I cannot tell you how happy I am that there are no more balls to attend this year! Let's just say that they are formal events for which I was not prepared to go to 2 a year. That's 2 dresses in 1 week that I had to wear because you know a girl cannot show up in the same dress!
Anyways, our division ball was this past Wednesday night and though obligatory, was slightly more fun than the regiment ball we attended last Friday night. After much pomp and circumstance to include sounding attention, order arms, playing the National Anthem, presentation of the birthday cake (because the whole reason we are at the ball is because it is the Marine Corps birthday), the reading of LeJeune's birthday message, and 2 other speeches, the guys were finally able to carry swords out of the ceremony. Talk about a lot of pomp and circumstance! If you're familiar with the ball, you will recall that there is a certain uniform that the guys wear, called Dress Blues, the most formal of all Marine Corps uniforms. All the guys are supposed to know that the official uniform for the ball are your Blues. One 2nd Lt unfortunately did not get that memo. And in Snapfish pics to come, you will see the lone guy in Service Alphas (the ugly green on the left when all the guys in the unit are posing for a pic). This 2nd Lt is now known as Service Alphas, which is not a nickname that anyone should want.
After dinner was served, the dance floor picked up starting off with the Electric Slide and then moving on to more contemporary urban classics from artists such as Soulja Boy and Flo-Rida. This was a dancing division! Lots of junior enlisted guys and girls were out on the dance floor doing the Superman, among other dances. A sight to see for sure! Unfortunately, our night had to end early as Jabbar had to actually go to work the next morning. Such a good captain setting an example that was not followed when Jabbar went to work the next day to find out that all the Communication (COMM) guys had overslept and were late for their exercise the next morning. As the Commanding Officer (CO), Jabbar was not too happy with his guys as I'm sure you could imagine.
The next day, while Jabbar was upset with the COMM guys, I went to go pick up Jabbar's car that had been at the shop getting a makeover due to an incident with a guard rail. If I hadn't told you anything had happened to it, you might not be able to tell from the pics.
The day after that was Friday and there we were, at another ball. This time for the regiment. Funny thing...Jabbar paid $150 for both of us to go to both balls only to find out that he had paid for the same memento at both balls. So there we all were...the same people at yet another ball 2 days after the first one, commenting that this seemed like deja vu. The only difference was the wives in different dresses. More pomp and circumstance to include, in the same order, as what I mentioned for the first ball. Only the regiment ball wasn't nearly as 'fun' as the division ball without the junior enlisted out on the dance floor.
Which brings us to this weekend and yesterday, Saturday, and Jabbar's herculean efforts to get our queen box spring up 3 stories on the outside of the house up to the master bedroom. After a stop at the local Home Depot store, which is called Make Man out here, and purchasing 50 meters of rope (way more than he needed), there he was, harnessing the box spring for its 3 story flight up to the roof. All I did was help push the box spring from the 1st floor away from the side of the house so that it wouldn't encounter much in its way. After that I went back up to the 3rd floor only to find that Jabbar had hauled the box spring up 3 stories and over the rooftop fence onto the rooftop terrace. All that Marine training came in handy! What with knowing how to harness a box spring (of all things!), making secure knots, and all that physical training in order to haul the thing up 3 stories! And after all that, he still had to haul the old mattress and box spring down to the 2nd floor for storage. Needless to say, after all that exerted strength, he was pretty much done for the day. Ha!
So now it's Sunday and I was hoping to be able to play today - snorkeling in November to be exact. But Mother Nature had different ideas with her downpour since last night through this morning. Although the rain has stopped for now, it is still a cloudy day which means no snorkeling for us. Instead, I think the day holds sugar cookies in my near future along with possibly another visit to Make Man in order to get my rooftop terrace herb garden started (now that there is no threat of needing to pull up any more box springs onto the terrace! Ha!).
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Getting ready to go to the Ball...again...
Hi, everybody!
You might be wondering if we made it to the Yomitan Village Festival last Sunday. No, we didn't. Because it was at the Yomitan Village Field, which was nowhere to be found on the map!
This week has been the week of Marine Corps Balls to celebrate the Marine Corps birthday which is November 10. This week has been very interesting as we don't know where the time went! We knew we had not only one ball to go to this week, but two. However, we had forgotten our dresses and uniforms had been in transit for the last 3 months and needed pressing. Which led to a very interesting Tuesday for me trying to get dresses and uniforms pressed. I was lucky but Jabbar's uniform could have used more work. But, as he says, it was good enough for government work. Ha! Anyways, we went to our division ball Wednesday night and are getting ready to go to our regiment ball tonight after I get done writing this for you all. Fun obligatory times! Pics to come on Snapfish.
You might be wondering if we made it to the Yomitan Village Festival last Sunday. No, we didn't. Because it was at the Yomitan Village Field, which was nowhere to be found on the map!
This week has been the week of Marine Corps Balls to celebrate the Marine Corps birthday which is November 10. This week has been very interesting as we don't know where the time went! We knew we had not only one ball to go to this week, but two. However, we had forgotten our dresses and uniforms had been in transit for the last 3 months and needed pressing. Which led to a very interesting Tuesday for me trying to get dresses and uniforms pressed. I was lucky but Jabbar's uniform could have used more work. But, as he says, it was good enough for government work. Ha! Anyways, we went to our division ball Wednesday night and are getting ready to go to our regiment ball tonight after I get done writing this for you all. Fun obligatory times! Pics to come on Snapfish.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Let's go to Shuri Castle
Island Greetings!
This island adventure of ours started back around August this year and it's hard to believe that 3 months have passed already! Some of you have suggested starting a blog. So here you go...our first blog. Please bookmark this page as this is where all the action will happen!
Yesterday was Saturday. It was also Shuri Cultural Day. So we decided to try to go and see Shuri Castle. After a little bit of a drive down to Naha, we arrived at the intersection to turn to go to the castle, only to find out that they were serious about this cultural day! They had blocked off the road and you had to walk 1.5km to get to the castle. We decided that we would do that another day. So instead, we ended up going to a world heritage site, a designated national place of scenic beauty, Shikinaen Royal Garden. Though it wasn't the kind of garden I was expecting, in which I could take even more flower pics for everybody, it was still a beautiful garden.
History lesson of the day - the house and gardens was the largest second residence of the Ryukyu royal families and it was used to entertain royal family members and foreign guests. If you google Okinawa, you will see that this island is one of many in the Ryukyu chain of islands. It's amazing to think, but these grounds were completely destroyed during World War II. in 1975, the restoration of this garden was started and took 20 years to complete.The garden is a circular landscape garden and we enjoyed the different landscapes walking around the pond. I think my favorite part was the hexagonal Chinese style building which resided on a small island of the pond. Think of a Chinese style gazebo with a black-tiled roof which can be reached by an arched bridge which was made from a single block of limestone. Quite appropriately, this building was used as a place of rest. People used to also row on the pond.
Of course, pics are to come so be on the lookout for an invitation from Snapfish!
After visiting the Royal Garden, we also visited the Stone Pavement on the way home. I know what you are thinking. What the heck is a Stone Pavement?!? Trust me, I was thinking the same thing. I wasn't that excited about it, until I saw it. Don't ask me about any history on this particular subject, but it can be described as a water collection area that, around the sides of it were stepped with varying levels of walkways so that you could walk all the way down to the water or walk along the water level at varying increasing levels. And my goodness, were those steps steep! I don't know if I explained this Stone Pavement well at all, but you will see in soon-to-come pics!
After the Royal Garden and all those steep steps at the Stone Pavement, we were pretty much done for the day and headed back home for dinner at a restaurant near our house which boasts the best Okinawan noodles. We still haven't learned much Japanese, but we have learned that you just walk into a restaurant and choose for yourself where you would like to sit. We usually like to sit as the Japanese do, on a short platform, after you have removed your shoes. Yes, you sit on your butt on this platform made of tatami mats which are made of straw (and very stinky when brand new!).There's no English menu at this restaurant but luckily for us, they have pictures on their menu which is the only way we know how to order, by pointing, because none of the waitresses speak any English. After taking your order by pointing, bringing you your food, and leaving your bill on your table, the waitresses never come back to bother you again. At the end of the meal, 2 bowls of pork (lots of pork on this island) noodle soup, I still find myself counting all my coins in order to make sure that I have enough to use to pay for dinner instead of having to pay with bills. Everything up to $10 is in coins!
Which brings us to today and a more mundane Sunday. It started out rainy, though as I write this, the sun is now shining. There is a village festival going on on the other side of the island in an area called Yomitan. Perhaps we will go, perhaps not. To find out if we did or not, stay tuned to this, our new blog!
This island adventure of ours started back around August this year and it's hard to believe that 3 months have passed already! Some of you have suggested starting a blog. So here you go...our first blog. Please bookmark this page as this is where all the action will happen!
Yesterday was Saturday. It was also Shuri Cultural Day. So we decided to try to go and see Shuri Castle. After a little bit of a drive down to Naha, we arrived at the intersection to turn to go to the castle, only to find out that they were serious about this cultural day! They had blocked off the road and you had to walk 1.5km to get to the castle. We decided that we would do that another day. So instead, we ended up going to a world heritage site, a designated national place of scenic beauty, Shikinaen Royal Garden. Though it wasn't the kind of garden I was expecting, in which I could take even more flower pics for everybody, it was still a beautiful garden.
History lesson of the day - the house and gardens was the largest second residence of the Ryukyu royal families and it was used to entertain royal family members and foreign guests. If you google Okinawa, you will see that this island is one of many in the Ryukyu chain of islands. It's amazing to think, but these grounds were completely destroyed during World War II. in 1975, the restoration of this garden was started and took 20 years to complete.The garden is a circular landscape garden and we enjoyed the different landscapes walking around the pond. I think my favorite part was the hexagonal Chinese style building which resided on a small island of the pond. Think of a Chinese style gazebo with a black-tiled roof which can be reached by an arched bridge which was made from a single block of limestone. Quite appropriately, this building was used as a place of rest. People used to also row on the pond.
Of course, pics are to come so be on the lookout for an invitation from Snapfish!
After visiting the Royal Garden, we also visited the Stone Pavement on the way home. I know what you are thinking. What the heck is a Stone Pavement?!? Trust me, I was thinking the same thing. I wasn't that excited about it, until I saw it. Don't ask me about any history on this particular subject, but it can be described as a water collection area that, around the sides of it were stepped with varying levels of walkways so that you could walk all the way down to the water or walk along the water level at varying increasing levels. And my goodness, were those steps steep! I don't know if I explained this Stone Pavement well at all, but you will see in soon-to-come pics!
After the Royal Garden and all those steep steps at the Stone Pavement, we were pretty much done for the day and headed back home for dinner at a restaurant near our house which boasts the best Okinawan noodles. We still haven't learned much Japanese, but we have learned that you just walk into a restaurant and choose for yourself where you would like to sit. We usually like to sit as the Japanese do, on a short platform, after you have removed your shoes. Yes, you sit on your butt on this platform made of tatami mats which are made of straw (and very stinky when brand new!).There's no English menu at this restaurant but luckily for us, they have pictures on their menu which is the only way we know how to order, by pointing, because none of the waitresses speak any English. After taking your order by pointing, bringing you your food, and leaving your bill on your table, the waitresses never come back to bother you again. At the end of the meal, 2 bowls of pork (lots of pork on this island) noodle soup, I still find myself counting all my coins in order to make sure that I have enough to use to pay for dinner instead of having to pay with bills. Everything up to $10 is in coins!
Which brings us to today and a more mundane Sunday. It started out rainy, though as I write this, the sun is now shining. There is a village festival going on on the other side of the island in an area called Yomitan. Perhaps we will go, perhaps not. To find out if we did or not, stay tuned to this, our new blog!
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