Let the Adventures Begin!

  It's been a long time, but I feel the need to document this adventure that we are on! In case you didn't know we are now living in South Korea! My last post had us living in a Germany, but we have moved a couple of times since then. After Germany, we spent two years in Louisiana, two years in Texas and about 11 months in Rhode Island. In a perfect world, I would upload all the photos from our many adventures during that time. But, for now I am going to try to stay up to date on this grand adventure. 

   We arrived in South Korea at the end of June after many hours of traveling and have been trying our best to get settled and start our new normal. At the moment, all three kids are in school and finding friends and activities to keep them busy. I am trying to get myself settled and plan all our new adventures! 

   For as long and stressful as the journey was, the kids did great! The oldest two are pros at traveling and navigating airports and the TSA. The baby (who is not a baby anymore) travels like a rock star. 

We arrived in Boston for our flight to Seattle with 14 bags to check, 1 gate check bag, 5 carry-ons, and 5 backpacks! We checked in and made it through security in record time. Our flight to Seattle was great, but once we landed all the 'hurry up and wait' fun began.           

We had over 12 hours before we could recheck our luggage, so we tried to hang out at the USO for while, but is was crazy busy and someone likes to be early, so we ended up floor camping near the area we would be checking in at. 

About 19 hours (thanks to few delays) after landing in Seattle we took off for South Korea.

About 45 minutes into the flight we were told we would be returning to Seattle due to mechanical issues. 

We spent the next two hours burning off fuel before we could land. 

After landing we were told our flight would not be departing till tomorrow and in this day

and age it means that we had to re-do our Covid 19 testing.

We got in line to do in at the airport, but an employees at the site told us they not be able to get us all tested (150 people) before they closed for the day. We took an Uber to a testing site and finally made it it to our hotel at about 8pm. We grabbed a quick meal and got a few hours of sleep (2 hours), before we had to get up and start the 'hurry up and wait' all over again. 

This time we were green to go!

                                              

 Happy to be on a plane and on our way to South Korea

                                                   

This little guy slept almost the whole flight! He was awake for maybe an hour on the first part

and after a quick layover in Japan he went to back to sleep for the next two hours of our flight.

The older two played video games, read, ate and slept their way to South Korea. I didn't hear anything from them during the flight. The husband did some sleeping, eating and watching TV and for me I didn't do much of anything. I cannot sleep on flights when I have my family with me, so I did a lot of people watching on the plane.

After landing in SK we had more 'hurry up and wait' before picking up all of our luggage and taking a bus to new location. After arriving there we had to do more paperwork and another Covid test before arriving

at our new to us home. The Hubby's new coworkers were amazing and made sure we had a home to go to instead living in the hotel for a while. They also had our loaner furniture delivered and even put some basic groceries in the house for us. We all quickly passed out from exhaustion. After reading all that, here is the quick version of our journey to South Korea.

We left RI on 6/25 at 6am to head to the airport in Boston and finally go to our new house on 6/28 at around 8pm. It was a long and exhausting trip, but we are all excited for this new adventure!

I am going to try my best to update this blog often, because I really enjoy looking back at the pictures. It really is my version of a scrapbook for the kids. 

Oh Happy Day

We got our stuff!

59 days after we said goodbye

and the truck pulled away

4 trucks pulled up with all our household goods.

 We said 'auf wiedersehen'

to our temporary furniture

 and started the long process of unpacking.

 Opening each box was like Christmas

because you never knew what the

movers put in each box.

 Some boxes come with more wrapping paper

than appliances and other boxes get none!

Let's put two knife blocks with very

sharp knives in a box with

NO PAPER!

~SMART~

 Let's only pack half of something.

After the movers left the house we found the

knife to this, but could not find the board.

We found the board!

It made it to Germany, but the knife

is hanging out with Grandpa in the states!

 Even with a million boxes to unpack and lots

to do we always find the time to be a little silly!

The truth is we need to laugh a lot

or we would go crazy during this PCS!

We are about 95% unpacked and started to paint.

Once we are done I will take more pictures of our home.

The car made it about 10 days late along with tire damage.

Once we get that fixed

we will start to travel.

What do you do?

What do you do when you

have no car, no households goods and it rains a lot???

You bake!!!!

I hope to be back to blogging soon.

I am really behind.

This move to Germany

has got me all out of whack!

Our New Home!!!

We have moved into our new home!

I am so happy to finally know

where we will live for the next few years!

 (At the playground of the lodge)

 The long hallway to the right after you

come in the front door.

Our room is at the very end.

 Mr. Man in his room before the

 'temporary furniture' came.  

We received beds, a kitchen table w/ chairs,

couch, two chairs and a couple of end tables.

This is all we have until our stuff comes on the

slow boat!! 

 The master closet!!!

It is a walk in!!!!!!

 About five days after we moved in

we got our quick ship!!!

It felt like Christmas to me!!!!

 Dishes!!!

With that came a limited amount of kitchen items

so I could cook!!!!!!

 My coffee pot!!!!!!

I feel like a real person now that I can

have my coffee each morning!

So far we are learning our way around

the town.

A few things to anyone who wants to travel

to this area keep in mind:

1. Wifi- No free wifi like in states. I could get free wifi

at my kids school, coffee shop, any place I went, but

that is not the case here.

2. Public bathrooms~ If you can find one be ready to pay

to go potty.

3. No free water~ When you go out to eat you get bottled water. No free

tap water. Water is the same price as soda, and beer is only a few cents more.
 We realized we drink a lot of water.

4. Spring Water~ I can only find one type of spring water in the stores. Lots of filtered

tap water and bubbly water, but spring water is hard to find.

5. No free phone calls~ Even with a German home phone

calls to another German phone we have to pay.

6. No instant gratification~ Get a cell phone wait 5 hours before you can use it.

Cable will not work, wait up to 24 hours for someone to call you to make the

appointment to come out and fix it.

(That will be a few days later)

It is just a learning curve!

We are working it out.

It may take me a while,

but we learn something new each day.

I still can not believe that we are here!

As we walked around the farmers market one Saturday

I looked at Mr. PC and asked him if it has sank in yet?

We are living in Germany and going

to get to travel all of Europe.

The Army life might suck sometimes,

but this is one main perk of the Army life.

Once we get Mr. PC's work schedule

and figure out schooling for

the kids I am going

to start planning out trips!!!!



Planes and Trains

We have made it to Germany!!!

We have been here for about 5 days.

The kids and Mr. PC have adjusted to the time

change with no problem.

I, on the other hand, am still a night owl, but now wake up

between 3am -5am.

I have only been getting about 4 hours of sleep each night.

The first flight of our trip was an easy one.

It was only 90 minutes.

 Everyone was in a great mood and

the kids did awesome on the flight.

We got to BWI around 2pm and

had to collect all our luggage.

We had 11 checked bags, 2 gate checked bags,

and 4 carry-ons.

We dropped all the stuff off at the USO

and went to find some food.

We ran into our first hiccup.

The flight to Germany did not leave till 5:20am

the next morning and we could not check in till 11:20pm.

Why is that a problem?

Most of the food is after security.

We found the only sit-down place to eat on the open side

and grabbed some food.

Not the best, but when you are hungry

anything will do!

With many hours until check-in and

the USO getting packed with people and luggage

we picked up our luggage and camped out

by the check-in area.

In a sea of Air Force personnel,

the only few Army folks managed

to find each other and hang out.



(Not even all the luggage)

We got in line to check in around 10pm and just hung out on the

 floor till check in started at 11:20 pm.

It took us about 45 minutes to check in as our tickets were

all jacked up.

This little guy crashed by our feet while

we were checking in.

Once we had our tickets we moved him

to a chair and waited till the security checkpoint opened

Once we passed security everyone was done!

It was around 1:30am!!!!

The Diva had been going so strong,

but when she hit the ground she was out in about two seconds.

We got back up around 3:30 to get ready to

board the plane at 4:10am.

Somehow we got business class.

I think we got more room

and we each had our own TV.

The breakfast on the plane was awesome,

 but lunch/dinner was just ok.

Mr. PC and Diva sleep for almost

 the whole flight, only

getting up to eat.

Mr. Man sleep for about 80% of it and I

sleep maybe half of the flight.

After we landed we did customs

and a lot of hurry up and wait,

Army style.

The kids and I got on a bus to the lodge (90 minutes away)

and Mr. PC rode in with his "sponsor".

We took the long bus route home!

The driver had no clue where the lodge was.

The kids and I made it to the room around 10:40pm.

We all wanted to eat, but quickly found out nothing was open!!!

Not even a gas station to grab some junk.

The next morning Mr. PC went to work

and the kids and I set out on foot,

buy some food.

We averaged about 6 plus miles a day

on foot, exploring the town.

The car is on the slow boat

and Mr. PC can not get an

appointment for a driving test till

the end of July.

We found the town square

 and it has a AWSOME

famer's market and lots of shops.

I managed to buy train tickets

and we explored the next town over.

 (on the train)

Still have not managed to get

cell phones.

The shop is either closed

or out of sim cards.

We should move into

our "house" this week.

It will be nice to start making

it our own.

We will get loaner furniture,

till ours arrives.

Hopefully it will not

take to long.

The kids are doing great!

Their life as been turned upside down.

Pretty much everything they own

is on the slow boat here.

They manage to laugh, smile,

and just roll with it.

When I know my way around

a little better I will start to take the

real camera  with us.

Till then it's just cell phone pictures.

All in all not a bad to start to our

new adventure.



Unaccompanied Baggage

Did you all know we are PCSing to Germany?

In early November Mr. PC was told we

could PCS to Germany if we wanted to.

The PCS list had not been released yet, so

it was kind of a gamble, but our family motto is

Go big or go home!

We jumped at the chance to make the move.

After what has felt like forever we are down to less than 60 days

before we jump onto a plane.

The last few weeks have been non-stop.

Lists, lists and more lists have been the story of my life.

The first thing I had to decide was what to put

in our unaccompanied baggage.

This is our quick shipment

that goes by air.

It had to be under 2000 pounds

and needed to be "essential" items

to set up your home.

I think I made about 20 lists just for

this one shipment.

A coffee pot and coffee was always

at the top of my list.

 School supplies, towels and sheets made list.

 We picked a few games  and few other

odds and ends.

I am sure I picked nothing that we will need

and shipped everything that we do need by boat.

 I have stressed and stressed about what to pack,

what to ship and what to store.

At the end of the day as long

as we are together

it will all work out!!

We are moving to Germany!

The four of us are going to have blast.

We plan to spend the next three years

traveling all over Europe.