Ahn nyeong ha se yo

That's the formal way to say hello in Korean. It took me forever to get it right. Ok, I (Jess) have officially taken over the blog and I will do my best to update it regularly. I know many of you want to know what's going on all the way over here so I will try to keep you informed. As you probably already know by now, after many months of waiting Matt and I got a command sponsorship which is what brought me over to Korea on May 1st. It was a mix of emotions for me, excitement to see Matt and experience new things, and sadness at leaving behind family, friends, and everything known to me. When I finally got here (after a 15 hour plane ride) I was definitely in culture shock. Everything looked, smelled, sounded, and tasted different here. Over the next few days I slowly got used to everything and I now feel pretty settled. I will never be able to call Korea home, but I am excited to spend two years here and experience everything.
Let me fill you in on a little bit about Korea. First of all, no one follows traffic laws. Koreans stop when they are not supposed to stop and go when they are not supposed to go. It is very common to run red lights here. Buses think that they have to the right to do whatever they want. And they will. You have to be on your game when you drive around here, because you never know what you are going to see. Matt and I always laugh about the way traffic is directed around a construction site. Someone will be holding a neon stick to direct but they don't know how to use it. They will twirl it around in circles, wave it up and down, side to side, whatever. So you never know what they are trying to tell you. Some even sit on the sidewalk and wave it from there. It is really very funny to see. Everyone in Korea is very nice. Many Koreans speak at least some English, but a lot of times you have to get creative. I have learned only a few words...thank you, yes, no, hello...the basics. Every five days there is a market day in our ville. We call the towns right outside of the military bases villes. At market day all kinds of things are being sold by street vendors. You will find fresh fruit, anything raw (fish, crab, eel, squid etc.) clothes, pots/pans, plants, shoes and much more. It's really fun to walk around and look at everything. They have stands where they sell treats that you can sample. I have found a couple that I like.
We have gotten the chance to see a bit of Seoul, which is an incredible city. There is tons of shopping, and eating to be done there. Itaewon is the ville outside of the Yongsan gate in Seoul. It is a popular place for foreigners to visit. It has lots of American restaurants, streets of bars and pubs, and much more shopping. There is still much to be seen and we have a long list of what we want to do. There will be many more things for me to tell you about soon. Tomorrow I am going on a "social" with the wives in Matt's company. We are going to the tea fields to pick tea leaves and brew our own tea. It should be really fun and I promise to take lots of pictures and tell you all about. We send all our love to all of you!