New job, new office

Well, I've FINALLY started my new job. Sort of. They still haven't granted me computer access yet and without it, basically all I can do is stare at a blank computer screen and see how many times I can spin around in my chair without stopping. (It's three by the way) Hopefully they will activate my CAC (computer access card) soon or I may go nuts. Or they may decide to send me home. Because I am LITERALLY doing nothing. So stand by for the update on how the job is going. But until then, you can get a peek at my office. That's right, I have an office. A very empty office, but still. Do you see that empty shelf? And those empty walls? And all that empty desk space? I think I need some MSU stuff. I'm just saying! Who am I kidding. I just need some help decorating in general!

Almost everyone in the clinic has a dry erase board on their door with their name on it so that you know who's office is who's and you can write a message if you need to. Everyone else's is white. I couldn't have that! This one looked much more like me.

Everything's bigger in ... Okinawa?

Okay, so maybe it's supposed to be Texas, but I bet we have bigger snails!! Look at this monster that Justin and I found creeping in front of our front door the other night. I put my car keys down as a size reference. Can anyone say ESCARGOT? :P

Busy weekend!

This weekend was a very busy one. It started out on Saturday when I went paraGLIDING with my friend Morgan. She had won tickets for two and invited me to go. We thought we were going paraSAILING but we were wrong. I didn't know there was such a difference!! It was an awesome experience.



This is the "jet pack" that the instructor had on that took us up in the air. No boat. just a big fan!!

I think I look a tad bit nervous!!



On Sunday Justin and I finally got to have our deep sea fishing trip that we've been planning. We've talked about it several times, but just hadn't seemed to get the schedule to cooporate. So we set out for an 80 mile boat trip(Roundtrip) -- leaving the dock at 6:00am and not returning until after 8pm!! What a long day! About half way to the fishing point, I started to feel sick. REALLY sick! So I spent the first half of the day curled up in the fetal position on the floor of the boat. But once the dramamine kicked in, I felt fine. Note to self: take dramamine before anymore sea experiences!!

We only caught 9 fish between the 8 fishers that we had on the boat so it wasn't exactly a productive trip either, but it was still fun. Justin caught 3 of the 9 fish. :)

Ikea Island

Today, Logan and I decided to go exploring and head out to find Ikea Beach which is on an outlying island from the main island of Okinawa. There are several islands connected by bridges off to the ...East?? Oh, I have no idea if that's right. I have a one in four chance though, right?? :) Anyway...we found it. It turned out to be quite a nice little beach that even had glass bottom boat rides that you could book so OF COURSE we had to do that! Who could pass up that opportunity? It was really awesome. I enjoyed the boat ride just as much as getting to see the fish!

Sea Wall and Doctor Fish

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip into American Village for a quick trip to the "Doctor Fish" and down to the sea wall. What are Doctor Fish you ask? Well ... it's like nature's pedicure. Basically you pay to have these tiny fish eat the dead skin off your feet. Yup. Apparently it tickles ... :)

Playing in American Village

Logan and I went to Araha beach the other day and afterwards we went into American Village for some ice cream A & W style!!

And then decided to just explore a little. Here are our pictures with the giant Shisa dog that greets everyone out front.

and here is Logan being a goofball ... :)

Churaumi Aquarium

A couple of days ago Justin, Logan, and I took our first trip to the aquarium. It was quite an impressive aquarium...according to the internet, it's the world's second largest. Very amazing! We had an awesome time. Here are just a few of the TONS of pictures that I took

It was exhausting...

But we made it!! Logan and I are finally on the same continent again!! :) YAY!!

The countdown begins!

It isn't long now that I will begin my journey back to the States to pick up Logan so that he can spend the month of July here in Okinawa, Japan with Justin and me. And I am SO EXCITED!!

There are so many things that we want to do when he gets here!! Snorkeling, the aquarium, deep sea fishing, eating at the vending machine restaurants, sushi, exploring the castles, the battle grounds...the list goes on and on. I hope we can get it all in!

But first things first. Our first adventure will be the flights. Logan hasn't flown since he was little so that will be a "new" experience for him. We'll start off with a night in Slidell at our Grandparents (Yay!) and then the next day we'll head to New Orleans where the real fun begins! (for Logan i'm sure it will start out as fun...for me, not so much! lol But having him with me will make it tolerable!)

So we will fly from New Orleans to Los Angeles, California where we will stay the night because we will have to be back at the airport at 4:30am the next morning. Again, Logan will probably be so excited that he won't notice. Maybe his excitement will rub off on me. I HATE standing in those long international lines!! But I can remember when Justin and I went to Paris for the first time and when we came to Japan for the first time...they didn't seem nearly as long. :)

From Los Angeles we will go to San Francisco then on to Tokyo then finally to Okinawa only to do it all over again in reverse a month later. It will be quite a trip but totally worth it!

My trip back to the states will be a quick one, but I hope to see as many of my friends and family as I can. Things are amazing here, but that doesn't change how much I miss you guys!!! See you soon!! ;)

Random

BBQ Season

This weekend was spent beginning to get our patio ready for BBQ season (and hopefully the end of rainy season!!) We finally have some patio furniture and thanks to Justin we now have a fully put together grill ...

We even have a fountain and an umbrella that we purchased from the gift shop that I work at. It's like a huge version of those little umbrellas that they put in those fruity drinks that you get on the beach ;) Now I need some plants to kill. I mean nurture and love. I am actually growing two right now. I've had one for about two weeks and the other for about four days.

Hopefully it will stop raining long enough one day soon so that we can enjoy our patio!

The Barrel Restaurant

So you're driving along and you see this....a two story restaurant in the shape of a giagantic wine barrel. I ask you - How can you NOT stop and eat there?? Okay, so that isn't exactly how the story went. It was kinda like this .... Our friends Garrett and Melissa called one night and said, "Dude guess what we just saw out gate 2?? It was a two story restaurant shaped like a big huge wine barrel!! Wanna go??" And I was like, "What? I'm sorry...I didn't hear what you said, I was too busy getting in the car. I'm half way there already." It was kind of like that. ;)

Come on guys. Don't act like you didn't know I get excited over stupid things! Anyway, to sum it up it was cool. We literally ate in a barrel. And the food was awesome too. No really. When Logan gets here i'm up for round two of the barrel!

My mis-adventures with Shadow

Many of you know about Shadow the cat. She and I have a love/hate relationship. I love, and she hates....but I digress. When Justin is here, things go pretty smoothly. She goes her way, I go mine. She doesn't pay me any attention (until Justin pays ME attention and then I get "the glare") But when he's gone, she is forced to acknowledge my presence. I give her what she wants most in the world...FOOD!

We have been doing our little dance where she pretends to like me to get food for almost a week now during this current TDY and getting along pretty well ... until the other night. One of us almost didn't make it out alive. In the light of day, I can see the comedic value in the story (which is why it's making the blog) but that night?? Well ... NO!

Picture this: It's about midnight. I'm comfy. Sleeping soundly. And I'm awakened to this...this...NOISE. At first, I laid there motionless. The room was dark. Everything was quiet except for these screeching, screaming noises coming from downstairs. I didn't know what it was. My mind was racing. The CAT was the furthest thing from my mind. So I crept down the stairs and what do I find?? Shadow, standing at window by the front door, her face pressed into the glass, screaming at the top of her lungs...and on the other side? Another HUGE cat ... doing the exact same thing. They are nose to nose. Separated only by double paned typhoon strength safety glass.

At first, relief washes over me. It wasn't some screaming banshee that had crept into my house to do ... whatever screaming banshees do. And it wasn't the world's loudest burgular. But it was the two loudest cats on the planet!! So I continue down the stairs, yelling for them to be quiet. Imagine my threats not working!! So I begin to bang on the glass to get the stranger cat to go away. No luck! So I risk life and limb and pick Shadow up and take her upstairs and hope that she has the memory of a gnat and that the other cat will give up and go away quickly. No luck. Back downstairs I go...chasing Shadow as she screams the whole way to immediately press her nose back against the glass again. So I then lower the blinds to the window so that the cats can't see each other...we now have bent blinds! I am probably now the most hated neighbor in all of Terrace Heights...My final plan was to just pull the blankets over my head, say something under my breath about how she may be a set of mittens by morning, and fall back asleep. What do you know - that one worked. At least for me. I think she and the other cat screamed all night! Ahhh...the mis-adventures with Shadow. Things like this never happen when Justin is here!!

Pennies, pennies...no where??

Did you know that they don't use pennies overseas? Well, maybe you did. But I didn't. So therefore, I thought it was a very cool fact that I would share. Apparently the Department of Defense decided that it costs more than what a penny is actually worth to ship them overseas to use as currency so if you are purchasing something and you would need to pay or be paid in pennies, your total would be either rounded up or down to the nearest nickel.

For those of you who know me well, you know that this throws off my entire day when I total my register at the store and it's off by two cents because there was a 15% off sale and I had to round up or down. I hate it when things aren't exact!! :)

But I can say this...

Dear Penny,

I won't miss you. Finding you deep down in the recesses of the sofa cushions. Trying desperately to reach you in the great abiss that is the cracks between the car seats. All those times that I've sucked you up into the vacuum cleaner. Nope. There is no love lost between you and I.

Sincerely,

Misty

Random

Dragon Boat races

Yesterday Justin and I drove down into Naha to watch the Dragon Boat races. It is a huge festival that is part of Golden week. When I googled what the races were actually about, here is the story that I found (sorry to the newspaper that I'm plagiarizing this from!!!)

The Naha Dragon Boat Races date back to the 13th Century in China and are based on a tale of the imperial servant, Kutsugen. Although Kutsugen was a devoted servant of the Chinese Emperor, there was also a bond and mutual friendship between the two. Because of this strong relationship, many vassals grew jealous and began spreading the rumor that Kutsugen had betrayed the Emperor. Kutsugen was horrified by this false accusation and committed suicide by throwing himself into a river. The Emperor was saddened by this tragedy, so he decided to hold a dragon boat race in his friend¹s memory. As the Ryukuan Kingdom actively engaged in trade with China, their histories are intertwined. After hearing this story, the King of the Ryukyu Islands, was very moved and wanted to hold dragon boat races on the island that would become known as Okinawa. To this day the dragon boat races are an extension of the Chinese influence on Okinawas heritage.

The same but different ...

Really?? Even here? Half way around the world in JAPAN, I have to deal with **shudder** Rebel fans?? Is it wrong that when I saw this, I was torn between knocking on their door to ask them where they were from and the urge to retaliate?? ;) Someone should send me a Bulldog flag STAT so that I can sneak up during the night and replace it!! ha ha ha!!

I'm going to have to start taking a different route to work and to the BX. I see this almost daily. I get all fired up!! It's good to know that I still bleed maroon and white I guess =)

Shopping in Japan

As i've gotten more and more comfortable with my surroundings, I've started doing a little bit of shopping off base. Yesterday, my friend Melissa and I were in "MaxValu" and she noticed that even in Okinawa, you can shop for a bargain -- Here are two bottles of the same chili spice ... only one is "Topvalu" brand. It's a lot harder to compare ingredients here than it is in the states to see if it is really the same, but it LOOKED the same, and the Kanji on the bottle was the same. And it was like 30 yen cheaper. Guess which one we bought?? :)

For those of you who know me well, you know what a direction follower I am. Especially when it comes to cooking. I hate when I ask people for a recipe and it calls for a pinch of this and a dash of that. Well, this experience is going to loosen me up in that arena. LOL I bought some gyoza dumplings yesterday and tried to cook them today. Here were the directions ....

Everything is that way. So when I end up with food poisoning, you'll know why! Ha! The dumplings turned out okay. I actually burned them a bit. Next time I'll have a better idea of how to do it. That's why I bought more than one package!

Random sightings

You never know what you are gonna find while exploring. This first picture is a park that I saw on the side of the road. I hope the figure out the significance of the fish flags soon. They must have some meaning for this time of year because suddenly they are every where. They are in the 100 yen stores, in our BX, in the Jusco...and then this random park. It was a really awesome sight to see ... just dozens of fish flying in the wind.

And here is a picture of the Agena bullfighting ring. Apparently bullfighting is big around here. Not like bullRIDING in the states or bullfighting in Spain where there's a guy with a red sheet, this is just two bulls fighting it out. The last one standing is the victor. Some places it's a fight to the death, but I from what I see online, they don't let it go that far here. So in that case, i'd like to see that. I don't think i'd want to watch if one of the bulls wasn't going to make it out in the the end. (Sorry if one of my two readers is a PETA advocate). I found the place, but I have no idea how to find out when they do the ... matches? Would that be the appropriate word? I tried to look it up online and just found directions. Thanks to my inability to stay still, i've got that covered!!