As Of Lately

Monday October 18, 2010

It has been a couple of weeks since I have updated my blog.  Not a whole lot of exciting things are happening anymore.  Things have calmed down enough where I don’t feel as though I should do a day by day blog.  I will try to just hit some of the highlights of the past 2 weeks.

I am still waiting to hear back about substitute teaching, but I am expecting to hear from them within a week or so.  I am very ready to start working a little bit so I am not as bored as I feel some days. 

Our 6 month wedding anniversary was last week, which for me was a mini-milestone.  It’s hard to believe we have been married for 6 months, but with everything that has happened in the 6 months, it feels like a lifetime!

Slowly, Brian and I have been adding things to our apartment to make it more homey feeling.  We have purchased a lamp for the living room, curtains for the kitchen or back door, and curtains for the living room and our bedroom.  Putting curtains up provided quite a challenge for us.  Our windows are quite large and not many of the rods were long enough to fit, and then we had to decide on the curtains we liked best.  Brian’s pick got to stay in the living room while mine are in the bedroom.  The ones in the bedroom are a bit too small, so they might not be there for long.  One of my favorite purchases lately has been the patio set we got!  It is black wrought iron, a circle table with four chairs.  Now we are almost ready to entertain!  We just need to get a grill for Brian!

Our second shipment of things will be coming in about two weeks, which we are both pretty anxious to get.  That will definitely complete our home.

Last week, Brian’s work had a beach party cookout for someone who was leaving to go back to the states.  That was pretty fun for us because that allowed us an easy way to meet new people.  Also last Monday, we decided to venture out in town to go eat as well as walk along the “strip”.  We had a really good time and can’t wait to go and explore different parts of the island like that.

Last Friday, I went out with a friend to go dress shopping for the Marine Birthday-Ball on November 2^nd.  This was a lot of fun and I found a dress that I can’t wait to wear!!  Of course, all good things come with a little complication.  That day, I ran over a screw in the road and had to get a new tire put on.  That wasn’t a major ordeal, but I definitely could have gone on in life if it hadn’t happened!!

Sunday was our one month mark for being in Okinawa!  It is slightly hard to believe we have been here for that long already, in some sense, it seems like we just got here!  On Sunday, me and Brian went out to the beach.  Brian bought some flippers, goggles and a snorkel (I just got goggles and a snorkel) to explore some of the ocean with.  The water is pretty clear, but where we swam at, there wasn’t much to see.  It was pretty crazy how far off the ocean dropped.  There was a netted swimming area, but once you went outside of that, the ocean dropped off deeper than we could see!  I wasn’t a huge fan of this, but it was still a fun and new experience for us.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Once again, I have put off writing my blog and putting it online.  Once again, there really isn’t a whole lot of excitement going on.  Last weekend, we went to a comedy show with some friends.  It was pretty funny and a nice way to get out of the house!  It is really cool all of the opportunities that we have over here.  The comedy show was free for us which made it even nicer!  On Sunday, Brian and I decided to try snorkeling again.  We were supposed to meet someone who was going to show us to a really cool snorkeling place, but that didn’t work out.  Eventually, we found the place on our own.  Once we got to the parking lot, it was another adventure trying to figure out where to snorkel at!  We walked down a couple of trails and up on a huge rock and finally found where we needed to go.  Unfortunately by that time, the sun was starting to go down so we just decided we would come back early in the day another time.

On Monday, I volunteered at the Elementary School.  It has been Red Ribbon Week for schools here (and back home) and on Monday, all of the students participated in a parade with the Marine Corps band leading them off.  Afterwards, I helped some students in a fourth grade classroom.  Overall, it was not the experience I was looking for, but it was only my first time at the school.

On Tuesday, some interesting news was brought to my attention.  One of our neighbors informed me that a Typhoon was headed our way and was due to hit in a couple of days.  There wasn’t much for us to prepare for.  Our apartment is a very sturdy building, as it has to be because of all the bad weather they get here throughout the summer and fall months.  We had plenty of water and food to eat as well.  Tuesday there were many gusts of wind coming and by Wednesday, there was rain added on to an increase in the wind gusts.  Thursday morning, Brian left for work, but about 5 minutes later, was back home because his higher-ups didn’t want him traveling to work since we live on a different base from his work.  If he had gone to work and the weather had gotten bad really fast, he may have been stuck there throughout the storm.  Therefore, Brian stayed at home and we just relaxed all day and listened to the whistling wind and the down pour of rain.  By this morning, the storm was basically all gone.  This shocked everybody, we all figured it wouldn’t be over until maybe tonight or tomorrow morning.  Sure enough though, there hasn’t been any rain so far today, there are only mild gusts of wind every now and then.

After Brian got ready for work, we both headed over to set up an appointment to get our second (and last) shipment of our belongings!  We were able to make an appointment for it to be dropped off on Monday which made both of us very happy.  After this, Brian headed off to work, and I headed off to volunteer again.  I worked with the school nurse to help her organize some papers.  While this again isn’t the experience I was looking for, I was okay with it.  When you start out somewhere new, you have to start at the bottom, and it certainly won’t hurt to make connections with all employees at the school.

Speaking of the school, I STILL am waiting to hear back about substitute teaching.  When they told me it takes a while for the papers to get processed, they were not joking around.  For now, I’ll keep volunteering so people will know who I am.

October Already!?

Monday September 27 and Tuesday September 28:  As most of last week went, this week to was pretty boring.  Monday morning I had to take Brian to work at 6 in the morning so he could run.  Tuesday someone picked him up in the morning so I wouldn't have to drive.  I usually just spend the days straightening up the house, washing clothes and dishes, cooking dinner, blah blah.

Wednesday September 29:  Today, Brian didn't have to go run in the morning, but he did have a little more checking in to do on the base we live on.  We got that business done, or so I thought, but it turned out we had to run back home so Brian could get some paper work that the office needed.  On the way back home, I was coming to an intersection where I would be turning.  As I was slowing down, I saw a large work truck was turning into the street I was on.  I noticed that there wasn't much room for them to turn, so I should back up.  I popped my car into reverse, looked in my side mirror and started backing up.  Next thing I know, I hear a honk and a crash.  Ohhhhhhhhh yea, I just backed into a car.  Great.  So I shakily get out of the car to see what the damage was, and it was certainly my lucky day because there was no damage on either of the cars.  The guy said he was fine and we shouldn't call the police, there was no reason for that, so we just went on about our business.  I was pretty shaken up about this unfortunate event because I had never bumped into a car myself.  It was silly and embarrassing for me.  It is challenging at times getting used to driving here in Japan, and this time the challenge was looking in my rear view mirror.  I'm not used to looking to the left to look in that mirror yet, but you better believe I look in it now!!

Thursday September 30:  I had been rolling over in my head that I should try to apply to be a substitute teacher at one of the local schools as I probably won't get a full time teaching job right away.  Finally on Thursday, I gathered the motivation to go to some schools to apply.  Over here, the substitute applications are done school by school, there is no online application.  First, I went to the school closest to our apartment.  I didn't get a very good feeling from the school the minute I walked in, and my bad feeling continued the whole time I was there.  The lady very rudely told me that not only did she not have any substitute application packets prepared, but they also didn't need anymore substitutes.  After getting that bitter taste in my mouth, I went to the elementary school on Camp Kinser, where Brian works.  At this school, the secretary was very nice to me.  She did have a packet for me and said they were in need of more substitutes.  She explained what I needed to do to complete the form and said to call her when I was finished.  When I got home, I spent the next hour and a half completing the forms.

Friday October 1: Finally the day had come for Brian to get his license!  It took so long because he was waiting on someone that he works for to sign the form for him to drive.  He took his test at 10 in the morning and was so concerned, not about passing the test, but doing better on the test than I did!!  He passed the test, but he didn't find out how many he had missed, or if he missed any on it.  Once the test was finished, it was time to really try hard to find a car for him.  We went to Kadena, which is an Air Force Base on the island.  They have a placed called the "Lemon Lot" on this base where people in the military can park their cars they are trying to sell.  Anyone in the military can look at these cars.  He found a couple that he liked.  The first one was a Toyota Surf.  He called to talk to the owner and then moved on to call another car's owner.  While looking at the other car and talking to that owner, the owners of the Toyota Surf drove up to see if Brian wanted to test drive it.  Since they were there and Brian was able to drive it then, he ended up buying this car.  It was a good deal, and it is a good car for him.  They Toyota Surf can be compared to the Toyota Four Runner in the states.  He is used to driving a truck, so at least he got an SUV out of the deal since trucks aren't popular here at all.

Saturday October 2:  Today, we decided to head to the aquarium on the island.  I had looked it up online the day before to see what they had to say about it.  It took us a little over an hour to get there, and the second half of the drive was all basically beside the East China Sea which I loved.  It was nice to see more of the island than the small portion that we see most days.  There was lots of greenery on the drive and we passed through Naga, a larger city on the island.  Once we got to the aquarium and parked, we started walking.  We saw lots of people going one way, so we just followed them.  We had to go down lots of steps first and the view was amazing.  We were walking toward the ocean and we could see another island in the distance.  Once we made it to the bottom, we turned to the right and saw where there was a dolphin show going on.  We sat and watched that for 30 minutes.  I had never seen a dolphin show before and thought it was really cool.  They had the dolphins swimming in sync and one dolphin had a hula-hoop on it's snout.  A bad storm was approaching the area so we were shooed inside by the aquarium workers.  Once inside the aquarium, we started exploring.  Most of the aquarium was to be expected, it was like a normal aquarium, but the best part was to come!  This aquarium has the second largest tank in the world inside it and this tank houses 3 whale sharks as well as many large sting rays.  We could have stood and looked at this tank for hours because you always saw something new swimming by, and the things that you saw over and over again were just amazing.  One of my favorite things in the tank was a sting ray with leopard print skin!!  I had never seen anything like it before!  You could look at the tank from all the sides of it which was neat.  Also, there was a place where the tank goes over your head which just gives a better view of how large these sea creatures were.  When we decided to leave, it was unfortunately still pouring outside.  The aquarium offered complementary umbrellas as well as a shuttle ride to the parking lot.  This was a really fun adventure for us to take!  We wish the aquarium had been a little larger, but it was still really neat to see the huge tank!

Sunday October 3: Sunday was a pretty normal, restful day.  In the afternoon, we began our search for a lawn mower though.  We have a small yard that we have to mow, and each Tuesday the housing management comes around and makes sure everything is up to code around all the on base houses.  Our grass was needing to be cut since we hadn't cut it the whole time we've been here, so we needed to seriously start looking for a lawn mower.  We first tried the store closest to us, but turns out they were sold out and not stocking up anymore.  Someone told us we needed to go to a place called American Village.  They have a home improvement store in the area.  We weaved through the conjested area and finally found the store we were told to try out.  They did have a few choices, but it was much too pricey for us.  We walked through American Village a little bit to see what they had to offer.  There were a few places to eat as well as clothing stores.  They also have a huge ferris wheel that we might try out later.

Monday October 4: On Monday, I had an appointment to meet with the secretary of the school I am applying to be a substitute teacher at.  I went there with all my paper work, signed it there and got my finger print cards to go and get filled out.  I went and got my finger prints and background check done and returned them to the school.  This went really smoothly, I get a really good feeling about this school.  The secretary told me she would send all my information in, but it usually takes three to four weeks for everything to get processed.  That bummed me out a little bit, so I'm just hoping it gets done a little quicker so I can start working sooner!! 
Since we were unsuccessful the day before at getting a lawn mower, I did a little searching on http://www.okinawayardsales.com/ for one.  Luckily, there was one for pretty cheap that we got to buy that night.  We were glad to have saved some money by getting a used lawn mower!

Tuesday October 5:  Since the inspector would be coming around today, I went ahead and got the yard mowed in the morning.  It was probably better this way anyways since it is cooler in the morning.  It didn't take me long at all to mow since the yard is so small.  Nothing else has or will probably happen today...just a normal day!  We are getting more and more of those now, thankfully!
I am pretty jealous of everyone back home and the cooler weather you are all experiencing!  It is steadily in the upper 80's here, I'm hoping it will at least dip into the 70's soon, it's October for Pete's Sake!!  Today it has felt pretty nice, it is 3 in the afternoon now and I have both the doors open (screened doors closed) to let in some of the fresh air :)
I can't believe that it is October, and that we have been here for 2.5 weeks already!!  So much has happened in the past month that it all seems like such a blur.  We are definitely glad that things are settling down though and we are getting into a more normal swing of things!