So...July was coming to a close, and Abby had Adventure Camp the week of the 25th thru the 29th. The rain had been CRAZY that week, and when I went to pick Abby up on Tuesday, there were several areas of standing water on the roads and on post. It was a little scary because the water was already pooling and then it was pouring. And, when I say pouring, I don't even know how to describe it. I mean, we get what we call 'cloud bursts' back home, but those last a few minutes...it was raining like that for about an hour and then it continued to rain heavily. It. Was. Crazy.
On Wednesday, I saw on facebook that Division put out we were expected to get more heavy rains and to be cautious. I decided to pick Abby up early that day, and I am SO GLAD that I did. It was so weird because I just felt such a strong urge to pick her up early that day. Funny, huh?
I don't remember the time table, but I do know that Dan was due to come home that night from the field and we'd been on the phone several times that day. He was keeping me updated on when he'd be home. However, in the early evening, the sirens started going off. I'd told him I didn't feel comfortable with him driving and to maybe take a taxi home. It was raining like crazy and I was reading posts on facebook about how bad the flooding was getting. A friend called me to tell me that Dan should probably just stay on post because the river had jumped the banks-she lived closer to the river. It was not pretty.
I was really worried about the Acadia in the basement, but everything down there was fine. I checked a few times and even saw a security guard sweeping water into the drains at the entrance. Other than that...there was no water in the basement! WOO HOO, Humanville!
The damage was terrible. I think several of you saw the pictures that I shared on facebook. I obviously don't have any of my own to show. Down by post, all the little stores that cater to the Americans were completely flooded. There were numerous mudslides. In some places, it looks like the mountain just melted. So, there was mud. Everywhere.
We were stuck in our apartment from that Wednesday until the next Monday just because the flooding was so bad for a few days, then there was mud, and then the roads were blocked because of the cleanup....etc, etc. By Monday, I was ready to drive to China, but I just drove to Emart in Yangju. Emart is similar to LotteMart, but a little different. Probably the way a Walmart and Kmart look to a Korean in the States (I can't even type Target because NOTHING can compare to Target...boo hoo!). I had never driven anywhere besides post, so this was pretty significant. I was worried, once again, about finding a place to park, but after driving around and ticking a few parking attendants off, I found a spot for my HUGE American car!ha
If you're on facebook...go to 1st Heavy Brigade and look at the pictures.
Our soldiers were heavily involved in the clean up and many of the spouses helped as well. I was so proud of everyone...some of those pictures had me in tears. The soldiers marching down there, I'm sure, was a sight to see!
There's still a lot of clean up on post to be done, and a road is still blocked off because of a mud slide.
Here is the link to 1st Heavy on Facebook(scroll all the way down to July 28th on their wall...they also have pictures of the clean-up in the 'ville):
https://www.facebook.com/#!/IRONBDE?sk=wall
Friday, August 19, 2011
July STUNK!
Out our apartment window at night-facing New City.
For realz...Dan was gone for most of it, it rained, and it rained some more...we were stuck in the apartment with three whiny kids, and then there was a flood. We had the heaviest rainfall this area has had in over a 100 years-or that's what I heard.
The ONLY bright spot was that we got our household goods. I had been nervous about getting our things because I'd sent so much, they couldn't fit it on the one truck they had sent to Kentucky. The movers had to come back later in that evening to get our sofa and other things.
If you're not aware, when you move, you're only allowed a certain amount of weight. This varies, depending on rank, and we've never came close to our full allotted weight. HOWEVER, when you move overseas, you're allowed HALF that weight. It's for good reason. One...it's less expensive to move you, two... overseas housing is usually smaller, so you don't need all your things, three...it forces you to purge and sort.
I quickly got over being nervous about getting our things because, after being without them for two months, I really didn't care. I would donate what wouldn't fit and deal with the rest.
We're slowly getting settled in. I have things put away, although Libby sure didn't help! UGH! She is into EVERYTHING! The only thing is...they broke ALOT of things and several things were lost. I'm focusing on decorating now, but that's proving to be interesting because most of the walls are concrete or marble and all of it is covered in wallpaper. BLEH!
The biggest thing that was broken was Libby's dresser. I was a little sick over it because we finally paid to get a 'nice' dresser, and it was broken. Of course, all the cheap-o Wal-mart dressers we've bought the older two over the years has made the moves in one piece. I have to put a claim in to be reimbursed for the things lost and broken. We've only tried that one time before and never got any money. They also lost the pedals to Ava's bike. I feel so bad for her. She was SO EXCITED to get her bike...and the pedals were gone. They take that kind of stuff off (the front wheel as well) to keep it from breaking. I have one on order, so hopefully they'll get here soon and she's able to ride her bike again.
The only times we really did get out to do anything fun were to take Abby to her camps, but Adventure Camp was cut short because of the flood (I'll make a separate post about that) and to meet a friend at Little Prince. Little Prince is a restaurant in New City that has a clean play area inside. You pay 5,000Won($5) per child for two hours. Did I mention that it's CLEAN? Nothing like McDonald's play areas in the States. They also have TV monitors so you can watch them play. It's great and the girls love going there. I met my friend Mitzi there, but we walked in the pouring rain to get there. I could have drove, but I was worried about finding a spot to park. So, we put our rain coats on, I put the cover over Libby's stroller and off we went! Libby's poor little feet were soaked by the time we got there because she refused to keep them under the cover, but she didn't care. The rain was WARM.
They run this train every hour. The kids LOVE it!
This is closer to the eating area, not that the area is huge, but it is kind of broken up.
Abby and David in the honeycombs. There's many more areas for them to play in. I'll have to take more pictures next time because, we WILL be back!
I didn't take many pictures in July...because we really didn't do much of anything, but here is what I've got:
Abby singing songs at Vacation Bible School
Watching the neighbor kids...
SKYPE!
Someone once asked me how we get our groceries and stuff up to our apartment. Well, this is a look at that. If I have the stroller in the car, it gets loaded up, but the older two are getting good at lugging bags to the elevator. Once it gets from the car to the elevator, I can get it. I just throw the bags out the elevator, on our floor, and then take the trips necessary to our door.
I promise Libby is sitting in the stroller!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
A month and a week??
I'm sorry. We're staying busy, but nothing too exciting going on. I promise to post all that we've been doing soon with new pictures and videos.
From Dan's birthday (July 1st).
I told you I'm not a blogger!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Videos of Libby, because I promised my Mom I would put them on here.
I can never get videos on here...so, once again, here's a link to youtube with the videos...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-QimG7rSLU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W31W8NQ2PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uWIyDYmXEs
I've TRIED to do the 'link' thingy, but it doesn't work for ME. I know I'm doing something wrong, but until I figure it out, you'll have to copy and paste. Sorry.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-QimG7rSLU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W31W8NQ2PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uWIyDYmXEs
I've TRIED to do the 'link' thingy, but it doesn't work for ME. I know I'm doing something wrong, but until I figure it out, you'll have to copy and paste. Sorry.
Dan's gone...then he's back...then he's gone again...and so on and so on...
It's becoming a theme here...already. We've been very positive about it because, quite frankly, he could be getting shot at in the mountains of Afghanistan, but it still stinks. He's been home just two weeks(?) since we've been here. This past field problem, was last minute, and if you ask me, REALLY unfair (that they chose him to be the MAJ to go). I actually think it's a nice break for him though. I can tell a difference in his attitude because he's dealing with the Koreans instead of other people...he normally has to deal with. We do get to talk and text frequently. He should be home Thursday night (14th) and then have a four day. He was gone last week Tuesday (5th) and came home the evening of Friday, the 8th. He's also supposed to go out again the 25th(?) thru the 29th again. I keep telling him it would be like this ALL OF THE TIME, if we were living in Yongsan (like so many MAJ's wives do and ALL the higher ups). So, you take what you can get.
It was a great and relaxing weekend. The girls were so happy to see him! We just took it easy yesterday, but did decide to take a walk. I had bought a Kelty kid carrier from someone on a flea market facebook page. It turned out to be a commander in Dan's unit (1/72), so it was fun to meet him. It is kind of concerning me, though, that the people I meet, that work with Dan, are kind of afraid of him. They tell me he's a good guy, but their voices always raise when they say that...I guess I shouldn't worry as long as he's nice to me?haha:)
Anyhow, Dan wanted to try this thing out, and off we went! I can track our distance and time with an app on my iPhone, and we ended up walking almost 3 miles. Dan said the carrier was comfortable, but Libby IS 26 pounds, and the carrier is another 3 or so...so it adds up after a while. She was happy in it until the end, but we were gone for an hour (we stopped at a few shops as well), so I think it would be great to take on trips. We want to climb Soyason(oh gosh...I can't remember the spelling!), and there's a lot of stairs, I've heard.
I think I've found a babysitter. I haven't really called her to meet the girls, but I think I will this week. Just for an hour,and then test her out again while Dan and I go either on post or up the street to grab something to eat. I PRAY she works out! It would be so fun to, just Dan and me, grab a train and spend an evening in Seoul.
On the way out...in front of our apartment building.
Jihaeng train station.
Not an uncommon sight here...old people passed out on benches. Dan says they're all drunk from Soju. We actually, on accident, woke him up!
Dan and the girls in front of the train station. We have to walk under it to get to all the shops. Does Dan look tired? This is about mile 2 and a half.:)
It was a great and relaxing weekend. The girls were so happy to see him! We just took it easy yesterday, but did decide to take a walk. I had bought a Kelty kid carrier from someone on a flea market facebook page. It turned out to be a commander in Dan's unit (1/72), so it was fun to meet him. It is kind of concerning me, though, that the people I meet, that work with Dan, are kind of afraid of him. They tell me he's a good guy, but their voices always raise when they say that...I guess I shouldn't worry as long as he's nice to me?haha:)
Anyhow, Dan wanted to try this thing out, and off we went! I can track our distance and time with an app on my iPhone, and we ended up walking almost 3 miles. Dan said the carrier was comfortable, but Libby IS 26 pounds, and the carrier is another 3 or so...so it adds up after a while. She was happy in it until the end, but we were gone for an hour (we stopped at a few shops as well), so I think it would be great to take on trips. We want to climb Soyason(oh gosh...I can't remember the spelling!), and there's a lot of stairs, I've heard.
I think I've found a babysitter. I haven't really called her to meet the girls, but I think I will this week. Just for an hour,and then test her out again while Dan and I go either on post or up the street to grab something to eat. I PRAY she works out! It would be so fun to, just Dan and me, grab a train and spend an evening in Seoul.
On the way out...in front of our apartment building.
Jihaeng train station.
Not an uncommon sight here...old people passed out on benches. Dan says they're all drunk from Soju. We actually, on accident, woke him up!
Dan and the girls in front of the train station. We have to walk under it to get to all the shops. Does Dan look tired? This is about mile 2 and a half.:)
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Seoul and stuff...
The weekend of the Fourth, we had reservations at the Dragon Hill Lodge at Yongsan in Seoul. Yongsan is on the southern side of Seoul and probably the biggest military base in South Korea. Humphreys might be bigger, but we've not been there yet. We took it easy Saturday morning (the 2nd), and then headed to Casey to buy a GPS and run a few other errands. The PX didn't have the GPS, so we grabbed a bite to eat and headed South. I won't say whose fault it was, but we went the wrong way and ended up going under some mountains through some really LONG tunnels. Thankfully, where we were going is the largest city in the country, so we finally found a sign that pointed us in the right direction. We got to the hotel, and were informed that we had been upgraded to a suite for free! What a wonderful bit of news after going the wrong way and then getting stuck in horrible downtown Seoul traffic.
The room was really nice, with a large living room and separate bedroom. We let the girls stretch out for a bit, and then headed towards Itaewon (E-TAY-WON). It's a shopping district right outside of the Yongsan post, and has a lot of 'Western' brands. I didn't get any pictures of the street because I was so busy site seeing. We had fun seeing all the shops, people, and sidewalk vendors. It was so crowded, though, and a little hard to navigate with two kids and a stroller. As we were just getting ready to turn around (we'd already walked a mile and half), we spotted The Outback! It was pretty good, but not like the Outback in the States. We walked a little further, and found a Cold Stone Creamery just a block away!! YAY!:) I can't wait to go back!
The next day, it was pouring...and I mean POURING! We decided to go to the PX because our PX is pretty small and what they carry is pretty limited. We found a GPS (yay!), and several other things we'd been going without. Think: curtains, curtain rods, Bath and Body works, hair product other than SUAVE(!), and several other items we normally take for granted. We spent some money...although, I have no clue because Dan checked out and I don't want to know HOW much. It's probably still cheaper than me shopping at Target and Wal-Mart several times a week. The hotel is resort style with several restaurants on site. We ate some good food this weekend. Monday morning, we were going to check out and then find a temple or something very 'Korean' to site see at. Unfortunately, Abby got sick (like, you don't even want me to tell you details!), and we had to head home. The weekend was nothing too adventurous, but it was nice to get away and see some different things. We also got to do things we would normally take for granted in the States.
Some cool trees on the grounds of the Dragon Hill Lodge.
The backside of the lodge. Libby and I took a walk early on our last day so that the rest could get some sleep.
McDonalds in Yangju(I think that's how you spell it), about 25 minutes south of our house. Drive-thru AND they deliver. Poor Abby was still not feeling well, so she didn't even touch hers.:(
The room was really nice, with a large living room and separate bedroom. We let the girls stretch out for a bit, and then headed towards Itaewon (E-TAY-WON). It's a shopping district right outside of the Yongsan post, and has a lot of 'Western' brands. I didn't get any pictures of the street because I was so busy site seeing. We had fun seeing all the shops, people, and sidewalk vendors. It was so crowded, though, and a little hard to navigate with two kids and a stroller. As we were just getting ready to turn around (we'd already walked a mile and half), we spotted The Outback! It was pretty good, but not like the Outback in the States. We walked a little further, and found a Cold Stone Creamery just a block away!! YAY!:) I can't wait to go back!
The next day, it was pouring...and I mean POURING! We decided to go to the PX because our PX is pretty small and what they carry is pretty limited. We found a GPS (yay!), and several other things we'd been going without. Think: curtains, curtain rods, Bath and Body works, hair product other than SUAVE(!), and several other items we normally take for granted. We spent some money...although, I have no clue because Dan checked out and I don't want to know HOW much. It's probably still cheaper than me shopping at Target and Wal-Mart several times a week. The hotel is resort style with several restaurants on site. We ate some good food this weekend. Monday morning, we were going to check out and then find a temple or something very 'Korean' to site see at. Unfortunately, Abby got sick (like, you don't even want me to tell you details!), and we had to head home. The weekend was nothing too adventurous, but it was nice to get away and see some different things. We also got to do things we would normally take for granted in the States.
Some cool trees on the grounds of the Dragon Hill Lodge.
The backside of the lodge. Libby and I took a walk early on our last day so that the rest could get some sleep.
McDonalds in Yangju(I think that's how you spell it), about 25 minutes south of our house. Drive-thru AND they deliver. Poor Abby was still not feeling well, so she didn't even touch hers.:(
Friday, July 1, 2011
Gettin' busy!
This past few weeks, we have been BUSY! I signed Abby up for swim lessons and wanted to sign Ava up too, but they had to be six. They're Mondays and Wednesday on post. It was so funny...Abby told me she needed to take the advanced class because she took lessons last year and knew how to swim. However, when she got in the water, it became quickly obvious, to even her, that she was right where she needed to be-beginner's class. There is one other kid in her class and the teacher is Korean.
This week, Abby started day camp. Again, I wanted to sign Ava up, they had to have finished Kindergarten, which I think is really unfair! She went M-F from 7:45 until 5pm. It's been great, because busy Abby was getting a little bored and driving me up a crazy wall! Monsoon season has officially started here and it's been pretty rainy. We get a few sunny days here and there, but they've been a little far in between. So, needless to say, I needed to get rid of one of them!!:) On Thursday, I was allowed to tag along on their trip to the aquarium in Seoul. It was...fun, but if I were to do it again, I wouldn't have went. I had to hold Libby on the bus, which was 1.5-2 hours each way...and she didn't want to SIT. And then, the aquarium wasn't stroller friendly...at all. I had to leave the stroller at the entrance and then let her walk or carry her. Not fun. She and Ava loved it, but it was a pretty small aquarium and only took us a half hour to walk through. Ava's favorite part was the gift shop, where she got a penguin in an igloo carrier. The FUN part was that the aquarium is in a mall...a HUGE 'western' mall and we had 1.5 hours to kill before we had to meet up with our ride. They have a McDonald's, TGIFs, and several other American restaurants! It was so perfect because we have a trip planned to Seoul this weekend and I KNOW we'll be going back to get a taste of some of our favorite American foods.:)
Today was Dan's birthday! He's been having a rough time at work with the new job and, I guess, today kind of sucked. To top it off, while I was doing laundry, the hose that connects to the faucet in the wall came loose. Water was spraying all over the laundry room and Dan was unable to get it back on. They put some kind of adapter from our American hose to their Korean faucet and it just wasn't working. Hopefully, the dude that charged us $110 to hook it up will come tomorrow morning to fix it...he didn't do it right, so he had better NOT charge us to fix it!!!
That's it for now...we're leaving tomorrow (probably afternoon now) for Yongsan (Seoul) until Monday morning. I'm pretty excited to be able to walk around and see things...and SHOP!!:) There's a shopping district right outside of Yongsan that is supposedly really nice and it has an Outback, McDonald's, Cold Stone Creamery, etc....I shouldn't have had that second piece of birthday cake! Hopefully, I'll walk it off.
Some pictures from the past few weeks:
Libby on playground at Camp Casey. She LOVES the swings. Her face is red because it is HOT here. We left shortly after this picture...
I should have cropped this so you could see it more closely, but when the Korean children go on field trips here...they all wear the EXACT same outfit with identical backpacks. It's too adorable!
I LOVE this idea! Do you know how, in America, when you go to an aquarium, all the children stand in the same spot and won't move...so your child has NO chance of seeing the shark, etc? Here...in this big tank, there is a people mover RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE GLASS. It doesn't go fast, but it doesn't give the children a chance to stand in one spot. Another thing I noticed...when they have the field trip kids entering the aquarium, we had to wait like 15 minutes after the group in front of us, so hopefully, we weren't all crowded in the same spot. It seemed to work! It didn't seem too crowded at all.
Ok...I need to get more bold about taking these kinds of pictures, because the uniforms the young workers have to wear are hilarious! The girls who sell things in the stores are super funny. I don't know if it's to get your attention or what, but these girls were too cute. They were at the entrance. I don't know what their exact job was, but they got me my stroller back. That's another picture I wish I'd taken...at the entrance, there's a spot for everyone to leave their big bags and all the children's backpacks....they were all lined up so neatly, and of course, all matched. Super cute!
I have no clue why Abby's group (from her camp) are taking a picture with the Korean kids' group, but this is how I found them. They all seemed excited to be taking their picture with a bunch of American kids. The Korean man taking THEIR picture was so giddy...kinda weird, kinda funny. (Is Abby giving her counselor bunny ears?)
This week, Abby started day camp. Again, I wanted to sign Ava up, they had to have finished Kindergarten, which I think is really unfair! She went M-F from 7:45 until 5pm. It's been great, because busy Abby was getting a little bored and driving me up a crazy wall! Monsoon season has officially started here and it's been pretty rainy. We get a few sunny days here and there, but they've been a little far in between. So, needless to say, I needed to get rid of one of them!!:) On Thursday, I was allowed to tag along on their trip to the aquarium in Seoul. It was...fun, but if I were to do it again, I wouldn't have went. I had to hold Libby on the bus, which was 1.5-2 hours each way...and she didn't want to SIT. And then, the aquarium wasn't stroller friendly...at all. I had to leave the stroller at the entrance and then let her walk or carry her. Not fun. She and Ava loved it, but it was a pretty small aquarium and only took us a half hour to walk through. Ava's favorite part was the gift shop, where she got a penguin in an igloo carrier. The FUN part was that the aquarium is in a mall...a HUGE 'western' mall and we had 1.5 hours to kill before we had to meet up with our ride. They have a McDonald's, TGIFs, and several other American restaurants! It was so perfect because we have a trip planned to Seoul this weekend and I KNOW we'll be going back to get a taste of some of our favorite American foods.:)
Today was Dan's birthday! He's been having a rough time at work with the new job and, I guess, today kind of sucked. To top it off, while I was doing laundry, the hose that connects to the faucet in the wall came loose. Water was spraying all over the laundry room and Dan was unable to get it back on. They put some kind of adapter from our American hose to their Korean faucet and it just wasn't working. Hopefully, the dude that charged us $110 to hook it up will come tomorrow morning to fix it...he didn't do it right, so he had better NOT charge us to fix it!!!
That's it for now...we're leaving tomorrow (probably afternoon now) for Yongsan (Seoul) until Monday morning. I'm pretty excited to be able to walk around and see things...and SHOP!!:) There's a shopping district right outside of Yongsan that is supposedly really nice and it has an Outback, McDonald's, Cold Stone Creamery, etc....I shouldn't have had that second piece of birthday cake! Hopefully, I'll walk it off.
Some pictures from the past few weeks:
Libby on playground at Camp Casey. She LOVES the swings. Her face is red because it is HOT here. We left shortly after this picture...
I should have cropped this so you could see it more closely, but when the Korean children go on field trips here...they all wear the EXACT same outfit with identical backpacks. It's too adorable!
I LOVE this idea! Do you know how, in America, when you go to an aquarium, all the children stand in the same spot and won't move...so your child has NO chance of seeing the shark, etc? Here...in this big tank, there is a people mover RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE GLASS. It doesn't go fast, but it doesn't give the children a chance to stand in one spot. Another thing I noticed...when they have the field trip kids entering the aquarium, we had to wait like 15 minutes after the group in front of us, so hopefully, we weren't all crowded in the same spot. It seemed to work! It didn't seem too crowded at all.
Ok...I need to get more bold about taking these kinds of pictures, because the uniforms the young workers have to wear are hilarious! The girls who sell things in the stores are super funny. I don't know if it's to get your attention or what, but these girls were too cute. They were at the entrance. I don't know what their exact job was, but they got me my stroller back. That's another picture I wish I'd taken...at the entrance, there's a spot for everyone to leave their big bags and all the children's backpacks....they were all lined up so neatly, and of course, all matched. Super cute!
I have no clue why Abby's group (from her camp) are taking a picture with the Korean kids' group, but this is how I found them. They all seemed excited to be taking their picture with a bunch of American kids. The Korean man taking THEIR picture was so giddy...kinda weird, kinda funny. (Is Abby giving her counselor bunny ears?)
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