NZ day 5

Morning came quite slowly for me on the 5th day, I hardly got to sleep at all, the sounds of the city keeping my sleep disjointed at best. Casey, used to sleeping on ships, had no trouble sleeping through the noise and woke up feeling much like his old self, which was a relief, because now I was a grump from no sleep, so one of needed to be functional.

We did t really bother with breakfast, but made a quick potty stop, and headed for the ferry. We figured even though we had a reservation, with the cancellations, it would probably be busy and we should get there early. This proved mostly true, and we queued up with loads of other campers, cars, and commercial trucks to wait our turn to load. It was proving to be a beautiful day, and the sunrise made a beautiful show over the harbor and the ferry. We loaded up quickly enough and being a recovering Sickey and a no sleep wonder, we opted to nap it out in the van for most of the crossing. This ended up working out lovely, with the ship motion making it easy to drift off to sleep. Unfortunately, that motion also made many car alarms sound, and the nap was punctuated by endless horns echoing off the car-hold's metal walls. After about 2 hours or so Casey decided to hit the bathroom, and headed up, saying he'd be back shortly. Well, I fell back asleep, and woke back up, unsure of the time that had passed. Casey was still gone, so I figured I'd only just dozed for a minute. I decided now was as good a time as any to get up and wait for Casey to get back so we could go to the upper decks and enjoy the ride in to Picton. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I started to get concerned, but just then Casey came back, asking "did you miss me?". I said, of course, why wouldn't I? And he explained that he'd been gone for nearly 45 minutes, because the car hold doors were locked and we weren't supposed to be down there and he convinced a trash man to let him back in, because his wife was sleeping in the car. Oops! Guess I dozed longer than I thought. Since we weren't supposed to be there we thought it best to enjoy the rest of the journey from the top decks, which really was quite lovely. The ferry was quite easily maneuvering between huge rocky islands and sharp bends and shallows. It was a totally gorgeous day, too, so things really were on the up-and-up.

Once the ferry docked and everyone disembarked we decided to just high-tail it out of Picton and try to make up some time. Lucky for me, Casey is a super-awesome navigator/planner and he rigged up a delightful route for us. We had had something entirely different planned originally, but the weather and sickness delays have given cause to rework most of the rest of our trip, so from here on out we are planning day by day.

This particular plan made lots of time to bop around the Marlborough wine region! Yay! We were able to hit 3 wineries and a brewery in about 2 hours, so we not only maximized our time. We also bought yummy wines to gift to our many, many friends who have helped us make this logistical nightmare of a PCS/vacation possible (shout outs to: Jenna, Kathryn, Mark, Jessica, and all the others who were on stand by, just in case). OK, back to the trip.

So we tasted some great wines, and the weather was amazing still so the wineries were all open to their beautiful outside sitting areas. Absolutely lovely. Plus we got to taste lots of fun wines. We definitely though Cloudy Bay was the better of the places we went that day, and their gardens were the prettiest, too! But, sadly all the re-planning in the world couldn't give us our two lost days back, so we had to be on our way, we were shooting for Punakaiki by the evening, hopefully with sightseeing time to boot.

Happily, the driving was easy, the weather grand, and the company in good health. All in all this has been a great day so far! The remainder of the day we tried to make up some time and drove out to the west coast and made for Punakaiki. The way there was mostly farms again. But they were dotted with rolling hills along the way. When we started nearing the coast the rolling hills turned into much larger mountain-y areas, with sharp downhills and beautiful vistas. Much more exciting driving than flat farms as far as you can see. But, the cool thing is, even when the farms seem to go forever, you can never really be sure what the road will be like just a few miles ahead. Definitely part of the enjoyment of the whole experience lies in that itself.

When it just started to darken, but still with about an hour of twilight left, we made it to our camping spot for the night. Since we only had a short amount of light left we decided not to set up camp,but to go exploring instead. We were just a short walk from what are known as the pancake rocks, and just a few steps from the beach. So we headed up the hill to the cliffs. Casey spotted a sign on the way that said "Punakaiki Caves", so naturally he had to go exploring, but no worries, he had his new head lamp in his pocket, so all was well. It was completely dark in there, so other than Casey's lamp i just kind of felt my way around, even though Casey tried to hide in the dark and scare me, booger. There are a few fun pics in Casey's FB album from this adventure, so look forward to those. I will post a link to all the pics when I get the chance.

We made it out of the side adventure with still enough time to see the rocks before all the light was gone. It turned out to be really neat. The rocks have these very thin, distinct layers, that are very easily eroded by the waves, so they have turned into all thee crazy formations, including a natural bridge, and some very cool blow-holes. We weren't able to catch any of the sea spray at the time we were there, but it was cool all the same. This was certainly another high point in our already lovely day! We enjoy a beautiful walk back in the dark along the beach trail that led back to the camp. I made some yummy soup and had bread and cheese for dinner, with apples, and Casey just had the bread and apples, as his tummy was taking baby steps getting back to full-normalcy. All in all, great day! Hooray!

NZ day 4

We made it through the night! Sickey woke up feeling a lot more like Casey, so that's a win. Although, he still lacks a real appetite. We head for Wellington proper and find parking at Te Papa, the national Museum. We were really looking forward to this museum, as it has been featured on the history channel and stuff. We actually saw something on the colossal squid right before we got to NZ, so we are looking forward to that. Since half-Sickey wasn't in the mood for breakfast, it is now nearly lunch and we've only just picked at things to eat. Luckily, there is a cute cafe in the museum, and we enjoy a little sit down and something to munch before we explore the museum. We spent a few hours exploring, they had quite a large natural history area, which included the colossal squid. We also perused the Maori and settlers of NZ areas, as well as some exhibits on the typical natural disasters and hazards of NZ living. All in all, the museum was fun, but had a ever-present feeling of "even though NZ is great everyone who lives here and has lived or settled here is ruining the beauty of NZ and it's not as cool as it used to be", so that was kind of depressing. It definitely could have had the same wonderful and interesting exhibits without being so depressing and negative about it all, especially in the Maori exhibits. oh well, certainly worth the money ($0). :-)

We decided to walk about the small waterfront downtown and the shopping street, Cuba street. It was a lovely day and a lot of people were out and about, and it helped me to notice how particularly grubby I was looking, so after strolling the length of the shopping street I picked up a shirt that helped me look a little less like a person sleeping in a van, and more like a normal shopper. I felt much more presentable for hitting a few little pubs and restaurants, of which there were many. Also, as an extra bonus, while we were shopping around the ferry booking office called and said our ferry had been cancelled due to continued uncertain weather, and we had been rebooked on another ferry, leaving at 0830. Lovely, at least we would make it to the South Island, however we wouldn't actually be landing there until after noon, so it will push us back even further on our imagined itinerary, but hopefully we can still see the top sights and make it work.

Thankfully, after getting this news we were right outside a pub, so we stopped in for a beverage and the day was finally looking up. We happily spent the rest of the day wandering the shops and pubs, and just making a relaxing day of it so Casey could get his energy back up. He still wasn't able to eat much, but he was managing a liquid diet. The waterfront near Te Papa was hosting some kind of arts festival and had tents set up along the pier where bands and artist were showing off their talents. That turned out to be lovely, and a great winding down of our city experience in Wellington.

Since the car was already parked in the Te Papa garage, and they allowed for overnight parking, which was surprisingly cheaper than any of the holiday parks we had stayed in, we decided to just leave the van parked there. This also worked out because it is quite near the ferry terminal for tomorrow's crossing. So sketchily, we crashed out in our camper van in the Te Papa Museum parking lot. We are so hot. Hopefully, there is a ferry ride in our future...!

NZ Day 3

I pretty much didn't sleep at all in Rotorua, mostly thanks to the fierce winds that shook the van and the rain pounding at the windows. Casey, on the other hand didn't sleep, mostly thanks to his stomach ache. We got nice hot showers the night before though, so that was keeping us motivated. Casey couldn't manage anything for breakfast besides half an apple. Knowing Casey, this was not a good sign, but he insisted we do some low-key sightseeing while we were in town and try to make the best of it. One major highlight here is that we found a nice outdoor store that was having a sale; and after getting soaked the night before on the walk back to the car, we decided to pop in and look at jackets. Casey found a nice jacket in black that the sales person offed to give us 20% off, score! Then I found a small in the men's clearance rack, and ended up scoring a nice mountain hardware jacket for about 25% of the original price, double score! This ended up being the best part of the day :-(

Being that the wind was still super fierce and the rain was intermittent, we opted out of the geysers, which is fine, since geysers are kind of all the same, right? Oh well.

We decided to hit the bricks since the weather was crummy and Rotorua wasn't delivering on the sights and events. We decided it was better to use up all the bad weather time driving for Wellington, so we could at least get into town and do something fungi the evening. Bonus: the windshield wipers make a horrendous squeegy noise every time they drag across the window, which is super fun in a down pour.

Casey get progressively worse as the day drags along, and I'm starting to think he's caught that horrible stomach virus I had about 2 weeks ago (think of wanting to be in the fetal position and nausea, but riding in a van with broken wipers and having to sit up and/or sleep against the window). I feel so bad for him, but there's nothing to really ease the discomfort, even with the virtual medicine cabinet I packed. Thankfully, we made it just outside Wellington early in the afternoon, but now instead of plans to visit the city, we will be holing up so Casey can sleep and try to come out on the other side of this virus alive.

I got the bed set up and locked in Mr. Sickey, while checked into the motor lodge and jumped on the Internet to see if any of our military paperwork for our move was being processed in our absence (not so much). I also tried doing a bit of planning for the next day. New awesomeness: the weather bomb had cancelled many of the ferries to the south island, so the next possible crossing was actually not tomorrow, but the morning after at 0600. I went ahead and made the booking, seeing as it was our first possible chance to try to get to the south island with any sort of time left to enjoy it. For those of you following along, this is what is known as being in Shambletown. After getting that awesomeness squared away, I checked in on Mr. Sickey, who was so passed out that's couldn't wake him, which meant I also couldn't get any of our food or dishes. So I decided to leave him sleeping and get some stuff at the grocery store nearby. I felt like I was driving around with a big secret in the back of the car and I was all worried about turning too hard or going over bumps! At the store I tried to get things that were sick-friendly like soup and pasta, and wine (for the caretaker, it was a long day of driving and planning alone). Thankfully, I made it back to our parking space with Sickey in one piece and I managed to get him to roll to the other side of the van, so I could get out some pots and pans. The lodge had a communal kitchen, and I was glad to make some dinner and have a glass of wine while Sickey slept, it was relaxing after a crappy day. It was still raining, so I waited until everything was done before I attempted to get Sickey to eat something. I had set out a little table with light pasta and bread, with the option of soup if none of that went down. Casey managed about half a dinner roll's size of bread all while looking like complete death (sorry, Sickey, I love you, but it's true). There was a nice German couple making dinner next to us, and I think they were utterly confused as to why Sickey appeared to disdain everything I cooked, not really speak, and leave about 5 minutes into the non-meal. Nothing was going down so Sickey decided to go back to bed. :-( I went ahead and finished eating and watching some silly TV show, only to be surprised to see Sickey again a few minutes later, less all of the bread and medicine he had managed to force down. This must be really bad since the last time Sickey lost his dinner was on our first date due to food poisoning. Poor kid just went back to bed, and I decided to just make my evening relaxing by watching silly TV, drinking my wine, and reading, while watching over Sickey. Not exactly the best day, but at least we made it to Wellington. Here's to hoping for a little rest and a more successful day in Wellington on the morrow.

NZ Day 2

We had a good first night in the van (which was mostly uneventful except I had to pee in an outdoor location), albeit short. We had hoped to get to the Waitomo caves in time to hit the 0900 labyrinth tour, which is a combo of caving and rafting. When we pulled in around 0800 the tours were already booked up until noon. Happily, this ended up working out great, because the short sleep and slight time change caught up with us and we were both pretty tired. Luckily our hotel was right there with us in the parking lot and we decided to grab a nap before our tour started up. It was nice to zonk out for a bit! We got up with just enough time to make a small lunch and change into our suits!

We met the tour group and headed over to get suited up. We had a young Canadian couple, 3 Danish young ladies, and a Japanese family in our group, and everyone seemed eager for a bit of adventure! As the guides tried to learn everyone's names they started getting us our gear: socks made out of wetsuit material (that were soaking wet and cold, yum), an actual wetsuit (also wet and cold), and a wetsuit-jacket (perhaps a true sport-coat?). Then they sent us away to suit up. All of the above-mentioned items were MUCH colder when you actually put them on, and also made you feel a bit like a banana trying to get back into its peel.

The caves themselves were awesome, the waterways freezing, and the glowworms were really glowing maggot poop. Nonetheless, this was a highlight! The guides did great at giving everyone an opportunity to jump off of small waterfalls, float in the dark, and just take in the craziness of being underground floating on a tube looking at glowworms. At the end we got (sort-of) hot showers, soup, and bagels. Plus the guides took pictures the whole way, so when we get access to a comp with a disc drive, we will upload those! Fun fact: Casey is a waterfall jumping champ. :-)

Over bagels and soup we planned some more activities and chatted with our new Danish friends. We planned on heading to the Tongariro crossing the next day, and staying at a campsite suggested by another friend (shout out to Mark) outside of lake Taupo. The Danish friends mentioned at we should check ahead at Taupo because an Ironman triathlon was about to go down. Turns out this was good advice. But, unknown at the time we popped in to a nearby tavern for a beverage and some wifi to check out the sitch around Tongariro.

Turns out the bit of rain we were experiencing at the caves was actually what would come to be known as a "weather bomb". Tongariro was closed both the current day and the next two following, making our tight schedule impossible to incorporate this hike, which was supposed to be one of the main events of our trip here. We are now seriously bummed and trying to figure out how to rearrange our plans. Scramble, sadness, flusteredness ensue. After some calming, yet disappointed, words from Casey we decided we would instead head to Rotorua and see some geysers, a cute town, and some Maori gooby-tourist sights. Being that it was getting late, we made some arrangements ahead of us at a holiday park (which is like an RV park, but accommodating vans and tents ect.) and hit the road.

We made it to Rotorua around 6, and it was already super dark. The rain wasn't falling too much, but there were wind advisories all around the area. We didn't need an advisory to tell us though, the drive over was difficult keeping the van in the center of the lane. Weather bomb, go.

We decided since the rain wasnt terrible we'd go ahead and get some food and a drink in town. We found the Pig & Whistle, which turned out nicely. The bartenders seemed worried at how much food we ordered and even more worried that we housed it. Oops. But, now full and happy we strolled back to the holiday park; in the full on rain and gale-force winds. We got settled in for sleep, but Casey was worried his belly wasn't feeling so good, but he's tough and just chalked it up to all the bar food. Little did we know this would be the gastro version of the weather bomb. So much fun on the horizon for day 3...but unknowingly, we hit the pillows for our second night on the road. Whew.

NZ Day 1

Luckily we had a great flight over from S Korea all thanks to Korean Air, who not only treats you like real people, but they're nice about it,too. After a short sleep on the plane and some decent plane food, we landed in Auckland the morning of March 1! We were able to get a sim card for our phone and call for our van rental place, Jucy, to pick us up in just a few minutes after getting our bags. Seemed as though all was off to a good start! We got checked in for our rental and waited about an hour, since our campa van wasn't quite ready, and for the inconvenience they comped our gps, score! After we got loaded up we made a quick pit stop at the grocery to pick up some road trip essentials, and headed off for our first stop: Svord Knives. Turns out that place doesn't actually exist and we drove around some pasture land for about 30 mins before wandering into town and grabbing a small bite to eat (and a flat white as per Kathryn's instructions). Luckily we had some good food and it was still before noon, so all was not lost and we decided to head over to Hot Water Beach. The idea is that underwater hot spots heat the sands at low tide and if you dig a hole, the water that fills it is like a personal spa. So we headed over and made it to the beach about an hour before low tide, so we had time to wander about, get some ice cream, and get our beach things before digging time. Now, for those of you who don't know, Casey hates sand, spas, and manual labor that has no real purpose; so this was his version of vacation hell. Oh yes, he also hates tourists; so even better. But, being the loving husband and good sport that he is, he helped me find a little hot spot in the sand and even did most of the digging for me. Unfortunately, the water was sort of luke-warm, and not the spa-like warmth I had imagined, but it was still fun! I thought it was particularly enjoyable to sit in our warm-ish sand pool and listen to the loads of different languages people were speaking. We eventually abandoned our pool and tried to beat the crowds out of the beach area. Happily, we headed slightly north and ended up at a decent restaurant that was the replacement of something listed in our guidebook. Nothing seems to be still-around from the guidebooks or the gps. It was decently late, but seeing as we were up the coromandel peninsula, and we needed to be much further south in the morning we decided to just make a haul until about midnight and camp where we landed. This ended up working out great and we started to hit E on the gas tank right close to midnight and near a town with a suitable campground. We spent our first night in the back of our lime green mini van campa, and it slept surprisingly comfy! All in all the first day was a typical Burnette version of vacation, where barely anything goes as planned, but all is equally enjoyable. Oh yea, Casey is going to work on complimenting his mustache with a nice beard, so look forward to pictures of that along the way as well!

On the Cusp!

Hello! Last night in the Navy Lodge before we head off to NZ! We're pretty excited to have a real vacation together that is "no strings attached". I think we have a pretty solid itinerary ahead of us, thanks to our lovely friends who gave us their NZ expertise (shout out to Mark and Kathryn)! Tonight is just filled with last minute laundry and try to pre-pack before tomorrow, although we still have many errands ahead of us before we leave for Fukuoka tomorrow afternoon. We'll stay the night there so we're close by for our flight the next day. Only a few trips to the post office, NEX, and optical shop before we leave tomorrow, which really isn't SO bad. Well wish us luck! I may not be able to post again until we're in NZ, but I will surely keep you up to date when I can! Hooray for vacation! I suppose this is also the beginning of living out of various cars for a month...so I have that going for me! Mata ne!

It's that time again!

Hi friends! I know it's been a long time since I've updated on our many travels, but that's about to change! We are about to move back to Washington state; I can't believe 18 months went by so quickly. Before we get ourselves to Whidbey Island, WA we are going on VACATION! Casey and I are taking a full on real grown up vacation to New Zealand, where we will be road tripping between the two islands in a hot lime green mini-man that has been converted into a camper! But don't worry, the fun doesn't end there...we will then be flying back to Japan for a day or so and then fly to North Carolina where we will pick up our car and then drive cross country, stopping at various fun places and camping out on our way up to Washington! Stay tuned to be a part of the excitement!

Very Late: The Singapore Sling

On the tail end of the visit from the Burnette brothers, I took advantage of dropping them off at the airport by scheduling my flight to Singapore to leave around the same time they did. The boys and I had a pretty yummy breakfast at the airport before saying our final goodbyes. It was sad for them to go, but 3 weeks is a long visit, and I know they were ready to be home! I had a few hours to wait before my flight but I headed over to the international terminal anyway. When I walked in though, everything was closed! All the ticket windows were dark and the rope lines were closed up. I was rather confused. I managed to get out of a passing employee that the lines would open 1 hour prior to the first departing flight, which was mine. I decided I would just have a seat and wait it out in the mean time. As I sat down there was a rather worried looking American fellow sitting on the opposite end of the bench from me. I thought I’d see if he was worried about the same thing as me. “Do you speak English?” (always the safest first question). “Oh, yes, hi”, he replied. “Are you waiting for the desks to open too?” After a bit more chit-chat I found out he was on the same flight as the boys were on, headed for Chicago. However, in this airport, he had to go to the domestic terminal, because he was flying to Tokyo first for the connection/customs!! Luckily, I explained to him how to get there (10 min shuttle to the other terminal), and let him know to say hi to the boys for me ;) I don’t know if he made it to his flight on time, but I sure hope he did!

I decided to play around on my computer for the rest of my waiting time, which seemed to pique the interest of a 7-ish year old Japanese boy. Who seemed to be trying out his new camera (he was “secretly” taking pictures of me from behind his suitcase. His mother, who spoke some English, explained that he was learning English in school and was excited to see an American. I invited him to sit next to me and we played a little kids computer game together while we waited for our lines to open up. Once the lines opened, the little boy got scolded for taking pictures of the security officers. Haha! He was only trying to document his travels…! After a short waiting period I got my bag checked and had a smooth, and quite uneventful trip over to Singapore. I had a little stop in Hong Kong, which was nice for stretching my legs mid-travels, and gave me a much needed chance to purchase some chap-stick. It was a little crazy to purchase chap-stick that cost HK$20, but then I found out that it was really only about US$3, which I was super happy about! I also took the opportunity to get a little bit of Singapore cash so I could hop a cab to the hotel when I got there. It was after midnight by the time I landed, and since Casey had an early start for his conference the next day (and no car), we decided it would be best to have me just cab it to the hotel.

Even at midnight, the Singapore Airport Burger King was packed and the line to get a cab wrapped around the hall at least twice, with the aid of lots of rope-lines. Thankfully, the Singaporeans obviously had this down to a science, and I was in a cab in less than 10 minutes, despite being behind a family with at least 30 bags and several small children (that they thankfully kept waiting outside the line, instead of trying to wind them around, which would have definitely happened in America). Once in the cab I was pleasantly surprised by my super-friendly and very knowledgeable English-speaking cab driver. He was enthusiastic about pointing out the surrounding sites and landmarks, so the next day I would be able to do some exploring. He was obviously very proud of being Singaporean, which I came to find out is a theme among Singaporeans. They feel they are quite superior to most other Asian countries, which I think is interesting, since they are only a City-State. The driver told me all about how safe it is in Singapore and how he speaks many languages, because the leaders there keep changing the national language (currently English and Chinese). After this quite helpful introduction to Singapore, we arrived at the hotel just shy of 0100 (1 AM for you non-military American folks :) ). Casey had done the necessary leg work to let the hotel know that I would be arriving very late and that they could give me a key when I got in. Unfortunately for us it seems that the earlier staff had neglected to inform the incoming staff for the night of this detail, so after intense examination of my passport and hotel reservation, they decided they would have to call Casey themselves, seeing as I might be a hooker/murder coming to kill him, even though I knew his room number, hotel confirmation, and matching last name. Good thing Casey woke up to the phone ringing just long enough to confirm that he was, in fact, expecting a “night guest” as they called me. I got one welcome kiss between snores and fell right to sleep, then before I knew it Casey left before I even got up the next day!

I decided to head into the main shopping/dining district to get a feel for the city right off the bat. It was really impressive. The cab driver (again, extremely well spoken English, and informative about all the best places to go) dropped me off in the middle of the haute shopping district. I immediately felt like I was in an Asian hybrid of Paris and the Mediterranean coast. It was so warm (about 80 degrees), and everywhere I looked was Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, you name it, the brand was here. I wandered a little bit, just enjoying the incredible mix of European and ultra-modern buildings, with a distinct Asian flavor. It seemed like everything was a sculpture, and to top it all off, everything was decorated for the holidays in bright purples, golds, sparkles and lights! Very visually exciting! After quite a long while roaming around and endless walking, I treated myself to some Mexican food! Even though it was less-than-authentic, it was an enchilada with rice and beans and a margarita and I was all about it. Do you know how much I miss that food here? Even when you can find it, it’s spendy, and usually not that great. But I was pleasantly surprised that even Asian-y-Mexican food is still good! After a particularly filling lunch I felt like all the walking called for a pedicure. Again, a luxury that is difficult to find and/or expensive in Sasebo.

With freshly massaged toes, I managed to find my way to the subway next, with some helpful advice from some locals, I made my way to Little India. What a treat! So many bright colors and fruit vendors and the wafting aroma of curry and incense everywhere you went. There was a huge market area, and I decided I needed a new pashmina for myself, so I set out looking for one at a nice price. After the first few stalls I was feeling discouraged that the Singapore prices were too high, but one particularly aggressive salesman was able to convince me otherwise. “This material - very good quality, see you can feel, very good. Usually $70, but for you, so pretty, I make good deal, $45”. Oh really, I’m so pretty? I thought I would try out my haggling skills that Casey had taught me:

“Oh, no, thank you, but I think $45 is too much for me. Thank you” [begins to walk away]

“Maybe we can make better price for you, I also have less quality available for better price”

“Ok let me see what else you have, I like this silver one”

“That is high quality, for you $45, very good price”

“Well, I really can’t pay that much, I only have $20 with me”

“$45 is good price, very reasonable, I take cards”

“No, no, thank you, have a good day”

“Tell me what you think is good price for silver one”

“I would give you $12 for it”

“What? So low price? You can make better for me.”

“I could go to $15, but no more, I have to pay for the subway home”

“Ok, because you so beautiful! But you have friends who say, ‘so beautiful scarf, how much you pay’ you tell them you pay $45, and this very good price from me”

“Sounds like a deal!”

**Don't tell him I told you the real price!

I am the proud owner of a $15 pashmina, which started at $70. I think I did ok. Husband even approved! :)

After heading back, I finally got to see Casey! He was home from his conference for the day, and some of the conference friends were planning to meet in our hotel lobby and go out for dinner and drinks. We went to an tasty Brazilian steakhouse and enjoyed some belly-dancing during our meal, which the Australians promptly joined in on. We were in the Clarke-Quay district, and were surrounded by an ever growing crowd of tourists and locals heading out for dinner and drinks. We tried out a strange bar after dinner called “Clinic”, and the chairs were all wheelchairs, and the benches were gurneys, you could also order drinks that come in IV bags. It was very strange. But we did end up meeting up with some funny Swedish girls who were traveling through Asia for a few months. After Clinic, one of the conference guys (from Sasebo) insisted he knew this great bar that we HAD to go to, and it was only a "short walk" away. We headed out and got to see some people being catapulted into the air on a bungee-like apparatus, except they were all on benches, like an amusement ride, it was crazy! Unfortunately, my Crocs that I bought in Fukuoka, just before coming to Singapore, where rubbing my feet and were starting to give me little blisters, I tried to be a good sport on the walk, but when the ‘short walk’ turned into more than an HOUR of walking, during which time everyone stopped at a convenience store for beers because it was taking so long, I had to go shoeless. The Swedish girls were also suffering in their heels, and we were all getting cranky!! We finally convinced the group leader that we needed to take cabs to find this place, and we finally made it to the next bar, almost an hour and a half later - NOT COOL. We’re not really sure what the name of this place was, because it was housed in an old church, and there were several bars and clubs that made up the complex. It wasn’t a super great bar, but we all decided that since the group leader led us astray for so long that he owed us at least a round of drinks, so that made up for it a little. When we convinced him he owed us all a second round, it definitely got better. One of our group members was a South Korean Officer, who was very concerned that Casey and I have been married for over a year and we don’t have any kids yet. After the other guys shared so many baby pictures of their kids, we began doing toast to “babies!”. It turned into quite an enjoyable night!

The next day I decided to explore the area closer to the hotel. I started off sweating out some of the previous night’s beverages by laying out in the sun by the pool. It was definitely the first time I’ve listened to “White Christmas”, while in a swimsuit! I found much more than I expected just outside the hotel too. Just behind us, and through and underground tunnel you could access a very large shopping mall and restaurant area. I wandered around there for a little while, and then decided to check out the beach, which was just a short cab ride away. The day had turned a little grayer than before, so being outside was not so hot and humid. I found the beach to be quite nice! It reminded me a little bit of the Ocean City, Maryland area, with a board walk and restaurants and bikes for rent. It definitely is not a “white sand tropical beach”, at least not in the area I was in, but it was still really neat, because you had an excellent view of literally thousands of ships coming through the Singapore Straits. As far as you could see in either direction there was everything from massive oilers and container ships, to small canoe-like fishing vessels, clearly undeterred by the larger vessels looming, very close by. That was probably the most interesting part of the beach area, otherwise it was really nothing super-special, just a beach, like you’d find anywhere! Casey got done with his conference early this day, so after a few pictures at the beach, I headed back for the hotel.

We were joining up with the “Doc” from the conference, who was an American stationed in Yokosuka (closer to Tokyo). He had heard about an artificial wave machine at Sentosa (kind of like an family friendly amusement park/beach front resort/park/casino island that belongs to Singapore), and was eager to try it out. We had heard that Sentosa was a really neat area, so we were happy to join. I didn’t really know what to expect, but boy was I impressed. This little island area hosted Universal Studios Singapore, a luxury resort and Casino, numerous western-style restaurants, and the list goes on. It was definitely an playground for all ages. We decided to go in search of the famed wave-machine, but on our way a sporadic thunder and lightening storm hit, and much of the park cleared out, which turned out to be great, because the storm passed quickly and we had most of the beach front and resort areas to ourselves. While walking around we ran into one of the Aussies from the conference, who was also looking for the wave machine, and we all enjoyed some pizzas and coffees while we waited for the last trickles of rain to pass, before our companions headed to the surf simulator. It was pretty amusing to watch, lots of wipe out and crashes, all while Casey and I enjoyed beverages from the comfort of the beach front pavilion nearby. The night passed so quickly, and before we knew it we were eating a 2230 dinner at an American-style pub serving Budweisers, and were totally pooped from the adventures of the day.

Casey had to fly out early the next day, and my flight was much later in the evening (he was on military scheduled flights, which were too expensive for a normal person to book, so I found cheaper flights). Casey did some packing that morning and was off before my eyes were really opened all the way. I barely got all of our stuff into the suitcases, since Casey did not take back with him as much as he came with (thanks, Hubs)! But I stored my baggage and headed out for my last adventure in Singapore: Chinatown. This was definitely one of my most favorite parts of the trip. There was so many great things to buy and admire, from beautiful silks to little trinkets and goodies. I wandered for a while and at the end of the main drag, I found a really neat Hindu temple that was having some kind of ceremony, I watched a little from the outer doors, but the inside was packed with tourists and worshipers. It was neat to see, very colorful! I headed back into China town to the smaller side-streets, and found a great lunch place with fried rice and this lemon-y tea drink that I had seen on many menus. Very tasty and cheap! After purchasing lots of fun goodies and gifts, I realized that my already over-packed suitcase would certainly not hold another thing, let alone a few shopping bags full, so I stopped at one of the vendors on the way out and bought an extra little duffle bag. This turns out to be a blessing and a curse later!

I decided to head to the airport a little early and get checked in. I inquired if there was an earlier flight I could get on, but that proved impossible. I was glad to at least drop off my bags and travel a little lighter (now that I was an extra bag heavier). I decided to head back into the city for some dinner and a little extra wandering around before it was time to go, but before I knew it I was rushing to my gate just in time for boarding! Getting through the airport flustered me just a little, because I managed to forget which passport (civilian or military) I had stored my immigration documents in, so I was that idiot traveler who held up the line while I emptied out my purse, and carry on suitcase looking for the correct papers. By the time I was through immigration I was blocked in by a group of gawkers who were taking pictures of a group of singing ladies who were dressed in the WWII ‘bugle boy’ style, but with a Christmas flare. It was obnoxious, because these ladies were not gifted singers, which never seems a requirement in Asia. All they had going for them were the short-sparkly outfits they were wearing and the fact that they were not at all Asian. Not really sure why they were singing in the Singapore airport. Ridiculous. Anyway, I made it to my gate in plenty of time, but the weird thing about the Singapore airport is that they have each individual gate glass-walled off, and it has its own security screening check point. But luckily I arrived right before the hoard, because by the time I sat down there was a line of about 50 queued up outside the gate. Dodged a close one there. Now all I had to do was fly home! Oh wait, my life is never that easy! Silly me.

I knew I would have an overnight layover in Hong Kong, but that really wasn’t a worry for me; I would just camp out in the terminal, like so many other travelers. Except that the woman who checked in my bags in Singapore apparently thought that my overnight flight meant I was staying in Hong Kong, and did not check my bags all the way through to my final destination. It wouldn’t have been that horrible except that I landed at midnight and most of the airport was closed. I tried asking several people what I needed to do, and most of them responded that I was out of luck and couldn’t really be helped until tomorrow. Thankfully, each person gave me just enough information that I was able to piece together that I now had to immigrate into Hong Kong, go through customs, and get my bags re-scanned and re-checked in for my flight to Fukuoka then immigrate back out again and do all that fun stuff. Sigh. This could have been a lot worse than it really was, mostly because the airline I was on happened to be the only airline with an agent on duty at this time, so I was able to quickly part with my bags (only after creepily wandering around the totally closed down shopping area, which was bigger than an average American mall, have you ever been in a closed down mall alone?). After getting my bags taken care of I yet again went through customs and all that jazz (so much extra paperwork! I had the right documents this time though!), and went back into the main airport terminal. I had read that there was a traveler’s hotel in the airport and you could get a private sleeping room for a few hours, so I set out looking for this place. Hong Kong airport is so HUGE! I was a little overwhelmed/delirious, so it took me a while to stumble up on it, but I paid for 3 glorious hours of sleep and a refreshing, much welcome shower to freshen up! The rooms were really clean and comfortable for the size. Well worth it! They also had complimentary coffee and breakfast, so I was feeling really energized after I came out. Thankfully, my flight out was on time and they had free internet in the airport, so between naps on the benches and perusing facebook, I was boarding my plane to Fukuoka in no time. By the time I landed, I was super tired from my HK stay, but still eager to get back home, so I was trying really hard to get to the train station to get home. Sadly, I was about 3 minutes too late for the train to Sasebo, so I got to watch it pull away while I had a ticket on the next train. It’s really not so bad now that I look back on it, but when you’re that sleepy, and traveling alone with a copious amount of bags, it feels like major defeat. Alls well that ends well though, and I made it to home-sweet-Sasebo without a hitch, and back to my wonderful husband, for a much needed sleep at our own house! As usual, a whirlwind adventure, but totally worth it! Good thing I didn’t miss out on all these memories for 20 hours of work at a part time job, don’t you think??? :)

Coming up: Christmas in Tokyo!

Pictures from Singapore (they pretty much chronicle the above, if you want to follow along ;)

Playing Catch Up: Burnette Boys' Visit

So much catching up to do! The day before Thanksgiving was my official last day of work at my short-lived job with Navy Federal. I would have loved to come to an agreement with them for a more flexible schedule, but their needs and my needs were just too incompatible. It’s too bad, but I’m certainly happy to be on a plane to Singapore while writing this!

We had a really lovely Thanksgiving with the boys and friends. Casey was up early for a few hours of work in the morning, and I was making some mashed potatoes for the ship’s crew who were on duty for the holiday. The potatoes came out a little on the lumpy side, but I think I made up for it with some bangin’ home-made gravy (I’ll have to get some feedback from the crew to confirm that though). Luckily, the Reily’s, who hosted our Thanksgiving dinner, had all the traditional dishes spoken for, so I only had to bring a small side dish and drinks to share. I tried a recipe from a friend of ours aptly named “Peas & Cheese”. Which was simply peas drowned it a tasty swiss-cheese sauce. Just as I was packing up my crock pot to bring the potatoes down to the ship I got a call from Casey that the duty officer for the day had to go in for a medical procedure and did not arrange a replacement, so he was going to be staying on the ship for the whole day to cover. Tears. I was pretty upset that I would have to mingle with the brothers and ship friends sans-husband, but I’ve learned that I should only spend about 5 minutes being upset, otherwise I’m just wasting time I could be trying to find the positive. Things like this always happen in the Navy. So I started looking around for the various uniform items Casey would need for the remainder of the day and trying to finish packing up the dishes for the meals. Luckily, at the last minute, one of the chiefs, who’s family is state-side, was kind enough to step in and pick up the duty. Talk about being thankful!! Casey was home by noon and was able to spend the Thanksgiving meal with all of us after all! It was a great day spent with the family and new friends, and 3 super cute little girls "attacking" all of the boys at the party (which included being fake-eaten by a purple hippo).

We spent Friday trying to secure a hotel in Fukuoka for a weekend stay. Casey was flying out on Monday for his conference in Singapore, and the boys were leaving Tuesday to head back to the states. I was also leaving Tuesday to meet Casey in Singapore. Apparently, Fukuoka does not make reservations for same-day stays. We literally called about 30 hotels trying to find somewhere to stay. We settled on making reservations for Saturday instead and taking the train up to Fukuoka early on Saturday. We were bummed we didn’t get to spend an extra night in Fukuoka, because they have some really great downtown bars and restaurants. We were lucky to get the hotel bookings we did though, because we got a great price and we were close enough to all the action that we got to see so many things! Before Casey left we even got to see Sumo! We were convinced the tickets would be sold out, but we managed to get to the ticket window just after it opened and we got “open seating” for the equivalent of about $25.

The Sumo matches didn’t start heating up until later in the afternoon so we ventured into downtown Fukuoka for some exploring and shopping and eating. In classic me-style I managed to rip the belt loop off my pants right in the morning, and every time I sat down it was tearing a bigger hole across my bum! We made a hasty shopping trip to Uni-Qlo to get some new pants, which are cute jegging-things (Heidi got me hooked on the jeggings). No longer showing my undies to everyone, we got some really yummy coffee and egg-salad sandwiches for breakfast and spent the rest of the morning trying to tolerate Jessie and hopping from shop to shop. Jessie walks and moves like he weighs around 600 lbs, so going through the subway tunnels got a little obnoxious, and since it was so cold out we took the underground tunnels a lot! On a happier note, we re-located the Crocs store, and I got two new pairs. One pair, which I like to call the sparkle-sparkle crocs, is just a tiny bit glittery/shiny so I can wear them with a cute dress or something, and the others are little blue/gray numbers that are more like a little sneaker for a more casual outfit. I’m pretty excited about them, since the crocs I bought in San Diego (only about 4-5 months ago) are already extremely well loved. Jimmy bought some neat hats and a much needed fleece (it was a lot colder than we expected). Despite the cold, Jessie managed to buy mostly ice-cream. It was probably good though that we didn’t buy too many things because before we left the house everyone had packed up to go other places, so there wasn’t a lot of room for extras in our many suitcases (seriously, where did we get so much stuff!?!).

Sumo was awesome. Originally I was realllllly sad about losing the base-sponsored tickets to the event, because we were under the impression that everything else was sold out. Luckily, (thanks to Google’s auto-translate feature) we found out that open seating goes on sale at 8 AM on the day of the matches. This was still no guarantee of course, that we could get in, because it’s 2 hours on the train up to Fukuoka, so in order to get up there on time we had to take the first train leaving that day at 6:20 AM (which is why we were trying for the extra day in the hotel, so we could leave at a more reasonable hour and already be there). We made sure everyone was packed up the day before, laundry done, and uniforms double-checked, but it was still a pain to get everyone loaded up and taxied to the train station before 5:30 AM (flash-forward to life with kids???). Jimmy almost punched me in the throat when I went in to wake him up, but mostly because he thought I was Jessie trying to mess with him. But, it turns out that the base sponsored tickets were literally there-and-back, with no built in time for enjoying the city or the sites, and if you were with the base you couldn't have any beer at the event! We really lucked out on that one!

Here’s a link to the pictures from their trip! The pics are added at the end of our Japan album, so you may have seen some of the earlier pics already! Enjoy!

Up next: Fukuoka explorations with the boys, saying goodbye, and Singapore!

Puzzle-ing

Oh my goodness, is it really the 22nd? Obviously I haven't been living up to my promise to post everyday. I really underestimated the commitment that it would take. I also thought I was on the computer a lot more than I really am! Sorry folks!

We've been having a great time with the boys. Since the oyster festival weekend we have been busy, as usual. The boys spent the days during the week exploring around the town. They've made several trips to the hardware and auto parts stores. Luckily, that also resulted in us getting our car & door handle fixed. Thanks Jessie & Jimmy!

This weekend we ventured out to Nagasaki so the boys would have the chance to see the Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Memorial Museum. We had a fun time driving down to Nagasaki, since all the times in the past Casey and I have taken a train or a bus. The country-side here is so beautiful, we just really enjoy cruising around. We were all worried that the tolls were going to be super expensive, but we were lucky, round trip we only paid about $15. Much cheaper than 4 round trip train tickets! Plus, parking was fairly cheap, too!

It's such a fun time seeing Casey and his brothers together. I didn't have brothers growing up, so this is a totally new experience for me. I make LOTS of food, and they just love to pick on each other, it's really quite hilarious because each one of them does an impression of the other, but in the end they all sound exactly the same anyway! (Think mumbling southern accents with food in their mouths) :) Silly boys! Lucky for me I still think fart jokes are hilarious, and we've even got a special nick-name for Jimmy: The Nocturnal Sharecropping Retard. I guess you had to be there...? Jessie seems to think everything in Japan is "sick". He won't try raw fish (OK, he had one TINY bite...but that didn't count), and he even thinks the temples/shrines aren't worth visiting. He seems to think they're just too anti-Christian to bother going. I hope he's still enjoying himself though, there's so many things to enjoy and appreciate here, even if it's not your cup of tea all the time. At least he likes the cars!

We were lucky to find a nice church Jessie liked going to for Sunday, so we had a pretty quiet morning while he went to service and we did some sleeping in and chatting over cups of coffee and tea. By the time he made it back we were well into lunch-time and had our tummies rumbling. I cooked up some yummy quesadillas, which were delish! We decided to make the afternoon push to go back out to Hirado and the lighthouse we had visted earlier in the year. Jessie was too pooped to make it so he stayed home and had a nap. It was a shame he missed out though because it turned out to be one of our best adventures so far. We stopped in Hirado, which Casey and I had only passed through before, and were surprised to find quite a large castle structure that was open to the public. The place was practically empty so we took our time perusing the grounds and viewing their artifacts from the times of the samurai. There was a very beautiful temple there too, which must have recently had some visitors, because there was a whole tree filled with tied papers with prayers written on them. There was also a super-giant size oyster shell, at least four feet across! Crazy! We ended up spending a lot more time in the castle than we had originally planned, but it was so interesting we really had a nice time exploring the grounds. By the time we left were were pressed for time to get out to the lighthouse by sunset. We raced through some of the rural farming areas pretty quickly, which didn't give Jimmy much of a chance to snap the drive-by pictures, but maybe we enticed him enough that he can convince Jessie to go back out with him again.

We missed the official "sunset" but we were still out there in enough time to see the twilight and the moon rise. It was quite a beautiful night, and Jimmy snapped some great pictures. I don't know if they brought their camera cords with them here, but I'm hoping to steal some of those pictures he took at the cliffs. We spent the remainder of the night having dinner and doing a puzzle, that we found along our travels (I had no idea the Burnette's were puzzle-fiends! Those boys really got into it, Casey too!). I'm pretty excited to do some more puzzle-ing together. The jury is still out though on whether we should save the puzzle (i.e. glue over it once finished and frame it) or take it apart to save it for another puzzle-ing time. Anyone care to weigh in on what to do with a finished puzzle? Art or game? Stephanie & Heidi Furst: please tell me you remember the Carmen San Diego Puzzle Board Game that we did about 10,000 times in our childhoods...?

P.S. We got SUMO TICKETS! We'll be having a big send-off weekend in Fukuoka with the boys! Woo! Also, I quit my job, but I'll write about that later...and I'm going to Singapore!

Chicken Skins and Burnt Cow

Hi friends, sorry I've been offline for a few days, this cold is still kicking my butt! With the boys here we are so busy during the days, and when we finally wind down, I just go straight to sleep! I don't know how to shake it! I'm trying to get all the rest I can, but it just keeps lingering. I lost my voice for the whole morning yesterday, so it was kind of difficult to work. :(

We had a fun little get together with the boys and a few friends on Saturday night, nothing too wild, but it was nice to introduce the boys to some of the people Casey works with and try to keep them up a little later to help with the time change! Jessie only made it to about 10:30, which wasn't too bad! Jimmy managed to stay up until about midnight, when the party-goers headed out. I made some deviled eggs for the party and they turned out quite tasty!

On Sunday we made an attempt to find this fish market, where they have a tuna-cleaning demonstration and then after they let you sample the sashimi, but we couldn't find the market! That was kind of a bummer, but instead we found a little "flea market" at a nearby university. The flea market portion was not that interesting, mostly just very small women's clothes, so we perused the food booths instead. It was a little bit overwhelming, because the university kids got excited every time we walked past one of the booths. We took some pictures with a few of them, but mostly we had to turn down their offerings, most of which were hot dogs. We stopped at the far end of the market to see a band perform, and boy, they were terrible. I have a video somewhere around here, but I can't seem to find my cords right now. I promise I will update later! By the time we made our way back to the beginning of the food stands, the boys were feeling adventurous enough to try something. They both selected these little chicken skewers that were bbq-ed. Turns out, they were little pieces of chicken skins that were all stacked together. Jessie was done after one bite, but Jimmy managed to eat a few skewers full before he gave up.

After that we decided to try to find this hotel that was at the very top of the mountain we live on, we've tried before with little success. This time, we found it, and it was definitely worth it. There were 360 degree views of the entire city, the ports, the outlying islands. It was really a beautiful scenery. My camera wouldn't take many pictures because the sun was too strong, but I'll post what I have later.

After that little excursion we went back to the oyster festival for lunch and met up with some more friends. It was a good time. Since we were a little more experienced this time, I didn't get sprayed with any oyster juice. We even bought some scallops, which were still alive when purchased. Their shells were snapping open and closed vigorously, it was kind of creepy. It was a nice warm fall day, so we all enjoyed being outside.

With the day still only half-over we were all feeling a little pooped, so we headed back to the house and all took some much needed naps. I was barely making it with my cold at this point so it was either nap or die for me.

For dinner we were invited to a cool place downtown where you grill your own food at the table. The boys really enjoyed this, and Jessie made sure all of our food was burnt. Thanks. But all in all the food was great and the boys were not at all worried they were eating anything raw. We grilled up all kinds of steak cuts and veggies, and they had lots of different sauces you could dip the food in, very yummy!

It was a really long Sunday!

I think if I keep up this pace, I will have this cold the entire time the boys are here! :(

We're Big in Japan

We made a successful trip to and from the airport in Fukuoka, so I feel really proud Casey and I navigated the Japanese highway system without any major incidents! Not surprisingly, the boys were really easy to pick out of the crowd coming out of the terminal. They were tired from their travels, but in good spirits! Mostly the drive back was uneventful, but the boys kept us laughing with their commentary. "Casey, keep your eyes on the road!", Casey was in the passengers' seat, which is where the drivers seat is in the states, so there was no danger. Luckily, we found out that by renting a government vehicle we would get the tolls (about $80 round trip to the airport) paid for. So we saved a little money by renting a vehicle for $50, plus we had nice trunk and leg room for the longer trip for the boys.

Once we made it home and had them settled in we headed out in town to the main shopping district to see the local wares and get some dinner. We perused the shops for a little while, and finally settled in to eat at a nice little noodle place on the ginza. We got ramen and fried rice with some little won ton like things called goyza. So tasty! Jessie made it clear he was not ready for raw food, so the noodles were a safe bet. After our bellies were full we thought a good welcoming activity would be to take the boys to karaoke. After singing all the Hank Williams and Johhny Cash the bar had to offer, the jet-lagged song birds were ready to hit the hay.

We lucked out that the next day (today), there was an oyster festival going on just down the road from our house. We took the boys on a quick tour of the ship yard where Casey's ship is getting fixed, and then headed over to the park for some oysters. It was a new experience for all of us! We bought a bag of freshly harvested oysters with all the necessary extras (soy sauce and a shucking knife) and found a spot at one of the many pre-set up mini grills with even mini-er seats! So while we all tried to not-sketchily stare at everyone else to figure out what the heck we were doing, a very nice older man came over with a wok full of burning coals and filled up our grill. OK! In business. We spend the next few minutes cooking and eating the 15 or soy oysters we bought, and as more people started to shuffle in as lunch time approached, we started noticing that lots of people had other goodies on their grills. Corn and hot dogs seemed to be the most popular non-oyster items on the grills, so we got a little more adventurous and went to the other booths to get some tasty treats and some drinks. It turned out to be a pretty good lunch! I haven't put any of the pictures up on facebook yet, but as soon as I do, I will put the link up here as well.

We're planning on throwing a little welcoming party for them this evening, so we're looking forward to that too! I think it's going to be an awesome time with them here, they're a lot of fun, and always willing to go out and explore whatever we've got. More adventures to come!

The Mountain Men Have Landed

Happy Veterans Day :) Casey was able to work a half day today in order to take Friday off so he can drive with me to pick up his brothers in Fukuoka. So excited I don't have to make the 2 hour trip alone. I'm still feeling rather sick and I think a navigator in the car would definitely increase my chances of actually making it to the airport to pick up the boys.

Sadly, I still haven't heard from work about their decision on me staying or not, so I'm just going to enjoy my 4 day weekend without worrying about it. I'm feeling less and less convinced I should stay there, the longer I stay there. Also, it didn't help that the keys I have for work are on this lanyard, and it has one of those scrunchy things on the end so it stretches. I was digging around in my bag for them on my way to work (while already waking up sick and achy, so the morning was off to a bad start already), and when I felt the lanyard I just pulled up, but the scrunchy part was caught on something and when it loosened up it went straight into my face! The keys chipped some of the paint on the frames of my glasses. I think it was a sign that the bank and I are not meant to be.

I'm making it through the days on green tea with honey, grape nuts, and layers of blankets. Luckily, I'm starting to feel better, just need to keep resting! I've been putting off cleaning up the house for so long now, and since the boys get here tomorrow, it's my last chance! Unluckily for Casey, he's home with me today, so I'm putting him to work too, since I'm so ill. :)

Casey and I ran out to do a quick couple of errands today, and decided we were going to try to find this hotel that is at the very top of the mountain that we live on. We thought we were continually heading up and toward the hotel, but somehow we came out behind the place that we started at. I'm feeling like that is not good foreboding for our trip to the airport tomorrow, but we'll just leave a little early!

We did get a phone call from the boys during dinner, they made it to the Tokyo airport and even found their hotel for the night. Success! Now all they have to do is catch their flight in the morning, and we'll pick them up! We're having some set backs with getting Sumo tickets. Seems to be that several of the days are sold out. :( We're currently pursuing additional ticket aquisition avenues. Hopefully, their whole trip will be a great success! I know I'm looking forward to it!

P.S. When your husband is making homemade hot sauce and he asks you to taste test, just refuse. My mouth is still partially numb, and the tingling is not going away....

A Quickie...

Not much to report for today...no word from the bosses on the schedule situation, and my sore throat is getting worse, now congested and achy too. Went to bed at 6:45 PM. I have the best husband in the world; he wrapped me up in blankets, because I was so cold and put me to bed right away, which really helped my fever, and I'm definitely improved from all the rest. That doesn't leave much excitement from the day though, sorry! I did talk with Jimmy (Casey's brother) this morning while Casey was getting ready for work. They are getting packed up to come see us! They leave Wednesday in the States, and get here to us on Friday. Long journey for them! Hopefully all will go smoothly. Wish I had more to tell you about, but perhaps my cold will shake itself off today and there will be better stories on the morrow (although, I did accidentally hit myself in the face with my keys on my way to work, but maybe I can elaborate on that later).

Putting my Cards on the Table

After my post yesterday about what I really want from work, I was feeling very motivated. I found that writing my thoughts down really helped me to solidify my reasonings and gave me a sort-of preparation for speaking with my boss at work. I wrote down my main points and laid it all out there for my boss and let her know that I need more from them, and I need them to need less from me. I felt like I explained all my issues and made it very clear that this was a serious need for me and my family. Thankfully, being that everyone who works at the bank are also Navy families, my boss was very understanding of where I was coming from. We agreed she would take some time to think/talk it over with the other manager, and let me know. I also let them know that I would be willing to hear if they had any other arrangement ideas that I might consider. So either I will be quitting my new job in the next few days or I will get a week off in December to go to Singapore with Casey, a flexible, 3 day work week, and more freedom and say in my scheduling. We shall see! Either way though, I see it as a big win for me. I feel proud of myself that I stood up for what was best for our family, and either I'll have a job that works for me, or I will have the chance to find that knitting class I've been looking for! :)

That was really the biggest event of yesterday, but Casey is FINALLY of duty, after about 5 days, and we got Drifter fixed! So we're just about ready for Jessie and Jimmy to come out and visit us! Luckily, I have Thurday off (Veteran's day) so I can finish cleaning up and getting some extra sheets washed. I'm so excited for their visit, I'm just hoping now I can get those Sumo tickets! Sayonara!

Jay-Bug; Work-Bug

Surprise! My friend Jason (nickname: Jay-Bug, but only to me) was in Nagasaki for work (randomly), and he took the train up for a quick visit! It was such a treat! He's getting married to my college roommate this May, so excited for them! I gave him a little tour of our lovely town of Sasebo, or at least I tried to, but I was thrice cut off by my work's "on-call" phone. Yes, my part time job, called me 3 times on Sunday, to check on jammed ATM's. It was totally ridiculous, but more on that later. We thought about trying to make an appearance at the hot air balloon festival, but all the trips back to the base for the ATM's nixed that option. So instead we just grabbed some fruits at the local store to bring to Casey on the ship, did a little mini tour of the house, and stopped in on the USS Patriot, while it has some repairs done. Casey gave us a neat tour of the ship, since it was Sunday and no one was working on board. It was neat! (If anyone is interested in some Navy-approved pictures of the ship under construction, here is a link to their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/USS-Patriot-MCM-7/359718106353).

After our ship tour we decided to sample some local specialties, and went to "Big Man", for the famous, Sasebo Burger. I'd had another version before Jay's visit, but this one was much better than my first. It was a nice filling lunch, on our way to the restaurant we perused the arcade, or shopping street, and we picked out Megan a little present! Only to get another call about the ATM and have to head back to the base again. RIDICULOUS. Luckily, Jay busied himself shopping tax-free at the NEX while I tended the ATM again. We also popped in on a small oyster festival, where people were buying bags of oysters and grilling them on hundreds of little bar-b-que sets out in a field. It was very fun to see (I will bug Jay-Bug for his picture of that!).

Sasebo is a really neat town, but it's just a normal small city where people live normal lives and go to work and go to the park. So we exhausted most of our neat places to visit rather quickly, so after a quick drive around the downtown, we drove through some rice patties, and saw a little of the country side, and Jay headed back to Nagasaki on a train before dinner, since he was going to be working bright and early the next day on a Japanese Navy ship. It was so fun to have a little impromptu visit! Very refreshing, the day was absolutely amazing, sunny, but just the right coolness in the air. Fall here is wonderful, I definitely recommend visiting this time of year!

So after I dropped Jay off at the train station, I stopped at the local grocery again to pick up some sushi for Casey's dinner (he's still on duty on the ship). This is when we got to talking about work and the silly ATM calls all day. We finally landed on a very important point. As the employee, I need to be honest and firm with my employers about my realistic commitment to this "part-time" job. Being on-call on the weekend doesn't seem that part time, if you ask me. Also, a huge part of the reason Casey and I selected Japan for our station was for the opportunities to travel and explore together. Casey found out he will be going to a conference in Singapore, and originally I told him I couldn't go with him because I have to work. Now let's think about that for a moment. I was turning down a trip to Singapore with my husband, because of a 20-hour a week, part time job, that I'm doing "for fun". It's just not adding up. There's really no reason I should be putting this job (or any job) ahead of my husband and family, and the plans that are truly important to us. I've decided that the best thing to do is to lay out what I want from this job, not what they want from me. I think for employment to be worth your time you and your employer need to be on the same page, and right now I don't believe we are. Here is what I want:

-to work 0-20 a week, which implies that there may be times when my life schedule doesn't permit me to be scheduled for work.

-to work only a maximum of 3 days a week.

-to have the flexibility to seize opportunities, like the Singapore trip, that come up, often with little notice.

-to spend time with my husband, my family, and my friends when there are important events happening (and sometimes Casey being not-out-to-sea is important enough for me).

I know this all may sound a little selfish, but I'm OK with that. There's no reason an employer should be getting the most valuable pieces of me. Ideally, this would have been a discussion for before I applied for this job, however, I think I also needed this job to help me get my priorities straight. My position would obviously be different if this were an income-necessity situation, or if this was a serious career move, in order to better some greater goal in my life, but being a part-time bank teller is none of these. It's a way for me to get out of the house during the day, meet people, and make "fun-money" for those spontaneous trips we plan to go on.

So, I think by letting my job know what I need from them, we can come to a mutual decision about whether working there is really a benefit to both sides, and if it's not, then it's not an arrangement I should be in, is it?

I welcome thoughts and comments!

Coupons are Fantastic!

In preparation for the big day that Casey's brothers arrive, I did some hard core grocery shopping at the commissary. Not just the go-down-the-street commissary either. I took a cooler with me, folded all the seats down, and drove 35 minutes to the "big" commissary at the other housing complex. It was an exciting afternoon! I was armed and ready with a big stack of coupons that I had printed out online, and a lengthy shopping list. Somehow it turned out to be very tiring, but it was so worth it, when my final total rang up, I turned over my coupons, and then I watched it tick down again, dollar by dollar. I think I might be addicted! Anyway, for a few weeks worth of groceries, I'd say I did pretty darn good coming it at just about $200.00 (which is including $18 for 6 lbs of potatoes for the ship for Thanksgiving). It's always a nice way to start your day by doing something productive.

Most of the rest of the day passed like a normal Casey-less Saturday, me pretending to clean/to chores, while really playing on my computer. But luckily, our friends the Riley's called, and were in need of a babysitter for their 3 little girls for the evening. It would be a little fun adventure to keep me busy. :)

I decided I'd stop by Casey's ship on my way to babysit, just to say hi to Casey and visit for a few minutes. For some reason he wasn't answering his phone (I later found out the batteries died), so I thought it would be better to just see if he was in a meeting. When I walked up to the gate, it was the same guys from Friday, who called over "his wife is here. With his dinner." They're joke-sters, but they remembered I had lost my phone and asked if I never found it again since I was back. I had to explain that I found it in my shoe, but no, this time Casey just wasn't answering my calls. I asked if they knew where he was, and so they explained he was just drawing up some reports. "Will you let him know I'm here?", I say. And so, over the radio goes, "there's a crazy girl here at the gate who says she's having OPS's baby, and he owes her some money." GREAT. AGAIN. They come back over the radio, "uhhh, does she have identification?" "Yes" "Well take down her information, while I pass the word. Do you need backup?" "No, I think we can handle her" "OK, what's the name?" "Uhh, [I pass over my ID, barely able to keep my laughter off the radio] that's Re-becca, um, Bur- Bur-nette? I think" "Roger". Oh great. If I get arrested, someone is in major trouble! Haha, the gate guards can barely contain themselves. After they figure out on the other end of the radio that I am actually OPS wife, the word comes back "OK, hold her there, try to keep her calm, we're sending security backup. Ramrod." One more kid comes out to the gate laughing, and so we just wait it out until Casey is finished his reports and he comes to the gate to "pay me my money" haha. I make sure to point to him and yell "that's him, that's the one!" when he walks into view, just to give the duty guys one more laugh. As I walk from the gate one of the guards says, "ma'am, please make sure we don't get in trouble for this." :-D

Then I was off to babysit, which was much less eventful than dropping by to see Casey. The girls were well behaved and went to bed all by themselves, how do I teach my future children to do that? Then I just watched "The Nanny" reruns for the rest of the night! Not a bad day!

How Am I Supposed to Think of Cute Titles Everyday??

Look! I'm keeping my promise...two days in a row! What a busy Friday! Casey has recently bought a second car, which I took into the shop Friday morning. I've decided that our car's should be named Zippy and Drifter. Zippy is our first car, a Honda Life, which is cute, and the engine sounds like you're pulling a zipper up and down repeatedly, because it's so small. Our newest car, Drifter, got it's name because some previous owner attempted to make our Suzuki Kei look like a vehicle from Tokyo Drift, but failed miserably, so it's a little off (like a Drifter, which are also usually a little off). So poor Drifter is having some issues, but I suppose you can only expect that from a car that cost a thousand dollars. It has a little leak in it's distributor, which oddly enough, was the same problem we had in Seattle with our beloved Camry...! So into the shop Drifter went, which, luckily is on base, so there is no language barrier issues with this bout of car trouble. Unfortunately, they tried to give me attitude and didn't believe me when I explained the issue. So husband saved the day and showed up in his uniform to set them straight for me. They were much nicer when I came to pick it up! :)

While I wasn't dealing with the car issues, I spent most of the daylight hours working. Nothing too crazy there, it was a quiet day filled with, "that's 100, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 500. Would you like an envelope for that?" :) Luckily the day passed quickly, since it was Friday and we were busy with people taking out their money for the weekend. Then after work was Zumba! Woo! This time my co-workers from the credit union also came. Our manager, assistant manager, and one of the other tellers all joined our class (it's also taught by a fellow teller, too!). So it was fun to see everyone dancing around after being so professional at work all day.

Casey is on duty all weekend, so that he can have the weekends that his brothers are here free. I usually try to bring him dinner while he's on duty, since the ship is still under construction and doesn't have a kitchen on board. So after Zumba, I went to the food court to pick up Casey's favorite, taco bell. I try to bring him a treat on Fridays :)! But after I picked up the food and got back to the car I could not find my phone! It was already dark out, and Drifter has some stupid blue lights installed inside, so I couldn't see a thing!! I tried looking everywhere, and even dumped out my purse and gym bag. So frustrating! So I had to arrive at the ship unannounced and embarrass Casey by having them call over the radios "Can someone please call the CDO, his wife is here, with his dinner." Oops! Sorry honey! It's always nice though to have dinner together, since we can't spend the rest of the day together, so we like to catch up on what's been going on and visit for a little bit. Casey thankfully was able to call my phone for me when we got back to the car, and YAY! We heard ringing! Using Casey's, always-handy flashlight we found my phone, which was in my shoe. No, not the one I was wearing. But the ones I changed out of when I went to the gym. That would happen to me. Hooray! So everything ended better than expected, and now you don't have to hear any stories about explaining how I lost my phone and need a new one in the Japanese cell phone store.

I guess it turns out that even a "normal day" has some fun stories to share! I hope you guys are ready to recap my weekend of errands...coming up next on NaBloPoMo. :)

Visitors!

I'm very excited to announce we'll have our first visitors soon! Casey's brothers are coming out for a 3 week visit! They'll be here through the end of November, and I'm so excited! We're hoping to get some tickets to the Sumo competition that's getting started in a few weeks. I've never been to a sumo competition before, but I really hope we can make it!

I've been working at Navy Federal Credit Union for a few weeks now, and I've been learning a lot. It's been a nice change of pace to have a schedule and to get out of the house during the day. I'm still not used to packing my own lunch though (even though I do it for Casey every morning..?!), so I'm working on remembering that! I'm still working 30 hours a week right now because I'm still in training, so I'm looking forward to going down to 20 hours a week, as planned.

Ok, ZUMBA. Who's heard of it, and who's doing it? I started a zumba class at the gym two days a week, and I'm really enjoying it! It's like a dance-aerobics class, and it's a little crazy, but it's fun, and keeps me interested! They have some really nice gym facilities here, so I'm trying to take advantage. I'm still doing the yoga class I started too, which is still in Japanese. :)

One thing I do wish I've done more of though is learn Japanese. I still haven't learned much more than greeting phrases yes/no and thank you, so although I can get around at a grocery store, trying to inquire about my cell phone bill was very difficult. Thank goodness for dictionaries!

One other crazy moment, some of you may have heard the story on facebook already, but it's a good one, so I'll re-tell. Casey and I recently took a drive out to visit a castle not too far away. Once we got there, we took a nice tour, it was a beautiful day, and we walked around the grounds and visited for a while. Unfortunately, the whole time we were gone I left the lights on in the car! Our battery was very dead, and we had no wires to jump the car. Not to mention, we have that whole language barrier working against us. We spent a few minutes trying to see if we could get the car started on our own, but after a few attempts it was obvious we were out of luck. God must have really been looking out for us that day though, because two nice older Japanese couples approached us, and one said "Car battery, no start". A miracle! They saw our problem, and also at least understood a little English! I used my Japanese phrase books and their English skills to explain the problem, and they were able to explain to us that they would take Casey to the gas station down the road to get cables! Hooray! I waited behind with the wives of the two men, to wait. The ladies were SO nice! They practiced their English on me, told me I had a handsome husband, and asked lots of questions, which I tried to answer in Japanese as much as I could. Then, one of the ladies pulled out a Taylor Swift CD! It was so funny, she was so excited, asking me if I know of Taylor Swift and her songs, when I replied yes, she asked me my favorite and if I would sing it! Oh man! It was amusing, but since they were being so helpful, and there is an obsession with karaoke, I obliged. :) The boys were back in what seemed like no time at all, we got the car jumped and were ready to go! The couples would not accept any money, not even for the parking lot they had to pay for twice! Casey luckily had an enameled ship's coin from the Patriot, which he's on now, and they were excited to accept that as a gift of our thanks! It turned our day into quite the adventure!

I supposed it's never a dull moment with the Burnette's.

P.S. I was recently informed of a "movement" called NaBloPoMo. Where, you pledge to write on your blog every day this month. Seeing as I've been neglectful of my dear friends and family on my blog lately, I thought it would be a good chance for me to get back into the swing of things. So I'm pledging that I will do my very best, to post on my blog everyday this month! Ahh! I hope you're all ready for boring stories about how I poured all the pepper into my sauce, and Casey had to wait until 8pm for his dinner, poor husband. Because, that's what my normal day's are like! :) Thanks for reading, friends, hopefully I will speak with you all again tomorrow!

To My Long Lost Friends

Hello! I've been back online for a while now, so I apologize for my absence! Some good updates! We are very much settled into our house! It's lovely, but we still need some more furniture to fill it! It's bigger than we expected to have, so we left most of our furniture in storage in the US. I've been trying to fit into our little Japanese community, I hang my laundry out to dry, and I sweep my front porch, and I pull weeds. Just like the neighbors! (Although, I think they know we're not Japanese...).

We have some fun things coming up, and we've been out and about as much as we can. We took the train down to Nagasaki a few weekends ago. We saw the Atomic Bomb Museum and the Peace Park Memorial. It was a very interesting experience. I think I expected it to be very somber, like the Holocaust Museums that I've been to. Instead, it seemed that the Japanese people who were there were snapping pictures and chatting it up during the tour. It seemed odd, but I can at least be grateful that there are no hard feelings. They were still very kind and we even had one man try out his English skills by explaining to us all about the Peace Park (there is a marker-monument on the spot where the bomb exploded above, he said, we think). This weekend coming up we're going to the Navy Ball. We're going to get all dressed up and go! I'm excited, I'll be sure to put up pictures!

Also, I recently got hired at the Navy Federal Credit Union! I'm very excited to start working again. It will be part time, so we still get to spend lots of time together, but it will help me fill my days with something more productive and get me into a routine. I'm excited to start later this month, so I will keep everyone posted on how it works out!

We don't have an oven here in Japan, so I've been asking friends and family, if you have any crockpot recipies, please email them to me! I need all kinds, breakfast to dinner to dessert and sides! Anything is welcome!

Hope everyone is well, fall is proving to be quite lovely here, if anyone is thinking of making a visit, this is certainly a good time of year to do it. We're hoping to do some hikes soon too, so I will have more fun things to write about!