Seoul doesn't like us. I'm sure of it.

It's been 2 weeks, about, since Tate was born and I think I have done more running around since then than I have since we got here. First, was a trip up to Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to the hospital on base there. The Koreans don't do circumcision so we had to take Tate up there to have it done. He was 6 days old. We got good directions from a lady from church. Only problem was that we didn't get off an expressway when we should have. We knew which direction we needed to go, but couldn't figure out how to go about it. We tried to retrace our steps, and got going in the right direction, but THEN couldn't figure out how to get BACK on the original expressway going north, the direction we wanted to go. We got on and off of the expressway 3 times. Yes, 3 times, going SOUTH. Each time we went a little further away from where we wanted to go. We finally got off an exit that had an on ramp going in both directions. It took us over an hour. Considering how large Seoul is, we were lucky we were only lost an hour and knew, if roughly, where we wanted to go and which way to get home. That afternoon when we got back from Seoul, Tate had his 1 week check up at the clinic on our base. The next day I had an appointment for me at Dankook, the hospital where I delivered. This past Tuesday I had to take Tate into the after hours clinic to get some blood work done. We had no record of which tests Dankook Hospital did on him before he left (besides a brain scan that was apparently done because of his large head) so the doctor we saw the previous week wanted to cover all the bases.

Anyway, that leads into our second trip to Seoul, Yongsan Garrison, in a week. Today, Thursday, we were supposed to go to the Audiology office to get the newborn hearing screening done. The test seriously takes 5 minutes or less. There we were, in the bus lane of the expressway, driving along marveling that we managed to get all 4 kids ready to go on time, when we hear this loud crash/bang/bump noise. Thank goodness Ken was able to get today off and was driving. We managed to get ALL the way over to the right where there was luckily a shoulder area to pull over in. Mind you, we were in the far left lane cruising at about 100km/ph and we had to cross at least 3 other lanes of traffic full of Korean drivers. That in and of itself is a scary thought. Ken & I both got out to assess the damage. It wasn't just a flat tire. The tire was shredded. I mean seconds more driving on it and we would have been driving on the rim and our tire would have been one of those you see on the highway where the pieces are scattered ALL over. The smell was horrible. Thankfully we had a spare tire and a jack. Unfortunately there was no crowbar or similar tool with which to USE the jack. And only a pair of pliers to undo the bolt to the spare tire under the van. What followed was a few phone calls to our realtor/translator, Ken's sergeants to let them know what was going on, and a phone call from a tow truck company with us trying to tell them where we were on the expressway. We were an hour late for our appointment AGAIN. Those people at the hospital in Yongsan probably think we're people that are habitually late. So that is what happens when we go to Seoul. Who knows what will happen next time? I don't really want to find out.