Army Life 101 - There's
a special place in heaven for an Army Wife!
Army Life 101 - There's
a special place in heaven for an Army Wife!
Army Wife 101
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My
Adventures in I was in Korea from July 1997 to May 1998 as an unaccompanied spouse.
Living in a foreign country was quite an experience, and I wanted to get out and experience as much of it as I could.
I didn't get to see as much as I wanted, I just ran out of time.
Here is what I did get out and see and do:
I
arrived here 19 July 1997. Brian's room is small, but not as small
as I expected. It is a little bigger than my college dorm room,
and he doesn't have to share it with anyone. He has a full sized
refrigerator, but no stove. Brian does have a hot plate, electric
skillet and microwave that we have set up on top of the dog carrier
in place of a table. I am getting the hang of the make shift kitchen.
He doesn't have much furniture, just a bed, dresser, desk and
chair. Brian's room is on the third floor. We don't have any transportation,
other than our feet, so we have to carry everything- including
our groceries. Luckily, the commissary is near by, and it is a
downhill walk home. The commissary only has three isles. All the
meat comes in frozen and there are only a few varieties to choose
from. They carry just the basics. Brian's office is down hill
from his room. The PX, commissary, bank, theater and all are farther
up the mountain in the middle of post. Thank goodness Brian does
not live in the housing at the top of the hill!
There is a small ville outside of post; it has some small shops, restaurants and odds and ends. I bought some small Korean bowls from a man selling them from the back of his truck. The whole truck bed was filled with dishes.
We get limited TV channels and we don't get real commercials. The only commercials we get are things the military produces. I watch a lot of the Flintstones and the Wonder Years. We get Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy too. We do get cable, which gives us HBO Asia and Cinemax.
I have been here 3 weeks and I haven't gotten to do much sightseeing yet. Brian works all the time, weekends too. I have traveled on the subway a lot. It is about the same as the subway in Washington DC. Everything is written in Han-gul (Korean). They do have the subway stations spelled out in English underneath the Han-gul. The words are so foreign to me though. I get on the train at Uijongbu, going towards Ich'on and get off at the Namyong Station. Yongsan is the big post in Seoul. It is not very far, but it takes about 2 hours to get there because of traffic. Traffic is crazy here. Cars just drive up on the sidewalk and park, if there even is a sidewalk. I haven't seen any parking lots. The drivers just park anywhere. Many of the buildings are built very close to the street, like six inches from the street, no curb. You can not tell where one city ends and another begins…It is just solid buildings, everywhere. The rice paddies are just mixed in between the buildings. Some areas of the city are trashy and dirty looking, with garbage strewn everywhere. Koreans will just throw their trash out on the street and sweep it up later. It is not uncommon to be walking down the street and smell rotting trash out in the open. All the business' signs are printed in bright colors and very few have pictures, mostly just Han-gul lettering, occasionally you'll see one with an English word or two. The bus system is very popular, so is the subway.
In September 1997 we visited the Korean amusement park that is their equivalent to Disney. It is called Everland. It is set up with different "worlds" like Disney. It even has the ride "it's a small world" only they sing in Korean. We had a great day there. It takes almost four hours to get there…
They had a petting zoo that was a lot of fun for me. I loved the little goats! They had a safari ride that was everyone's favorite! It was awesome! We got on a bus and entered a caged area with lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, ostriches, and bears. The animals were roaming free and came right up to the bus and pawed at, and licked, the windows! The bears were my favorite; they came up to the windows and did tricks. They could walk and run along the bus on their hind legs. It reminded me of the Pepsi commercial with the dancing bears spelling out P-E-P-S-I to the tune of the YMCA song.
There was a space ride, similar to an IMAX theater. The screen was huge and the seats actually moved to add to the feeling that you where there. It was like living a video game!
I am not into roller coasters and all that so I just held the bags while everyone rode those. I had a great day, though.
We
visited Ch'angdokkung Palace, the Chogyesa Buddhist Temple and
Kyongbokkung Palace in October 1997. The weather was nice and
we packed a lunch and headed into Seoul to do some sightseeing.
Ch'angdokkung Palace was first on my list. Built in 1405, this
is one of the larger palaces. It has a guided tour in English,
and that is an experience in itself… You could barely understand
a word the woman said. The Secret Garden, or Piwon, was beautiful!
It is the "backyard" of the palace and covers 78 acres
full "of gardens superbly landscaped with pavilions, ponds
and wooded area." The Piwon was built exclusively for King
Songjong, the ninth king of the Chosun Dynasty. There was a small
bridge at the entrance to the palace that was older than the United
States! The oldest living tree is located there. It is a 700 year
old tree!
Second,
we went to Chogyesa Temple. It is the only temple within the walls
of Seoul. The Temple area is just in the middle of the city. It
is not separated by a wall, fence or anything; it was just in
the middle of the skyscrapers. It was smaller than I expected.
It was beautiful inside. There were Buddhist men and women inside
praying, some were kneeling on the floor and some were standing.
We removed our shoes and went inside. There were hundreds of lit
candles surrounding a golden statue of Buddha. Outside, the walls
of the Temple are painted with the teachings of Buddha. It was
a very beautiful building.
Then
we visited the Kyongbokkung Palace. This palace is a 40 acre complex.
It was built in 1394. Many of Korea's historic events occurred
here. It is listed on the Korean Register of Historic Places.
We discovered that if you have seen one palace you have seen them
all. They are beautiful places; they just all look the same. We
learned different things at each one though. At this palace there
were wedding photos being made everywhere. They were dressed in
Korean Hanboks. Kyongbokkung Palace is a symbol of the Chosun
Dynasty. Originally it had over 200 buildings. It was burned by
the Japanese at the end of the 16th century.
In
January 1998, we visited the Daehan Life Insurance Building. DLI
63 is located on the island of Youido. On our way to the building
we found a McDonalds and stopped there for lunch. It was wonderful!
It tasted just like home, and was so inexpensive! The value meals
were each under 3,000 won (less than $3). They even still have
the old fashioned, fried McDonald's apple pies! Well, back to
DLI 63. The 63 story golden building is one of Asia's tallest.
It has become a "large" tourist attraction. In addition
to a beautiful view from the observation deck, the building offers
visitors an aquarium, I-Max theater and conference halls. It has
a food court with a Wendy's, Subway, Kentucky Fried Chicken and
other familiar eateries. The 58th floor has a "Chicago"
style pizzeria. The aquarium has two large tanks housing seals
-- sea lions and harbor seals. I collect seals so this was the
highlight of the tour for me! I could have sat for hours and watched
the harbor seals. The I-Max theater was showing a film on movie
special effects. I was really interesting to see. The building
houses some wonderful traditional Korean restaurants. We had already
eaten, so we will have to try one next time. One thing we did
try is Dots. They are frozen drops of ice-cream. It is so good.
They look like little candies; you'd never guess they were a frozen
treat. I highly recommend you try them, if given the chance.
In
the -2 degree Celsius temperatures of mid-January 1998 we traveled
to Yongin the home of the Korean Folk Village. The Folk Village
is a living museum that recreates life as it was centuries ago.
There are artisans dressed in traditional clothes performing a
variety of tasks. There are basket weavers, dancers, painters,
potters, and blacksmiths to name a few. There are over 200 traditional
and historic buildings on view, filled with the traditional items
of the time period. It was a beautiful place to view people and
life of long ago. It is sort of like a Korea version of Colonial
Williamsburg, or Old Salem. There are dancers who perform the
Korean Farmers Dance. It is a beautiful dance performed by musicians
in traditional costumes.
In
January, I visited the Hard Rock Café in Seoul. It was
really nice. I have visited the ones in Dallas, DC and Atlanta,
and the one here was no different. The menu was in English and
the severs all spoke with great English! After 6+ months, it was
so nice to be surrounded with "American" things. The
ironic thing was, there we sat, in a restaurant in downtown Seoul
on a Saturday night, and the only Koreans were the employees!
All the customers were Americans! The Hard Rock Café has
the traditional guitar shaped bar and memorabilia everywhere.
Some of the artists I had never heard of, but the same is true
in the others I have visited. They sell all the same souvenirs,
hats, tee-shirts, pins, etc…
February came and went quickly and was filled with food! Ribs, steak and the bloomin' onion! UMMMMMMMMMM! For Valentine's Day my sweetie treated me to Tony Roma's Famous for Ribs! They were the best ribs I had ever eaten! They were mouth wateringly (is that a word?) delicious. They were so tender they just fell off the bone. The restaurant had fantastic service! The honey mustard sauce for the chicken finger appetizer was great and so were the chicken wings! I recommend the Carolina style ribs!
I
have also recently been the Outback Steakhouse in Seoul. The was
the greatest! I am a meat eater and love steak. I have been in
country for 8 ½ months and miss Steakhouse terribly. I was
ecstatic to finally visit one here. After a long ride the get
to there, between the four of us, we ordered 3 Bloomin' Onions
to start. The Walaby Darned drink was fantastic and our waiter
gave a each a special one for free since they only had it available
on the rocks, rather than frozen. They even had honey-mustard
dressing available for my salad! (More places need to carry honey-mustard!)
Our order was prepared quickly and was wonderful!!!!! The steak
was fantastic and the sweet potato was to die for! The entire
meal was fantastic and I hope the get the chance to go again before
we leave here…. Only 55 more days before I return Stateside.
My big trip for March was intended to be a trip with the USO to Kwanghwa Island off the coast of Inchon. The trip was to depart the USO at 7 am. It takes about an hour and a half to get there. Kirsten and I were at the bus stop at 5:30 am when the buses start running. It was about 5:45 before the first bus came along. We got to the train station at 6 am just as a train was pulling off. Usually one comes along every few minutes, so no big deal. We walked down to the end of the tracks to get a seat and waited. It was 25 minutes before the next train showed up!!! We got on and were lucky enough to get seats and hope we would make it in time. Since we both had woke up at 4 am we dozed off on the train and finally arrived at Namyong Station 40 minutes later. We ran to the USO and arrived to find the office to sign in at locked and shut. It was 7:15 and we had missed our trip! Great what now.. The USO did not open for 45 minutes and we didn't have directions to go anywhere else. We decided to eat breakfast at the USO Canteen and wait for them to open the office.
The office opened ant they did not have any guide books for us
to take a trip on our own. We headed to the ACS office on Yongsan
Main Post. There we found a book and decide to head to Inchon
on our own. We got back on the train and dozed of again. When
we woke up, none of the station names were familiar. We were on
the wrong train. We thought we were on the train for Inchon, but
were on the train for Suwon. Suwon was the last stop on the train
and 
we
had to get off and back track half an hour to catch the right
train. We finally made it to Inchon, the port city.
We took a taxi to Wolmido Pier. It is a carnival area. It has
an amusement part with the typical rides and lots of restaurants
over looking the Yellow Sea. For about 7,000 won you can take
a Party Boat ride and tour the harbor and see the fishing boats
and islands. The boats have a live band that was pretty good.
There was a lot of fog, pea soup would be clearer, but we really
had a great time. It may not have been the trip we set out to
take, but it was a great day anyway.
The first weekend in April we visited the suburb of Kwach'on to see the Seoul zoo. It is a really nice and clean park. It opened in 1984 and is home to a variety of animals, from wallaby to tigers. The admission to the park was only 1,500 won. That is less than two dollars! We went with a large group of people and we stopped for lunch just before entering the gate. The eatery outside the park only serves Korean food, so if you don't prefer to eat like the locals, pack a lunch. The food they served was good. I tried the steamed yaki (it is sort of like an egg roll only with out the cabbage) and really liked it. The ville where I live only sells it fried and I think I like it steamed better. My husband was the odd ball, he ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which I had packed for a snack.
We took the ski lift over to the park. It was beautiful to see the area from above. There is an amusement park beside the zoo called Seoul Land and it looked like fun. It was the first warm day we had in a long time and we were all glad to be outside. The zoo had all the usuals: zebras, elephants, snakes, tigers, seals, etc. It was a lot of fun. I think a trip to the zoo brings out the child in everyone. It was exciting seeing the zoo through our friends' 3 year old son. We showed him the flamingos and he was excited about the water; when we saw the giraffes he liked the rocks and at the wallaby exhibit he was too interested in the sand to notice anything else. Oh, to be a child again.
The zoo did not appear to be very large from the air, but by the time we left we were all exhausted from walking. On the ski lift back we discovered a whole section of the zoo we had missed! Oh well, maybe there will be a next time!
I can't believe it, my time in Korea ends in just a few more days! It just does not seem like I have been here for 10 months yet. There is still so much I want to see and do! Well, if we stay in the Army, we'll be back here again. I can honestly say I'll look foreword to it. I am ready to go home though, in some ways…I miss eating Taco Bell, and having a car to drive around it (and carry the groceries home in!) and seeing my sisters grow up and my friends and family! I haven't even been able to call since international phone calls are a fortune! There are so many things I wish I had been able to see that I though I'd make a list, if you make it to Korea, maybe you'll have the chance and can e-mail me about it!
The Royal Museum inside of Toksugung Palace has an exhibit of items used by the royal court.
The National Folk Museum in the Kyongbokkung Palace shows the religious rituals, housing, and household tools of traditional Korea life.
Buddha's Birthday Celebration at Chongmyo is the first Sunday in May and is open to the public for the annual Confucian ceremonial rite- one of Korea's most interesting ceremonies!
Near Chongo 5-ga is Taehangno (University Street). This is wehre the Seoul National University used to be. Now it is home to the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation.
Myong-dong Catholic Cathedral is the oldest and most famous Catholic church in Korea.
Namsan is home to Seoul Tower where you can enjoy a panoramic view of the city while at the skyline restaurant!
Yejiwon was established to teach traditional Korean culture and manners. Among the classes are the tea-ceremony, cooking, dancing and how to wear Korean traditional clothes. The average class is one - two hours long and both men and women are invited to attend.
The War Memorial is located between the north and south post of Yongsan Garrison . It offers a variety of exhibits of the many wars Korea has been involved in.
Apkujong-dong is know as the fashion capital of Seoul. It's streets are lined with designer stores.
Mongch'on Mud Fortress is a relic from the ancient Paekche Kingdom (18 B.C. - 660 A.D.) and is located near the Olympic Park and gives a glimpse into ancient Korean history.
The Korean Folk Village - I went there once, but I really wish I had went back on a warmer day to see everything!
Ullungdo Island lying northeast of P'ohang, rises steeply from the East Sea. The extinct volcano and two small villages of fisherfolk add to the island's unique charm and flavor.
My advice is to never wait until "next weekend" to go out and see the area. If you keep waiting to "next weekend" you'll run out of time!
Army Wife 101
* The Army *Webring *
My Life * Korea
* Poems * Friend's Links
* Thanks
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