Morrissey Family Adventures: "Nesting" and the awesome weekends in Seoul

As some (most) of you may know, I have been 'nesting' in Seoul at Yongsan Army Garrison since I hit 38 weeks. The reason for this is because our AF base at Osan, though it has a hospital, does not have a labor and delivery ward. Yongsan is right in the heart of Seoul, and is only about an hour from Osan when there is no traffic. The problem is that traffic here is ridiculous, and, as Brian can attest to, it's VERY easy for the 1 hour commute to be 2-3 hours at least. Because of this, the medical group thinks it makes sense to have you stay on base at Yongsan, close to the hospital, as it gets close to your delivery date. I suppose this avoids costly ambulance rides and babies born in cars!

At first, I scoffed this idea and called it "pregnancy purgatory," not wanting to leave our comfy apartment to sit and wait in an unfamiliar place for the baby to be born. Now that I'm here (and even though baby boy is overdue) I'm glad to be here. There are 3 "nest" buildings on base, each one has 3-6 rooms and each room has a private bathroom. The buildings each have a shared, large communal kitchen area. It's somewhere in between a dorm room and a hotel room... no frills (i.e. no internet or tv), but completely free of charge and less than a block from the hospital. Spouses and kids can stay with you (Brian comes up every weekend) and there are a multitude of restaurants and shops on base to stave off boredom/hunger. Plus, as I mentioned, it's right in Seoul, which is an incredible city!!! If all of the nest buildings are full, you get to stay at the Dragon Hill, which is the very nice, resort-type hotel here on base. Sadly, I wasn't so lucky. That being said, my 'nest' building was recently completely revamped, only has 3 rooms (mine has a ginormous walk-in shower with phenomenal water pressure), and in the 2 weeks I've been here, I have only seen one of the other rooms taken for a few days. Moral of the story: It's not like the crazy preggo reality show I had originally envisioned. Good for my sanity, bad for the novel I saw myself writing when this is all over! :)

Here's my little nest from the outside:

And here's my cozy little room:

It's certainly not the Ritz, but it's very peaceful and relaxing and only a short walk to doctors appointments and the metro station. The weather has been very hot and humid, so I havent gone exploring in the city as much as I'd like to during the week. That being said, the weekends have been awesome. Brian and I have been all over the city and have found some great new favorite spots!

Awesome Weekends in Seoul:

Brian at the Korean National Museum: This place is mere steps from the Yongsan gate and was a good place to kill an hour or two... it's not nearly as interesting as the War Memorial Museum, but it was still fun to walk around, plus, admission was free... and it's air conditioned!