Goodbye Korea, Hello Germany

DATE: 30 May 2003
LOCATION: Song Tan, Korea--Kaiserslautern, Germany

My last week in Korea was a lot of fun. I spent them drinking at Osan. It was a fitting end to a long year. The worst part about the military is leaving friends. The joy of leaving Korea was overshadowed by the thought I’d never see most of these people again. While I was overcome by a bizarre desire to stay longer, it wouldn’t do any good as everybody else would leave eventually. My last night culminated in a little bit of everything; a big dinner at a Thai restaurant, a movie and drinks at a friends house, country dancing and drinks at bar downtown, and then, when plied with enough booze, I did the “snake shot”, a drink of unknown ingredients poured from a bottle with a preserved snake in it. You’re supposed to take your shirt off when you take the shot, but I thought better of it. There wasn’t a lack of trying to convince me to on the part of the males however. I was supported in my decision to leave the clothes on by one of my female sergeants who kept yelling, “Don’t do it ma’am, you’re not a ho!” I was rewarded for my bravery with a t-shirt that reads “I did the snake shot at Ma Boogies 2004”. I wonder if I’ll actually ever wear it. The night ended at a dance club—the same club my flight ends almost every night out. Close to my entire flight came to say goodbye. At that moment I couldn’t remember why I wanted to leave so bad.

As I woke up to get on the plane the next morning with a pounding headache and sore limbs, I remembered why I needed to leave. As the plane took off, I expected a cheer to go up. We were all leaving behind a long year away from family and friends. A girl behind me clapped twice, but that was the extent of the elation. I wanted to cheer, but all that happened were a couple of tears running down my cheek. What a long, horrible, wonderful, frustrating, rewarding, lonely, fascinating, year. I never want to do it again.

So long, Korea. It's been real. It's been fun. But it has not been real fun...

I arrived at SeaTac airport without incident, and spent 2 quick days in Seattle with family. I ate salmon, went to a coffee shop, shopped, sat and watched rain outside the window, and attended my sister’s wedding shower. It was good. Then a flight to Baltimore, where another military flight would take me to Frankfurt. We arrived around noon, and the weather was perfect. Everything was perfect. The landscape and houses are out of picture books, blue sky, fast freeways, nice people.