Kate’s Quests

I’m working with students again, although this time they are a bit older and American.  I’m also helping them with a variety of subjects and my group today is taking their first exam of the year.  I think they’re a bit nervous, but the first test of the class is always more difficult since you don’t yet know how the professor tests.  Last semester was the first time I’d worked with some of these students and they took a lot of getting used to.  It’s much more difficult for me to keep the attention of these guys than the small Japanese children.  You’re trying to go over geology or english and they’re watching You Tube videos or talking about sports.  Um…guys?  You can’t just break into song and get all of their attention.  Well…I suppose I could….but that might be more awkward.  For the both of us.

In other news, I do enjoy walking and biking to work.  Since I only live 2 miles from campus, I get 4 to 8 miles a day.  Last semester I worked from 1-2pm and 6-9pm so it was a constant back and forth.  This year is similar although I’ve been riding in in the morning and driving in in the afternoon because by 1pm the weather is so hot and miserable, I’d be crazy to walk or ride.  Once fall is here and it cools down a bit…I’ll be able to get both sessions in again.  It’s also nice that there are plenty of restaurants and bars on the way so when DJ and I go out to eat (and drink) we can just walk.  No worries about drinking and driving here!

I’m getting it.  I’m stuck wearing my glasses until then which has been torture since my glasses are a prescription behind.  So all day I spend my time squinting and straining to see things.  I’ve had a headache since taking my contacts out, but it’ll all be worth it this 4th of July weekend!  I can’t even imagine being able to see.  I can’t imagine rolling over in the middle of the night and being able to see the alarm clock.  Of course, that would mean that it would have to be turned toward me and we don’t like that since it’s TOO.BRIGHT!  I don’t like light shining on me when I’m trying to sleep.  It’s bad enough that we have a streetlight shining into our bedroom and that we can’t put the shade down all the way because the cats would destroy it trying to get onto the windowsill.

But, anyway, I’m in my glasses (instead of the RGP contacts I’ve worn since I was 13) so that my eyes can go back to their normal shape.  Occording to the doc. RGP’s work by changing the shape of the cornea so that I can see.  And after 13 years…they’re a very different shape.  My eyes shouldn’t chang after surgery since then what would be the point?  Just once in the chair for me, thank you.  But, until then…glasses it is.  Yuck.

Thank god for hotels that allow them, really.  When we arrived in Japan we had to kennel the boys together for three weeks and it was horrible.  They were in a tiny box and got hardly any exercise.  I pretty much cried every day that we were seperated.  But here we get to keep them in the room with us.  I really really enjoy that, but it is somwhat like a giant kennel, just with DJ and I inside as well.  No real exercise and the type of place that allows us to keep pets…is a little less than a three star place.  But I’m not complaining!  So what if the sheets give us rug burn?  So what if our kitchenette is less than sterile?  I get to be with my family and I’m happy.

Sorry my posting has been so spotty lately.  We’ve just moved overseas!  We are now back stateside in North Carolina and are looking for a place to live.  Living in a hotel definitely has it’s drawbacks, but I should be used to it by now.  I’ll try to keep this updated as I settle in.  I will say though….hello reverse culture shock!  You always think that culture shock will be bad, but I always find reverse culture shock to be much worse.  Welcome home!

I’m taking care of a friends house while she’s deployed.  I had been over to the house right after she left and all was well.  About three weeks later I stopped by again to see how every thing was and I noticed that the power was out.  It was the dead of summer so I suppose it was more than just “noticed.”  It was more like, OMG.  IT.IS.FREAKING.HOT.IN.HERE.   So, after much searching I found both circuit breakers.  One is in the bathroom above the door (hard to find!) and the other is outside on the garage.  Flipping them got the desired result and the power (and more importantly – the AC) came humming back on.  I hadn’t thought much about it because she had been so proud of cleaning out the refrigerator (since the last deployment she hadn’t and everything went bad).  But, then I remembered.  The FREEZER!

First I drove back to my house and prepared myself with bags and gloves and then headed back to face it.  I thought about stopping at a convenience store and picking up a face mask and why I didn’t, I don’t know.  It was horrible.  It literally looked like a maggot bomb had exploded inside.  Chicken, fish, fruit, vegetables and unidentified organic matter was everywhere.  The smell was…that bad.  I actually had to unscrew and take out the panel at the back of the freezer to get all of the maggots.  It took me five hours of cleaning to get it done.  Holy God.

So, if you ever leave your house for more than two months,  don’t leave anything in the fridge/freezer.  AT ALL.  Please.

This house should be in the middle of another stressful international move.  Instead we are waiting around for the military to get its act together.  Here’s the deal….there are three actors playing a part in this, (we’re the fourth and powerless actor) my husband’s current job (in Japan), the future job (in NC) and Bupers (basically the HR department).  We have orders to go to North Carolina in November, however, the current job says that we cannot go until Bupers has someone to relieve us.  And Bupers has known about our impending move for two years.  Someone dropped the ball and we’re stuck.  The people in North Carolina say that if we don’t get there by December we can’t come at all…the current job says we’re not leaving until we have a replacement and Bupers thinks they might have someone to relieve us in February.  Oh great.  We’re doing as much as we can to try to speed up the process, but who knows.  Everything is up in the air.  Don’t you just love bureacracies?

In case your nipples don’t stand out on their own….you can buy them!

Mmmm….yummy.  Not sherbet, mind you, but Sherbic.  How is that different?  You have to buy to find out.

Can you had nallow energy?  Well…can you?

DJ and I took a trip to Hong Kong for our anniversary.  It was his third time there and my first so it was his job to show me the sights.  Whenever DJ and I take a trip together, I usually end up exhausted since we walk everywhere and all day long.  And this trip was no exception.  We arrived in Hong Kong Friday night around 9pm and immediately went out in the stifling heat to walk around.  After a long day of travel, I was more than willing to get a drink at the bar in the hotel and go to sleep, but no. After a couple of hours of circling blocks and drinking juice (freshly squeezed!) we returned to the hotel and had a pizza delivered.  I could barely remember what that felt like (to have food delivered to your door), but there it was.

The lobby of our hotel.  And you can see us on the escalator.

The next morning we awoke to this sight.  I was a little saddened to see that we were facing the mainland side (no harbor view for us), but that was ok.  We stayed in Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui – or TST for short) and it was very convenient.  Easy access to everything.

And after a quick shower, we headed out into it again.  We strolled down the Avenue of Stars (a boardwalk filled with the stars of Kung Fu fame) and took the train to The Peak.  It’s a mall/outlook on top of the city.  You have to take a trolley to the top (or hike – yea right).

We then took the train to Wanchai.  We searched for a Thai place that DJ had been to before for a couple of hours and once we finally made it there, we had the best Thai I’ve ever had.

After our lunch we got a glass of wine at the wine bar across the street and headed back to the hotel.  After showering and changing we went to dinner.  To get to dinner we had to take the escaltor.  It went up and up and up and then up some more.

Dinner was at an Argentinian place he had also been to previously.  He’d only been in the winter and it should have stayed that way.  The place was tiny, crowded and the AC didn’t do a thing to cool it down.  I was sitting there in my chair and feeling very sick as the sweat ran down my legs (I was wearing a skirt).  I’m sure the food and wine was good, but I was totally unable to enjoy it.  Sorry honey.

The next day was better after taking the bus to Stanley.  Stanley is an area at the south end of the island with many shops and stalls to go shopping in.  We merely window shopped, I didn’t buy anything there.  I did buy a new phone in Hong Kong though.  I can’t really enjoy it fully in Japan, but once we go back stateside, It’ll be awesome.  It’s an HP Ipaq 612 Business Messanger.  I had an HP Ipaq previously and loved it, so this was a no brainer.  You can only find this version in Asia though.

This is the time that DJ got ahold of the camera and took many many pictures of me.  The more unflattering the better.  Pictures of beads of sweat rolling down my face, pictures of me grimacing or talking.  Pictures of me sticking out my tongue or rolling my eyes.  Lots of fun.

I tried getting him back, but all I got was this.

I tried.