OK, I have to give it to Joe, Pam and Dean in Okinawa, they had me so spoiled and I didn't even know it! They really held me by the hand! First of all, Joe picked me up at the airport, drove me to my room and helped carry my luggage in. The next day he came to pick me up, we got my car and he was so kind to spend two hours riding around on base with me (they drive on the "wrong" side of the road and car). The next day, Pam picked me up took me to lunch and drove me to all the bases.
Things were a little different in the UK. I rode a bus from the airport to the base. We arrived at the base at about 12:30, I was dropped off in front of the lodging office to check, in given a map of the base and proceeded to walk to my room with all my belonging in tow! I walked around and found my way to Popeye's for a late lunch and located my office building.
Monday morning I arrived at work and was shown around the building and shown to my office, where I settled in. They work 7:30 until 4:30 in my office at Lakenheath, so it is dark when I went to work and dark when I got off work! I had one interview and four phone calls.
Tuesday I walked over to the travel office to make my flight reservations for Bahrain. After lunch I got out my trusty map and walked to the rental car office to pick up my car. Clive at Mindenhire Care Rental completed the paperwork, handed me the keys and showed me a little bit about the car. No one ever inquired if I noticed that they drive on the "wrong" side of the car and the road. I think if I was a car rental person, I would try to give the renter some words of wisdom. In Okinawa, Joe gave me words of wisdom that I still repeat to myself - "keep your hiney to the liney"! I had two interviews and took seven phone calls.
Wednesday was an uneventful day. I had four interviews and two phone calls. After work I spent some time driving around the base.
Thursday was driving class. No one told me that I should spend some time studying the driving book because the class is a 90 minute review and then a test. I am not sure what I expected, but had I know that I could be studying the book in my spare time, I certainly would have done that! Lucky for me, I passed the test with 82%, you had to have at least 80% to pass. I met a couple of really nice ladies in the class. One is from North Little Rock, she graduated from Sylvan Hills High School! I will definitely pass along the driving book to my replacement and let them know about the test!
As you can see, I really was spoiled by my buddies in Okinawa! By the end of the day on Monday, I was asking myself "what am I doing here - I'm too old for this?" This is now Tuesday of the second week and I am getting used to everything. I do miss "my sister" as Dean called Karen, my buddy that I hung out with in Okinawa. More than that I really miss Stephen! I can't wait for him to come over! I miss Jennifer, Morgan and the rest of the family also! Thank God for Skype, I get to see them regularly! Morgan got a computer for Christmas, so she gets on and calls me a lot!
They drive everywhere with a GPS here. I got an atlas from the car rental place, it is abut 50 pages, so it makes the country look HUGE! I think the map is really large compared to the maps that we use at home. I will close for now, I will tell you more about my week later.
Take care, say a prayer for me and please, please keep in touch!
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