Anybody in South Korea?

[mbcclady]

Hi! I'm Hilary, new to the forum, but live in South Korea with my husband. I've lived here in Daegu for about 7 months, and we will be here for about 11 more months. We are expecting our first child, a little girl, in September.

[NATTYBATSMOM]

Originally Posted by mbcclady Hi! I'm Hilary, new to the forum, but live in South Korea with my husband. I've lived here in Daegu for about 7 months, and we will be here for about 11 more months. We are expecting our first child, a little girl, in September.

You here as military or ESL teaching?

[mbcclady]

Originally Posted by NATTYBATSMOM You here as military or ESL teaching?

My husband is military, and I will be a SAHM.

[NATTYBATSMOM]

Originally Posted by mbcclady My husband is military, and I will be a SAHM.

So, you would be delivering at the hospital on base? I have heard enough stories of births here in Korea that I will not stay here to have a baby. My daughter's birth was traumatic enough at home, I won't go through that with the language barriers. But I would imagine it would be different for those in the military. We're just here for the ESL thing so we're civilians and since DD was born via cesarean I don't want to have to try and do a VBAC here.

[mbcclady]

Originally Posted by NATTYBATSMOM So, you would be delivering at the hospital on base? I have heard enough stories of births here in Korea that I will not stay here to have a baby. My daughter's birth was traumatic enough at home, I won't go through that with the language barriers. But I would imagine it would be different for those in the military. We're just here for the ESL thing so we're civilians and since DD was born via cesarean I don't want to have to try and do a VBAC here.

Actually, the only military hospital is up in Seoul, so I will be delivering in a Korean hospital. It is, however, affiliated with the US military and is an international hospital. I've had my doubts, but most of those have been cleared up by people who have dealt with the hospital in the past. Right now, I feel pretty safe delivering here. My doctor's appointments are at the hospital now, and my doctor is wonderful! He is Korean, but did his schooling and licensing in America, and later moved to Korea. His English is excellent and he makes me feel really comfortable.

I don't blame you for not wanting to try a VBAC here though. It's taken me a bit to feel comfortable knowing I will be delivering here. If my pregnancy were high risk in any way, I'd probably be carting myself up to the military hospital in Seoul for the delivery.

[vickul]

Looks like we'll be joining the S. Korean contingent in less than two weeks, provided the Korean consulate kindly rushes our visas through. We're supposed to fly on June 4th.

Unfortunately, the travel agent booked the domestic leg of our flight on United and the international portion on JAL, so our free checked baggage allotment just went from five bags (for hubby, kidlet, and myself) down to zero. Ugh ... We're going to check at least four regardless, as baggage fees are cheaper than int'l air mail, but I'm trying to figure out what can be left behind. So, has anyone had any luck finding the following items on the local economy?

cotton or bamboo sheets (queen and twin)

cotton or bamboo blankets

training pants (not an immediate need, but would be nice to have on hand)

collodial silver

St. John's Wort

wooden bead maze

rolled oats, Scottish oats, or steel-cut oats (NOT instant oatmeal ...)

dried apples

[NATTYBATSMOM]

Okay, so how is everyone feeling as far as the whole North Korea and their nukes thingy.

I'm beginning to wonder now if we shouldn't just go home and figure out how to make it there. I don't know. On one hand, we really do not have money to start over again and since we had planned originally to be here two years, we pretty much got rid of EVERYTHING we owned except for a few things. I mean, we have almost NOTHING now. I'm not sure if I can even get most of the stuff back from my family or anything and they don't seem to really even care we're gone, I've barely heard from anyone.

We don't have a place to live in the states, we don't have a car, DH doesn't have a job. We don't even know where we would live and I'm very concerned about the recession. DH has a hard enough time finding work. His college degree is in German and is worthless. He's only been able to get entry level positions. I don't even have a college degree so yeah, it's been kind of rough but he's having issues with work here, he's tired of the situation (which REALLY ticks me off because he was SO BIG on coming here, I mean, it was an OBSESSION from the time he came back last time until we got here and he came back home in 2003. And again, I got rid of almost everything expecting to be here for two years and to come home with enough money to replace it all (most of it was cheap junk anyway). We've barely made that much here, and we've been hanging onto it because the director's a jerk and doesn't pay on time. So, most of what we have for money is what we got on our tax return. But, sigh, I really don't know what to do really and I'm SO afraid of making the wrong choice again since obviously doing this in the FIRST PLACE ended up being the wrong choice.

[vickul]

We're still heading over next week, exactly as we planned before the latest N. Korean tantrum. Neither I (who spent 4 1/2 years living a stone's throw from the DMZ) nor hubby (who spent two years stationed north of Seoul) is too concerned about the supposed "threat." We've both been through missile testing and saber rattling before. There may well be some shots exchanged at sea if S. Korea and the U.S. attempt any sort of blockade to hamper trade w/ N. Korea, but there's very little chance of *anything* spilling over on to land. Heck, there have been over 100 "incidents" between N. Korea and S. Korea/the U.S. since the cease fire that ended the Korean war, but the only one that had any impact on civilians in recent years was the N. Korean submarine incident in '96, and that was more of an inconvenience than a serious threat. (I was in Korea for that one too. ... )

Of course, both sets of parents aren't too happy about our taking their granddaughter over there right now, but all things considered, we think the pros (guaranteed income, decent healthcare, comfortable housing, support network, one parent able to be home w/ her at all times, being far removed from family that drives us nuts, etc.) outweigh any negatives.

[NATTYBATSMOM]

Originally Posted by vickul Of course, both sets of parents aren't too happy about our taking their granddaughter over there right now, but all things considered, we think the pros (guaranteed income, decent healthcare, comfortable housing, support network, one parent able to be home w/ her at all times, being far removed from family that drives us nuts, etc.) outweigh any negatives.

That's pretty much us except we're not military so we don't get the perks like comfortable housing and a support network. But at this point, since we had planned to be here for two years to begin with, we got rid of most of our stuff (since it was all cheap to begin with) and would have to pretty much start over and right now, we just don't have the money to do that. I'm actually less concerned about this than the situation at home which is sad.

[vickul]

Originally Posted by NATTYBATSMOM That's pretty much us except we're not military so we don't get the perks like comfortable housing and a support network. But at this point, since we had planned to be here for two years to begin with, we got rid of most of our stuff (since it was all cheap to begin with) and would have to pretty much start over and right now, we just don't have the money to do that. I'm actually less concerned about this than the situation at home which is sad.

Guess I need to update my signature. We're no longer military either, so we'll be totally on the local economy. That said, we're going back to a known environment with great co-workers/friends/church family. (And I honestly would not be going back to Korea as a military wife. One of the reasons we left when we did was because of the military crap hubby was dealing with. I lost our first child as a direct result of an incident involving one of his co-workers ...)