Our Car

It is a grey and dreary day here in South Korea - but I still love being here because Joe is here. Joe is currently off participating in the Warpath III exercise, but he is able to come home in the evenings. In fact, today he even made it home for a very quick bite to eat during lunch.

When I was stationed in Korea in 2009-2010 I never bothered to get a drivers license here let along get a car. Camp Red Cloud (CRC) was so small that I could basically walk anywhere I needed to be within 10 minutes. However, when Joe moved to his new camp last year he decided that it was time for him to get a license and a car because the new camp is a lot bigger than CRC. The "new" car that he acquired is better called a hoopty or a FOB car. Great for on post driving, but Joe is not too fond of driving it off post. The car is in the same category as our friend Micah's car that brought Joe and I closer together when that car broke down at Lotte World, or of John's car that stalled out a couple times on the freeway into Seoul.

It's rather funny when I think about how Joe went from a very nice, new, and expensive 2008 BMW M3X that he bought in Korea to this car which cost him a grand total of $0. Some of my favorite aspects of our car are the left rear door that was always either unlocked or locked - until we recently had it serviced and now it actually locks and unlocks, but not with the rest of the doors; the check engine light that we ignore because it never turns off; and the transmission that we need to have rebuilt. Oh, and the fact that I have left the headlights on a couple of times by accident because there is no noise to indicate that I left them on. As I wrote that I became worried that I had left the headlights on again and had to go outside to check on the car - thankfully, the lights were not on this time.

It wasn't until after we were married that I bothered to get a license, because up until then I was only in Korea for less than 2 weeks at a time visiting him and there were plenty of taxis on post to take me where ever I wanted to go whenever I wanted to go there. I finally took the test in July this year because me being able to drive would save Joe and I a lot of money and make both of our lives easier.

I'm not sure what the purpose is of me writing about our car except to say that both Joe and I are grateful for our little hoopty car. It is old, worn out, and we would never consider bringing it back to the States with us, but is the perfect car for us here in Korea.