Friday, April 10th

Well, it's time to put this annual tour in the ole' deep freeze. Today didn't go as I wanted. I was going to go shopping when I heard through my door our tour leader Kounter, who was complaining about noone helping set up the cookout. At first a waited, but then i felt guilty and decided to go help out. Now I was going to have to do my shopping after the cookout, which might mess up my plans to take the Han Ferry tour. Me and Jackson later went to go see the High School, guess what? They're on spring break!! I go to my room to pack a little. The part was at 4pm. I get there at 4:20. The guacamole is gone!! and the steak. I prepared all that stuff and I don't get to eat it?!!!! Whatever.....I just want to eat and get out. I go shop at Songtan, i little more expensive then Itaewon but I didn't have to worry about an hour bus ride there. The people that were going to go with me decided not to go. I was dissapointed, but then I really started thinking that it would be cutting it too close. The trains stop running at midnight. I still need to get my students something so I go to Osan station back to Lotte mart (wannabe Walmart) and get some candy, seaweed, and dried squid to show. Finish it with donuts and a latte at Dunkin donuts (very popular here). Man!! I wanted to go cruising down the Han, that would've put the expclamation point on the whole trip. I didn't want to risk anything either. Still, it was a great trip!! an interesting time to be here, and met some cool fellow Air Force comrads and KN's. But I miss my kids, my wife, and my dog! Now I have to look forward to a freaking 13 hour flight. Anyways, thks for reading my blogs. I will do one in 2010 on my next annual tour. Hawaii would be nice or maybe Japan. Bye for now!

thursday april 9

We finished up work for the last time. WHOOOOOHOOO!! We have tomorrow off and are doing a big cookout for the actives (fajitas) Friday. I wish it would’ve been busier but I still learned quite a bit. I need to pick it up a little as a leader back at the unit. True, some of their younger guys needed a careful eye unlike the guys under my supervision back at March, who are a little older. Still, I observed their supervisors doing some good things. Hopefully I’ll see them at the Cookout. I have Mr. Kims email, I’m going to send them some Cardinal ballcaps for them taking us on the trip. I went out on my own to check out some of the ancient palaces near downtown Seoul. It took about two hours to get their by train. By the time I got there they were closed, I had a feeling this might happen, but I had to try. I still got some good pictures. As it got darker I started heading south toward the big buildings. I hit the jackpot. I was smack in the middle of downtown. It was quite a sight to behold. Jumbo-trons everywhere, massive amounts of people, old, young, wild, conservative. Endless amounts of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and coffee shops. A cool river walk with musicians playing. It is as big as any big city you will ever see. I’ve seen Times Square in Manhattan, and Shinjuuku and Ripongi in Tokyo, and this area could hang with any of them. I walked all over the place, I never got to check this out the last time I was here because I could never get people to go with me. I didn’t worry about it this time. It ended perfectly when I was able to find a train station that was on the 1 line. I had to take three lines to get there. I saved about 35 minutes going back. It was a great day!

golf lesson

Golf Lesson: The instructor never showed up. The lady in charge was yelling at him on the phone in Korean, then tried telling me some reason in broken English…whatever….just give me a driver, bucket of balls, and a golf fundamentals book. I read the book for about 5 minutes, got the grip and stance down and went to it. It was a lot of fun. I thought I did pretty decent for the first time. I killed it the first few times, I whiffed bad several times. I need to buy a driver and read up more so I can play this summer. It’s weird, my fingers were sore from the grip. The weather has been great lately, it has been clear and about 70 degrees. It was pretty flipping cold the first week. The only downfall has been the smog. It is a big city, but it is pretty bad, almost like LA. They say a lot gets dumped from China, they have very few regulations for industry. It’s a shame because it makes it difficult to see the great scenery around here.

Wed. April 8th

Another long, slow day. What can you do, I have no control of the amount of planes that come in. We had a few small planes with one or two pax. I just try to listen to the dialogue between the actives and the KN's to see how they handle situations. When I was younger I wouldn't care, i would just veg out and read a book but I'm a crew leader back home so you never know when certain scenarios will arise back at March Air Base. The Kn's have it so easy, I wonder how much they get paid, getting a job at PAX is their equivilant of winning the lottery, especially after seeing the market last night. Their language is a trip, they really do onot have R's and L's in their language so it is very difficult for them to pronounce them. Once Ms. Kim told me that I started paying attention and noticed I don't really hear them. Captain Lin was messing with them when he made them say, "Are you having a rough life?" It took me a sec to figure it out. Mr. and ms. Kim had a hard time saying it. I'm shutting down today, gonna take my golf lesson, hit a bucket and stay in my room. I need to do a lot of reading for my two master degree classes. I will get out there tommorrow and Friday for sure.

Tuesday April 7th

Just got off of work. Got a little action, we had a C-5 land with Pax(passengers) and then take off two hours later with Pax. I drove the 44 pax bus twice, I need to get it on my license. I have 29 pax bus but not 44. It's a lot longer, like a greyhound bus. With being a crewleader back home, usually I don't get to drive the vehicles that often. I'm usually delegating, coordinating, and running the computer reports. I did a little Space Available Sign-up. To those who do not know, active duty members, and to a certain extent reservists, are able to fly free if there is space available on a plane. There are a lot of rules and restrictions that apply and it's my job to know them all. I thought I've seen just about every little wrinkle in the process but Osan has there own little ways of doing things, things that we don't really bother with. Oh well, it's just going to help me get more well-rounded I guess. Trust me, our job is not very exciting, but it is essential because things need to move and we're in the job of moving!! I'm going to go jog, see if I can sign up for a golf lesson at the Course, I have never officially golfed before and I want to know the basics. It's cheap here! I'm going to go shopping, want to get it done today so I can ship it tomorrow. Wednesday and Thursday I'm going to do some more sight seeing, probably solo. The base encourages you go with a buddy, our tour chief says we have to, but I know my way around here better then anyone so I'm not worried. I will write more tonight if anything exciting happens while shopping. Cao

p.s. someone asked what G.I. means. It's either "government issue" or "ground infantry". They soldiers in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam were nicknamed G.I.

9:30 pm:

Back from shopping, doing some laundry. It was real cool, just went two stops on the train to but saw some awsome stuff. The area near the train station was a huge shopping district. All sorts of wild, cutting edge fashions, mainly for skinny people! Took some great camera footage. Lotto mart wasn't all that. I did find some stuffed animals for my girls but they weren't anything spectacular. I noticed in a suberb like this, away from both the base and Seoul is the language barrier. Noone knows english, they don't even try to attempt to speak it. They start speaking in Korean to me and it's like, "Does it look like I speak Korean?!" Afterward got a tasty java, rasberry mocha, at least that was in english. I saw a enclosed outdoor market and decided to check it out. I remember a similar one when I was in Japan. It started out interesting enough, it was obvious this is where the blue-collared types go to buy things. It got luny when i got into the food section. I had to break out the camera. Some of the most disgusting stuff you'd ever see. I was so nervous filming, it looks like an alleyway but it's enclosed, and these Koreans are looking at me all crazy ($%$# G.I!) Gross dried fish, squid, blowfish, octopus, unsanitary looking chicken, pork. Live crabs in a tank, that was cool. What was so completely dicusting was a tank with some wierd looking eel. It looked like a giant worm! I got some great footage. Stopped at a noodle shop in the train station, ordered some noodles for about 2 bucks. The lady was very sweet, tried like crazy to communicate in english but it was pointless. I'm sure she rarely sees G.I in that area. I really don't get the dudes and dudettes that never, or rarely venture off base. You could go to a different train station a day and see very differing things. I wish i could have taken pictures of the market but being alone, I thought a camera might set someone off. well, goodnight!

Monday apr. 6th

Sore as heck, and still quite exhausted. I only have to work till 230pm the rest of the week. Saw the KN’s we had a few laughs. I really bonded with them, and the actives, they remind me of myself 20 years ago. Lots of dreams, hopes, fun, but also lots of immaturity. And I was the type that usually had to learn things the hard way, just like these guys. We had to process a C-5 flight right when we got there but it was dead the rest of the day. I’m not doing anything today, just doing laundry, watching a DVD and going to bed by 8pm. I forgot to describe mr. chan. He is 52, very slight build with a lot of energy. He loves to talk smack, acts like he’s serious when he isn’t. On several occasions starts cussing at the actives in Korean which sound s hilarious! Loves to say, “ you @$%^ G.I.” to the actives. Him using the word G.I. is so flipping funny!!! Makes me feel like I’m watching a Vietnam War movie, he is such a trip!

sun april 5th

Met Fischer (active) at the gate at 630am. He was hung-over. Waited for Meeks, he showed up, he was hung-over. Steinguard was late, we left without him. We didn’t want to offend the KN’s, it’s a big deal that they invited us. We meet up with mr. Kim, ms. Kim, mr. Khan, and mr. Chan at the terminal. Steinguard finally showed up. He was hungover. See a pattern? At took two and a half hours to get there by train. The ride doesn’t bother me because of all the views of the city. It is amazing how many High-rise condominiums there are in Seoul. Everything is vertical! I read that 43% of the entire population of Korea lives in the Seoul region. We get there and at a little food shack we eat some Kim-bop, it’s almost like a portable sushi-roll. The mountains look awesome, but intimidating. The actives are still hung-over, I don’t envy them one bit! We start the climb. Pretty soon the mountain is completely kicking my #$^&! Remember, I’m pretty sore already from yesterday, and starting the day jogging in the morning for the first time in a month was not a good idea. I will not quit though! Some parts we need to use rope to climb up. I am so thankful I bought hiking boots from the exchange. Mr. Kim is hiking it like its nothing, I’m realizing that I do not see one fat person trying to do this hike! We get to the top, just spectacular views! Now we go down, we go by the largest Buddha statue in all of Korea, nestled in this mountain. How on earth did they build it? I was a little disappointed they all wanted to leave so soon, I really wanted to see it. We get down, I’m thinking we’re almost done but we are going up another mountain! The rest of the trip was more of an endurance race. Not very enjoyable but I got some great pictures. I kept thinking, I’m at a place where not many people in all of the entire United States have ever been to. I’m so sore, so tired, but I just keep pushing, pushing. When we’re finished the KN’s treated us to an authentic Korean meal. VERY, VERY SPICY!! Different, I would’ve liked it more if it was chicken instead of the fattie pork! It was a great time. Talking, laughing, the KN’s have a great sense of humor and they love to talk smack about us with each other in Korean. It’s all done in fun though. The laugher of the trip: We are sitting on the floor eating and I tell everyone I want to take a picture. I get up and I look like an 80 year old man, I’m so sore!! Everyone start’s laughing! We eventually get back, I take a hot bath, get takeout fettucine from Chili’s, and crash. A great experience, but I would only do that hike every ten years. It may take me that long to not be sore from the last one!

Sat. aprl 4th

Saturday April 4:
What a day. Went for a jog, ate breakfast, met the group at 9am. Saw a lot of tired faces, the guys stayed out till 130am. Used to do that but not anymore. As usual, people were late, what started out as 4 of us turned into 16, a little annoying at first and only grew worse as the day went on. We got on the train, got off our stop to transfer, and soon the “hitchhikers” started up in full effect: “do you know where your at?” “I don’t want to go there.” “Are you lost?” “you’re making me nervous Owens.” I was the unofficial tour guide. People wanted instant gratification and acted like I had the answers to everything. My stress-o-meter went up big-time every time I had to figure out where to go. We finally got to the museum. It was pretty cool, but I felt rushed. We only had 90 minutes to walk around till we had to meet back. It was the only way to keep tabs on each other. I could’ve spent the whole day there, but I felt like I had to breeze by certain areas. Oh well, part of the dreaded group dynamic. Wish I could’ve ventured alone. Architecturally, the museum is a very cool building. We finally got on the train going to the tower, every time I had to look at the map or make a determination, I started hearing the little quips and comments. I almost wanted to give them the map, say “later dudes!” and run back to the train station to do my thing. We got to the point where I was just about to find the trail to get up to the tower when people started to panic saying, “let’s just get a cab.” Part of the process is the hike up to the tower, now you want to waste that?! The cabs had to go the long route to get up and it cost 9 bucks. The tower was ok, it was a little hazy so we couldn’t see as much and of course, my video camera battery died out. It didn’t even surprise me the way things were going. Once we were up there, they only wanted to spend 10 minutes up there, Gibson saw the initial trail we went on and said, “let’s go down there.” That’s what I initially wanted! More of waiting for people, complaints of being lost, “let’s go this way”, “lets go that way.” We finally got to Itaewon, shopping place extraordinaire and home to the Outback where we were going to eat. We were next to Yongsan Army base. We could get a bus ticket back to Osan for 5 bucks and it drops us off in front of the lodge, take only an hour. This would sure beat going back on the train and spending an hour and a half. Once again, arguments! I’ve been here before, take my advice! They relented, we got the tickets, went back to the Outback. By this time, our feet are sore and legs aching, we have done a lot of walking. Outback was good, not great, but we so hungry that it was yummy! We have two individuals that talk a lot and by this time, it was like loud noise! We tried to shop afterward because we still had two hours to go. I ordered a very cool Tea set, they wanted 60,000 won but I got them down to 45,000. Bartering is the norm here, I’m getting better at it but it’s almost like a science. I was so tired, I decided to go to the army base and catch an earlier bus trip. I had to get some sleep for the big mountain hike tomorrow. On the trip back I had an airman sitting by me. We talked the whole time during the trip. One thing I’ve always been impressed with the military is how friendly people can be. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had soldiers, sailors, marines, or airman that were complete strangers come up and start a conversation, It’s great hearing so many stories of people from all walks of life. He is an air traffic controller, said he was working when an F-16 crashed, he said it traumatized him for a long time. Also said he worked in Iraq north of Baghdad for 4 months, said it is THE MOST BUSIEST military airspace in the entire world. Nice kid, sometimes it makes me wish I had joined the Air force instead of the Navy when I was 18. God has a purpose with everything though. Overall, I still enjoyed the day quite a bit. Great scenery, what can I say, I’m in the 5th largest city in the world! Well, good night!

Friday , April 3

WE ARE DONE!!! At least with the exercise. It got pretty stressfull, we had a simulated nerve agent sympton on an airman and a fractured leg. We had to do self aid/buddy care on the victims. Problem was it was in full MOPP gear. The simulated people did great acting jobs so it was tough, plus we had evaluators breathing down our neck. We didn't do so hot on the nerve agent, we let the victim pull his mask off, he was going into convulsions. Never let them take off their mask, even if you have to do a major take-down on their ass! Like I said, it's no joke here, they are not playing!! Great learning though, still I'm so glad it's done. We had some jambalaya and shrimp at the Wing Cookout. We're going to finally get to go off base, go check out the town a lil bit! Tomorrow we meet at 9am to 1. go to the Korean National Museum, i heard it's incredible! 2. Go to Seoul Tower, been there before but you can never get tired of that view of the citiy 3. Dinner at Outback then the Hard Rock Cafe in Seoul. Gotta get a shirt,I do it every annual tour i go to. Sunday I'm taking a risk. Mr. Kim (i know, you're going to say "which one? lol) is taking the active to go to Buckansan National Park. They invited me so sure, why not? Here's the risk. There is major, major hiking. Not risky because of the hiking, risky because it's going to take all day and I'm going to miss on some sight seeing. But I heard it's a beautifull views and just some incredible picture-taking. I get pretty adventurous on these tours. Hopefully it will all go well. Here's a sobering thought. On Saturday we have to carry a SAT phone because they may need to recall all of us if North Korea launches their missle. It really trips me out thinking of that, but we can't control it so we just gotta have fun. As exciting as the weekend is going to be, i really do miss my family. I feel bad for a few of the actives, one guys has had to leave his two kids at home and only gets to see them on Christmas. That is so tragic, I can't even imagine. I thank god I'm lucky to be in the reserves and not active!

thursday april 2

MOPP,MOPP,MOPP. I'm sick of the word!!! I can now put on my gas mask in 6 seconds wooohoo!! The KN's brought in some food, it was pretty decent. Better then the last time I ate here. We didn't have one flight today. But hey, I'm reading my book I need to write a report on for my online Master Degree class. I would never have time to do this much reading in the real world, and get paid for it too? Oh ya, MOPP is mission oriented protective posture. Got the weekend all planned out, I'll save that for another blog. Just not much to say today. Oh ya, we've been doing so many drills I'm jumpy now from any big noise, i think its a drill. Now I understand how my brothas in the sand box feel when they come back to the real world and they here all the noises. Well, until tomorrow!

Wed. april 1st

Another long day. Someone asked what I did in the Air Froce Reserve. The job is called 2T2X1, or transportation. We ship and recieve either cargo or people on planes. We are half southwest/half UPS what I like to say. We do the computer side, the operations side, and the vehicle side. It's a pretty basic, boring job no I don't shoot people, no I don't fly planes, and no I don't fix planes....But I get paid the same as all of them except the pilots. I scored pretty high on my ASVAB score before I joined, I could have taken other more exciting jobs. Problem is I would have had to go to their technical school longer, the 2T2X1 job was only a two week school instead of three months like most. Actually my job is a little more exciting because I am a higher rank and deal with more of the management issues doing computer stuff, etc. We are working at the passenger terminal here at Osan. I tell ya, it's only day two and the chemical warfare stuff is getting old. But I think they keep drilling it in our heads so it's automatic. We were in MOPP 4 for almost two hours. Had the biggest headache from the gasmask. The only thing humorous today is how many Kim's work in the terminal, and no they're not related. There is mr. Kim, ms. Kim, mr. Kim, mr. Kim, mrs. Kim, and mr. Kim. No joke. They're all very cool, but there are too many of them, they do all the work. They don't get that we're here to do the work, we need the training. I don't think they want to tell us to do stuff. mr. Kim told us not to do the island, temple tour. He said the West sea is nasty, all brown from the yellow dust from China. He said the east coast has some beautifull beaches, but it's a 5 hour trip one way....maybe if we were here longer. Going to go get groceries, I can't wait till Friday!!

tues. march 30

First full day. We had to get dressed in out uniform the night before at 900pm to get our chem. gear. I took over two hours. i was so tired. But at least today we look the part and not look like a bunch of goofball reservists like we sometimes get negatively stereotyped as. Getting in the chem gear was a major pain. Very bulky. Looked like an astronaut. Started out stressfull, we got a bunch of things thrown at us, once i had time to sit down and read the procedures, it wasn't that bad. They don't play around here when it comes to fighting war. This base is very serious!! They need to be, the enemy is 50 miles away.We got some very realistic training. Unfortunately we were very slow in the passenger service department. No big news there, they weren't busy the last time i was here and the KN's (Korean Nationals) want to do all the work. job security i guess. It was a long 12 hour day. The reservists and KN's were all very cool and helpfull. On one end it was stressfull which was good, on the other it was boring which was bad. I had to finish an assignment for my Master degree internet class. We were talking about going on a tour Sunday to some island, temple, and some glass house. Sounds cool to me, i can't wait for Friday to get here!!!

Saturday-Mon. March 28th-30th

Sat. 28th 12:46pm- We just took off. I have the sickest feeling in my stomach. I lost my camcorder!! I either took it off when I checked in or at the security counter. They did do an inspection of my backpack and there was about a minute where I didn’t see it. Could the security person have taken it out then not put it back in? My wife is going to call TSA and Korea air. The best I can hope for is they found it but now I won’t have it for the trip. I am floored! Now I have 13 hrs to think about it. I’m going to try to do some reading while I have some energy. Then watch some movies later. I bet people that are reading this will think I’m an idiot. Could the screener have taken it? I have the worst seat you could imagine, middle row right over the wing so I can’t see a thing. I’ll write later.

Sat.28th 3:00pm- Well, I knew I wasn’t losing my marbles. My camera was in my backpack the whole time. I just got this new backpack and it has like eight compartments . The agent was taking forever to put all my stuff back into my backpack, she put my camera in some compartment I didn’t even know existed. What a #$%%$ relief! Just had dinner. Not bad, beef something. Pretty good, I’m serious. It usually sucks. I’m so cramped trying to eat. Feel like I’m on a spaceship. My darn ipod, I have to hold it just right to get volume on both sides. It’s driving me nuts!!

Sat. 28th 6:46- We are finally halfway, I was struggling but I got up and stretched for awhile. I might make it. Already watched two movies. Slumdog Millionaire is a great movie, I never imagined it would be that good. Americans should count their blessings! I’ll read awhile and watch two more.

Sat. 28th 11:15- Oh man am I hurting!! There is just no relief! This young air force dude sitting in the isle seat has gotten up once in 11 hrs!! what his problem, doesn’t he need to go?! I hate having to squeeze by people. I’m so cramped but I can’t sleep. 90 minutes to go!

Sun. 29th 700p.m- We’re on the bus to the base. Just incredible views of the area. It’s weird, part of me feels like it’s very familiar, like I was here a few months ago. The other part is in total awe that I’m 6,600 miles away and looking at all these crazy buildings! You, know how downtown Phoenix has a lot of building in dense proximity? The Seoul area has 20 of these areas, where there is just a massive amount of buildings. My luck, the camera battery is dead, I wanted to get it on film. Oh well, I should have plenty of time to film all of it. It is pretty amazing to see, people don’t realize Seoul is one of the 10 largest cities in the entire world.

Mon. 30th 500am. I was right in the middle of sleeping, having some really weird dreams due to all the jet lag when I hear a loud noise. I’m thinking it’s my alarm when I realized it’s a firedrill. It’s 300 am!! I go outside, I’m in my shorts and t-shirt, oh man I’m freezing!! I’m getting a little nervous, if this lasts awhile, I might get hypothermia. There’s nothing I can do but wait. My luck! It ends but now I can’t go back to sleep, my body thinks it’s noon!

Mon. 30th 130pm- We’re done for the day, usual SOP is where we get welcomed by 10 higher-ups, take a tour of the flight-line and the base. We got some bad news. The Wing is just starting a major exercise! They basically act like they’re in a war-time situation, chemical war-fare, attacks, and first aid. There are evaluators everywhere and we would have to get into chem. Gear at any moment notice. We now have to go on 12 hour shifts. That is not fun, but here’s the deal. We have to go with the flow. We are getting paid to train. Sometimes you get the breaks, sometimes you don’t. The last time we were here it was slow and they were letting us off by 1230pm. Image is everything though, we can never show the actives that we are displeased, then they’ll say we whine, complain etc. It gets a lot worse unfortunately. Because of this exercise, we now cannot go off base until Friday!! You’ve got to be kidding me! So much for getting to see everything I wanted to. I mean, I’ll still get to see quite a bit, I guess it’s good to get the chem. warfare training. Who knows what’ll happen with Obama’s decision to put more troops into Afghanistan. So it looks like I won’t be able to take great Korea pics until Friday. What I’ll do is put some of my pics up from three years ago, give you all an idea what it looks like.

Mon. 30th 300pm- Interesting, listening to Hannity and Combs on CNN and guess what they’re talking about? North Korea! Talking about them getting ready to launch a long range missile for a test in the next week. We actually found out about this a few days ago during our security briefing at March. The intel officer didn’t sound too concerned but it’s weird to hear it on CNN. Actually, the same thing happened when I was here three years ago.

First blog

This is my first blog, Korea is six days away. I have a lot to do till then, with teaching, my master degree classes. I won't be able to relax until I get on the plane Saturday. I'll write again then