A Real Fine Place to Start

There are so many aspects of our life that I could write about right now, but I figured this would be a good place to start.  I think it will help you imagine us here, in almost paradise, while you read about our trials and triumphs and everything in between. 

The "move that never ends" has finally ended!  We have arrived in Okinawa!  We left Omaha on the 21st to head to Honolulu to visit a friend for a couple of days.  That meant an almost 9-hour flight from Chicago to Honolulu.  I should mention that we brought our dog, Rosie, who had never flown before.  I was literally in tears at the Omaha airport, when we checked her at the counter, and again on the plane, when they brought us the little slip saying she was on-board.  Anyway, we got to Honolulu and I couldn't wait to see her and know she was okay...except that I had to wait...hours.  While waiting at the kennel, I heard her unmistakable little bark.  She was a champ.  We spent 3 nights in Hawaii visiting and, of course, hitting the beach:

We left on the 24th for Okinawa, with a layover in Osaka.  Another 9 hour flight, plus a time change got us there Sunday evening.  This one was a different story for Rosie and I was met in baggage claim by an agent telling me to "come get her, something might be wrong."  What gave you that idea?  The foul smell or the brown shit running out of the crate?  Thankfully, she was fine, but had crapped all over the place.  Unfortunately, Osaka was not the end of the road for us, so Alan (who deserves a trophy for this) cleaned out the crate while I dealt with the Animal Quarantine paperwork.  We cleared customs and made our Okinawa flight with 20 mins. to spare.  Here's Adam having his first Japanese snack - we all know how much he loves his snacks :)

Needless to say, we were beat.  So we claimed our dog and 9 bags and met our sponsors for a lift to lodging.  Monday we bought some groceries and just rested.  Alan had bought a car and gotten his license when he was here TDY in August, so we were ready to go.  Tuesday we had a housing appointment, where they assigned us our house.  There was no back-up option or turn-down option, so we accepted (obviously).  When we picked Adam up from the friend he was staying with, he said he had a headache...he had a 100.5 fever.  Great.  Gave him Motrin and it went down.  Six hours later, the Motrin wore off.  102.  Crap.  More Motrin.  He's asking for a snack and running around so he must feel good.  Let's go look at some furniture.  "Yeah, this bed is ni...Adam, what's wrong?"  Vomit.  More good news.  We haven't even in-processed yet - can we even go to the clinic?  We go back to our room and he says he feels better after some dinner so we go to bed.  Thursday, Alan and I are supposed to be in a brief (gotta love the military) all day so a friend is supposed to watch Adam again.  Except that this morning his fever is 103.  We call and get approved to bring him in to the clinic, which means we'll be late for the brief.  We take him in and they rule out flu but decide it's a virus so continue Motrin and give it 3 days.  Alan and I drop him off at the friend's house (who agrees to keep him even though he's sick = Saint) and head to the brief.  Thankfully, they bend the rules and let us in late.  At the end of the day, I have my Japanese drivers license and we've learned all the ways we can be killed on Okinawa while enjoying the island.  Seriously.  "We encourage you to scuba dive...but you'll probably get hurt or die doing it."  "We encourage you to drive and explore the island...but you'll probably get hurt or die doing it."  "Surfing is great...but..."  How can a place that looks this great be so dangerous?  Here are some scenery shots:

That night I broke in my drivers license and was the DD for Alan.  Let me tell you, it's tough!  Every time I went for the blinker, I turned on the windshield wipers.  EVERYTHING is on the opposite side from where you are used to it being.  But, I'm happy to say that today I drove perfectly.  It didn't take long to get adjusted.   

Thursday morning we moved in to our house, and are feeling like we have a home again.  Here it is from the front:

It's base housing.  It looks exactly like half the other houses in the neighborhood.  It has a great yard, which is nice...except for mowing.  But that's only going to suck for the local national we hire to mow, edge and trim shrubs.  Not for me.  The amazingly efficient movers showed up at about 9:30 on Thursday morning with all of our stuff and had it unloaded AND unpacked - everything out of boxes - and took away the boxes and paper by about 12:30.  Seriously, we need these people in the States.  It would have taken them all day just to unload the stuff.  And they would have complained while doing it.  I guess, to be fair, these Japanese guys could have been complainng, but I just couldn't understand them.  So we are slowly getting settled in and finding places for everything.  I bought some candles today so it can start to smell like home.

I think I'll leave it at that for now.  That pretty much covers our first week here, except for Halloween, which I'll post separately.  Forgive me for the length and the rookie mistakes - first blog ever.  I'll get better. 

Sayonara!