First week

Finally I am here in Korea! I left Dayton at 10AM on the 16th, and arrived at my base, Kunsan, at about 10:30 PM.. on the 17th. Long day of traveling and lost almost a day as well. Wed-Fri was kind of a blur, recovering from jet lag and a lot of trekking around base, inprocessing at the hospital and general base inprocessing. Its strange to be so far away from home, but to go to the Commissary and buy regular American food, magazines, have normal voltage american plugs. The weather is kinda like the midwest in the summer, except ever MORE humid, which seems impossible, but really, its frickin humid here. Most days are pretty hazy, overcast, and rainy since its monsoon season now. Over the weekend it was pretty nice. Saturday, a few of use decided to check out the Buryeong Mud Festival (http://www.worknplay.co.kr/buryeongsites/index.html), about an hours drive north of here. It was pretty fun, tons of people, very muddy. :)
On the way back, unfortunately, we got into a pretty bad accident. There were 4 of us in the car, driving around 60-65mph on the freeway, and one of the front tires blows, steering wheel now useless, lost control of the car. We swerved into the left side of the median, bounced of, spun around and hit the drivers side along the concrete barrier on the right side of the highway, spun around again, almost rolled the car, and then when we thought it was over, a big truck hit us. The back side door where i was sitting flung open and i guess i almost fell out, but the other dude grabbed my leg. Amazingly, all of us were alive with on some cuts, bruises. One guy ended up with a consussion, all of us had a little whiplash, and thank god that was it. Car is totalled, and I'm not too excited about driving in Korea anymore... I think bikes are just fine.
So, thats the crappy part I guess. This week is kinda a lost cause as far as getting stuff done. This base loves its "exercises" so we get to do this several times a year. The whole base shuts down, and we pretend we are going to war with North Korea. We have to trudge around in 40 pounds of protective gear, helmets, and full chem suit, even a gas mask during some exercises. You start sweating before you even go outside. 2 more days of this! I will post some pics of me in my awesome chem gear once i get the right cord!
So, thats about it for this week so far. There will be a big BBQ party on Friday after the exercise, and then saturday night going away parties, and my first use of my "party suit" (<-- more to come on that later, pilots are nuts!)

Leaving for Korea!

Hello everyone! Well, I officially leave for Korea in about 14 hours, so I thought I would try and get this blog up and running before I leave. I'm a little excited, a little freaked out, a little nervous, and each emotion cycles about 20 times a day. Its been a hectic last month. I finished up my intern year on June 30th, ending with a bang at the Base Hospital, everyone favorite. not quite... Everyone who knows me here knows how much fun that was for me. Then, these last 2 weeks in July I have spent completing the base outprocessing scavenger hunt, always an effective use of time, cleaning organizing my apartment to get everything ready for the movers, completing my online AMP course (aerospace med course, its this bitch of an online course, takes the place of 2 weeks of classroom time from the official AMP course in San Antonio, and takes about 80+ hours to complete. I started this in April, just finnsihed it last night :) ), selling my car (!), organizing a bachelorette party, and trying to see as many people as possible before I leave. So, its been a little hectic, and easy to overlook the fact that the reason I am doing all of this is that I am leaving the country! I fly out tomorrow at 10 AM, with a short layover in Chicago, the a loooooooong flight all the way to Incheon International airport, outside of Seoul. From there, I am supposed to find my way around this airport, find a "USO" desk, and get a bus to Kunsan AFB, where I will be stationed. My sponsor is then supposed to be me at the buss top, somewhere on base, and hopefully take me to my apt/dorm room. And from there, the adventure begins. Its an adventure because I honestly have no idea what I will be doing from then on. No clue. But, in August, I will be leaving again, sometime around the 4th I'm guessing, to go to San Antonio for 6 weeks, for my training course. I will keep my cell phone number this whole year but will only be active when I am in the states. Best way to keep in touch with me is through email, this blog, and the amazing internet wonder called Skype! Its an internet phone service, free to download and free to call computer to computer, all around the world. There is also a feature available that I bought into, that makes calling me from the states very convenient. I bought a US number, that when you call it, actually calls my computer. Once I have everything set up overseas, I can then also forward the calls from the computer to my local cell phone in Korea. So, it is like a regular call for you! Just remember its about a 14-16 hour time difference, depending on where you are. :)

Here's are some handy links for you all:

To download Skype: http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/downloading.html

My Skype US number: 970-372-6526

This blog as of now is public acess, but I will eventually be making it private, which is annoying because you will have to sign in, but protect my personal info, like the numbers, address, and makes it more easy for me to gripe about my work!
More to come soon... Wish me luck!