The Night Life

Upon having my first 4-day weekend here in Korea, I ventured with a few of the officers at my unit who decided to take me under their wing. One night these three young captains gave me a call and told me they were going up to Daegu to stop at the big PX and go grab dinner somewhere. We departed Waegwan at 3:30pm and didn't find our way home until 3:30a.m. It was quite an interesting night to say the least.

Two of the captains I traveled with are new to the unit, like myself, while the other is getting ready to leave in about three weeks, so he volunteered to show us all around. After driving in a car through 45 minutes of traffic, which let me say is scarier in a car then on a bus like I have been riding on in my past trips, we finally made it to base. After a quick stop we departed the base and went to park in downtown. As we got out and started walking, I began to see just how big the city is and how much downtown has to offer. Every building seemed to be either a bar, a restaurant or a clothing/shoe store. There also seemed to be just as much in varieties of restaurants as you see in the states. Thai, Chinese, Sushi, Italian, Mexican, and American food with of course many Korean restaurants as well, lined the streets. We went to a place called the Holy Grail which is a restaurant owned by some folks from Canada who serve Tex-Mex food, I know very random but it was pretty delicious so I was satisfied.

After dinner we went out walking and low and behold we come to a small little walk up beverage stand. However this isn't any ordinary beverage stand it, it is one that serves the equivalent of adult Capri Sun's. For only 4,000 wan, which is about $3.75 you can get your very own custom made cocktail in a clear plastic bag with a straw stuck out the top just like a Capri Sun. Once you get your beverage you taste it and if it is not strong enough they add more liquor into it free of charge. And with no open container or public intoxication laws people can just walk around all night with their drink. This concept was pretty crazy to me, but my friends were adamant about bringing the concept back to the states to make a profit.

We soon made our way to a small little bar, probably only able to fit about 30 people. The great thing about this bar was that they have games to play...that's right while you sit there and sip on your cosmo, or beverage of choice you can play the great game of Jenga! Not going to lie, I was definitely the champion at my table, never losing a game all night which is amazing with my shaky hands but I am too competitive to lose. At this point I had one of the most, memorable things of my life happen to me I think. This group of 4 Korean girls came in and sat at the table next to ours. After a few minutes they pulled out a birthday cake for one of the girls and as they lit a candle for her to make a wish, a happy birthday song began to play in the bar. This wasn't just any happy birthday song though, it was the 1991 rendition of Happy Birthday that the New Kids on the Block sing. Not only do I love that band but besides for a tape my sister and I had growing up I don't think I have ever heard it played anywhere. They guys I was with thought I was crazy as I broke into song but I couldn't pass the moment up so I belted every high note along with Jordan Knight and felt truly happy! And just when you think the night couldn't have gotten any better, the girls leaned over and gave us a huge piece of their cake to share! I love Korea!

A little while later we traveled to a more "American/military" bar, where you guessed it the majority of the people there were soldiers. But still it was nice, it reminded me of a bar in a college town back home and wait for it...they played only 80's songs. Again such a great night! After awhile I had to go outside to get some air cause it was packed in that place, and as I was walking out the next surprise of my night came. Standing in front of me was this guy Tony, he was a lieutenant at my unit from Fort Hood. He was one of the guys that was a part of my pseudo family there. This was just unbelievable to me, here we are half way around the world in a city of over 6 million people at some random bar and I run into a buddy. I mean I know the Army is small but what a night!

Before driving home we also ran into one of the largest bachelor parties I have ever seen. The way we knew the party was so big was that each guy out had a t-shirt with the bachelor's picture on it. Turned out it was a whole group of ESL teachers from Seoul who had come down for the weekend party. They were from all over the states and Canada so it was fun to talk to them as well. We were invited to tag along to their next spot but seeing how it had somehow become 3am we decided it was probably time to head back.

So off we went...a two hour trip turned into 12 but it was a fun time had by all. The rest of my vacation days have been spent sleeping, doing laundry, spending a few hours at the office, and watching season 1 of How I met Your Mother...thank goodness for only three days of work this week and then wait for it....another 4-day vacation for Labor Day! Can't wait :)

Learning to Read

August 27, 2010

I have to say that jumping into this new job at the time I am, has been one of the biggest learning experiences in my life. Most of the time in my life when I have had to learn a great deal of information it usually takes place in a classroom environment. The good thing about the classroom environment is that there is a significant period of time set aside for you to learn. Unfortunately I have not had this luxury in my new job. Yes I did learn about some of the aspects of my job in a classroom but we barely scratched the service of what it means to be a Human Resources Officer. And I am in an interesting position now because I have been placed in a job that is made for a captain, a captain would have had a least three years of experience to get to that rank in this field so you can see the challenges I face having no years of experience in this field.

So I am definitely learning a lot about systems, promotions, evaluations, reporting numbers along with other random things specific to my unit. I have also had many firsts in this past week and will continue to have them in the next year, just today I had my first command and staff meeting where I briefed the commander on my sections updates for the week, I had my first dress rehearsal for an officers' promotion ceremony in which I will get to perform my duties as the adjutant by calling everyone to attention and reading the order to promote the officers, and I also had my first experience in being the right hand of the executive officer in my unit when she called me to take her place in briefing all the staff duty officers on their duties this weekend. These were all good firsts and I feel like I am starting to get a hang of things but these next two weeks will be trying as I will be expected to know more and be the subject matter expert on everything involving personnel.

Well besides for all that boring work stuff I am learning a lot more. Throughout this past week I have gotten to learn about my staff. I have 14 soldiers and one civilian who work in my section. I was extremely blessed to be assigned to a unit with a knowledgeable and great leader as my highest enlisted soldier who is the non-commissioned officer (NCO) in charge. He basically runs the day to day operations that all the enlisted soldiers do for the unit. He has been a huge help and we get along fairly well. I have faith that he will steer me in the right direction in the next months. There are two other NCO's in my section as well, they also help in directing operations and looking after the younger ones. There is a female staff sergeant and a male sergeant. Then there is all the junior enlisted soldiers there are 9 of them, 8 who do human resources ops and on legal specialist. They are all younger soldiers, most under 21 so they are young and vulnerable in the Army but they seem like good kids and they work really hard. Only one of them is male so there is definitely a huge disparity of males to females but that's ok. Lastly I have two Koreans on my staff. One is the civilian who is probably in his late 30's early 40's, he seems very nice and speaks English well. His actually job description is to be my personal assistant...not going to lie it feels pretty cool to not only have a staff but to have your own assistant :)

The other Korean I have a KATUSA on my staff, this is a Korean Augmented to the United States Army. One of the cool things about working in Korea is we literally work hand in hand with the South Korean Army. Every South Korean male is obligated to serve the government in some capacity for two years during a certain time frame after they turn 18. I am not clear on all the guidelines but the ones chosen to be in the Army are then evaluated further and the smartest and most literate become augmented to our units for two years. In our unit we have about 20 spread out across our companies but I am lucky enough to have one in my office. He works in the same capacity as the rest of my junior enlisted soldiers but I think it is a very unique experience for our soldiers to have.

I have a learned a great deal about all of them. About half of them are leaving in the next 4 months so I will be getting in new soldiers but I think that's a great part of my job too. Hopefully I will get to positively impact them as they come and go.

By now you have been reading for awhile and may be wondering why I titled this blog post "Learning to Read." Yesterday I was sent up to Daegu to meet some personnel folks who help us out up there, I got some good training and then had to make my way back to Camp Carroll. With all the traveling I did in the city yesterday I couldn't stop looking at all the signs. I would say there were only about 5% in English all the rest were completely Korean, which I expected when I came here but it still strikes me in an unsettling way. Not that I expect any of the signs to be in English but it is just so weird to not know what anything is because I can't read the signs. Until I stop in I wouldn't know the different between a restaurant, a bank, clothing store or strip club. It definitely makes me a lot more empathetic to those in our country who can't read or speak the language. I just wish there was a magic jacket I could wear, so I could understand everything that was said, I could speak back and I could read. Its definitely a goal to learn conversational Korean by the time I leave. Tomorrow I am heading up to Daegu with a few new friends to explore so hopefully it will give me a good chance to practice my basic Korean and learn my way around! More to come!

Where do all the hours in a day go?

August 24, 2010

I now have almost two full days of work in my new office behind my belt. When I say work, it is really entailing asking hundreds of questions about what is going on, reading through different SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and Army regulations, as well as meeting separately with all my staff and bosses to find out what they do (my staff) and what they want me to do (my bosses). My counterpart for whom I am taking over had appointments at another base yesterday and spent most of today out processing different places on post so needles to say I have thought of more questions then I have had answered. But I know through the time I have spent with her, that she wants to set me up for success so basically she will be spending the next week and half with me to have our left seat- right seat/ right seat- left seat ride, as the military calls it. (I watch her drive then she watches me drive)

Although she hasn’t been around too much over the past two days I have spent my fair share of time in the office. My job in the civilian world would be a 9 to 5 job, heck there are civilians contracted by the military to do my job and they get to work 9-5 getting paid twice as much. But I have the great honor and privilege of being a soldier and the government doesn’t have to pay me by the hour like they do their contractors; overtime means nothing to us. Therefore I can be working/training from 6 in the morning when physical fitness starts up until “the end of the day” which from what I gather is never earlier then 6pm in my office. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy being in the military and I believe I will really enjoy my job but I find myself wondering over these last two days “where has all my time gone?” I get home at the end of the night, eat something, and am ready for bed so I can wake up the next day and do it all over again.

This brings back memories of classes I had in college where they constantly stressed that we had balance in our lives. They said if you spend all your time at work you will get burned out way too fast and it was unhealthy physically, emotionally, and mentally. This becomes another one of those “catch 22’s” in the military as an officer or senior enlisted. There is so much work to do that you never feel like it is finished and you constantly have your boss or someone asking you to do something for them. You want to help out your battle buddies and please your boss to remain successful but if you do this you will never have any time to yourself. To be honest I have no idea how people with families do it spending 60+ hours a week at work not to mention the occasional weekend day you have to pull duty.

I say all this, maybe for accountability that you all will make sure I am not killing myself at work but also I think I need to acknowledge that I can be in the military and have a balanced life where I still find time to do the things I like and relax. It’s definitely going to be a challenge, especially as a brand new second lieutenant working in a captain position but if there is one thing I have in life it is determination. I pledge to myself that by the end of September I will have a balanced rhythm and that everyday I begin my day with an end goal in mind and I leave when that is accomplished. It’s also a goal that I get my soldiers out at earlier times during the week for their well-beings as well as mine.

I think not just for me in the Army, but for all of those professionals in the working world we need to occasionally stop and look at our lives and make sure we are spending quality time with our family and friends as well as finding time to do what we love whether its traveling, sports, reading, art, another hobby or mixture of many things.

Welcome to Waegwan

August 20, 2010

Day 1

After a much anticipated arrival, I have finally made it to my new stomping grounds for the next year. Yesterday after packing up my bags once again, I got on a bus to the Seoul train station and then boarded a train to Daegu. After arriving, we were greeted by members of our unit who then loaded us on another bus and drove us thirty minutes or so to Camp Carroll situated in the city of Waegwan. My lessons learned from the travel of Thursday morning/afternoon are: pack lighter next time you have to spend two weeks traveling across the world and around a foreign country and the train system here is awesome. The train stations are clean, tickets are very cheap, and there are few stops on your trip, which makes for very expedient travel!

Upon arrival, we dropped our bags and were brought straight to the housing office to see if there were quarters available for officers, unfortunately the man in charge was out for the afternoon so we were asked to return the next day. I went back to my unit and started in-processing at my unit. It mainly consisted of turning in a large amount of paperwork and filling out some forms. And then I made the day of second lieutenant, when I went in and introduced myself to the current Human Resources Officer. She was beyond excited that I had arrived, knowing that she would only have a week or so left and then she would be heading back to the states. My only comparison was while I was deployed; I can’t even explain how exciting it was when the unit who replaced us showed up on the planes.

I didn’t stay long at the unit because I still needed to go get settled into yet again another hotel. Do you have any idea what it feels like to have been living in hotels for pretty much the last 5 months of my life…it’s crazy. But here I am again in Army Lodging in a room comparable to the one I had at Fort Jackson.

Day 2

Although I call it day 2, this was really the first full day of in-processing and the first full day for me with my new unit. I say that so you can see just how hectic it is for a transitioning soldier. I woke up this morning at 0430 so that I could wake-up and stretch for the diagnostic PT (Physical Training) test I had to take at 0530. Lucky for me I am what they call a PT stud and despite the ungodly humidity, I still surpassed all the standards for my age group and maxed the test! This was a good thing because I found out that I would be meeting with the Commander on Monday morning and it will definitely give me a leg up to walk in there and tell him I got a 300 on the test. From what I hear, like most commanders he loves to run!

For about thirty minutes after the PT test I cleaned up, changed, grabbed some coffee and began my busy morning. First I dropped off my medical and dental records at the different clinics here while filling out more paperwork as I went to each. Next I headed to my unit and was briefed about all the online trainings I had to complete. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the day as I got excited to present them all my certificates and say “bam, I’m done son!” But no sooner then taking them out of my folder the sergeant in charge told me that the website I had gone to was the wrong one. How could that be I wondered when I got the information straight off of the Korea website, but apparently the information was not updated so I will now have to redo 7 online trainings. I would not have been that irked about it until later I found out the training is exactly the same, the only difference is the training certificate will have a different emblem on it. This is ridiculous to me that I have to sit through the same ones just to get a different looking certificate but the Army really doesn’t surprise me in its ridiculousness anymore.

My next stop was a shuttle back to the city of Daegu where the train had brought us yesterday. Daegu is another one of the metropolis areas in Korea, it also holds three small Army camps that we travel to relatively often because they host larger stores, a bigger medical facility, and all around better resources. I had to travel there to go to the transportation office to fill out more paperwork so that my household goods and baggage will make its way to my future living space. Once we were there we had to wait a good hour and a half for the next shuttle to be heading back to Camp Carroll so we went to the PX and I was excited to see they sell my hair care products! This may not seem like a huge thing but when you are in a completely different environment sometimes the littlest things like that make the world of a difference.

Soon I found my way back to Carroll and took another trip to the housing office. Here’s the big catch 22 of the day, a space in the officer quarters on base doesn’t open until the 6^th of September, once I get that place I can then call transportation to get all my stuff that has already arrived in Korea, it will then however take 5 working days to arrive. So I won’t be able to feel at “home” and settled in until at least the 11^th of September. My other option was to move off of base but I can’t take a license test until next week so I can’t get a car for at least another week so I’d have to take cabs back and forth constantly until then if I did move off post. What to do? As of now I have my name on a wait list but will also be calling a realtor this weekend to see some places in town. Heck if I get a car I may move a ways a way, some people even live all the way in Daegu and commute to work everyday especially families because there is no family housing at Carroll, its all in Daegu.

The last part of my day was spent in my new office. I was there until after 1930. Apparently everyone in my shop works late most nights, I am going to do my best to see where the wasted time in the day is and make everyone more proficient in their time management. There may be a rare day here or there where some might need to stay late but its pretty ridiculous that the day shouldn’t end by 1800 at the latest, especially on a Friday! Heck at Fort Hood its mandatory that everyone leaves work by 1700 except if there is training exercise or people are in the field. So we will see where I am at with this situation in about a month.

Everyone has been very helpful so far. I met the commander today, Lieutenant Colonel Skaggs, he seems nice, already started pressuring me into signing on for another year. We have our official first meeting on Monday so we will see how that goes…lol

All in all it was a busy but good first day. And I had to explain to over ten people that my last name is Chan because a lovely Asian couple adopted me. I love the facial expressions I get…I hope they don’t find me out because I love the new identity. Just kidding everyone!!! Well I do tell people that but then a few minutes later tell the the truth J Makes for more fun in life, right?

Two Brothers

August 18, 2010

After a 24 hour reflection, I would like to share a little about my experience at the Korean War Museum. Yesterday afternoon our group headed off post on this little "field trip" as part of our cultural awareness training. After walking about a minute off of post, we quickly entered a two or three block area that was the grounds of the museum. The first thing that stuck out to me were the giant fighter planes and life size battle ship that you needed to walk around to get to the steps of the museum. We walked the steps and entered a building that was at least five times larger then I had expected. Upon our entrance we were given the option to walk around with a tour guide or by ourselves. Since the extent of my knowledge of the Korean War has been learned through my past obsession with Alan Alda on the TV series MASH and a short two or three hour block on military history I received in Officer Candidate School, I decided to step off with the tour guide hoping for more insight. As we arrived at the first stopping point, our guide, a elderly Korean man with decent English skills, proceeded to give a twenty minute explanation of the beginning of the Korean War. I decided that between still trying to get over my jet lag, the heat and my short attention span that I would part from the tour and lead myself. There was just no other possible way I would have been able to see the entire museum.

As I strolled through the museum, I would stop occasionally to read the historical accounts of the displays but to be honest I was much more intrigued by the artistic factors of the museum then the historical part. Like a museum you might see in the states, there were life size displays of soldiers and civilians in different scenarios that walked you through the pre-war status of the country all the way through the establishment of the armistice in 1953 at the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Different pictures and captions I read reminded me of things I had once learned in history classes but I felt completely detached from any emotion. Even as I walked through the refugee displays, I felt nothing. If you know me well, one of the first things that you learn about me is I am a passionate, bleeding heart, wear my heart on my sleeve kind of person, so going through a museum that walks you through complete destruction of a country in ever fashion, it was a little ironic that I felt nothing. Don't get me wrong it was sobering to see the numbers of casualties that surpassed any estimation I had made in my head and there is a definite stop-in-shoes sculpture shaped as a tear drop made completely of 1300 dog tags to represent the UN soldiers who died during the war, but still I thought it all would have hit me a lot differently then it did. This was my feeling until I went outside to tour the grounds around the museum.

As I began to walk around, I first saw two giant bronze sculptures of soldiers leading civilians in what was hopefully to safety and then I noticed a giant structure off to the side. The previous day I had googled the museum to see what had come up and there was the picture of two soldiers hugging, I had forgotten about it until I saw it in that moment. There was a giant dome and on top two humongous soldiers hugging each other. As I walked closer up to the plaque, I noticed that the artist had named the piece "Two Brothers." It was in recognition of the families, friends and entire nation that was divided in two beyond the control of the people. There was often nothing the people could do being separated from the North and South by two different political ideologies. It is such an atrocity that the world's superpowers after WWII ripped apart this small nation to show their power and political agendas.

This sculpture brings so many thoughts and emotions throughout my mind and heart. I can see it in my mind and I think of hope. Hope that maybe someday these two nations will be reunited in a peaceful way. I think of those who fought and those who died in that struggle beyond their control. As American we look at the casualty numbers and think "how many of our own did we lose?" But I look at the sculpture and remember the figure I saw inside, that millions of Koreans died; military, civilians, North and South, there were so many that lost their lives. I think of those that never got to say goodbye one last time to their loved one before they left to fight for the betterment of their family and nation. I think maybe it even symbolizes how both North and South may still today unite today and mourn over what occurred and how today ripple effects still impact their lives.

I will remember my day at the Korean War Museum, I hope for a very long time to come. And hopefully for those who read this and for myself, the Korean War won't have to be remembered as "The Forgotten War."

Cultural Awareness

August 16, 2010

During my weekend vacation here in Yongsan, I decided to relax in my spare time by watching season 6 of The Office which is one of my favorite television series. As I was looking at the in-processing schedule yesterday, I noticed that this morning's topic for the briefings were all revolving around Korean culture in some form or fashion. I recalled one of my all time favorite episodes of The Office that was titled "Cultural Awareness." The boss, Steve Carrell, plays an off the wall character that says anything and everything that is possibly offensive especially in this particular episode. Although I laugh every time I see see the episode, Steve Carrell's character in that episode does resemble a lot of American's stereotypes and viewpoints on other cultures. Many times I am shocked and appalled by these similar types of conversations or jokes that I hear come out of my fellow soldier's mouth, wondering to myself "are they serious?"

Because I so often hear derogatory remarks coming from my battle buddies, I was excited to see that cultural awareness wasn't just one of the online courses I had to take but that it would be an entire day's itinerary before incoming soldiers were sent to their new units.

I arrived today to a classroom filled with 183 other soldiers ready to take on the new day. There were definite grumbles from the crowd regarding the topic that would be presented during the entire morning. But I have to say I think most were pleasantly surprised by the speaker who delivered the classes. Her name was Ms. Kim, she is Korean and works for the 8th Army G9 office in Yongsan (for those of you not military this is the Cultural Affairs Office for a Division of the Army). Ms. Kim gave us a brief overview of the Korean culture, you know the do's and don'ts. She taught us some basic phrases and gave us lessons on Korean history, currency, demographics, religion, food, alcohol, transportation system and economics. I know what you are thinking... how could she fit this all into a few hours? All I can say is she is very good at what she does despite having to use the few Army mandated, ridiculously corny videos that were thrown into the lessons. There was just the right amount of information to get someone off to a positive start in a new country/culture and then provided follow on information for classes you could take at each base to learn more about the culture and language. Needless to say I was highly impressed as I think many were around me who came in with an attitude of, "oh great, another boring briefing." It also made me hopeful that very few Michael Scott (Steve Carrell's character on The Office) comments would enter the workplace, that is about Koreans at least.

Here's my takeaway points from today:

1. I am more excited now then I was before to learn all I can in this next year about the culture and everything that encompasses it. Ms. Kim made me believe that into the village where I will be living and even in the bigger cities, that Koreans will be as intrigued by me as an American as I will be by them. I really do hope there will be many mutual benefits for those who I cross paths with and I to teach each other about our different countries and cultures.

2. How amazing is it that I will have the chance to learn about a culture that is over 5000 years old! I know I have traveled to countries in Europe and India and Iraq, but still any country that surpasses our brief history of a couple hundred of years is still so intriguing to me.

3. One of my favorite things that I already knew but am excited to experience is the respect and reference given to elders in this country. I feel it is something that our culture could really learn from. It is just so great how the younger generations look up to the older ones and know that they have wisdom and knowledge to impart on them in so many different forms. And that tradition is so important.

4. Lastly I learned that as you eat octopus here, you must be careful because although the head may be cut off from the body, the tentacles still more around and if you don't carefully chew them enough they could try and work their way back up your esophagus after you swallow causing you to possibly choke. I added this in because I am stoked to try all the different foods and delicacies here, plus I love that Ms. Kim warned us about this simultaneously making us cautious while also intriguing our appetites for new experiences.

Tomorrow we get to go to the Korean War Museum, which will hopefully hit home for us all about why we are here and a history of brave men and women who came before us both.

And the journey begins...

August 14, 2010

I was never one to think I would start my own blog but as I thought about this new journey in my life it only made sense for me to take this avenue. So I have started this blog mostly so I can look back later in life and remember where I have been and what I have done, but also so that you all can embark on this journey with me at your own leisure and desire.

And so the journey begins...

I left the wonderful state of Minnesota on August 11th at 9am after another set of tearful goodbyes with the family. I was quite nervous, not so much for my arrival in Korea but mostly for getting on my connecting flight with no issues. After a short flight to Atlanta, I got off the airplane and found the first Delta employee so I could ask what the quickest way would be for me to get my next boarding pass. Twenty minutes later, after a slight panic attack that I would have to explain to some high ranking officer why I missed my flight, I was finally checked in and waiting to board the flight. Can I say just how non-helpful some airlines seem to be (my apologies for those working on airlines that know what they are doing and have customer service skills).

I took my seat, the middle one of course on a Boeing 767 (one of the giant planes) and hoped that the flight wasn't completely booked and that I could move to the window seat. Not my luck though, I actually was sandwiched between to Air Force officers, a one-star general and a colonel. For those of you not familiar with the military rank structure, those are ranks most officers will never reach and if they do it is not until a good 20+ years into their careers. Anyways Dave and Mike (no big deal that we were on a first name basis...lol) were both headed to Korea for the joint exercise that is currently underway. For those of you not familiar, this is the 3 week exercise that takes place annually where all the branches come to South Korea to train with those stationed here and the South Korean military. It is also why North Korea shot up a few missiles last Monday, something they rarely do. Well back to the flight, it actually seemed to go rather quick for the 13.5 hours I was in the air. I slept about half the time and watched a few movies as well for my inflight entertainment. Around 2am central time on August 12th we hit ground and the real journey began.

I was quite surprised how easy it was to go through customs, get my baggage (thank God for luggage carts) and find the military liaison at the airport. People were very helpful and I only had to wait about 20 minutes for the next shuttle to the base. I had a few flashbacks to the transportation system in India on our drive, the cars are much bigger but the fast paced, white knuckle drive was very familiar. Another forty-five minutes later and I was at the welcome center on Yongsan (the military base in central Seoul). Time update, it was now about 7pm Seoul time. After a short welcome from the cadre, we were brought by bus to a hotel off base (due to the joint exercise I mentioned earlier the on post hotel was booked that night). It was a decent establishment and I was out like a light by 9:30pm due to my jet lag and the wake up call at 5:30am I needed to start the next day.

Day zero, as they called it at the inprocessing site, consisted of briefs lasting from 8am to 1130am. I have never understood why the Army calls them briefs, because in my opinion there is usually nothing brief about them! It wasn't too bad though, after a lunch break I headed back for the remainder of the afternoon consisting of a lot of sitting around. The upside was that the Army decided to give me yet another Anthrax shot! I am now up to 5 and have finally finished the series, now I only need my annual booster, woohoo!! I had a few conversations with my brigade liaison who is helping me to figure out my housing situation once I arrive at Camp Carroll. He also enjoyed my arrival because he got to call the woman I am replacing and tell her that I have arrived. He let me know this was an enjoyable conversation because he teased her and said that I was being moved to a different assignment and almost had her in tears before saying he was joking. Good to know that there is a sense of humor in my brigade!

After a long day, I was told that the remainder of my stay would be in the Dragon Hill Lodge (the on base hotel). This was great news because it is a pretty classy establishment with a full on food court and many other amenities. It definitely pays to be an officer because if I was still enlisted I would be in the barracks here with no privileges including not being able to leave post during this weekend. After getting all my bags up to my room, I grabbed some dinner and updated my Facebook status, of course, before crashing at about 8pm.

It is now Saturday afternoon, I definitely caught up on sleep today. Initially I woke up at 730am and was very upset that although sleeping for 11 hours I was wide awake at such an early hour. I jumped onto the internet and was lucky enough to find my brother Chris on facebook as well. Its nice to be closer in time zones with Chris and Stephen, I foresee an easier time talking to Chris, for sure, over the next months. I then forced myself to go back to sleep and finally reached my normal sleep pattern of getting up at noon on Saturdays! If there's one thing that I excel at in this life it is my sleeping ability! After getting out of bed and putzing around for awhile I finally showered and headed out to explore the base a little. Don't think for a second my first stop wasn't at one of the many Starbucks locations on post. After getting some coffee and doing some walking I ended up at the post exchange (PX), which is like the military's version of a Target or Walmart. I got a few necessities including my new unit patch for my uniform and headed back. I now find myself lounging around again and will soon start trying to be productive for the rest of the day.

So far a quick list of pros and cons

1. Pro: I haven't once been asked why my last name is Chan, I think they figure I am married to a Korean which from walking around it seems there are many military folks walking around with Asians.

2. Con: the humidity sucks! I love that you can walk pretty much anywhere, in fact getting to downtown Seoul is in walking distance, but I am sweating like a banshee out there.

3. Con: I have numerous cable channels in my hotel room but I can only understand about 10 of them...note to self- need to learn Korean!

4. Pro: I have already used this time to start this awesome blog!

Hope you all enjoy thus far and the many adventures to come! Unfortunately I packed my camera cords in my stuff that was moved from South Carolina, so it will be a few weeks before I can get my own photos online. Until then here's a few pictures I have found online from where I am.

One last note: Happy Birthday to the most wonderful Mother in the world!!! Love you Mom!