Food rocks my world!

Ok seriously, I am in love with the variety of yummy food here!!! It's bad, but Joe and I have been eating out a LOT just because there are sooooo many restaurants we love, and new ones we keep finding and want to try!!!

When I find a place I really like, I immediately become obsessed with it and want to go again, and again, and again!!! We went to the Gyro place on Saturday and Sunday I was begging Joe to go again... it was just that good!

Our current obessions are CoCo's Curry House and this new Gyro's place!!! We've been going to Coco's at LEAST once a week since the first time we've been there. I've already been to the Gyro's place twice this week :)

When I see commercials for fast food places in the states I do begin to miss it, but it doesn't last long. There are so many BETTER places to eat here and I'm loving it!!! This weekend we're going to this Korean BBQ place... it's one of those "all you can eat" places for 90-minutes. They bring you plates of meat and you grill it yourself (kind of like a hibatchi grill) and all the side dishes and drinks you want. Sounds delish... right?

Mmmmm, I love food.

A little bit of pampering never hurt

Today I took Sofya, Justin's girlfriend who is in town visiting, to CoCok's for a Japanese pedicure! I cannot express how fascinated I am by their intriciate artwork they fit on my tiny little toenails... all done of course by hand! Today I opted for something blue (hey, why not?) and it looks really cute! Only here is it okay to wear blue nail-polish with glitter/rhinestones and little flowers on them. I haven't worn blue nail-polish since probably middle-school but it's so fun. I can't wait for next month (yes, I think this might become a monthly habbit)!

A great weekend!

We had another great weekend. Friday night Joe and I and our friend Christian went to the Officer's Club to see what it was all about. It wasn't really that great, but when you are with good friends it makes it fun. Saturday we went to the bazaar and spent a good chunk of our day walking around and looking at all the different vendor's items. We had some yummy Japanese food for lunch and spent the rest of the day running errands. We decided to have some friends over for Margartia's. It was fun just hanging out, listening to some Jimmy Buffet, drinking margs and playing some games (we had a very competitive crew so things got a little heated!) but it was definitely fun. This morning Joe and I decided to go to the Officer's Club for Sunday brunch. We'd heard great things and it was pretty yummy. One room with a spread of breakfast foods and another room with a spread of lunch/seafood items. It was yummy!

Joe and I also decided we wanted to start playing tennis. Joe has played before but I never really have. We went and bought rackets and it was a perfect day for tennis... 70's, not too sunny with a cool breeze! We spent a good couple of hours just hitting some balls back and forth, and well me, just trying not to hit them over the fence. It's a fun sport but I definitely need some practice!

We got back and took the pups on a long walk along this trail known as the Habu Trail. It's super long and it's called the Habu Trail because it's known for having Habu snakes! But don't worry it's only usually at night. We had a long walk (several miles) and we brought this portable water bottle with an attached dish for the pups to drink out of. It was great!

After a busy morning I took a nap and now I'm looking forward to just bumming around, lounging on the couch and watching TV. Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!
I love being able to see the ocean while I'm driving around on base. I really do sometimes forget I'm living on an island and it's sometimes still surreal to realize I'm completley surrounded by beautiful clear blue water and palm trees.
This weekend we also went to the bazaar that was being held. They have items from all over the world and it's always so neat so look around. Outside they were having dancers perform and now I can say I've seen ninjas in person!

There were two people under there dancing around as the dog. It was soooo neat!

Little girls dancing and beating their drums.

This chair was amazing! And HUGE! It is made out of driftwood. How cool is it? It was only like $500...

YAY!

After finally giving up on the hope I was going to get a call with a job offer, I finally got one today! Ok, it's not my "dream" job, but it's a well paying one and it's working with kids so how can I complain? Oh, the job? It's at one of the Child Development Centers here on base (we have like or 4 so I had to ask the lady to specify which one exactly she was calling from!) and they said I'll start with about 30-hours of work a week and then possibly get a full-time position. She said I had just "a little" bit of related experience and giggled at her sarcasm. She made me promise not to take any offers is any of the other CDCs called me while HRO does all the background checks and paperwork within the next week (gotta love the middle man causing everything to take just THAT much longer).

Before I got the call, I decided to go to one of the elementary schools on base (our base alone has 4 elementary schools... craziness!) and they pretty much told me I'd done everything I really could and the only other thing I could do was apply to be a teacher-aid or tutor. I'm not sure if that's exactly what I'd want, but at least it'd be in the school... I'll have to think about it. In an ideal world, I'd love to take this job at the CDC and work over the summer and magically get a call saying I'd been selected for a teaching job at one of the schools on base for the next school year. Some people might wonder why that sounds so hard... it's because the DoDDs schools specifically hire people from the states to teach at the American overseas schools. They get really great incentives and probably (if I were them at least) stay for quite some time reaping all the benefits of their teaching job. It's difficult to get into DoDDs schools and it's all politics, but I've met some people who know some "people" so hopefully I can get my name out there!

Okay I just realized most of you probably don't care much about any of this but bottom line is I finally got a job and I'm just excited to have some work!!! :)

Things lately

Things here lately have been great!! The weather is starting to warm up and we were able to have a sunny day at the beach with some of our friends. We ventured up north a little to a new beach called Zanpa Beach. How beautiful does it look? Clear blue water, soft sand, and island music playing from the speakers= a perfect beach day! Unfortunately we didn't realize how strong the rays were and failed to put sunscreen on until it was too late. I rarely burn, but I'm definitely a little red under my super tan. Joe on the other hand is a lobster with a distinct sunglass tan (more like burn) which is pretty funny! We've been venturing out exploring the island... we're constantly looking for new places to eat and places to shop and walk around. We love trying new places to eat and we're just so amazed at the variety we have. Since we've been here we've eaten Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Turkish, Indian, Hawaiian, Mexican, Italian... that's all I can think of right now but I bet there's more! Oh and I just had to snap a picture of one of the many Starbucks we have here! Amazing, I had to move to an island thousands of miles away to live in a town that has Starbucks (maybe one day Columbus you'll branch out). Today we went down south to this outlet mall and it was just really neat to walk around. We even found a Coach outlet but the prices were outrageous!!! We're really enjoying ourselves and we can't wait for Joe's schedule to be a little more flexible so we can get scuba certified! With that said, Joe's been busy at work and I try to keep myself busy by working out, venturing out to find new places to see, playing with the pups, getting to know my neighbors, doing the finishing touches around the house, and of course job hunting! I'm hopeful something will work out and I'll get a job I love. Sooner than later would be better though ;)

I think overall we're pretty much fully adjusted to the Okinawan lifestyle. We're now accustomed to some of the local behaviors and other tidbits. Like the crazy scooter/motocycles who apparently don't have rules on the road and can drive on the middle dashed lines whenever they want and zip infront of you when they please... the red lights with green straight arrows... the crazy huge bats who fly and swoop around at night (seriously, they're HUGE), the 3-second rule where apparently the Japanese believe you have three seconds after the light turns red to keep driving through the light until you really should stop... the .03 BAH rule and if you're involved in an alcohol related accident and you weren't even at fault you could still be found guilty... and I'm enjoying being a part of the majority for once and not the minority. It's funny when Joe and I go out he can tell when the Japanese people are talking about him and say "Gaijin" (meaning foreigner)... I think it's funny because there are Americans everywhere! Anyway, just a few little things we've adjusted to... and I can honestly say I can't remember how to drive on the right side of the road anymore!!!

What would you do it you saw this stoplight? Yes this is the infamous "red light" with a green straight arrow. What does it really mean? It means green light... how odd.

Beach and Barrel Day!

A few of our friends wanted to go check out one of the local beaches and of course when we got there, it turned cloudy and breezy. It was neat to check out and I was so surprised when I walked on the sand it actually hurt my feet! It's not typical sand, it's pretty much all coral pieces.

A few of the guys were daring enough to go into the water. It was only like 69 degrees that day! Just a little chilly but tolerable. In about a month the water is going to become hot-tub temperature!

Julie hanging out, watching the boys be crazy and taking in the awesome view!

I was only brave enough to dip my feet in the water!!! Can't complain though, not too many people can say they go to the beach in the beginning of April!

Joe with his typical peace signs.

After hanging out at the beach for a bit, we decided to go to this Barrel Restaurant. Okay here's the thing, we all make up names for the restaurants because we don't know what they're really called!!! The barrel is HUGE and you'd think a touristy looking place like that wouldn't have the greatest food, but you'd be wrong! The food was amazing and we couldn't choose just one thing so between the three of us we had over 8 dishes on the table!! YUM! When we first walk in we had to take off our shoes and we got to sit at these really neat tables where you can sit cross legged or put your feet down in the area below the table. We also used a phone to call and have the waitress come to our table to take our orders. It was so awesome and I can't wait to go back!

My all time favorite drink- mango juice... with these huge spherical ice cubes!