Christmas in Afghanstan

The MRAP they decorated with Christmas lights... and yes, Santa jumped out of the gunner's turret.

My flannel sheets that I got from my secret Santa!

Me and the decorated MRAP!

Happy Holidays All!

This is the third out of the last four Christmas' that I have not spent in North Carolina with family and friends... and let me tell you it still sucks.

However, out of the three I would say this has been the most memorable one. Lets recap.

Missed Christmas 1:

Watched some lame movie while I was in boot camp at Parris Island. Drill Instructors screamed. Ate 1 oreo cookie as my "present from Santa."

This was of course after I had the 2300-0100 watch on Christmas Eve and was forced by my drill instructors to "go watch for Santa" all around 4th Battalion.

Missed Christmas 2:

I was in Okinawa, Japan with the Hubby. However, we woke up Christmas morning... it was like 55 degrees and had no gifts to open, nor did we have a single Christmas decoration up.

Don't get me wrong, it was absolutely amazing having him there with me and I wouldn't have traded that opportunity for the world... but as they say "misery loves company," which brings me to Christmas in Afghanistan.

Missed Christmas 3:

All the co-workers in my office and I gathered in an entirely way to small room on Christmas Eve and exchanged secret Santa gifts. I got flannel sheets from my secret Santa which was AWESOME, seeing as it has get gotten freezing cold here at night.

Christmas Day I slept until nearly 1500 because I had stayed up til 0330 to talk to the Mounce family. Then I came into work and we all went to chow together. The guys in the chow hall did their best to make it like a real American Christmas dinner, but it was far from the families cooking. However, I applaud their attempt.

Then I stayed after everyone had left and watched "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time with a co-worker. Needless to say, that was a great experience and the movie really brings you back to Earth.

I once again stayed up until ridiculous hours talking to family and friends. I got home at 0300 and overslept and had to knock on my boss lady's door to use my half-day off I had earned from working previous days.

And that brings me to the current times. After a full day at work I am staying up to watch UNC whoop Mizzou in the Independence Bowl.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year from Afghanistan.

Pacific to Atlantic

Mom and I in downtown Wilmington before heading to see the Battleship USS North Carolina.

Gil and I posing on the battleship.

Would you like a large, medium or small Marine? At "Senior Prom" at a nursing and rehabilitation center in Jacksonville, N.C.

I cook farely often for Gil... this is my taco ring of glory.

Gil and I before he had one of his tests run.

Mom and I. She had shoulder surgery and I had the skin melted off of the palm of my hand while running the obstacle course in the N.C. sun.

Gil and I walking back after hitching a ride to McDonalds while camping on Carolina Beach. We didn't exactly plan for breakfast the following morning.

It has certainly been a while since my last post, but with good reason.

I have moved from Okinawa to North Carolina and I am station in Jacksonville now doing public affairs instead of television and radio. The change was hard at first, but I got back into the swing of things to say the least. I have learned that if you continue to screw up stories and photos, you will EVENTUALLY get them right.

It is crazy finally getting my own apartment and shiz set up. But, as fate would have it, right when Gil is ready to move down here and we finally have everything in place, I am going to have to leave my humble abode to deploy. For operational security reasons, I will not post where/when I am headed, but if you want to know just ask me or my parents. No worries though folks, the blog will pick back up when I am deployed.

So Gil should be moving down here next week (hopefully) and we will actually get to live together for like a whole MONTH! Exciting I know. I figure after 30 days with me he will be ready for me to leave again anyways. Haha.

I'm sure you want to know what we've been doing and things of that nature, but honestly I can't remember. Everything is such a blur. One thing I do know is that starting an apartment and/or house is freaking expensive, but it is definitely worth it in the end.

Also, we made our first big purchase together and bought a charcoal 2011 GMC Terrain. It about made both of us sick to spend that much money, but I think we are definitely enjoying the car....maybe a little too much. 6,000 miles in just 2 months!

Mom had her shoulder surgery. The recovery process has been difficult for her, so prayers are appreciated. Gil has his gall bladder removed July 22, prayers are appreciated there too.

I have the rifle range next week. I am super stoked to get to shoot with the aycog (I don't actually know if that is how you spell that or not). It should make my third time qualifying expert as easier than the first two ;).

Anyways, aside from travelling across the state, meeting new friends, checking out Wilmington and well starting our lives together things have been rather boring, but that's just the way I like it.

Speaking of milestones, we recently celebrated our one year anniversary on July 10th. Awesome, I know.

Well I think I am starting to ramble and don't really know what I am going to talk about right now. So I will leave you with this: newriverrotovue.com. click on the newspaper looking thing in the top right corner and you can check out all the happenings at MCAS New River and read my awesome stories.

Hope everyone is well. My humour and wit will return along with my TMO shipment from Okinawa. I think it's "somewhere in the Pacific."

Take care and I love you all.

Good things come in 3's...

Okay, so it's been a while like normal since I last posted on here. Honestly, I usually just forget, or when I actually think of something blog worthy I am at work and can't do a whole lot about it because of the government Internet. So, nonetheless, here I am today to tell you about the good things that come in threes...(although they can turn bad).

1.Husband-

Now this is not the one that turned bad. (Not what most you ladies were thinking I'm sure, but I'm not lying...he is good...98% of the time).

As most of you know, Gil got to come and visit Okinawa. We had a wonderful time. Thanks to outside funding, love, and a donation of a family member (Connie let me have Gil) we got to spend our first Christmas together. I'm not going to say it was a fairytale Christmas, but it suited us just fine. Santa Claus didn't visit that day...so I guess the rumors are true, you do have to have a tree to get Santa to come. However, we did order our dishes and silverware that day, so I guess Santa came in anther way. Speaking of dishes, I showed them to a co-worker and she asked if I was Mexican because they are so colorful. What can I say, I think they're nice.

If you want to see more pictures than the couple I post here visit my facebook page.

2. Fish-

After Gil left Okinawa I was kinda depressed as any loving wife would be. So someone decided it was good to leave me and S20 unsupervised and I came home with seven children. That's right...seven. I had 3 "fancy goldfish" 2 "feeder goldfish" and 2 "algae eaters." Ten days later I have 1 "algae eater." This is the good thing gone bad.

Now, I'm not saying that my seven fish replace Gil. They don't talk or interact with me, however, they do at least keep me company so I enjoyed them. Until they started dying. First went Toby, then Confetti, then Donna, then Things 1 & 2 and finally Algae 1. So it's just me and Algae 2 at the moment holding down the fort, I hope he lives til I get orders.

Anyways, the fish were a fun adventure that I will probably never do again.

3. Yoga-

Now I know what all of you are thinking...YOGA?!?! Meredith?!?! Yoga!!!

Yes, it is true, I went to my first yoga class tonight. Talk about an experience. I have never felt so inadequately good in my life. First of all this like grey haired 65 year old lady (no offense to anyone reading this blog who fits that description) could do everything...that's the inadequate part. So, I was in the back corner about to pass out because apparently I can't stay balanced and breathe at the same time. My shoulders are sore, but I do feel stretched out which is what I was shooting for...so that's the good part. So I'm going to try to do another class this week at the gym if they have it. If not, I will definitely be returning next Tuesday.

If you can get past all the hippie mombo jumbo it is one heck of a stretching workout. So to yoga, I salute thee.

Other than these adventures, there isn't much to report about. I am still waiting for orders. There has been a PCS (when I change stations) freeze due to lack of funding for the military, so until some bill is passed in Congress I am awaiting orders. Word is I will be going to MCAS New River, NC. But, don't hold me to it because nothing is certain in the Marine Corps except that it is uncertain and you will always hurry up to wait.

Lastly, I would like to put a plug in for the Barnes and Noble Nook. It is awesome if you enjoy reading I highly recommend it.

Hope everyone is well. I look forward to catching up and visiting with family and friends as soon as I get back.

Love you all.

Tokashiki Island

Finally, the pictures from Tokashiki Island. There would have been more and they would have been better had my finger not covered the lens on half of them. Hope you enjoy.

Ramblin' On

As I sit in the hallway outside my room to write this, there is a guy practicing riding a unicycle down the hallway. He has failed quite a few times already, and now he has asked me to take him to the hospital if he hurts himself. Needless to say, I respectfully waited 5 minutes and then walked outside to sit in the picnic area in between my dorm and its twin.

I guess I will go ahead and warn you that this really has no purpose, so if you don't appreciate/like my rambling you can probably stop reading now and save yourself valuable minutes of your life.

Oh, I want to apologize for the snorkeling videos, those were the first ones I have ever done and underwater videography is definitely a skill that I lack. So keep a trash can close by if you actually watch them. I would practice more, but I don't know how much snorkeling is left. It is starting to "cool down" here, which means its low 80s. I'm not complaining, after the snow fest the east coast suffered last year, this is a nice adjustment, one I can live with for sure. Not going to lie though, Christmas in the 60s is going to be odd.

Word on the street is if I can find a guy named Mr. Miagi I can see a mongoose fight a habu snake. I think that would definitely be a sight to see. It's up north somewhere near Nago.

This island is really small. Basically it's like a drive from Stokes to Raleigh to go from Nago to Naha. The biggest difference is the speed limit is 80 kph (about 50 mph) versus I-40s at 65mph. That is one thing that cracks me up about this island. All the movies would make the average westerner believe that all Japanese drive supped up cars and drift around all the time. Now don't get me wrong, there are drifters, but that’s the 5% of the hoodlums that cause 95% of the problems...at least from what I see.

They have yellow plate cars here. That means the have a yellow license plate. What this means is they have an "economy sized engine" aka slow. But hey, they have a better carbon footprint than I do.

A really cool thing they have here are karaoke booths. You go in with you and your friends and you sit in like a "U" shape around a low table and you have unlimited karaoke (and drinks and food if you choose) for the amount of time you choose to pay for. It is a real treat, because you don't a) have to worry about making a complete fool in front of anyone besides your friends and b) the slit-your-wrist songs are unanimously vetoed. Cool idea...might try it back in the states sometime...if all my other career choices don't work out of course.

Steinbrecher-Hoffmann says hi.

Last night a whole bunch of us from the Marine Detachment Fort Meade got together and headed out the gate for a little reunion and to hang out with one of my buddies, LCpl Rogers, who is down from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni for pre-deployment training. It was great to get to see everyone and hang out. Everything was good until we tried to come back on base. The base commander had issued a 100% search of all honchos (cabs) at the gate. They had drug drugs and random urine analysis. So instead of our honcho ride being around 800 yen it turned out to be 1520 yen. With the yen rate being 79 yen to 1 dollar, that was the difference in about 10 bucks. That really griped by batooter. Nevertheless, I participated in the search and went to Chili's Too. Those bacon ranch quesadillas are the best. I ate about half of it and gave the other half to the honcho driver that took me to the dorms. He was grateful and I think he was actually going to eat it. Which is somewhat awesome if I do say so myself.

After I got back I went bowling with a couple friends. I bowled a 167. That never happens. If they had a lottery here I would have bought a ticket...because it was my lucky night.

The thing I love most about Okinawa is the low crime rate. It's awesome. You never really feel in danger here. People are honest and kind. It's rather amazing. It's like walking through main street in Walnut Cove at night. The only difference is millions of people live on this island. For America to be like this we would have to get rid of "big business." Don't get me wrong, I am not saying competition and the drive to succeed should leave, that is what has shaped us into the country we are, but where did we lose sight of "the melting pot?"

I am reading a pretty awesome book series. It's by Steig Larsson. It started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, then The Girl Who Played with Fire and finally the third book The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest. I highly recommend these books if you are looking for an engaging fiction read. The books are lengthy, but there is never a dull moment.

The food here is very different than the food in the states. Take McDonalds for instance, I never eat McDonalds in the states. The cooks take zero pride in their product...it is so different here. I order a big mac and it actually looks like the picture. It also looks like the employees actually wash their uniforms each night.

People here are so accommodating. Me an English speaking westerner can go pretty much anywhere and have a somewhat effective conversation. I pity the people that visit or immigrate into America. Most people don't even know Spanish. The mentality is "if you’re in my country, know my language." That is ignorance and lack of initiative my the government and school systems.

I have always wanted to be part of something bigger than myself, but that is hard being an American. Everything is self-driven with the purpose of personal gain. No matter what you do. For me, I see this never changing which is upsetting. Probably the most selfless people in America are teachers that teach because of their passion. As well as volunteer firefighters. Thank you for what you do.

Well, I guess that is enough rambling from me. I will leave you with this quote from my dad, "if guns kill people, then pencils misspell words."

Videos

Videos from snorkeling at Maeda Point. Hope you enjoy.

September 2010

I haven't had time to write on the weekend because I haven't been in my room except to watch college football from 0100 to around 1200 hours on Sunday mornings. That's right, we watch the games live. Right now, as I type, there are some really good games on. Florida/Alabama, Stanford/Oregon and Penn St/Iowa...and yes it is only 0921.

Anyways, I have been snorkeling at Maeda Point and Tokashiki Island, as well as camping at Okuma.

Maeda Point is absolutely breathtaking under the water. There is an unbelievable amount of coral down there. The water is really shallow, so you run a risk of getting cut. I have gloves and booties so I am good to go. Here are a few photos that I took with my friend’s underwater camera at Maeda.

BEFORE HEADING INTO THE CAVE

SEA CUCUMBER

THESE FISH RARELY MOVE, AND BLEND WELL.

THESE SCARE ME.

ME WITH THE CLOWN FISH.

NEMO'S FAMILY.

STARFISH ARE EVERYWHERE.

SEA LIFE/CORAL.

SCHOOL OF FISH.

MORE FISH/CORAL.

MAEDA POINT.

ME AGAIN.

THIS FISH FELT THE NEED TO GET CLOSE TO THE CAMERA.

Okuma is also gorgeous. A few people from work got together and camped out for the night up on the ridge. Okuma has a lot to offer people that come to visit. They have jet skis, wakeboarding, kayaking, a beautiful beach, snorkeling and more. So if you are around this area I highly recommend you check it out. Here are a few pictures that I took of friends while we were up there.

J NAVA

RACHAEL AND AMANDA (THE INTERN)

NATE CARBERRY

CARBERRY GETTING IT DONE.

BEACH AT OKUMA.

MORE BEACH AT OKUMA.

Finally, the visit to Tokashiki Island…it was absolutely gorgeous. We started out with a 70 minute ferry ride out of Tomari Wharf. The boat ride was peaceful. The we arrive at an island that you only believe can exist on a 72 inch lcd hdtv with 3-D goggles. It really is breathtaking. I bought a disposable underwater camera for the trip so I am waiting to get that developed before those photos can be posted. Nonetheless, here are a few photos friends took with their I-phones.

ME, NAGLE AND CARBERRY ON THE FERRY.

CBS SHOULD DO SURVIVOR HERE... AND CALL IT SURVIVOR: PARADISE ISLAND.

TAKEN FROM THE FERRY.

ONCE AGAIN, MORE BEAUTIFUL ISLANDS.

TAKEN ONCE WE GOT OFF THE FERRY.

Other than my weekend adventures, I have just stayed busy with work. As of tomorrow, I will be the NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge) of the News department at AFN. So that means added responsibilities, but nothing I can’t handle. I am starting a “Day in the life of…” series. I hope that it works out like I envision. The first of the series will be completed tomorrow and go on air Tuesday night.

We are looking into a way to post the newscasts from work so that viewers can download them. If anyone knows of a site that we can upload videos to and have viewers download for free that is accessible through the NIPR network please let me know.

I have some pretty funny random thoughts, but I can never remember them when I come to write. So I think I am going to open up a word document and keep a compiled list there. So stay tuned for that.

Hope everyone is well. Keep the family of LCpl Ralph Fabbri in your prayers. He was a combat cameraman killed in Afghanistan.

Until next time, stay classy blog readers.

Marine Corporal Meredith Brown, Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.