Let's blog!!! (Scroll down past the white space)

Hey all...I think we should try this again! Here is what I have been up to for the past few days (I've been keeping a journal like everyone said, so it's a bit boring, but it'll satisfy your curiosity). Forgive the errors, please. I can't think straight anymore today. Also, I posted some pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/93529188@N00/ if you want to check them out.

August 6, 2005

Japan is awesome! I really like it! The plane ride over was extremely long! I did manage to sleep for a few hours and then on an off, but all of the stuff I brought to do on the plane was completely useless because I was too tired to do much of anything but stare at the little TV attached to my seat. When we got to Narita Airport on Saturday afternoon we waited about 15 minutes to get our passports stamped (woohoo, my first stamp!) and went downstairs to get our luggage. We threw it on a cart and walked past a guard who had a big table. He looked at our passports and our bags as we walked by him. I couldn’t believe that was all! I thought somebody would go through our bags at some point – it would have taken forever since we had two HUGE suitcases, one medium sized suitcase, one small suitcase, two duffel bags, and a backpack.

As we walked out of customs, we were greeted by Mike Adair. Evelyn Calhoun had also just arrived. After Mike found us and introduced us to Evelyn, he went to wait for Duke and Debra Butler-Alexander. Evelyn has been teaching in DODDS for 18 years over in Germany. She is really nice and even though she is just as confused about Japan as I am, she has been a great help since she knows how the system works. We commiserated in the airport about not having any keys and what a very strange feeling that is as an adult. Duke and Debra arrived and I found out that they are new to DODDS also. We loaded up the luggage and ran out of room for Duke and Debra, so they took the bus to base.

While driving the hour and a half from the airport, I was way too tired to notice, or care, about what was passing by the window (although I vaguely remember seeing Tokyo Disney and Space Mountain). My first impression was that Tokyo was like pretty much any other big city, Yokosuka was very pretty, and the base was very ugly! We got to the Navy Lodge at about 6:00 pm (excuse me that’s 18:00 hours), dumped our stuff in the room, and almost fell asleep. We hadn’t had any real food for a long time though so we forced ourselves to get up and go eat. Josh kept falling asleep at the table and they took forever. When we finally finished, we stopped at a little convenience store for cereal and milk, came back to the room, and crashed. We were so exhausted that we slept right through our first earthquake! We were actually a little disappointed about that the next morning when everyone was talking about it and we had to admit that neither one of us felt anything at all.


August 7, 2005

On Sunday we had the day to ourselves. We woke up, ate cereal, and decided to explore the base on the bus. While sitting at the bus stop we noticed a sign saying that bus service was cancelled due to the Friendship Day activities. Bummed out, we came back in to figure out how to buy computer time so we could email everyone and let them know we had arrived safely. While we were there, Evelyn came down. When we finished with the computer, we decided to explore the base on foot. The Friendship Day activities were just beginning. Basically it is a day when the Japanese are invited to visit the base and see certain parts of it. They could tour the ships and there were bands, a car show, and lots of other activities. We were going to tour the ship, but the line was way too long. Instead, we ended up in the Fleet Gym which is a beautiful facility. It has all of the latest workout equipment, aerobics rooms, a food court, two amazing massage chairs, a travel office, and many more nooks and crannies full of cool places. When we were finished checking that out, we followed the crowds toward the car show and food booths. We grabbed some lunch and wandered around for a while before deciding we were going to go back to the room and cool off. When we finally got back and laid down for a while, we realized that if we stayed there we would fall asleep, but that it was a beautiful day for the pool. Evelyn decided to join us so we headed over that way. We swam for a couple of hours, went down the water slide, and wondered how many of the kids there were going to be our students. After basking in our anonymity we went for dinner at Subway and walked home. On the way, we found the library and free internet, and then it was back home for bed – at about 19:00. Mom and Dad called at about 22:30 and neither of us was going to answer the phone, but I guess Josh couldn’t stand it because he picked it up and talked to them for a few minutes. The next morning he e-mailed them and said they shouldn’t call us so late! LOL

August 8, 2005

Monday morning Josh and I met with the other new teachers for breakfast. The meter-greeter came and so did a few other teachers. One brought his 14-year-old son and Josh, of course, had a new friend. As the adults got ready to go to the housing briefing, Josh said that he was going to go play basketball with the other boy. We agreed to meet back at the room in the afternoon and I left for the briefing. The housing people supposedly speak English but use so many acronyms that I could only understand about half of what they were talking about. The entire process is pretty confusing, but one of the other teachers has been here for a couple of weeks and she has it all figured out. Once our heads were thoroughly spinning, they dismissed us and Mike took us over to the school to do some paperwork.

We met Jan, the resident DODDS guru, and she told us what to do. We spent about an hour writing the exact same information on about 50 different forms and then decided we needed a break. Mike took us on a tour of the school and we got to see a typical Science classroom. All of the classrooms are big, and they have tons of cabinets. Apparently no one has ever come close to filling them up. There is an In-Focus machine, TV, DVD player, and three computers in each classroom. Instead of the double chalkboards, like I used to have at SRCS, the front of the room has three sliding whiteboards (with more shelves behind them). The Science classrooms all have a huge supply closet, tons of Science equipment, and tables with stools (not sure how I feel about the stools – we’ll have to see how that goes). After seeing the classrooms, we were all very excited. Then Mike showed us the supply room! Oh my goodness!!! There are rows and rows of shelves full of school supplies that we are allowed to take whenever we want, as long as we don’t hoard the stuff in our classrooms. Wow!

We went back to work on more forms and Mike explained how to use our Living Quarters Allowance (LQA) wisely. I guess if you do it right this year, you can get some extra money back in the future. I was blown away when I found out that my LQA is $37,700 per year! I’ll be able to get a really nice house with that and I am so excited!!! After we had a better understanding of how that all works, we went to lunch at the Officer’s Club. Apparently all DODDS teachers have a rank equivalent to a military officer, so we can take advantage of perks offered to them too. Next, we went over to get a bank account at the Navy Credit Union and then back to school for more paperwork. When I had done as much of that as I could stand, I walked over to the housing office to look through the housing binders and set up a few appointments. There are 27 binders, but only one of them has houses that allow pets! Of those, about half only allow small pets or outdoor pets. That was a bid discouraging, but I set up two appointments for Wednesday and Thursday.

Finally it was time for dinner and Josh and I met up with Victoria, a teacher from Germany who arrived here about 10 days before us. She has looked at more than 20 houses and said she would help Evelyn, Molly, and I figure out where to look and which agents are best. She was very helpful and even told us about a great house that she would set up an appointment for all of us to go see. Since I hadn’t managed to stay awake past 19:30, I was impressed to be out until about 20:30 before going to the room to crash.


August 9, 2005

On Tuesday we met for breakfast before our Area Orientation Briefing. The intent of the AOB seems to have been to scare us to death about terrorism and crime and thugs in the Navy. A lot of it didn’t apply because it was directed at the members of the military. The rest of it didn’t seem to be in English because they were using all of the acronyms. The teachers all sat together asking each other what the acronym meant and taking turns shrugging our shoulders. Apparently the Navy officer in front of us had enough of that and finally started whispering the meanings over his shoulder. Then things were much clearer. We did lose it, however, when they began talking about the OHA and the MIHA, which they sound out rather than saying each letter separately. Anyway, that whole thing was pretty useless and extremely boring. We were very glad when it was over. During lunch we tried to go to the school to get our classroom keys so that we could see our own rooms. They told us to find Satosan, the supply guy. Since he was sleeping, we tiptoed away and decided not to start off on the wrong foot with such an important staff member.

After the meeting, I went back to the room to meet up with Josh who had been assigned some Science and Civics. He hadn’t done anything – shocking, I know! I told him that if he finished the Science assignment before 18:00, he could come house-hunting with me. I guess he thought I would change my mind, because he didn’t work too hard between 16:00 and 18:00 while we were both in the room. He was pretty surprised when I left him there whining about how he hadn’t been off base yet.

I met up with Evelyn, Molly, and Victoria to wait for the housing agent to pick us up. The house we were scheduled to see was one that Victoria loved, but she thought it was too small for her family. The rest of us just basically wanted to get out an see ANYTHING and realized that if Victoria had even considered it, it would be nice. It was gorgeous! When we arrived, I was excited to see that the entire yard is fenced and there is a small patch of grass. Just inside the front door, there was a tiled area where we all took off our shoes. There were cabinets right there for storing many pairs. We walked in and I fell in love with the house instantly! The dining room and kitchen have a view of the ocean – not beach like Florida, but still nice. There is a road in between the house and the water, but when the house was closed up the cars on the road couldn’t be heard. There is one tradition tatami room downstairs, complete with sliding Japanese doors (I have to duck to enter the room). Right now the tatami is covered with carpet, so I could decide later if I want to make it a more traditional Japanese room. Since there is also a living room, I think it would be cool to get some Japanese furniture in there. Upstairs there are three bedrooms – well, there are officially four, but one is about 3 feet by 5 feet! Two of the bedrooms regular small-sized rooms and the other one would fit my waterbed easily. That room also has a balcony. There is a toilet and sink upstairs, which I have learned is a luxury here in Japan, but no one has a shower upstairs.

Basically I knew immediately that I wanted to take the house, but unfortunately so did Molly. We were kind of at a loss about what to do about that, so on the way back to base we told the agent not to rent the place to anyone but Molly or myself and decided to sleep on it. I was really torn about what to do, but I felt like I couldn’t give up the house because there were so few options where pets were allowed. When I got back to the room I helped Josh with his Science and went to sleep praying about what to do about the house situation.

August 10, 2005

On Wednesday morning we met for breakfast at our regular spot – the Seaside All Hands Club (where the only edible meal is breakfast). It’s still not hard to wake up and be there by 07:00 which still aggravates Josh. I personally think it would be nice to wake up early since I have to leave for work at about 06:10, but I would probably not be too excited to keep going to be so early. After eating and planning the day, we got ready to go to get our official IDs. On the way out the door Molly pulled me aside. She said that she had thought about it and was going to keep looking for houses, so I could go ahead and take the beautiful place! J I was so happy! God is good!

After we got our IDs we were all happy to be “official.” Mike took us over to the school to finish up paperwork and get classroom keys. I found Satosan and he handed me a pile of keys. Whew…I feel like a grown-up again! And better yet, I got a key to the building!!! WOOOHOOO!!! We can come and go whenever, even weekends!!! I went upstairs to check out my new room. It’s great! The last guy hasn’t moved out yet, but I’m sure that will happen soon. I worked for a while and then had to go look at a house. (I had the appointment and figured it would be easier to go make sure I’d made a good decision than it would be to cancel the appointment). The house was small and yucky, and the agent didn’t speak a word of English, so we came right back. I picked up Josh and we went to the school to work on math. He likes to do the problems on the awesome whiteboards in the front of the room. Whatever works! He also likes to slide down the entire hallway on the rolling chairs and made me promise to race him after he finished his math work. He beat me bad, but I don’t think I’ll tell my students that!

After that, Josh went to meet some friends and I met my sponsor, Theresa, for dinner. She is very nice! She took me to see her house, which is very close and new, but not as nice as my soon-to-be house. Then we went to dinner in a tiny Japanese restaurant that served kabobs. She orders several different kinds and we shared. It was delicious! She is my kind of gal – no veggies in sight! J As we ate, she told me some more about the school and I found out that she is on my team and so is Victoria (the one who helped me find the house). Seems like a good group. Theresa told that the standards based teaching basically boils down to finishing the textbook, which I was glad to hear. I also asked if I would have to turn in lesson plans like you learn about in college and she laughed. The news just gets better and better! After dinner I was exhausted. Theresa took me back to the lodge and I went to sleep.

August 11, 2005

Thursday morning I’d decided to skip breakfast, but Josh woke me up to tell me it was time to go, so we both got up. With nothing official scheduled, Josh and I went back to the room to do schoolwork. He decided that he wanted to go to my classroom to work on the whiteboard, so we walked over there. We did the next two math lessons and he left. I did paperwork for a while and met him at the lodge in time for my 11:00 house-hunting appointment. Josh got to come (since his math was finished) and it was his first time off-base. The agent this time was very nice and very talkative. She almost spoke English. ;) She showed us a big house that was very nice, but had no view of anything. The bedrooms were all too small for the waterbed. It was just another confirmation that I had picked the right house. We went back to base to eat at Mean Gene’s – home of the Bite Me Burger! Afterwards, we rode the base bus back to the lodge and Josh got started on some Civics. I went over to officially sign up for my house and chatted with the other teachers in the housing office until Josh came over to complain about the schoolwork. He doesn’t want to do it! Go figure! I told him to bring it over and I would help him. He said he didn’t need help and left. When all of my appointments were set up I went back to the room to check on him, but he was gone. Hmmmm…whose idea was this anyway? I left to come here and finish this so that I could post or email it. Guess I’ll worry about what to do with him tomorrow!