I am spoiled!

As a military wife, I have made friends with many other military wives. Some have children and some don't. Some were born in the States and some were not and all from different cultures, backgrounds and faith to guide them to who they are today.

I guess, I am a pretty good listener and I also do try to learn and understand the cultures of my friends from all over the world. Lately, I have been getting many comments of shock, awe, and surprise as to what I do and what my husband does when he is at home.

Currently, I am home alone - so I have no choice but to take care of me: cook, clean and wash the car grudgingly. But, when my husband was here, he used to do much of that for me. He loves to cook, so I let him do it and I do love his cooking. He cleans up after dinner as well as I sit there and chat with him. He is good at cleaning too. Well, when he is here, he is home before I am, so that was his reasoning: he had time to relax and he liked to have the dinner ready when I get there tired and hungry. Only thing he asked me to do was ironing! So, in a way, yes I am very spoiled and very unfitting into typical Asian stereotype.

To say the least, we don't have defined roles as man vs. woman or husband vs. wife in our home, we do what we need to do and both have a mind to take care of each other. It works the best as far as I have experienced.

I know I am an exception to most typical families - but it is just my shout out to everyone that I am very lucky to have my husband in my life: a man of honor, respect and an absolutely wonderful human being, who loves me and loves his country.

Traffic

I do love living on the beautiful island of Oahu. Why would anybody not want to have a picture perfect view every day and sunshine and beutiful weather year around.

But there is this thing called traffic on this island. H1- Interstate (it doesn't go to any other state - or even any other island but this one) is the main artery for most automobiles trying to get to downtown. Especially from the west side of the island, in the morning, it feels like a parking lot that moves 5mph every now and then.

I haven't dealt with that for a while. I didn't miss a bit of it. Today, however, I had to go to town; thus, all the memories of traffic came rushing back and I dreaded it. So, I left two hours before my appointment time and ended up an hour early. Good thing I had a book to read.

Happy children

These pictures are taken in Afghanistan. I was able to be part of this - children in Mililani Middle School collected their used clothes and some school supplies and I sent them to my husband. He was able to distribute them and other stuff he has received from myself as well as many other people to children there. Just looking at them smiling and happy is worth the effort. Just hope this will help these children to remember the Americans as good people and who knows 20 - 30 years down the road, the country or even that region will have a positive attitude towards Americans, Westerners, and Christians as good and decent people. No ulterior motive in this but still wouldn't it be amazing what was done today as a concern for some children to have shoes to run around in that rocky terrain could help to eliminate the race and religion issues this world has had for centuries.

Citizenship

I had an interesting encounter with a stranger today - at the post office of all places. I do go to the post office regularly - very regularly in fact - that most of the employees there know me by name and pretty much know where I am sending what (mostly candies, clothes and what not to my husband, who is in Afghanistan and in turn he will deliver the packages to children in the remote area he is at).

Today while I was sending package to my husband and chatting with one of the employees, this lady at the next counter asked me some interesting questions, most of which I would not repeat here. She was very nice and also pretty naive if I can say that. She asked me to pronounce my full name and wondered where I was from - of course, the first guess was Korea and then China and Japan - and it just went further south... When I told her where I was from and how I got here - she wondered if I was illegal. No kidding. Considering she is actually in Hawaii, looking it dark haired and dark eyed Asian looking people should be the norm not the exception. Would I have told her if I was - well, I am not an illegal, just to make it clear. i told her about my journey in getting a citizenship. She was shocked how insanely hard it was and said "no wonder people just choose to be illegal than go through the red tape."

I don't see it as a red tape - I see it as a way to screen and also help those who are immigrating to this country. Once, you apply and get your permanent resident card (green card), you get this booklet/handbook that tells you: now that you are in the States - nowadays it is pdf file via email . . . It is designed to help you to adjust to the community and the culture. Actually very interesting and useful information in there even though I have been in the States for about 6 years already.

I am glad that I didn't have to break a law to reside in this country - because I have followed the law from the very beginning the steps leading to naturalization got easier.

I just hope the laws would be made clearer and be actually enforced, so those who follow the law have a better chance of getting what they have worked for - citizenship with no third degree treatment.

I wonder

I feel my mind is a tangled mess at times. I wonder about a lot of things - too many things, perhaps. Today, I was thinking about WHAT IFs. It is usually a bad sign once you start thinking what if. Mostly an indication of regret. But, my what ifs were more daring, if I say so myself. I thought: "what if I actually decided to learn to fly - after a life long day dream." and "what if I decide to join the military after everyone encouraging me to and me refusing to even think of it." If I did any of it today or just started the balls rolling - then wonder where it might lead my life to.

Independence day realization and reflection upon travel to overseas

The trip to Europe was great just for the reason of seeing my husband - kind of like a honeymoon. But, as far as the Europe itself, I was a bit disappointed, I have to admit. I psyched myself in what to expect and things just didn't meet my expectations. Of course, the low value of dollar didn't help.


Taking trains around to different countries and different cities were fun and something different.


And of course, experience with the tiny car with manual transmission was interesting to say the least.

Overall, I enjoyed Frankfurt, the most I think. I always wanted to go to Paris for a lot of reasons of being overly commercialized and romantized. But, in reality it just wasn't as amazing as I dreamt it would be. Sorry Parisians - no offence - but you need to clean up the trash and locate some public WCs around the city and keep them clean.

Since we went to Germany, of course, I wanted to see berlin - the changes and remainings of the Berlin wall and the museums showing the story of people who lived through the World War II and the building and falling of te Berlin wall, those who did cross into the West Berlin and to west Germany through different means and those who tried crossing and lost their lives or got caught and suffered the harsh punishments.

Americans have learned to take many things for granted and gotetn very spoiled. The evidence was very obvious - I have gotten spoiled. Considering where i grew up, I thought i didn't take things for granted and expected people to serve me. But, when the hotel service was poor, or the restrooms where I had to pay 80 cents (euro) and still come out grossed out with the uncleanliness and the poor quality of the toilet paper, I realized how wonderful it is to live in this country and not pay to go pee and not actually walk hours and not find a restroom.

I sound pretty bad obsessing over restrooms. But, the independence day spirit and the patriotic attitude of people made me realize how grateful we all should be to be living in this country no matter how bad we think things are here, it is million, trillion times better than everywhere else. The gas in France was about $9.50 a gallon and in Germany about $9.00.

People want so badly to live in this country that they risk their lives to come here and live in horrible conditions, some fight for this country when they haven't even gotten the blue passport to call themselves the Americans. Why? Because people have freedom to complain and critize anything and anybody with the wonderful bill of rights called freedom of speech. Stop complaining and start appreciating what you got. God bless America and those who are fighting for our freedom.

Missing my husband

I spoke to Keith this morning. In less that 80 days, hopefully, he will be in the States, hopefully on his way to Hawaii. When it gets closer, it seems like the time is not going fast enough - at times even it seems to stand still.