Yokosuka Gazette, 11/3/13
Last night, I ate in an Argentine restaurant owned by two native Argentinians who also happened to be Japanese.
Backtracking...we went out for supper with CDW's current CO and his wife. This was my first time meeting the CO and it was Hans' first time meeting his wife. I've had lunch with Soraya, attended a bunch of meetings with her and of course, I see her in the fish bowl every third day. She is from Argentina. CO somehow went to Argentina's war college and met her there and the rest is history.
They have been in Japan for almost three years and found this teeny-tiny, hole in the wall Argentine restaurant (all you Spanish speakers please forgive me if I'm not using Argentine and Argentinian correctly). Hans likes his empanadas, so that's where we ended up last night.
It's a little weird, having this lovely, older Japanese couple come at you speaking Spanish. Soraya was in seventh heaven to speak the dialect and she and Hans were soon chatting back and forth.
Just when I think I know him, he surprises and astounds me again.
Anyway, supper was good, though I found the cuisine to be heavy, the wine was excellent and that's all I really care about, right ladies?
YOSC was my last meeting of the week and it was painless. I got to meet CDW's ombudsman at long last (for all you non-Navy types, the ombudsman is a ship's spouse who serves as a link between the command and the other spouses). Sat with her and Soraya and listened to a speech on disaster preparedness that was semi-informative.
I'm putting more names to faces, which is great in that I can say "Oh HIIII, so and so!" (imagine me in my "nice" voice), but not so great if I don't feel like running into them at the commissary and there they are and I have to make chit-chat. In case you missed that, I hate small talk. Unless I already know you and there's wine available. In which case, I'll chit chat your damn ear off.
Last week was busy and the coming week is going to be busy as well as I head into training for COMPASS. Don't ask me what it stands for because I don't know...but it's a mentoring program, so I will learn how to give courses on things like PCSing (moving for you non-Navy types), budgeting and Navy traditions. I have class on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for four hours.
Oh--trick or treating. I have to tell y'all about THAT! Remember when I said that they open the base and hordes of Japanese storm the place? Oh my goodness, was it FUN! The American kids were good too, of course, but watching the Japanese children pick out candy was priceless. They know Kit Kats, but that's about it, so they were curious about Twix, Snickers, Skittles. Most of them said "tricko-o-treato" and a few of them had little gifts to give back to us. The tiny little ones in costumes just slayed me. I wish I could have taken some pictures, but it is so dark on our end of the street. We threw up a table and set up a candy buffet with a few other families. Hans took our kids out for awhile and then they stuffed their gobs full of candy and ran around being total spazzes until bedtime. Trick or treating started at 4:30 and ended at 8:00 and I'm guessing we gave out candy to about 500 people.
Everyone else is good. Josiah had flag football on Tuesday and Annika had cheerleading, but I was at a meeting and didn't get to see them practice. William was with Miss Sara every day except Thursday and there were definitely moments on Thursday when I wished I had left him at Miss Sara's! She is taking a few days off starting next week, to make a visit to her husband...luckily, Hans isn't really "working" right now so he'll be able to handle Will for my social stuff.
Geez, I'm such a butterfly.
Oh...and there's a cat in our house. More on that later!
Backtracking...we went out for supper with CDW's current CO and his wife. This was my first time meeting the CO and it was Hans' first time meeting his wife. I've had lunch with Soraya, attended a bunch of meetings with her and of course, I see her in the fish bowl every third day. She is from Argentina. CO somehow went to Argentina's war college and met her there and the rest is history.
They have been in Japan for almost three years and found this teeny-tiny, hole in the wall Argentine restaurant (all you Spanish speakers please forgive me if I'm not using Argentine and Argentinian correctly). Hans likes his empanadas, so that's where we ended up last night.
It's a little weird, having this lovely, older Japanese couple come at you speaking Spanish. Soraya was in seventh heaven to speak the dialect and she and Hans were soon chatting back and forth.
Just when I think I know him, he surprises and astounds me again.
Anyway, supper was good, though I found the cuisine to be heavy, the wine was excellent and that's all I really care about, right ladies?
YOSC was my last meeting of the week and it was painless. I got to meet CDW's ombudsman at long last (for all you non-Navy types, the ombudsman is a ship's spouse who serves as a link between the command and the other spouses). Sat with her and Soraya and listened to a speech on disaster preparedness that was semi-informative.
I'm putting more names to faces, which is great in that I can say "Oh HIIII, so and so!" (imagine me in my "nice" voice), but not so great if I don't feel like running into them at the commissary and there they are and I have to make chit-chat. In case you missed that, I hate small talk. Unless I already know you and there's wine available. In which case, I'll chit chat your damn ear off.
Last week was busy and the coming week is going to be busy as well as I head into training for COMPASS. Don't ask me what it stands for because I don't know...but it's a mentoring program, so I will learn how to give courses on things like PCSing (moving for you non-Navy types), budgeting and Navy traditions. I have class on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for four hours.
Oh--trick or treating. I have to tell y'all about THAT! Remember when I said that they open the base and hordes of Japanese storm the place? Oh my goodness, was it FUN! The American kids were good too, of course, but watching the Japanese children pick out candy was priceless. They know Kit Kats, but that's about it, so they were curious about Twix, Snickers, Skittles. Most of them said "tricko-o-treato" and a few of them had little gifts to give back to us. The tiny little ones in costumes just slayed me. I wish I could have taken some pictures, but it is so dark on our end of the street. We threw up a table and set up a candy buffet with a few other families. Hans took our kids out for awhile and then they stuffed their gobs full of candy and ran around being total spazzes until bedtime. Trick or treating started at 4:30 and ended at 8:00 and I'm guessing we gave out candy to about 500 people.
Everyone else is good. Josiah had flag football on Tuesday and Annika had cheerleading, but I was at a meeting and didn't get to see them practice. William was with Miss Sara every day except Thursday and there were definitely moments on Thursday when I wished I had left him at Miss Sara's! She is taking a few days off starting next week, to make a visit to her husband...luckily, Hans isn't really "working" right now so he'll be able to handle Will for my social stuff.
Geez, I'm such a butterfly.
Oh...and there's a cat in our house. More on that later!
Comments
I was really curious about Halloween with the Japanese children. I'm so glad that was a positive experience. It would have been fun to see photos. What did your kids dress as? Did they have parties at school?
Thank you for your Gazette updates. I look forward to them.
Do you like the Japanese Plum Wines or can you buy American wine?