Home.

There is a saying that says, "Home is where the military sends me".  So true.  And while we in the Air Force seem to spend more time at each station than some of the other services, in our 5+ years of marriage, this is our 3rd home.  Not including the temporary duty stations along the way.  Some people have a tough time with this; I love the opportunities for adventure! 

Ben got to Korea a week before I did and boy, was he busy during that week!  He was able to purchase a car and an apartment before I even got here, all while inprocessing - jet-lagged.  He's pretty amazing.  So he was very excited to show me the results of his hard work:

Our apartment is brand new, with all sorts of upgrades.  And it's only a 20-minute walk (5-minute drive) from everything we use on base.  We live in the beautiful Korean countryside.

Our neighborhood.

Aren't the fields so pretty?

Korean cows!

More 'wildlife'.  The golden banana spiders are EVERYWHERE, but usually only in undisturbed areas, like bushes and trees.  They're about the size of your palm, including legs.  I had nightmares the first night!

Down the street from our place, there's a kids park called Joyland.  Fun!

I absolutely LOVE our apartment.  It came furnished - good because our shipment only allowed for the essentials.  These pictures are from the day we moved in.  I especially love the floors.

The master bedroom came with a bed and wardrobe (there are no closets).  That isn't a box springs; that's the mattress.  And a pretty nice one for Korean standards.  I think they sleep on the floor, so a 'mattress' is a luxury.  But it was beyond hard!  We slept 2 nights on it before buying a Serta mattress from the BX.

Our place is a 3 bedroom/2 bath and both the bathrooms are wonderful!  The master has this amazing shower.

The second bathroom has a big, deep tub.  Heaven!

The only tough part of our new place is the electronics.  Everything is pretty high-tech, to me at least, but the hard part is the Korean-only instructions and labels - very little English.  This is our thermostat for the apartment heat and water heater.  Luckily, we got a brief lesson from the realtor.

 The washing machine became my project.  After 4 or 5 days of searching the internet, I finally found the owners manual in English.  Now we can do laundry with confidence!



There is so much to take in and I'm sure most of my posts will be culture-shock related.  But we really love it here so far.  The people are amazing and appreciate my few terrible Korean words.  Everyday is an adventure!

Korea!

We made it to Korea!  Ben got here at the beginning of October, and I came a week later.  The settling in is a slow process (and the jet lag doesn't help), but we're here and marveling at the sights.  I took some random pictures the first couple days...


No, this isn't a driveway or one-way road.  Two cars will actually fit at the same time.

The hotel had shower shoes for us.  So here's Ben, modeling the mandals.

Water.

 

Lillie in Korea.

We drove to E-Mart (kind of like a department store).  I took pictures all the way there, but Ben banished the camera at the store.  Wish I would've got one of the parking attendant giving us a full from-the-waist bow.  It was so cool!  But anyway, here are the pictures from the drive.  Oh, and we drive on the right here too.

The street signs are sometimes tricky.

So far, we love it here!  More pictures to come...

More goodbyes...

Before leaving Utah, I got to have lunch at Cafe Rio with my dear friend, Kelli.  We've known each other since junior high in Idaho!  We don't see each other very often (every few years), but everytime we get together, we talk like no time has passed.  She is wonderful!  And this was one of the few times I actually had my camera with me, so here you go!

Love you Kelli!

Dinner with sisters.

We had a family party at Jen's with all the sisters plus kids.  It was so great!  We had tasty taco salad, made caramel apples, and took fun pictures.

Just us girls.

I love how Sydney is looking at me.  She's so cute!

Brit & me.

Making caramel apples.  Yum!



Unfortunately, Ben had already left for Korea, so he wasn't able to join us.  We missed him and he missed out. 

Even though I only get to see you guys every couple years, we always have so much fun!  Thanks again!

Some goodbyes...

Before we left NC, I had one last dinner with my HM2 girls to say goodbye.

Me and Erin.

Me and Marci. 

Ben, Lillie, & I drove from North Carolina to Utah, with a few stops along the way.  Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures in Mississippi or Texas (the camera kept getting lost in the moving shuffle), but hopefully our camera-conscious friends & family will share their pictures with us.

Me and the bike.

A lot has happened these past few weeks, so the blog has been neglected.  But I'm going to try to make up for all the neglect and post some of the things we've been up to.  Starting with...

I drove a motorcycle!  Seriously.  And it was so much fun!  Then we put it in storage for at least a year...