Earning My Seoul Patch: Part Dul (that's two in Korean!)

Our life here is almost complete. In the last couple of months, we've received our express shipment (which took a month to get here) and now the car! I successfully passed the driver's exam just in time to welcome the car to Korea and give it its first taste of Korean road. Of course with that comes Korean traffic; but, I digress. The last part of the puzzle is the "slow" shipment, which we knew would take at least two to three months to get here, and so it has.

While I was waiting for our stuff to catch up with my busy life here, I decided to get a few things done. And by a few things, I mean tons of paperwork. Nothing around here gets done without printed copies of orders, forms, powers of attorney, etc. Once you think you've filled out all the forms you need and think you have everything to do what you need to do, you sit, wait, and then fill out more forms. If I hadn't gotten used to signing my new last name before I got here, I've definitely gotten a ton of practice in by now. At this point, I just kind of make a game out of it in order to get through without pulling out my hair. It's becoming rather amusing to organize things into a perfect pile and then yell "BAM!!" and slam it down in front of the person requesting it as they ask for each piece; plus it keeps them awake. Other times, I wait until they shake their heads at me like something is missing and then I slowly pull the form out of my folder and say, "oh, oh, wait for it...wait for it...HA!! I've got that too. What else do you need?"

The most comical activity was actually trying to get my driver's license. The process included studying Korean road signs and rules of the road (all of which they break), working myself up over passing the exam, passing the exam and realizing that it w

as much easier than I thought it was going to be, and then laughing hysterically at the mandatory safety videos that followed. I suppose, in retrospect, the videos could have been useful for military personnel who are expected to drive large vehicles outside of the city or anyone who hasn't ever driven in a Michigan or Chicago winter, but this gal has seen and driven in just about everything. Bring it on!

I talk a big game right now, but the truth is that as soon as I picked up the car and hit the road, I made a beeline straight for post, gassed her up, and parked her. Truly, with the way I've seen both Koreans and Americans alike drive around here, I have no intentions of risking life, limb, and paid-off car by venturing off post. I'll just settle for being proud of myself for being legally allowed to drive around here and I'll anxiously await another major Korean holiday where the city looks like it's experiencing a mass exodus and the streets are nearly empty.