Up and Running

Hurray, I'm back. Internet and cable guy just left and as much as I love my iPhone, I missed the computer. And, I have to say, I actually missed blogging.

Ok, so to pick up where I left off, and to spare you the details of the horrid housing office, we were forced to choose between two exactly the same tower units in different buildings. The only differences were that one apartment didn't have carpet (which I liked), but wasn't in the building with my buddies, and the other apartment was the opposite. I begged, cajoled and said please as many times as I could, but nothing helped our situation, we were not going to be offered any other options. As this situation just happened to two of my friends, I expected this, however experiencing it was totally different. There is a system and that system cannot be deviated from, modified, or changed. Period. There is a complete lack of any type of care or compassion, who cares if that is where you will live for 3 years? Well, to make a long story short, we were forced to make a decision, so we picked the apartment in the building with our friends. So, on Thursday the loaner government furniture was delivered, we got the key and moved our things out of the Westpac hotel (yaaaaay) and went to our new home. Our first dinner in our new home, Subway, fancy schmancy.


We got some good luck however, in that our shipments had arrived on the island a week earlier. Both our shipments were delivered the next day, on Friday and it was like Christmas to see all my things again. The Japanese movers were super efficient, brought in all the boxes, unpacked and put the furniture together in 2 hours. We worked for the rest of the day and into the night to get the piles of stuff the movers unpacked into mounds on the floors and surfaces put away and somewhat organized. I have to say, the storage in this tower apartment rocks. I have tons of closets, cabinets and places to put stuff. They may be ugly, but I'm glad we have them. That night we celebrated with some Asti bubbly (my contribution) and the most incredible Dove chocolate ice cream (Boots' contribution). It was a very exhausted and quiet celebration, but it was such a sweet moment, I'll never forget it. I'll also never forget how amazing it felt to get into our bed that night. I never realized how amazing our bed was until we were without it for so long.

The rest of the weekend was spent running around getting things we needed for the apartment. Exciting things like trash cans and light bulbs. We had planned on going to the beach on Sunday, but when we got up it was so strangely overcast and almost misty, foggy looking. It was like smog. Well, it was sand from the China sand storm! Crazy! The past couple of days have been very thick and yucky, but thankfully today it looks to finally be clearing up.

We also did our first full grocery shopping trip for our full kitchen and nice big fridge. After cooking on a foreman and hot plate for months, I am thrilled to have a kitchen again. Boots and I love to cook together and we make really healthy, good for you meals most days of the week. I need to to some research on where to find organics.

In the states I had no problem going about my weird eating. I say "weird eating" because, well, I love food, but prefer for it to be organic, fresh and good for me. I know that meat isn't bad for me, but for personal reasons that I would never impose on anyone else (Boots is a full on carnivore) I do not eat beef, pork (or any mammal for that matter), duck, and try not to eat fish more than 2ce a month, so that leaves organic chicken, eggs, and milk. I was a vegetarian for a long time, and am thinking that if I can't find organic animal products I will soon be one again. Of course I eat food like gummy bears, Subway and ridiculously fattening ice cream from time to time (as I mentioned above), but generally I try to make smart food choices. It takes a long time for food to get here from the states, I get why it is harder to provide options here, but I hate to neglect my better judgement and potentially my health due to the lack of options. I'll just have to get off base and go hunting, for veggies of course. I mentioned to my friend on my way to spin class the other day that I love traveling, but hate the travel weight gain and over all crappy feeling from eating whatever and being all too sedentary. I've enjoyed getting back to working out and going for my runs.

Well, I went off on a tangent didn't I. Anyway, back to apartment stuff. On Monday I went to Eagle Hardware on base, handed over my signed form from the housing office and picked out paint. I have never seriously painted before. Sure, I "helped" my college room mate paint for about 5 minutes when we moved in, and sure I watched my parents paint plenty of times, so I went into it feeling a little foggy, but really how hard could it be right?! Well, Boots had 24 hour duty, again, and I was left to my own devices. I painted with determination, but wasn't liking how it was turning out. So, I googled "how to paint a room" on my trusty iPhone and thisoldhousecom brought up a very easy to follow tutorial, and even had pictures. I made some very beneficial modifications to my painting and continued on with more confidence. I painted for 7 hours, put 2 coats on the living room and one coat on the entry way and dining room. Yes, it was a lot of green. The color we picked out was sage green. For some reason on the walls it looks very Tiffany blue. I like it! I was nervous Boots wouldn't like it, but phew, he likes it too. I'm sure it's the worst paint job ever but I'm proud of it. He helped me put on the 2nd coat last night and touch up some spots I messed up. We took off the tape and there it was, our first ever completed home project!

So, we're unpacked, painted and pretty much settled. I have some more painting to do in the other rooms (eventually) and we still have the TV and pictures to hang, so we're not done yet. Stay tuned for pictures soon.

Do you know any good places to food shop on the island? How do you like to make a place feel like home?