, I have to tell the story about the Army guy from earlier in the night. We had been walking around and we went into the snack bar on base. Now, there's a TON of Army here it's 95% Army and 2% Air Force. We are waaaaayyy out numbered here. Anyway, we were all in civilian clothes so he had no idea what branch we belong to and he turns around and goes "You guys look new." I said "Yeah?" Then he said "Well, welcome to hell for the next 2 years in the federal fucking penitentiary." I said "Uhh...WHAT? We're Air Force. We're here for 3 months then we go back to Hawaii." The look on his face was priceless. PRICELESS. His jaw hit the floor and we just turned and walked out.

3 Months Away From My World.

2009-05-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

The point of this blog is to document my 3 month trip to Suwon, South Korea.

I live in Honolulu, Hawaii and love every single day of it. But...world travel comes with the package when you're in the Air Force. I'm not complaining. I love going out to see the world but the initial depression never fails when you first learn that you're tasked to spend some time away from home and loved ones:

Husband and PussyCat.

My Klein mare. The most beautiful, wonderful horse on the face of the planet thankyouverymuch.

Soo...May 17th I said my good byes and got on Korean Air to enjoy some free drinks and a whole row to myself :)

Bye bye Honolulu.

*SIGH* I'm so going to miss seeing this everyday.

It was a long flight, but the most comfortable, enjoyable flight I've ever had in my life. Free drinks, lots of food, and a row to myself. Nice.

Mount Fuji from the air.

Everyone wanted to check out Mount Fuji LOL.

9.5 hours of flying later and losing a day from crossing the International Dateline later...

Incheon Int'l.

Getting through customs sucked, not to mention they were looking in our ears with lights when we got off the plane. More precautions of H1N1. Ugh.

We finally made it through the whole medical, immigration, and customs only to get on a bus cor a 2 hour trip then change buses for another 30 min ride to FINALLY arrive at Suwon.

And here is another reason why I love the Air Force...this 3 month "deployment" consists of an insanely easy job, a nice, BIG, newly renovated dorm room with our own bathroom for my roomate and I. Only ONE room mate, with internet in our room. We also can just walk out the gate whenever we want and go anywhere we want. Most times, on a deployment it's A LOT more complicated than that and you're limited to a certain number of off base trips allowed a month, there's a dress code and this is even IF you are allowed off the base. My team is in love with this trip already...

BTW, I have another blog, The Jumping Percheron if anyone cares to see what my home life is all about :)