he made the team!

see? i told everyone Nic was just at soccer camp! There are lots of pictures on his facebook. He will be playing sweeper. I wanna go!

New year, new roommate

Nic seems to be doing great in South Korea. All of his packages got to him before Christmas...YAY! Thanks to everyone who sent him something. It really helped make his first Christmas away from home a little easier.

He switched rooms this week and has a new roommate. Rodriguez from New York is all I know. He is excited for the change.

The base was on lockdown due to the snow. One news story said it was the worst winter South Korea has had in over seventy years.

Nic's company, 595th Maintenance, as a page on Facebook and my mom found lots of pictures of Nic on there. It is really great to see things he is doing and the people he works with. He is on the front row, center of the line. He makes such a nice looking soldier, standing very tall and proud.

Its been a great year for Nic and he has made many important decisions about his life. We are all so proud of the outstanding man he has become and for taking his role as soldier so seriously. He has given it everything he has and it really shows.

Please keep him and all of our soldiers in your prayers.

Nic took a lot of GREAT pictures on his trip to Busan. I made a slideshow of a few of them. Take a look (its on the right side of this site. if you click on it larger pictures will appear)

A year older and Christmas in Korea

I haven't been posting much because Nic is on Facebook and puts A LOT of pictures on there...such a wonderful son. Even ones of the toilets in his hotel. lol Several family members have mentioned they do not use Facebook (you should try it) and would like to be updated more regularly about our super soldier's adventures. SO...here goes:

FIRST I have to sincerely thank Nic for being an amazing son and keeping close contact with his mom. Almost everyday I get a text or email from him and a phone call about once a week. It makes it seem like he really is just away at soccer camp, instead of on the other side of the world. I really appreciate the love he has for his family and how thoughtful he is. What a wonderful young man!

He sounds really happy and is working very hard. He gets bored a lot because there isn't much to do which makes the days seem to drag on, but he is a hard worker and takes his job seriously. In just a few weeks Nic will hit his one year anniversary with the army. Wow, thats amazing. He has grown so much and accomplished huge things in the past year. We are incredibly proud of the outstanding soldier he is! I love hearing him talk about different experiences and how seriously he takes them, instead of some of the soldiers that still can't seem to follow the rules. Because of this Nic is creating a strong career with the army and is greatly appreciated by his superiors.

Most recent he spent several days out in the field, living in tents. His grandparents and I made sure he was well stocked with hand (and full body) warmers. He loved the experience! Reminds me of the adventures he had with friends as a teenager. He really IS living his dream.

A couple of weeks ago he got to travel to Busan, a city on the southern coast as part of the BOSS program (Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers). He stayed in a five star hotel on a beautiful beach. What an awesome experience. One he will remember forever. How many people can say they walked on the beach in South Korea? He had a great trip.

Then, it was back to the cold area of South Korea and home to base. He said there was a skiff of snow on the roads and the street crews were out. He and Alex planned a snowboarding trip over Christmas vacation, but are having a hard time finding accomodations. I sent his snowboarding coat, gloves and both their goggles...oh, and cup of noodles of course...for the trip in case they get to go.

A huge thank you to everyone that has sent Nic packages! Each and every one is fun for him to get and seems to give him a boost. His aunt and uncle, Nick and Tracy, sent his Christmas package via UPS and we are finding out there really must be a slow boat to China and UPS uses it to get packages to South Korea. My packages are getting there within seven days through the post office. Tonight Nic said he doesn't know how UPS packages get there because they don't have a UPS station. So hopefully the boat docks soon. =) Thanks Nick and Tracy for sending it and we will keep you posted on its adventure.

I sent Nic a Christmas tree with ornaments and a set of lights from Grandpa and Grandma Goss. Nic will have to take pictures of his decorating so everyone can see how festive his little cubicle, yet cozy, room is.

A few weeks ago Nic was told he would be transferring to Youngson Base in Seoul. He had mixed feelings about this. Even though it meant larger living quarters and a base with more to offer, he has made many close friendships with people on K16. Today he found out his requests to stay on K16 have been granted...with help from Sgts begging to keep him. So, no transfer before Christmas. It will be nice for him to be around people he knows during the holidays.

We all miss Nic TONS and the house is definitely a trillion times quieter without him here. But we are EXTREMELY proud of the choices he has made and the life he is creating for himself. We have lots of pictures around the house of him and Hayden will show them to you if you stop by...along with his favorite ornament on the tree which is Nic's batman car he calls "batman Nic". Nic is a great example to his little sister and brother...and to his parents.

If you want to get in touch with Nic, the best way is through email at pyromaniac941@hotmail.com. He doesn't have a lot of free time and probably will not email back much. He does get on facebook occasionally so you can post with him on there. His old cell phone number is in suspend mode while he is overseas so he does not receive calls or voicemails on it.

Merry Christmas to everyone and we hope you will keep Nic and all of our soldiers in your prayers throughout the holidays and upcoming year.

no walmart?!

Nic is doing great in South Korea, but said they have NOTHING there. No Wal Mart. No Best Buy! He is always exhausted when I talk to him because he is working really hard. Last week they were getting ready for inpections so Nic was putting in extra hours. Its great to hear how dedicated he is to his job, the army and our country.
Two weeks ago he was in the southern part of South Korea for training. One weekend he traveled about 20 minutes to Alex' base and spent the weekend there. He had a blast! Alex' room is the same size as Nic's BUT he doesn't share it with anyone. It was really great those two could get together. Nic was supposed to be picked up and driven back to his base, a four hour drive, but took a bullet train instead. He made it "home" in an hour and a half. It cost about 40,000 won or $38.00.
After getting home from training, Nic had to take his monthly turn at a weird assignment (mom added the weird). For 24 hours straight he had to sit in a locked room and watch a security alarm. The 8 x 8 room had no windows or internet connection. Nic said he has never watched so many movies. One right after the other...about 11 movies. He got to leave for one, 10 minute trip to get food and go back. He was very thankful it was over. I bet he isn't looking forward to his next turn.
Nic's base has a new turf soccer field. How lucky is he that he ended up on that base? Of all sports for them to play! Last week his team played a Korean team. With Nic as sweeper they beat the Korean team 6-0! Wow, I would have LOVED to watch that game. I decided we should tell people Nic is playing on a team overseas and leave out the military part. Lol. Who would have guessed he would end up playing soccer in Korea!
With his birthday and holidays a few weeks away I think it's getting hard for him to be away from home. Any letters or packages sent to him would mean a lot to our family.
Nic's address is:
Fowler, Nicolas M.
595 Maintenance Co.
K-16 Box #248
APO AP 96202
Because it goes through a stateside base using the APO address, its not that expensive to mail things. Letters take one regular stamp. The post office also has special discounts when shipping to APO addresses. If you use their free boxes, it $3.95 for a box the size of a VHS movie and $11.95 for a large box.
Here are some suggestions for items he needs/wants:
Hot hands (or anything to keep him warm because he is freezing)
White fudge covered Oreos (only available during the holidays)
Personal hygiene items such as anitpersperent deoderant, tooth paste, etc.

Thanks for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers.

The last two weeks for Nic have been pretty boring. He arrived in South Korea at a bad time because of the holiday and ended up stuck in limbo until today. He has been extremely bored and is still struggling to get used to the time change. He is 15 hours ahead of us and Nic came up with an easy way for us to figure out his time. Add 3 hours to our time and change the am/pm. This works great unless you are close to noon or midnight then its a little confusing. Luckily, I am able to set two time zones on my phone.

He has been on Youngsan Army Base in Seoul since Sunday, August 30. He moved to Camp K16, where he is assigned on Thursday, September 10. He called me at 5:30 pm, Thursday night, which was 2:30 am for me. Hayden was watching a movie and I was knitting so it worked out great!

Here are some things Nic had to say:

He is EXTREMELY glad to finally get to his camp and be able to unpack and move in. He took 2 large duffle bags with him and hasn't wanted to unpack them.

A Sgt and PVT picked him up from Youngsan to take him to Camp K16. On the way out of Seoul Nic was amazed at the amount of "stuff" they fit in an area. He said everything is stacked and crammed into every single inch. Seoul is the largest city in the world with approximately 10,231,000 people (New York is the 11th largest with 8 million). Right in the middle of several lanes of traffic a "little cycle dude" was pushing a cart, going the wrong way and no one seemed to care.

Nic's camp is one street wide and he said "I moved to corinne! I can't leave base for thirty days...so its like being in Corinne and can't leave for thirty days! I am going to lose my mind!" ...and we laughed.

Then Nic got to his room....

He shares this tiny room with a soldier named Kaung (pronounced Kong). He is a Katusa, a Korean that serves in the US military. (Kong the Korean Katusa....we both laughed so hard!) Nic's is the left side. He said if he puts his feet to the side of the bed he is afraid his boots will get stuck.

The thing he is most excited about is he will be assigned to his own Hemtt wrecker.

They also have a soccer league Nic is going to play for. His room mate plays on it so they are off to a good start.

Alex ended up on the other end of South Korea from Nic on Camp Walker. Hopefully on long weekends they will be able to get together. We had hoped they'd be closer but at least they are within a few hours.

Nic puts lots of really great pictures on Facebook. Look him up and have him add you to his friends list. This blog won't let me add a lot of pictures so you will want to look at his. He is getting back into photography and bought a really nice camera so we are looking forward to seeing his new adventure through the lense.

Keep him in your prayers, along with all our brave soldiers.