Pictures from market

These are just some pictures from our haul of fresh fruit at the market and our visit to the bread store. The market wasn't very busy and was missing a lot of vendors. The fruit is just amazing!! I can't wait to start buying vegetables there either as they look just as good!!

Weekend adventures.

Hello.  I am sitting here trying to figure out what to write as we haven't done much. The past week is boring and I am bored. I am so ready to be in our own place with our own things. We will move into our apartment on April 1.  I am ready to have an oven again so that I can do some baking and cooking. There is only so much one can do with a 2 top burner and microwave. One also needs a commissary that has foods that fit these needs.  We did make it down to the market last week for fresh fruit. I was able to pick up about 2 dozen tangerines, 3 huge apples, huge kiwis and 2-3 dozen strawberries for 25,000 won, about $22.00. Not to bad if you ask me. Here, on post,  they wanted $4.00/lb for grapes and that is just outrageous!!  I will have to take the camera and get pictures so you can see all of the nice goodies!! It is much cheaper here to go to the market for fruits and veggies then to by them at the store. And you get a lot more at a better quality. I will have to learn the different fish names in Korean as there was a lot of fresh fish as well.  I am trying to get Zane to go to the market with me this morning but he keeps telling me, "it is too dangerous. Go with daddy."  I am hoping that one of these days he will get over this fear of being here and used to all the people. He seems to have no problem if we are both with him when we are out.

This past weekend we had a few adventures on the public transportation system here in Waegwan/Daegu area. Saturday night we went to Daegu for a farewell dinner for the warrant Jim replaced. It was an interesting eating dinner at TGI Friday's and Zane was a huge hit. I think that we had such good service because he was with us and Korean's have this things with American children especially blond children. It is much more expensive to eat at Friday's here then in the states and will only happen once in a blue moon. Zane was given balloons at dinner, checked out others eating and they all loved him. Not a good thing when trying to instill table manners!!  Oh yeah, we had fun trying to find the restaurant as we were told it was on the 7th floor of the train station so we checked out the Korean department store, Lotte, and finally had to ask. It was on the 8th floor not the 7th, silly Americans. After dinner we went back down to the train station to get tickets back home only to find out we had a 45 min wait. Well needless to say Zane made it all fun and games. He ran around the waiting area and had everyone laughing at him and saying how cute he is!!  Again, doesn't help when trying to instill good behavior in a child.  He had been playing with his balloon and let go so it floated up to the ceiling. An older Korean gentleman had been paying attention to Zane and watching him, after his balloon floated away he gave him 2,000 won to buy a new one. We finally got on our train at 2135(9:35) and headed back to our home away from home.

Sunday was another adventure. We went back to Daegu on the train but first had to stop at the local bakery, good stuff, and then get some kim bop, like sushi. We were headed back to Daegu to have dinner with friends in their new apartment. We had to take many different means of transportation as they live in a new area of Daegu. They have a very nice apartment on the 18th floor of a building and I am so glad we are on the 2nd floor of only 6. Anyway, we took the train to Daegu and then had to switch to the subway. There are only two subway lines in Daegu. We got our tickets and went down to wait for the train only to realize that we were on the wrong side and would be going the wrong way. We got over to the right side and caught our subway. Zane did enjoy the subway as it went "super fast." We got off the subway at the closest stop to our friends house and had to catch a taxi to finish our trip. We had a very nice time at dinner and eventually had to head home as someone was getting very tired, no nap that day. We caught a taxi back to the train station only to learn that the next train to Waegwan didn't leave for another 1 and a half. We decided we didn't want to wait at the train station after the night before so we took a cap back to base. It wasn't a bad cab ride or overly costly. We got back to the hotel 35 min before the train was even scheduled to leave.  I am not sure how many more train rides we will have to take or bus rides as one of us is now a licensed driver here in Korea and it isn't me. Right now there is no point in me taking the drivers test as the car Jim has is manual transmission and I don't know how to drive the car. Besides the fact that the public transportation here is great and my legs work just as well. Now pushing the stroller is another feat as the sidewalks here were not meant for strollers. We are working on getting Zane to attempt to walk more but he ends up wanting to be carried. It will take time but we will get there hopefully sooner then later.

There aren't any pictures for this post. Hope everyone is doing well.

Love you and miss you all,
Liz, Jim and Zane

Water noises

Ok-so I figured what went on here last night was funny and horrible enough to share. We have been in our hotel room in Waegwan for 2 weeks now and we are all ready to move into our new home, especially after last night. Last night was interesting to say the least and hopefully the last time we have to experience low water pressure in this hotel. Finally went to bed, later then normal and it sounds like there is a washing machine or dishwasher going crazy over our room. We couldn't figure it out and I couldn't go to sleep. It is bad enough that our bed is like sleeping on a wooden board!! Anyway, we just figured the hotel was doing a lot of laundry. Then out of no where this rattle like sound starts, which sounded like a pressure cooker going off very loudly. I decided to call the front desk to find out if I can find out what is going on. I have no idea how to even explain what we were hearing in Korean. I got things from the front desk manager as to: washing machines are on the 2nd and 4th floor, we can send someone up to look at your dishwasher in the morning, we have no control over the internet service. Not one of those things came out of my mouth other than to it sounded like a washing machine, an extra large machine at that, so they eventually came up to our room.T By this time it is 2345(11:45) and we told them they had to be quiet. If they had woken up Zane he would have been with them at the front desk!!  We finally learned that another guest had called to complain about the lack of water pressure.  At that time, a light bulb went off in Jim's head as it was explained to us that it is normal for the water pressure on a military installation to get cut off, with the pressure relief valve directly over our room. Hence the comparison to a pressure cooker!! With all the water pooling over our heads it also sounded like someone was sloshing around in the bathtub. I finally feel asleep as I am the one that has a harder time sleeping, Jim has slept through mortar attacks so he can sleep through anything, and Zane starts crying in his sleep. Every time I would fall asleep he would cry, so going to be a long day. When Zane was asked this morning why he was up so much he replied, "the train was loud." He thought there was a train in the room. We are hoping that as we stay here for one more week, that we won't have to go through that again. I might just have to go and buy ear plugs but don't think that will help seeing as the other issue is the fact that the bed is like a board.   Looking back on all that happened it is funny to think about what happened but at the same time I hope to either be asleep before it happens again or just pray it doesn't happen again!!

Love you all,
Liz

Trains, buses and apartments

Well the past few days have been busy ones. We have been looking at some apartments, riding trains and buses. Saturday morning we got up and walked into town to look at the different areas and apartments. We ended up looking at a great apartment, huge by Korean standards, only to find out later that afternoon it had been rented. It would have been great as there as even roof top access and a grill. For those that know us that was one of the hardest pieces of furniture to put in storage, our grill. We will get a small one while we are here but will miss our nice, big grill!! Saturday afternoon we looked at two more apartments and had some issues with our agent. We learned Sunday afternoon from someone in the unit not to use that agent. She seemed very sneaky and deceitful and that is not who we need to work with.

Sunday was a lazy day. We went to church on post, and we hope to find one off post as this one was interesting. We might give it another chance but they didn't have child care and that is a big issue for us. Sunday evening, after nap time, we went over to CP Walker to meet friends for dinner. We decided to take the train as we missed the post shuttle and a cab ride would cost $40. For those who have been in Korea before, there is no subway in Waegwan so we took the train to Daegu. I thought we got on the wrong train and have to remember that Daegu is between us and Busan. I miss the subway as it was so easy to ride and take. They do have a subway in Daegu. Zane enjoyed the train ride and even got to use the potty on the train. He has his first real lesson of how to stand up and go potty. He did great on the train and even made some friends as the girl he sat next too gave him 3 lollipops for being so cute!! He is still shy around people and still adjusting. There are people he will talk to and he will hide from others. After dinner we took the bus back to base and that seemed like a long 30 minute bus ride but we made it back in one piece.

Monday we went over to CP Walker again the bus and we took activities for Zane. We had some places we had to go and visit so we can stay here and not get kicked out. We also checked out the PX-military version of Wal-mart(sort of) and they are bigger than the tiny one on our base but still don't have a lot of the items we like to use. I guess we will be compromising on what we use.

Today, Tuesday, we slept a little later than normal as at 5 am Zane woke up wanting juice and had a meltdown. He did go back to sleep until almost 9:30 and we were meeting our new realtor at 10:00. Well we made it and we even found an apartment, hence the pictures. Before we can even sign a lease the apartment has to pass inspection and if anything is found wrong it has to be corrected by the landlord. Our inspection is set for next Tuesday the 23rd and we are hoping it passes. After that we can sign the lease and move in to our home. Zane told us at the apartment today, "not our new house, too small for us." I don't think he realizes that by Korean standards for the country side where we are living it is a big place. We will be on the 2nd floor of a 6 floor building. I am very grateful for this as when we looked at places in the high rises, 12+ floors, I got dizzy. All that is under us is parking and we can set up a grill there too!! After apartment hunting we went over to the unit to meet some people and for me to start getting involved. I met our FRSA, family readiness support assistant and she rocks!! She has been helping us before we even got to country. Once we are a bit more settled she will take me around and show me a few places, one of those being COSTCO. Yes, we have a COSTCO and I am looking forward to seeing how different they are from the states. (Sarah N-I will let you know how their cakes are if they have them!!)



Hope everyone is doing well.



Love and miss you all,

Jim, Liz and Zane



Pictures:

Zane waiting for train Sunday afternoon.
Zane's bathroom. Entrance into apartment and shoe storage!!
Zane's bedroom, living room and Zane between kitchen and living room.

Our first week in Korea

Well I have been saying that I am going to get a blog up so that I can share our adventures in Korea with family and friends. I have finally got it up now let me see if I can keep it going!!

Our adventures started 2 March with a wonderfully long plane ride that started from Memphis-LA-Seoul. While on our nice long layover in LA we had dinner with my cousin and her finace. It was nice not to have to spend 6 hours inside the international terminal of which we will never fly through again!! The plane ride over was GREAT!! If you ever decide to fly over and visit fly Korean Air. The food was great as we had a choice of Korean or American. We were lucky enough to fly in one of their new aircraft which had little dvd type screens in every headrest in coach and lots of leg room. We never once had to pull out our dvd player for Zane as he got to choose from lots of kids movies down to the newest release. Jim and I also go to choose from movies we wanted to watch and you had your choice of languages as well. We landed at Incheon International Airport at 0500 and had to wait until 0800 for the bus and that was hard. All we wanted to do was shower and take naps!! We did eventually get to Yongsan and the Dragon. They wouldn't let me check us in and I had no idea how long it would take for Jim to turn in his dental records and orders. We finally got to our room and all got to clean up!! The naps never did happen but both boys were out by 6:30 that night of 4 March. Zane decided that 3am would be a good time to wake up but I convinced him to go back to sleep with the threat of no movies, tv or swimming that day and it worked!! We all slept until 6am and Jim had to be at in-processing at 7:45. Zane and I didn't do much but wander around and play outside at the nice play area that the hotel has set up since I was stationed in Korea back in 2000-2001. Zane loved playing and even got to play with a lot of other kids!! We actually went off post and into the area around the base, Iteawon, on Saturday and Jim showed us where he lived when he was there back in 2000-2002. All had a good time and Zane finally learned that mommy and daddy weren't joking when we told him there would be lots of people. He even went so far as to buckle himself into his stroller so no one would take him. He has gotten a lot more comfortable since then so we are back to working on the listening. It snowed on 10 March and I am glad we had Zane's snowsuit with us as he played out on the playground and had a blast.

11 March, we took the new KTX, bullet train, from Seoul to Daegu, where someone from Jim's unit picked us up and took us to our new home, Camp Carroll. We did have a minor accident with an escalator at the Daegu train station and all I remember is falling backwards and hanging onto Zane so he wouldn't get hurt. There wasn't an elevator and one would have been nice. We are all fine but I will have some bruises to show for the outing!!

Our new little base, is just that small. There is a small commissary but we have decided that it will do for small things. Once a month we will have to go to Cp Walker to the big commissary. I guess it is a good thing we shipped our small freezer. Oh yeah I can't even go shopping without Jim, yet. I have to get a rations card and for a family of 3 we are allowed to spend $800 a month on food. I will be shopping off post for fruits, vegetables and other odds and ends. I will need a tortilla press if anyone in Texas is willing to send me one!! It will be cheaper and easier to make what I will need. There is a very nice gym, indoor and outdoor pool. The outdoor pool has a water slide and spray pad. I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time there in the summer!! We went for a walk around the post tonight and there are lots of hills but we like where we are going to be living. Over the next few days we will check out the town and see what we can find. I really want to find the fruit and vegetable market and check out prices on fresh meats, if possible.

I will post pictures to the sight over the next few days. I just wanted to get everyone some information about our new location and how we are all doing.

Lovea and miss you all,

Jim, Liz and Zane

Pictures:(not sure if in order)

Zane at the Seoul Train Station

View from our hotel of comissarry and some of post

Zane at the Katusa snack bar with dinosaur

Zane playing at the play area at hotel in Seoul after it snowed.