After a year of talking about it and ALL the preparations leading up to it we finally made it to Okinawa! Our days of traveling were exhausting. Matt, Chile, and I had to fly back down to Savannah because they were not able to change our flights out of Minneapolis. We flew from Savannah to Chicago to San Fransisco, to Osaka Kansai, to the international airport in Okinawa. That would normally not be too enjoyable, but doable for moving half way across the world. Well, those of you who first of all know how much I worry that things will work out and second of all LOVE my dog, can imagine what this 48 hour period of time was like HOPING that Chile made all of our connections.
Unlike our preparations leading up to our move, the flights went very smoothly and Chile made all our connections including the 30 minute connection in Chicago where Matt and I even had to hurry to our gate. My one complaint (BIG complaint) is that in the 21 hour period where I did not have any interaction with my dog, he did not receive water one time! We were told that if we attached food and water to his kennel, as well as a food and water dish, they would give it to him throughout the trip. Well, they did give him his water, they just threw the entire water bottle into his kennel as though he would be able to open it and drink it. I was sooooooo mad. I spent so much time on the phone with this airline confirming how he would be cared for. Ugh!
Anyways...we got here at 9:00pm and Matt's sponsor, Nick, picked us up from the airport. He drove us to his house where we dropped Chile off for the night before being checked into quarantine and Karing Kennels (his home for a couple weeks :( ) the next day. He then drove us to our hotel on base (our home for the next couple weeks) for us to settle in and finally SLEEP!
Nick's wife, Rebecca, picked us up the next morning to take us to the vet and Karing Kennels to get Chile all checked in. I am so sad he can't stay in our hotel with us, but I keep telling myself that this is a one time thing and once we get a place he will be in Japan with us for good! We didn't think that we would be able to bring him until November and had plans to leave him with Brooke and Andy until then, sorry guys! :) But we are sooo happy he is here.
For the rest of the afternoon Rebecca drove us around the bases and parts of the island. We drove through a lemon lot to see the types of cars that are for sale and we also got our cell phones. Matt and I are the proud owners of little black berry type things. I never thought I would say that! :) AAANNNNDDDD, Matt sent his very first text yesterday! It said "this is my first text." Very exciting. None of you will be able to call us on it though, but we will get another phone line where we can talk easily.
Later in the day, we met up with Nate and Laura (our friends from SC) and they drove us around since they already got their cars, took us to see their VERY nice apartment, and took us out to dinner, first night using chopsticks! It was so nice to actually be doing fun things and not stressing about traveling! I was totally right, as soon as all the flights were over, I was FINE with being in Japan.
Everyone keeps asking me what Okinawa is like. It is very hot and muggy...we can see the ocean from almost wherever we have been so far...there are palm trees...all the buildings are super close together and there are a lot of them...all buildings are made to withstand the typhoons...it is beautiful here. I will put up pictures as soon as we have our computers and I will add more later as we get to explore the island more.
We are learning a lot of things as we go along. Things like...it is hard to get a teaching job on base, it is hard to find a job teaching English (my back up plan), and most jobs only pay $10 an hour. Not what I was expecting a year after getting my Master's! We also found out Matt will be taking the Green Line to work, since it takes an hour to drive to his base and costs $7 per day on the express way. We learned that we must only swim in certain parts on the beach or you WILL get stung by a jelly fish and I have seen at least three people walking around with sun umbrellas...so I'm definitely getting one of those! We will be taking our drivers test on Tuesday and will be getting two cars within the next couple days. I'm sooo nervous to drive on the other side of the road. We are also looking for a place to live. We are leaning more towards off base because the apartments are super nice, we are close to base still, and we would live on the beach with a perfect little walking path to walk Chile. Everyone that we run into, including the lady selling us our cell phones, has told us to get the experience off base while we can (meaning while we don't have kids)! We will see what happens!
Everyone has been soooo helpful. I don't know what we would do without Matt's sponsor and his wife. They are very informative and drive us wherever we need to go. We have a very busy schedule starting Monday with all our meetings and check-in appointments. Hopefully by the end of next week I will have good news about where we are living!
We hope everyone is well and we miss you all!
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