Getting through the holiday season

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Araceli Alarcon
  • 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea --  Being away from friends and family can be hard especially during the holiday season. Stress is a big factor many people experience during these times. With holidays comes food and stress. This can cause people to gain a few extra pounds.

Finding different ways to deal with this stress can help with being away from loved ones.

"Most of us have difficulty maintaining a healthy lifestyle and weight while stressed, a stressed-out lifestyle is rarely a healthy one," said Capt. Przemyslaw Niemczura, 8th Medical Operations Squadron Health Promotions Element Chief. "Physical activity is an excellent stress-buster."

The fitness center is the place to start. It has a wide variety of fitness equipment, indoor track and a rock climbing wall. If people need an activity to motivate them, there are classes like Spin, Boot camp abs, turbo-kick and Martial arts offered. Special events happen every month from walleyball tournaments, indoor soccer to 5K fun runs. These are fun ways to keep stress down and those extra pounds off.

Interacting and talking with others is one way to help people deal the stress of being away from loved ones.

"The chapel provides a safe haven, a place where someone can go to speak to a chaplain with 100 percent confidentiality," said 8th Fighter Wing Chaplain (Maj.) Martin Fitzgerald. "A chaplain can be a critical resource, someone who is willing and able to listen, and to help someone deal with the heavy load that they may be carrying."

The base chapel provides religious education programming through the week such as Bible studies, faith sharing and religious education courses. The chapel also has the Sonlight Inn, which serves as a multi-purpose facility. With a large lounge area with a big screen TV, an industrial size kitchen facility, dining area, a movie-style popcorn machine, wireless internet and a piano room where free piano lessons are offered twice each week. On Friday nights the facility offers home-cooked meals, Saturday night movies and on both those days, Holy Grounds coffeehouse is open offer free Starbucks classic coffees.

Mr. David Sullins Airman and Family Readiness Flight chief said adapting to a new place while being so far away from family can also cause stress.

"Kunsan is unique so we provide more cultural adaptation services to assistance personnel with adaptation to a foreign culture," said Mr. Sullins "We strive to provide the best possible services and information to our Wolf Pack Family."
The Airman and Family Readiness flight provides assistance for Air Force Aid, personal financial management, transition and relocation programs, career focus and the volunteer coordination, information, referral activities on base. They provide one-on-one guidance and act as the focal point for information and referral services. The center also provides cooking classes and basic Korean language classes. For Wolf Pack members looking to volunteer their time, the center has information on volunteer's opportunities such as teaching English to Korean nationals, helping at local orphanages or volunteering to be a morale call operator.

Another way to keep your mind off of stress is engage in other various activities offered by the Wolf Pack Services Squadron.

The community center (CAC) offers tours to the Demilitarized zone (DMZ), Korean Folk Village and temple visits. Individuals can sign up for day or weekend skiing or snowboarding trip or visit Lotte World amusement park or take a shopping trip to Itaewon. The CAC also sells tickets to concert events in Seoul to popular music acts. The CAC also hosts many events like video game, spades, darts and pool tournaments.

"Sometimes we fail to see the family that surrounds us," Chaplain Fitzgerald said. "We discover the Air Force family by meeting others and sharing conversation, these things can help foster amongst ourselves a greater sense of family and help to build lasting friendships."

For more information on what services on base go online, visit the water cooler, watch the Commander Access Channel, listen to AFN the Eagle or pick up a copy of the Services "Howler."