Update again!

It feels on some days that this year is going by like the speed of light, and other days like a snail. B returned home from Iraq (Praise God!) in August to our first house in G-town. Thankfully he liked it. Sight unseen! Except for pictures via e-mail. We had a few weeks at home alone together and then it started...school for E and emergency medicine residency for B...

Needless to say, it has been a crazy busy time. We are both learning so much. We make the most of the time we have together, even though it can be limited on some weeks. So, the adventures have taken a decidedly less international flavor, and now are more domestic. Except when we make our own sushi or pad thai. OR go to our favorite sushi/Thai food restaurant!

Update

So...B is in the sandbox and E is moving into our first house!

Exciting stuff. Of course, Lucy is here too and making everything more fun. Here are some recent photos. My mom made B a curtain for his clinic - of course, it had to be Aggie in theme. These are some beautiful roses sent by B because he missed me! Awesome guy!

So such is our exciting life right now. It is a blessing!

Looking for Paul Pineda

Paul, if you see this would you write back on the comments section with your e-mail address? That would be great.
Thanks,
EC

We're in Texas now!

Hi, we moved last September back to Texas! Yay! I'll hopefully be better about updating the blog. Who knows!

Fall in Seoul

Here are some pictures of Seoul in the fall. The best part is getting out of the city and seeing the mountains covered with reds, oranges, yellows and even purples. These featured pictures are from a day trip I made with a new friend, Wendy from New Zealand, to the Seoul Contemporary Arts Museum. It was a really amazing place. I'm getting into acrylic painting a little so I love seeing what's going on at contemporary arts museums. The museum itself is surrounded by lovely trees and statues. We prided ourselves on being "adventurous" and eating lunch at a humble Korean restaurant - complete with a rooster walking in and out and some stray kittens hanging out. The mandu (dumpling) soup was very good, especially on a chilly day.

EFMB on the DMZ, Hooah!

Above 1) Finishing the Road March. Yes, the pack is heavy. Yes, walk/running 12 miles with it sucks. I don't even like to drive 12 miles.
2) Tired but finished and happy. I'm gonna get quality time with my wife.
3) The final 7
4) My Swedish Twin? No, this is my battalion commander. My excuse for the glasses is that my normal pair broke and this is what I was forced to wear. Some how the glasses work for him. But I look like a Mexican Erkel.

Barret here now. So the last 12 days, I've been completing the Expert Field Medic Badge. It is a week of train-up and a week of testing over different aspects of combat medical care. Not Special Forces, but not easy by any stretch. We were tested on day and night land navigation. Yes, for those of y'all who have driven with me in the past, I was able to find all my points (with lots of help from my platoon). We also tested on an obstacle course with a patient on stretcher, emergency evacuation of patients on different vehicles and aircraft, decontamination during a chemical attack, weapon's qualification, emergency medical treatment, a written test, and a 12 mile road march. There were 167 soldiers who started and 7 of us who completed the course.

Funny pictures from the road

Captions for pictures 1-5...

1. Barret thought this guy was one BAD dude...on a scooter

2. I thought the safety-flag-waving machine was great, and economical.

3. Bridge over a channel on the way - really cool.
4. A ship "passing in the night" (I think at a hotel on the way)
5. This was from a previous bus trip I took with my friend Sabrina...look both ways before you cross the street or watch out!!!

Seoul Drum Festival

On October 9, Sunday night, we went downtown to City Hall with our friends Erica and Eric to watch the Drum Festival. The Seoul Plaza right there by city hall has a large area where they set up a stage and lay out mats to sit on. We were surrounded by a pretty international crowd. The first group was an American Jazz group. I guess they were invited because they had drums and a bongo player. They were okay - good for chatting. Then we saw a guys group from Korea do a whole drum/dance sequence with regular drums, bongos, etc and with plastic drums. They had choreographed fire bursts, light and video going on around them. It was really impressive. The next act - not so cool - The Swedish Duo. Yeah. So we went to Duncan Donuts for coffee.

Seoul Plaza also has a lighted water fountain that I thought was cool. Reminded me of those "Light-and-Bright" toys from way back. We were really excited to get out and do something in Seoul. We kind of get into a "movies and dinner" rut. So now we're going to be looking for more things to do "out" in Korea.

Road trip to Malipo Beach

Barret was off for Columbus day so we decided to take a little road trip to the West Coast of Korea. We threw Lucy in the car, drove 3 hours and ended up at Malipo beach. It was a great and needed break - a good time had by all. I've included some pictures of the road trip and Lucy having a ball. This was her first time at the beach and she had a blast. We ate dinner that night on the seawall. The waitress brought over some raw shrimp after we failed terribly at reading the all-Korean menu. Through sign language, she helped us order steamed shrimp with the traditional Korean side dishes. They were actually more exotic than we had had before - cold conch from the shell, a new seaweed we hadn't tried, small speckled hard-boiled eggs. Plus your traditional kim-chee - spicy, vinegary cabbage. The shrimp was steamed inside a pan coated with coarse salt over a little gas burner on our table. It was great eating with the sound of the waves next to us! We were pretty proud of being so adventurous (for us) with the eating.

Road trip - 2nd part

I wanted to add a few more pictures. The beach was really pretty, clean and had great blue and orange starfish. I also found beautiful rocks and filled up my pockets.

Welcome to Adventures in Korea....with E and B

E here... Well, this whole blogging thing is a new experience for me. I haven't been keeping a good journal of our time overseas...so I thought, maybe I could start writing things down here. Add the stories along with our pictures. We keep having random, funny experiences and I forget who I've told, who I haven't. This way, we can share the random things that happen with the folks who love us and know us best.
AND you can write comments on the stories if you like.
I'm not sure how often I'll post things. We'll see....