June 12, 2005

Well today I had to work at the chapel. I really hate working on the weekends. I ruins my whole weekend, because I don't get to go out with everybody. Oh well, it comes with the job I guess.

Today they had a party for Chaplain burns. he is leaving and today was his last service in Korea. He was the Catholic chaplain. A really nice guy.

When I got back, Scott, Maxwell and I went out to go get some dinner with Cathy (Max's girlfriend). Little did we know it would be so hard to order pizza tonight.

Our story begins here at this little Mr. Pizza restaurant about 15 minutes from post. Cathy has wanted to get pizza here becasue it was close to church and she didn't have much time before it started. She goes in the evenings.

This is what we had to eat after half an hour and about 5 conversations with the waitress. First they wouldn't let us simply order a pizza with just peperoni. Actually they told us there was no pepperoni pizza, but after we saw it on the menu they changed their minds. Then they asked us if we would like a salad, so a few of us said sure. Well, then the waitress comes back and says they don't have salad. We waited about another 20 minutes and got frustrated and just left. We caught a taxi back to where we first started of and went to Pizza Hut. They never screw it up.

For some reasons, the Korean restaurants pour ice in the toilets of the bathrooms. I asked a few people why they did this, but nobody seems to be able to tell me why. Just another wierd thing they do over here.

Well, Pizza Hut didn't let us down. We could order a pepperoni pizza if we wanted to, and we got our salads too. They even had the soda we asked for. Some times the Koreans are racist against soldiers and will lie to them so that they will leave. We will get taxi drivers that do that a lot. theya re the worst. They will stop and when they see that you are American, they will just drive off before you can get in the cab. I've had them tell me no and literally drive 10 feet and pick up a Korean. It's not my fault I'm here. believe me, it's not by choice. They don't want me here, and I don't want to be here either. I had a friend who was approached by one of the Korean police who guard the post we live in. The police officer asked my friend "What do you think of us Koreans guarding your post?" He replied "I don't know. What do you think of us Americans guarding your country?" There is a lot of animosity among the Koreans and soldiers here, particularly the younger Koreans. The older Koreans love soldiers because they remember what it was like before the war and are thankful for our help, but the newer generations don't and so they are a bit more resentful towards us.