Getting Settled In...

So here are two pics at Haeundae Beach and two of our apartment. Haeundae Beach just broke the world record for the most umbrellas on a single beach. Craziness.

The Cruz family is getting settled in nicely here in Busan. As most of you know, I was selected to be the Commanding Officer for Military Sealift Command Korea. It's a two year tour for us. So what do I do exactly? Well, you know how North Korea recently destroyed one of their nuclear facilities? Yeah, that was me. Just kidding. It was my staff. Seriously, I'm kidding. Don't forward this entry to the CIA or anything. My job is to support the Military Sealift Command ships that come to this part of the world. I took the reins from a prince of a guy, CDR Ron Oswald, on 20 June and it's been a whirlwind ever since.

Things are good and getting better every day here in Busan as more boxes get unpacked with each passing day. We brought way too much stuff! I'm thinking we should've doubled down on the stuff we placed in storage. I wish the family's first few days could've gone smoother here. We had some hiccups with some of our appliances - gas not connected to the stove, dishwasher not working, heated floors coming on and making the house feel like a North Korean torture chamber and an extremely funky smell coming from the pipes that is totally overpowering the kitchen. But like a good hemorrhoid, most of these appliance problems are behind us now.

The Silver Bullet (the Acura) has been having some troubles too. You know you're in trouble when the Korean mechanics at the Honda dealership recommend you put the car on the ferry to Japan and have those folks fix it. They don't sell the MDX or Honda Pilot here in Korea so they're not familiar with it. Fortunately, and in large part due to Carol's good southern upbringing - cue in visual of Carol bringing baked goods to our Honda specialist mechanics in southern Florida - we contacted our Honda guy in Miami and he's shipping parts, instructions on how to fix our car problems, pictures, the secret to life, etc. What a great guy. Howard the mechanic has now reached best mechanic ever status in the Cruz household.

Our little three year old, Jake, got a bug bite during his time in Alabama. The swelling made it look as if Jake had big Mickey Mouse gloves on. And so the doc gave him some penicillin for the inflammation. Well, as the medical expert and comedian Chris Rock used to say, we should've just poured some Tussin on it. That's Robitussin for those that were absent for their last ebonics lecture. So there we are, the family's first full day in Korea, and Jake wakes up and looks like he's got the measles or chicken pox. He has this bad red rash all over his body. Turns out the little guy is allergic to penicillin, or at least to omyxicillin. Problem fixed through a large doseage of steroids. Jake's doing great now and he's also bench pressing the refrigerator.

CJ's doing good. He's happy about finding some special Japanese Transformer toys. It's funny watching CJ watch Spongebob in Korean. He now puts on the Ipod and jams out while watching the yellow guy. Always a picky eater, CJ's been tilting his head in a funny way when the Korean food hits the table. Keeping him properly nourished might be challenging. Thank God for the McDonald's which is a 5 minute walk away and Carol's good cooking. Jake's jumping into the Korean food like he was born here. What's that strange brown looking noodle with stuff on it? I'll just put it in my mouth and try it. No problem for Jake. Carol braved her first bites of kim chi the other night and thought it was okay.

We also found a good church that's very close to our apartment. We were kinda squirming in our seats a little bit last week at church though when the Pastor was preaching about greed and material things. She mentioned Donald Trump and his empire and plasma flat screen TVs. Little did she know that just minutes before her sermon as we're rushing to get to church, I tell CJ to turn off the TV (the plasma flat screen) just before we rush out the door of our Trump Towers apartment.

Well, better stop for now. I'm off on a trip to Singapore today! C2