Spring time in Seoul

Hello everyone :o)  Hope you all are doing great!  Things in Korea are finally starting to warm up & the trees, flowers are actually blooming.  Korea has one of the prettiest springs.  It is amazing moving from Florida and having no seasons..to North Carolina with beautiful seasons..to Seoul, South Korea with even more exaggerated seasons!  I definitely feel fortunate (even on my bad days) to have had the opportunity to see so much so far (and hopefully there is a lot more to come!)  Below are some pictures of some of the trees around here that are blooming and are so awesome..the pictures don't do it justice at all.

There are Cherry Blossom festivals this weekend..so Mike and I are going to try and go to those.  There are a few blooming at the other base in Yongsan that are probably the prettiest things I have ever seen.  Can't wait for the festival.

Speaking of cherry blossoms, as you guys know, we scheduled to get pictures by a military wife photographer here.  She is awesome and comes very highly recommended.  WELL, we initially scheduled during the time of the cherry blossoms..because they were supposed to be bloomed by now.  Since we had a colder winter this year, they are blooming a lot later.  So we didn't actually get any pictures of the blossoms in but it's no big deal.  She took over 350 pictures so don't freak out..there are PLENTY of just Mike and all that because many of you seem to think it was all about me.  She has only sent me a total of 2 pictures so I could put on my Facebook.  Hopefully she'll be done editing by this weekend so I can send a few out.

Another thing I forgot to post about was before I went to Okinawa, a woman who works for the bank down south got married.  She is Korean and he is in the Army, I think.  They had a "traditional" westernized wedding as well as a traditional-style Korean wedding.  We were all invited!  It was the coolest experience.  I guess nowadays, it is really rare to carry on the traditional Korean wedding.  This was the first wedding all of the women I went with had ever been to (so I got pretty lucky).  Here are a few pictures...

Despite not knowing a thing of what anyone was saying (either did the groom) it was still really neat!  The reception food consisted of German-style food (for his taste), but mostly Korean style with Kimchi, Chop-chae (kind of a noodle mix), Kimbap (sushi..without the sushi) and so on.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week & weekend.  Love you all!

Britt & Mike

It's Spring time!

Good morning/afternoon/evening !

Well, it is definitely spring time here in Seoul.  The Cherry Blossoms are finally starting to bud (some blooming) along with all of the other little flowers and plants.  It has been nice seeing everything turn from brown to green!  I hear Korea is prettiest in the Spring & Fall, so this year I will be able to compare the 2.  My first official "work week" back was good.  It was really nice to see my coworkers again, they are always so sweet.  Nothing too terribly exciting happened this week.  I don't know if I mentioned this but Mike and I are getting professional pictures taken by a military wife, who is actually an amazing photographer, tomorrow early evening.  I was hoping the blossoms would be in full bloom by then but since we had a really cold winter they were a little late this year.  But, I'm just excited we are getting pictures.  We are doing it in the Seoul Tower park (remember the tower post I made).  I will post them after  she sends me the final edited CD.

So, I know I didn't dive too much into Okinawa..mainly because I have so much to say about it!  I still miss it a lot and would love to go back and visit sometime before we leave Korea.  

Here is the first (of many) official plate of REAL Japanese sushi we ate, along with our "Happy" coke can.  I drank like 5 cans of coke/day because the Coke in Korea is disgusting but in Japan..it was normal...delicious 

Flying into Okinawa was really neat because it is such a small island..I had to snap a picture!

During the work week, we didn't do a whole lot since we wouldn't get back to the hotel till around 6 PM.  We did find a restaurant though that was absolutely amazing, great drinks, food, and such awesome people that made us feel at home in Okinawa!  The funny thing about this place (called Transit cafe) is on our very first night in Okinawa we were starving..so we walked down the street looking for a place to eat.  The only people we saw on the Sea wall was upstairs.  So we thought, hey lets just go up there.  WELL, the next morning, our trainer asked where we went to eat.  We told her, "Umm, I think the place was called Transit".  And she like freaked out saying that was the HIT place in Okinawa.  What are the odds!

Ugh, I could go on & on :o)  I hope everyone is doing great and has a great weekend ahead.  We love you and miss you always!

My time in OKI-nawa

HELLO everyone!!  Sorry it has been so long since I have done a blog post, I forgot my camera charger when I left for Japan so I didn't have any way to post pictures of the amazing Okinawa.  I did learn that Okinawa is properly pronounced OKEE-NAWA.  They call it the "Oki lifestyle".  Let me just start off by saying this place is amazing!  It would be how I would picture Hawaii would be.  Everyone is so laid back, friendly, and overall just happy.  Needless to say, I definitely want to go back and visit.  My trainer was AMAZING.  She was so sarcastic and we had so many laughs together.  In fact, my stomach is still sore from laughing so hard over the 2 weeks I was there.  She took us to all these different restaurants, stores, you name it.  I did try the "real" sushi and LOVED it.  It is so much more fresh and good here than back in the states (but that won't keep me from eating it there :o) ).  I actually traveled with another Army wife, they live up North.  The other 2 women took a different flight.  We both love sushi and couldn't wait so we had it in the airport in our layover at Osaka-Kansai Airport.  

We trained at Kadena Air Force Base located about 3 miles from our hotel (but always costed as around $15.00 each way, sometimes more).  Kadena is a beautiful base, really spread out, which is practically the complete opposite of Korea.  The training was primarily based upon anti-money laundering, things of that sort.  I learned a ton.  I think one of the most appealing parts of the trip was being about to be surrounded by Americans, or even just English-speaking coworkers.  Japan doesn't hire local-nationals, so it is all Americans in the banks (which was so refreshing).  It was almost like a women's retreat, hanging out and making overall life-long friendships with these women!  There is SO much to talk about in my trip but I'll just keep it simple for now.  

I'm sure a lot of you are wondering about the radiation and things of that sort.  What's funny is that Okinawa is like its' own separate entity.  No one talks about any of that, mainly because they had no effect.  However, they were doing a lot of money raising for the victims and restructure from the Tsunami and Earthquake.  Because of everything that was going on, the Yen (their currency), was very strong compared to the dollar.  We lost about .15 to .20 on average per $1.  That was killer!  

Here are a few pictures of Okinawa..I will do plenty more posts with more!  Love you guys!