08 November 2011

Random Thoughts and Observations

Sorry folks for not writing more often. Joel and I have been fairly boring lately and haven't done a whole lot. I mean, we've still been eating lots of new food and learning more of the language. (We are taking a Japanese class every Tuesday night and now have a really good audio program we're working with as well. It's slow going though, I'm not going to lie.) But sadly, Joel and I have noticed we've begun to take the scenery for granted. There's mountains surrouding us that are stunning and we drive right along the sea every morning and evening, yet we've already begun to stop noticing. We're attempting to be more intentional so we don't take anything here for granted.

It's also very ironic - the weather is GORGEOUS during the week, mid-70's, sunny, breezy... and then without fail, every Saturday morning we wake up and it's POURING RAIN until Sunday evening, then back to beauty on Monday morning. **SIGH** We have a three day weekend this weekend though for Veteran's Day, so take that weather! You shan't thwart our plans this weekend!! :-p

Speaking of plans this weekend, we actually have some. We will be going to a JAS (Japanese American Society) BBQ and fruit picking. Folks from Base and locals from town car pool to a local farm for a picnic lunch, bingo (they play 'til EVERYONE wins, LOL), and Mikan, also known as "Satsuma", picking. They are a lot like clementines and are busting out of the trees right now. They are extremely tasty so I'm excited to pick a bunch to take home. Maybe we'll get to practice some Japanese with the locals as well... although we are limited to: "Do you speak English?", "I am an American", "Yes", "No", "Thank You", and "Excuse Me". Hmmmm... maybe we can just help them practice their English until we learn a bit more, LOL.

Here's some random observations for y'all:
(1) A couple times a day, our neighbor walks his cat.... Yup, his cat. It's a big white cat on a leash just chilling and walking slow so our neighbor can get some exercise (he has a limp). They're really cute.

(2) There's also this guy that walks backwards every morning. We see him many mornings on our way to Base. We're thinking he's trying to exercise all of his muscles equally... that or he's just plain weird.

(3) The thrift stores out in town are called "Recycle Shops" and I can tell you now, this is where we will be getting most of our furniture to supplement what is coming in our household goods shipment in a few weeks. They're really cool and have so many random things! The furniture here all looks like child furniture (we laughed out loud the first time we walked into a store), but is quite comfy.

(4) Our new church has this cultish obsession with this game called "Settlers". Joel describes it as a cross between "Risk" and "Monopoly" if you can imagine that. They did teach us how to play and I won of course. :) I have to be honest and admit it was because of beginner's luck, though. The game does take a lot of strategy and is one I'm sure we will become quite competitive at, since that is the Diller way.

Anyhoo, we have a hike and a brewery tour coming up this month too, so we will be writing a lot more soon. Thanks everyone for checking in with us and keeping up with our lives! Love and miss you!

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