we're in daegu!!!

hey everyone! we are in daegu now (we arrived on friday afternoon). We took the KTX, which is the super speedy train system here and it took 1 hour and 38 minutes to get here from seoul. The train ride was really smooth and pretty luxurious. It was nice to look out the window as we crossed different bodies of water and to see the Korean countryside. It was a rather sharp contrast looking at the farmers working in the fields, orchards, patties, after being in the gigantic metropolitan seoul.

once we arrived in daegu we were picked up by a nice U.S. soldier named Sgt. Allison who graciously helped us lug around all of our suitcases. he gave us a brief tour and took us to the offices we needed to visit to officially check in. After checking in, we met a couple of Peter's soon-to-be co-workers and other officers/soldiers who work for his unit. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming so we were soon put to ease. Shortly after, we went to the hotel where we will be staying for about a week or so. We were told we'd be picked up in about 20 minutes to go to a Christmas party to meet other members of the unit. Meeting people at a Christmas party was not exactly how we envisioned meeting his company commander and other bosses for the first time, but we were glad to be in such a relaxed and informal atmosphere. It was kind of fun for me to see a bunch of military men and women, who (from my limited experience) are often pretty stoic on post, sit back and sing karaoke with santa hats loosely topping their heads. : )

the next day we went apartment shopping. i want to post some pics of that soon too. we saw 5 different apartments off post, in different parts of the city. the first one we saw was actually a villa, but it was rather small. the second apartment we saw was in a building really close to the post where peter will work (only a 3 minute walk!). We liked the location of course, but it had very little to offer in the neighborhood. The last three apartments we saw were more in the downtown area, farther from the base, but very close to the subway and still only 10 minutes from peter's work. we really liked 3 of them, but after talking through each of the possibilities, we decided on one apartment that is actually in a brand new apartment building. it's on the 17th floor, so we have a nice little view of the city and it has plenty of room for visitors to come stay with us. our realtor should call us back this afternoon and let us know if/when we can sign the contract. we'll post some pics soon!!