President Bush stopped by our base yesterday to talk to us.

I was offered a ticket to see him speak through a friend who had connections, but declined even though I knew the tickets were hard to come by.

I had mixed feelings about it.

He isn't my favorite president, but he is The President.

Not everybody gets to see The President of the United States live in their lifetime.

But the deciding factor was that I realized I preferred the company of my kids, so I stayed home with them.

Piney and I had our typical day which I will tell you about on my next post- a sort of picture story to come.

Anyway, then I ran a few errands.

Of course there were blockades and police everywhere due to the President's visit which was kind of inconvenient, but manageable.

The big hassle was yet to come.

I went to the grocery store.

That was the beginning of my troubles.

You see there are these "hardened criminals" in our midst that buy things at our U.S. commissary and then sell the items illegally out in Seoul.

Due to this problem- we are issued special cards that track our shopping purchases and brand us as being safe shoppers at the commissary.

These cards are issued on arrival with proper documentation and are supposed to be good until leaving the base.

We show the card to the cashier and are then allowed to buy our items.

But something went wrong with my card.

They made a mistake.

They made it expire in July 2008.

I didn't know of this mistake.

So after going through the store- gathering all of my items- checking them through the register- and even having them bagged etc....

They rejected me.

According to the grocery store I was one of the hardened criminals and I was not allowed to take home food for my family.

I had to leave with nothing.

I was so shocked. It was completely unbelievable to me. It was a MISTAKE!

They took all of my food away.

I angrily drove to the office that handles the cards. After waiting in line they apologized profusely for the mistake and wrote me a note that I could indeed shop for food at the commissary while they processed a new card for me that would be done the next day.

I had to go back to the grocery store with my "note" and REBUY everything. I mean I had to go through the whole store again and pick out every item again and stand in line again for the check out and put everything on the check out belt again.

I was SO MAD.

Grrrrrrrr.

Labels: living in Seoul, military life