sleepless in seattle

We've arrived! I know this blog post has the cliche Seattle title, but jet lag makes your brain fuzzy and I haven't slept much over the last few days!

Our trip to Seattle, overall, was great compared to our travel to Japan two years ago!

We decided that it would be easier to take the Patriot (military flight) directly from our base to Seattle rather than flying commercially, which would mean a flight to Tokyo, a change in airports, and then a 14 hour flight to the states. This way, we only had a 10 hour flight, plus 4 hours in the muggy (non-air-conditioned) flight terminal. Way better than 28 hours non-stop, like last time!

The plane ride only moderately comfortable, but better than was expected. We entertained ourselves with iPad games and the in-flight movies (which consisted of The Matrix and National Lampoon's  Vacation...random much?)

Landing in Seattle was more arduous than expected, though. We didn't feel much of the expected culture shock when we arrived in Japan, but we definitely felt it coming back.

The chaos and disorganization going through customs were overwhelming. After grabbing our luggage from 4 different carousels, we made it down to the rental car terminal and made our way to the nearest grocery store with a Starbucks to use wi-fi.

Driving on the right side again (and actually having traffic lanes to drive through) was crazy! And then we arrived. Just a random Safeway, but we both stopped for a full thirty seconds in the entrance. Bombarded with a florist, banking services, a Starbucks kiosk, a movie store, and a bakery before even entering the grocery section reminded us we were not in Kansas Japan any longer! No more small markets for us! The Wal Mart was even crazier. It's amazing how two years can change your perspective so much, with things any American completely takes for granted. I can only imagine how it must feel for a foreigner to come to America for the first time.

We got ourselves set up with a T-Mobile hotspot so we could use our Japanese phones, and headed back to the airport. We had found out a week earlier that my bestie, May, was flying back from South Africa only hours after we arrived! It was a loud and celebratory reunion and it was great to know we were both back on American soil together.

We then headed to a 100% gluten free bakery I had researched (Haley's Corner Bakery - see the review here if you're interested!) and had our first American meal: deep dish pizza. It was delicious! We then made our way up to Everett to find Bethel's house.

Long day, but we're so excited to be here in Seattle!

of noodle museums and new coffee treats

We recently had our first Japanese mall experience. And yes, I do say "experience." Just like most other things here, we are learning as we go, and the mall was no different. We went to the ELM Mall in Goshogawara (try saying that three times fast!). Since we hadn't eaten that day, the first place we wanted to head was toward the food court. We had gotten a recommendation to try out the "noodle museum." Having no clue what this was, we didn't know what to expect. Was this actually a museum about noodles or did we lose something in the translation? When we got there, we understood.

This was not really a museum...it was an exhibition. A noodle exhibition. Basically, you walk in and you're transported to this whole new world, revolving around noodles. It had a bit of a rain forest motif going on, and there were about 20 different noodle restaurants along this dark path with Japanese tiki statues and trees surrounding the whole area. Each restaurant had somewhere around 10 tables in it, and each one had what looks like a vending machine in front.

Well, it doesn't just LOOK like a vending machine. It is one. Basically, you decide what you want to eat and then push the button on the vending machine. You insert your yen and it prints a ticket. You hand the ticket to the person at the counter and they bring it to you when it's done being made.

Well, this is all fine and well, except that it was all in kanji and we had no clue what we were ordering. We decided to take a crack at it, though, and ordered a few things. We ended up with udon noodles (which I love) and a fishy soup (not so much) and some amazing gyozas. Ben ended up going with the noodles and soup while I polished off the gyozas. We had seen several Japanese bakeries throughout the mall, so we weren't too disappointed that we both only had half a meal.

We wandered around the mall, observing the objects and the people (as well as looking for Christmas gifts for friends and family back in the states!) We found some awesome little trinkets, but most of the things we found were really expensive. We figured we were better off going with some of the things we had found in local shops around Misawa instead. Along our walk, though, we found a few familiar sites, including a Baskin Robbins and (drum roll, please) the only Starbucks in Aomori Prefecture!



While we have a few cafes on the base that brew Starbucks coffee, none of them have nearly the selection that a real Starbucks does. While we were unable to find the Starbucks mug with "Japan" on it, we did find some really great Starbucks treats. We decided to try drinks that were not available in the states. I got a dark chocolate java chip frappuccino (which was the best drink I've ever gotten at a Starbucks!) and Ben got a matcha frappuccino.

Armed with our caffeine, we were ready to do some more exploring. We found a fish market (and a few vegetable and sushi markets) right inside the mall, where the Macy's would have been in an American mall. We found a suspicious looking KFC across from an even more suspicious looking Italian restaurant. And, we found a ton of bakeries with scrumptious goodies calling our names. We ended up getting an amazing cheese and meat stuffed sandwich to compensate for our small lunch, and marveled at how intricate some of the pastries were along the bakery shelves. We knew when we came here to expect the Hello Kitty cuteness that pertains to just about everything in Japanese culture, but it still surprised us that they even add these attributes to their bread.

We are excited that something as mundane as going to the mall could seem so exciting, and we're even more excited about exploring more around the area!

tales from the classroom: patriots and starbucks

My kids this year are hilarious. Smart, sassy, sarcastic, and hilarious.

I have a thing I like to do involving a classroom economy. Each student gets paid weekly for doing jobs, as if they were each on the job site every day. They get money for coming to school, for completing tasks correctly the first time, and for classroom jobs (we have a bulletin board for different jobs the kids can apply for). They also pay money for optional supplies or extra supplies that they have depleted (ie pencils they lost or markers that ran out of ink).

On the first week of school, I allow each student to create a money template that we'll use all year, and then the class votes on the one they like the best. Usually, I get pictures of whatever our school's mascot is. Being the Patriots, I recieved the expected bills with pictures of flags, patriot soldiers, eagles, and other patriotic emblems. One student, though, drew a simple shooting star on the front of his dollar, and sarcastically called it a "star buck." Of course, this one won the vote, so our new classroom currency is in Starbucks.

Har har har.