And Two Shall Become One...Again!

Zac is back!!

After about a two month bout on a ship, the ship has sailed...back to Okinawa! Which means Zac is back for good (or until his next deployment)! I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to have him home. The old saying is true...absence DOES make the heart grow fonder!

I was able to meet Zac ON the ship, do some exploring, check out his living conditions for the past few months, have a meal in the wardroom and take some time to catch up. However, after a 3 hour delay, we were both ready to get the heck off that ship!

After living 2 months by myself, I found how much of a transition it is going to be to have Zac BACK home. Plus  it was funny to see how much it will take for Zac to reacclimate to Japan. On our way home (in the rain and cold), Zac said, "Oh, I forgot that there are Japanese people all around!" [To which I replied in my head, "Duh, we live in Japan."] But he's just not used to it anymore! Driving on the left side of the road, foreign to him. All of the things that I have taken for granted/gotten used to are totally new to Zac.

On the other hand, I have created this "rose-colored" version of our marriage and of Zac while we've been apart. In reality, we've been living and growing in two different directions for 2 months, so it will definitely take time to get used to it all over again! But no matter, we are savoring every minute together, cleaning and cooking seems fun again (b/c I'm doing it for someone other than myself), and driving to get dinner together is exciting! (We'll see how long all that lasts...;) )

By military standards, this was just a baby deployment. Most overseas deployments are 7-12 months, so the MEU was a good starter deployment for us. It's all about baby steps...

I took plenty of pictures, so as soon as I catch up (on Singapore, our new dog [!], etc...) I'll give you a tour of the ship from civilian eyes. And maybe I can get Zac to write something about his time at sea!

Singa-moon

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet Zac on one of the MEU's liberty ports in Singapore. I arrived a few days early with some other MEU ladies, and we had a great time sitting by the pool and relaxing before the guys came. Singapore is basically ON the equator (I'm lacking cartography skills...1 degree N...that's pretty close, right?), so the sun was strong, and it was very warm (in the 90's in February...fanTAStic!)

After spending a couple of days at the pool with the ladies, did some shopping, went to a Chinese New Year parade, we were anxious to meet up with our guys! We had such a great time watching the ship come in. What an experience! One thing I learned about Singapore that day (non-ship related) was the pace of life there. I had to leave the hotel at 7:45am, and conveniently there was a Starbucks across the street, so I planned a little stop there before we had to leave. Let's take a step back, now. In the US, Starbucks opens at, what, 5am? 6am at the latest? I show up at 7:15. Starbucks is NOT open. At the risk of sounding like a caffeine addict, what's the point of a coffee shop if it's not open early in the morning? Verdict: Singaporeans apparently do not wake up before 7. And in case you were wondering, Starbucks opened at 7:30. I mean, I started junior high at 7:30 in the morning, and they can't serve coffee that early?...

Anyway...we got to the dock/port (I'm no good at naval terms) in time to see the ship drive (float? drift?) up. Then we got to watch the boat for several hours before our guys were let off. Correction: Zac and his guys were let off, they just had to do a mandatory RUN before they were released! Imagine my impatience of sitting FEET away from Zac after spending a month apart! And then watch them run away! AHHHH!

This is a picture I took before the run. I didn't want to look like a crazy paparazzi wife, so it's not the most detailed, but Zac is in the back, just to the left of the pole.

If nothing, the Marine Corps will teach me patience. And surrender. Nothing I say, do, or act upon will change reality, and there's really nothing to do but deal with it. 

No worries. They DID come back. 

And then the grand reunion!

It's quite a phenomenon that things just fall back in place, right where they left off, when you reunite with a loved one.

And we lived happily ever after...

Just kidding. I mean we did, but there's more to the Singapore story.

After hours of waiting and sweating, first thing on the agenda was some dinner...and what better than some good ole Mexican food. Errr...Sing-Mex food, at least.

Forget a bowl of wonderful melted cheese. This is Sing-Mex "chili con queso" Or what we Texans call "nachos." Oh, and our Mexican restaurant happened to be next door to Hooters (the only one in SE Asia?) where we saw the other 1,999 marines off the ship. I'm so glad they got the most of their cultural experience.

We determined to see as much of Singapore as we could while still squeezing in plenty of pool time. Our first full day we stopped by Little India and Chinatown. Unfortunately, we went a little early (remember, Singapore doesn't wake up until late) and so not a whole lot was open. But we did some exploring and saw a few markets. Silly me didn't take many pictures of this leg of the trip, though.

One pic from Little India. We should have come back here for lunch!

After exploring the many cultures that make Singapore, we headed to the Merlion. I don't really know much about it...but wikipedia does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlion.

In front of the Merlion

View of the Singapore Flier from the Merlion park

A big casino being built (it looks like there's a ship on top). Apparently, when it's done, there is a $1000 entry fee for locals, but free for tourists.

The Esplanade. I believe there's a few concert halls/theaters, and is connected to a lot of shopping (like the rest of Singapore)

We moseyed back along the river, and decided to eat some lunch at the Boat Quay. Along the river was a neat area with a ton of restaurants and other neat things to see.  

There were these little statues all around the Singapore River. If you can't tell, this one is some kids jumping off to play in the river. Apparently the big guy behind them wants to play too! Also notice that the bottom kid is attached by the next kids foot! Amazing!

Our lunch...before...and alive. The story: Our waitress brought us a fake crab first to show the size. The first one was going to be over $50, so we asked for a smaller one, so she brought this REAL one to check out. I took a picure of it, and then she asked if I wanted to hold it!! No thanks!

Lunch at the Boat Quay.

Appetizers: Chicken Satay (a common Malay treat) and the local Tiger beer. Fitting also because it is the year of the Tiger!! I think Pei Wei carries this kind of beer.

The crab...after. The common dish Chile Crab. It was pretty good, although neither of us really knew how to eat crab from the shell.

I thought I'd be able to fit our trip in one post, but just got through the first 24 hours! More to come soon!

EARTHQUAKE!!

I got back from an absolutely fabulous week in Singapore Friday night. After long flights, long layovers, and long delays (including a seemingly pointless fuel stop for a 2-hour flight!), I was back home - yes, Okinawa is finally home. I excitedly reunited with my email and Facebook and finally went to sleep at about 2:30 am, some 20 hours after waking Friday morning...

...Only to be awakened at approximately 5:30 to a 7.0 earthquake!

I've lived in Texas my whole life, conveniently located far from any fault lines, and therefore any earthquakes. I had no idea what to do while feeling the whole building shimmy, especially bleary eyed from 3 hours of sleep and a long week. Was I drunk?....no....dreaming?....no....hallucinating?...maybe. I did the only thing I could think of: brace myself in a doorway. [I'm not sure if that even does anything, but our wonderfully fashionable metal door frames would save me, right?]

I finally went back to sleep, and woke up a few hours later. By then, CNN, the rest of Okinawa, and even Zac's ship had caught wind of the story. That's when I learned it was a 7.0 about 50 miles off the coast of Oki and about 13 miles deep. [Haiti's recent earthquake was about a 7.0, but only about 10 miles off of the coast.] There was a tsunami watch, which has since been cancelled. In my short research, which consisted of watching a 2 min. clip on CNN.com , the depth of the earthquake wasn't enough to shake the ocean floor, which produces the tsunami.

So all is fine. Living in a concrete block has its merits when it comes to typhoons and earthquakes.

AND I had the most wonderful rendezvous with Zac this week. A group of the MEU wives went to Singapore together to meet up with the men at one of their liberty ports. It was such a fantastic week in a fantastic city. And most of all, it was so so so wonderful to spend a few days with the hubs. Distance really does make the heart grow fonder! Much more on the trip plus pictures to come soon!

(PS, see the CNN links for the story on the earthquake! And THIS is some raw video!)

Jet-setters

So kiss me and smile for me


Tell me that you'll wait for me


Hold me like you'll never let me go


Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane.


Don't know when I'll be back again 


Oh baby, I hate to go...


I've decided to go on a little trip. And I might just run into someone I know ;)

Hong Kong: The Final Frontier

Time to wrap it up.

I've been hanging on the memories of our last trip just about in time to go on another trip. This post will detail our last day of 2009, Hong Kong style. We spent the day at Disneyland Hong Kong (you're never too old for Disney, right?) and and fun night out on the harbor to ring in the new year (with millions of our closest Chinese friends).

We started out early and head over to Disney. There is a special train (MTR) that goes just to Disney, and you won't mistake where you're going. One thing that impresses me the most about Disney is their attention to detail...even down to the subway holds:

Notice the Mickey shaped windows as well!

I was as giddy as a little kid as we entered the (Asian) Magical Kingdom. I have to admit, though, it's just not the same as "big" Disneyworld in the states. But exciting, nonetheless. Zac....not as excited...

Just kidding, he was excited...I think. 

We had our fill riding Space Mountain, Dumbo, It's a Small World and a few other rides. The biggest surprise was the longest lines in the park were to take pictures with Minney and Mickey. Not the rides. Better for us!

Zac was obsessed with the Buzz Lightyear ride. You get to shoot lasers at all of Buzz's nemesi(?) in this rotating chair and they keep score. I'm not gonna lie...I won. Did I mention we rode this twice?

It's a Small World, amidst the mountains of China. It was Christmas themed, which was just great!

The 3-D show

The 3-D show was a highlight, and we just happen to stumble upon it. I don't know the last time I went to a 3-D show (although I do remember my first experience when I was about 6 at Disneyworld. All I remember is a scary witch coming at me), but it really is pretty cool. It's like things are flying at you! (Duh, it's 3-D). Well, this fascinated our Chinese co-tourists to no end. In fact, it seemed so life-like to them that they thought they could just grab those flying objects. Yes. They spent most of the movie reaching out and grabbing those holographic images. It was hilarious. It made the trip to Disney. 

We finished out the day with some hot chocolate milk (you couldn't just ask for hot chocolate or they got confused) and a classic Disney parade. My heartbreak of the trip: Cinderella was faced the other way the whole time! I never got to see her face! Se la vi. 

We took the train back to the city, 

As Zac basked in the glory of a fun day at Disney

With his good friend Mickey (see it in the case?)

Hong Kong Disney wasn't nearly as big as the huge park in Florida (I've never been in California), and we pretty much did it all by 3 pm. So we headed back to the city to squeeze in as much as we could. [That's when we went up the looong escalator] and got ready for a fun New Years Eve.

We found a great place on the harbor and had a delicious dinner. 

A New Years' toast.

We walked around as much as we could, but several streets were blocked, the crowds were huge, and the "breeze" off the harbor was incredibly cold. We finally made our way to find a spot to watch the fireworks to ring in the new year. With about a million other people. 

Fortunately, we were stationed right next to the ferry, hopped on, caught a taxi, and were back in the hotel by 1 am. We are quite the party animals.

What a neat way to bring in 2010. It will surely be a great memory! I hope that 2010 is as exciting as 2009 (but hopefully less moving...)

Welp, that's all I got. Time to take another trip!

Symphony of Lights

[I hope this video works. I've never tried uploading one here before.]

This is a little taste of the Hong Kong harbor. Every night there is laser light show on both sides of the harbor to music. We caught it our last night there, although it took us a while to find the music. Anyway, it's pretty amazing how MANY huge buildings are part of this and how they created it to begin with.

In my life now: I had a scare for the past 24 hours. Let me take a step back to a few months ago...My computer quit charging the battery, meaning I had to keep it plugged in full time. No biggie. It's 2 years old, and maybe approaching the end of its life. So yesterday, I was using the computer and it wasn't charging at ALL. It was just dying, and there was nothing I could do about it. (Is it sad that this vignette/melodrama is about a computer?!?) It freaked me out, given my computer is really the only outlet to the world: it's my tv, face to face interaction with others via Skype, and so many other things. Well, I gave it CPR by taking out the battery and blowing on it. [Sidenote: does anyone know why we do this? We did this all the time with our original Nintendo games...why did we know it was going to work? Mario is messing up so we obviously need to blow into the cartridge and nintendo box to make it work??] Anyway, it worked. And not only did the battery start working, it started charging again too! My laptop was once again mobile!

Not two hours later, it started dying again. I would wiggle the cord and it would plug in for a second and then unplug again. I slowly watched the battery drain, and in futility, the last seconds of battery, I googled "how to fix computer cord HP." I got to the site just in time for the screen to fade. (The only thing I saw on that fix it site was you needed a hacksaw...probably not the road I would've taken to fix a cord.) It was gone.

I went to our puny PX, thinking I might get lucky and find something to resuscitate the battery, but no such luck. I thought of the weeks that it would take to get another cord/battery out here and what would I do?! I couldn't even find a job because all of the listings are online and all of my resumes are on my computer! Today, I went to the slightly beefier BX in hopes of finding anything to help. I even contemplated buying a new one. There was a universal cord, so I bought it, hoping that it was the cord that was the problem in the first place. I plugged it in at home, trying all of the little adapters, and on about #6, I saw a blue light, and Alas! My computer lives on!

Phew! What a story! And what a day! It's crazy how much we rely on our computers these days. You can't even do your taxes these days because all of the W-2s and 1099s and tax software are online! And if I just wasted 5 minutes of your life, I apologize.

Hong Kong Part Tres: Around Town

So, now that you've completely lost interest and I have forgotten everything we did on this trip, I'm going to tell you some more about it. I've been in a little hermit mood for the last week or so. We've had some dreary weather lately (today the street lights were still on at 11 am...when it's that dark that late, you know it's a dreary day...), and with no other motivation to DO, I just haven't. But it's high time I DID.

I haven't heard anything from Zac in about a week, and probably won't for another week. But the week before that, I was able to email daily. He sounded good and busy. He likes the food (which, now that I think about it...I cooked for the man for the past 7 months, and what food does he just LOVE...ship food. So glad I do what I do...) He was a little seasick for the first couple days, but said there were swells of 8-10 feet, so once he got his "sea feet," he was much better. But, that's all I know.

Remember that time that Zac and I went to Hong Kong...

We got to Hong Kong, saw a Buddha, then later that day we went up to the Victoria Peak. And took this train.

The ride was super steep:

No, the camera wasn't tilted, and the building is not falling down. That's just how steep the train ride was!

When we got to the top, it was completely cloudy/foggy and you couldn't see anything. Usually you can buy tickets to go on an observatory deck and see the city, but they weren't even selling tickets because you couldn't see anything anyway. But up at the peak there was a little shopping area with cool car toys that climbed up walls and remote control helicopters and other junk people buy on vacation. Oh, and a Crocs store. Did I mention Crocs stores were EVERYWHERE in Hong Kong?? I've never seen a Crocs store in the US, but they must be big in Asia. So being absolutely exhausted (remember the 2390 steps we went up to see Buddha...this is still the same day) we had a nice snack and drink at Bubba Gumps. Yes, there was a Bubba Gumps in Hong Kong, the very same as on Forest Gump, and yes, we went there. What can I say, we were in a touristy spot and all they had were touristy restaurants. I felt like I was at Kemah. Except we couldn't see anything out the window. Seriously, the clouds blew away for about 13 seconds, we saw an estate on a hill, and then the wind carried it away, like Mary Poppins. 

After rejuvenating ourselves at Bubba Gump's, we decided to take advantage of the fantastic happy hour deals at Lan Kwai Fong. It's more of a Happy Day over at LKF, as the "hour" lasts from about 12pm-8pm. We hopped around, each of us getting a chance to pick a new place to go. The boys started playing bar golf (never a good idea, children.), and it ended up being a pretty rough  fun night. 

Needless to say, the next day was a late start. And after our action packed first day (we really did see a ton), we took it easy. Zac took over, and decided that he wanted to see the electronics market, and the goldfish/flower/birdcage market.

Forget Best Buy. This outdoor market had EVERYTHING electronic you could ever think of. 

Some Chinese street food, very colorful. We decided to not partake.

The goldfish market. Yes, it was a street of pretty much just pet shops, but all they sold was goldfish. 

For many of you, this may come as a surprise, but Zac is an animal lover. He confided in me while we were dating that when he was little, we wanted to be Jeff Corwin when he grew up. Now, I had the occasional guppy, beta fish, and dachshund like most kids, but nothing compared with Zac's sugar gliders and other exotic animals. (I'm sad to say that even though we dated several years, I never met Abby and Pablo[?], the said sugar gliders.) Therefore, the goldfish market was MUCH more interesting to Zac than me. So while he meandered around the shops looking at crazy reptiles and snakes and fish (in which I had no interest) I stayed outside for several minutes looking at these cuties (sarcasm).

Probably the smallest turtles you've ever seen. 

After the oh-so-exciting goldfish market, I had pretty much had my fill. We stopped by one more night market (as it is famous....just so we could say we did), and since I've vowed to keep most tchtochkes out of the house, we just window(/street) shopped. Not that I couldn't have used some fake gold jewelry or a purse made out of Capri Suns...

The next day was Disney/New Years, which totally deserves its own post.

Our last day, we headed to Stanley Market. 

We almost didn't, but I'm so glad we did. It was quite a trek, almost an hour bus ride, but during which we discovered some Hong Kong treasures. The market was right on the water and really had some neat things like beautiful oil paintings, Chinese antiques, and great linens. We rounded out the trip with some traditional Dim Sum yum.

One of the best meals of the trip in a really random, beautiful, tucked away restaurant near Stanley Market.

We took the long bus ride back, unsure if we would really make it alive (the bus driver was terrible), and consequently 3/4 of our group were car(bus?)sick by the end. I guess all those road trips in the big ole van did me well growing up. The situation was not helped by a horrendously large protest shutting down most streets in Hong Kong. I was so glad to get off that bus, not because I was sick, but because I'm not allowed to talk to Zac when he is car sick. (I guess I should be glad I'm not on the MEU with him.) 

We did a little shopping, then Zac and I went over to the Kowloon side for dinner and to watch the famous Symphony of Lights, a laser light show that goes on every night to music. I'll try to post a video of it, but here's a pic:

I have a few more adventures to post about this trip, but I just really wanted to touch on how much we really enjoyed Hong Kong. Zac and I have already had quite the traveling marriage, but it is absolutely the time of our lives. Hong Kong was an incredible city, and I would urge everyone to experience it! It's a perfect Asian "jumping off point" because almost everyone speaks English, and is such a melting pot of cultures (Chinese, English/Western, etc.) I know it's not on the top of everyone's "to see" list like Europe, Australia, etc., but you would be missing practically a hemisphere of culture if you don't experience Asia!

I also treasure this trip as it was really some great "couple" time, as our together time was extremely limited before and after the Hong Kong due to Zac's preparations to leave. Even though we live "away," it's so great to get away, off the island, and to enjoy these adventures together!