December 28th we said goodbye to the Humphreys Lodge and finished moving into the rental house. That was the day our temporary furniture was scheduled to arrive. That same day, Tiger, our cat, was scheduled to arrive from Atlanta. While Michael was meeting the movers at the house, I was on my way to Incheon Airport, outside of Seoul, to get Tiger. Our car hadn't arrived and taking a taxi was cost prohibitive. I took the bus. Not having a car at the airport made things a bit more difficult, as I needed to go back and forth between a number of buildings for paperwork. During this process, everyone was unfailingly courteous and helpful. The airport has a very good shuttle, which I used to travel between the buildings. It still took quite a bit of time. It ended up taking almost 6 hours for me to finally get Tiger. It was a very cold day, the temperature in the single digits. I tried to call a taxi to take me back to the airport terminal so that I could catch the "airport limousine" [public bus] back to Pyeongtaek. The staff at Korean Air Cargo told me that Taxis were not allowed in that area. It looked like my only option was to use the airport shuttle, but I didn't think I could physically manage Tiger and his Kennel. Being 26 lbs, Tiger was too large for a cat or small dog sized kennel. He was in a kennel for a medium sized dog. An employee of Korean Air Cargo came to the rescue. She offered to take Tiger and me back to the airport so that we could catch the shuttle. Once there, I had trouble getting a limousine [bus] driver to let me take Tiger into the passenger area. They wanted me to stow Tiger with the luggage. I was afraid that exhaust fumes might enter the cargo compartment. After missing a couple of buses, a nice Korean couple, a young man and his fiance, came to my rescue. The young man, Don Chung, tried to convince a driver to allow Tiger in the passenger area, but the driver was not agreeable. When the next bus came and the driver refused to allow Tiger on board, I allowed Don to convince me to allow Tiger to be placed in the luggage area. Don reassured me that his dog had ridden with the luggage and that no fumes had harmed his dog. Don was so amazingly kind. He got out of the bus at every stop to check on Tiger because the temperature was close to zero F. The final picture shows Tiger's kennel.
New Years Eve
New Years Eve we went to the party at the Osan AFB Officers' Club. We went with several other couples and had a blast ;)
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