I Am A Terrible Blogger.

Three things:

1.) Dude, work has been stressful the last few weeks.  Everyday, I come up with a new reason to join the ranks of the Okinawa Unemployed Spouses Club.

2.) Birthday Lunch Pictures

It was really windy.  Also, pardon the excessive boob-age.

Oh, Akira.  My Japanese twin.

The other third of the ARA trinity was there, but she refuses to be placed on the internet.

3.) My family is coming to visit me!!!!  Yayayayayay!  And I think I have sprayed and wiped my entire house with Windex Multi-Purpose Cleaner.  WOOO!  Cleanishness!!

Things for a Wonderful Day.

-That first squeeze of a C.O. Bigelow Mentha Lip Shine.
-Sunday brunch of sweet brunchy things.
-Three cups of coffee.
-Finishing up a sewing project.
-Finding that gorgeous, wonderful gray Gap sweater you thought you had lost on your way home from the States after only wearing it twice.
-Snuggling with your dogger.
-Sipping hot tea in a cold air conditioned house after walking across the street in pouring rain.

All things I have experienced today.  I am particularly happy about the gray sweater situation.  xoxo.

V is for Vacations.

Since we've been married before we got married, Matt and I have taken quite a few awesome vacations. Shall we happily remember them?

December of 2004, I left the U.S. for the first time to visit Matt at his University in Beijing. It was a pretty amazing trip, and oh yeah, that was when this happened --->

On our honeymoon to New York City, when after wondering aimlessly down Broadway we stumbled upon The Ed Sullivan Theatre, home to the King of Late Night (always and forever in my heart, at least) and got tickets to see his show LIVE.  Our amazingness was expounded (and my heart nearly stopped beating) when Dave allowed Matt o ask him a question before the show ("Where's the best pizza in Manhattan?" and dear, dear friend Dave bought us the best pizza of our lives.  David Letterman bought us a pizza.  Best. Honeymoon. Story. Everrrrrrrrr.

<--- Us before the show.  Soooo EXCITED!!!

Then, quite sadly, the vacation life stagnated because we were dirt poor.  Oh, well, we had each other and all that jazz.  Two years into our marriage, we got our fancy little three year vacation in the form of orders to Okinawa.

So for our third anniversary/pre-deployment leave, we decided to go big and spent a week at the Amari Coral Resort in Phuket, Thailand.  We spent most of the week walking around window shopping or drinking fruity drinks at the lobby bar.  Pretty amazing, right?

It was really hot and sweaty in Thailand.  And we didn't trust any of the locals to take a picture of us and give our camera back.  That's my excuse for this terrible picture. --->

I didn't really think the Thailand vacation could be topped until  (dun, dun, DUN!) we met up in Buenos Aires.  I fell in love with South America immediately. 

Matt spent a year in Mar del Plata, Argentina his Senior year of high school and so I've been hearing about this country for the last 8 years.  While debating where to meet for Matt's mid-deployment leave, Argentina was a natural choice (even though I wanted to go to France).  We spent two weeks enjoying and exploring the huge city.  We ate more beef than I can really even comprehend.  And more good food than I've had in two years in Okinawa.  We went shopping and saw art.  Rode the subway and pet a pretty disgusting stray dog that just looked sad.  Mini-theme park!  Empanadas!  Eva Perone!!  It was such an amazing vacation and will probably go down in the books as "Best Ever."

Things I Plan to Do More Often.

-Read my Bible
-Go to church
-Think happy thoughts
-Eat healthy food/make more healthful decisions
-Hang out with people
-Update my blog

Vacation!

Wow. Vacation is awesome. Matt and I just got back got back a week or so ago from a lovely week in Phuket, Thailand.

We left super early Saturday morning and arrive at the Okinawa Airport before it even opened. That's so Okinawa. Seriously, what other international airport doesn't open its doors until 6 am? We flew from our home-island to mainland ("Fantatic Fukuoka") to Bangkok to Phuket. Tiny layovers, just enough time to grab our bags and find our seats (when we knew we needed to grab our bags - they almost stayed in Fukuoka... oops!).

When we got to Phuket, we hired a cab to take us to our hotel... Oh.my.goodness. Driving in Phuket is NOT like driving in Okinawa. Drivers go twice as fast. Every other vehicle was a motorcycle. And pick up trucks! I hadn't realized that there really aren't any in Oki until I saw so many of them in Phuket. We also saw a bevy of 7-11's and quite a few Family Marts. I love you, Family Mart!

We stayed at Amari Coral Beach Resort, just south of the Patong Beach city limits. The view from our room was spectacular and the resort was just a short walk to the shopping and eating available in Patong. The room was small, but had a nice little balcony that we spent a lot of time on. Here is our breath-taking view:


We used a lot of our time to just relax and enjoy our time together. We did a ton of shopping (although a minimal amount of buying). We ate such amazing food I can hardly believe it. One night we took cooking lessons at the hotel - invite me over and I'll make you some Pad Thai or Red Chicken Curry. We even ate at Molly Malone's Irish Pub TWICE. After my amazing pastie the first time, Matt had to go again to have his own pastie. He gets food envy pretty easily.

Thai people are very good at sales. Or at least wearing you down so you eventually buy something. As we walked through Patong, we were be inundated with calls for "Taxi? Taxi?" "Tuk-Tuk?" "DVDs?" Several reached out to shake Matt's hand which is just shady. There were tons and tons of illegal/bootleg/knock-off products. Shoes, clothes, CDs, and a shocking amount of faux-Tiffany's jewelry. I'll admit, I was tempted. But my annoyance at the Thai sales tactics overshadowed my need for some Tiffany's Wannabes. Most places I didn't even want to look.

We visited a store that called itself "The World's Biggest Jewelry Store." The Thai selling technique was in full effect here and I just felt uncomfortable the whole time. I knew we wouldn't be buying anything too expensive and I didn't want to waste the lady's time. I got a small sapphire ring after being forced to try on most of the jewelry in the sterling silver collection. It is quite lovely and I am sure I will get a lot of use out of it.

I did a lot of poolside reading while Matt spent hours swimming to his hearts content. I read Freakonomics and got a start on The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Matt read one of Gladwell's other book, Outliers, between the hotel and Japan Immigration. He really enjoyed it. We actually bought a lot of books and I snagged a copy of The Prisoner of Azkaban - WITH THE BRITISH COVER! Yeah, I rock.

We also spent a lot of time in the hotel lobby, looking out over the ocean drinking fruity drinks. Every morning we ate the continental breakfast that was AMAZING. Great foods from all over the world... We gorged ourselves there daily.

What else, what else? I can't think of anything... I'll answer and questions I can... Maybe I'll post more later... I have been a terrible blogger lately. Anyway, I will leave you with this:

Dinner.

Two nights ago, I decided to try something new and bought my dinner at the Family Mart. You can't go far in Okinawa without seeing a Family Mart, which, like the Salvation Army Family Store, is not a place you go to purchase loved ones (haha). Family Mart is like a brighter, cleaner, better 7-11. The employees are more polite and the only thing really lacking from a Family Mart is a Slurpee Machine.
So, after work yesterday, I stopped by the closest Family Mart and picked up some new and exciting things to try. Egg salad sandwich (a daring choice, I know), a cold latte, and what seemed to be the sushi incarnation of taco rice.


Looks yummy, right? Mt. Rainier is the coffee ScarJo Japanders for, so it was practically like I had dinner with Scarlett Johansson.


This is the packaging on my egg salad sandwich. Delicious and homemade?? Sounds great! The Japanese wouldn't lie to me, would they?


Turns out, they would. It was like boiled egg and mayo and maybe a tiny hint of mustard. But, they did cut of the crust for me, so major points there.
The Taco rice sushi was actually really good - I didn't get a picture of it because I gobbled it down so fast... four pieces with a half of a hard boiled egg, a fried piece of ?pork?, and a lovely fried potato mush thing. I would definitely bust out the faux sushi again. Probably next week.
So, this meal was good... if you forget the egg salad sandwich, which I pretty much already have. And all for under 7 bucks. 663 yen to be exact.
Family Mart, you may become my new kitchen.

I is for Ice Cream.

Well, I was planning on using this ninth installment of the Andrea Alphabet to celebrate one of my favorite Is, Ice Cream, even before my ice cream experience this weekend. Let me tell you about that first.

So Matt always teases me that I have terrible taste in ice cream. That the flavors he chooses are always superior and that my tastebuds are sub-par. It was my choice of Dreyer's Chocolate Chip Mint Brownie that I knew would make him eat his words. When Matt got home on Friday, he saw my choice and said, "Eww, gross. That looks disgusting." Whatever. I told him I hadn't tried it yet and didn't know.

So, after work on Saturday, when I went to grab a bite and about a quarter of the ice cream was gone, I felt vindicated. I took my bite and when out to Matt (who was, of course, at the grill) and said "Yeah, looks like you thought that ice cream was reeallllly terrible."

To which he told me, "I only had one bite."

Haha, thats one big bite.

"No, really, I thought you ate it all."

No I haven't had any. joker... Haha...

Hahaha.... ha... ha?

GROSS. I bought (and ate from) an already USED carton of ice cream. If I had any other choice than the commissary I would NEVER SHOP THERE AGAIN. DISGUSTING. Yuck. Gross. Ick. Yuck.

And so I don't leave you all on a bad note about Ice Cream, I present you with my most favorite ice cream of all time (or at least for now): Magic Brownies by Ben & Jerry's. Black raspberry and sweet cream ice cream with delicious chunks of brownie. Wonderful. Heavenly. Yum.

H is for Half-Hearted Hostess.

(I hope I'm getting double and triple points on all those Hs!)

So, I always get excited when we are going to have people over. I make plans and find recipes and think about how fun it will all be.

It never goes according to plan. By the time the actual date come, I have worn myself out thinking about about everything I have to do. And I never have the right stuff. And I always end up thinking "What does it matter? Marines won't notice, anyway."

It's true. They never do. Take Easter, for example. I had a ton of food ready. My girls brought food. I was planning on feeding four hungry men, three women and a kid. There was a TON of food.

Do you know what I was left with after the guys were gone? Seventy-five percent of that food. They wouldn't even take a tupperware of leftovers. Matt said the guys were hung over. Stacee said she thought they had eaten before they got to our house. Either way, they are so not invited ever again.

To End.
You are not invited to my house if: You are hung over. You already ate. You expect something fancy. You expect my glasses to match. You expect anything I own to match. You do not want sweets or baked goods. You do not want to get things for yourself.

You are invited to my house if: You enjoy Jambalaya. You like to try new sweets. You love fresh bread (I'm working on this one). You like to talk about celebrities. You care more about the people you're with than what you are doing. You love leftovers.

F is for Foreigner (not the band).

I, like I'm assuming most of you, had always lived in the U.S. And I'd always loved it. Everything was so easy. I could read signs. I could order without hand gestures. I could eat with a fork at a restaurant. I had no idea how easy it was.

Here in Japan, everything seems just a little bit more complicated. Not that I'm complaining... (Okay, maybe I'm complaining a little bit). Awkward transactions at the store are now awkward, not because I say silly, awkward things, but because I don't know how to say anything. Getting my car fixed (which I have had to do several times already) is not scary because I don't know anything about cars, but because I don't know what the mechanic is telling me about my car. Ordering fast food isn't embarrassing because I'm a little piggy, it's embarrassing because all I can say is "Beeguh Mac, arigato gozimas."

It's hard being a foreigner, harder than I thought it would be. I've been trying to learn a little more Japanese, trying to branch out a little bit, and trying to blend in. Good luck, right?