Express Shipment

In our second week here in our new apartment, we received our so called Express Shipment. The one that were packed with things to keep in mind to be here first, most likely to be here when we arrived or moved in at least. The shipment that I had packed with all our bedding, towels etc for us to start being able to live here. Those things I had to go out and buy new anyway now, but still, it was VERY nice to have more of our things here. A TV and DVD Player for instance, something for the kids, as we were so busy with everything, and not always had time to do much with them.

There were also a lot of things that we didn't really know that we had packed, so when the movers brought things into the house, there were a few surprises!

A quick look downstairs, when they started to unload the crate. 

Not just our stuff on this truck..

Waiting for the elevator..

They first moved everything up to our floor, and then brought the boxes inside..

When they started to bring the boxes in, I got busy with my list! They shouted out numbers on the boxes, and I had to mark that it got here! There were a lot of confusion, as I had to also direct them where to go, where to put the things, and we had to go over the boxes a few times, as there were some unmarked boxes (stickers falling off?) and we had to make sure that the things inside added up with what we had missed checking off the list. If you don't get this part right here, you can not get reimbursed in case there are things missing. So it's important to keep on track here!

You always have the option that they can unpack the boxes for you, but we have actually never done that, but always had them just brought inside, and then taken care of the unpacking and unwrapping ourselves. That way, we have actually not seen that things were broken in the boxes until long after and not gotten it reported in time to get money for the things broken.

THIS time, we were smarter! We decided to let them unpack everything, and when Chris came home to check in a little later, the boxes were already getting unpacked and it was a big mess everywhere. They normally will put plates and glasses etc inside the cupboards right away, but I always send everything right into the dishwasher and dishes before putting things away. Think dirty hands packing your kitchen stuff, wrapping, back and forth with boxes into the truck/garage...then now unpacking boxes from the truck, dirty floor, and then unwrapping your things and then not wash it? No thank you! They looked a bit stunned when I asked them to just pile everything up on the counters, and that I would take care of it later!

We were lucky, nothing broken, a chip on the glass door to the microwave and a missing "foot" for the microwave, so it needs something in the corner to stand straight, but that was it in this shipment. Not bad, considering that it has traveled and been bumped around for awhile!

And the best part of letting them unpack everything - they take all the boxes and wrapping paper with them! No work for us to dispose all that in the trash and put out for bulk trash on a certain day!

To be able to cook with your own pots and pans, eat of your own plates...what a difference!

Now, we are still waiting for our Household Good Shipment to get here. We have been told that it will be here around the 20th of April, we hope, as for now it feels like we are living "in between"..We have some, but not all our things, still waiting to put things on the walls etc, as we don't have everything we want to put on the walls, and we have to see where things will fit. We also don't have the rugs, special things that we brought to make it more our home, so there are a lot of things that we wait anxiously to get here. And then, we will probably start missing our things that we have put in storage for 3 years...

Monday, March 16th

This is the day when the alarm went off at 5am..For everyone, except the little ones. After staying in the hotel with no alarm in the early morning, it was quite the change. And to have to get up that very early too, wasn't easy. Poor Cassie hadn't slept well, and was so tired. She was nervous, but still excited, it's not easy to start a new school and have no idea of who you'll meet and what the teachers and kids will be like. Chris drove her to school this first day, as he was going down to that base anyway to work and walked her into the office for additional paper work, and to hand her off to the waiting counselor. School starts at 7.15am, so it's over an hour earlier than what we were used to in Yuma, AZ.

As this is a military school, where they are very much aware of how it is being the "new kid", there are a constant coming and going on the kids here with frequent PCS throughout the year, so this is nothing new. If you are a new kid today, there will be another new kid next week and the week after that. They, unlike any public school that Cassie has gone to, were prepared!! She had a nice welcome committee waiting for her, the counselor had brought 3 other girls, also in the 7th Grade to meet up with her in the office. They don't have classes here, so there is no homeroom class, but just like in Yuma, they all have their individual schedule and go to different classes. Some schools calls it Pods, some just call it 7th Graders/8th Graders..etc.

These girls had all been in Cassie's shoes, they had all been new at some point, and knew what it's like. One girl had been there for about 2 years, one for a few months, and one was pretty new herself. Their job that day was to make sure that Cassie was comfortable, and that she wasn't alone. They had to help her with her locker, show her around, walk with her to all HER classes, pick her up and follow her schedule, sit with her at lunch, be with her, introduce her to others, and make sure that she was by no means left alone or to sit alone at some point! So great! And they took their job seriously, and helped her just like they were supposed to!

At the end of the day, one of the girls showed her where Cassie's bus were supposed to be, and her bus ID was waiting for her with the bus driver. One other girl that she had seen in school, also took the same bus, they have some classes together, sat with her and they talked their way all the way home!!

I was so anxious to get her home that afternoon, to see how her day was! I couldn't wait to hear all about it! She has had hard times starting new schools before, and especially when we came to Yuma. To know what a great bunch of friends that she was leaving behind, and what great teachers she had - it was hard to leave it all, and to start over and not knowing anybody.

To get time pass by faster, I took the kids outside to go to the playground right by our house. We had been there early morning already, walked home for lunch and then we went back outside.

Ready for the park with water bottles filled up!

Met this handsome Marine who came home to get some lunch as he was back on our base.

"Stairway to heaven..."

 

 Made it to the top - ready to go and play!

We are so happy to have these nice new playgrounds just by our house.

It was a bit of an overcast, windy but still pretty humid! 

 Practicing letters in between playing at the park. 

Instead of just naming them, I switched the game up a little bit: What letter comes before....? What letter comes after....? If they could answer correct, they could have a turn on the slide and then come back for a new challenge. Fun way of working on their school stuff instead of just sitting by a table practicing..

Soon, it was time for Cassie to come home with the bus! We ran from the playground when we saw her and we met her outside the building. The new friend A from the bus, had walked with her home, and it was so nice to see! Guess if this mommy was relieved to see this smiling face coming home from her first day of school!! I was just as happy as she was when she told me all about her first day.

 So very proud of you always - days like these if possible, even a little bit more!! 

It's not easy to walk into a new chapter - and you did it and handled it in the very best way possible!

Open minded and with excitement! Even after only a day in school - we both knew, that it will be a good ending to 7th Grade after all!

New School

While we were still in the Hotel, we made sure to enroll Cassandra in her new school. We couldn't do this before we knew for sure where we would live, as they assign schools to after where you live. If she would have gone to school on the base where we stayed in the hotel, she could have started already while there, but as the Middle Schools were not close, she had to wait until we were situated in the house and got her assigned to the bus company. 

Still, there were a few things that we had to take care of at the school, before she started. Not just registration with all that paperwork that that part requires, but also for her to choose her electives and to see what her subjects would be. Here in the Department of Defense Schools on base, they don't have exactly the same curriculum as they have in the public schools in the States, but luckily, these schools have a very good reputation, and have for the most part very good teachers and the standard is high.

The Middle School that Cassandra was assigned to, is located on Kadena Airforce Base, and we were here a very cold and windy day in March. Cassie was excited to check out the school, but we didn't really get a tour, but only meet with the counselor and the office people at this point. There were like I mentioned, a lot of papers, but also the fun part of picking out her electives. She was able to choose  3 electives and there were a lot to choose from. As it wasn't sure that she could get in on her fist options so late in the year, she had to choose a lot of them, writing 1-6 where 1 was the first choice etc..

She was lucky to find out on her first day in school the week that she got all top three of her electives. 1. Japanese Culture, 2. AVID and 3. Art.

After signing her up for everything, we went to get her into the lunch program, and later at night, I emailed the bus company with a picture so that they could have her Bus ID ready and printed on her first day, which they had!

Cassie felt happy, but a bit nervous after checking out her school, and couldn't wait for the Monday March 16th, to come to get started!

 

Move In Day

 "Car Selfie" with my love.

First time in the car for this crew!

 Road tax ticket for the Express High Way.
 

I thought we drove here with the loaner car, but I guess we had already gotten ours back from the dealership in the morning before heading over here. So many things were going on, and I mixed that up, I know that I wrote in the earlier post that we went here in the loaner car. No, looking at these pictures, I see now that we did drive here in our car!

Anyway, the kids were so excited to see the new place, and couldn't wait to get inside. 

Here the first picture in front of our "new home".

 Having to use an elevator every day is something new for sure!

I wish that I would have taken a picture of every room with loaner furniture before we moved in our bags and everything, but I guess I didn't. Here are the few picture that I did take.

 Benjamin's and Isabella's room. 

What we can't see is a big dresser next to the wardrobe in the door, to the right.

Master bedroom..

 Master bedroom again, here with door into our bathroom.

So, more pictures will come when I have gotten everything organized. We had to go out and buy all the bedding right away, as we hadn't gotten our Express shipment yet. I put all our sheets, linen, pillows and duvets in there, but now we had to purchase new anyway. All these extra expenses...

We also had to go to the Loan Locker, where you can borrow pots and pans and a few necessities until your shipments are here. Lots of running around and lots of errands to get organized!!

Loan locker items....

 ...may be borrowed until your shipments get here.

After running errands and getting a few things from the loan locker, we had dinner and then made the beds. I wish I could have made their beds with the linen and theme that we had picked out and that we had extra prepared them for in their new rooms, but as that wasn't here, it had to be something else. We only needed to have something that works, so it had to be what was there in the store. Isabella was promised a "Frozen themed room" and Benjamin a "Avenger themed room", but as they had that coming in the shipments, we didn't have that to start, but they were happy with their new bedding. And now having to share room, it's not the same with the themed rooms...they will have to have a theme on their side of the room I guess...

Isabella in her "big girl bed"

Benjamin was also very excited on his side of the room!

So cold this first night! It was cold and rainy outside, and it was freezing inside. No rugs, mats or anything to cover these freezing cold floors, and no heat in the house! The next day we went out to get space heaters! It took a long time and a few stories in each bed to get them settled in their new "normal" bedtime routine. This will take awhile to get them used to, and we are all still trying to adjust to this. I was happy to finally have kids that went to bed back in Yuma with not much resistance, and just to tuck them in and kiss good night after the story. Finally- it was a long time coming for them to get to that point, where they had a hard time sleeping in their beds, falling asleep without me in the room, waking each other up etc etc. Now, when it's all been working, it's time to "mess" it all up again, and disturb the routine with something new. 

I'm hoping that it won't take too long for them to get used to this new bedtime routine, one story each that I read with them in their bed and get some snuggle time, then tucking them both in and staying in their room until they sleep, this will take some time to get them used to stay in bed and not mess around and talk to each other and keep each other awake...

It took some time, but when the little ones were sleeping, 

I could finally tuck my older one in for her first night in her new room.

Car Shopping

As we can't bring our cars here to Okinawa, the military won't pay for the shipments, most have to try to buy a car or two as soon as possible. First step was to get a SOFA license and then it's up to you if you want to go through a dealer ship or if you want to try to buy one privately. We like the fact that if you have a problem with the car, you can take it back to the dealership and if there is something to complain about, you get it fixed. When you buy it from a private person, it's mostly "buy as is" here, and we didn't want to deal with that, even if you can get some really cheap cars privately as people have to sell when they are leaving the island.

We had some help from one of my husband's friends that has been stationed out here for about 1 1/2 and on the Friday night, while we were still in the hotel (one week after we arrived on the island) we went looking into different cars and he took us to different dealerships. There are many different kind of cars one can get of course, but what is very different to back in the states, is that most of them here are very small! Small narrow roads, very small parking lots bring a need for smaller cars too. As we still have the twins in big car seats that take up a lot of space, we can't fit Cassie in the middle of them in the second row, so we need a car that has three rows of seats. Most of them have then absolutely no space in the back for groceries or other things. Most cars with three rows also have very thin little benches and not real seats in the third row..very frustrating. So we went looking at a lot of different models to get an idea about what we really wanted and needed.

There are some really cute smaller cars here that I never have seen before, but here we see them a lot.

Like a little space ship.

Very typical advertisement of what's included. This was not the one from our car.

So, we looked around a lot, and we soon realized that the one car that we most likely would end up getting would be a Mazda MPV, it had three rows, and had the most space for everyone. We compared the prices and years of the car from a couple of dealerships, and we soon had made our decision.

Chris headed back the next day to complete some paperwork so they could start the process with getting the car ready for us. There were some new things regarding buying a car here in Okinawa, that is very different to back in the States, that we (read my husband...) had to read up on: road taxes, JCI etc and I'm not going into details here what it's all about, but if one is interested you can read some of it here. New laws, new rules and new everything. Lots to keep in mind!

We thought that we made a good choice, and were happy with the car. We got it ready the following Tuesday afternoon. And after running some errands on Wednesday, the engine lights came on!! Not happy, we went back to the dealership, who sent us to their garage. There, we were told that there were three problems showing up in the sensors in the engine! What? How in the world could this car then pass the JCI inspection the day prior? We were not happy to say the least! They kept the car there, parts had to be ordered from the mainland. Meanwhile, we got an old van to borrow from the dealership, as we needed a bigger car to get our things out of the hotel, and moved over to the apartment, as we were supposed to move in on the Thursday!

Chris and I drove over with most things to the new base with the loaner car in the evening, and then we slept one more night in the hotel. On Thursday, March 12, we packed up the rest, and checked out of the hotel. Driving up to our new home with the kids in the loaner car wasn't what we had planned, we got everything out, and Chris had to drive back to give back the car and get our car back in the afternoon.

Not a great start of our new car, but we hope that it will now be alright! We are also a bit spoiled with having had such a great new car back in the States, so we are not used to this "used car" and that some things aren't as great as we would like, but we deal with it! That's just the way it is here, you buy used cars, and sell them again after your tour is over and leave them behind. Too expensive to ship cars here and to ship them back to the States.

We will also buy a second car later on, it's hard to get used to the fact that we only have one car, when you are used to have your own and be able to go places at all times, not having to plan around my husband's work schedule. The weekends have been less relaxation and exploring so far, but more running errands and grocery shopping...

Newcomer's Orientation

Our hotel where we stayed before we got our apartment.

On our first Wednesday here in Okinawa, we had to attend a day long event, called the "Newcomer's Orientation". Everyone over 10 years old have to attend, and that meant that Benjamin and Isabella had to stay in daycare that day. They were not very excited for this at first, but had a great time while they were there.

The hotel's Japanese garden from the entrance.

It was an early morning, as our sponsor picked me and the little kids already at 6.45am, as we had to be at the meeting at 7.15am. It was a long day of information. Most of it, very informative and interesting about the different bases here, the history of why and when, and every organization had their own 15 minutes with slideshows and handouts. Everything and anything you could think of being important while here. Where to go for what ever need you have. Hospital, schools, FRO, what to do in a typhoon, car shopping, driving rules, police, terrorist threats, Japanese culture class and a lot more! Well you get it, a lot of information about anything that they could think of that is important as a newcomer to know.

Half in the meeting, the kids/teenagers were taken on a tour around that main base that we were on, showing them the library, teen center and driving past a few other things. Cassie met up with a sweet girl that sat with her family at the same table as us, and they were the same age. Instantly hit it off the two of them, so nice!
In the end of this very long day, the ones that wanted could wait for the driving license test. You have to take a theory test to pass the license. You have to have a valid American driving license and SOFA status to be able to take it in the first place. It was pretty tricky, some new rules, and distances to remember, a lot of new signs etc. 40 questions. You got 20 minutes (or was it maybe 30?) to complete the questions, and then you had to wait for a while when they checked them. In advance, you had to fill out some forms, and also sign your signature etc, there is no picture on the license, and they were already prepared. They came back with a big bunch of yellow notes, those were the ones that didn't pass, and a much thinner bunch of the white laminated cards for the ones that had passed. He started to read out the names in alphabetical order of the ones that had passed, and with us being in the end of the alphabet, it was a nervous waiting. He had only a two cards left it looked like, (I stared at that bunch in his hand sitting in the first row) and then he called out my husband's name! Great, he had to pass as he has to drive for work, and that was all that mattered in this moment, and when I congratulated him, I almost overheard the name on the last card - MINE! Wohoo, we both passed!!

One thing to check off the list! You have to have a valid license to even buy a car, so with that, we now could start planning this next step, buying a car here. More about that later.

When I picked the kids up from daycare, they had had so much fun and didn't want to go home, so that was nice to see, as they were so hesitant to go there in the morning.

 

Ben was very busy building dinosaurs when I got there. 
Isabella was playing grocery store with a girl, but came running when she saw me so no picture of her playing. 

 

Thirsty kids!