Typhoon

A typhoon swept through Okinawa this weekend, and with it my weekend has become a blur of new experiences and nice memories.

Friday night after school Abbey and I decided that we would bite the bullet and move into our apartments. There is still some work that needs to be done, but considering people are quick to remind us of the lackadaisical pace Okinawans move at otherwise known as "Okinawan time", we decided it would be worth it to finally have our own space. Friday night was spent packing, trying to keep the washing machine and window screen that currently occupy my room out of the way, and looking past how grimy my refrigerator was. It was a busy night and we both went to bed with the feeling that there was still a lot of work to be done!


The next morning I was awakened from a dead sleep with my three American co-workers in my room, telling me I had overslept and was late to go to a speech contest we were expected to attend! I was so disoriented it took me a minute to realize what they were talking about, and then I felt my stomach sink as I realized my mistake. I realized after the fact that while I was unpacking the night before, my alarm clock had fallen on the ground from a table in the corner of the room. I put it back upright and thought it was fine, but I realized later that the fall had caused it to break, and thus my alarm never went off. Being late is a horrible feeling and I felt very badly, but luckily the apartments are close and it was I was only late by 15 minutes or so. Still, now I'm on my best behavior at school to make sure that doesn't happen again. The teachers were very kind though, and the speech competition was actually enjoyable. The representative from our school actually won second place!

We were all going to go out to lunch after the competition but the quickly gathering clouds reminded us that the typhoon was on its way, and it was supposed to be a doozy. Once back at the apartments, David took us to a famous ramen shop (for my Tokyo friends, I think it is another branch of Ippudo- the first kanji is different but the second is the same, and the inside of the store is almost identical to that of the Ippudo at Takada!). Later that night, after the rain was pouring and the wind blowing, I put on my rain suit I bought from the grandma in the Naha marketplace and trekked over to the grocery store. I felt kind of silly walking around in my matching lavender pant/coat set, but I was dry!

The typhoon was a bit scary, though. Abbey and my apartments are on the 10th floor, the "penthouse" as we call it, so at the worst moments we could feel the building shake! The winds reached 115-130 miles per hour, and it was scary at times to hear the roar outside my windows. It was a pretty restless night as the storm peaked between 1 am and 5 am, so I kept waking up at various times. However, I made it and now I know what to expect!

Sunday was spent further cleaning and organizing, but perhaps the most notable event was that we FINALLY bought our cell phones! David and his girlfriend Mei helped us though the entire process, truly a blessing as Mei is Japanese and was able to translate the more complicated parts.

All-in-all a great weekend. Still licking my wounds after oversleeping and waking up to my co-workers in my room on Saturday morning telling me to wake up, but mistakes happen! Now that I have my cellphone I also finally have a reliable alarm.