Dorm room for the new year?

Its been 55 days since my arrival in Korea. The seventh of this month (January) will mark, not only my one sixth down but, also my two months of living in billeting. There is a glimmer of hope, however. There is an individual, that I work with, who is getting set to depart this place for good. Once he is done with the room, it is mine. Its only a matter of time. Or, as the dorm manager has been telling me since i got here "only one more day"

Things never change.

Good morning Airman Fischer. How are you today? Good, you say? well.. we will have to see what we can do about that. How is you in-processing going? Well good, I am glad you helped out your fellow Airman. So you are both done then? Oh you can only speak for yourself. Actually you aren't done. You know all that training your last base had you do before you were allowed to leave? Yes all of that, we need you to do it again. Oh no its not the same stuff... I don't care if you have proof you just did it all two months ago. This version is Kunsan specific. To find it, all you have to do is go to the websites where you did all of your other training and click re-accomplish. Once you have done that print the certificate and give me a copy. No its different.. I don't care how similar it looks.

-TWO HOURS LATER-

Hey Airman Fischer! what makes you think I want some thing? I need to talk to you about our additional duty roster. We are losing most of the people in the shop over the next two months so, we all need to pick up six additional duties. Yes, I know its six times as many as anywhere else but.. that's Kunsan for you. Since you mentioned earlier that you had done this one before we are going to put you on that one. Don't worry there are two others on the program. You are just going to be an alternate. Actually Airman So-and-so is working on that now, let him show you how its done here.

-TWENTY MINUTES LATER-

Hey Fischer, hows it goin? yeah I know how you feel. Oh.. Me.. I am just taking care of inventory of this week. What do you mean I am doing it wrong? What do you mean our labels are wrong? Whats that? Oh.. so the monthly report needs to be printed monthly not yearly. Really! the semi-annual needs printed every.. oh. whats that? So what you are saying is the program is one huge write up waiting to happen. Hmm.. well that's how I was taught to do it. We haven't been written up yet. Besides how wrong could it be? I mean we just pencil whip the paper work for that stuff there.. And, that stuff we just hide if quality assurance comes in to poke around. What? why are you shaking your head at me?

-A LONG TEN MINUTES LATER-

Well you are going to be assisting on the program now. So, you can help fix it.

-TWO MINUTES LATER-

Hey I just re-did the appointment letter for this program and I figured since you know more about it than anyone.. And, despite the fact you are the lowest ranking on the program by a few stripes. You are the primary! CONGRATS!

--- --- --- ---

I like my job I really do. Its not difficult and, there are parts that I actually find fun. However, things like "that's just the way we have always done it" upset me. The humorous part of the whole exchange is that the "program" in question has been inspected more here at Kunsan than it ever was at Shaw. Shaw I was one for two on failures. Here, these people obviously have no idea what they are doing, or what they are looking for to write it up. Part of me, on the surface, says forget it. If it has passed before why rock the boat? However, every fiber of my being below the surface is screaming to fix it. To park my but in front of a computer for the next two months, at work and fix the problems... Yeah... -hangs head in mock-shame- that's what I am going to do.

I thought about blogging today, really I did

Its cold here, really freaking cold. Its so cold here that the cold in the air actually squeezed a small snow flurry out. That's right it was snowing here today. Good news though, somewhere around noon today they finally turned the heat on in our shop. It was snowing outside so we had to call some one higher up the chain. That individual then made a phone call to send someone over to our shop to measure the temperature, to make sure it was cold enough to turn on the heat. Then that individual went back to his desk and, probably, made another phone call to someone else to turn our heat on.
Also, I found out today that North Korea has gone on the record stating that they will hold nothing back against the South Koreans. Both sides are still ready to fight. On the same note, we explained the Korean war to someone in the shop today. He had no idea why the North and South fought. On the plus side, I saw to A-10's flying today. That is a first for me. Which is funny because I was stationed at Shaw for over a year, working on a system that was used on A-10's.
Other than that life goes on...as per usual.

Photo Adventure!

no seriously, Faith knows how much I dislike her alarm clock, I fly halfway around the world and its sitting on the desk.

-Korean Money-

We start our little adventure in my billeting room. Had to pack to Korean fun money for the trip.

If you can't figure out how to get out of that room in the event of a fire you have bigger problems.

So we went to A-town for lunch.The food was good and, I was told this was 7up. It tasted good, kind of like 7up. After lunch we hoped in a cab and went to town.

Gunsan city was interesting, the middle picture is of the movie theatre. The right picture is of a bar, I think.


After the movie we wondered over to Lotte Mart. Its three stories of fun. Its like wal-mart ate a mall. the best part is that it is all in Korean. It was a great day!

Getting to Know One's Host Country

So I have learned a lot of "fun facts" about Korea since I got here. I thought it might be a good idea to share some of them, just in case anyone is planning a vacation to South Korea anytime soon. So here is some need to know stuff..

1. Don't Tip! - it is in fact a sign of disrespect to tip at restaurants and such. This being said, cab drivers will break just about any law you want for a tip.

2. Watch what you eat, it could be dog! - If you don't want to know don't ask. I have been told chicken is always chicken.

3. The Korean's don't care about punctuality - I have heard you could be up to a half hour late to a host's house and they won't find it offensive in the least bit.

4. No streaming video over the internet - seriously, looks like I am missing the last season of lost and, a season of house.
5. The U.S. military is here to protect the North - I know it sounds backwards but it is true. The only reason the South isn't storming north is because the U.S. military is a guest here and, that would not be nice to us.

This place is so backwards!

TO WORK!

-I miss you two-

So no one bothered to tell the new guy, me, that we actually did get veteran's day off. I was told to be at work at 6:45. I showed up, in normal fashion, at about 6. I gave up waiting and left. I got back to my room at 7:30. Not really a waste of a day, it was just frustrating. I did manage to waste the rest of the day but, it was on my terms not work. Watched a movie marathon on the Air Force Network. I fell asleep during "we were soldiers" when I woke up I couldn't remember if i was watching "Brave Heart" or "the Patriot". for those who don't get that, they all star Mel Gibson.

Today was my first day of normal work, still no in-processing. However, I did speak to a very nice, very southern, staff sergeant today about when I am getting a dorm room. He ensured me that it would be next week, some time. I am not holding my breathe on that one. Other than that, work was... work. It was as normal of a day as possible in my job. I am also pretty confident that I managed to prove that I earned my promotion today.

I am still not adjusted to the jet lag. I was told today by my supervisor that it took him about three weeks to become adjusted fully. So I have that to look forward to.

My smile for the day came from an e-mail some one sent me yesterday. My grandfather sent me and e-mail wishing me a happy veteran's day. that means a whole lot to me, thank you.

365 days to go?

-My room in billeting, that I get to share-

So, technically I am two days of work down on my 365. However, I am not sure if the counter has officially started since, due to a small exercise, I have yet to start in processing. Since I haven't started in processing I wasn't able to participate in the joke of an exercise. I got to sit around, in my dress uniform for two days and watch TV. I wasn't allowed to get sleep and work off some my jet lag, which is a pain. I did get to sit around for twelve hours a day and watch football and movies. I am a little peeved about the whole thing, or a least I was until the exercise was cut short this afternoon due to and incident between the North and South Koreans in the yellow sea which, sent the whole base into standby.

Good news is that tomorrow I start in processing and, no more blues for a while. Additionally at the end of the month, once I am done in processing, I will be moved to swing shift. This is going to make communication a whole lot easier with the time difference in the states.

There is still no word on how long it will be before I am actually moved into a dorm room, for now I get to stick it out in billeting. Apparently this base is big on rooming coworkers in the same area and, the room quad that I would have been moved into was recently flooded by the juveniles that used to live there. It flooded when they shot the fire suppression system in the ceiling with a pellet gun and, set it off.

Journey to "A-town"

So a few of the individuals that I am going to be working with over here decided to take me out last night. Their choice of destinations was a little town just off base called America town. My impressions of this place is simple. If this was a town or even part of a town somewhere state side, no one would visit. the only reason i found the trip non-threatening was that there were plenty of military police hanging around, which by its self should be an indication that this place isn't exactly the safest place to go bar hopping. the small town is a collection of bars, rip off dvd shops and, rip off jersey shops. Not exactly the kind of place to take the kids on the weekend. however, it is one of the only places nearby to go off base.

Welcome to Korea

-Those aren't clouds, that is the arctic-

It only took a day but, after 16hrs. or so by plane then, another 5hrs. by bus I made it. Then it was only a matter of another hour before I could check into my hotel room where I will be staying for the next couple of weeks. Thus begins my life on the other side of the world. Nothing to flashy in fact, last night was more like a weird dream out lined in neons.