Yongsan Military Base

Today, Denise and I paid a visit to the US military base in Seoul, where our friend King is stationed. And by paid a visit, I mean he escorted us as visitors around the base.

It was surreal. The base has about 1300 people living on it. It has its own bus system. There are elementary, middle and high schools with American curriculum. All the prices are in US dollars. There is a hospital, a post office (where postage paid is American postage), libraries, chapels, food facilities and movie theaters. Whatever the US has, they have brought a little piece of it to S Korea and put it on the base. King is awesome though. Denise met him in September at the Rocky Mountain Tavern pub in the foreign area of Seoul. Over the last few months, we have all become really good friends. King is from Atlanta and joined the military one year ago. He has been stationed in Seoul since September and his job within the military is with human resources. I'd wanted to see the base for a while. So when Denise said that she wanted to call King this weekend, I thought maybe it would be a cool idea if we went to his house and work and world. I think that he was pretty happy that we wanted to come and hang out where he lives. I'm fairly certain that all of his friends are from the military, so who wouldn't want 2 Canadian girls hanging out for a while?

We arrived mid afternoon and had to register at one of the entrance gates and get guest passes. We walked through part of the base to where the bus station is. We got on a bus that just goes around the whole base because it was a sort of tour, for us, not others. We saw it all and it is a full on city within a city. There are huge garages that house all the Hummers and whatever other vehicles they use, housing for everyone from single GI's to entire families. There's a massive grocery store (that we were not allowed to enter as visitors), playing fields, gyms, a huge daycare, a beauty salon and stores. Some people have their own cars, depending on their rank. There is a taxi system within the base, all in US dollars. King showed us all the major buildings, his room, the building he works in and where he goes to school. We even spent an hour in the library reading english magazines. There are vending machines everywhere, with american products (Dad, they have NutRagious bars!). I found it so strange to be in Korea but in an area that has nothing Korean within it except food service employees. I was just fascinate with the whole thing. Denise and I were mostly freaked out by all the foreigners in one place, a reverse form of culture shock. The weirdest part of the whole visit was that Denise and I knew so much about the base and the systems because of the American Forces Network radio station. We listen to it in our own homes because there is some good music. The commercials are all public service announcements from the military about 'try not to get sexually assaulted' or 'make sure you get home before curfew'. As we drove around the base and saw all the signs for things, we already knew the rules that went along with everything.

We ate Taco Bell and pizza. I bought some booze and Red Bull at the 'Class Six' store. All the products are in English, where everything else that is in English in Korea has a sticker with Korean slapped over it. I didn't take any pictures, mostly because I wasn't allowed. We were there for about 6 hours. We are already planning the next trip to the base. Like I said, it was so surreal.