Oops

Ok, so yesterday I almost had my first panic attack! The day started out normal. We all got up and had breakfast and Jason left for his classes. Since the kids and I had explored the hotel for the last couple days, I decided that we would find something else to do on the base. I had heard that there was a "Family Fun Park" with mini golf and batting cages. Normally I would leave the outdoor fun to Jason (let's just face it, I would much rather stay where the air conditioning is), but I decided to go for the Mom of the Year Award and take the kids to this park. Jason had been told that we were not supposed to leave the base without permission while they are still get us all processed into the system. With this in mind, I checked the map of the base that I had been given very carefully and verified that the "Family Fun Park" was indeed within the base walls. Ok, so here is where my panic attack starts. I take the children and we head down to the taxi stand at the hotel we are staying at. I tell the driver "please take us to the Family Fun Park." He responds, "Family Park yes" and we are off. After about 5 minutes I notice that we are getting close to one of the gates that leads off-post and I am starting to get nervous. I reconfirm my destination and he again acts like he understands. Next thing I know, we are outside the gate and headed into downtown Seoul. Now I am sick to my stomach and freaking out that we are not going to be able to get back onto the post. The cab driver proceeds to drop us off at the "Yongsan Family Park" which in next to the Korean National Museum. For some reason I convince myself that I must have read the map wrong. We get out of the car and it quickly becomes obvious that this is just a botanical garden and not something the kids are going to be very interested in. At this point, I am freaking out, but decide to make the most of this situation and we head for the museum. I take the children and we walk through the children's museum and then head to a cab stand to take us back to the hotel. Once we get into a cab it is very clear that the driver knows about as much English and I know Korean. We begin a polite game of charades in order to communicate my destination. After a few minutes of this I finally pull my map of the base out of my purse and he figures out where I am headed. We are off. Now he knows where I want to go, but apparently he has no clue how to get there. We end up stopping for directions from 3 different police men and making a circle around the whole base before finally ending up at the gate that is closest to the hotel. The guard at the gate then tells me that the cab will have to let us off there since he is not allowed onto the base. Ok, now I am getting ready to find out whether I am going to be able to get onto the base or not. My heart is beating out of my chest for the few seconds it takes before he asks for passports and military ID. WE ARE GOOD TO GO!!!! I can finally relax because we are on the base when it hits me that I have no idea where the hotel is from the gate. Just then a British gentleman pulls up to the gate and the gate guard asks him if he will give us a ride to the hotel. Apparently the rule about not getting into cars with strangers went right out the window, because I threw the kids in the car and we were off. This sweet man drops me and the children off at our hotel just in time to run into Jason who is on his lunch break. I relay the story to him and he finds the whole thing hysterical, which pisses me off. He eventually stops laughing and tells me he is proud of me for controlling my panic and making the best out of the situation.