Hey y’all! This was another week of being sick, although this time it was Buddy’s turn. He missed work every other day with not feeling well, thankfully he is now feeling better. With that said, we didn’t do anything too special this week. I volunteered at the USO a couple of days, and one day I even helped make about 300 sandwiches to take down to soldiers who were at the gun range. Instead of eating MREs for lunch, they had the option of ham, turkey, or peanut butter sandwiches and chicken noodle soup! I didn’t go to the range to give them out, but I know they enjoyed them as it was chilly last week!

On Wednesday, I had an appointment to get my hair colored. My roots were becoming more and more grey to the point I was almost embarrassed to go out. Mind you, I colored my hair on November 12th right before I left. My dad was full grey before 30, and his parents and grandparents also always had grey hair. I have colored my hair since I was in the 6th grade in 2006 because of my grey hair. I hate my grey sparklies as I call them. I also wanted to change my hair color back to brown and get rid of the auburn I had put in it back in November. I had several pictures from Pinterest that I showed to the guy at the salon and he said no problem. An hour and a half later, I walked out with the same color I walked in with, except he did color my roots! He told me at the end that the pictures I had showed him were not my natural, and the color I had right now looked more natural so he just enhanced it. I was not super happy, but it was snowing outside, like huge snowflakes, and at that point it was already done, so I paid and left to go enjoy the snow that was falling.

On Friday, Buddy went to work but messaged me at lunch time to come pick him up because he didn’t feel well. We decided since it had been a week, that we would go to the doctor. One of the hospitals in downtown Pyeongtaek has an International Clinic, but they were closed due to the Lunar New Year. So we went to a clinic in the Ville, but they were also closed for the New Year. Thankfully, the bottom floor of the medical clinic is a pharmacy, and they were open! We walked in, told the pharmacist Buddy’s symptoms, and he gave us two different medications that totaled up to 5,500 won. That equals to a little under $5.00. Within two days, Buddy felt so much better. We’re very thankful that the pharmacy was open!

We decided that we would go out to eat with Austin Anton (he who shall not be named who wants to be named) on Saturday. It had been 2 weeks since we went out with him due to me being sick and then Buddy being sick, so it was overdue. Plus, the boys really like when I go out with them because I drive the car so they don’t have to walk in the cold down to the Ville. We went to Taste of Thailand for dinner. I have tried Pad Thai and Beef and Broccoli there, and wasn’t a fan of those options. Those that know me know that I am a super picky eater. I have found though that they have amazing Thai spring rolls and amazing chicken wings. So that’s what I was ready to order, but Anton convinced me otherwise. He had me order Pad Khee Mao, which are stir fried noodles with vegetables and whatever protein such as beef, chicken, or shrimp you would like. They’re also called drunken noodles. There’s not alcohol in the noodles, but these noodles are wider than normal and they soak up the sauces. IT WAS SO GOOD. I ordered the chicken and he ordered the seafood, while Buddy ordered curry. There are different levels of spice, 1-5, that you can choose from. Buddy likes to go 4-5, Anton likes to go level 3, and I chose to go level 0. The waitress called it a baby level, but I didn’t care, I do not eat spicy. I probably will try a level 1 next time though.

Quick Korean lesson about the Lunar New Year, the Korean Lunar New Year is also called Seollal. It signifies the first day of the Korean calendar, and is one of their biggest holidays. It also lasts for a couple of days. That is why the clinics were closed on Friday, because it was basically their New Year’s Eve. Places in Korea were still closed today (Monday), many signs we saw around town said things were closed the 24th-27th. I really enjoyed it because the parking lot in the Ville didn’t charge to park all weekend. Seollal is a time for Koreans to pay respect to their ancestors while also celebrating life with their family and friends around them. Gifts are also purchased to give to loved ones, but they are gifts like local fruits or even toiletries. 2020 is the year of the rat, although I have also seen locals calling it the year of the white mouse.

Hey y’all! Thank you for coming back to my blog and reading my newest post! Unfortunately, this is going to be a super short post.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal. I went to the USO to volunteer both days. I spent Monday in the business center, while I spent Tuesday in the lounge where we had a special event for military spouses. It was called Coffee Connection, and it was an event for the spouses to get together to make new friends, have conversations, and learn about other things happening on base. The majority of the people there were a part of another group called United Spouses Club, they are the ones who hosted the Holiday Bazaar that we went to before Christmas. There is usually a fee to join the group, but for the spouses who were there, they waived the fee for those who wanted to join. So I joined! It was funny though, the event started at 10, so we started moving all the soldiers to the far side of the lounge so the space with the couches could be for the spouses only. What they didn’t know when they scheduled the event is that the National College Football Championship would be starting at 10 as well. Not only did we make the soldiers leave the couches, we also muted the television. They were not fans of us that morning.. thankfully our business center has 2 tvs and they were both playing the game, so the majority of guys moved down there.

I started not feeling well on Thursday, but I had my job interview, so I left early to go get some coffee beforehand which helped my throat feel a little bit better. I got to the interview early, which was good since I had never been to the high school on base before. I feel like the interview went well, but I won’t know until the end of the month or the start of February. There was about 20 of us who were being interviewed in the span of two days, so hopefully I made a good impression.

Thursday night I really started to not feel well, and then Friday I woke up horribly sick. I was going to get up and go volunteer, but Buddy told me I needed to stay home in case I was really sick. I’m glad he did. I got progressively worse through the day. I started losing my energy, started coughing, and started getting a fever. Friday night, my temperature was almost 102. Thankfully, my mom is only a phone call away, the guys on our floor all came together to give us the medicine they had, and my husband is amazing who does his best to make me feel better when I feel like crud. I did not want to go to the hospital, either on base or in the main part of the city. While there are two hospitals in Pyeongtaek (which I have heard amazing things of their international clinics) and one on base, I hate going to the doctor. I had the flu back in April when we still lived in Clarksville. It was pretty much the same symptoms, so I just did the same thing I did then. I spent a lot of time in bed resting, lots of cold rags, and lots of medicine and cough drops. Now on Monday, I have had no fever for almost 24 hours and my energy is coming back. Sadly, Buddy is now sick. But now on Tuesday morning, while he is not 100% better, he only has a cough now. I have sent him to work with a bag full of cough drops.

So this was our week. Nothing spectacular, nothing great. Although, when Buddy gets sick, he starts to clean. So our living room and kitchen look great. And today since I started feeling better, I did laundry and cleaned dishes. So our apartment is great looking. We didn’t even go out on date night this week. Today was the first day I had more than chicken broth for food.

And on a sad note, my Titans lost the AFC championship. I’m still proud of them though, we were never supposed to get this far. Did I want them to? Yes. Did I expect them to? No. The game started at 5:05am our time today (Monday when I’m writing). I started texting and facetiming my mother. Buddy also decided he was staying home from work because of how he felt. Once the game got into the second quarter and we were ahead in points, we decided to take a morning nap. Bad move. When we woke up later, I woke up to notifications and texts that we had lost. Worst way to wake up. But again, so proud of my boys and how far we got this season.

Hey y’all! Thank you for coming back another week to read my new blog post! For those still interested in reading them, it makes me happy to hear from y’all that you’re enjoying them. This week wasn’t the best week, but it ended pretty great!

On Monday and Tuesday, nothing too special happened. I went to the USO and volunteered both mornings, and on Tuesday, I met Buddy for lunch at the PX. I’m really enjoying volunteering at the USO and meeting all the soldiers, plus I volunteer with some awesome people. I am always at the USO when they open at 8, so I usually leave my apartment around 7:30 to give me enough time to get through the base gate during the morning rush and with time to spare. So on Wednesday, I went downstairs at 7:30, got in my car, turned it on, but it didn’t turn on. Didn’t even sound like it wanted to try to turn on. So two weeks in a row that it doesn’t work on me. I go back upstairs, text my center director that I won’t make it, and change into comfy clothes. Thursday and Friday mornings, I go downstairs at 7:30 ready to go volunteer, but nope, car still doesn’t want to work.

Friday night, I had enough of being cooped up in the apartment. It wasn’t completely horrible as the air quality was really bad last week, but still. When Buddy got off work Friday, he went downstairs to play with it. We used a friend’s jumper cables and jumped the battery. It turned on! So it’s just a dead battery, it’s cold, so that makes sense. After letting it run for a little bit, Buddy says we should go for a quick little drive just to help the battery warm up. I get in the passenger seat and let Buddy drive our car for the first time. We get to the red light before the main gate at Camp Humphreys which is probably less than 2 miles from where we live and we lose all lights, the headlights and dash. Buddy asks me if that’s normal, and I say no. So he suggests that we turn around and head back home. About halfway back home, he turns to me and says he’s pressing the gas pedal, but there’s no power. We were losing power while driving down these 2 lane but really only 1 lane roads through Korean neighborhoods. When the car finally decides to die, we were luckily at a parking lot. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it up the little incline, so Buddy had to push it over the bump to get us out of the road. Fortunately, we have an amazing friend who lives right next door to us (He who shall not be named) and he came to pick us up. Also fortunately, I had made amazing spaghetti for dinner with Texas toast and had given him some. He came to pick us up, brought us back to the apartment so we could get the jumper cables, and then back to the car where we jumped the battery again. Luckily, it made it home after that second jump, but I rode in the van with our friend because I didn’t trust the car.

See, I have a long track record of breaking vehicles. This was not the first, second, or even third time that I was in a vehicle (although I was usually driving) when it decided to die while being used. Fortunately for me in the states, my dad has amazing mechanical skills and always rescued me. It was never my fault, the parts had just gone faulty and I was always the “lucky one” who was driving them at the time.

As soon as we got back to the apartment, we used our friend’s phone to call a mechanic I had seen a post about on one of the military spouses support pages for over here. We gave him a call and he offered to come over immediately to help us, but it was already 9 at night and the guys still had work the next day, so we decided he would come the next day. Then Buddy decided that he was staying home and making sure the car was fixed for me. At 10 the next morning, Mr. Han and his wife drove to our apartment, he replaced our battery (we had the wrong size battery unbeknownst to us), said our alternator was probably bad but that he would test it, and drove our car to his shop and left us at our apartment. At 5 that afternoon, he drove our car back to us all fixed! New battery and new alternator!

Saturday night was nothing special either, I drove the boys to the Ville for them to get dinner and have a night out, while I went to the PX to do some looking around and get take out. I was ready to be out of the apartment. Sunday though was our big date day. It started off with us eating lunch at Texas Roadhouse on base so that I could watch the Titans play against the Ravens in the second round of playoffs. We got there during the third quarter, asked to be seated in the bar area where the tvs were, and cheered on the Titans all by ourselves. AND WE WON AND KNOCKED OUT THE RAVENS!!! TITAN UP!!!

My mother ever since I could remember has been a Titans fan. Kerry Collins and Coach Jeff Fisher were mom’s favorites. I even wore mom’s Collins’ jersey to school senior year of high school during homecoming week for favorite team day and I won along with my friend Marcus who is also a Titans fan. Especially as I have gotten older, I myself have grown as a Titans fan. There’s been a lot of changes in coaches and players in the past couple of years, but Delanie Walker, Jurrell Casey, Derrick Henry, and Taylor Lewan have my heart. For those that don’t know, Taylor and Will Compton (who briefly played for the Titans as well as other NFL teams) have a podcast called Bussin’ with the Boys. From the very first podcast, mom made sure everytime we were in the tahoe before I left that we listened to it. Since moving over here, I enjoy watching the podcasts on youtube. So thanks mom for making me a Titans fan. It wasn’t always easy for you being a fan, but you stuck through the tough years and look where we’re at, almost Super Bowl bound!

After our amazing win on Sunday, I was on a high with so much pride for my Titans. We went to the PX just to walk around and someone was there in a Ravens jersey, and I may or may not have smiled and waved at him (I was wearing my Titans pullover) while motioning to the Titans logo. Then we went to a new coffee cafe, Dewdrop. It was so fancy. We each got a vanilla latte and I got an Oreo macaron. The cafe was 3 floors, and the top floor was a roof hangout. With it being somewhat chilly, we were the only ones out there.

We headed home after getting coffee for a few hours, because we then headed back to base to go to the movie theater and watch 1917. I highly recommend this amazing film which just won best picture and best director at the golden globes.

So although it was a pretty sucky week with our car problems, the Titans winning made for an overall amazing Sunday and good end to our week. Hopefully the next time I write a post, I can say that we beat the Kansas City Chiefs and are headed to the Super Bowl! I also hope that the air quality improves, it has been really bad lately and I can feel that it is taking on toll on my body. Most mornings I wake up feeling achey and sluggish. Our average temperature right now is mid-30s, so the cold air in the atmosphere is trapping the smog so it has no where to go. Friday night you could barely see the moon through the smog. I have scoliosis for those that don’t know and have even started to go see a chiropractor because the smog is causing inflammation around my fusion and I am having some of the worst back pain that I have had in years. So I am ready for spring time to come when the air quality is supposed to be better.

“Another year you made a promise, another chance to turn it all around. And do not save this for tomorrow, embrace the past and you can live for now, and I will give the world to you”

Hey y’all! For those that are following my weekly updates, I am sorry that this one was delayed by a day. Like I have said previously, I typically type my blogs on Monday nights and post them on Tuesday mornings (Korean time that is). This past Monday night I was exhausted and went to bed super early. It didn’t hit me until Tuesday morning when I woke up that I had not written my blog post, and I didn’t have enough time before I had to leave to write it.

Last week did not start out so great. I had an interview last Tuesday for a volunteer position at the USO on base. For those that know me, you know that I have a very type a personality. My parents also taught me growing up to always be early, not even on time, because being on time equals being late. So I gave myself thirty minutes to get to my interview when I knew it would only take 10 minutes for me to get to the USO center from my apartment. I go downstairs to leave, and my car would not turn on. I do want to mention that the temperature dropped 20 degrees that day from the previous day which made the high 18 degrees. The car Buddy and I have is a diesel. The battery did not want to work and the car did not want to turn on no matter how much I pleaded with it. Finally after fifteen minutes of trying, I knew I had to give up trying and go upstairs to email the lady. I cried. The fact that this lady’s first impression of me was that I was unreliable tore me apart. I then spent all afternoon texting my father about the car and taking videos for him to see if he could help me out, which he did. I have not had problems since last Tuesday.

Tuesday was also New Year’s Eve. I had planned on making dinner for us, but after my morning, I was not in the mood. There was a diner on base that Buddy and I had been wanting to try, and they were open, so we decided to go ahead and try it out. Yes, instead of going out and celebrating the wild way, we went and ate breakfast food. We did have a champagne toast with one of our neighbors/coworkers of Buddy’s though. He invited us over to have a glass of his favorite champagne before we left for dinner. So we toasted to new friendships and the new year. Breakfast for dinner was phenomenal though. It was at The Original Pancake House which was started in Portland, Oregon. I had the chicken and waffles while Buddy ordered ham and eggs. I definitely had the better meal of the two, Buddy still dreams of the amazing chicken strips I had. After we finished eating there, we came back home and ended staying up until midnight watching movies. At midnight, we made sure to message our family and friends back home that it was finally 2020 even though they still had 15 hours of 2019.

On New Year’s Day, we woke up to snow!!! This is about the third snowfall we have had, but just like the last two, it didn’t stay long. About two hours later and it had all melted away. Since Buddy was off that day, I made us some breakfast. Buddy’s friend (he who shall not be named unless you read it in last week’s blog) came over that afternoon and we ended up playing a game of Scrabble while watching the Mandalorian. I also made us some hot chocolate (or hot choccy for the fans of baby yoda). Scrabble didn’t last long as we all played short words and played on one side of the board which highly limited us later in the game. After three episodes of the Mandalorian, we decided to put the game up and go our separate ways. Until dinner though, because I made chicken and steak fajitas which we went next door to eat with him and watch The Irishman on netflix. Now, I knew how long the movie was (3 hours and 30 minutes), the boys did not. So as soon as I was finished eating, I left and came back to our apartment. Buddy came in an hour later and said he was only coming over to get popcorn because they just realized they had only watched the first half of the movie. I was ready for bed by the time he came back over!

On Thursday, I went back for my interview, and this time I left 2 hours before I needed to just to make sure the car started. It did and I made it was so much time to spare. I had a great little interview! Good news, I started the very next day! I worked in the business center on Friday, where the past two days I have worked in the lounge center which is down the hallway from the business center. The business center has about 30 computers which the soldiers are allowed to use and print from, and we can make copies for them and scan documents. In the lounge, there are free snacks, drinks, and coffee that we keep filled that the soldiers get for free, as well as several tvs to watch sports or play video games. On Friday, I also got to participate in Operation Birthday Cake which allows for soldiers who are here single or unaccompanied to be surprised with a birthday cake from their family and/or friends back in the states. Even though I have only volunteered for three days so far, I am loving it. I love getting to interact with the soldiers and their families, plus I have met great new people who are also volunteers.

On Sunday, I took Buddy to Daiso (the store I talked about a few weeks ago that is 3story and like a $5 Below). We ended up getting a ton of items there to send back to our families. When we were done shopping, we came back to the Ville to eat a late lunch/early dinner. There’s a brand new BBQ place that we’ve been seeing, so we decided to try it out. Coming from Memphis, I am highly picky about my BBQ. So I played it safe and ordered a fried chicken sandwich while Buddy ordered the beef rib. I WAS WRONG. Buddy’s beef rib was so amazing and my sandwich was so not amazing. The atmosphere was so fun and open, we are definitely going back again, maybe even this week for date night!

Before we left for our outtings, I had also watched the Tennessee Titans beat and take out the New England Patriots. Thanks to facetiming my mom and the ESPN app (only though that only gives me the play by plays), I was able to watch! My mom and I were so excited!!! That was a huge win! I’ve already told Buddy that we’ll be eating lunch at Texas Roadhouse next Sunday so we can watch the Titans play against the Ravens for their Saturday night game.

This week has started off pretty well, as like I said, I’ve already done two more days of volunteering. Since I’m only volunteering in the mornings, my plan is to go every day if I can. It gets me out of the apartment and doing something meaningful with my time. I have also heard good news about a job I applied for the first week I got here to Korea. I went ahead though and applied for another job this week that I felt would be better geared towards what I have gone to school for, so fingers crossed!

I hope to have next week’s blog posted on time, and I can’t wait to see what happens between now and then to be able to write about!

Hey Y’all! First off, I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas this past week! I was feeling sickly for the majority of the week, so we didn’t do much. But on Christmas, Buddy had the day off so we were able to spend it together. Then I felt sickly again, but we did venture into the city of Pyeongtaek on Sunday for a short visit.

On Tuesday which was Christmas Eve, as soon as Buddy got home we went to the post office on base to pick up some packages we had gotten a notice for. We had FIVE boxes to pick up! We thought we weren’t going to have any presents to open on Christmas, but we are so thankful for our family who sent us some goodies! Also, I love everyone who took the time to send us a Christmas card, I will probably leave these up on our fridge for the next couple of months because they make me smile every time I look at our fridge. Plus, we had stopped to get some coffee at the cafe downstairs before heading to base, and our barista there gave us a free chocolate bar!

Our plan on Christmas was to make a Christmas breakfast and dinner, and just be lazy. Since Buddy usually only has one day off of work a week, we enjoyed having a mid-week day off together. We woke up to the sound of Christmas music playing, but it wasn’t coming from us. We were confused because everyone around us said they were going into work. Well as it turned out, Buddy’s best friend Austin, who happens to live next door, decided to ultimately stay at home too. As soon as we knew he was awake, we invited him for breakfast, but he was also planning on making a big Christmas breakfast. So we decided to combine our breakfast meals, which was the best idea. I made us eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and homemade gravy. Austin made breakfast potatoes and cinnamon rolls. We ended up eating in his apartment and watchingNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie.

Afterwards, we spent the day doing a lot of nothing. Buddy’s family facetimed us and we opened up the presents from them while we were talking. We talked to my family as well, as it was still Christmas Eve at home and my parent’s anniversary. I wore the Christmas tree earrings that Buddy bought me at the Christmas Bazaar market we went to a few weeks ago. For dinner, Buddy wanted some home favorites that I had never made before. I had bought a small Smithfield ham that was already cooked and spiraled, I just had to heat it up and put the glaze on it, so that wasn’t too bad. But he wanted his Nana Brenda’s skillet potatoes and corn fritters (corn bread in pancake form). I have the recipes for those, but they are in storage in Tennessee. So after asking his sister a ton of questions, I felt like I was ready. Plus, I even went out and bought a cast iron skillet just for this meal! Nana, I think I did you proud. I was so surprised at myself for how great they turned out! Buddy loved them, and I even let Austin come over and make himself a dinner plate.

The day after Christmas, I ended up not making Buddy a lunch to take to work because all we had was leftovers and he didn’t want those. I was already planning on going to the PX to look at their after Christmas deals, so I decided I would wait to go until lunch time so Buddy and I could eat lunch together. Just like the past several times, I had the food ordered and a table found just waiting for him when he walked into the food court. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I now realize why he didn’t look super excited that I was there. He ate super quickly and then said his stomach was upset. He told me it was okay if I left and went ahead and started shopping. I told him it wasn’t a big deal and that I would just wait for him to finish so I could say bye to him before he went back to work. He told me again that it was okay for me to leave, and I told him that I would seriously wait for him. So he begrudgingly got up to go to the restroom. I honestly didn’t think anything of it. About 15 minutes later, which had me worried for him, he comes back and says he has to go back to work. I go to try to hug him and he gives me a real quick hug and then says bye. I realized it was quick, but with his stomach “being upset” I was just like whatever, so he left and I went to go look for some deals. Which I didn’t find.

As soon as he gets home that night, I’m already cooking dinner. The first thing he tells me is I need to go look at what our neighbor George got that day, which was a new vacuum. I went to look, but was worried about my dinner burning, so I basically went out into the hallway, looked at it, and then walked back in our apartment. I’m also trying to watch some news highlights on youtube while cooking, and Buddy kept standing right in front of the tv. I kept asking him to move and he wouldn’t, which honestly really irritated me. But I finished cooking dinner and didn’t try to watch the tv anymore. After we ate, I get up to put our dishes away and Buddy tells me I need to get something out of my stocking. I told him there was nothing in my stocking, I had put everything in his (I had gotten him some of his favorite snacks). He told me to just go get it. Well as soon as I walked up to my stocking, which is right above our tv, I could see there was something in it. I pulled the item out and it was a little Swarovski navy bag. He got me one of the prettiest necklaces I’ve ever seen! As it turns out, he kept trying to go to their shopping kiosk in the PX the last couple of times he went to the food court at lunch when I didn’t make him a lunch at home, but I kept surprising him at the food court and he couldn’t go get it! The upset stomach excuse that day was just an excuse for him to go down there because it was already the day after Christmas and he still didn’t have it. He gave me a real quick hug after lunch because the bag was in his jacket pocket and he didn’t want me feeling it. He had me go look at George’s new vacuum so he could put the bag in my stocking, but I was too quick. So he kept little by little slipping it into my stocking while I finished cooking, which is why he was in front of the tv. Y’all, I love my husband and do not deserve him.

Throughout the rest of the week, I still felt cruddy. I’ve been waiting for it, as supposedly everyone gets the crud about 2 weeks after being here, just due to the poor air quality and dirty water. Sunday was the best I felt though, so we decided to go into Pyeongtaek to what is called AK Plaza. It is where the train station is, but they also have an 8-story mall. Getting to parking in itself was an adventure, there was a huge long line. They kept asking me to turn my emergency lights on, but I couldn’t find them because the phone holder we have for GPS was covering the button. Having those lights on though apparently means you’re looking for a parking space, so we didn’t have much help. We ended up going up this super steep curvy ramp to the top parking floor which was on the fifth floor of the mall. Each floor in the mall is for different things. The fifth floor for instance was full of name brands for men, they even had a Jeep area! Each area, or brand, has its own cashier. Not like JcPenney where you can go to any cashier to check out. There had to have been about 50-60 different brands geared more towards men on that floor. We went through the lower floors first. The fourth floor had shoes and jewelry. The third and second floors were geared towards women clothing. The first floor was all make-up. The bottom floor, or basement level, was a food court and market. After we made it all the way to the bottom, we decided we would go all the way to the top and then make our way back down to the fifth floor so we could leave. Also, for anyone who knows me, I HATE escalators. I do not know why, but they scare me, always have since I was little. I have to mentally prepare myself to step on one. And that’s what we had to take to get from one floor to the next, we took so many escalators!!! The eighth floor was a movie theater and concession stand, with a huge opening to look out at the “downtown” area of the main city. The seventh floor was also a food court, complete with a Korean Baskin Robbins. And Korean Baskin Robbins are way fancier than American ones. The sixth floor was for home, kitchen, and baby. All the name brands you could think of were there. Next time we go, I will have to take more pictures, I was just in awe at the time. They even had a cafe on that level just for babies!!!! Think of a Starbucks kiosk in a mall, but all the snacks are for babies and infants. That was interesting.

After we got back from AK Plaza, we went right to base and made it just in time to watch the showing of the second Jumanji film. One thing that was neat was they played both the Korean and American national anthems after the movie previews. A screen pops up telling you to stand. The Korean anthem played first and there were different clips on the screen of different areas of South Korea. Then there was a quick transition to the Star Spangled Banner, and it showed it being sung by the United States Army Field Band and Soldiers’ Chorus (go watch it on youtube). Then it ended and everyone sat down, and the movie promptly started. This was my first time seeing a movie on base, so that was something new for me, but I really enjoyed it. To continue our date night, we ended with dinner at Taste of Thailand for dinner in the Ville where I tried some Pad Thai and some of Buddy’s Garlic and Pepper Beef with rice. I wasn’t a big fan of either, but for how picky I am, Buddy was proud that I tried both of them. However, I will continue going back there because they have the best spring rolls I’ve ever had.

With New Year’s being this week, Buddy has Wednesday off again. Which makes both of us really happy. We’re not sure what we might get up to though. Driving in Pyeongtaek this past Sunday gave me really bad anxiety, so I’m done with driving in big cities for a little bit. And Buddy doesn’t want to drive in big cities because he has acknowledged that he would probably kill us (that doesn’t stop him from making fun of my driving though which doesn’t help my anxiety). But seriously y’all, people will park in the driving lanes, even if it’s a two lane road, which inevitably makes it a one way road. Red lights are optional when people get bored and think they’ve waited too long. Also, the further you get from base where the area is much more Americanized and lots of things are in English, the things in English become fewer which sometimes even with GPS can be scary. I will never complain about Memphis traffic again, or traffic on Wilma Rudolph in Clarksville.

So that’s been my week y’all. Again, I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and I hope that everyone has an amazing new year!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, with the kids jingle belling, and everyone telling you be of good cheer. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Hey y’all! Merry Christmas a little early from South Korea! When this gets posted, it will already be Christmas Eve for us over here. Buddy has to work Christmas Eve, but his work gave everyone the option to take Christmas Day off, and I’m happy he’s going to be home. Not only is this our first Christmas away from home and family, but this is our first Christmas as a married couple! You’ll read in next week’s post what we’re doing for Christmas Day! Also, I would like for everyone who reads this blog to wish my parents a wonderful TWENTY-SIXTH wedding anniversary! They got married on Christmas Eve in 1993, just the two of them, the pastor, and his family. I can only hope with this being our first married “merry” Christmas, and with our one year anniversary coming up, that we’ll be able to have that many anniversaries and more.

I know in last week’s post, that I referenced we were waiting to hear of the birth of our little niece. Well on December 17th for us, December 16th in America, little Everleigh Ann was born! Y’all, she is the most precious little angel, and I cried when I saw her pictures. Buddy and I so wish we could be there to hold her as a newborn, but we have already sent many videos to her letting her know that we love her. We are so excited to be aunt and uncle to her!!!

Then sadly on Thursday, we had to say goodbye to our little pupper, Toni. I also cried saying bye to her as she left to go to the airport to her forever family. We had her for quite a little while, and she really left an impression on Buddy and I. We took her for a car ride the night before to see the area for one last time, and we gave her extra treats before bed time! I miss having the little one around in the apartment when Buddy is not here, but I know she is making someone else really happy.

On Friday morning, it snowed!!! Not a lot, but when I woke up, there was still a good amount on the rooftops around us. When I texted mom to let her know, she was disappointed and said that was not enough snow, but I quickly informed her it was more than she had. You see, my mother and I are big fans of snow. We would rather have snow than the beach, so the fact that I had snow and she didn’t was a big win in our book for me!

Friday was actually a busy day for me. After letting the majority of the snow melt off the roads, I decided to venture into the city of Pyeongtaek. While we technically are in Pyeongtaek, we are in a smaller area called Anjeong-ri. For my Memphis area folks, it’s basically like we live in Bartlett and then have to drive in to the actual city of Memphis. It was only about a fifteen minute drive to the store I was going to, which is called Daiso. Daiso is basically like a $5 Below store, as nothing is more than 5,000 won. There is a smaller Daiso right down the road from our apartment, but there is a big three-story one in Pyeongtaek. I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to get there, because there was a lot of construction going on near the store that blocked the main entrance into the parking lot. I passed it probably about 2 times before I figured out how to pull in. It does not help that all the signs were in Korean, so I was really just hoping and praying I was doing everything correctly. I ended up not buying anything, but it is definitely a store that I will go back to later. Once I made it back to our area, it was almost noon and I met Buddy for lunch at the PX food court. I had forgotten to make him a lunch that morning, so I got there slightly before I knew he would and bought our food and found a table, so he didn’t have to waste his lunch break doing those things.

Friday night is date night! We decided to go to a Korean BBQ restaurant called HWA HWA. It was something new to me, Buddy had already been there once, but had not ordered anything to grill himself. He ordered the Galbi (which is a type of short ribs) and I ordered the beef tenderloin. It also came with many typical Korean side dishes. This was very much out of my comfort zone, as I am one of the pickiest eaters I know, but I tried everything. With that being said, I was not a fan. Buddy loved it all though. It was really neat to grill everything yourself, and the fire felt nice on the cold night, but I probably will not be going there again anytime soon.

Now, for all of y’all who have been reading my blog posts, you’ll know that there is one thing I have wanted since my first week here.. cheese dip!!! Well, scrolling through facebook one day earlier last week, I realized something. Chili’s has a skillet queso dip (which is cheese dip). I love this skillet queso dip. Osan Air Base has a Chili’s that was just remodeled. Osan AB is only a thirty minute drive from us. So, Buddy and I went to Osan AB on Sunday just so I could finally get my cheese dip. Y’all he is such a good husband who puts up with my crazy antics. Driving there was crazier than driving to Pyeongtaek on Friday. We drove through so much construction and all the speed signs kept changing. Plus, a lot of Koreans see red lights as optional. If they think they have waited for too long, they will go through it. Even though there are CCTV cameras at almost every light. Once we got to Osan though, we had to find a gate that was open since it was a weekend. The gate that Waze took us to is closed during the weekends. Once we made it through a two lane road that was really just one lane because everyone was parked in both lanes at some parts, we finally found the main gate that was open. This gate y’all, there is no red light at it. It is in the middle of their Ville area which means it is crazy busy with people crossing the streets, plus there are cars coming from three different directions with no say in who has the right to go. CRAZINESS!

Once we got through that part though, finding the Chili’s was pretty easy and it was such a glorious sight to see. We were greeted by their huge Christmas tree inside, which is something I truly appreciate. And as soon as we were given menus, I immediately opened up to the appetizers to make sure they had my queso, and by golly, I ordered it first thing. Having that little skillet that’s filled with such goodness come to my table made me so happy. The menus were really cool as they were printed in both English and Korean. The Texas Roadhouse we have here at Humphreys is only in English. After we ate, we came across a sign on the side of a building. It literally said “We guard the freedom of 51 million people.” Like that’s not a big deal at all to realize or anything… (That is the South Korean population)

Driving back home, we went through some big cities although I’m really not sure what they were. I think it was more of the actual big city of Pyeongtaek, but we were surrounded by high rises. Plus we got to drive through a long tunnel!!! We also saw our first Korean McDonalds. We enjoyed our day out exploring, but we were so happy when we finally made it home to our less hectic area. I am thankful though that as long as you put your destination into Waze while you have internet, that when you leave internet, it keeps your GPS directions. I could not drive over here without it. I’m also super thankful that Koreans drive on the right side of the road. P.S. Buddy took all of these pictures for me while I was driving and trying not to kill us on Korean highways.

So we explored a lot this past week, and it was really fun and exciting. It still amazes us that we live in a place halfway around the world from where we’re from, and that this is our new normal. We walk around here like we’ve been doing it for ages, and we haven’t. Like we’ll be walking around the ville at night after our chiropractor appointment and we’ll be like “Isn’t it crazy that we’re here living life in South Korea?”. Because it is crazy and not something that I thought we would be doing. But we are doing it, and I think we’re doing pretty good with it too. We’re still missing home, especially right now with the holidays and our niece being born, but facetime is the best invention ever made. My Daddy Wayne (mom’s dad) keeps reminding me that when he was stationed in South Korea in the early 1960s right after he married my Nana, that they could only write letters to each other. Now, I can see him through a phone screen and talk to him. Actually, both of my grandfathers were stationed in South Korea in the early 1960s. So it was really neat to let them both know that their only granddaughter was going to go live where they once had served before.

Again, thank y’all for coming back another week and reading my new update! I truly wish that everyone has a Merry Christmas this year. Remember to subscribe to my blog if you would like, and to leave a comment letting me know what you thought!

Hey y’all! I have made it a month in this new country that I am calling home for a little bit! Thank you to everyone who is coming back every week to my blog to read my new posts! It makes me so happy reading everyone’s comments and simply just knowing that y’all are interested in what life is going like for me and Buddy over here in South Korea. It definitely isn’t West Tennessee, but being able to share about my experiences on here with y’all sure does help make this feel more and more like home.

The main thing that I am having to get used to over here is the air quality. Going outside in West Tennessee I never had to worry about the air that I was breathing in or what was making the potent smell.. unless there was a dead skunk somewhere in the area. Here though, you are supposed to check the air quality before you go outside. If the air quality is high, then it is recommended to limit your time outside or to wear a mask if you have to be outside for a prolonged time. When I took the little pupper out to potty on last Monday and Tuesday, it literally hurt to breathe and had me coughing for a few days. I was only outside for maybe 10 minutes that morning and then that afternoon. It is usually better in the evening. I usually decide how the air quality is by being able to see buildings that are behind our apartment. There is a giant Samsung factory quite a few miles behind where we live, some days I can see it plain as day, some days I can’t see it at all. That is how much smog is in this area. There are also mountains all around Pyeongtaek and can be seen all around Camp Humphreys, but I didn’t know that probably until after a week I had been here because you just couldn’t see them. So still definitely getting used to the air quality difference here.

On Wednesday night, I needed to get out of the house for a little bit. Not having a job nor a car at that point, I am going crazy just being in the apartment all day. I do go for walks, alone and with the pupper, but I am not used to not doing anything, and I am not a fan. Buddy also wanted to go find a chiropractor in the Ville to make an appointment, so we set out to go find it. It took a while to even find the right building, we had to go down two alleyways. But sure enough, we found the building and honestly I don’t know how we missed it because it is a HUGE building. Once we got inside from the insanely cold and frigid wind, we found a sign next to the elevator that said the office was on the tenth floor. Cool we thought, we know exactly where to go. Not cool. The elevator only went up to the third floor, and there was not a different elevator on the third floor to go up any higher. We spent about thirty minutes exploring the entirety of the first, second, and third floors. This is when the language barrier becomes exactly what it is, a barrier. No one could understand what we were trying to ask or even knew what we were trying to find. Buddy even acted out what a chiropractor does (pressed his hands together and pushed down on the air) and no one still understood. So we left feeling pretty down about that, turns out there was a separate elevator on the other side of the building. After that though, we ended up going to a sushi restaurant. We were the only ones in there, but it was okay because they had Christmas decorations and Christmas music playing!!! Plus, the sushi was pretty good.

On Thursday night after dinner, both Buddy and I were wanting some coffee. So we waited until it was time to take the little pupper out to potty, and we ventured next door to the Light Cafe for some coffee. Our favorite barista didn’t even mind us bringing Toni inside as long as we held her! I hadn’t been in a few days, and while I had been gone, they had put up their Christmas decorations! Walking into a place over here whether it be a store, a restaurant, or a cafe, it instantly makes me happier if they are decorated for Christmas and even happier if Christmas music is playing. I appreciate these places for their festiveness.

Friday was definitely the longest day of the week. Buddy got up and went to work that morning, and then I walked down to Camp Humphreys and met him at the food court in the PX for lunch. WE WERE GETTING A CAR THAT DAY!!!! After lunch, Buddy left work so we could meet the soldier who was PCSing, hence selling his car. This is the same car I referenced in last week’s post. It is a long and multi step process in buying a car and getting it registered to come on base in a foreign country. Thankfully, we were able to bypass much of the process because the car was already registered on base, we just had to have the registration and title transferred into Buddy’s name. Still, the process which should’ve just taken about an hour, turned into 3 1/2 hours! It was more mentally exhausting than anything. But, at the end of the day, we are now the owners of a Hyundai Santa Fe!!! Which means that I am able to go to the grocery store while Buddy is at work now (like I did today), and I can finally explore the little area we’re living in. I am no longer stuck in the apartment!

Saturday night we went out to Braai Republic again for dinner.. I know.. fourth time in a month.. and it wasn’t even planned! As soon as Buddy got home from work that evening, we both planned on staying in and even put our pajamas on because we were planning on date day to be the next day! But then Buddy’s best friend said he was craving ribs, which made Buddy crave ribs, so then we ultimately changed clothes and went out! Because there’s only one place to go when they are both craving ribs. Although I do not get ribs, I get their peri peri chicken, and it is so good!!! Plus it’s always a nice atmosphere and everyone who works there is so nice. It was so amazing to finally be able to drive down to the Ville for dinner and not have to walk thirty minutes in the cold and harsh wind. Plus it was only right that we went to Braai on Saturday, as it was officially a month since I arrived and Braai was my very first Korean meal (although it is technically South African).

Sunday was still date day though and Buddy took me to a new restaurant, and it was an Italian restaurant! I have not had anything that was cheesy or creamy since we arrived, and they had the best cream spaghetti I almost cried at how good it was. Plus, they also had their Christmas decorations out and Christmas music playing. It is the same Christmas music you would expect to hear anywhere in America, it’s always in English which is not something I expected over here but that I greatly love. We both decided we would definitely be going back to the Big Bite, plus it’s only about five minutes from the apartment!

I also want to say that I am super thankful to have Buddy as my husband. He is the one over here working hard to provide for us, but he realizes how hard it is for me to be over here too. It’s hard for both of us to be away from our families. This past week was not my best week and there were a couple of days where tears were shed. Yet, he still treats me to coffee dates and surprises me with going to an Italian restaurant because he knows they have something that I will love. Plus, he bought me a car for Christmas!!! I truly do not deserve him, but I am so thankful that I get to call him mine.

Sadly, this was our last full week with our little pupper, Toni. This upcoming Thursday, she is flying back to the United States. Buddy and I have really taken a liking to her, and it is going to be difficult to say goodbye to her. We have loved fostering her for the past couple of weeks, but we are also excited to be able to go do more exploring and knowing we don’t have a sad lonely pupper waiting for us to come back home. She whines and cries the entire time neither of us are in the apartment. It literally breaks my heart if I have to leave her alone for too long. We’ve still had a few potty accidents, but she is just too cute to be mad at for too long. We only hope that her family in the states will love her just as much as we do. I am going to miss my morning nap friend dearly, she always curls up into my side. She has been such a good puppy to us!

As I am typing this (Monday night at 10:30pm, I always post my blogs on Tuesday around 6:00am.. we are fifteen hours ahead for those that do not know), Buddy’s sister is in labor!!! So hopefully by the time I post this in the morning, our little niece will have been born! We hate not being there for the birth, but we are getting updates from the family. So on next week’s post, I should have an update about our little Everleigh Ann!!!

Again, thank you to everyone for reading my posts and coming back week after week!

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.

“It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.”

W.T. Ellis

Hey y’all, thank you for coming back to read what another week living in South Korea has been like! This week was more chill than the last one, with an unexpected surprise. Last Monday night, we got a foster puppy!!! Her name is Toni the Frenchie, and she is a 7 month old French Bulldog. We are keeping her for the next month until her flight back to the United States. She is a cute little thing, but my goodness is she still a puppy in training. Living on the fourth floor of an apartment building that does not have much grass around it does not help the potty training, but we are getting in two or three walks a day around town.

One night, Buddy and I went out for our weekly date night to a nice bar and grill in the Ville. The steak we had was amazing!!! If anyone from Memphis has been to Hopdoddy for burgers and has ordered their parmesan truffle fries, THEY HAVE THE SAME FRIES! We also had to run by the PX on base to get a few things, but we were gone for less than TWO hours. We had taken the puppy out to potty before we left, and we had left her in our little laundry room. Now as Buddy likes to present this story, what we saw when we arrived back home was from out of the Daddy Day Care movie. You know that scene when Eddie Murphy walks in the bathroom and the entire room is covered in poop and the little kid says “I missed…” Well, that is exactly what our laundry room looked like. Thankfully, we have a super awesome neighbor who came over and cleaned it up for us because he said we were overthinking the entire process. So yes, still potty training.

Buddy had to work on Thanksgiving, and we ended up not going over to his coworker’s apartment for dinner because we did not want to leave the puppy alone for too long. He ate some salmon patties I made for him while I ate a chocolate chip toasted pop-tart. Big celebration we had.. but the next night we went back to Texas Roadhouse for dinner after going to see what Black Friday sales the PX still had after everyone had shopped all day. Camp Humphreys has all of their Christmas lights up!!! It is so nice to see Christmas lights and decorations. The big Christmas tree isn’t lit up yet, but that happens this upcoming Friday. Hopefully Buddy and I will be able to go to the lighting ceremony.

While in the Christmas mood, I thought I would share with everyone the Christmas decorations we have in our little apartment. They’re not much and definitely not like the Christmas decorations I had covering every square inch in our apartment in Clarksville… but they do the job and still make me happy to look at. I brought the little Christmas tree and ornaments from Target with me to here (I packed the tree instead of packing a winter jacket…). I have the Christmas hand towels box to make the kitchen more festive, along with our hot chocolate packet boxes. They add color and festivity to our kitchen. And yes, we do have three stockings over our tv. Mine and Buddy’s are on the left and the middle, while the stocking on the right is for his best friend who lives in the apartment right next to ours.

Probably one of the best things this week though was getting a goodie box in the mail from my mom!!! My home address never looked so good as it did on the address form on the box. She sent me my jacket, a scarf, some winter hats, and a few Tuff-N-Ugly (our offroad group) shirts and sweatshirts. Thanks mom!!!

It’s supposed to snow this week and temperatures are going to be below freezing for the majority of the week, so the pupper and I probably won’t get out much. We might end up going to one of the markets in the ville though because we haven’t been to one yet. Buddy and I are also in the process of looking for a car. I’m still in the process of getting situated here and suddenly realized we’re going to be living here for quite a while. I’m starting to miss home, especially with the holiday season being here. But I’m also enjoying this adventure that I’m getting to have with my husband, and we’re going to have amazing stories to one day tell our children about. This past Sunday night (it’s Tuesday morning as I type this), I was cooking some chicken to go in Buddy’s lunch for the week. He could tell that I was a little down, so he turned on my Christmas music and we slow danced in our living room to Silver Bells (my favorite Christmas song). Knowing that he knew how to cheer me up in the best and festive way made me instantly feel so much better.

Again, thank you to everyone of y’all who are reading my blog posts, as well as commenting on them and subscribing to them! Until next week!

“Life is meant for spectacular adventures. Let your feet wander, your eyes marvel, and your soul ignite.”

Well y’all, I did it. I completed my first week in South Korea, and it is going a lot better than I ever thought it would. Not that I thought it was going to be a horrible experience, but it was something new in a new country, even continent, and I was apprehensive. I am getting accustomed to my new little area, the walk to base, the driving, and many more. Of course, the little coffee shop by where we live helps out a lot. I am currently here writing this blog post. We are on the edge of the ville, which is where it is always busy and noisy, so I enjoy often being the only one in here to gather my thoughts.

Last week I spent a lot of my time getting the apartment set up and clean. We were able to get a new comforter for the bedroom, and it is amazing how much a new bedding set can make a place feel more like home. I also organized the kitchen and living room making sure everything has its own place. Buddy bought me some new things for the kitchen like a Pioneer Woman kitchen set with some cutting knifes and mixing bowls and such. Plus, he got me a brand new toaster oven!!! After talking to a few people, ovens are not a big Korean thing. The majority of people here do not own one, and if they do, it is a small toaster oven. Luckily though, I can now do some baking for the holidays which makes me one happy wife. We also got a few more Christmas things for the apartment which might make an appearance in either next week’s vlog or the one after that. I am happy though that it feels like we are finally settling in to our life here. We’re making this apartment feel a little like home and getting used to the way of life here.

Another thing I did last week was walk to Camp Humphreys four different times. I did it once on Monday, twice on Thursday, and once on Saturday. It’s a good thirty minute walk, and it’s turning out to be quite an enjoyable walk. When I went on Monday, I met Buddy for lunch at the Texas Roadhouse on base. Yes, you read that correctly. It was put on base earlier this year. It was so good to walk in and hear country music playing, ordering sweet tea, and getting some of their fresh rolls with the cinnamon butter. After we ate and got my new ID figured out, we went to the Commissary (the grocery stores on military bases). While perusing the frozen food aisles, we came across Corky’s BBQ! For those that do not know, Corky’s is located in Memphis! Although I didn’t pick any up, I am happy to know that when I am wanting some BBQ that has some Memphis flavor, I know exactly where to get it.

On Friday, the wife of a guy Buddy works with invited me over for the afternoon to drink coffee and then have dinner once the guys got off work. While there, another wife came over with her two little boys. She is from Taiwan, and she said they also do not have ovens there. While there, we taught her how to make chocolate chip cookies. She had me laughing when she asked why she had to make them when she could just as easily go to the store and buy them. It is a very logical thought, just not as fun.

Thursday and Saturday night, Buddy and I splurged and had date nights. We went out to a Mexican restaurant on Thursday, and then we went back to Braai Republic for dinner on Saturday, like we did last weekend. For anyone who knows me, you will know that I LOVE cheese dip. When I go eat Mexican, I will always order it. Buddy does not eat cheese dip, or just cheese for that matter. So when we go, he always gets the salsa to himself and I get a bowl of cheese dip for myself. The sad thing that I am learning is that cheese dip is very much an American thing. I knew it was not in Cancun when I went five years ago, but I am finding out that not a single Mexican restaurant here has it! I have googled all of them and looked at their menus, and not a single place has it. So if anyone can figure out a way to ship me some, I will love you for ever. And as always, Buddy and I like to include coffee shops in our dates, so here’s some pictures from those.

Sundays are the big grocery shopping days, and I still had to get a few things even though we had gone on Wednesday. So we went back to the grocery store, except this time we went with his best friend since we had the van to use. It is always a good day when we are able to use the van that we borrow from a neighbor. But before we went to the grocery store, we went to a Christmas market!! The United Spouses Club was putting on their annual Holiday Bazaar at the middle school on base. There were about 70 vendors, American and Korean. They played Christmas music all throughout, and we were able to get a few goodies there!

For this upcoming week, I don’t think it’s going to be too exciting. Buddy has to work on Thanksgiving, although we are going back to our friend’s apartment for Thanksgiving dinner with a few of his coworkers. Camp Humphreys is starting to put up a huge Christmas tree and all sorts of lights and decorations all around base, so I will be going periodically to check on those. So we’ll just have to wait and see what happens this week! It is just hard to believe that I have already been here a little over a week when it feels like I have been here for a couple of months already!

Thank y’all for all the kind comments last week on my first blog post. I did not expect all the kind words and encouraging comments, but from someone whose love language is words of affirmation, it meant a lot. Hopefully y’all liked this blog just as much! Remember to comment and subscribe if you like it!