Lurking more. Timezones sometimes suck...

[audette]

So I'm listening to Monday Morning Football while at work (no MLK day for me, although DH has today off, so he's still sleeping).

I've noticed I lurk a lot more since the move, mostly due to the timezone shift - it's hard to participate when you are half a day off of the majority of the board. 

I'm also getting used to being a half day off from my company's office.  Tomorrow I have a 4:30am teleconference call.  Blech!


So far, I'm enjoying Korea, though.  I could wish for warmer weather, so that exploring was less chilly, but that'll come in time.

[Deleted]

How long are you in Korea, and what are you doing there? Miltary?

[audette]

DH is military. I am "command sponsored" to be here with him. We'll be here for 2-3 years. (currently set for 2 years, but we can request an additional year, which we are considering doing)

[Roc A Bee]

Wow I didn't realize you were going to be there for so long. What's your favorite part so far?

[audette]

Jan 20, 2013 19:45:23 GMT -5 Roc A Bee said:

Wow I didn't realize you were going to be there for so long. What's your favorite part so far?

Tough call - we've only been here two weeks! 

I like the transit.  Also, it's snowing right now.  It's been a long time since I lived in a place where people didn't freak out about snow.

There's lots of food exploration to do...  We've barely scratched the surface so far.

It looks like there will be some awesome hiking once it gets warmer.

Infloor heating is nifty.  I just wish it extended into the bathrooms in our apartment.  Other than that (and the teensy oven), we have a very nice apartment that is covered by DH's housing allowance.

The people we have met here so far have been very nice - both the Americans we have run into on base, and the Koreans we have met (although there definitely is a language barrier...  I need to learn some basic Korean... thank you and hello isn't cutting it...).

[Deleted]

That's very cool. You'll get to do some cool exploring - and an interesting launch point for many travels in that part of the globe!

How did you even begin to pack for this assignment?

[Raggedeannie]

You and I should start an Asia board (I'm in Bangkok since October, and have about a month left before I head home)! I've lurked a teeny bit on the International living board, but not enough to get a good feel of where everyone is located.

Have you visited or lived in Asia before?

[audette]

Jan 20, 2013 20:06:36 GMT -5 smileyface said:

That's very cool. You'll get to do some cool exploring - and an interesting launch point for many travels in that part of the globe!

How did you even begin to pack for this assignment?

Thankfully, the military does the packing.    However, they only authorize half of the normal moving weight allowance, and loan us furniture here to make up the difference.  Little did we know that that furniture loan is family-size dependent, so we will be working with minimal furniture while here (most of our furniture was packed up and left in storage back in the US, on the military's dime, for the time we will spend here).  For example, we are only authorized one bed, even though back in the US we normally have two - one for us, and one for guests.  We also, are only allowed four dining chairs, even though the tables they have to loan out seat 6-8 (it's a huge table, so only four chairs feels rediculous).  They grudgingly let us have two nightstands so that DH and I could each have one.

It's weird.

Other than that, we left behind most of the electronics we own that are 110V (some are dual voltage, so we brought those).  We're living off-base here, and the local grid is 220V.  Anything 110 needs to be run on a transformer, and there are limits to what I want to do with a transformer.  So right now, I have no kitchen electronics.

We brought most of our things that were not electronics or furniture, plus a few things like our own mattress/box spring and some shelves.  However, it takes a couple months for our stuff to make it over here, so right now we basically have what we could fit in two suitcases each, and the small "unaccompanied baggage" shipment that is strictly size/weight limited and only takes about a month to get here...


We're definitely hoping to do a bit of travelling from here.  We're not completely sure what DH's schedule will work out to be yet, but hopefully we can swing some travel...

[audette]

Jan 20, 2013 20:12:26 GMT -5 Raggedeannie said:

You and I should start an Asia board (I'm in Bangkok since October, and have about a month left before I head home)! I've lurked a teeny bit on the International living board, but not enough to get a good feel of where everyone is located.

Have you visited or lived in Asia before?

I've visited Asia before, for work, but not Korea.  I've been to Bangkok, Tokyo, and a couple cities in India.  This is my first time living here, though.  We have base access, though, so we do have decent access to expat resources, which should help with homesickness to some extent.

I lurk over on the international board, too, but it's pretty slow, and it looks like there's a lot more folks in Europe than Asia on there.

[Raggedeannie]

Holy smokes, Audette- your housing situation sounds like mine except I've only had to deal with a fairly empty and very sparsely furnished apartment for a few months. I have 4 transformers (Embassy provided) and plug most things (cell phones, laptop, hair dryer/straightener) into it. I have a coffee pot that was purchased locally so can plug straight into the wall.

Since you're there two years, are there some gadgets (a hand mixer is one I wish I had) locally for not too much $?

I had quite a shopping itch when I first got here since bringing only 2 suitcases left me feeling like I'd hardly brought anything - clothes in particular. I bought a few dresses and skirts and ordered a pair of shoes online.

Are you in/near Seoul or somewhere else?

[womet]

Glad to hear that you're settling in. When my parents were stationed overseas (Germany), they often bought things from other expats that they needed but didn't have. Like extra transformers or 220 appliances. And when they got ready to move back, they sold them to someone else. Hopefully you'll be able to do the same to make it a little easier on you.

[audette]

Jan 20, 2013 20:57:43 GMT -5 Raggedeannie said:

Holy smokes, Audette- your housing situation sounds like mine except I've only had to deal with a fairly empty and very sparsely furnished apartment for a few months. I have 4 transformers (Embassy provided) and plug most things (cell phones, laptop, hair dryer/straightener) into it. I have a coffee pot that was purchased locally so can plug straight into the wall.

Since you're there two years, are there some gadgets (a hand mixer is one I wish I had) locally for not too much $?

I had quite a shopping itch when I first got here since bringing only 2 suitcases left me feeling like I'd hardly brought anything - clothes in particular. I bought a few dresses and skirts and ordered a pair of shoes online.

Are you in/near Seoul or somewhere else?

Yes, we plan on buying some 220V appliances - I'm mentally putting together a list...  Hand mixer, stick blender, coffeepot, toaster, rice cooker and crockpot.  220V appliances do seem to be more expensive than 110V, but we'll be here for a while.  I'm even toying with getting a small deep freezer, if I can find one that isn't crazy expensive.

Our laptops and phones and such all are dual voltage, though - we don't need to run them thru a transformer, just adaptors so the plugs can fit.  We did get local cell phones, too.

I'm a larger size, so buying clothes here might be difficult.  I managed to include enough between the suitcases and unaccompanied baggage that I'm not itching to buy clothes, but the lack of kitchen equipment is getting to me... DH does have an APO address, so we can do some online ordering when we need to - he's already ordered new running shoes.

As for location, we're about 30km north of the center of Seoul.  Yes, this does mean we are also about 30km from the DMZ.  I have been briefed on the evac procedures if all hell breaks loose, although there are still a few more details I need to find out about that. Whee!

[audette]

Jan 20, 2013 21:07:05 GMT -5 womet said:

Glad to hear that you're settling in. When my parents were stationed overseas (Germany), they often bought things from other expats that they needed but didn't have. Like extra transformers or 220 appliances. And when they got ready to move back, they sold them to someone else. Hopefully you'll be able to do the same to make it a little easier on you.

Yeah, I'm working on getting into the appropriate networks to find out about things like this.  This area has only been open to families for a short while, so there is a limit to what is available, but I'm hoping we can get some of the items we want second hand.  I've already been offered a transformer from a friend we've made that will be leaving in April...

[Raggedeannie]

The APO is magical. Again, I'm only out here on a 4-month TDY but the APO has really been a godsend on a couple of occasions. Free shipping with Amazon Prime! You can't get stuff in 2 days, but Amazon stuff usually comes within one week of ordering. People here seem to order stuff quite a bit, everyone is always getting packages from Amazon and other US vendors.

Are you working today? No MLK for you? Surely your H is off, right?

ETA: Uhhhh reading fail - sorry you have to work!