No Internet for Gaijins

Our last week in the States was highlighted by an event we entitled “Monday Night for the Maloneys.” Our friends and family gathered to give us one big “goodbye”. It was wonderful and we would like to thank everyone who attended. Here are some of those people…

That Tuesday we both had to give up our iPhones, which I do not really want to talk about. Moving on…

We spent Wednesday night in Dallas because our flight left at 6 the next morning. Thanks to the advice of an employee of the airport we arrived three hours before our flight left. Here we are at 3 in the morning ready to go…

The counter opened and we soon found out that all three of our checked bags were over the weight limit. Since a few pounds were the difference between $25 and $150 we quickly redistributed our belongings.

Our first flight was from Dallas to Chicago. Not super exciting. But Chicago to Tokyo, a 14-hour flight, was…interesting. First, the flight attendants had 4 outfits that they changed to and from during the course of the flight. After several movies and a couple of meals we landed and trudged through the infamous immigration office.

Our boss met us at the airport and helped us take the 2-hour bus ride to Mito. I slept. Staci didn’t. We arrived to rain, 30-degree temperatures, and Oklahoma-grade wind. It was very confusing, but eventually we ended up in the car with someone who took us to our apartment.

And that’s when we met…the Kajiyamas! They are a wonderful couple that has basically adopted us as their own children. We stayed with them our first night, which was a good decision because we had no heater and it snowed. But before taking us home they proceeded to fill our apartment with everything but the kitchen stove (which they bought later). We had dinner and later breakfast at a table no more 6 inches above the floor under which my legs would not quite fit.

The Kajiyamas bought us many things for our apartment and we managed to purchase at least a few things without them paying (next post we will just give a tour of the apartment). Here’s the view from our front door (please note the cows)…

We had an intense week of training, filled out a lot of paperwork, went to our schools last Thursday and began working Friday. Here’s part of our group on the way to City Hall…

We are both quite happy right now though the language barrier is not great. Also, we have no phones or Internet, because we have no alien registration card. Usually it takes a week or so, but this year it is taking a month...

See you!

It is your birthday.

First item on the agenda was taking Vienna (the dog) to the Vet. It was very depressing and I made this video to commemorate the experience…

On Thursday, Staci celebrated a birthday. I am not authorized to disclose her age so let’s move right along to the festivities…

I spent most of the day running errands while the Mrs. went to get a pedicure with Heather and Hiroka. Our main plan (going to see a show) fell through so we called an audible and went bowling…

Here we are hoping our Wii skills would translate to actual bowling…they did not. I had the highest score (with 92), but no one could really claim a victory.

Heather is engaged! Will Jason be her Scotty Pippen? (Read Heather’s blog for explanation)

Tonight we spent time with some old friends. We ate some amazing queso and cheesecake and smores and wow that is a lot of food. I had actually forgotten we were “in the country” until a bobcat wandered up to the deck. Luckily, the cat Coco, Oleo, Oreo…(whatever the cat is going by now) defended us.

More to follow…

Home on the Ranch

Our last stop on the Maloney Farewell Tour was to see my grandparents in Lubbock. We played games, went shopping, ate steak and took naps (not in that order). It was great to see them and introduce them to Skype...

Now back in Oklahoma we are spending the rest of our time in the US with Staci’s parents…

We are currently living in their mudroom complete with washer/dryer and a bathroom that is currently out of order. It’s close quarters but is undoubtedly preparing us for an apartment in Japan...

Life in the country is not too bad, but the commute is not great. Every time we leave we are “going into town.”

Here’s picture of Tim tillin’ up the land... All that’s missing is a basket full of chicken and a big cold jug of sweet tea...

There are two new additions to the family. Their names are Vienna and Paris…They are a handful but very cute…

We leave in 10 days!

Daniel Does Dallas, Staci Sees Seminole

After leaving Alabama we spent a night in Baton Rouge, LA. We were too tired to explore the city, but did have a nice view from the window of our hotel room.

Most of our last few weeks have been in Texas. My dad and I spent a day picking up my brother from college and eating the best Chinese food I have ever had. We just spent a week with my parents shopping, studying and shooting…

We are now in Seminole (population around 6000), which personifies a local West Texas town. Complete with oil pumps, coffee shops and dueling snow cone stands it is a nice break from any number of the big cities along our path. Here we are with my grandparents…

Our time in Texas is almost over and our journey overseas is just around the corner.

The Maloney Farewell Tour

We’re homeless and…

Not pregnant or 16 and come to the realization that we have been watching too much television.

We are currently in Montgomery, Alabama visiting our friends Liz and Ryan. We made the 12-hour journey by car without a working radio. Why was our radio not working you might ask? There is a very logical explanation…we had an oil change. I’m sure it is nothing a little tinkering can’t fix.

The other day we impulsively drove down to Florida in search of sandy beaches. It was beautiful!

After being lightly toasted we did some more exploring and then went to Crabs to eat lunch/dinner. There we found the Real Housewives of Pensacola. For both their sake and yours I will not post that picture. Instead, here is one of us enjoying a good meal of mahi mahi, crab cakes, oysters and snow crabs.

This is a good first stop on our trip and it is truly wonderful to spend time with great friends.

We Are Not Smiles Times

DIY is a wonderful concept. It looks great on paper and the people in the pictures are always having so much fun, laughing and working in their sweaters. But once you become the "y" it takes on a different meaning.

Actually, our biggest problem now is that as of Wednesday we have no toilets (waiting on the floors to be redone). False, we have two very nice toilets sitting adjacent to each other in the guest bedroom. This brings about the question: Where to go to go? So far, onCue and Old Navy have very clean bathrooms.

This morning Staci woke up and was not thrilled about going to work and begged me not to make her go. With complete sincerity I said excitedly "but they have bathrooms there!"

We have been buying lots of grown up clothes and sorting through our belongings. Things are a little chaotic right now and that is why we are not smiles times.

Konnichiwa!

Here it is! Our inaugural blog post.

So I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that this post is not very interesting. The good news is that the blog should only get more and more exciting.

Life is slightly chaotic right now. We were recently accepted into the AET program through Oklahoma Christian University. Starting in April, my wife and I will be moving to Mito, Japan to teach English. This is a two-year commitment and is sort of a big step for us.

Right now we live in Oklahoma in a house on the corner. We both graduated from college last year and I am a teacher and my wife is a nurse. Together, we could probably form some kind of recession-proof superhero.

Please enjoy our adventure!

Staci and Daniel