Another busy week....

Howdy all,
Sorry I'm so slow to post (told ya). It has been a busy couple of weeks.

I have started attending a Korean language class.....very difficult to learn. Tracy is on my back to start taking college classes and work towards a degree while I'm here. It just seems very important to me that since I'm the foreigner I should learn their language. Not sure what I'm going to do yet.....may just start using the Rosetta Stone program, it is free as well.

We have finally received our household goods this week and we, i.e. Tracy has been busy getting things unpacked. Jordan, Kylee and Tracy all battled the stomach flu last week, spending most of the time in bed sleeping with the trash can.

We spent the MLK holiday up in Osan shopping at the Air Force Base and out in town. Osan is about 3 hours north of us. It was truly an incredible drive up.....reminded me of driving I-70 west from Denver minus the snow. Large mountains with lots of timber.
Oh, yeah.....the shopping trip also landed me a 52" flat screen TV. Good times. Now if we can just find an entertainment center to put in in we will be set.

James Dean spent tonight and will spend all day tomorrow at the Troop's Boy Scout Merit Badge Conference. He is very close to his Eagle Scout Award!

This weekend is the Korean Lunar New Year, so Monday is a holiday for us Army folks as well. The advice given for this holiday is to stay indoors and not attempt to drive ANYWHERE. Of course I don't listen real well so....when I left to take James Dean over to scouts tonight the traffic was truly incredible.....it took me about 35 minutes to get the 3-4 miles to Camp Walker.
The Korean tradition is for everyone to go home for family reunions at the Lunar New Year.
Korea is about the size of Indiana with 600% more population....you do the math.

Also noteworthy news this week: The Hardy's are headed for Korea YEAAAHHHH! Even though they will be 3 hours away it is nice to know that friends are on the way!

One sad note for me: I missed my Aunt Sis getting married this month. This makes me sad. She is a little over 80 years young. I truly wish that we could have been there to support her. She deserves to be happy and I pray that she is. She is an awesome lady that we really do love and miss!!! RC is a lucky man.

Off and running......

Well, another busy week. James Dean, Paris and I traveled to Seoul for Youth Conference this last weekend. Was a pretty good trip. Had about 60 kids there from all over the peninsula.

Some highlights would of course be the Temple (they have a dorm where you can over night at the Temple.....only a few in the world). The bullet train was pretty cool as well.....travels at 188 miles per hour and feels like you are sitting on the couch at home. There were 11 total in our group, 8 youth, me and our senior missionaries, Bro/Sis Egbert. They are an amazing asset to our little branch.

We have hit some snags in the health care options offered us here so beware. Little things like disposable gloves and tongue depressors are not really requirements here in the land of the morning calm......you can bet it was not calm while Kylee was getting blood drawn. She can only use the "butterfly strips" which is a very small needle....let's just say that she is bruised up badly in both arms and still didn't get any blood drawn. They (the only provider approved by my BCBS insurance) don't have any of the small needles. Good times.

I found out that my truck has made it to Korea so maybe I'll get it this week.

Also, Tracy called me at work today and said our apartment complex was surrounded by Korean police and that people were screaming and running all over the place. Sounded like a riot to me but my landlord told me that it was "hard to explain" and to "not worry about it"........

Alrighty then.......till next time.

Love to all, James