A couple of pictures I meant to put up before....the 3 of us at the lighthouse from tour book day :)
When we went to pick up our Alien registration card (which is quite cool...way better then a driver's license) I managed to take a picture of a traditional Japanese toilet...ummm, yea, glad we have a western style toilet!!
I have officially been in Okinawa a month...time flies when you're overwhelmed! I started thing about all that's happened in a month and I'm rather proud of myself! I arrived in Japan, learned to drive on the wrong side of the road, figured out how to get around, I know how to get gas for the car, I can go grocery shopping (missing cheese, popcorn, labels I can read, good cuts of meat, reasonable produce prices...Stater Brothers!!!!) but I have managed to feed myself and Adrienne...several mishaps that I don't care to discuss, we'll just say I won't become a famous chef in Japan! I've done a little site seeing, picked out a trip to Tokyo (we're booking it this week!), found a church I like, set up my classroom, started school, shocked my kids with actual expectations, become completely ok with needing to all things with Adrienne, learned what we need to take with us to get on base, figured out yen, finally figured out how to not scald or freeze myself in the shower...conquering the shower is quite a feat...Adrienne still has not managed it :), discovered Mint Julep Soda YUM!!...all in all we've learned a lot so far!! This weekend was a nice "American" break though! We went on base Friday night for Izzie's birthday party (the Kindergarten teacher's daughter) A ton of people from school were there as well as base friends...the place was PACKED! We got to eat pizza - YUM, I missed pizza! We had a nice time of chatting...in English! Saturday morning was a pj day - we cleaned, did laundry, watched TV - but the pj's made it nicer! We headed to the bakery - our favorite place :) to get breakfast for the week and then headed back to get ready for the "bat passing" party. Laura's husband is part of the bat squandron (he's a fighter pilot). They have a party with in every 44 days (they're the 44th squadron) and the squad leader and his wife were hosting. We had great Surf and Turf...yummy steak, shrimp, cheesy potatoes, chips and salsa, FRUIT! and there was a Trifle, Key Lime cheesecake, cookies - all catered and super yummy and very American! We had a great time meeting everyone - they were extremely friendly and it was funny to see their faces change when Laura explained we weren't with the military we had just come on our own. HA HA - shocked a few people! The crowd was pretty mellow and there was a guy playing music and singing - just nice to be surrounded by people we could understand for the evening. Laura had pointed out this AMAZING apartment overlooking the ocean one time when we went for lunch and I met one of the guys that lives there - he's hosting the next "bat passing" party and invited us along...might need to check out the view from their 2 level apartment complete with a veranda bigger then our apartment, marble floors and did I mention its maybe 20 feet from the ocean? Today we went to church, the Rose Garden of course, then Adrienne did some lesson planning while I finished up preparing my devotion for tomorrow - Adrienne threatened to bring Kleenex in keeping up with San Gabriel style crying at devotions...gotta get over that if I do them once a month! I have to say the tears haven't been flowing, not that it's not still hard, but I guess part of it is becoming normal to feel out of place all the time. I miss a lot of things from home, wishing I brought more of my closet but the shock is starting to wear off a little so that's good. I took some pictures of my kids after lunch the other day - they're kinda silly!
When we went to pick up our Alien registration card (which is quite cool...way better then a driver's license) I managed to take a picture of a traditional Japanese toilet...ummm, yea, glad we have a western style toilet!!
I have officially been in Okinawa a month...time flies when you're overwhelmed! I started thing about all that's happened in a month and I'm rather proud of myself! I arrived in Japan, learned to drive on the wrong side of the road, figured out how to get around, I know how to get gas for the car, I can go grocery shopping (missing cheese, popcorn, labels I can read, good cuts of meat, reasonable produce prices...Stater Brothers!!!!) but I have managed to feed myself and Adrienne...several mishaps that I don't care to discuss, we'll just say I won't become a famous chef in Japan! I've done a little site seeing, picked out a trip to Tokyo (we're booking it this week!), found a church I like, set up my classroom, started school, shocked my kids with actual expectations, become completely ok with needing to all things with Adrienne, learned what we need to take with us to get on base, figured out yen, finally figured out how to not scald or freeze myself in the shower...conquering the shower is quite a feat...Adrienne still has not managed it :), discovered Mint Julep Soda YUM!!...all in all we've learned a lot so far!! This weekend was a nice "American" break though! We went on base Friday night for Izzie's birthday party (the Kindergarten teacher's daughter) A ton of people from school were there as well as base friends...the place was PACKED! We got to eat pizza - YUM, I missed pizza! We had a nice time of chatting...in English! Saturday morning was a pj day - we cleaned, did laundry, watched TV - but the pj's made it nicer! We headed to the bakery - our favorite place :) to get breakfast for the week and then headed back to get ready for the "bat passing" party. Laura's husband is part of the bat squandron (he's a fighter pilot). They have a party with in every 44 days (they're the 44th squadron) and the squad leader and his wife were hosting. We had great Surf and Turf...yummy steak, shrimp, cheesy potatoes, chips and salsa, FRUIT! and there was a Trifle, Key Lime cheesecake, cookies - all catered and super yummy and very American! We had a great time meeting everyone - they were extremely friendly and it was funny to see their faces change when Laura explained we weren't with the military we had just come on our own. HA HA - shocked a few people! The crowd was pretty mellow and there was a guy playing music and singing - just nice to be surrounded by people we could understand for the evening. Laura had pointed out this AMAZING apartment overlooking the ocean one time when we went for lunch and I met one of the guys that lives there - he's hosting the next "bat passing" party and invited us along...might need to check out the view from their 2 level apartment complete with a veranda bigger then our apartment, marble floors and did I mention its maybe 20 feet from the ocean? Today we went to church, the Rose Garden of course, then Adrienne did some lesson planning while I finished up preparing my devotion for tomorrow - Adrienne threatened to bring Kleenex in keeping up with San Gabriel style crying at devotions...gotta get over that if I do them once a month! I have to say the tears haven't been flowing, not that it's not still hard, but I guess part of it is becoming normal to feel out of place all the time. I miss a lot of things from home, wishing I brought more of my closet but the shock is starting to wear off a little so that's good. I took some pictures of my kids after lunch the other day - they're kinda silly!
2 comments:
Sounds to me like you had a very successful month! Congratulations!!! It will only get easier from here!
I agree, it will only get easier! I wish it could get easier for me to not have my buddy! :( I miss you!
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