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Korea has been quite an amazing experience for me. It's the first time I've ever been overseas, not to mention on the other side of the world.
I remember the first time I stepped off the plane in Tokyo, Japan. Immediately I felt like the odd-man out; the stares were quite noticeable. It was also the first time I had to deal with international currency, so luckily they took the green gold (dollars). I needed that coffe to make sure I wouldn't fall asleep before my plane to Korea borded!
We all know what happened exactly one month after I arrived in Korea. September 11th, the date that we hear every day on the news or read in the newspaper. I don't think any of us will ever forget where we were or what we were doing on that day and at the moment it happened. I just so happened to be in Seoul on one of the two Yongsan Army posts. On September 8th we celebrated our Lieutenant's (LT's) wedding. I was having such a great time...no curfew, no strict Military Police enforcement, etc. I felt free to do whatever I wanted.
A couple days later, as we were about to go to bed (11:00pm or so) I went online to check my email and saw a news headline that said "Plane crashes into World Trade Center." I was in the dayroom of the temporary living quarters and told someone to turn off "Gladiator" and put CNN on. Of course they didn't want to at first, but then others started telling them to turn on CNN also. Just after CNN came on, we saw the second plane smash into the second building live, as it was happening on the other side of the world. It didn't sink in at first, everyone was shocked. About 15 minutes later we saw the first tower collapse and shortly after the second went down. Nobody was saying anything, it was almost a silent room with 30 peoples' jaws on the floor. At the same time CNN showed what had happened to the Pentagon and what was happening everywhere else. I just remember thinking to myself, "This is out of control," and I kept saying it in my head over and over because I couldn't believe it.
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