Our Arrival

We got to Immigration and my plan to go through the military line went out the window- there was no military line!  So, I went through the "Foreign Passports" line that had young, nice looking Korean lady sitting there and hoped for the best.  She looked over all the documents and said "How long you stay in Korea?" and I said "I am staying 10 months, applying for the A-3 visa at Osan AB when I get there".  She said "OK, I give you tourist stamp, you can stay until February without visa", and I said "Thank you!".  That was it.  No hassle. No problem.  I got the heck out of there so we could find our luggage and Marshall!

We got to the luggage carousel and most people had already gotten their luggage.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  Maddox was running around acting silly (she wasn't bothering anyone, there was hardly anyone there).  The Korean attendants were all wearing suits, and the women were wearing dress suits.  A very nicely dressed Korean man asked me for my luggage tickets so that he could find it in the computer, but right as I started looking for them our luggage finally came down the chute.  It must have been the first on the plane, because it was the last off!  He loaded it all up onto our two carts, and helped us push it through Customs (Nothing to declare!!) and out the door.

Right outside Marshall was waiting for us behind a corded off divider!  He jumped under the divider and ran up and grabbed Maddox!  It was so sweet- I wish I had a picture but I was pushing a huge cart with 4 suitcases, so I missed it.  Marshall looked really nice in corduroy pants and a button up shirt, and he had shaved!  He said if we hurried we could make the 4pm bus to the base, and if we missed it we had to wait 2 hours, so we took off as fast as we could go all the way across the airport with Marshall and I pushing really heavy luggage carts and Mom had the stroller with the kids.  :)

Right when we got to the bus ticket counter the Specialist who was working there said "You are gonna make the 4 o'clock bus, but it's not leaving for another 20 to 30 minutes".  Right outside the door (so in between us and the bus we needed to get on) they were doing a very interesting demonstration.  It ends up the G20 was being held in Seoul, so the Korea government was trying to show how they were ready to deal with things like protestors or an attack.  There were fake protestors in a huge pack carrying big signs and yelling, and they were being filmed by journalists.  There were also Police in riot gear who came running up in a big formation and formed a wall- they were also being filmed.  We just stood there and watched, it was so unexpected!

I took Mav to the bathroom to change his diaper during our wait, and the Korean bathroom attendant came and stood right next to me and watched me change him.  The whole time she was smiling and talking in Korean, and I would smile and talk back in English.  :)  As soon as I finished changing him she took the dirty diaper right out of my hand and walked away with it.

Shortly, we got on the bus and I finally got my camera back out.  Here's the happy girl with her Daddy!

Next up: Our new home