Okinawa...again

I can't believe it is Thursday already. Our whole team has been together now for over a week now which seems hard to believe. I know we still have the biggest events to come and a few more weeks but it is going to go by fast. I'm trying to soak it all in...

We are pretty much in a routine here in Okinawa. A typical day is like this:
6:30- wake up
7:30- load the bus for the pool
8-10- swim
11- talk to Dick..:)
12-3- lunch and hang out, relax, watch a movie, etc...
3:30- load the bus for the pool
4-6- swim
7-10- dinner, see our sponsor, hang out
10ish- bedtime

I have seen my sponsor a few times and I really like her. We are the same age and have a lot on common. I went to dinner with her 2 nights ago to this Brazilian Steakhouse place where they cook the food in front of you. It's called Teppanyaki. I had some Kobe beef and it was tasty. Last night I met with my sponsor again and had a really cool experience. She is a flight nurse and last night she was helping load a mission that was flying out to Hawaii. I got to go and see them load the plane and get into the cockpit and such. It was a KC135 aircraft and is usually used for re- fueling missions. It was huge. The pictures posted here are of me in the cockpit and one of me in the engine. I asked 5 times to make sure the plane would not be turned on while I was sitting there... It was real neat just seeing how they load for a mission like that and seeing the airfield. It renewed my desire to learn how to fly which I promised myself I will do someday.

Between the track and field team and the swimming team here at Kadena there are 4 wounded vets, 2 of us from Iraq. I am the only one on the swimming team. Yesterday the 5 of us went and had a question and answer session for a few hundered new air force personnel. That was pretty neat too.

I also posted a picture of the pool we train at every day. I am getting more used to the humidity and such, it doesn't seem so bad anymore and the pool is real nice. It is almost pleasant at night. They have these huge fruit bats here that come out at night. They are almost double the size as a bird would be.

I am really enjoying myself here so far. Everyone is so nice and so helpful. I really can't think of anything else I would need. I'll post more pics and write more later.

And if you like, check out these link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/e60/columns/story?columnist=thompson_wright&id=3552762
or
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1593382/20080822/id_0.jhtml