Wendy Has Arrived!

Wendy's first steps at the Okinawa airport.

Wendy arrived safely on Thursday night after her long, tiring flight. She arrived 45 minutes late, so we didn't get home from the airport and in bed until after midnight (and had to wake up at 6 am for work). We were both very tried but excited to see one another! Wendy did go to school with me on Friday but took a nap a few times while my class was working quietly.

Friday night, Rocky took us to the restaurant that one of the kindergartner's parents operate out of their home. They serve authentic Japanese food, so it was a perfect first Japanese meal for Wendy. I had a chicken salad, Wendy had fried fish and Rocky had vegetable stir fry. We all shared and every bite was delicious!

Here is a picture of the restaurant/house:

I asked Rocky if anyone could open up a restaurant in their home, or if there were regulations. He explained that an inspector comes to check on the restaurant and if it meets specific criteria, the owners are given a business license. They don't come and check on the restaurant periodically which I thought was weird, but at least there is some sort of standard.

Here is Wendy and I at the end of our meal=ready to sleep! The green leaf is the restaurants menu.

We were home and in bed by 8:30 for a much needed full nights sleep.

Saturday, Rocky, Wendy and I went up north to the Pineapple Factory, Butterfly Garden, the Okinawan Glass Factory and the northern beaches. Although it was very humid, we were thankful that the sun was out and that there were no clouds in the sky. I will update the blog with those pictures within the next few days. Just wanted to give a short update to let you know Wendy made it safely and that we are enjoying our time together =)

Today is Wendy's birthday so I'm taking her to what I've been told is the best seafood restaurant in Okinawa, "Sam's By the Sea." It's also known as the most romantic restaurant in Okinawa and I haven't been there so Wendy and I will enjoy it together.

My students now have less than 3 weeks of school remaining and I only have 20 days left in Okinawa. It doesn't seem real! Hope your all enjoying the nice SoCal weather I've been hearing about!

XOXO

Kristen

Spirit Week!

Last week was spirit week at school, each day students and teachers dressed in the theme of the day. It was fun getting dressed up and seeing students in non uniform clothing.

We began the week with twin day. Sarah and I both wore green dresses and black tights. Sorry, we didn't get a picture that day.

The following day was Hawaiian Day. I found a pink grass skirt at the 100 yen store. The kids all looked so cute in their island attire!

The next day was Crazy Day. The theme this day was crazy hair and socks. We told our students to just be as crazy as possible. Interesting to see their view of "crazy".

Jessica and I accidently dressed similar on crazy day. I guess our view of "crazy" is similar. we came out of our rooms and laughed at how much our outfits looked alike!

My students loved my "sock-shoes" they were a bit confused as to why my socks looked like shoes. Haha.

My class on crazy day, some interesting choices!

A few kids thought I dressed a little too crazy =)

Our last day of the week was Character Day, I was Pippi Longstocking. I cut hangers and braided my hair around the wires and spray painted it a dark pink. One of my students moms gave me the pink hairspray, she told me where to buy hairspray in red but when I went to the store they said they didn't have it. I also bought knee high, striped socks which you can't see in the picture. My hair was a little too thick for the wires to hold it up all the way.

It was an exciting week that helped making learning and teaching a bit more fun. The kids were sad to be back in their uniforms on Monday.

Friday night was the spring concert at a nearby church. The students practiced very hard the past few weeks to prepare for the concert. We met at the church at 5 pm and had to wait for the preschool and kindergartners to perform and complete their concert. 1st-6th grade waited in the multipurpose room at the church. Each class waited with their teacher, we didn't end up going on stage until 7:50 pm! It was a long wait, we had our students play games and take naps if they wanted to. I was proud of the way my students played together and sat nicely, couldn't say the same for the other classes (and we were the youngest ones in the room!).

Here are my students entertaining themselves pre-concert.

A few actually chose to take naps. So cute =)

I tried to ease the tension and calm the nerves of my students who were VERY anxious. I sat on the floor and played a few games with them, had them take a few deep breaths and relax.

Class picture right before show time!

Rocky took a lot of great pictures that I will post as soon as I get them from him. The show went well, they all looked very cute and did a great job! Here is one of my blurry pictures of grades 1-6 on the stage (I was sitting in the way back because I had to walk the students to the stage).

I have to mention (once again) that the parents let their little kids run around during the entire show. There were kids running near the front of the stage, up and down the aisles and in and out of the church doors. Mr. Elofson was sitting in his seat, grabbing kids as they ran by. He was getting very annoyed. Today in our morning devotions, he mentioned that parents need to watch their kids during these events. I told him it's like that at every event we have here!

After the concert Rocky and I met Lori and her family at Yogurtland. Rocky had never had frozen yogurt. He liked it but didn't like how expensive it was. He said he would stick to ice cream. I told him that eating healthy is expensive but worth it =)

Here are two videos I took during the concert:

I didn't get home until after 11 pm Friday night. It was a long day. I slept in Saturday, did some cleaning, laundry and a lot of relaxing. I didn't leave the apartment once on Saturday, which was my goal. Sunday, Tamara (the lady that observed my class at the beginning of the year) signed me on base and into the commissary. I bought a large quantity of groceries, which I hope will hold me over for the next 4 weeks. Half of what I bought consisted of fruits and veggies, which I couldn't resist when I saw how fresh they were and how cheap the prices were (compared to off base anyway).

Today is Monday and I have less than 4 weeks left on Okinawa. It's officially rainy season here and it POURED the entire weekend! My hair, clothes, everything got soaked when bringing my groceries up to my apartment. It stopped raining today and the weather forecast calls for clear skies the next 3 days (we will see if that holds true). Luckily, it hasn't been too humid but it's getting there. I was so thankful we had three nice days last week so I was still able to exercise outdoors.

My news of the week: My good friend Wendy is coming to visit me THIS WEEK! She had been wanting to visit but was waiting to pass her physician assistant board exam. She passed the exam last Thursday and booked a flight on Saturday! She will arrive to Okinawa Thursday evening 5/20 and stay for 10 nights, leaving Sunday 5/30. It's a great surprise and I'm very excited about spending time with her. Time really is flying by and I'm sure it will go even faster once Wendy arrives. I will keep you posted on what Wendy and I are up to. In the meantime, see you in less than 4 weeks!

XOXO

Kristen

Pearl Harbor

Final Hawaii posting! It's only taken 2 1/2 weeks to complete...not too much else going on here though so it gives me something to blog about.

We scheduled a Pearl Harbor tour the day before we left Hawaii. Unfortunately the night before the tour, mom was up the whole night throwing up. In the morning she didn't feel much better so she decided to stay in the room and rest.

I met a nice couple from Florida in my hotel lobby while we were waiting for the bus to arrive. We made a few stops at other hotels which took a while because the driver didn't seem to know where he was going. We then got on a larger bus with a new driver who said our first bus driver was new and very, very slow.

Our bus driver was very detailed and knowledgeable. He told us that he is entering the seminary soon seemed to know a lot about the Catholic churches and history of Hawaii.

Our first stop was Hawaii capital building. The statue in front of city hall is of Father Damien is considered a hero of Hawaii for administering the Catholic faith through caring for people with leprosy. He built homes, churches, coffins and arranged for medical service for people with leprosy in Hawaii. Father Damien later contracted the disease and died. Having a religious statue in from of the capital building was and is a huge controversy,

Our next stop was city hall. The statue in front of city hall is King Kamehameha who is famous for unifying the Hawaiian islands under one rule in the late 1700's.

Next, we arrived at Punchbowl Memorial, a burial place for those who perished during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Beautiful, bright flowers displayed at the entryway of the memorial.

We were not able to get out of the bus but drove through the memorial grounds. The memorial was built into Pu'owaina crater which is means Hill of Sacrifice.

The memorial grave sites total more than 33,000 including soldiers, their families and casualties.

This detailed Lady Columbia statue overlooks the memorial grounds. Lady Columbia is a symbol of despairing mothers of those who perished at Pearl Harbor. The phrase "The Solemn Pride That Must Be Yours To Have Laid So Costly a Sacrifice Upon the Altar of Freedom" is carved along the bottom of the statue. It was a very sobering and touching place to visit.

Our final stop was the visiting Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial, where 1,177 crewmen lost their lives. The memorial had been closed for two weeks for construction and opened up Friday, the day before we left Hawaii. The tickets we got were the first tickets since re-opening, we were told that because of such a large crowd, we were lucky to get tickets (good thing we booked ahead of time).

This memorial structure commemorates all military killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States flag on the memorial flies from a flagpole, which is attached to the severed mainmast of the sunken battleship Arizona.

Contemplation Circle is the area you wait in before boarding the ship that takes you to the memorial site.

After a 3 minute boat ride, we arrived to the memorial, a 184-foot long structure that spans the mid-portion of the sunken battleship Arizona. Another sobering environment.

The first section is an entry and assembly room.

The next section is an observation area.

The last section is the shrine room, where the names of those killed on the Arizona are engraved on a marble wall.

In the observation section, this map of the Arizona is displayed. It shows what the ship looked like before it sunk and the remaining remnants of the ship today.

Oil leaks are still clearly visible on the surface of the water. The Arizona still leaks about a quart of oil into the harbor each day.

After 15 minutes browsing the memorial, I took a boat ride back to the museum area.

Before watching a short video on the attack on Pearl Harbor, I walked around the USS Bowfin which is permanently home ported at Pearl Harbor.

I thought this picture was neat because it shows the battleships that were destroyed during the Pearl Harbor attack; Nevada, Tennessee, Arizona, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

Original USS Arizona Anchor

This concludes my Pearl Harbor visit and completes my trip to Hawaii. My flight from Hawaii to Tokyo went well, had an aisle seat with an empty seat next to me! I had to recheck my luggage during my layover in Tokyo but only had two hours, just enough time to grab a fruit platter and board myl flight to Okinawa. Now, my next trip to the airport will be when I depart Okinawa permanently. I've spent a lot of time at different airports this past year!

Last week was a long week with testing everyday. The school doesn't get the testing results until September so I won't get to see how my students performed. The talent show went well on Friday night. We had students playing the drums, dancing, playing the piano and singing. Last Saturday Kathi signed me on base to go shopping at the commissary. I was able to get a decent amount of food, most of which should last me until I leave here next month. After shopping, I went with Kathi to watch her 10 year old daughter's basketball game on base. It was a close game, I really enjoyed watching!

This has been a festive week at school, dressing up in different themes each day for spirit week. Pictures to come after the week is completed tomorrow. Tomorrow is Friday and we will be down to less than 5 weeks in the school year. Not much planned for the weekend other than going on base for church. The weather is back to being humid and it will probably stay this way. I've still been enjoying my daily workouts, walking up and down the hills and stairs near my apartment, might have to adjust according to this humidity.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

XOXO

Kristen