Happy Chinese New Year---Tracy

Week of January 23-27

Happy Chinese New Year!

The Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as "Spring Festival," the literal translation of the Chinese name 春節. And without boring you with a long history lesson, it is essentially a week off of work (Mike too), spending time with family eating and shopping, much like our Christmas season. I have also provided a link for more explanation if you like.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

We spent the week getting some much needed R & R in Korea, more site seeing in Beijing and just learning to get round to get some of the necessities of life.  It seems that everything is a struggle here; where to find food, how to read what we are buying, even trying to get something for a headache is exhausting.  Taxis are even difficult to get.  There seems to be a competition between people standing on the sidewalks, in the street and even walking in the road, to get a taxi.  It wouldn’t be all the bad to wait for a taxi, but when it is 19 degrees out, you REALLY don’t want to stand around waiting!

I have a “taxi book”.  It is a small book that I keep in my purse that has about 100 of the most popular places to go in Beijing.   It is broken up in Grocery/Household stores, Apartments, (so we can find our friends), Embassy’s, Hospitals and just things like that for new comers.  Each page is in both English and Chinese, that way I can find where I want to go and then just show the taxi driver, and we’re off! 

I found that all my senses are being constantly bombarded and overloaded.   I am not yet able to filter out what is relevant and what to ignore.  I see, smell, and hear everything!   Being a person with ADD in a city of 20 million people is physically and mentally exhausting. 

The reason that we decided to head to Koreas was because our Chinese visas are still only the tourist type, so we have to leave the country every 30 days until our work visas are ready.  The duration of our stay doesn’t matter just as long as leave, we could even land have our passports stamped and turn right around and get on the next flight back to China.  But where is the fun in that?

So, we had to come up with where to go.  We had thought about Hong Kong.  But then I had an idea about Tokyo. It is not really that far and we could go to Disneyland, and get an American fix. Looking at the map I saw that Korea was even closer, only a two hour flight and we could stay at one of the American military bases and get a real American fix!    And that’s just what we ended up doing.   Once we settled on that, the ideas just started to flow of what we could do and get.  First and for most, I really needed a good Mexican meal!  Mike needed a good haircut and while we were at it why not get a pedicure, (for me).  Of course, we made a list of items to pick up at the PX, (Post Exchange, like a JC Penny’s) and a stopover at the base clinic for my persistent cough. 

We decided on Yougson Garrison Army Station in Seoul.  It was the closest military outpost to the Incheon Airport, and the biggest one with all the amenities that we were looking for.  It even had a Baskin Robbins, a must for all traveling destinations!

                                  The housing on the base reminded us of Kadena in Japan.

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I am really hoping you can read the fine print at the Elementary school parking lot.  You should be able to just click it to enlarge it.

 

View of the base from our hotel.

Once we landed in Seoul, with only 30 minutes to spare to catch our shuttle, we made a beeline to the USO. With us just about running through the airport, I looked back to see Mike slowing down as we neared a dough nut and ice cream shop.  From then on I had to keep a close eye on him.  WE WERE NOT GOING TO MISS THIS BUS FOR ICE CREAM!    Five minutes after we boarded the bus the driver shut the doors and off we went.  Yes, Mike got a stern look from me! 

It was about a 35 min ride through a very nice countryside.  There was way more water than I had expected, it was very must like the Northwest with the Puget Sound snaking its way here and there.  I knew Korea was on a peninsula but I did not know about all the little islands, it seemed like there was hundreds of them, they were everywhere!  There were a lot of bridges connecting the larger islands and there really was not that much traffic.  It was a nice reprieve from the traffic in Beijing.    

In the middle of this major city is a square piece of land that is Yougson Garrison.  It was kind of odd to see it right there in their city. A US military base taking up prime real-estate.  Hmmmm…?  We checked in at the Dragon Hill Lodge, dropped our bags off in the room and went to check things out.  It was really nice to see all the military men and women.  Most were Army, but there was a smattering of Marines and a dash of Air Force.   I felt like a kid in a candy store and did not know what to do first!  We found the barber shop and got Mike’s hair back in regulations, (it had been driving me NUTS!) and then off to the local Mexican restaurant for dinner.   We then stopped off at the front desk to get directions to the PX for some shopping.  It was then our best laid plans started to come unraveled.

 As it turns out, you need a ration card—sorry, old term.  It is really called a USFK (United States Forces Korea) Temporary Ration Control Plate.  It is to control the black market in Korea—they have a major problem with people buying things at the PX and then leaving the base and selling the stuff for a profit.  So, even if we have our Military ID cards and are authorized to shop at the PX or BX in the states, you still cannot shop at the PX or Commissary in any of the military bases in Korea without a rations card.  A rations card is only given to people living there, or that have official orders or if a sponsor is there with you. Well, to say that we were very disappointed would be an understatement.

Ok, no problem, plan B.   We asked her if we could rent a car and just head off base to do some shopping.  She said “yes, and if I could just see your international driver’s license we could get you going”. We said, “our what now?”   So much for plan B. 

At this point I am thinking, “I could be at Disneyland right now!” but keeping my cool, at least until I got back to my room was my priority. Once I was in the safe confines of our room did finally let out a  “IIIEEE AMMM SOO PISSSED OFF RIGHT NOW!”

Mike knew it was time to get out the lotion for a foot rub.  After that, and with me feeling better, we decided to head over to the hospital to have someone look at my throat.  I have always found it best to stop in the Emergency room about 7pm because most people are still having dinner and doing family stuff. We were the only ones there and it went very fast, once we got entered into the system (that part is important for later).  I got an x-ray and was given a clean bill of health, notwithstanding the three month old cough!   The Doctor, I will call him Doogie Howser, because of his very young age, gave me a nasty steroid drink, allergy medication, and some sort of antibiotics.  Dr. Howser did find us living in Beijing very interesting and shared his stories of living in Shanghai with us. 

Once back in our room, we decided that the next morning as soon as the office opens for the “Rations Card”, we would head over there and see if there was any way they could help us out.  

Thursday morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel, along with about 20 other army guys and then we headed over to take care of business.  We explained to the army Sergeant at the front counter that we were here about the ration control plates.  He asked to see our ID cards and after seeing that we were already in the system he said, “Ok, just look in this camera and we can set you up with a temporary one”.   We both looked at each other with the biggest grin ever!  We could not believe it!  Because we visited the hospital last might we now were part of the base and could get a rations card.  Woohoo!  Time to go shopping!

Mike did have to do a quick work conference call at 11AM, and I still needed to have my pedicure, have lunch, check out of our hotel, shop, and then catch the bus back to the airport by 3PM.  

I will not bore you with all that we got at the PX, but it mainly involved chocolate!   Chinese chocolate just is not the same. 

All in all it was nice to have a quick American fix and to recharge my batteries from the noise and chaos that is now my day to day life.

Back to China!