Coffee, Shopping and Karaoke!

Yesterday was Friday and it sure was fun-filled. We had such a good day that by last night George and I agreed to extend our tour to a 4 year instead of a 3... and we've only been here a week. (Don't worry, nothing official)

The morning started off with me going with Jane to meet up with the spouses of George's squadron. Throughout the morning there was probably 12 ladies or so drop in and out of coffee and everyone was again, so welcoming and friendly and I'm really glad I got to meet everyone.

After the morning coffee George and I went on hunt number 3 for an entertainment center. This has been the biggest pain. The BXtra here has a very limited selection of entertainment centers. And they do not have coordinating accent tables either. So, we spent hours, and literally, hours... of staring at the same 3 entertainment centers, moving end tables to see which would match better, measure, debate around it, stare off into space, stare some more, measure again, move a different table over, take a picture of the wood with my iphone, walk to another piece of furniture and stare, take it's picture, stare at the phone, sliding from one picture to the next, try to remember what our old furniture looks like, stare, debate, stare. Nightmare, and a half.

In the end we bought an entertainment center with a hutch that we think our TV will fit in perfectly, and we are going to hold off on a coffee table and an end table until we can find one that we like and matches, and use our old ones (pending they aren't destroyed in the move).

At 2:45 we were done there, I told you, hours. And we had pizza-hut which is conveniently located in the BXtra so after you spend literal hours staring at furniture and you had to smell the pizza the whole time, you must order something. Then we came home, George Skyped with his friend Steven and I napped for an hour or two on the couch. I think a nap is all I needed to get over the jet-lag. Everyone kept saying I needed to be on a regular sleeping schedule, and I don't know why I didn't think to just take a nap, because for me... naps ARE a part of my normal sleep schedule!!! Since I've been napping, I feel great, everything feels pretty normal now and I am thankful for that!

Our friend's we've been staying with this whole time, their first anniversary is this weekend so they went off for a weekend trip and left us here to doggie-sit and house sit. So we went to the O-club for dinner, where they have a huge, free buffet each Friday and cheap drinks.

We sat with some neighbors and they invited us to go out to sing Karaoke. We were both pretty tired but were somehow talked into going, and man- are we glad that we did! We went to a little place not far from base that looks like an old motel. In each room there is a long table with 2 benches that run along each wall, a tv mounted on the wall and the place to control it, as well as a little hand held machine to enter in numbers of which songs you want to sing. They have several books with English songs, just like any place in the states would. But each group gets their own room! So you don't have to be shy and you don't have to wait for an hour for your song to come on! We went with about 10-12 people and it was such a good time! You can even bring your own food and drinks in! Coolest place ever. SO fun. Oh, and they give you 2 microphones so no one has to sing alone AND a tambourine and maracas!


Us at the Karaoke place!


George had to get home to make a phone call back to the states to get some paperwork straightened out (it's a long story) so we had to call when they opened, which was around 11pm our time, so we made it home at a decent hour. I got to call and chat with my mommy which was great, and one of my real favorite parts of the day. I really miss my family, and after one week I have the confidence that I can do this; this whole living on the other side of the world thing. It's going to be tough to not just be able to call when I'm out and about and running errands, but it's all going to be fine! I love you Mom, Dad, Alison and Travis! Come visit me soon!!!

Love,
Chelsea

Driving, Skype, Our New Car (well... new to us) and Yoga

We got a car and our drivers licenses!

We went to 'right start' which is a program designed to teach you all about the base and to get your records all set up. It started at 6:30am on Wednesday. We refused to let Jane wake up that early to drive us there so we chose to walk. It sure was hot for 6:30am but we made it in about 20 minutes, only a little sweaty. I knew George walked fast but fear of being late sure did light a fire underneath his butt. I was a good 2 strides behind him almost the whole walk, and I felt like a small child following her much bigger dad. Funny, because it's true. :)

I was the only spouse who came and probably a third of the information did not pertain to me personally but it was all informative and mostly entertaining. They really do offer a ton to do here on the base and it seems like it will be one heck of an adventure! I may try to go to the yoga class they offer here on base at 6:15 tonight! Oh, this base is weird in that they list most events and times in regular 12 hour time, instead of 24 hour military time. It really confuses me instead of simplifying things. Which I realize is pretty weird.

It was raining by the time our class got out around 3pm. So Jane came and got us. We had a relaxing evening at home. I took a nap from about 3:30-5:30 and I really needed it and I slept so soundly. Loved it! George and I were on our own for dinner and we ordered delivery from a place on base. I got fried chicken and steamed rice and George got a calzone. We got caught up on the American TV we've been missing. I finally saw the season finale to Desperate Housewives and we watched several episodes of Community and The Office. I'm disappointed I haven't been able to see American Idol but am keeping up with it by research of the contestants. (Though I don't know who got voted off this week).

We stayed up until 11 chatting with Lauren on Skype! I just think Skype and video chatting is the best way to keep in contact! We talked for about 40 minutes and it was nice to pretend we were back in the same house where we all lived together in Arkansas even though I'm in Japan and she is in Texas. We went to sleep and when we woke up to head to day 2 of Right Start Kyle Skyped us! So we had been to sleep and we were waking up and they had been up all day and were getting ready for bed. It still amuses me that we live on the other side of the world!

We got to day 2 of Right Start and sat through several hours of videos and power points about driving on the other side of the road. We finally made it to the test which was only written. George didn't miss any and finished in half the time I did and when I turned it in I missed one. But only one, and I don't even know which one- so I'll probably get a ticket for mystery question I didn't understand and got wrong here in the next week or so. :) (Way to be optimistic, huh?)

After we finished our test we had lunch at the BX, I had Subway and George had Popeyes (the fast food here in phenomenal). After lunch we met up with the lady who we bought the car from because she had to come to the insurance office and the tag office with us. We got all of that done in a little over an hour, and then... we could drive our new car!!! The lady we got it from has 3 kids so there were sticker remnants, sticky seat belts and random small toys strewn about but she helped us get most of that out. It's still going to need a good can of Lysol wipes and some 409 but then it will be fabulous!

George drove first, half way through base, we had to stop at the runway because of a landing plane (the road goes right across the runway!) and then after we finished up stuff at the insurance place I drove the rest of the way home. It really is such a weird feeling! Having to remember to go to the right side of the car, reaching over your right shoulder for the seat belt instead of the left, knowing that the shifter is on the left instead of the right, the blinker is on the right instead of the left... AHHH! SO confusing! I guess it will take some time to get used to, but I was really excited to drive! I didn't crash, but I didn't park in the lines very well. But no big deal. I was in the lines. That's all that matters.

If George had a blog he would possibly tell the story this way:

“One of the things we learned in the class is to not go over the tire shredders at the gates at an angle. Well... Chelsea... God love her... decided to change lanes just before these tire shredders and almost popped all four of our tires on our new car on her first day of driving.”

It's a good thing George doesn't have a blog. :)

Pictures of our car!











Another cool thing that happened this afternoon was that I was contacted by the Girl Scouts on base to ask if I'd be interested in getting involved. It'd be all volunteer work but it sounded really interesting. I could help with the summer camp they offer for all of the girls from 5 or 6 bases that all come to Yokota for a week long summer camp and then be a troop leader or assistant leader in the fall. I think that would be an awesome way to spend my time. We'll see how that goes!

Oh! So... I went to my first yoga class here on base. It was a bit of a let down but I'll give it a try again another day.... here is a short synopsis of the class. Please remember that I was doing yoga pretty regularly in Little Rock and I really enjoyed it, and I was pretty good at it too! But tonight... I was treated like it was my very first yoga class. I was a little bummed, but will try again.
The class was scheduled to start at 6:15pm. I got there around 6:05pm and everyone was in relaxation. The instructor asked me if this was my first time at yoga and I told him no, but it was my first time at this class. After this weird relaxation warm up we did 5 sun salutations at a pretty quick pace. On salutation 3, he came to me and told me that I was working myself too hard and that I needed to go to child's pose for a full 2 minutes and then rejoin the class. We did triangle pose and I had my hand on my ankle and he told me that I wasn't ready to do that and made me put my hand on my calf. I was SO frustrated with him! Then at the end we were laying on our backs with our feet in the air about to go into plow (I think that's what it's called... where you feet go behind your head) and he walked over to me again and told me to leave my feet in the air for the remainder of the poses. I was SO mad! We also ended the class with a 3 minute long "OOOOOhhhhhmmmmm" Over and over and over again. I guess I'm just used to doing it with Katie and Lauren and it was a little different, not bad per se, but different and I'll try it again and see how it goes.

We still love Japan and now that we have a car and get off base a little easier, we are going to spend the weekend exploring! Oh, and leave me some more comments, because I like them and it makes me feel like people enjoy my blog. Show me some love. Thanks friends. :)

Chelsea

Cars, Jobs and School... the important things

We bought a car yesterday! It's a 1999 Mazda Premacy. It's small and silver and pretty cute. I don't have a picture of it yet because we haven't officially purchased it because we don't have our Japanese drivers licenses. We'll get those on Thursday. We put a down payment on it with a woman who lives here on base and is selling it because she has 3 kids and they're buying a van. It seems to run great and will get us around Japan just fine. It has navigation but it's all spoken in Japanese. Oh well!

I also stopped by the CDC here and chatted with the girl at the desk and it sounds like they are not hiring for the position I'd like to do right now. But I'm not giving up on the job search. I went by the human resources office on base and the job options on base seem pretty limited but it sounds like there are plenty of job opportunities off base teaching English which I'm very interested in. It'll be fun to see where the job cards fall here in the next couple of weeks.

I went by the education office too! I talked with the University of Maryland and the University of Phoenix. Both sound promising and I'm meeting with a counselor from UM today and someone is reviewing my transcripts online from Phoenix.

We had a pretty relaxing Sunday and Monday. It's Tuesday morning and am off to visit the counselor at Maryland and I'm hoping he won't estimate it'll take me a long time to graduate! It's just such a frustrating situation!

Anyway, I'll keep you all updated on school and jobs and driving. Love to you all!

Chelsea

Showa Park, Pet Stores and Shopping

We had the best day yesterday! We really got to get out and explore Japan and it was such a blast. I seriously already love it here!

We went to Showa Park which was a train ride away. We rode with Jane and Dereck to the train station in their car but couldn't find parking (that seems pretty common here) so Dereck had to drop us off, drive back to base and then walk to meet us. It's about a 10 minute walk, but pedestrians and bicyclists have full right away here. Jane helped us get our train cards which you can load money on. They are learning Japanese pretty quickly (they've been here since March) and it really gives me hope that in 2 months I'll be able to get around too. We took the train about 6 stops or so to the park.

The Japanese people love their parks here! We paid a small fee to get into the park and were able to find a map in English. The park was huge! We walked around for about 3-4 hours and it was a ton of fun. They had a lake with paddle boats for rent, barbeque grills that people were cooking at, people having picnics everywhere. There were also food vendors! Omg the food! It is SO good! Dereck has a philosophy that here if the food comes on a stick, then it's good! George got a teriyaki pita pocket thing and noodles and I got a snow-cone at one point in the park too. I'm happy to know that here they all seem to know the English word for chicken, so you can just go to the counter, say chicken and point to what you want.

I feel so rude because after your order they always say something back. I'm sure they're saying, “oh, would you like a drink?” Or “Can I get you something else?” and I just stare back at them and repeat chicken. We were also told it's considered poor manners to count back the change they give you because it's kind of like insulting their math. The smallest bill here is a 1000 yen, which is relatively close to 10 dollars. And then the smaller amounts are all in coins. I'm going to have to get a separate change purse to keep the money straight, because they do accept the dollar on the base, so we carry both around.

It's the little things in life that make me happy. I took a picture of the 'train' that chug-a-lugs around the park and some of the people waved at me! Us Americans really do stick out. I should have taken a picture of George standing in line to get food, he really did have about a foot of height on everyone else. It was funny. They all look as we go by too. My blond hair and George's height make us one heck of a pair!

Oh! There are Azalea bushes everywhere, on and off base! We also have Kudzu on the base here! And I have seen Magnolia trees! I am SO excited to see familiar plants, we might as well be in Atlanta!

Here are some pictures of the park.







After the park we rode the train back to Fussa where we live. We went through a Japanese 100 Yen Store which is basically a dollar store. It is amazing to me how much stuff here is printed in English! The people all wear clothes with English phrases on them! But the catch is... none of it makes sense! It is SO funny. One lady was wearing a shirt yesterday that said something along the lines of “And that do to the sense of it.” Or something like that. I bought stationery that is really cute that have lambs on it and says “Lambs who jump” and another with a little girl who I guess is supposed to be little red riding hood and it says “Girl who wears red hood.” It cracks me up and is so adorable. There were cute little trashcans like for bathrooms that had anchors on them and would say “We are the sea. We hear songs. We are hearing songs by the sea.” Does it make sense? No. Is it cute and funny and did we spend an hour reading American phrases in this Japanese dollar store? Yes!!!

After the dollar store we went to a store kind of like a Wal-mart. They carry the 'george' and 'mainstays' brand just like wal-mart does but it's not called it, nor does it have the logo anywhere. We enjoyed looking around there and will probably make some purchases there soon. That is where I found my first “Space Toilet”. See the pictures below. It gives you options to heat the seats, play music which is more of a wooshing sound so you can do your business and no one hears you, gives you a bidet option and something else I didn't quite figure out. I didn't get adventurous and try any of the cool options but I think I will in the near future.


Space Toilet


One of my most favorite phrases here is what we American's call the “Gaijen Smash” (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong) Gaijen is the word for foreigner and whenever you do something stupid we all say Gaijen smash to each other. Example: cutting across lanes because you missed a turn, Gaijen smash. Example: throwing your trash away in the wrong bin... gaigen smash. As I complete more of these accidental “Gaijen Smashes” I'll explain it better. It is very funny though and every time we say it, George and I really giggle.

We were able to get back to base in time to get the cell-phone store and get our plans set up. We both got iPhones because that's what they give away for free when you sign a new contract. Awesome, right? We think it is. Sometimes there are Japanese kanji (characters) that pop up in my apps but we're figuring out how to use them. I think I will miss my palm pre though!

We went to a mall about a 15 minute drive away to get dinner at the food court. I got ramen noodles with pork in them and something kind of like egg-rolls but the roll is soft and not fried, and more meat based. I also got rice. I have yet to see a fork off base but have been given spoons, and I'm getting better with chop sticks each meal because of assimilation. I have to! George had rice with corn and beef and pepper in it. Both meals were excellent. I love that the people really seem to enjoy their jobs and are hard workers, very swift and are quick to offer a smile when they understand that no matter how slow they speak we won't be able to understand each other. I got water to drink which in the food court was at a station in the center of all of the tables and they were basically mouthwash dixie cups for you to drink out of and go refill. Oh- another example of a Gaijen smash: Taking 6 mini water cups and filling them up so you don't have to go refill with every sip. Are you supposed to do it, probably not, but we can use Gaijen as an excuse. Silly foreigners. :) There are hand washing stations there too. It's common that they don't provide any hand dryers or paper towels to dry your hands so you are supposed to carry around your own towel or just drip dry your hands.

After dinner we walked around the mall for a bit. It looks a lot like an American mall just with Kanji Signs, but still a ton of English words everywhere, also not making sense. We found the pet store and saw a little white poodle for 1,250,000 yen or almost $13,000! Crazy right? There were also several giant turtles for sale, kittens that were $2000 and other puppies that ranged from about $1300-$4000. I was going to buy Cheyenne a new cute food and water dish but couldn't find one that was bigger than what looked like would be a kitten sized. The Japanese love to get the cute little miniature dogs and dress them up. We did see a few larger sized dogs, some bigger than Cheyenne but overall saw all small doggies like dachshunds (long haired), mini-poodles and a few sheba-inus, all who were actually large.

Well that was our day yesterday. We went to bed around 10 last night but I woke up at 4:15am and George around 5:00 when I kept tossing and turning. It's 8am now and we're still laying in bed with our computers! I wonder what Sunday will hold for us!

Love and miss you all!

Chelsea

The first 24 hours of our lives in Japan!

Jet-lag is one of the most awful feelings in the world! I just feel so out of it. I'm sitting here wide awake at 4:40 in the morning, Saturday morning. Which makes it around 3:40pm to all of you Eastern Time Zone folks and 4:40pm to all of you Central Time Zoners. (And it's Friday where you are). Oh, and 4am here, the sun comes up. Up. Wide awake. Silly sun.


The plane ride over:
As we were about to board the plane, I almost threw up. Seriously. I was feeling so nervous and excited, it felt like I had been at Six-Flags all day so I was exhausted but it was time to ride the Batman roller coaster one more time, except I had just eaten cotton candy and popcorn and a giant coke. I also had the feeling like when you're on your way to summer camp as a kid. I worried way too much about being away from home for a week and often cried as a kid.

The point is... I was scared, nervous, excited and had a sense of disbelief that the ride to Japan was actually happening. We made it to the terminal and got through security in under 3 minutes. They re-ran my purse through the scanner but in the end said it was clear to go.

When we got to the terminal I couldn't help but notice how young all of the people there looked! I am not exaggerating. All of these kids, I mean a hundred 18 year olds were boarding this giant plane. They were all military too. I forget that George did the whole college thing, then 3 years of training, and we're just now getting to our first assignment, and he's 24. These kids are straight from high school. But you know what? I was really glad they are all going to be defending our country.

Once I was on the plane and they made an announcement that all the pets had also made it on board I was able to relax a little bit. I brought my laptop to watch movies on, my phone with headphones to listen to music on, 2 books, a magazine and a sudoku puzzle book. George brought an equal amount of entertainment. But then I decided that I wouldn't need any of this entertainment and I would sleep the whole flight. And I did just that. I didn't want to feel too jet lagged (like I could stop it. Ha.) and knowing that when we landed it would be 6am made me feel as if I slept the whole 9 hours then when I landed early in the morning it would feel like I slept through the night and would be fine for a whole day of exploration in Japan. We had originally anticipated the flight to be about 13 hours long, but it was only... hahahaha, only... 9.

I bought one of those horseshoe neck-roll pillows and George told me that I wouldn't like it. Wanna take a guess as to who used that pillow the majority of the flight? Hint: it wasn't me, and it wasn't Cheyenne. The in-flight entertainment was 3 movies, Avatar, G-Force (with the hamsters) and the Tooth Fairy. They announced that the third movie was going to be 'He's just not that into you' but instead we got 'The Rock'. I didn't watch any of them because I slept, only waking up when they brought around food. The first meal was probably 2 hours into the flight, and they served breakfast. I chose pancakes and George got an omelet. The pancakes were seriously rubber but they did give us yogurt and semi-fresh fruit which was pineapples and one strawberry so I ate that. Then I went back to sleep. Meal 2 was a snack, which was a drink and kettle-corn popcorn, which was excellent. Yummy. George hates kettle-corn so I got to keep his bag of it. I'm saving it for later. Meal 3 was about an hour and a half before we landed and was lunch. We both chose chicken but got 2 different kinds of it. Mine was in a sweet glaze of some sort with rice, broccoli and carrots. George had a spicy-chicken meal of some sort and we each got cheese, crackers, a roll, and chocolate cake. That meal wasn't too bad, it was still airline food but was good. I must have been starved.

We finally landed and were allowed to get off the plane! We were in row 19, in the second section of the plane. In my experience standing up to exit the plane when they first open the doors is a joke because it always takes 10 minutes or more to get off anyway. We stood up anyways because hey, we'd been sitting for about 10 hours. (We sat on the plane for an hour before it actually took off) It was enough time for me to get out my passport, ID and put on chap-stick before our row exited. These military kids were so orderly and zoomed off that plane! It was awesome. As we got off the plane we could see Cheyenne being unloaded too!

We made it through customs and Cheyenne's quarantine paperwork in about an hour and then met up with Jane and Dereck who were there to pick us up! We got Cheyenne settled in at their house then went to the housing office. There are no homes that allow dogs that are on the bottom floor. So we are forced to take an apartment on the second floor, which I'm very disappointed about. Poor Cheyenne. I hate that we'll have to take her out to walk her several times a day. I really love opening the back door and letting her go outside to do her business. Oh well. It'll be a challenge but it's nothing we can't handle. I also realized that we'll have to bring groceries up and down the stairs, but it's going to be fine. It'll be exercise if nothing else. Oh, and did I mention that the apartment is in the same building as Jane and Derecks? I'll have to take pictures but the building has 8 units; 4 upstairs and 4 downstairs. There are 2 main entryways, 4 units to an entryway. We'll be upstairs and on top of their next-door neighbors. Which means when we move from their spare bedroom to our house, (hopefully by Tuesday) we'll just be going out their front door, up a flight of stairs and into our own place!

We also got an e-mail and then George called to confirm that our furniture is here!!! Yay! It can be set up to be delivered as soon as we have keys to our place! All the apt. needs is a good cleaning, and they said it's been vacant since last year.

George has had 2 large disappointments. The first was when he realized that HDTV is not offered here. So much for him being so excited about our new TV that we only used for a couple of months. The second was when he realized that ESPN is also not offered here. Poor Georgie.

Driving:
One of the funniest things is that the cars drive on the left side of the road which makes the steering wheels on the right side of the car. Jane was driving us around yesterday and we were both in the backseat and it looked like she was going to turn into oncoming traffic. George and I both kind of gasped and looked at each other, then cracked up when we realized that everything was okay. Another funny thing was when we were looking for a parking spot and Dereck saw one (in the passenger seat) and said “Turn left, turn left, turn left!” I told him that I couldn't figure out why he was yelling at himself to turn. Driving will be something to get used to, but I'm sure we can do it! We won't get our drivers licenses until Thursday, so we'll have a full week of being carted around, which is fine by me! I'm in no rush to drive yet! Too intimidating!

Phones:
We'll be getting a home phone through Vonage (maybe?) and when we do it'll be an American 10-digit phone number that you people at home can call and we can call you back all for free, it'll be just like calling a regular number for you guys, and the same for us!

We'll be getting cell phones here shortly, and they give away I-phones here for free when you sign up for a contract. The I-phones are apparently crappy here compared to what you can get. We hear that some phones have 12 megapixel cameras and are really fabulous. I love my palm-pre and may have George look into seeing if we can keep those, but I bet we can't!

Jane insisted that we stay awake the entire day, and that there would be no napping so that we could get on a regular sleep schedule. She did a great job and became 'dictator Jane' because when we would look like we were falling asleep she'd make us get up and do something! She kept us busy all day doing errands, getting our mailbox set up (we have a mailing address now), looking at cars to buy on base (which we will do sometime in the next couple of days), giving us a tour, taking us off base for our first off base lunch. Jane and Dereck both had to head to work for a bit in the afternoon so George and I had some time to explore on our own. We would have rather napped but decided against it because we knew if we went to sleep we would never be able to get back up.

A quick note about our first lunch off base:
We went to a Chinese restaurant for our first meal in Japan. I love the irony. We didn't really think we were hungry until we sat down with food in front of us. I had fried rice with garlic chicken and George had spicy chicken fried rice. I realize now how similar that sounds to our airplane lunch at 4 in the morning. Hahaha. We got to use Yen for the first time, and that was exciting. The streets are very narrow and I can't believe their 2 way streets! The restaurant is a place that 2 different people recommended to us back in the states and is called the Red Dragon. Inside there is a poster of Matt Dillon, the Blues brothers and someone else funny. The menu was written in both English and Japanese. The food was delicious and I can't wait to venture off base again to eat different foods.

While they worked we took a walk to the BX-tra which carries furniture and other things like that. We got Cheyenne some new food and water dishes and looked for an entertainment stand and a new coffee table. We didn't love any of the furniture there so will have to keep our eyes open for something we like off base. We also went into the shoppette and looked around. George is absolutely thrilled that they carry Vault here on the base. I am disappointed that no one seems to have Cherry Coke Zero. Oh well, I guess I'll find a new coke to drink. And I guess I shouldn't be drinking coke anyways. We also showered and got ready to head to dinner!

Before dinner we went to George's new squadron and met a ton of new people! Everyone was so nice and welcoming and it is such a great feeling to know that everyone else has been in our shoes and wants to help! We even had people offer to give us rides or to borrow their cars. We had a drink there with everyone and then headed to the Officer's club for dinner. On Friday's they do a free buffet. They had wings, sandwiches, seafood, sushi (which I was told not to eat so I can have my first real Japanese sushi place off base), pizza and tons of other choices. It was so good. I also got to meet a ton of wives and everyone was so friendly and welcoming. I really felt comfortable and can't wait to hang out with them again!

We left around 7:45pm and at 8pm Jane finally said we could go to sleep. I don't think I've ever fallen asleep so quickly! But they were right, I was up at 4:30 and I wish I wasn't. But it's okay, I'll try to nap later this afternoon then go to sleep around 9 or 10 tonight and maybe get on a good schedule! And I'm so glad that George is sleeping still! At least one of us will be on a semi-normal schedule!

Love you all,
Chelsea

P.S. I'll try to post pictures of Japan when I can!

Made it to Seattle, and will be on a flight to Japan in a couple of hours! AHHHHHHH! :)

Where do I begin? We've come such a long way in such a short amount of time that I can't believe I'm going to be boarding our flight to Japan in a few short hours! I'm currently sitting at the Seattle-Tacoma airport (aka, SEA-TAC). George is by my side on his netbook and Cheyenne is laying on the floor next to him. Yes, all three of us made it safe and sound to Seattle. It has been one heck of a trip but I am so thankful I'm doing it with both of them by my side.

In case some of you didn't know, I've been very apprehensive about this whole 'moving to Japan' thing. It's been a roller coaster of emotions. It's funny because I already live far from my family, and haven't lived in Smyrna in 5 years but it's always tough to say goodbye. It's not like anything major will change. I'll still live far enough away to not come home for a short weekend visit and trips to see me will be carefully planned, as always. Nothing major at all. It's the little things like not being able to pick up my phone and call my mommy on the way to work, just to say hello and catch up on any gossip. Now I feel like the phone calls will have to be planned. And that's okay. We'll cross paths virtually, of course and with Skype, Facebook and E-mail, I really shouldn't worry. But I do. I hate to thing that (God Forbid) should anything happen to a family member or friend that I can't just catch the next flight home and be there in a few hours, or hop in my car and drive there in a days time. But again, it's okay. Right?

Ok... let's stop being sappy and sad for a bit and let me entertain you with the story of how we got to Seattle. Rewind to last night... well... 2 nights ago? Ehhh... who knows, I'm already jet-lagged and confused...

Tuesday night (Eastern time zone) Alison and Brent threw George and I a wonderful cook-out for our last night home in Georgia. It was great! Tons of friends and family came to wish us well, give us hugs and kisses and even a gift or two. It was a great time, but as each person left, I had to give them a hug and tell them to keep in touch, come visit etc. etc. etc. And I expect each and everyone of those people to do that, and I'm sure that they will... because my people in Smyrna are fabulous and I care about each and everyone of them SO much! (Love you all!) (Oh yeah, no more sappy...)


Me and 3 of my bff's and bridesmaids! Kayla A, Ashley, me and Christina.

We decided my little brother Travis would take us to airport in the suburban. Trust me. We needed that suburban. We each have 2 giant bags, and a carry-on each, a lap-top bag and my purse... not to mention Cheyenne's giant crate, and her. All I can say is... I am SO glad we don't have children for this move. (It's definitely do-able, so all of you mommy's PCSing to Japan shortly... don't worry!!! You can do it!!!) Anyhow, we discussed for.. oh... maybe 15-20 minutes who would take us to the airport and why and which car they would take. We finally decided on Travis as the winner (er.. loser) that had to get up at 3:45am(Technically Wednesday morning) and come pick us up from my sister's house. My mom insisted on him leaving early because there might be a train! (they live near rail-road tracks and would have to cross them to get to my sisters). We all mocked my mom and we insisted back that there was not going to be a train. Well... surprise, surpise... Mom was right... again. :) I texted Travis when we woke up. It went like this:

Me: Hey don't forget about us!
Him: I'm puttin on my shoes. Be there in 10 minutes.
Me: Great! Love you!
Him: Lol... There's a train. Mom was right.
Me: Hahahaha! I won't tell her if you won't!
Him: I'm telling, it's gonna be funny lol.

Let me also mention that we didn't get to bed until 12:45. I laid there for at least half an hour before drifting off, which puts me at a grand total of 2.5 hours of sleep at this point. George said he laid there awake too. Too much adrenaline, I guess.

Anyway, we get to the airport and get our bags checked, with the help of heroic Travis to help us get it all inside and to the counter! (Thanks TJ!) and then they ask to see all of Cheyenne's paperwork. (Which has been a nightmare itself to get all in order). We give it all to her and the lady asks where her certificate of acclimation is. Well... long story short... we never got one because when I checked the weather 2 days ago the highs and lows of Georgia, Denver and Seattle were in the safe-temperature range of 45-85 degrees. Well... guess what? There was a freak snow-storm in Denver and there was snow and the temperature was 30 degrees. I have more tears in my eyes (I was already in a good position for this for saying goodbye to my brother...) and George is like... “we're desperate”, because hey- we were. And they said okay! So they sent her! I told her to be a good girl and that I loved her and would see her soon. When we took off and when we landed I tried to send her mental messages... I'd repeat 'everything's fine, you're okay'. Thinking on it now, I'm not sure if I was talking to her or to myself. :)

So we make it to Denver and my heart is racing because I can see the snow outside and feel the temperature as we walk up the ramp and I know, I just know that they will not move her to the plane to Seattle. But luckily, I was wrong. My guess is because we had such a short layover (hardly 30 minutes) they just did it, or no one was there to make sure she had the right paperwork on her crate. Either way, I am very thankful that she made it with us to Seattle!

I slept on the plane to Denver probably about 30 minutes and then on the plane to Seattle for about 30 minutes, so... total hours of sleep for me 3.5 hours. George: 2.5.

Seattle! We made it! I could see water outside the plane's window and I was just so happy to have arrived! I walked to the luggage carousel to claim our bags and George went to go rent our car for the day. They made an announcement that oversized baggage had arrived from our flight at carousel number 5. I was far more excited to get Cheyenne than to get our 4 giant bags of luggage, so I traipsed to her. The guy is unloading car seats and strollers, but no doggies. He says 'no dogs' . I, of course, panicked and insisted my dog was back there. She was. I guess it was his way of flirting or something to tell me they didn't have a dog. Not Funny. Cheyenne was panting hard and had all 4 legs spread out, in a really funny stance that you'd have to see to understand, I thought she was maybe hurt originally. I managed to get Cheyenne all petted and calmed down (I think she hates flying) and get all 4 of our giant-monster bags off carousel 7 by the time George had the key to the car. He helped me get Cheyenne on a smart-cart ($4 to rent by the way at both Atlanta and Seattle) then got all of our bags (all 6 of them) to the curb. We got a Mazda-CX9 which was a really, and I mean really, tight squeeze. Cheyenne had to sit in the floor board of the passenger seat with me. That's how close we were to not getting everything in the car.

Oh. And poor Cheyenne had to go potty so bad that she went #2 right there on the sidewalk while we waited for George to bring the car around. Poor thing. It embarrasses us more than her though, easily.

Let's see... what else about that arrival? Oh. The only bag of food I brought for Cheyenne was taped to the outside of her crate, was gone. So no dog-food for Cheyenne. Crap.

We got to our hotel that we rented for the day, got her watered and calmed and off George and I went to explore Seattle! We went to Pike's Market first, which is where they throw the fish. They had tons of flowers, produce, seafood, jewelry, homemade candy, art, etc. It was like an all year long craft show. SO cool. Let me mention that we got beautiful weather for a May afternoon in Seattle. No rain, just a few clouds, temperatures in the 50's-60's, a little chilly but nothing to complain about.

We had lunch at a little cafe that had a 'soups and sandwiches' kinda menu. I had chicken quesadillas and George had a burger. Very good. From there we went to the space needle. It was pretty interesting. It doesn't really have much of a purpose than a landmark, which is fine and has a beautiful observation deck. We waited about 5 minutes to get on the elevators to go up and when we went back down, but nothing drastic. We took some cool pictures. I'll post a whole blog with just pictures when I get a chance to!

After the space needle we went back to the hotel because our afternoon was pleased with the small amount of touristy things we had done, and we were dog-tired. We planned to nap from 3pm-8pm. We set alarms. We both passed right out and Cheyenne did too. Around 5:30pm (please remember we are on pacific time now) the stupid Census guy called George to confirm some details about the stupid Census. This puzzled me so much that my whole mind got wrapped around it and I never fell back asleep. ::sigh:: George fell right back asleep and slept until a little after 7 when a friend of his called.


The space needle.


Us at the top of the space needle in Seattle!


Sleep count
George: 7.5 hours
Chelsea: 5.5 hours
Cheyenne: Lots. Lucky girl.

We went and had dinner at a little rotisserie place, called... ________ I have no idea. We had chicken tenders for an appetizer, and then I had a piece of rotisserie chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and broccoli. George got a sampler of turkey, pork and chicken as well as the works. Needless to say we had a ton of leftovers. We ordered too much food on purpose so Cheyenne would have something to eat! When George asked for a to-go box, I corrected him and said that in this instance, it was a doggie-bag! (Which made me giggle, a lot.)

Anyhow, we went back to our hotel, took showers and got all packed up. George took Cheyenne and I and our 6 bags, and Cheyenne's crate and dropped us off at the AMC (Air Mobility Command for all of you non-acronym acclimated people) curb. We saw one smarte-cart off it's rack just sitting there, so I grabbed it! I tried to start putting Cheyenne's crate on there but the cart would roll or Cheyenne would tug me one way (I pulled her out of her crate for this). Finally the AMC people came to help me. They got me 2 more carts and helped me get all of the bags on there and situated. I was SO thankful for them. They could tell I was pathetic trying to put 6 bags of luggage and a dog crate on there and they helped, got me the paperwork I needed and explained to me how to fill it all out. I love that they are so helpful to military families. I really do. George got there after everything was in order (except they wouldn't let me get in line to check in without him) and we got through the check in process pretty easily.

We left Cheyenne with the other doggies that will be aboard the plane and went to the USO. It was packed. And I mean packed. There were people everywhere, sitting on the couches, chairs, tables, floor, leaning up against walls. They did have free snacks and drinks. We both got a water and George got a doughnut as well. My stomach is way too queasy with fear and excitement about getting on this plane and not looking back to eat doughnuts. And if I turn down a doughnut, then you know I am nervous. :)

Alright friends and family. I have bored you enough with the tedious details of our trip thus far. Thanks for reading! If you would like to, save this as a favorites page and check in every once in awhile. I get kind of lazy sometimes about updating, but it's usually when I feel like I don't have anything fun to write about. And now that you are all not quite a quick phone call away, I may update more to tell you all about how wonderful and exciting our lives are in Japan. (hehehe :)

Love to you all, and can't wait for our first visitors! (Whoever you may be!!!)

Chelsea


And here is a picture of my family and I! :)

So... we're leaving for Japan TOMORROW!

Ok, here is a quick post for those of you who complain I don't blog enough. But you try moving across the world and keeping a blog updated... (Ok, Ok... I know people who have done it and successfully blogged! Maybe I just suck.)

Anyhow... we are moved out of our house in Arkansas, and I already miss living in Little Rock with the Alderman's (and Team CB) but am happy to be off on the adventure of a lifetime. We came to Georgia and have been living out of 2 giant suitcases each, and 2 carry-on bags. We're staying with my sister and her accomodating boyfriend... and George has been off and on at his dad's house 2 hours South of here. I went down too and saw his family, which was a lot of fun. George has 4 much younger siblings (16, 11, 9, and 4) Yeah... 4. :) And they are wonderful kids and we always have fun with them!

We are having a cookout tonight at Alison's, and we're expecting 25-30 people. I didn't even know that many people in Atlanta liked us, or that I liked that many, but we counted.. and we do. :) And I'm very thankful for that.

We also went to a mothers day lunch on Saturday at my uncle's river house and saw all of my family which was really great to see everyone!!!

So I'm off to run some very last minute errands and then to have the cookout, go to bed and then fly out! Ahhhh!!! Here is a prayer request for safe and happy travels and to make sure everything goes well with Cheyenne!!! Love to you all, next time I update, I'll be a super-world traveler.

Chelsea