Azores Goals?

  When Jared and I found out we were moving to the Azores there was two things I really wanted to work on, school and braces. So Thursday I went to the education office on base to meet with a counselor and see what my options are. I was disappointed to find out there are no education counselors. There are only counselors representing their own school. So I met with them to see what degrees they offer in what fields. I want to go to school for something along the lines of physical therapy because I already have my anatomy down and I really enjoy it. Neither of the counselors I met have anything around that area besides nursing, which I don't want to do. I can't deal with blood, it grosses me out. So I am trying to figure out what field and school I can get into that is offered online. 

  I also went to the dentist to see about getting braces and was only able to talk to two young ladies that work at the front desk. They said I am not able to get braces and that they only maintain braces for those people who PSC with them on so I can't even go get them in the states because they said they wont help. I am not giving up. I am going to call the insurance company and see what they say. 

  But so far, this sucks :/

  

Temporary Family

  I can't get over how nice everyone is here, American and Portuguese people. There must be something in this Islands water. I am not used to people being so nice. Back at our other duty station everyone was a little more concerned with them selves and the customer service was horrible, on base and off, and back in California, forget it! But people here go out of their way to help others. Our first night in our home our landlord invited us over for dinner to have a traditional Portuguese home cooked meal and him and his wife didn't even know us at all. When we go around the Island the customer service is usually really good. When we are on base the customer service is also really good and people, no matter their rank, actually give you the time of day and are helpful.
  Here on the Island I think everyone is more like a family, especially the military families. We are so far from everything we know and love so we group together forming our temporary families. I have met so many great people here already in this one month I have lived here. If I have to be stuck on this Island for 2 years I am glad I get to form a great temporary family and forever friends.

Power Outage

  The whole Island had a black out yesterday, no power, twice! The first time wasn't to bad, in my village, because it only lasted for about 20 minutes. It was around 1430 and I was cleaning up the kitchen so power was not really needed for that. On base, and other parts of the Island it was off for around 2 hours, that we know of, because my husband came home.
  Right after I had just finished making dinner the power went out, again. That was around 1800. My husband was almost finished with his online homework and was about to turn it in, good thing he saved it because our laptop turns off if it's not plugged in. It was still light outside so we didn't have to eat in the dark. I guess if we had to it would have added a little bit of romance.
  After dinner we cleaned up the kitchen and it was really nice because there was no TV on or any other noisy objects. It was just hubby and I talking and laughing; which doesn't happen a lot because it's always the TV or Xbox taking over the talking.
  At this point the power had still not come on so my husband decided to go to bed and set his alarm for 0400 to finish and turn in his homework hoping the power would be turned on by then. As for me, I am a late nighter and a horrible morning person so there was no way I was going to bed.
  Candles were starting to be needed so I grabbed 4 and set them on the table by the couch. I was getting board fast. I decided to do a little bit of knitting. Every time I knit in front of people they always call me an old women. Frankly I am proud of my acquired talent and in that moment it came in handy. Sitting there on the couch with candles and no noise was making me tired so at 2100 I hit the hey. We woke up at 0300 and the lights were on :). My husband finished and turned in his homework and then we went back to sleep.
  I thought our house was like some great power house because even in the storm when all of our friends had no power we had power the whole time. I feel like this is what I get for bragging to my husband about our wonderful power energy house. But hey, when the Island is out of power, the Island is out of power! I have no idea what was going on on the Island and I don't know if it's a normal occurrence and if it is, depending on the time frame of the day this could turn out to be a really good thing or not so good thing...

My first storm, literally

  Last week Tropical Storm Nadine hit the Island. I had never been in a tropical storm before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought there would be lots of thunder and lightening but there was only rain and wind, and lots of it! I am so glad it was only for a night. And I am more grateful that none of our things were damaged. There was some water that did get in threw the windows and doors but nothing to dramatic.
  That night the wind just kept slamming against the windows so it took me a while to fall asleep. After I finally did fall asleep I had to have woken up at least 10 times that night. I am not going to lie, I do not like storms and I was afraid. Every time I woke up I would think every possible bad thing, like my house being flooded or a window broken. So lack of sleep being the worst thing to have happened that night I would say we were blessed.
  My husband went to work the next day and said he saw a couple of doors bent in half and some fences knocked down. That was the worst of the storm and I am hoping there will be no more storms while I am on this Island. I will say though, the next day was surprisingly beautiful.
  God bless those who will be involved in future natural disasters across the world!