Paul sent me an email this morning with an entry he wrote from a TDY/deployment he is currently on, so I am putting it up here for him, mostly so the kids can follow along with dad's adventure while he is away.
OH, and Happy Birthday Paul! I am sorry you had to be away today, we love and miss you!
- Catherine
KOREAN TRIP LOG: Day 1 (& 2)
A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from an associate in the U.S. Air Force in Korea, wanting to know if I'd be interested in coming out to help support a military exercise for a few weeks. Even though three weeks is quite a large time commitment(especially with Cath finishing school and getting the house in order to sell this summer), since Korea is on the list of our possible next assignments, we decided it would be worth the sacrifice (thanks Cath!) to come out and get a lay of the land in case we end up here for the next few years of our lives, or alternatively as a change of pace and an adventure.
So, without boring you with all the details, I got on a plane (just missing the only snow storm of the season thus far near our house by a couple of hours), and flew through Detroit and then on to Seoul(where I arrived the afternoon of the following day...it was a REALLY long flight!).
The flight to Korea was read, eat, read, sleep...read, eat, sleep, read, eat...and sleep, eat, read...that's right, a snack and 3 meals on an airline, who knew that even happened anymore?
Even the snack was a complete shocker to me:
They served peanuts! (I can't even count how many years before this it has been since I have gotten peanuts on a plane!) I felt sort of weird opening the packet just in case some poor person with peanut allergies was near by.
For our first meal, the choices were Korean beef or chicken...I was hoping to try the Korean beef (only having had my first bite of Korean food a few days ago when Cath and the kids took me out to celebrate my Birthday early on Valentine's day). Unfortunately, they ran out of Korean beef in the row just in front of mine, so my choices were, "or chicken." The "or chicken" was pretty good, but no picture since it wasn't really that interesting. However, apparently Delta knows what's up with cheeses because they served Tillamook cheese from my home state of Oregon (which is begrudgingly second only to Cath's favorite cheese from the Cotswalds of England and it took me a while to admit that much my loyalty to Tillamook was so strong!) even though Detroit is right next to Wisconsin (where I've heard some folks take cheese very seriously, not that I would know anything about that).
While I was doing my after-dinner Sudoku {insert Catherine calling Paul a BIG nerd here} (I used to be pretty good at these puzzles when we lived in DC and I'd do the Metro Express puzzles), and the flight attendant spilled coffee on my leg (luckily it was not too hot). The poor flight attendant was very apologetic even though it was completely understandable given the turbulent environment in which she was pouring the stuff; I was kinda surprised they got anything into people's cups we were shaking so badly.
I think I must not have done a good job at expressing my lack of concern or there was a bit of a language barrier, because even though I said it's no big deal and don't worry about it (I just cleaned it up with some napkins and towelettes, she spent the next several minutes bringing me extra stuff she said worked better, which was very kind of her).
More sleeping and reading....
The second meal was a light lunch...the all-American Turkey sandwich. When we were given our sandwiches, the young Korean man next to me opened his sandwich and "examined" it (kind of opened it up to see the layers of meat and cheese, smelled it, and took a tiny bite), and then he looked at the mayo packet as though her was confused. (I had tried to introduce myself to him when he sat down, but he just shook his head and said "sorry" a couple of times, so I knew he didn't speak any English, so I knew I wasn't going to much help if I attempted to say anything to him.) He kind of paused for a moment and watched to see what I was going to do with my mayonnaise, and after watching me open the sandwich and tear open the packet to squeeze the contents onto my sandwich, the poor guy nodded to himself and dressed his sandwich with mayo too. (It's funny the cultural things I take for granted.)
More sleeping and reading...
The last meal of the flight was more Korean food, and in a turn of events had me watching my neighbor to see what to do with what I had been given. I thought I heard the flight attendant call the food "bip-bap", but found out later (thanks to Google)that it was bibimbap.
Bibimbap (Korean pronunciation: [bibimbap][1]) is a signature Korean dish. The word literally means "mixed meal" or "mixed rice". Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped withnamul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste). A raw or fried egg and sliced meat (usually beef) are common additions. The ingredients are stirred together thoroughly just before eating.[2] It can be served either cold or hot.
I watched my neighbor open a toothpaste-tube-looking package of red sauce (chili pepper paste I just found out) and squeeze it onto his meat and vegetables and then stir it all together with the rice (no fried egg for us), so I followed suit. It was pretty darn tasty, with just the right amount of heat.
Just when I thought my legs would never move again, we landed in Seoul (well actually Incheon)....YEAH!!!!
I cleared immigration and customs and then headed down to the USO (just a small desk at the end of the terminal) to catch my bus to Osan AB.
On the way, I saw a couple of familiar sights....
I guess doughnuts and juice are a universal language?
I won't bore you all with the rest of the evening, but I'll leave you with a Korean word for the day...
I don't know how to say STOP in Korean, but I'm determined to find out tomorrow. For now, I'm tired and could use a shower (like you would not believe), but it will have to wait until the morning.
Good night...............Paul (from Osan AB, South Korea)
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