Last Saturday, we decided to take a day trip to Gakwonsa Temple. It is about a 30 minute drive from Camp Humphreys. With it being the first official weekend that we were able to travel the peninsula since February, we knew we wanted to go somewhere exciting. This temple did not disappoint. It is a buddhist temple in Cheonan. Just like the temple and palace we visited in Seoul, I fell in love with the architecture and colors that are used.

There are about 6 different temple buildings at this location. Some are for worship, while other buildings are for the monks to use who live at the site. We only went up the one main worship temple that has the 3 Buddhas inside it, but we did not go inside. Unlike the temple we went to in Seoul where you could not see inside from the outside, this one had it’s windows open and everything was in plain view. I learned in Seoul that you are not supposed to take pictures inside the temple, so even though we were outside, I still did not feel comfortable to take pictures of the inside. I wanted to respect their religion and culture.

It is home to the largest Buddha statue in all of Korea, it is 15 meters high (about 50 feet) and is 60 tons of bronze. This particular Buddha is Amita-bul, the Buddha of Western Paradise. There is an area in front of the Buddha for people to light candles and place mats down to pray.

Behind the temple, we went up a small incline and found some nature trails. For those that know me, there is a reason my middle name is not Grace. I inherited my mother’s gracefulness which means I have none. The amount of times I have fallen and sprained or twisted my knees or ankles is unreal, probably close to about two or three times a year, and that is only since being with Buddy. Short side story to explain more, I was wearing tennis shoes on flat ground inside the gym senior year at Union in badminton class. I was literally just walking to the net, tripped over air, and fell twisting my ankle in the process. When I went to get up, my ankle wouldn’t let me put pressure on it. The second time I tried to get up, someone grabbed my left hand to help me up, and I yelled out in pain. A couple of hours later and several x-rays later, not only had I twisted my ankle when I fell, I broke my elbow in 3 places (which included having a small bone flip 180 degrees) and tore a ligament and tendon. That was on a Thursday morning, and the very next Monday I had surgery to put screws in my elbow. So, naturally, I am apprehensive at doing certain activities where I feel like I might fall.

We had started going up one of the nature trails behind the temple, but at a certain point, it started going straight up and I was losing my balance. I knew Buddy wanted to keep going, so I gave him a deadline of 10 minutes to go see more and then come back to me. So there’s me, an American, just standing in the middle of the trail with all of these Koreans who keep passing me. They’re all very nice and we say hello to each other and they continue. Well, 10 minutes came and went. Then 15 minutes. Then by the time 20 minutes came and passed, which made Buddy 10 minutes late, I started getting nervous. I was in the middle of these Korean woods with no idea where my husband is and a very large language barrier, plus he had the car keys. Finally, there was a Korean couple who was coming towards me, which meant that they had hopefully passed Buddy at some point. I quickly got my phone out of my pocket and opened up google translate. I typed in “Did you see an American on trail?” and I showed it them as they passed by me. They both shook their head no. Welp, I had no idea what to do. Then 30 minutes passed by. So I started to walk back down the mountain by myself, which was scary in itself, when I started hearing my name yelled. I walked back up a little ways to find Buddy with his hands full of mochi ice cream and watermelon. Apparently, he had made it to the top of the mountain, where he found a really nice older Korean couple who told him they had never seen an American finish the hike up. They had kept giving him water and treats, and Buddy has a soft side for old couples, so he couldn’t say no to them. Then he had to come back down the steep mountain with his hands full, which was difficult, so he took it super slow, hence him coming back way after his deadline to me.

Overall, we loved our little trip to Gakwonsa. We had not ventured to Cheonan yet, but there were several restaurants and shops we passed that we want to go back to, so sometime soon, we will be going back to the area.

Well, the headline says it all. Plus if you read my last blog, I mentioned it there as well. Buddy has been here since September (isn’t that crazy???), and I have been here since November. Since then, we have been in a one bedroom apartment that was super small and not much of anything in it. It was a good place to start our life over here, but with very little space and almost zero outlets to plug things into, daily life sometimes sucked. We enjoyed our neighbors though, especially all the guys who Buddy works with who lived on the same floor as us. We thought about moving basically since the new year started. We acted on it in March, but the week we were going to look at new apartments, we had to go in quarantine because we had been in the same location as somewhat who was confirmed with corona. Then the base basically shut, so moving was the last thought on anybody’s mind. By the time early May came around, we had just resolved that we would be staying in the tiny apartment. I mean seriously y’all, the bathroom was the worst part. It was no bigger than a 4×4 room with a toilet and sink, with a shower head coming out of the sink and a drain in the middle of the floor. But again, we made it work and it was our little place.

I don’t even remember when or why we decided to ask about us moving into another apartment, but Buddy had been told of one opening up in the Capitoliom and we just had to go look at it. As soon as we got here, we had to go in the parking garage under the complex, and there are four floors of parking underground. We took the elevator to our floor and as soon as we walked in, we knew we were moving. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment. We have a view of the Ville and a small view of Camp Humphreys where I can watch helicopters and planes land all day. Our kitchen has so many cabinets that we didn’t know what to do with. Our fridge/freezer is double the size of the one in our old apartment. It came with a water purifier (don’t drink the water here unless it’s purified), an oven (which our old one did not), and a 4 eye stove (our old one only had a 2 eye electric stovetop)!!!! The living room had a fan in it, as well as the bedroom (our bedroom did not). The master bath came with a bathtub!!!!!!! Plus, the apartment came with a WASHER AND DRYER!!!!! Y’all, for the last 6 months, I have had to wait an average of 2 days (sometimes more) for our clothes to dry while hanging up. I did four loads of laundry on our first night here just because I could. Y’all should have heard our yell of happiness when we got the bath towels out of the dryer and felt how soft and warm they were, they were no longer rough. It’s the little things you take the most pleasure in when you haven’t had it in a long time.

We’re on the third floor, although it is technically the first floor of residential apartments. The first two floors have businesses, a cafe, and a restaurant. If you take the elevator to the top floor, 14, you can take a staircase outside to the roof. There is an amazing view of Pyeongtaek and Camp Humphreys from the top. We love going up there and just sitting there talking, especially at night seeing all the lights. There are places to grill up there and have fire pit fun. The best part is not paying attention and then having puppies/dogs run into you while they’re up there.

On our floor, there’s a small area with trees and benches. You’re surrounded by the building as it is in the center, but it is a nice serene area.

Last Monday, the 18th, we had our first real storm since being here. We got a warning notification and everything. While it didn’t do much than thunder and rain pretty hard, it was so amazing to hear thunder for the first time since moving here. Plus, with our new view, I got a pretty good look at it rolling in.

We are now a 5-10 minute walk from everything in the Ville, which is super nice. We now walk everywhere unless we are going on base. We even went to the 3/8 Market on Saturday for the first time, since we are now living just one street away from it. The market is an open air market where a ton of vendors come and sell things, like a farmer’s market in the states. It happens rain or shine all day on days that end in a 3 or 8, so the 3rd, 8th, 13th, 18th, 23rd, and 28th. We bought a thing of strawberries from the market and you could tell they were fresh.

Overall, we love it here. Our daily life satisfaction has gone up exponentially. Be ready for another new blog most likely on Saturday! I have to have that one up before I can tell y’all what we have planned for the upcoming weekend! Plus, I hope to include some exciting news in next week’s blog! I’m so excited to have things to blog about again!!! Thank you for reading and commenting!

Hey y’all! I didn’t realize it’s been over a month since my last post, but oh goodness do I have some updates! In one week, I went from having almost no blog to write about, to having three blogs that needed writing! Thank you to all of you who comment or message me letting me know that you enjoy reading my blog updates, it means a lot to me!

Quite a lot has changed in the past month. First, we went from HPCON Charlie Plus to HPCON Charlie. I explained some of that in the last post. Then, this past week (5/20/20) we went down to HPCON Bravo!!! That means that we are able to now go off post to eat at restaurants and go to salons/nail salons off post! It also means we can travel the peninsula now, with the exception of Seoul, as that area is still considered HPCON Charlie for the military. As soon as the garrison commander made the update on Tuesday night (5/19), which was my birthday so it was the best birthday gift, I made an appointment for a pedicure. So did many other ladies, as when I went to my appointment, they told me they were booked for the next two weeks. I’ll talk more about this at the end.

Secondly, we moved apartments!!! I am going to do a separate blog update telling you all about our switch, mainly just how much better this apartment is. Our last apartment wasn’t horrible by any means, but the amenities and location of our new one is much better. I will more than likely have that update later at some point soon. We spent last weekend moving over here, it’s just a five minute drive from the other one, so it wasn’t horrible. We found out Tuesday (5/12) that we were moving, so during the week, we took small trips slowly bringing things over. Then on Saturday we did our big moving, as well as on Sunday with Austin’s help bringing our tv over. We are sad that we left Austin at the other apartment. There were many nights where we would go over and watch movies or just chill in his room with him.

Third, I turned 25 on May 19th!!! That is a quarter of a century y’all! Buddy took the day off to be with me, as birthdays are super important to me. This is the first one where I haven’t been with my parents, so I was glad to be able to spend the day with him. We had a lazy day and ordered our favorite Japanese takeout for lunch, Rica. They have the best sushi and chicken karaage (Japanese fried chicken). We found them during this quarantine time and now order from them once a week. Luckily, we are now only about a 5-7 minute walk from their restaurant, which is great since we can finally go and eat out at restaurants and not have to only do takeout or delivery. After lunch, we took a break and started watching a new series on Amazon Prime called Upload. We watched about 5 episodes and then we did the 30 minute drive to Osan Air Base to go to Chilis for my birthday dinner. We ordered margaritas, a skillet queso, dinner, and dessert! I love going out to eat on my birthday, but I hate when restaurants come out and sing to you. When I was younger, my parents and I would always usually go to Texas Roadhouse where they make you sit on the saddle while they give you a big yee-haw. I just hate the attention from it, because I never know where to look and I just feel awkward. I thought once we had ordered dessert, that I was in the clear. Well, apparently when Buddy went to the bathroom, he had come across our waitress. We were sitting with our backs to the kitchen, but as soon as I heard a bell ring, I immediately knew what was fixing to happen and if looks could kill, Buddy would have died from my glare! But they were so nice to sing happy birthday to me. It was a pretty good birthday! Mom had sent me a birthday gift that I had received in the mail the week before, a Ronaldo bracelet. My mom loves them and I haven’t gotten one yet, so she sent me my first and it is so pretty. Buddy’s grandparents also sent me a card. Thank you to those of my facebook friends who wished me a happy birthday on there as well!

So before my birthday happened, we had Mother’s Day! It’s nice living over because holidays and birthdays last two days for us. We celebrate it over here first as we are 14 hours ahead of west Tennessee, then the following day when it is the actual day back home. We were able to facetime with my Mom, and I am thankful for my Aunt Mary, her younger sister, who was able to help me get a gift to my mom. My mom loves going to Board and Brush, but because they’re studio isn’t (or wasn’t open to go in) they were selling already painted gifts for Mother’s Day that also included flowers and a gift card for when they are finally open. Then we were able to facetime later with Buddy’s mom, his Nana, his sister Krista, and then sweet little Everleigh. We had also sent them gifts that we had gotten for them in Seoul when we went back in February.

Thursday (5/21) was the first night we went and walked in the Ville since late February. While we were still all wearing masks, it was just nice and refreshing to be out and about among other people. Seeing people sitting in restaurants and cafes while just wandering aimlessly, because now we can, made me happy. We are slowly getting back to normal, or our new normal. Us over here have had a longer and stricter shut down than the states. Valentine’s Day was the last time we ate at a restaurant in the Ville. The following weekend we went to Seoul, and then the week we were back was when we weren’t allowed off post anymore to go sit down in places. We will take our little freedom of wearing masks off base if that means we can go out now. Like I mentioned earlier, I had also gone to get a pedicure on Thursday. Everyone inside work a mask and besides the ladies doing the nails, everyone was kept at a good distance. It felt amazing to get a pedicure. All the ladies know what I’m talking about, when you can finally do a little self pampering, it just does your body and mind good.

This is where I’m ending this blog. My next blog will be about our move, so even though it will be a short blog, I want it to be its own entity. My third blog will be about our weekend trip to Cheonan, where we went to the Gakwonsa Temple. If you are my friend on facebook, you already saw the pictures. But I am going to do a post about it with more information, plus it will also include what we did for the rest of the weekend!

Thank y’all for coming back and checking out my blog updates. With the fact that we are able to travel the peninsula now, we are taking advantage of that. We have plans for the next couple of weekends now to go see places. So that means that weekly blog updates will most like resume!

Hey y’all! So, it’s been over a month since my last blog post which was on March 9th, and I am writing this on April 14th. While not much of anything has happened since, our lives have definitely changed.

Even a month ago, I was fizzling out my blog posts because the ville was shut down and we weren’t allowed to go anywhere. I don’t think y’all would get much excitement out of reading what I’m baking every week or watching on Hulu and Netflix. Camp Humphreys is almost at a stand still as our health protection level is charlie plus, and it has been that for about 3 weeks now. Normally, we would be at HPCON alpha. I’m really not sure what all I’m allowed to tell y’all, so just know that we have been staying home for about 3 weeks but things are slowly reopening which is a good sign. We are both healthy, as is everyone we know. The commissary has started to limit the amount of people inside to about 100 which makes for some long lines outside plus social distancing, but a lot of people here have remained calm and we haven’t run out of toilet paper. Truth be told, Buddy and I have both agreed that we are glad we’re here and not in the states during all this craziness.

We were supposed to have flown home on April 7th to spend Easter with our families, but we had to cancel because of this virus. Us, as well as our families, were upset but we’re living in an unreal time right now where certain decisions have to be made. I’m thankful that we are still allowed to go on base for groceries, and I’m even more grateful for the food delivery app, Shuttle. It is just like UberEats or Doordash back in the states. Even though there’s a coffee shop basically right downstairs next to our apartment, there’s a coffee shop on Shuttle that will deliver coffee to your door, and I feel like Buddy and I have personally kept them in business the past 2 weeks by ordering hot and iced caramel macchiatos. And if y’all remember from past posts, we love going to the ville and eating at Braai Republic, the South African BBQ restaurant. Because of the shut down in the ville, they finally got put on Shuttle two weeks ago! The last time we had it was on Valentine’s Day, so we were happy to be able to order it again finally. I’ve done my fair share of cooking at home though, plus baking! I tend to bake whenever I get stressed, and the past 3 weeks have been very stressful for us (at least me, Buddy will tell you he was never stressed) so I have made pecan pie bars and oreo cheesecake cookies.

I’m glad that Buddy is my best friend though, because these three weeks he’s been at the apartment with me, we only had one argument and it was so stupid. We each did our own thing every day. Even though I love him and consider him my best friend, we do not like a lot of the same things. So he would watch his stuff while I watched my stuff. He played his computer games while I played my ps4 games. At night though, we would usually watch a movie together. One day last week, we watched 4 movies on netflix in one day! It started with Mamma Mia 2 (which we also saw in the theater together), Taylor Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour Concert movie, Life as We Know It, and Into the Woods. He was a good husband letting me pick all the movies! All of that to say, today was his first day back at work and I truly miss being able to look over at him during the day. I also have not missed the early wake ups, 4:30am came way too early. I am glad to start getting back into a schedule though.

There are a few things we have realized in the past couple of weeks with having a lot of time to think. We have missed sweet tea dearly over here. The water over here is not the best, so we haven’t made any at home. BUT.. there is a Popeye’s Fried Chicken drive thru on base, the only drive thru in this entire area. They sell sweet tea by the gallon y’all!!! So we have finally found our sweet tea fix, it only took us 6 months to realize that. Also, West TN is having a lot of storms lately. It’s spring season so that’s nothing new, but we realized that we have not even heard thunder since moving here. We have plenty of rain, but it has not stormed once here. For those that know me, my biggest fear is storms, especially the kind with tornadic activity which TN seems to be having a lot of lately. But I am even missing thunderstorms at the moment. It will be weird to be back home and hear thunder and see lightning again.

One of the sad things about all this though is that we have been advised to not go to any parks at the moment, but it’s Cherry Blossom season here! We can see them on the way to base and outside our apartment building, but I wish I could go see them in a park or near the river. Even though cherry blossom trees are pretty much everywhere now, they are originally from the East Asia area, which is where we are, and yet we really can’t experience them right now!

Thank you to everyone who has messaged me asking how we are doing or asked my parents! They do make sure to let me know if someone said hi or asked about us, it means a lot to us that people want to make sure we are okay. I hope everyone is okay as well in these uncertain times we’re living in. I know we are both ready to be home in West Tennessee for vacation. Buddy has been here for 7 months, and I have been here for almost 6 months. We are ready to see family, especially our little niece Everleigh! I’m not sure when my next blog post will be, more than likely it will not be next week, but hopefully soon!

Hey y’all! Thank you for coming back another week to read my blog! Sadly, there isn’t really anything to say. With the ville area and pretty much everywhere that isn’t on base still on shutdown, we didn’t go anywhere new. The only time I went out of the apartment was to go on base to the commissary and PX. We ordered food if I didn’t feel like cooking. On a good note, our apartment is clean and all the laundry is done! Plus, I have cleaned out our fridge, freezer, and pantry! The schools on base are out again this week, making this three weeks in a row. I’m thinking about offering to tutor some students, many moms on facebook are saying they don’t homeschool for a reason! And as of this weekend, there are no more PCS moves in or out of South Korea until May.

Our flight to the US did get cancelled earlier last week, but the very next day we had a new flight for the same dates! At the moment, we’re just hoping we can fly home and then back here next month without any trouble. The CDC has placed South Korea under a level 3 warning, which means to avoid nonessential travel. Hopefully within the month, the mass hysteria and paranoia will start to fade, as going home to see family is definitely essential travel for us. I for one am going stir crazy, plus I really want/need to do a Daiso shopping run.

That’s all the updates of our life for the week. Sorry it’s not exciting to read about, it’s just life at the moment. We’ll see how this week goes!

Hi friends! Like always, thanks for coming back for another week! I really hope y’all enjoyed last week’s blog post telling about our trip to Seoul. We truly did have an amazing time. I also uploaded a ton more photos to facebook, so if you haven’t seen those yet, definitely check them out!

This week was a little weird. By the time the middle of the week came, the entire area around where we live was basically shut down because of the fear of the coronavirus. Before that happened though, I did venture out on Monday afternoon to a new coffeeshop. It’s not new, because I have written about this coffee shop before, it was just a new location… A Twosome Place! I had received some questions about the name of this place, and it is called that because it has coffee and dessert. This place is about a fifteen minute drive from our apartment, and it was so worth it. I had never been to this part of town before, and it was beautiful. It is situated right off the Ansong River and has amazing views of Pyeongtaek and Camp Humphreys, as the base is right across the river. That same night, I even took Buddy and Anton back there, but it was too dark to get a good view of the area and Anton complained that we drove fifteen minutes just for coffee.

On Tuesday when the boys got home from, Anton asked if we could take him to the commissary for groceries. We needed a few extra things as well, so off we went. Well.. Tuesday was the day that a lot of people started to freak out about the virus. Command started telling everyone affiliated with the base to have enough groceries to last for two weeks in case you got quarantined. I knew it was going to be bad when it was a Tuesday night and there was hardly any parking available. After walking around and getting some food, which by the way, the entire back wall of chicken, pork, and beef was all gone, we went to checkout. I think we waited in line for about 30 minutes. They had about 12 lanes open to check out, but the lanes were about 10 carts deep. It didn’t look that bad, but once you got to a line, you were able to see that there were several carts going down the aisles that you couldn’t see at first.

After that, I pretty much stayed home for the rest of the week. Wednesday was mine and Buddy’s five year dating anniversary. But as of Tuesday, everything off base was off limits. Now, it was really just off limits for soldiers, but it was highly recommended for dependents and civilians. If it was a necessity such as going to the bank or a grocery store, that was permitted. But anything for a social life, such as going to a sit down restaurant, a bar, shopping for fun, or a movie was a no go. So we stayed in and celebrated at the apartment. Besides picking Buddy up from work on Friday because we got a new couch and then taking him lunch on Saturday, that was the only time I left the apartment after Tuesday night.

It is crazy to think that I have spent the past five years with Buddy, and that we have now been married for a year. For those that don’t know, we actually met on the dating app, Tinder. I was on it as many of my friends at college were on it and I decided to just have fun swiping to see who I could match. I definitely had a type that I was swiping for, and that was military. If a guy was in a uniform, that was an immediate swipe right. So one night as I was in my dorm room, I swiped right on this guy in uniform, and it popped up that we matched, which meant he had already swiped right on me! Within five minutes, I had a message from him saying he was going to bed soon but thought I was beautiful and he would message me tomorrow. I didn’t think much of it, but when I woke up I had a message from him. Through out the next week, I found myself messaging other guys less and this guy more. After a week of messaging, I got brave because I had nothing to lose and asked this guy if he finally wanted to meet up. For those that I have told the story of our first date, they usually say that I lost my mind. Long story short, I drove an hour to meet this guy at a coffee shop in his hometown. It had also snowed several days before and there was still ice on the roads. When we got to the coffee shop, we didn’t even get coffee as he asked me if I wanted to go on an adventure. I said yes, and hopped in his truck as we then proceeded to go down a twolane country road that had zero street lights. FIRST TIME WE HAD MET EACH OTHER. I constantly reminded him that my best friend and roommate at the time knew I was with him and if I didn’t call her by a certain time, she would call the cops. She was from the area up there, so I knew I was somewhat safe with her knowing. We ended up driving to the Reelfoot Lake area, and unbeknownst to me at that time, Anton lived right across from where we went on our first date! So as soon as we get to the lake, Buddy’s truck is sliding down the road on the ice, so he says he has to park and we have to walk the rest of the way. Now mind y’all, I was dressed for a coffee date. Nice boots and a light jacket were all I had on top of my outfit. I was not dressed to walk on five inches of snow and ice. He kept saying that what he wanted to show me was just around the corner, no, it’s just around this corner, hey, I think it’s around this corner. Well, about 50 corners and what felt like 2 hours later, we finally made it to the end of the road where the lake was. Y’all, it was worth it. The sun was setting and we went up on a pier and it was beautiful.

After we left the pier, the sun had set and we had to walk back (what we later drove and figured out it was 3 miles each way) in the dark with just my phone’s flashlight because his phone had died. I had three huge blisters on my feet for days after this date. On our second date, I met his mom and sister as we met them at a Steak and Shake. That next weekend, he went home with me and met my parents. Because three weeks later, he left for Ft. Sill for two months. Also, our very first date when he got back home was on May 28th, which is when I sank up to my hips in Tennessee quick mud, much like quick sand but it is mud. Then with muddy boots and pants, he made me climb a hill (I hate heights). We’ve had many dates since where I have fallen and sprained my ankles. More of our dates go wrong than they do right, but they always make for the best stories. He has forbidden me from ever wearing heels again for a good reason. Except one time I sprained my ankle wearing tennis shoes (although we were racing on a path in the woods), which I was also wearing when I fell and broke my elbow in three places. I just don’t walk well y’all. But I am so happy that even five years later, we still go on exciting dates. My husband is definitely my best friend, and I am so happy for that.

Hopefully this is a better week. I went out today (Monday) to get fresh air and get out of the apartment for a bit. It did me some good to get fresh air and sunshine. I went and found a new park I have been seeing around. Then Buddy got off work an hour early today because there was a power outage, so when he got home, I made him hurry to get ready. We went to a new coffee place called Archive. It had an amazing view of the river. Then after we got our coffee, I took him to the park. We walked around for a bit, it is actually a campground where RVs can park, but there’s also several playgrounds and has a walk/bike path along the river for several kilometers. We didn’t see until after we played on the playground that children above the age of 10 cannot play, but we played on the zipline and slides and had so much fun just being with each other and in the fresh air, although it was a bit chilly.

I also want to ask y’all for prayers. With the coronavirus paranoia, Delta has suspended all their flights from Seoul to Minneapolis until April 31st. That is the flight I took to get here. We are supposed to be going home in early April for two weeks. Our flight is through American Airlines, and thankfully, American hasn’t cancelled flights yet, but that doesn’t mean they won’t. So please be praying and thinking good thoughts that we are able to go home and see our families, we are so looking forward to these upcoming two weeks and we would hate put it off.

Hey y’all! I have a special blog for you this week because it highlights our anniversary trip to Seoul, South Korea! I cannot put all the pictures I took in this blog because I literally took hundreds and hundreds of pictures, so make sure you head to my facebook page sometime this week where they will all be uploaded! I am going to put the pictures here that best represent all the places we went to.

This was an amazing trip, and I can’t believe how well it went after only planning it for a week. It started two Saturdays ago as we realized we only had a week left to put something together if we wanted to travel. With the coronavirus going on, we decided we wanted to stay somewhere local, so we chose Seoul. For those that don’t know, my minor at Union University was history, and Buddy was a history major at Austin Peay State University, and his Master’s is in military history. Seoul is filled with a ton of history, as they still have many palaces and temples around the area, as does the entirety of South Korea.

We decided to drive to Seoul instead of taking a taxi like originally planned. Many people had told me horror stories of driving to Seoul that had freaked me out, but after doing some facebook research in the spouses and travel groups for Camp Humphreys that I am a member of, I decided to chance it. We left Pyeongtaek around 1pm on Friday, and the GPS said it would take about an hour and a half to get to the hotel. The drive started out amazing with new views and easy interstate driving, but by the time we got closer to Seoul, there was a ton of traffic! We also went through about seven tunnels which were fun to drive through for us. I wouldn’t say the traffic was horrific though, it was no different than driving in Memphis or Nashville during rush hour traffic. Plus, the drivers here were a lot nicer. As soon as I would put my blinker on to change lanes, the car next to me would immediately let me over. It was about a 2 hour and fifteen minute drive by the time we parked at the hotel.

We booked a hotel suite at the Dragon Hill Lodge at USAG (United States Army Garrison) Yongsan, which is in the Yongsan-gu district of Seoul. This hotel was a lot fancier than I thought it would be! Our suite was amazing and way better than the apartment we are living in here. Plus there are 3 restuarants, a cafe/deli, and many many stores in the hotel.

We decided since it was already around 4:30 by the time we got in to our suite, we would just stay in the hotel for the evening and explore Seoul the next day. We went and checked out all the different shops, walked the outside path behind the hotel, and even booked a couple of tours to do on Saturday and Sunday. After exploring the hotel, we got settled into our hotel room and discovered we couldn’t connect to the internet. We contacted the front desk about it, and within the hour they had it fixed. By the time our internet was fixed, it was about 6:30 and we had a dinner reservation at Sables, the fancy steakhouse restaurant in the hotel. Neither of us had amazingly high hopes of the restaurant, as hotel restaurants are hit and miss usually. This dinner was amazing though, and we are definitely going to be eating there again the next time we stay at Dragon Hill. Since Friday was our actual anniversary, we went hard on our meal. Buddy ordered a glass of wine, we both got steaks, Buddy got lobster tail with his steak, and we each ordered our own appetizer. The only other people in the restaurant was another couple sitting right behind us, and then a group of about 8 Koreans who were having a good time at dinner. The two waiters kept apologizing to us and the other couple about how loud they were being, but neither one of us minded them. During some conversation with the couple next to us, it came up that it was our first year wedding anniversary. They said they had been married for about 30 years. They had finished their dinner and left about the time our appetizers were finished. After Buddy and I had finished our meals, we were contemplating on getting dessert when the manager of the restaurant came over to our table. That couple had paid for our entire meal, plus a slice of cheesecake to celebrate our anniversary!!!! Y’all, we did not have a cheap meal, but they were so kind to pay for it. We made sure to ask the manager if she could tell them how thankful we were, as this couple stays at the hotel every 2 months when they have to come to Yongsan for military stuff, as they are stationed at Humphreys as well.

Saturday morning, we woke up early to get on a bus at 8am to head towards the DMZ (demilitarized zone) and the MDL (military demarcation line). We originally had wanted to book a tour to go to the DMZ and JSA (joint security area), the only area where the South and North Korean guards face each other directly. That tour is closed though due to the African Swine Flu, not the coronavirus. So we took the MDL tour that is in its place. We went to Imjingak, the Bridge of Freedom, and the Odusan Unification Observatory.

Imjingak is a place where South Koreans can come and mourn for those they know in the North such as family and friends. The Mangbaedan altar is there, which faces North Korea directly. Many North Korean defectors who come to South Korea often come alone and leave their families behind. They then can come to this altar to pay their respects to them since they are so close to North Korea here. We then got to walk along where the old railroad that once connected the two countries sat and was destroyed during the Korean War. The Bridge of Freedom is where almost 13,000 South Korean POWs crossed back into their homeland after the Korean War ended in 1953. A couple of years later in the early 1960s, my grandfather, Daddy Wayne, was stationed in this area. So it meant a lot to me that I was able to visit that area even though some if it looks completely different. All along the bridge and around Imjingak are a ton of colorful ribbons that hold hope and prayers that Korea will one day be a unified country again under peace and they can be with their families who are now separated by the DMZ.

A neat fact that our tour guide told us while at Imjingak is that the founder of Hyundai, Chung Ju-yung, is a North Korean defector. He was born in North Korea to a poor farm family. According to our tour guide, when he was young he knew he wanted a better life for himself, so he stole one of his father’s cows and sold it for a ticket to get to South Korea. He later started Hyundai, but never forgot where he came from. Once he was successful in life, he later went back in 1998 to Imjingak with 1,001 cows to replace the one cow he stole from his father and the other 1,000 cows to go to help North Korea because of their food shortage. He always wanted the two Koreas to unify.

After we left Imjingak, we traveled to the Odusan Unification Oberservatory. The observatory sits atop Odusan Mountain and is only 460 meters away from North Korea. This is the narrowest part of the DMZ. There is an observatory part on the fourth floor outside, where you can see across the river. There are actually two rivers that meet right in front of the observatory, the Han River and the Imjin River. When the tide is low, you could actually walk across the river right into North Korea, although that is not permitted. With the naked eye, you can see right into a North Korean village and see their gorgeous mountains. Sadly, it was a horribly misty/smoggy day, so we could not see much of anything. It was difficult to even see the river right in front of us! Google this area yourself to see what we wish we could have seen in person!

When we left the observatory, we went back to Seoul to the Korean War Museum and Memorial. This museum is 4 stories tall and packed with history. This was the last stop on the tour and literally just a block from our hotel, so we said goodbye to our tour group there. They stayed for an hour at the museum, where Buddy and I stayed 3 hours, and we still didn’t finish the entire museum, much to Buddy’s dismay. Honestly, we hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch and it was 3 in the afternoon. I was tired and hangry. Outside the museum is a memorial. They have listed on plaques the name of every known Korean soldier who died in the Korean War, plus the names of every soldier from other countries who died in the war helping the South Koreans. The United States plaques are even divided into the different states. In a separate part outside, the flags of every nation who helped the South Koreans are flown as well. There is also a memorial monument outside the front of the museum that is huge. It is the Korean War Tower and it represents a bronze dagger symbolizing Korea’s long history and patriotic militarism, and the tree of life representing the wish of Korean people for peace and prosperity.

We walked back to the hotel at that point and took a two hour nap. After that, we took a taxi into the Mapo-gu – Sangsu-dong area of Seoul. We went looking for a particular restaurant, but instead found a place called Austin that had Texas style barbecue and we decided to give it a try. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. For 42,000 KRW, we had two sodas, an appetizer of amazing onion rings, bbq chicken, pulled pork with sauce, spare ribs, brisket, a side of fries, a side of beans that had pork in them, and it also came with pumpkin soup and a salad. The brisket was the best I’ve ever had.

Sunday, we woke up and got our bags packed before we left for our next tour. Since checkout was at noon and noon was the projected time for when our tour ended, we checked out before we left and put our bags in the car. We headed first to the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple. It sits in the middle of downtown Seoul and has been the main temple in Seoul since 1936, as well as the largest remaining temple in Seoul. The architecture and colors were amazing to see in person. This is an active temple that people come to every day. I did not go inside to see the three Buddhas that sit in there for people to meditate to, but Buddy did. There are also 2 trees on site that are over 400 and 500 years old, that people find very sacred as they have lasted through years of dynasty changes, wars, and even the Japanese occupation of the country when they damaged much of the city. The Lotus Lantern Festival starts in May, hence all the paper lanterns at the temple.

After the temple, we took a five minute bus ride to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. To enter the palace grounds, you enter through the Gwanghwamun Gate. We got to witness the changing of guard ceremony here at the gate within ten minutes of arriving, and we had a front row spot to see it. It is meticulously choreographed, and was very neat to witness up close and personal. Even though there is no king to protect anymore, it is something that is reenacted every day as part of tradition. It was originally built in 1395 under the first king of the Joseon dynasty. After the Japanese occupation ended due to Japan losing World War II and the Korean War ended, it had to be completely rebuilt and was only finished about 10 years ago. Probably my favorite part of this gate is that it is the main gate to this amazing palace that once had 7,700 rooms be a part of it. It sits at the base of mountains. And now, it is surrounded by modern political buildings in a main part of Seoul. So while seeing the past history and architecture while at the gate and palace, you look up and see skyscrapers representing the present and future of Seoul.

After the ceremony, we walked the path to the main palace called Gyeongbokgung to where the king sat. In many pictures, you will see people dressed in traditional South Korean wear called hanboks. They are only worn for special occasions, and that includes trips to palaces and temples. Fun fact, anybody can wear a hanbok and you get free admission to the palace if wearing one. We walked through much of the palace grounds to also see where the king slept, the queen slept, and a famous pavilion called Gyeonghoeru. Our tour guide Amy was amazing and full of history facts about the Korean culture surrounding the dynasties.

Walking all the way to the back of the palace grounds leads you to another gate, and across the street from the gate is Cheongwadae. Translated, that is called “Blue House” which is just like our White House. It is where the South Korean president lives, and right now that is President Moon. It is called the Blue House because of the blue tiles that make the roof. Set apart from the main part of Seoul that is so busy and loud, right in front of the house where we were was very quiet and serene. Our tour group was the only people there besides all the guards.

After we saw the Blue House, we walked to a little museum and cafe that was down the street. When we entered, we had to walk past a radar that took our body temperature. This is to help keep those with a fever out of the museum, as a fever is a sign of the coronavirus. Luckily, us and the other two couples plus our tour guide was all allowed in, so no fever! Yay! After spending a little time there, we left the tour group as we only chose the halfday tour since we still had to drive back to Humphreys. The other two couples were doing the all day tour and going to another palace about an hour away.

We hated leaving Seoul. I had the best time with William there, I liked it a lot better than I thought I would. Everyone we encountered was so nice, and overall it was an amazing experience. We don’t know when we will be able to head back there, but we hope it is soon as we feel we didn’t even get to experience but maybe 5% of what the city had to offer! On a good point though, with it being a Sunday in the early afternoon, the drive back only took an hour and fifteen minutes!

I hope y’all enjoyed the little history post and all the pictures. I could have written so much more about what all we learned, but I would hate to bore y’all with all that. And don’t forget to go to my facebook at some point this week to see more pictures!

Hey y’all! I am so excited to write this blog, and I am even more excited for what will be in next week’s blog! Make sure you read all the way to the bottom to see what kind of adventure Buddy and I will be having this upcoming weekend, because it is our first year wedding anniversary!!!

This past week started off with nothing exciting. On Monday, I went to the Commissary to stock up on groceries for the week. On Tuesday, I went to Daiso! I keep forgetting to take pictures of everything in Daiso when I go, but that’s because there’s always new stuff to see and it’s a little overwhelming. Next time I go, I promise I will try to remember to take pictures! It is about a fifteen minute drive from the apartment, so it’s not too far and I can always think of a reason to make a Daiso trip.

On Thursday, my day started off with an hour long facetime call from my Aunt Mary, and it made my day so much better. My entire life, I have been called her mini me, for I look a lot like her. I definitely get my love of everything Memphis and sarcasm from her. We haven’t been able to have many conversations since me coming over here three months ago, so that was really nice.

Around lunch time, my friend Kerri came over to the apartment to spend the day with me. She’s pretty much the first friend I’ve made over here. While there are many good things about being a part of the military community, there are not so good parts as well. The main one being that usually as soon as you make a friend, they leave because of a PCS. She’s heading to Georgia in the States to be with her boyfriend at the end of the month. She’s a staff member at the USO, and we just clicked right off the bat. She’s thinking of getting a master’s degree in social work, which is very similar to a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling. Plus, I asked her one day if she ever watched Crash Landing on You (the Korean drama on netflix I talked about last week), and she loves it too! She came over and we watched a new movie that came out netflix, and then she got me started watching a brand new Korean drama series on netflix! Basically, we spent the entire day watching Netflix and that’s completely okay.

When Buddy came home from work, we decided we would all go out to eat some dinner as I had offered to give Kerri a ride home since she had already sold her car. We went to a newer Mexican restaurant in the Ville called Que Rico. They have authentic Mexican tacos, and it was so good! We were the only ones in the restaurant, and the owner came over and told us about how he opened the restaurant up and where he came from.

After dinner, we took Kerri home and got to explore a new area as she lives with her parents out in a rural area. On the way home, we passed a coffee shop that we pass whenever we go to Daiso, but had never been in. We decided to stop and try it out. It was very fancy looking inside, and the waffles they had looked amazing. I wasn’t impressed with my coffee, but Buddy loved his.

On Friday, I went to a new local grocery store (only new because I have not been to it yet). I went searching for strawberries that were good for chocolate dipping. The Commissary had some, but they were tiny and not what I wanted. Holy cow, they had strawberries galore at this store and some were as big as my palm. I forgot to take a picture of them before they were dipped (and I dipped them in melted Hershey’s Cookies and Cream bars), but they were so red and sweet. I really enjoyed this store. The other Korean grocery store we’ve been to a couple of times feels cluttered to me, but this one is big and open, and reminded me of a grocery store from the states. Plus, there’s a coffee shop and bakery in this one!

Friday evening was date night, but it was also Valentine’s Day! I hadn’t been to Braai Republic (South African restuarant) in a while, and that’s where I had requested we go! I even got all dressed up and curled my hair for the night! Before we left, we stopped by Austin Anton’s door to ask him if he wanted to join in on dinner, but he politely declined to let us have dinner just the two of us. He did ask if we could take him to the PX later though, so we still got to spend time with him on Valentine’s. Plus, he even took our picture for us!

After dinner, we went back to the apartment and picked Anton up, then headed to the PX. He was looking for some flowers to give out. I was helping him letting him know which flowers were my favorite because I knew whoever got that bouquet would really like them. He ended up getting two different bouquets, and as we were walking out of the PX towards the food court, he handed me a bouquet! Now, Buddy and I do not really celebrate Valentine’s Day as our dating anniversary is February 26th and we got married on February 21st last year. We only went to dinner for it because it was already Friday date night. So Buddy has never really gotten me anything for Valentine’s before (and I usually only get him a card), besides dinner, but it sure was nice to get flowers from Anton!

On Sunday, I woke up super early at 5:30 and was able to catch up on my Grey’s Anatomy while waiting for Buddy to wake up. We had fallen asleep at 9 on Saturday night. Around 9am, he finally woke up (yes, he can and often will sleep 12 hours if given the opportunity). We facetimed with my mom, and my Aunt Mary and Daddy Wayne (mom’s dad) was with her. So we got to chat with them which I loved. Then we facetimed with Buddy’s sister and her husband. After that, we then facetimed with Buddy’s mom and nana. We got in most of the family that day which we both really enjoyed. We are both very much family people and that has probably been the worst part about being over here, so we are very thankful for technology. Both of my grandfathers were stationed here in South Korea during the early 1960s and they only had pen and paper to keep in touch with the family back home then. While we were facetiming with Buddy’s mom Joli, I happened to look out one of our bedroom windows and saw it was snowing, hard! I screamed out of surprise and made buddy get up to look, so while he was still on the phone with his mom, I facetimed my mom again to show her the snow! Both she and I love the snow!

After all the facetiming, we got ready to go out in the snow. We went by Dewdrop first for some vanilla bean lattes, then headed over to a park we had not been to before. We always drive by it as it is right off the main street and across from the Korean BBQ restaurant I posted about a few weeks ago. The snow flakes were huge as they were falling and it kept at a steady fall. After we left the park, we headed on base to get some of the best chicken tenders at the Original Pancake House (where we ate on New Year’s Eve). They are so good. Then we came back to the apartment and watched several episodes together of Crash Landing on You. It was the perfect snow day, and I’m so glad it happened on Buddy’s day off.

This upcoming week is just going to be another usual week, like I mentioned earlier, I might go to Daiso again, because why not? But.. Friday is our one year wedding anniversary! Buddy has Friday and Saturday off, which means we have a three day weekend! Friday starts off with us going for a couple’s massage, and then we’ll grab some lunch before getting in a taxi and heading off to Seoul for the weekend!!! We are going to do a couple of tours while in Seoul, and we are so excited. So make sure you definitely come back and read next week’s blog! To finish this post, I’ll leave y’all with the arrangement I did of the flowers that Anton got me!

God only knows what you’ve been through. God only knows what they say about you. God only knows how it’s killing you. But there’s a kind of love that God only knows.

for KING & COUNTRY “God Only Knows”

Hey y’all! Thank you to those of you who messaged me in the past couple of weeks to see if I was okay since I did not post a blog last week. To be honest, I’ve been struggling a little bit over here. I’m hitting the three month mark of being over here, and I miss my life in Tennessee. I’m so thankful that I have an amazing husband though who has been doing all he can to help me out, plus I have some amazing friends who have checked on me everyday even when I didn’t want them to. It’s been getting better though in the past couple of days.

I really haven’t done much of anything in the past two weeks that are stand outs. Mine and Buddy’s anniversaries are coming up very soon. On February 21st, we will have been married one year. On February 26th, we will have been together for five years. One of my anniversary gifts that Buddy gave me early, and thank God he did, was a VPN. That is a virtual private network, and I had never heard of one before living over here. It goes through your computer systems and changes its location. For instance, hulu is not allowed to be watched over here in South Korea. I do not know why, but anytime I tried to watch something, it wouldn’t let me and would tell me I could not access the site. With a VPN, we have our location set in the States, so our internet thinks that is where my computer is so I can watch hulu now! I know it’s confusing, just know that I can now watch Grey’s Anatomy again!!!

The plus side though of having the internet know I’m over here in South Korea is that on Netflix, I get Korean dramas as an option to watch. And y’all, they are my new favorite. They are in Korean, so thank God for English subtitles. There is a brand new series called Crash Landing on You and it is literally so good, I might be more into it than I am Grey’s Anatomy and that is really saying something.

This past Friday, Girl Scouts started selling their cookies on base. So of course, I went as soon as they started selling. I love Samoas, Buddy loves Tagalongs, and I got a box of the Toffee cookies because Buddy loves everything toffee. It made me so happy to see the colorful boxes.

This weekend was also a good weekend because we spent everyday with the Austin Anton. On Thursday, I met Buddy and Anton at a taco bell on base for lunch, and Anton asked if when they got home from work, if we could take him to the Commissary. He has a moped, so it’s not that great for getting groceries. I told him no problem. So after the guys got home and showered, we all got in the car and went to get groceries. After we all got groceries and loaded them up in the car, I asked Anton if he needed anything else while we were out and he had the use of the car. He said he needed a pot, because we were going to do a chili cookoff that night for dinner, his versus mine. So thankfully because it was so cold (it stayed below freezing all week), we went into the PX. Anton picked out a pot, but as it often goes when we go to the PX, we start getting more and more items that we did not originally go for.

By the time we were finished in the PX and back in the car getting ready to go home, it was 7:30 and neither of us wanted to go home and cook. So instead, we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Lucky for me, the Memphis Tigers were on TV playing basketball. I love seeing Memphis things here because it is so rare.

Even though Friday night is usually date night, Buddy and I decided that since we had spent the previous night out basically doing date night with Anton, we would stay in. So Anton and I did our chili cookoff then. When our chilis were done, Buddy and I went to Anton’s room to watch Zombieland Double Tap with him while we ate. I did not realize that Graceland and Elvis were such a big part of the movie, which I loved since it was something Memphis! Fun fact, dad and I know a guy in the movie too. Kevin King is a monster truck driver that dad spent many years racing with, and he had two of his monster trucks in the movie and did all the driving in the movie. He was also turned into a zombie and he had his own scene in the movie, coincidentally with one of his trucks! That was so cool to watch! I had seen all of the behind the scenes stuff on his instagram while they were the filming the movie, so it was really neat to see how it all played out!

Sunday morning, the boys and I got up and went to church on base. The church is called Agape Humphreys, and it is at the Four Chaplains Memorial Chapel. Even though all three of us grew up in a very traditional type of church setting, I decided to go to this service because of the church Buddy and I went to when we lived in Clarksville. The church mom and I went to when I was growing up consisted of fewer than 50 people attending, and that was on a good day. Mom and I were also the youngest people there, but I loved that church. Our last Sunday there was the Easter service my freshman year of college because there were not enough church members left there to keep the church going. But we sang every Sunday out of the good ole Southern Baptist hymnal with an amazing pianist. Even when I went to Union and tried finding a new church home in Jackson, I kept going to the more traditional services because contemporary was something that I saw good just for chapel services at school. When we moved to Clarksville though, we found LifePoint church. This church is huge, with stadium seating, and is very contemporary. The first Sunday we went though, we both felt immediately at home and like Pastor Mike made that sermon just for us. Once I figured out I had a classmate from Austin Peay go there too, we began sitting with her, which put us on the very front row. But I have never seen a church more on fire for the Lord than that church, and you could feel it in the air. I love that church. I still listen to Pastor Mike’s sermons through their app from time to time. People in that church also helped me get through some really hard and difficult times. I would move back to Clarksville just to be able to attend that church. All of that to say, LifePoint changed my mind about contemporary churches. I enjoyed the service on Sunday, but it will take some getting used to. I do think we are going to give the Traditional service, called Common Grounds, a visit this upcoming Sunday though. Anton kept asking me where all the hymnals were this past Sunday, since Agape uses projection screens. So we’ll see how that goes!

Today (Monday) I went grocery shopping and picked up our apartment. I also made Buddy several lunches for this week and prepared some food to have for dinners this week. I’m hoping to continue my productivity this week, including going to the USO as I only went once last week. There are several things I want to get done this week. Plus, it is Valentine’s this week, and it falls on date night! Because if it didn’t, we wouldn’t celebrate it. With our anniversaries being so close to it, we have never celebrated Valentines except more than a card and that’s basically because I worked at a Hallmark store for two years.

Hey y’all! There will not be a blog post this week. There will be a new update next week.