6 more years & our new duty station!

Helloooo everyone

:o)

Hope everyone is doing great & things on 'that side of the pond' are going well!  Things in Korea are good..getting colder by the day.  Fortunately, we are still able to pull of wearing shorts during the day but you can forget it at night or in the morning!  Don't know if we are quite ready for that yet.  We are still Floridians-weather-wise at heart :)

So Monday, Mike officially swears in to the Army for 6 more years (at least).  His new date to get out (and hopefully not) is 2020.  Feels weird even typing that number!  But we are very excited & appreciative for both the journey, as well as the job security.  WHICH brings me to my next point...drumroll...our next duty station.  The Army has opened up the amazing opportunity for us to be in.....

We will be in Germany October of next year and staying for at least 3 years.  If we like it, you usually (though it can be iffy) can extend for an additional 2 or 3 years.  Mike is set to deploy June of 2014 if we go to this one particular base (and no, I don't plan on coming home for the deployment besides for a visit).  It looks as if we will be in either Ansbach (central Germany), Wiesbaden (I believe more south-western near the Austrian border), or Landstuhl (around 45 minutes from France).  

We are very excited for our upcoming adventures but are still looking forward to traveling Asia a bit more and experiencing this side of the globe before heading to a COMPLETELY different way of life.  

Talk about brain confusion..I told Mike I'm going to be bowing (what they do in Korea instead of waving) and saying 'Gamsamnida' (thank you) and the Germans are going to look at me like I have lost my mind :o).  It'll be an adjustment..but I think it'll be so nice to be in a more laid-back lifestyle coming from the busy one we live in now.  I have finally achieved being able to read Korean and understand a large majority of it and can speak it, basics only, but nonetheless, I can get around.  And NOW...German?!?!  Ha ha.  I'm sure my blog posts are only going to get more interesting and humorous.

So, that's the 'big' news for now.  We won't know any specific locations for probably a good 6-7 months so right now we are just sitting on Germany in general.  Lots of prep for the pups to be able to go with us but they will both be in attendance while we are there.  Can't leave those stinkers behind!

Ummm, back to Korea.  There was a 'spouses outing' that I went to (which if you know me, I am usually anti-that kind of stuff) but it was a Korean cooking class near the President's house here.  It was really fun & I chose to make Dakgalbi (Dock-gal-bee) which is a spicy chicken dish with carrots, sweet potato (I know..weird), and I actually forget what else at the moment haha.  Typically you eat these type of dishes with white rice and Kimchi (which I just LOVEEEE now) It was really good and I had a great time.  Here's a few shots from the day

I started tutoring again..but this time I am tutoring an older women that lives in the church next to our house (her husband is the pastor) and other high school student who actually studied in Pennsylvania for one year!  It is really fun and forces to me to keep my lesson-planning skills up-to-date :o).

We hope everyone there is doing great!!  

<3

Mike, Britt, Danny, Shep