SAGA Video Call & Australia Day Event
Saturday, January 27th, 2018
7:00-8:00 pm
Royal Garden Korean Restaurant
The Hampton Roads area is filled with military personnel who have served, or are serving. As such many of us move around from place to place. These frequent moves come with positive and negative aspects. On the negative side, it can be very stressful to pick up and move an entire families worth of possessions every few years. There are deployments, TDYs and other absences for birthdays, holidays and other important life events. On the positive side, specifically for geocachers, there is the possibility for a completely new area to explore with each PCS. Since finding my first geocache in 2005 I've moved six times to three different countries. This has afforded me the opportunity to meet a wide variety of different geocachers from all over the world.
Most recently I moved from Osan Air Base, in Songtan, South Korea in August 2017. I'd spent three years in Korea exploring the beautiful country with both Koreans and English expats like myself. I met transients like a woman who splits here time between living in Canada and China. I met two English teachers who live in Seoul. I met a flight attendant who works for Delta and flies all over the world. Now there's a job for a geocacher!
Anyway, when I got to Korea I didn't expect that I would meet such a wide variety of people. I figured I would just cache on my own, and always be looking over my shoulder on some of those more challenging hides. Anyone who has cached overseas knows what I'm talking about... you never quite know when you might be violating a cultural norm, and the language barrier can make caching that much more nerve-wracking. Then I set up a Leap Day Event on February 29, 2016. What spawned out of that freezing-cold, Monday night event just outside the main gate at Osan Air Base was a group of dedicated geocachers, both military and non-military who are still going strong despite many of its members moving away to different assignments. The Songtan Area Geocachers Association (SAGA) members may now be spread across the globe, but that doesn't mean they can't get back together occasionally for a good 'ole fashion meet & greet; with a little help from the world-wide web.
SAGA members are creating events in their local areas, each timed to align with the best time for a simultaneous international video call. The call will be 7 pm, Saturday, January 27th here in Virginia. That's 4 pm Pacific time and 9 am Sunday in Korea for those who are curious. At these events we will use facebook messenger to link up via a video call. Anyone is welcome to join us for this webcall. If you ever wondered what it's like to geocache in a foreign country you can learn all about it from members who have traveled to countries far and wide.
I think it's only appropriate to hold this event at the Royal Garden Korean Restaurant in Newport News. Here is the address for your car GPS (of course the event coordinates will take you there too):
340 Oriana Rd
Newport News, VA 23608
Here are links to the other events if you are curious
Songtan, South Korea
Grand Forks, North Dakota
Niceville, Florida
As an added bonus you will get the Australia Day Souvenir for attending this event as well.
Again, this event will include a video call with other SAGA members from around the world, but here are three points to clear up:
1) You do not need to be a SAGA member to attend and participate in the event
2) No pressure to be on camera if you do not want to be
3) This event will be at a restaurant, but eating & drinking are optional