Okinawa, Japan

Konichiwa!! Today marks the second full day here in Okinawa, Japan. For those of you who don't know, I just got married in August to the love of my life :). About a month later, he accepted a job in Okinawa, Japan. He will be the Branch Manager on Kadena Air Force Base for Pentagon Federal Credit Union. It was a huge decision we made to come here, but I truly believe it will be one of the best decisions we made... for a couple of reasons. 1- I think it will help us grow in our marriage. We will only have each other at first to depend on, something we wouldn't have experienced staying in Eugene around all of our friends and family. 2- We will be able to travel around, let alone just spend time on this beautiful island. Something that in a few years when we have kids, would be way more difficult to do. And lastly, 3- We can learn about new cultures and maybe learn a new language (hopefully!). Plus, make friends from all over the world.

I am so excited for this new adventure we are just starting. The flight over here was not as brutal as I imagined it would be. We left Eugene around 4:00PM- which was extremely hard to say goodbye to all of our friends and family. Standing in the airport surrounded by at least 25 of our friends and family, all who have encouraged us and supported us, was very humbling. Arthur and I are so blessed to have so many amazing people around us. We are so thankful for the support and love we have received and continue to receive.

Lindee drove down so she could say bye in person..
AWWWW

First flight and ready to go with eye masks, headphones, and neck pillows.

Our first flight was a quick 30 minutes up to Portland, where we had a two and a half hour layover. It was nice because we could regroup and cheer up after the sad goodbyes in the Eugene airport. We grabbed some starbucks and a bite to eat and then just relaxed a little before our long, long trip ahead. We then flew PDX to San Francisco, where we had a three and a half hour layover. It ended up being a good thing that the layover was so long because we had to go out of the terminal and check in again. When we checked in, we were told our carry-ons could only be 15lbs each. They were not. They were both at least double that. Luckily we could check one more bag for free so we stuffed one carryon really full and sent it on its way. We went back through security, bought a smoothie and were able to FaceTime my mom before we loaded our plane.

Our airplane! Two stories.. so big!

The airplane we took was TWO stories. It was HUGE. Our flight was 14 hours- longest. flight. ever. The time change was pretty strange. We left SFO at 12:05AM on December 8th, and landed in Taiwan at 6:00AM on December 9th... Not sure where that day went... Thankfully, we both slept on the airplane for around 6-7 hours each. We watched a couple episodes of Dexter, had two Chinese meals, played a couple games, and somehow-14 hours later-we made it! Our last flight was from Taipei to Okinawa, and was only 1 hour long. It flew by (pun intended), and we landed in Okinawa. We were greeted by the current manager of PenFed and she drove us to our temporary housing where we checked in, changed and showered, and took a sweet, sweet six hour nap.

Taiwan Airport- looking so rugged.

wow so lazy..

I seriously cannot keep up with how fast life is moving. I can't believe I've already been married for four months, and now we live in this wonderful place.