WE HAVE A HOME!!

Normally I would recount the week from the last point that I left off but I'm too excited to wait :) We have a home! A place to call our own and make special for ourselves. After the last two years I have moved so much, I am just thrilled to have a place to call home! Its a large two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with a spacious living room and a HUGE kitchen with lots of counter space :) There are 4 units in the building (two on the bottom and two on the top) and ours is the top! Which is what I prefer because I hate hearing people walk above me. It's newly renovated and we're the first tenants in it! I will post pictures when we pick up the keys on Monday. It's on Camp Chibana which is literally next to the Kadena AFB. Which is another great point because the Kadena base has the best and largest gym facilities and largest PX within walking distance of our next place! Ahh we are so blessed!

Alright so we got our house on Tuesday, since then we went to a newcomers orientation where we learned all about living in Okinawa. I got my license to drive here! (Rory has a waiting period before he can get his.) Then we went to the Corr's(our sponsors) for a delicious homecooked asian meal. Today we transferred our records to the hospital and dental building, talked to another guy from Rory's shop about a car we might buy and had a mongolian grill styled meal at the Tengang Castle restaurant in Courtney. It was amazing, there were over 15 different sauces to choose from and endless mixings to go with the noodles. I will definitely be going there again!

Back to the beginning of our trip, we flew in Friday night and fell asleep soon after we landed. Adjusting to the time difference wasn't very difficult since we didn't sleep long on the plane. Saturday we took a tour of Camp Courtney and got some of the essentials from the commissary. Later that night we went to dinner with our sponsors to Yoshi's and had the best sushi and teriyaki we've ever had. It was a traditional styled Japanese restaurant, we took our shoes off at the door and sat down at lowered tables. We wiped our hands with hot towels before eating and drank sweet green tea with our dinner. It was  inexpensive and delicious. I ordered the chicken teriyaki and Alaskan roll, and everything was so incredibly flavorful and fresh. Everything here tastes fresh and healthy. 

Sunday we went to American village which is a very large shopping center near to the water. The malls here are built different that most. Instead of every shop having an individual room or store, they're all kind of just meshed into one another without any kind of boundaries. Kind of as if it were all one entire store (how Macys and Nordstroms are but as an entire mall). We ate udon noodles for lunch with some delicious sides that I honestly have no idea what they were. We watched a man make balloon animals to an extent that might as well have been origami. His assistant followed me through several aisles hiding behind my height. We I finally noticed her I just thought " Seriously, this would only happen to me." After American village we went to the Kadena PX for Rory to get his hair cut for the week and we set up our contract for cell phones for the next couple of years. We both have iPhones and can now Facetime with anyone back in the US with it as well! Or so we understand..

We went to bed early Sunday and started off Monday morning with our Okinawa housing brief. The main thing about that meeting was that the closest housing to Rory's work was currently not available however there was one. Which of course is the one that we chose and I am all kinds of giddy about :) Later in the day I went to COCO Curry with my sponsor, her best friend and all their children for some chicken curry & rice. It was no Taste of India but it was good. Afterwards I went with everyone to the sea wall. It was my first taste of the Pacific ocean from the opposite side and it was fascinating. The tide was low and there were small tide pools all over. Most of them containing oceanic life. There were these small tentacles poking out of small holes, waving in the water. I don't know if they were star fish or octopus but hopefully I can go again and take a closer look. Im also not quite sure what the large shaped stones are but I think they have something to do with protecting the city from the coast waves, I'll do some research ;)

We've noticed some pretty interesting cultural differences in just the last few days, some of them positive stereotypes and some of them just unique. Outside every building there are "guardians" posted near the entrance to "ward off evil spirits from entering." These were the ones that were at American village, they were larger than the horses posted outside P.F. Changs. We learned on Wednesday that the word used for husband can be misunderstood as prisoner if not pronounced correctly (haha!). The lawns here is a mix of clovers, grass, flowers, and other greenery and must be kept at a minimum height because there is an annual threat of dangerous snakes. Also, we have pineapples growing next to our hotel. :D

I really like it here.