Movin' Right Along

Now I'm going to have this song stuck in my head all week, but we're moving right along.  Slowly checking some big things off our to-do list for the move.  A few weeks ago we got all the paperwork submitted for our passports (special military ones, does that mean they're more or less likely to take forever?) and last Friday we all got medically cleared.  Phew!  I think those were the most time-sensitive things, so now everything else can fall into place with a little less stress.

Passport pictures (always so flattering)

It's weird to think that Elena's picture will better match Madeleine

on our way back in a few years.

Adam just heard from his sponsor, so we're starting to get some more details about life there and what Adam's job will be.  Sailors get a sponsor whenever they are in the process of arriving to a new command (for instance, when we came to the submarine here) and that sponsor is just another junior guy who's been at the command for a few years.  They're very helpful about answering questions and providing an idea of what to expect.

{Can I just say how unfortunate it is that you have to get explanations through me?  I apologize...}

So have you seen the part in 'Hunt for Red October' where they're decoding the messages?  Adam will be the guy on land sending and receiving messages from the boats.  That's my simple understanding.  :)  Anyway, they need to be available to communicate with the boats around the clock, so it'll be shift work for him while he's the new guy either doing 'swing' shift (2:30pm to 10:30pm) or the midnight shift, aka 'mids' (10:30pm to 6:30am).  I think that lasts until newer guys replace him, about a year, then Adam moves onto a daytime staff job.  With shift work it's usually 5-7 days on a certain watch and then 2-3 days off.  My experience with shift work comes from the prototype school in New York, but Elena was only a few months old so I was up at all hours anyway.  :)  I'm sure it'll be a little different this time around with older kids, but I hear there are lots of parks in Japan to explore while Daddy is napping during the day.

The only bummer is that apparently none of the other junior officers in his department have kids, and only half of the guys are married.  I'm not really worried about finding friends; we're planning on enrolling Elena in a preschool, and there's a Catholic church on base so my guess is we'll meet plenty of friendly people in no time.  I will bet, though, that a bunch of kid-less guys probably have slightly different social gatherings that we've become accustomed to.  Oh well.   Good news is that they don't really seem to care when we show up, so right now our orders just say to detach from our boat in July and report in Japan sometime in August.

I'll post more updates as we continue to learn more!