Back to blogging

I'm back! I had a really rough past week (physically and emotionally), but I'm feeling better and decided it was time to post something! A quick update on my poor, decaying body: my elbow is either coming along very slowly or not at all (it's hard to tell). I'm convinced my physical therapist is a sadistic torturer (not really, she's actually a nice lady), but she sure knows how to induce pain! The PT process has been mentally and physically draining, but I'll continue chugging along until they tell me nothing else is going to happen. To be honest, I'll be perfectly content with my current range of motion if that's all I'm going to get- sure there's a difference, but there isn't much I can't do now that I could do before, so whatever. My new development is a wisdom tooth problem. I have to get all 4 of them taken out (although the soonest they can do it is in a MONTH, so I have to deal with the accompanying pain until then- joy). Between the many hours I spent in the dental clinic and at physical therapy, I felt like I lived at the hospital this week. Thankfully this week is over, and hopefully the next one will be better!

On the plus side, the weather this week was LOVELY!! Sunny blue skies most days (although still really cold). It's raining today, but I'll take buckets of rain over snow. Since the roads haven't been icy, I've gotten mighty good at this whole driving on the left side of the road thing (I'm too chicken to drive when it's icy out- they don't plow the roads off-base and some days it's like driving on an ice-skating rink- eek)! My favorite drive here is out to where Corey works. He works waaaay far up on on a hill about 15 minutes away from the main base (they stick all of his kind far away from every one else, poor little outcasts). The road there is really pretty; it goes through a canyon with a gorgeous lake and lots of trees.

This is the road- not the prettiest part, but the best I could do taking pictures while driving.

The hard part about driving is that the HIGHEST speed limit anywhere in Misawa is 50kph. Kilometers, not miles! We're talking 30mph. It's rough adjusting to going so slowly all the time. 

The other weird thing about driving here is that there are no street names. Directions are based on landmarks. For instance, we live off POL-gate road, past Universe (a supermarket), right near the fork in the road:

The fork

It's important to have an idea about where certain restaurants, stores, etc are located so that you have a clue as to where things are when you're told. Luckily Misawa is pretty small, so it's not that hard to figure out.

In other news, our neighborhood is pretty much finished! When we got here, only half of the houses were completed and there was crazy construction going on. Now it's all done, and people are starting to move into the new houses. We have quite the colorful little American neighborhood. If you remember, our house is bright yellow. The new houses are prettier (in my opinion) colors of peach, green and brown:

Anyway, I just took a strawberry cake out of the oven (yes, I'm 5), and I'm going to enjoy a slice while I watch my downloaded America's Next Top Model and wait for Corey to get home! Hope everyone is doing well!

P.S. Have you been watching LOST?? I'm so utterly in love with this season, especially with the last 3 episodes!!!!