Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Hey y’all! Thank you for coming back to another weekly post of how life is going here for me in South Korea! We had a really good week spending time together with the puppy and getting out and about on base. Also, it is getting super cold outside!!!

The little pupper and I are starting to get our daily schedule together. We wake up at 5am and fix Buddy breakfast and lunch while he gets ready for work. When Buddy leaves for work, we take the elevator down with him. As he gets in the van to go to work, I take the pupper to the bathroom. This week, we are finding out just how cold it gets in early December. I’m having a really hard time believing it is going to get colder than what it has been this week, but it is definitely going to get so much colder here. Most days have been below freezing, which the temperature itself is not that cold, but the high winds that come with it will literally bite at your skin. Plus, it snowed two days this week. Not enough to accumulate into much, but there was a solid covering of snow both times on the grass. Plus it was fun to see the pupper play with the snowflakes falling around her. So, we have limited our walks to the ville during the day and mostly just play inside now. When we come in from the morning potty, she and I take our morning nap (most important part of the day). Her favorite thing is to snuggle right next to me and snore loudly. Buddy and I have fallen in love with her, but we have found out that she is flying back to the States next Wednesday. It’s going to be a tough goodbye, but we knew we only had her for a short little time.

On Wednesday, we went to dinner at Braai Republic (yes, that is three times in four weeks… SO GOOD) with Buddy’s new work partner and his wife. We knew before dinner started that dinner was going to be either amazing or horrible, because Buddy and his work partner are basically the same person. They have the same interests, jokes, and thoughts. I also knew from talking to Buddy that the wife and I shared common thoughts as well. I am glad to say that dinner went so well and it was so weird (in a good way) that we are basically the same couple. We were at dinner for two hours and it didn’t seem like it, mostly because we were laughing the entire time.

On Friday, Buddy only worked a half day and came home at lunch time. Camp Humphreys had their Christmas tree lighting in their “downtown” area. While the purpose of us being here is for Buddy to work, there is also the quality of life for the wife to think of. Since Christmas is my favorite season and holiday, he knew how much it meant to me to go. It was also nice to spend a little extra time together. We walked down to the base and got a taxi once we got through the walk in gate to take us to the tree. I could not feel my nose or ears by the time we walked the thirty minutes to the gate, and I was wearing a winter hat! Not to mention we were both wearing layers upon layers. I had on two pairs of socks inside my 3M insulated winter boots, leggings on under my jeans, a tank top, a long sleeve t-shirt, a sweatshirt, the on loan winter jacket, and gloves too! The Christmas tree is in between the PX and the Commissary, and right in front of Texas Roadhouse. When we got there, it was just starting so there were not too many people. After about thirty minutes though, the entire area was packed!

There were also a few tents set up to get hot chocolate or little Christmas goodies at. They even had the newest Grinch movie playing on the back wall of the movie theater with a few fire pits set up. Once we listened to the USAG Humphreys middle school choir sing and then the girl scouts (who did a rendition of 12 Days of Christmas to say “On the first day of Christmas, Camp Humphreys gave to me…” and so on), we decided we were cold enough. We were not sure at what point in the program the tree was going to light up, but we made the executive decision that we were too cold and starting to get hungry to wait any longer. So we went into the Texas Roadhouse. While there was about an hour wait because many others had the same idea, we got to watch the tree light up from inside with warmth. Plus, then we got to savor the warmth with sweet tea and the best rolls and butter on this earth. After we ate, then we got to bask in the glory of the lit Christmas tree. There is just something about seeing Christmas trees all done up that has always been my favorite part of the season.

Saturday is normally the night we go out, but since we had gone out on Wednesday and Friday night, we decided to stay in. I made some chili for the both of us, because I have to make mine separately since I don’t like beans, plus I add some spice to his. I also spent some time doing laundry. Never take for granted your clothes dryer. SOUTH KOREA DOES NOT HAVE THEM. We have a mechanized drying rack in our laundry room that can be pulled down to hang your clothes on, then you can pull the other string to raise it back up while they dry. And drying takes a lot longer than just an hour without an actual dryer. Which is hard when you have a seven month old puppy who is still potty training and peed on your bedspread three different times in one week. Our rule is she can only get up on the bed now right after we take her outside to potty.

On Sunday, our neighbor let me use his van to go to the Commissary to get groceries. This was my first time driving by myself, and I must say I’m getting really good at it. Which is exciting because we are hoping to get our own vehicle this upcoming week! A lot of soldiers and their families sell things, including cars, through different buy and sell groups on facebook. I have joined many of them and have been periodically looking for cars through there. I finally found one that I liked and that was in Buddy’s price range. We looked at it in person this past Friday before the Christmas tree lighting. This upcoming Friday, we are hopefully going to do all the transfer paperwork, so be praying and thinking good thoughts that everything goes well. This is going to greatly help me and Buddy in our life here as I will finally be able to go grocery shopping without having to ask our neighbor for the van or go with Buddy when he gets home from working all day. Plus, I can now explore our city of Pyeongtaek more than just what I can walk to, and Buddy and I can do weekend explorations of nearby cities.

The commissary is probably its busiest on Sundays, but I got there right when they opened so it was not too crowded, thank goodness. They even have Christmas decorations inside! For anyone who knows me, you’ll know that the grocery store is my favorite place to go to, something about it just calms me. If anyone needs a personal grocery shopper, I will do it for you! Since I wasn’t with Buddy this time, I took my time perusing the aisles, and I loved it. I even picked up a brownie mix and a cake mix to make. Good news, I can finally use the toaster oven we got two weeks ago! Because our toaster oven was bought at the PX, it has an American plug. All the outlets in our apartment are Korean and have different voltage. We had to get a big 3KVA transformer for it, plus we had to go buy a kitchen shelf/cabinet for it since there is no room in our actual kitchen for it. After Buddy and I (mostly Buddy) put the cabinet together, I tested it out with the brownie mix and it worked!!! I am so happy with how it is working out. I can now do my holiday baking, just in way smaller batches!

While we are getting used to the freezing temperatures and cold winds, it feels like everything is falling into its place here. We miss home, but thankfully we are able to facetime our families pretty often. I still text my mom almost everyday, I sometimes think we talk more now than we did before I left. Buddy’s sister is pregnant and we are literally waiting for little Everleigh Ann to be born any day now. While we both wish we were there, there are strict rules that we have to be facetimed from them at the hospital. We can’t wait to be aunt and uncle to this little girl! I’m missing American food too. Still missing cheese dip, except it has now expanded to missing steak fajita nachos (especially from El Bracero for all my Clarksville people). Also missing Chick-Fil-A. And the chicken biscuits and scones from Crave Coffee in Arlington, Tennessee, near my hometown. Life here isn’t horrible though and we’re meeting some incredible people. Every week brings something new to our lives, and we are on this ride called life and trying to enjoy every part of it.