Driving

Hooray, hooray! Our van has arrived and is in our possession with Korean plates and everything. Andrew spent all of yesterday with one of his employees taking care of everything. First, he had to get some car insurance, then off to Pyeongtaek's DMV for temporary plates. They came back to Humphrey's for car tag and then headed up to Seoul and another base where the car was, caravan back to the DMV to switch temporary plates for actual plates. They were back to the office by 5pm. There is no way Andrew would have been able to accomplish all this in one day by himself. It really does help to have Korean nationals as employees.

And since our van arrived that meant I could no longer put off taking the written driving test. I don't know what I am afraid of. Oh yes I do...driving...in Korea. Let's just say they don't follow the rules that I was just tested on. They park pretty much any where, change lanes abruptly, merge in with out stopping. My favorite is that the children are taught to hold up there hand in a stopping motion and cars will stop. The test was easy if you read the manual. Most things are the same, a lot of the signs are similar. I think what I was most afraid of was being turned away*.
Besides the written test, there was a reflex part to test how quick you can put on the brake, eye check and 2 videos.I should be able to go tomorrow and pick up my license.


*You see, when you arrive there is a newcomers orientation that is mandatory to take before getting your license. Andrew and I went together but my name was not put on the list. So many things here are done by sponsorship (there are several different definitions for this but in our case it means Andrew is our sponsor because he is the employee) and so we didn't think my name needed to be put on the list. I didn't want to have to take the orientation again because it is boring and 90% of the information given does not pertain to civilians. Anyways, Andrew worked his magic and I was able to take the test

Awkward conversation of the year!

 When you have a toilet like this and the directions are in Korean, you are bound to have an awkward conversations. Enjoy the tale of the toilet and beware there maybe some TMI but you know it is a toilet I am talking about.

This special toilet is electric, seen above it is not plugged in but once plugged in there are many delightful settings.
The guy explaining all the functions kept a serious face as he was pointing to the buttons and telling me that one controls water pressure, that one is a mist vs spray, that buttons dries, this one massages, that one controls water temperature and best of all the seat is heated. The floors in the bathroom are not heated and cold to the bare feet but my bum will stay nice and toasty warm. And now you all know way too much about the toilet.

Otherwise, move in day was good. We are happy to have more space to move around in but miss the closeness of everything on base. I still feel like I am in la-la land since we have to little in all this space. The great thing is we are in walking distance to some friends and we have already been invited to dinner at our neighbors (they are American also and their son is in Sophie's class).

Andrew brought me home a fun new toy last night...an iPhone, Charlotte thinks it is hers. She is one savvy little girl. And I am finally brought up to spend on phones. We have had a pay per use phone for the last 5 years. Maybe I will be able to figure out the whole texting thing. It has been fun getting texts in Korean though.

And the winner is...

Well, maybe we will start with the losers.

1. There was this great house; huge kitchen, lots of space, great neighborhood. Everything was going for it, until we talked to the previous renters (one of Andrew's coworkers, go figure). Mold...she had to vacate due to mold and that just turned the place off.
2. Another great house but to get there was driving on a single lane dirt road with a good 2 foot drop off on each side. Just think of the mud on rainy days and driving on icy days. We do know that fire trucks can make it up that road (same coworker lives in these houses). And the bus stop was a long ways away, like 1/4 mile.
3. Boxed shaped houses with lots available. The building of houses/apartments is going quicker than condensing the American bases. The views were great on one side but the other side would just frustrate me to no end...looking over the security fence at the elementary school on base. It would be a great location if it was inside the fence. I could yell to Sophie but to get to her would be a good 10 minute drive.

And the WINNER is the highrise. Now I know that sounds crazy but there are a lot of good reasons for us to take it. And don't worry, there are rice paddies around and little patches of gardens everywhere because we are in the country. Land is a premium and it makes more sense to build up but they are catering to us Americans in the single family homes. Great things about the highrise is underground parking so no worry about scraping windows in the winter and getting into a scorching hot car in the summer. We are on the first floor and have a bonus bedroom on floor zero like the girls like to point out. There is an AMAZING playground (pictures to come later, it was dark when we saw it) out our window for the girls to use and a great place to ride bikes. We have friends within walking distance and know of at least one other family in the building. Andrew can walk/ride bus to work when needed. I have access to the local markets and we can walk to any of the local restaurants (once I get brave and we trade for some wons).

The Kitchen

I am ready for more space. On the counter is a water filtration system, that will be our drinking and cooking water. We solved the lack of dishwasher problem by having them put one in the large laundry room, it is right off the kitchen.

Living Room

Large

Master bedroom

Wall on the left is all closet space. We will have plenty of storage space

Master bedroom ceiling

Pretty. The unit in the wall is the AC

Master bathroom. What is not shown in the pictures is the little TV in the bathroom. Yes, that is right we can watch TV while taking a lovely bath. Plus it lets us know if someone is coming to the apartment.

Extra special toilet.

Fourth bedroom in basement

Other half of fourth bedroom

We didn't take pictures of the other 2 bedrooms or 2 bathrooms or some of the other great features of this place. The girls love it because of the play area and the "stage" in the dining room. There is an area to hold a table that you sit on the floor on mats. More pictures to come once we get moved in...soon...one more week if all goes as planned.

The housing office has to send someone over to make sure it is safe for us to live in. Then we will sign the lease, just as long as all our stipulations are included. Those would be unlimited utilities and cable and internet included in the rent price since this place falls below our housing allowance.

Our unaccompanied shipment has arrived and our household goods should arrive before the end of this year. Our big question is when will the van arrive. I hope sooner rather than later but then that means I will have to get my drivers license and drive (my biggest fear here). We are looking forward to leaving the lodge but it has been so convenient. But I am ready to get on with this show and feel apart of the community but that will also me to get over the feeling of being a double outsider. First I am an American in South Korea. Second I am a civilian's wife, not too many of those here.

Well, stay tuned for more updates.