I'm finally making a post!

Hello everyone. it is Thursday and I am finally taking time to update my blog. I am going to share a little about how my week has been so far and a few pictures that I have taken. I really haven't gotten out an taken too many pictures. I arrived at my little apartment about 12:30 a.m. Saturday 1-3-09. First thing I did was try to get on the Internet so I could talk to Stephen over Skype. I worked on it for about an hour and couldn't get it connected. There were two guys in the hall so I got one of them to help me, and he couldn't get it either. So, about 2:00 a.m. my time, 11:00 a.m. Friday your time, I called Stephen. As soon as he answered I started crying. What a greeting! I felt really bad, because he had no idea what was wrong! Anyway, we talked and he made me feel a better. He researched and problem and the next morning I had an e-mail from him with the solution. And as usual, it work and I was able to get on the Internet. Now that I have filled you in on my arrival at my apartment, I will start over with letting you know by day what has been going on!

1-1-09 - Departed Little Rock at 8:30 a.m., flew to Dallas, departed there at 12:05 p.m. for Tokyo. The plane was packed! The flight was about 14 hours. I had my doctor give me something to sleep. I kept thinking that as soon as it gets dark I will take a sleeping pill. Well guess what? It never got dark! I watched the movie Nights in Rodanthe. I had seen this movie before, and it was great, so I knew exactly what to expect. Yes, Glena and Stephen, I reacted the very same way I did the first time I watched the movie! Luckily the lady sitting next to me was asleep and didn't notice I was blubbering! Then I watched Lakeview Terrace, it was good too. I arrived in Tokyo Nahrita airport at 4:30 p.m. on January 2nd. From there I had to take a bus to Haneda airport to fly to Okinawa, which left the airport at 7:30 p.m. I arrived in Okinawa at 10:45 p.m. When I got off the plane it was awesome, there are orchids everywhere in the airport at Okinawa. At home it is really hard to keep orchids alive and it seems like they are growing in the airport about like ivy does at home. My sponsor with the Air Force - Joe, and his daughter picked me up at the airport. The drive back to the base was about 45 minutes. Joe and his wife are from Guam, and their daughter is a junior in college at San Marcos, CA. Joe is here as a civilian employee for a four year tour. I think he has one more year to go. I got checked into my room and had the Internet melt down that I described above.

1-3-09 - Saturday - Joe picked me up at 10:00 a.m to go get my rental car and have my first driving lesson. We drove around Kadena AFB for about two hours. I should say I drove him around for about two hours (on base where the traffic wasn't too bad!) I don't know if I mentioned, not only do you sit on the wrong side of the car to drive here, you also drive on the wrong side of the road! Joe said to remember - keep your "hiney to the liney". At least I know that all the Americans go thru this same learning process! I definitely have to think before driving. You have to watch out or you are turning on the windshield wipers instead if the blinker. So when you see someone trying to turn and the windshield wipers come on, you know they are learning. I didn't sleep very well, one reason I left my pillow in Joe's car. All of the cars here are really small, some are only one cylinder.

1-4-09 - Sunday - I drove around here on base trying to find the Church. I drove past it on Saturday with Joe and I was determined to find that Church! Chapel 3 for those of you that have been here before - Sylvia and Butch -do you remember this place? The priest is Father Martin Luther King. He is wonderful - his message was so awesome. I will just share a few words from his homily. When we go to Church we don't need to be asking what am I getting out of this, but what can I give. You know Sunday was Epiphany, the three wise men went to see the baby Jesus and took him gifts, but they received more from visiting than they could ever have given. I share this story with you because when I sat down in Church I really was feeling lonely and missing Stephen, Jennifer, Morgan and everyone there, but I left there telling myself that I have a lot of knowledge about VA benefits to share with service members and veterans, so I have a lot to give to those that have given of themselves for our country! You all know that talking is one of my greatest assets!

After Church Pam, my Marine Corps contact picked me up and we went to the Officer's Club for Sunday brunch. She then took me to the 100 Yen Store. It is like our dollar store. They have so many neat things. I had to keep reminding myself that everything I buy I have to get home eventually! Still didn't sleep very good, still haven't gotten my pillow back!

1-5-09 - Monday - Pam met me at my apartment and we went to three of the Marine Bases today. We started at Camp Foster, which is where I have an office Monday - Wednesday. We left there and went to Camp Hansen, then went to Camp Schwab. Driving to Camp Hansen we drove along the coast for few miles, it was pretty. Camp Schwab is located on the beach. It is really nice. We ate at the Officer's Club which overlooks the beach. It was good and really nice. There have cabins at Camp Schwab that are across the road and up the hill from the beach. They seem nice, but you all know me, when I stay on the beach, I want to be ON THE BEACH! Kadena AFB has a resort on the beach that is really on the beach that I am going to try to get reservations. By the time I got back I was pretty tired! I went by the office and picked up my pillow from Joe, slept a little better.

1-6-09 - Tuesday - I had to drive to Camp Foster all by myself today. It is about a 20 minute drive that took me about 90 minutes. I didn't really get lost, I just missed a turn and kept driving and going back and forth until I finally found the turn. It got a little scary because all the signs are in Japanese. The streets don't have signs either. They drive by landmarks. I was looking for the monument at the end of the park to turn left. When I finally found the monument, it wasn't near as big as I remembered. I spent a few hours in the office, checking my voice mail and e-mail. I left the office around 1:00 to drive to Camp Hansen, which is where I had to go Wednesday morning for my first briefing. I got there fine, I was going to go back to Camp Foster because my briefing ends at 11:00 then I have another briefing at Camp Foster at 1:00, so I couldn't be late. Wouldn't you know I made one wrong turn and ended up going the opposite way of where I was trying to go. I ended up going toward Kadena (to my apartment). The only problem was I didn't know how to get there from that direction. Now mind you they had given me my cell phone, but it wasn't charged! So I drove and drove, then I remember someone I met told me to look for an airplane and follow it to the air base. I did that and it worked! I was dead tired. Went to bed at 8:00 p.m. and slept good!

1-7-09 - Wednesday - I arrived early for my first briefing. It was a group of young Marines, all guys that appeared to be between about 21 - 25 years old. Just kids, younger than Jennifer! It went really good, I left there and drove to Camp Foster just like I knew where I was going! Briefing that afternoon was a Pre-retirement briefing, so these men and women had spent 20+ years in the military and were planning for their future! They had a lot more questions and were really interactive and interested. My briefing went about 3o minutes over. My three hour briefing ended up being 3 1/2 hours, but it was good! Let me tell you though, my feet were killing me! Standing up for 7 hours was tough! When I got back to Kadena, someone had told me about an Italian restaurant on base - Mike's Place. I went there, it was alright, the do have awesome Tomato, Garlic, Basil soup! I had my first driving scare. I turned out the drive from Mike's Place and was minding my own business driving to my apartment, when the oncoming car flashed his lights a few times and I realized I was on the wrong side of the road. Thank goodness there wasn't any other traffic around. I took a hot bath and went to bed early!

1-8-09 - Thursday - today was my first day at my office at Kadena AFB, which is great because it is about two miles from my apartment! I didn't have any computer access there, so that made it a little difficult. All of the base computer system was down. I had about five or six interviews and 10 or so phone calls, it was a good day. I went to lunch with a co-worker, she is here from Oklahoma. we went to a Soba Restaurant, (soba is Japanese noodles like Ramein noodles) she insisted that I eat with chopsticks. She said that they use chopsticks at home all the time, She is teaching her three year old to eat with chopsticks. It took me a while to eat! I stopped by the Base Exchange after work and walked around a little. There has been a light rain all afternoon, but the temperature has been perfect. It has been between 50 - 60 at night and in the mid 60's during the day. Wonderful weather! I had some popcorn for supper and now I am getting ready for my nightly bath ritual.

I think I am up to date with posting, so I will be more regular now that I am caught up!