Driving

Hooray, hooray! Our van has arrived and is in our possession with Korean plates and everything. Andrew spent all of yesterday with one of his employees taking care of everything. First, he had to get some car insurance, then off to Pyeongtaek's DMV for temporary plates. They came back to Humphrey's for car tag and then headed up to Seoul and another base where the car was, caravan back to the DMV to switch temporary plates for actual plates. They were back to the office by 5pm. There is no way Andrew would have been able to accomplish all this in one day by himself. It really does help to have Korean nationals as employees.

And since our van arrived that meant I could no longer put off taking the written driving test. I don't know what I am afraid of. Oh yes I do...driving...in Korea. Let's just say they don't follow the rules that I was just tested on. They park pretty much any where, change lanes abruptly, merge in with out stopping. My favorite is that the children are taught to hold up there hand in a stopping motion and cars will stop. The test was easy if you read the manual. Most things are the same, a lot of the signs are similar. I think what I was most afraid of was being turned away*.
Besides the written test, there was a reflex part to test how quick you can put on the brake, eye check and 2 videos.I should be able to go tomorrow and pick up my license.


*You see, when you arrive there is a newcomers orientation that is mandatory to take before getting your license. Andrew and I went together but my name was not put on the list. So many things here are done by sponsorship (there are several different definitions for this but in our case it means Andrew is our sponsor because he is the employee) and so we didn't think my name needed to be put on the list. I didn't want to have to take the orientation again because it is boring and 90% of the information given does not pertain to civilians. Anyways, Andrew worked his magic and I was able to take the test

Awkward conversation of the year!

 When you have a toilet like this and the directions are in Korean, you are bound to have an awkward conversations. Enjoy the tale of the toilet and beware there maybe some TMI but you know it is a toilet I am talking about.

This special toilet is electric, seen above it is not plugged in but once plugged in there are many delightful settings.
The guy explaining all the functions kept a serious face as he was pointing to the buttons and telling me that one controls water pressure, that one is a mist vs spray, that buttons dries, this one massages, that one controls water temperature and best of all the seat is heated. The floors in the bathroom are not heated and cold to the bare feet but my bum will stay nice and toasty warm. And now you all know way too much about the toilet.

Otherwise, move in day was good. We are happy to have more space to move around in but miss the closeness of everything on base. I still feel like I am in la-la land since we have to little in all this space. The great thing is we are in walking distance to some friends and we have already been invited to dinner at our neighbors (they are American also and their son is in Sophie's class).

Andrew brought me home a fun new toy last night...an iPhone, Charlotte thinks it is hers. She is one savvy little girl. And I am finally brought up to spend on phones. We have had a pay per use phone for the last 5 years. Maybe I will be able to figure out the whole texting thing. It has been fun getting texts in Korean though.

And the winner is...

Well, maybe we will start with the losers.

1. There was this great house; huge kitchen, lots of space, great neighborhood. Everything was going for it, until we talked to the previous renters (one of Andrew's coworkers, go figure). Mold...she had to vacate due to mold and that just turned the place off.
2. Another great house but to get there was driving on a single lane dirt road with a good 2 foot drop off on each side. Just think of the mud on rainy days and driving on icy days. We do know that fire trucks can make it up that road (same coworker lives in these houses). And the bus stop was a long ways away, like 1/4 mile.
3. Boxed shaped houses with lots available. The building of houses/apartments is going quicker than condensing the American bases. The views were great on one side but the other side would just frustrate me to no end...looking over the security fence at the elementary school on base. It would be a great location if it was inside the fence. I could yell to Sophie but to get to her would be a good 10 minute drive.

And the WINNER is the highrise. Now I know that sounds crazy but there are a lot of good reasons for us to take it. And don't worry, there are rice paddies around and little patches of gardens everywhere because we are in the country. Land is a premium and it makes more sense to build up but they are catering to us Americans in the single family homes. Great things about the highrise is underground parking so no worry about scraping windows in the winter and getting into a scorching hot car in the summer. We are on the first floor and have a bonus bedroom on floor zero like the girls like to point out. There is an AMAZING playground (pictures to come later, it was dark when we saw it) out our window for the girls to use and a great place to ride bikes. We have friends within walking distance and know of at least one other family in the building. Andrew can walk/ride bus to work when needed. I have access to the local markets and we can walk to any of the local restaurants (once I get brave and we trade for some wons).

The Kitchen

I am ready for more space. On the counter is a water filtration system, that will be our drinking and cooking water. We solved the lack of dishwasher problem by having them put one in the large laundry room, it is right off the kitchen.

Living Room

Large

Master bedroom

Wall on the left is all closet space. We will have plenty of storage space

Master bedroom ceiling

Pretty. The unit in the wall is the AC

Master bathroom. What is not shown in the pictures is the little TV in the bathroom. Yes, that is right we can watch TV while taking a lovely bath. Plus it lets us know if someone is coming to the apartment.

Extra special toilet.

Fourth bedroom in basement

Other half of fourth bedroom

We didn't take pictures of the other 2 bedrooms or 2 bathrooms or some of the other great features of this place. The girls love it because of the play area and the "stage" in the dining room. There is an area to hold a table that you sit on the floor on mats. More pictures to come once we get moved in...soon...one more week if all goes as planned.

The housing office has to send someone over to make sure it is safe for us to live in. Then we will sign the lease, just as long as all our stipulations are included. Those would be unlimited utilities and cable and internet included in the rent price since this place falls below our housing allowance.

Our unaccompanied shipment has arrived and our household goods should arrive before the end of this year. Our big question is when will the van arrive. I hope sooner rather than later but then that means I will have to get my drivers license and drive (my biggest fear here). We are looking forward to leaving the lodge but it has been so convenient. But I am ready to get on with this show and feel apart of the community but that will also me to get over the feeling of being a double outsider. First I am an American in South Korea. Second I am a civilian's wife, not too many of those here.

Well, stay tuned for more updates.

Kitchens

I love to cook and bake and do many things in my kitchen. Right now the picture below is what I have to work with.

It is a challenge...no oven. I am not even allowed to use a toaster, waffle iron or any other kitchen gadget that gets plugged in. That is okay, I don't have any of that stuff with me anyways. As we have been house hunting this week, I've been amazed at the kitchen space I will have shortly. All the places we've looked at are either brand spanking new or just a few years old.
Below is a parade of kitchens.

The ovens here are not very big but at least there is an oven. These kitchens are amazing. There is lots of counter space and cabinet space. One of these kitchens will become mine. We are done house hunting, it has been narrowed down to 2 locations and 3 different spaces. Now comes the hard decision, picking our home for the next 3 years. Stay tuned for more.

The very true story of our flight to Korea.

Just a fair warning, this post is going to be long slightly boring to some and unfortunately completely true. Sorry no pictures yet.

Our move to Korea started with a slight detour to the Portland, OR area to visit with family. It was a great week and the girls had so much fun playing with their cousins. Andrew and I had a great time with his siblings in the area. It was also a much needed relaxation between the hectics of getting things ready for our move and the big move with all its challenges. And boy did we start out with a big challenge.

Last Monday we headed up to Seattle where we were going to catch a military flight to Korea. It was the best solution and made the most since when we were booking our tickets. The flight left at 7:20am on Tuesday and required arrival to the airport between 1 and 4. This is a flight that you have to show up early to see if there is a spot for you and if you have PCS orders than there shouldn't be any problems (you are first on the list). Andrew and I didn't sleep well and were easily awakened at 2:30 by the alarm. We showered, woke up the girls and headed to the airport.

Arriving at 3:30 in the morning, the airport was dead. Andrew stood in line and showed the contractors his paper work and that is when trouble started. "Do you have military ID?" "No, but I have my PCS orders. Nobody told us we needed ID." "I am sorry sir, you can't fly without ID." "Can I talk to your supervisor?"
This went on and on. And in the end, we were not on that flight at 7:20am. Andrew was livid but he really did keep his cool. He started calling all the numbers he could. The clock kept ticking by. I think the worst feeling was when the kid who denied us getting on that flight came downstairs and said he might have made a mistake. WHAT!!! Civilians usually don't fly on these flights and it happened once that a civilian rode without government issued work ID with PCS orders. He did feel bad and wanted us to keep him updated.

Andrew was finally able to have one of the travel offices he worked with get us reservations on a flight that left at 1pm but now the issue was who was paying and could they really book it for us since our official orders had us leaving from Washington DC not Seattle. Each phone call Andrew made sent him in circles but eventually it elevated and reached the right people. Around 11:30am everything was worked out and we were for sure headed to Korea on Tuesday. We had a fear that we were going to have to go to a hotel and then get back to the airport again. This is quite the task with 4 suitcases, 9 carry-ons, 3 carseats, 1 stroller, 3 kids and 2 parents.  After walking from one end to the other and back (we thought we were flying one airline but we were flying its partner) the five of us were on a flight and sitting next to each other.

After being at the airport for 9 hours, we were ready to board our airplane for a 12 hour flight. The airline was fantastic. We had help getting onto the plane, the service was fantastic. Pillows, blankets, slippers. Juice and water constantly being served. 2 hot meals (Andrew and I enjoyed them, the girls not so much). There were outlets to charge our electronics which was helpful since we didn't have a chance before hand. The best part was the selection of movies was awesome. I watched The Help, Rio and The Proposal. Tried out a couple of games they had available to play and kept and eye on what we were flying over. Charlotte was great, she took 3 naps and didn't really cry. Elanor was so good. She would watch shows, read, find other things to keep herself busy. She also took one long nap. Sophie was quite the reader, she preferred reading over watching anything. Luckily I had enough snacks to suffice for the flight and luckily the meals had fruit the girls would eat. Sophie feel asleep as the landing gear was coming down. Getting through the airport with a sleep walking Sophie was quite entertaining. We made it through customs, got our suitcases and carseats and were met by some of Andrew's coworkers. One last 2 hours to get to our lodging and we were out.

There were several tender mercies from our Heavenly Father that day. He helped Andrew stay cool and know what to do to get us on a flight. The biggest blessing we received that day was to have a working cell phone. As many of our friends and family know, it is time to upgrade phones. We were holding out to get new ones here in Korea. Most of the time the phone will say it is charged and die out sooner than expected. That little phone of ours kept going and going. It worked from 4am until we made the last call at 12:45. All we can do is thank our Heavenly Father for this miracle because it truly was one.

And that my friends is the end of the tale. I can't believe we stayed at the airport for 9 hours, survived a 12 hour flight and 2 hour drive. And it has come to the conclusion that yes it was a big fat mistake that we were not on that original flight. Unfortunately we won't get a free flight out of it like we had on a bumped flight last year.
The End of that tale and now on to many more.

Going Away Donut Party

One of our friends requested one last donut or fastnacht party before we flew the coup. I couldn't say no to this, I was already thinking the same things. So on General Conference Sunday (the first Sunday in October) we held our going away party. The house was full of good friends and yummy food.
Thanks to all our great friends for making the evening so fun. 

Zoo

On a day with a hint of rain we headed to the zoo for our last look at these animals.

Someone might want down.

 The gorillas were super active at the zoo. While watching the mom and babe, all of the other gorillas came to the same end as us and entertained the crowd. Some logs and trees were in the way to get a full "family" picture but here are a couple of pictures.

The babe is getting bigger.

Silverback

 The National Zoo has spent a lot of money lately building up Elephant Trails for their Asian elephants to have more space. It really is a great space.

Look at all the room the elephants have.

Walking along

Charlotte loved this area and looking at the ducks

Elanor taking a break

Sophie and her favorites...flamingos.

Charlotte

Dutch Wonderland

The Saturday before Labor Day our clan headed up to PA to visit Dutch Wonderland with our friends. It was a hit with the girls. I think it helped to have some older friends there with them. Thanks Randi, Larry, Alex, Nicky and Keri for playing with us and Aiden and Braxton.

Measuring up to see which rides they can ride.

First ride of the day. Going up in the air.

Tilt a whirl with Sophie. She loved it and rode a couple more times.

Tilt a whirl with Elanor. Having fun.

Wind mill

Driving the tractors.

One of the more entertaining parts of the day was watching a fairy tale diving show. The story line was corny but the diving was impressive.

Diving show

There was also a water area that was fun and lots of other rides the kids had fun on. The day was great and we ended it by eating dinner at Isaacs.