Konichiwa!

Hello, everybody!  I've officially been in Okinawa now for a little over two weeks, and a lot has happened in that time.  We have new cars, a new house, and new jobs.  Eek!  Yes, you're officially looking at the newest Special Educator on the island.  That job that I interviewed for and was less than confident about worked out for me.  I little shout out to the Man upstairs on that one.  He was really looking out for me.  And look at my new car!  Isn't it fun?  Where else then Japan, no?  I named her Rizzo, as she is a pink lady.

While we are all moved into our house, and although I am glad to have a place, I didn't exactly go willingly.  Currently, the base we are at has a mandatory "on base first" policy, and anyone that knows me knows I am not a fan of base living.  When we were in Germany, I really feel that the main reason that I became immersed in the culture and learned so much of the language is because we lived in the local community and NOT on base.  Here in Japan, I wanted the same kind of experience, but because there was availability on base, we had to take it.

We got the choice of a newly renovated four-plex, or a single family home stuck in the 70s.  While I loathe the interior of the single family home, it made much more sense to take it versus the town home.  It is much larger and has an open floor plan, plus the dogs will be able to make as much noise inside as they want without bothering anyone.  And, we have a nice patio and yard for them.  Oh, did I mention the home we didn't choose backed up to the youth center?  Yeah, it was pretty much a no-go at that point, anyways.

We still don't have our stuff, but we have a loaner couch and bed from the base until it arrives.  Which is hopefully sooner rather than later.  And, of course, Joel found the move a perfect opportunity to upgrade to a bigger and better TV.  Other than that, we are pretty empty in this house, but I am doing my best to make it "home."

I have so much more to say, but I'll save it for a different post.  I took my first Japanese lesson yesterday courtesy of the base, and have a lot of studying to do!  My German is pretty good, but my Japanese?  Not so much.  Back to the language drawing board, so to speak.