Our first week in Korea!!!

Ok, so we are here in Korea. We got here Sunday evening- October 18th. The boys did a really great job on the airplane, I was actually really surprised how well they did! Eric watched movies and played his DSI pretty much the entire time, I think getting up to pee only once! He did go to sleep for the last few hours of the plane ride. He was watching Ice Age and looked at John and said "I think I am going to take a nap now" And that was all he wrote until we landed! Ryan was a little more tricky, but still so good! He watched a tiny bit of the movies, but mostly took walks around coach- because we were told not to take kids into first class, and stay out of business as much as possible! Nice hugh? Anyway, he took 2 naps, the first one being the better- starting off on John's lap and then moved to the seat. The second one- he had to share space with Eric, whose legs were up and over the arm rest, so Ryan had nowhere to put his head! He was laying so close to the edge I was afraid he was going to fall off. I kept repositioning him, and sure enough, I fell asleep for like 2 seconds and Thud- Waaaaa!!! He fell off- poor kid! But other than that, all really did go well!

We got off the plane and everything went really smoothly, everything is in English, so it was really easy to get around- and it was nice that John has done this before and knew where to go. I kept taking pictures of everything, so I really looked like the American tourist, but oh well, I wanted to capture the moment!!!

We had a ton of bags, and John kept making fun of me, but we are moving to another country- I needed them!!!:) ALL of them!!!:)

We have 2 Turumi rooms- which is the hotel name here on base. They are NOT TLF- which have a bedroom and kitchen. Turumi is a hotel room with a double bed. John is staying in one room with Eric and I have the other with Ryan.

MONDAY

Ryan got up at 1:30ish, went back to sleep, but was up probably every hour from there. We got up for good at 4!!!

We started doing the run around, like getting my ration card, and John had a lot to do in-processing and everything. We went to the housing office, and found out that even though we received a form stating that we would get housing immediately upon arrival- we weren't going to get a house until probably January or February!!! So now we have to find off base housing- Great- Fantastic-Wonderful! (All sarcastic!!!)

We also found our friends Ginger and JD and Bobby. The boys were so glad to see each other, and they just played all morning together! John got a bunch of stuff done while we were visiting, and Ginger let us keep the boys there so we could go get a few more things done together. It was so nice of Ginger!!! I have such a hard time asking people for help- I have to get over it!!!

So we are going to let the boys take naps at the regular time, but set an alram and make sure they get up so that they will be tired for bed at night. Today was really really really rough getting them up! They were so tired and so miserable!!!

TUESDAY

Up at 1:30 again, but then again like 3 then 4 then up for good at around 4:30.

I took the boys in the stroller and went running this morning! It was great. Then we walked all over the base looking for Margie and Lucy! After many wrong turns and walking up to the top of many wrong hills- like mountains!!!- we found them! We had a really good time playing with them too! We went to a park near Margie's house- the boys had a great time!!!

Naps were still very hard. They are just like logs when the alarm goes off! They don't even budge!!!

WEDNESDAY

Up at 1:30, 4:30 and up for good at 5- getting better!

We start to look for off base apartments. We went to 2 realtors before nap and 1 after. I love 1 house, and I would put a picture on here, but I accidentally deleted all that were on my camera!!! Luckily it was only a couple of days worth!!! This house- well duplex- had a lot of traditional Korean design to it. I really loved it, but when our furniture comes, it will not fit! Things are much smaller than in the states. Even the larger places are more petite!!! We will have loaner furniture from the base until ours gets here. We looked at many places this morning, probably 10ish. The boys HAD to be finished at that time, they were both melting down, they NEEDED naps.

Naps were very tough getting them up again!!!

We saw one more place after naps, and we really liked it- but it won't be available until Nov 10. We narrowed it down to 2 places- we really liked some aspects of them, hated others. Things are different here! They don't have traditional closets built into the wall. They have pieces of furniture that stick out, which takes up room space. Most seem to have that, although some have sort of built in closets, the whole wall is a closet with several doors. Each door has something different, like it may have a few shelves, then another will have room for hanging clothes. Kind of like built in closet organizers, they are neat! Both places we really like has those in the master bedroom, and the other rooms have nothing!!! A lot of places don't have bath tubs too, so it is great to find them too! And dishwashers, and elevators! Little quirky things that you really don't think of in the states when looking for a house! Anyway, one house had a bathtub, but it was very wierd. It was like a cut out made for the bathtub. The walls were directly on the sides of the tub, you didn't need a shower curtain- you could only get in from the end of the tub. You would have to get in with the boys to give them a bath, that would be the only way! Wierd things!!!

THURSDAY

Up at 1:30, 4ish, and up at 5:45ish for good- yeah, almost there!!!

The boys and I went to Ginger's this morning to play and then she watched them again while John and I went to look at one more place!!! Well, we found our house! This apartment was awesome! It is big, nothing real wierd, I will definitely put pictures on here of it later!!!

I forgot to say that Korean driving is CRAZY!!! People just drive how they want, you have to be really careful. The streets are narrow, and the realtors talk on their cell phones and fly all over the place, not wearing seat belts, and it is not necessary that the kids are in car seats! Eric was in his own seat belt in the back seat with me, and Ryan was on my lap with a belt around the both of us! That is why we asked Ginger to watch them again while we went today! Much better this way!!!

Naps were still pretty tough getting them up!!!

FRIDAY

Trying to schedule everything so we can move into our hosue next week. We went to another friends house- Lauren's- to help make Halloween bags for the single guys in the squadron. It was nice to meet more wives from the squadron.

John got a lot of running around today, finished up a lot of odds and ends which was good.

The boys got up on their own from naps today!!!!!!! We are at the final stages of jet lag!!! I think!

SATURDAY

Didn't wake up at all over night, I was up at 6, but Ryan didn't wake up until 7:22ish! I think we may be back to normal??? Dare I say it???

Ok, so things are run a little differently over here. Although we didn't sign a lease or anything yet, we were able to get the keys- well the combination- there aren't really any keys here (wierd but nice) to the house so John could move out of his dorm room.

Look at the website pictures to see all the house pics!

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Ok, if you made it this far- I promise this is the longest post I will ever make! I just needed to get it all out! I will tell you more crazy things- how the housing office and CDC make things up as they go- later!