Graduation

Matt graduated several weeks ago but I was hoping that the missionaries from his Tech School ward would send me pictures they took. Hopefully I get them eventually but I figured I'd post right now.

Matt graduated as the Distinguished Graduate for his class. This requires that he recieve over a certain percentage through the entire class (I think its something like 98%) and that he have no discipline issues or anything else that would cause his teachers to disqualify him.

Its pretty cool that he recieved this award. It does not come with a ribbon or a certificate but it does come with a congratulatory letter. This letter is given both to him and to his new supervisor in Kunsan. Basically, by graduating with Distinction his next supervisor is told how great and wonderful Matt is which can lead to better jobs, leadership and possibly ranking up early. All good things!

I'm sorry I didn't end up having pictures to post. Matt has now been in Korea for a week and a half, 50.5 weeks to go!

Matt's travel

Matt is officially in Korea. He left Saturday morning on a flight from Wichita Falls to Dallas at 630. There was some miscommunication that caused him to arrive at the airport only 40 minutes before the flight but luckily there wasn't a problem with that. It was a pretty small airport.

The layover between the first two flights was so small (45 minutes to begin with, a late flight and early boarding) that he didn't get to get food or call. He had to go outside of security once he landed in SeaTac because he had to have the second leg of his ticket printed. Getting the second bording pass and going through security again meant that he didn't get food until nearly 2-more and he'd been up already for 12 hours. But he got lunch, boarded the flight and then turned off his phone :(

His last flight was 12 hours long. He had trouble sleeping but luckily they fed him two full meals and two pretty substantial snacks. He complained that most of the drinks were alcoholic so he drank water and orange juice- the only other two options.

Once he landed he said there were people specifically hired to help military members navigate through the airport and get where they needed to be. So he got his luggage, bought his bus tickets and was off on the first bus ride to Osan. Once in Osan he got to email and say he was safe but didn't have much time, his second bus was arriving soon. The first bus ride was only about an hour but the second was about 4 hours. Once he arrived in Kunsan he was informed that all the billiting (hotels) on base was full and he had to take a taxi to Gunsan (20 minutes away). Poor guy. At this point he'd been traveling for almost 36 hours and was exhausted from not sleeping hardly at all (he doesn't generally sleep on airplanes and the 12 hour flight was no exception).

He emailed again this evening (tomorrow morning for him) to let me know how the trip went. He said the computer he was on had letters both in English and in Korean and he hopes the internet will work with his computer there.

His job will start soon and I'll tell you all about what he gets to do when I get more information!

Flying to Korea

Matt has recieved his plane ticket- or at least the information about his plane trip. He has to be at the Wichita Falls airport by 4:30am on January 16 (Saturday). He flies from there to Dallas at 6:30. His next flight is from Dallas to Seattle from about 8:30-10:50. He then takes his longest flight from Seattle straight to Seoul Korea and arrives there at 6pm on Sunday. Don't forget that Korea is 15ish hours ahead of here so he technically arrives around midnight Saturday our time.

As soon as he arrives he has to board a bus for a long ride to Kunsan Air Base. Its about 150 miles and because I have no idea the condition of roads or busses I would assume its anywhere from 4-6 hours to drive there. Matt seems to remember someone telling him it was 8 hours but I'm skeptical about that...

So at this point we are looking at 12.5 months until we are all together as a family again. Hopefully his mid-tour break will be enough to get us through that long and trying year!

(Denelle, I have no idea how you handle this!)