OinK

In Balad, Iraq with Vanessa

Wow has it been a while since I've gotten on here....much to my dismay I might add. Well now I'm back which I know some of you have been waiting for, so here we go!

As you, my faithful followers, know, my last blog was a deployment roll up of everything that had happened wrapping up yet another year in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. That was March....its Christmas day '12 here in Korea (which one year ago today I was heading from Kuwait into Afghanistan) so that means there is quite a gap since I last posted. I'll do my best to bring you all up to speed on what's been going on so lets get started!

Rugged Manic

Rope swing

I got back to the states in last March of this year, was able to head back to Minnesota to visit friends and family there. Spent about a week in Minnesota, then traveled to California to visit Vanessa and after that, went to Hawaii to visit the Barnes family for a few days before heading back to the east coast. I spent the next 5 months at Fort Lee, VA for the Combined Captain's Career Course, a required career progression course that retrains captains with all types of experiences back to the basics for how the Army is organized and operates. I could go more in depth but I don't think that's something anyone wants to really read about. Those 5 months wasn't all training though, I finished a 5k Rugged Manic Race which I highly recommend to anyone. My finish time wasn't all that great since I was on a team and even though my foot was giving me a hard time, I had to keep waiting at every obstacle for everyone else to catch up. Kyle came up a few times and we floated/kayaked/fished/snorkeled a local river with some friends a few times, Ginger too of course. Along the way we found a rope swing that went right out into the river. Had a great time with that. There was one strange encounter we had though, and oddly enough, it wasn't with a person....it was with a Scuba Dog.

Kyle, Ginger and I

Fishing and floating

Queen of the raft

Outer Banks, NC

So there's this girl I know, her name is Vanessa an Air Force Captain I met during my last deployment. Without going too much into my future rehearsal dinner speech, we started seeing one another when I got back and things really took off. She and I went up to Boston for a wedding where I asked her dad for his permission (fortunately he granted it) and on a trip to the Outer Banks later that summer, I asked her to marry me. On July 5th, 2012 Vanessa and I got married in the Japanese Gardens at Maymont Park in Richmond. My sister, mom, Kalaya and Micha drove down from Minnesota just in time to be there for the ceremony. Our official family wedding is set for next September in Boston with the reception at a pretty awesome place (yet to be disclosed to anyone).

Wedding Ceremony

Pool party at Joe's

Unfortunately the summer wasn't all fun and games....like the saying goes, someones going to get hurt....which was something I was battling with for a few years. In 2009 I was seen by a podiatrist after experiencing excruciating pain in my left foot. The doctor diagnosed me with early onset Haliux Limitus and spurring in my great toe. Based on what he could see in the x-ray, the joint had deteriorated to the point of bone on bone contact which was causing the pain. However, he stated that the spurring wasn't far enough along for anything to be done. Fast forward two years to my last deployment, the pain had increased and on nearly a daily basis instead of after running/sports. While I was at Fort Lee this summer, I was able to see another podiatrist who asked how long I had been experiencing the pain and after learning it goes back to 2009, he said I should have gotten surgery on it back then. So on 6 September this year, I went under the knife. The doctor shaved down 3mm of my big toe on my left foot, made a V-cut in my metatarsal to reset it in itself (it was out of alignment) and put three screws in my foot. When all was said and done, I wasn't able to move around much but because I was in school at Fort Lee, I had to attend class the very next day (fortunately it was a Friday). I spent the first weekend trying to move around as best I could with no crutches. Yea, that's right, they didn't give a guy crutches. Took me a little asking around but I eventually got a set from my neighbor. It's been almost four months and I am itching to go running but still have some room for healing.

Finally it was time to finish my classes at Fort Lee and move somewhere new, somewhere different but first I had to pack up all my stuff and move it to Minnesota...right as Hurricane Sandy was screaming across the east coast. Vanessa, Ginger and I left Petersburg on 29 October, the day Sandy was pounding at the front door of Virginia. Pounding so hard in fact that my apartment manager who was going to meet me to do my final inspection opted not to make the drive down from Richmond because "It's too dangerous." After hearing that, we loaded up into a 16ft U-Haul truck and drove to Minnesota (through Richmond by the way). Too dangerous. Ha. It was a little windy and in West Virginia we caught the front end of what ended up being 21" of snowfall as we passed through the mountains with gusts up to 80mph. That was quite the first 12 hours of driving, trying hard to keep the truck on the road. You know in TV shows and bad movies where people are driving cars and their hand on the steering wheel moves left and right so fast as though they are trying hard to avoid lava as the ground beneath them breaks up? That's sorta what it was like.

Zombie, Werewolf and Headless Horseman
Halloween 2012 in Minnesota

Vanessa and I spent a week in Minnesota where she got to meet my dad and mom's families and spend more time with Kalaya and Micha. I took her to the Mall of America, which I was uncertain of it was such a good idea at first, but I ended up being the only one to buy anything, which was probably the least expensive item you could find in the entire mall, a wine bottle decor that was made in Germany and had "Mosel Vineyard" on it for $1.25. I think I married the right girl!

After spending time in Minnesota, it was time to head to the west coast once again where Vanessa and I worked on the house. One of the bigger tasks was doing what Drew and I did on my house in Virginia, adding heavy duty shelving to the garage. Took some time but I'm pretty sure you could put a VW Bettle on those shelves!

Anyway, after just over a week in California, it was time to say goodbye to Ginger, Lex and Vanessa. Unfortunately I was not able to take Ginger with me to Korea just yet but they'll all be here next spring!

My assignment was to Camp Humphrey's, Pyeonteak, Korea which is just under an hour south of Seoul. I spent the first week 12 miles from the border of North and South Korea at Camp Hovey/Casey where I in-processed. Fortunately we were able to finish everything the day before Thanksgiving and was bussed four hours to Camp Humphrey's. I was fortunate to have a great sponsor who met me when I arrived and got me set up at the hotel, hit up the commissary to fill my small fridge and showed me around post. Camp Humphrey's is growing at a rapid rate. Turns out, all the bases in Northern South Korea are on land that is extremely expensive and the Korean government wants it back. So, there's a trade being done; the Korean government will build new buildings, 600 of them at Camp Humphrey's, to move the personnel and equipment out of the north and further south to give the land back to the people of Korea. That being said, there is a new high school, middle school and grade school being put up here, a brand new "Super" Gym that has an indoor pool, indoor track, combatives room, 3 full length basketball courts, sauna, locker rooms, conference rooms, multimedia rooms and 3 levels of free weights...its crazy big. So big I avoid it by going to the older, smaller gym. Saturdays, however, I do laps at the pool.

Car after snowfall

The next day he and I went to the dining facility on base to serve Thanksgiving dinner to the Soldiers here. After, we headed to his friend Lee's place where he and his wife made a delicious meal. Had a great time. As my luck would have it, Lee used to be a mechanic so I asked him to help me find a car out here. He recommended a small used car lot where I narrowed down my choices of 6 cars to 1 (easily too after finding out that 4 of those cars were employees and another was $3,000 over my budget). The one I landed is pretty sweet. It's a 2003 Hyundai Sonata, which I would have never seen myself driving EVER. But this thing has more features than my 2006 back home! It's crazy. First, it's a push start, so no keys (which caused an issue just a few days ago actually...I'll tell that story in a minute) and it has this FOB that allows me to remote start it as well as a proxy sensor so when I get within a short distance to the car, it automatically unlocks and mirrors fold in/out. The guy who sold it to the used car lot had just put in $4000 worth of new interior to the point where if I were to get into an accident, it'd feel more like I was bouncing off the walls at an insane asylum than in a car wreck. Anyway, great car.

I got settled into my apartment on base shortly after arriving (can't live off base unless you have family here) and met my boss and everyone I'll be working with. I have been put into the Support Operations office once again only this time I am the Brigade Maintenance officer of 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade. There are a lot of things I have to learn but I'm getting there.

AJ and Shelley; teaching the future of Korea

When I was in high school, I knew a guy AJ Dewees and his girlfriend Shelley. After we graduated from college, they got married in Missoula, MT which I was a groomsmen. That was the last time I saw him....until I moved across the world to KOREA. Turns out the two of them landed teaching jobs out here last spring. So of course I have hung out with them a few times and will do plenty more of that over the next few years. Oh, right, I'll be here for at least 2.5 years. Forgot to mention that didn't I? Sorry. So my orders to come out here were for only me, not Vanessa or the dogs. Just last week 9 slots opened up for her to come over here to Osan Airbase which is 30min away from Humphrey's. Sadly, those slots don't become available until next spring. My current orders have me being here in Korea for only 12 months, after which I head back to the USA. If I were to do just one year, I would end up heading back to the States as a Senior Captain with no Company Command time. On top of that, Vanessa wouldn't be able to come out here because the Air Force can't justify sending her out here in June when my orders have me leaving next November. That being said, I have opted to extend here for two reasons: 1) So Vanessa can get orders here and bring the dogs 2) So I can take command of a company.

Two weeks ago I interviewed for a Forward Support Company in an Aviation Battalion, and according to a source I know at the Brigade, it looks like I was selected from the pile! It's not exactly official since I have not been notified of my selection yet, but I should be taking over as company commander in mid-late February 2013. Very excited!

Snowboarding at YongPyong

Slightly foggy at the top

View from the top

The lift up

Re-do Christmas photo....

Ok, so early I had mentioned a story about my key fob for my car. Sunday, I drove to about 10 miles to Pyeonteak Station to take the subway (which is an incredible system) up to Seoul to look for a snowboard, boots and bindings. See before I knew I was coming to Korea, I sold my board, boots and bindings because I hadn't used them in the five years I was stationed in Virginia. But then I went snowboarding at YongPyong Ski Resort (where the 2018 Olympics are being held), and had to rent....the board was ok, but it was in need of a good waxing and I ended up catching a few edges pretty bad and knocked my head a few times. Back to the story. I spent most of my Sunday walking around Seoul looking at various boards they had a small shops, unfortunately everything is much more expensive here due to the import tax so I couldn't find anything I could justify the price for. After the two hour subway ride back to Pyeonteak, I remote started my car from a distance when suddenly my fob made a noise it had never made before. I looked down and much to my dismay, the flashing red bar of death was staring back at me. My battery was about to die! At this point I started to jog (remember my foot surgery) to my car. As I approached, I could hear it running...whew! I get closer and the doors unlock. YES! I get in and just as I am about to plug my fob into the car charger, the fob dies and my car shuts off. Yes, SHUTS OFF and won't turn back on. This wouldn't be such a big deal during a warm summer's day, but it was 6pm on a Sunday and it was already 10* out. I quickly weight my options; call a taxi, call a friend, somehow charge my fob. I opted for the last to avoid any sort of embarrassment from calling a friend and headed back to the subway station (also known as AK Plaza). The station is also part shopping mall so I spent the next 20 minutes trying to find an electronics store. I have been taking Korea the last two weeks but although I can read characters, I still have no idea what they translate to mean. Eventually I found a cell phone store who wasn't of much help because they didn't have the right size USB. I left the mall and started walking down a street when I saw a LG sign. I stepped in the shop and tried to explain my situation. This is where I had my first encounter with a non-English speaking Korean. It took me a few shaky minutes but Google Translator really pulled through  and in the end I got what I wanted.

Ginger and Lex

Random Facts about Korea:
Police are nearly invisible, no speed traps just speed cameras. Get ticket in mail
Korea population: 50 million
Seoul population: 25 million
New York City population: 9 million
CCTV cameras: 40 million (can't do much without someone seeing you!)
Driving here makes sense, stop lights don't mean stop. What I mean is, if there's no one coming, why sit and wait for 5-10 minutes till the light turns green? Just go. Love it.
Street vendor food is cheap
Have yet to try food or pull a random drink off a shelf at a shop that I didn't like

I'm coining a term "OinK" or Only In Korea because there are so many odd things that happen here, I'll be sure to note them as I continue to update my blog.

The people here are very nice. On more than one occasion random people have come up to me when I look confused or lost and offered to help in any way they can from ordering food to finding my way around the subway. So far it has been a great experience and I'm only a month in! Can't wait to explore more with Vanessa and travel around the region! Stay tuned!!!!