Burr Burr Burr. Burr's the Word.

Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to fly to Osan Air Force Base in South Korea via C-130J. The squadron was nice enough to send a plane out there for dependents to have a place to go during spring break. Thank you, Marine Corps! The flight was only 2.5 hours from Okinawa and best of all, it was absolutely FREE!

Looking from my seat out the back of the plane. Those are all of our bags.

Ready for takeoff! L to R: Becky, Andromache, me, and Eve

The *ahem* lovely restroom facilities on board. A shower curtain wraps around for privacy. Needless to say, I was able to hold it! WOOHOO!

Our ride

I went with three other girls who have husbands in Brian's squadron- Andromache, Becky, and Eve. We left on Monday afternoon and once we landed in Osan, we took a $5 bus to Yongsan Army Base in Seoul. It was an hour bus ride before we arrived at The Dragon Hill Lodge, which was very nice and comfy! It was quite chilly compared to island life on Okinawa, so we bundled up a bit. I even saw snow a couple times while we were there (HUGE deal for a girl from south Texas)! We were also lucky enough to be there during the few weeks when these lovely trees were in bloom. I'm not sure what they are called. Anyone?


Once we got settled in, we took a taxi to a couple of shopping districts. The first was called Itaewon and was only about 5 minutes from the Army base...

Don't touch me.

Itaewon

We were a little excited to see a Cold Stone. And yes, even though it was 40 degrees outside we still got ice cream. And it was delicious.

After our ice cream and a little shopping, we took another cab into the main downtown area of Seoul. Feeling a little guilty for coming all the way to Korea and just having Cold Stone, we tried these steamed dumplings (below). One was filled with some sort of bean (disgusting) and the other was filled with pork and green onions. The "pork" one was alright, but I was so angry about the woman giving me the wrong change that I couldn't enjoy my $10 dumpling that should have been $1.

Dumplings

After the dumplings, we saw these and wished we had saved room. NOT.

Anyone in the mood for "McDelivery"? Americans sure would be in (even more) trouble if these were in the states.

Walking around downtown

We also saw these beautiful tulips downtown...

We walked around and shopped 'til we dropped. I found a Smoothie King and finally got to have the "Angel Food" smoothie I have been craving since I got pregnant! It was heaven in a cup. After even more shopping, we found a little Italian restaurant and had a late dinner before heading back to the hotel for the night in an $80 cab ride that took 10 minutes. (Long story short, we were shown a paper that said the rates and we knew it would probably be expensive, but weren't expecting EIGHTY DOLLARS. Once again, I got duped. I was starting to not like Korea by this point. Good thing they had Smoothie King and Cold Stone to make up for it.)

The next morning, we started off with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. I'm talking MOUNDS of whipped cream and strawberries for Belgian waffles and awesome eggs benedict! After stuffing ourselves silly, we hopped on the Seoul City Bus Tour ($10 for the day to hop on and off at any stops). On our way to the bus stop, it started snowing! :)

Becky & I walking to the bus stop

Market in downtown Seoul

Shopping MECCA

South Korean flags

Cool building downtown

Seoul Tower

Seoul Tower

After hopping on and off the tour bus and doing as much as we could, we took the same $5 bus back to Osan from Yongsan. By the time we got out to the shopping area outside of the Osan base, everything was closed. I was disappointed because I had heard they had some cool things for sale in the shops there. We were frozen (and it was snowing again!), so we found a cozy Thai restaurant and had a delicious, warm-your-belly dinner. We headed back to the hotel and tried a Korean facial mask that I had bought earlier in the day before going to bed early to catch our flight back the next morning.

Wednesday morning, we headed back to Okinawa on a C-130J and I was happy to be away from the cold, dry weather (although the snow was pretty neat)! This Texas girl is happy with heat and humidity any day!