Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Woolly Mammoths

Not quite my finest moment.

Remember, before I came out to Oklahoma, I was really excited about seeing buffalo? This was because, ahem, I thought they were...um...extinct.

J, realizing this needed to be addressed immediately upon my arrival last September, took me out to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. It is HUGE, with over 59,000 acres of land. There are bison, elk, deer, wild hogs, a prairie dog town, longhorn cattle, not to mention tons of other animals just roaming around. You can drive through the refuge and, if you're too enthusiastic for your own welfare, actually get out and touch one of the animals you're that close. (I would definitely not recommend this course of action, as I myself was ferociously stared down by a furry-headed bison when I got too close in my excitement.)

There's also Mt. Scott, which lots of people hike or bike, but you can also drive to the top if you'd rather. It's beautiful.

Side note: J is clearly a crazy person.

So, I figured out why I thought buffalo/bison were extinct. I was confusing them with woolly mammoths. (Sometimes, I'm just not that bright despite what my mother used to tell me.)


NOT EXTINCT


EXTINCT

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Fresh Start


Ummm. Wow.

Really fell off the wagon there.

Sorry about that.

Now that I, slowly, painfully, have dragged myself back up here and am getting my bearings again, I really need to get caught up!

MUCH has happened. First, I figured I'm feeling a fresh start, time for a new blog. I no longer live in Korea, so the Korea travel blog is now a moment in time. Actually, at this point I've hit my six month mark in Oklahoma.

OKLAHOMA. Who knew that's where I'd be? Not this girl.

J and I are living together in a fantastic little apartment not too far from base, where he works, or from the university I started attending for my master's, or the high school where I do sub assignments. (It's pretty convenient.)

Alright, now that the basics are thrown out there, let's get into the juicy detail!

So J, that boy I met at the City Hall stop in Seoul, South Korea? He turned out to be...the man I married! Yes, married! He and I had been living together for a few months when, right before Christmas, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Most of my family actually met him as my fiancé. We were planning a big July wedding, but were told about three weeks ago that he would be deploying before that would ever take place. His unit is preparing to leave, but we don't know exactly when.

Actually, I should be finding out more tonight, so I'll see what the deal is.

So basically, they said, "Hey, you only have one week guaranteed leave before you deploy, so wrap up whatever you need to do." So...in one week, we scrambled to completely change plans and get married here on post with only immediate family. It was crazy! Because there really wasn't time for a wedding dress, I decided to go in a different direction; since he was going to be wearing his dress blue uniform to the ceremony, I would go with something 40's inspired! I wore a traveling dress, a birdcage veil, and bright red lipstick. The whole thing turned out to be really beautiful and special, and once I get the photos, I'm totally putting them up! We're still going to do the big ceremony we planned so we can celebrate with everyone, it'll just be when he comes home.

Then, since family had flown in, we spent our honeymoon with relatives. I'm not complaining, it just seems really funny to me. He still had to be back at work on Monday, so it wouldn't have been anything elaborate. Since we couldn't have romantic, we decided to go ridiculous.

This would be my brother, Luke, enjoying the heck out of some ukulele.

Basically, this sums it up. Sometimes it was a little difficult to play hostess because it's much different here than it was in Korea; here, I have to kind of search for random adventures, as opposed to just wandering into them. (I blame this entirely on the lack of a comprehensive public transit system. Places with subways are always chock-full of strange things waiting to happen.)

Other than that, the families,who had never met before, snuggled up in our little apartment and hung out, had some dinner, definitely had some drinking. That part was all hilarious, especially when J's very polite, Southern lady-esque grandmother was drinking peppermint schnapps straight from the bottle. Needless to say, I think they all got along swimmingly.

I have to say, although most people don't seem to like it here, it's been pretty good to me. I have my husband, the apartment, started school again, and got my foot in the door at a really great school. I've had some amazing experiences working there, and my next assignment starts up on Monday, so I'm getting nervous/excited about that.

And, to top it all off, J's parents brought us his dog they had been watching over while he was deployed.

Meet Q, the lovable 3-legged pup!