June 30-July 2 in Okinawa

Wed June 30^th- Well we are thinking to ourselves a lot lately, “What did we get ourselves into?” I think we are experiencing all the classic symptoms of culture shock –

Definition from Wikipedia: Culture shock is the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown culture such as one may encounter in a foreign country. It grows out of the difficulties in assimilating the new culture, causing difficulty in knowing what is appropriate and what is not. This is often combined with a dislike for or even disgust(moral or aesthetical) with certain aspects of the new or different culture.

It definitely hasn't been all rosy and perfect. We have had some hard times, but I am still thrilled to be here, and I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the opportunity to come here.

Yesterday I took the kids to Araha Beach, and I found it all by myself. Mike says I am doing pretty well, since some wives of the men he works with only stay on base and will not drive off-base. But when you live off-base, you are kind of forced to; so that is one good thing about living off-base.

Today the kids and I went bowling with a family in our branch. Heather invited us, that way she could talk to me about how to get to the doctor and dentist. One of my fillings fell out of my tooth 2 days after we got here, how frustrating, especially since it is not easy to get to a dentist here.

Kaitlyn had a Young Women activity at the pool. She got to meet lots of girls from other branches, which was the point of the activity, so they could meet before school started. She had lots of fun!

I have started exercising again. I wake up early, which is not hard to do because it is bright daylight at 5 a.m. I go running/walking around town, then come back home and do Pilate/yoga. The kids sleep in until about 8:00 a.m., so that gives me lots of quiet time after exercising to read scriptures and write in my journal. The morning has become my favorite time here, recharge my batteries time.

Fri, July 2^nd- It started raining really hard last night, and there was thunder and lighting. The power went out for a few minutes. Good thing it came back on, because we have no candles or anything. It rained all night long. If it rained that much in Utah, everything would have been flooded!

Mike ran into the the couple in our branch that has been helping us out outside his work building. They invited us to go snorkeling with them after the baptism on Saturday. They asked if we had any plans. Mike said “are you kidding, we don’t have any plans for 2 years” ha ha!