Two Years at Sea

So... after bugging Damian for 2 years about writing a "guest blog" he has finally agreed... what a treat!!!!

Two years ago, with 2 sea bags stuffed with a smorgasbord of uniforms and gear, I flew half way around the world away from my newly wedded wife to start my new role as the Ship’s Nurse onboard the only forward deployed nuclear aircraft carrier (USS GEORGE WASHINGTON CVN-73, aka GW) in the Navy.  The first thing you need to know is that I applied for this position and I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to experience this aspect of Military nursing (which few nurses will ever experience in their life).  After several painful hours of traveling around the world, my last leg came to a sudden stop, literally. 

My first experience as the Ship’s Nurse was landing on the flight deck in the back of a C-2 Greyhound (see picture at right) going full speed and coming to a sudden stop in less than 1,092 feet.  Now that may seem like a lot to some people, but I promise you that it isn’t and I was grateful that I was in the back and couldn’t see a thing. Let’s recap, in less than 48 hours I flew from San Diego to the GW, which was trying to out run a typhoon (fun, but extremely exhausted). 

At this point in my military career I had been on only one other military ship; translation I had no idea what to expect or what I was getting myself into.  This might be a good opportunity to describe GW a little bit.  An aircraft carrier is truly a modern marvel.  The GW is 1,092 feet long, 257 feet wide and 244 feet tall and can carry 6,000 sailors.  It is ultimately a huge floating airport where space is not wasted.  There is so much to this ship that even after 2 years I still get lost and discover new areas I didn’t know existed.  Fun Fact: the GW is the 17th busiest airport in the world!

What did I do onboard? Medical is not a big department first off considering we are the only medical facility for 6,000 sailors.   Thankfully we care for a fairly young and healthy population.  We do have the ability to perform emergency surgeries and we do have a 3 bed ICU on top of a 50-bed ward, as well as other services such as Physical Therapy, Laboratory, and Psychology just to name a few.  When I did perform patient care, it was mostly for Post Operative recovery.  Of course we can’t count out the Medical Emergencies around the ship. 

Medical Emergencies ranged from dehydration to falls to physical injuries.  These occurred throughout the day and night (mostly at night of course), which meant we were on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  However, even now I am surprised at how few physical injuries we saw over the past 2 years considering there are so many ways for someone to injure themself on a ship. 

CAPT Lausman (Commanding Officer)

As the sole nurse I had to wear many hats and fill many roles.  This allowed me the opportunity to meet a ton of people outside the Medical Department, get to know them and learn their role on the ship.  Which was extremely helpful when I started studying for my Medical Warfare Device; SWMDO (Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer).  This was a huge accomplishment and a very proud day for me when I earned the ability to wear this device on my uniform.  To earn this device, you are required to gain a general understanding of all the systems in the ship and know how they work and affect one another.  There is so much that you need to learn that it is not uncommon for this process to take over a year. Once I felt ready, I sat in front of a board and got grilled with question after question about the ship.  There is only one way I can describe the process, it is like getting kicked in the teeth several times over.  I look back at everything now and smile, but I know Beth has several emails from me where I probably was ready to cry. 

This has been a challenging assignment for both Beth and I.  We have worked hard to make this tour the best it could be, especially since we are still newlyweds.  Nothing like deploying for 14 months out of a 24-month tour; in a foreign country…shout out to Beth for putting up with this craziness.  The USS GEORGE WASHINGTON has been an amazing experience.  I have met some amazing people, made life long friends and learned more about the Navy than I ever thought possible.  Like everything it is a bittersweet good-bye, but it is time to move on. 

Hope you all enjoyed the guest blog.  See you all stateside!!!

Last Minute Sightseeing

As our time in Japan quickly comes to an end Damian and I have tried to fit in a few last minute trips! Of course the day we decided to plan a full day of sightseeing it down poured, but it didn't stop us! First stop was breakfast at Eggs n' Things which is a Hawaiian cafe located near Enoshima Island- about 1 hour by train from Yokosuka. Breakfast was delicious and then we headed to the Enoshima Aquarium for the morning! 

It was a really impressive aquarium. One of the things we liked best was that all of the tanks had simulated wave/water movement- it definitely made it seem more like the ocean for the fish! They also had amazing jellyfish displays- there was even alight show which was super cool because the jellyfish turned different colors with the lights! They also had about 10 different species of jellyfish!!!

SHARK!!!

Squid...

There was a dolphin show which was pretty good... nowhere close to Sea World good but still we enjoyed it. They had giant sea turtles, penguins and seals too! There was an area where you could pet animals in the tank and they had a bunch of little sharks that Damian enjoyed! We enjoyed a few hours at the aquarium looking at sea life then we walked across the bridge to Enoshima Island so Damian could eat some sea life!!! Since we went there in November he has been talking about getting one of these squids they grill right in front of you so of course he had to have one before we left Japan! It was cool how they cut it all up and Damian said it was oishii! 

After Enoshima Island we got back on the train and headed to check out one of my favorite temples... Hase dera! The hydrangeas are in bloom this time of year and are absolutely gorgeous! The temple was packed but definitely worth it! You climb up all these stairs and there are hydrangeas everywhere that are all different colors! They even placed a giant hydrangea flower in the Buddha statues hand at the temple- very cool! We had already packed up our umbrellas with all of our other stuff to ship to the U.S. but thanks to the 100 Yen (approximately $1) store we each got a new clear one that worked perfectly for the day! 

It wouldn't be a stop in Hase without walking a little further down the street to go to our favorite ice cream place to get green tea/sweet potato swirl one last time! It was even better than I remembered it!!! 

Japanese Word of the Day:

Ika (eee-ka): Squid

Princess For a Day (Butlers Cafe Edition)

Butlers Cafe is a restaurant located in the Shibuya area of Tokyo and thanks to my friend Lois who found it and researched it we had a really fun afternoon there! The cafe has been open for 7 years and was created after a bunch of "maid cafes" had opened up all over Tokyo. The Butlers Cafe is for women customers to come and enjoy a relaxing atmosphere with good looking male waiters who are actually all Western so the Japanese women can practice speaking English with foreigners. On the day we went, the "head butler" was Japanese, but all the others were from France or Australia.

Notice our tiaras!!!

Before we venture down this very unique day, I would like to share with you some of the house rules of Butlers Cafe... there was a full page when we arrived that we had to agree to before we became "Princesses."

-No taking pictures (you must ask a Butler to take pictures for you)
-Ring bell at table for service
-No cell phones
-You must be escorted by your butler to the powder room
-No pulling out your own chairs/holding your own purse
-2 order minimum per person
-No asking personal questions to your butler or trying to find them on social media (you will be banned from cafe)

You get the idea... after reading the rules we were all a little nervous, but it was great fun! After we finished reading the rules, we rang the bell to alert our butler we were done... I lifted the bell and a beautiful sound rang out... then in unison all the butlers at the cafe say "yes my princesses" as one of them comes over to see what we need... oh boy!!! We were served rose water and given the menus to look over... A lot of the food is Italian and then there are drinks, teas, and cakes! I ordered apple rosemary tea served in the cutest tea cup and saucer ever!!!

One of the most interesting choices on the menu was a surprise drink that is made especially for you by the butler looking deep into your eyes and asking you a few questions... Lois was brave enough to try this out! Butler Maxime from France came over to the table and asked her a series of questions and also asked us for some input... then he looked deep into her eyes for 5 seconds and came back with this drink about 15 minutes later! It has some sort of alcohol in it, but he explained why he chose each color for the parts of the drink... the bottom is pink because her favorite animal in the Koala and Koala's are cute and so is the color pink. The top is red because the way her friends describe her means she has a big heart, and most importantly the middle is blue because when he looked into her eyes he could see forever like the ocean or the sky!!!! This was pretty awesome!!!

When our orders arrived all of the butlers came out to the table together to present our meals... they made us close our eyes as we waited for them to set up the table... when we opened them we were pleasantly surprised to see our plates had been customized using a little information form we filled out when we first arrived! Very cool!!!! And the chocolate cake was absolutely delicious too! With our meals came our tiaras! They each put a tiara and now we were officially princesses! I do have to say it was really nice being called "Princess Beth" all day long... poor Damian didn't know what hit him when I came home later that night... I obviously insisted he refer to me as "Princess Beth" for the rest of the evening... which didn't really work out for me to say the least ;) hehehe

Before leaving I was able to get a picture with one of our butlers (for a small fee of course) and he wrote a little note on the back! Too funny! When it was time to leave the butlers first de-crowned us and took our tiaras (booo) then collected all of our purses and then escorted us all to our chariot (the elevator) where they gave us a chocolate candy and bid us farewell. We had such a fun time and laughed so much! Only in Japan would you be able to do something so unique!

Japanese Word of the Day:
Hime (he-may): Princess

Hakone Highlights

Pronunciation: Hakone (ha-ko-nay)

Hakone is a mountainous town located about 1-2 hours from Yokosuka. It lies within the area of Mount Hakone, an active volcano and is popular for tourists because of it's hot springs (onsens). Because Damian and I did not have time to have a getaway in Hakone during our time here we decided to do a tour to see the "highlights" before we left Japan! The picture to the right is what it looks like on a clear day... we however went on a rainy/foggy day and were not able to see Mount Fuji (booooo).

That's me in the middle...

The first stop was Hakone Shrine located on the shore of Lake Ashi. It has a beautiful "floating" torii gate as well as a lot of steps to get to the top! As I mentioned above, Mount Hakone used to be a very active volcano... the people in the area took the "explosions" or eruptions to be an expression of evil. The story goes that the evil was caused by a nine-headed dragon... (please note, I did not make up this story). Anyway, a monk on the mountain was able to exorcise the dragon and turn it into a protector of this shrine where he lies today. At the actual shrine you can wash your hands in a fountain that looks like a nine headed dragon.

All glass...

Foot bath

Too cool...

The next stop was on a boat ride across Lake Ashi- it took about 45 minutes and was really beautiful and peaceful. After that we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum for a Japanese style buffet lunch (yummm) and a few hours to walk around the ground of the museum. The concept of an open air museum was really neat! The open air museum has been there since 1969 and has over 100 sculptures. We spent over 2 hours walking all over and exploring the many sculptures and buildings on the property. They also had a bunch of really neat structures for children to actually climb on. This was an extremely unique experience. They even had an entire building dedicated to less famous Picasso works. And of course we stopped by the hot spring foot bath to rest our weary feet... and it felt amazing! There were nice smooth rocks on the bottom to massage our feet as well as oranges floating on the top which smelled good and were there to provide "mental calmness" I think- still looking into the oranges!

After the open air museum we took a cable car ride up "Owakudani" which literally mean "great boiling valley." This consisted of an active volcanic valley with active sulphur vents and hot springs. Trust me- the smell of the sulphur was extremely strong! The specialty of this area is "kuro tamago" which means "black egg." They boil the eggs in the sulphur hot springs which turns the outer shell black. They do this in large crates with dozens of eggs at a time- see picture at left. It is said that the black eggs have regenerative properties and eating one will add 7 years to your life... eating 2 will add 14 years to your life... and according to our tour guide, "eating 3 will make you blow wind." (I can't make this stuff up!) But seriously it is said not to eat more than 2 1/2 eggs (an extra 17.5 years to your life)! You can hike up the actual hot springs and buy 5 eggs for 5oo Yen (about $5- what a steal)! How could we not eat at least 1 black egg... it is just a hard boiled egg with a black shell... At first I was a little skeptical, but after seeing it peeled it was no big deal. In the end, Damian and I each added 14 years to our lives with these eggs! I mean, even Hello Kitty has jumped on the black egg bandwagon...

Japanese Word of the Day:
Tamago (ta-ma-go): Egg

Rae-Ann Takes on Japan... Whoop Whoop

Upon arriving back to Narita International Airport from our amazing trip to Australia we were greeted by international traveler Rae-Ann (Lawrence-Jodoin-Storz)!!!!!!!!! Slightly jet-lagged but still smiling! She arrived on a nice rainy evening in Japan... a little chilly and the 3 of us had a long ride back form the airport, but the next day was a brand new day...

Welcome to the land of the rising sun SIL!!! The sun was blaring by 4:30 AM!!! It was a beautiful day in Yokosuka, Japan! After breakfast of champions... Dunkin' Donuts of course, we got ready and headed to the USS George Washington for a tour! Damian took us all around the ship including the "bridge" where Rae-Ann got to sit in the Commanding Officer's chair, went for a little walk on the flight deck, walked the the hangar bays, to the "focastle" to see the anchor chains, and a thorough tour of the medical department including radiology!!! It was a great tour as usual with an exceptional tour guide!

Next stop was out in town to Mikasa Park where there was a curry festival going on with entertainment and lots of food vendors. Damian got some meat on a stick and Rae-Ann and I got chu-hi drinks! We hung out there for a little bit then headed to a few local stores and then out for sushi-go-round sushi which was so delicious! We had Japanese beers, udon soup, and lots of sushi! SIL even tried a few new things... new beginnings! It was definitely the most fun I have has at a sushi-go-round... I sure will miss these things when we leave Japan!

Monday morning we headed out in the morning to explore Tokyo for the day. I wanted to make sure she saw as much of Japan as possible in just a few days! We boarded the trains and headed up to Tokyo from Yokosuka, about an hour and 10 minute ride. First stop was The Tokyo Skytree which is the tallest tower in Japan and only 1 year old... it makes you dizzy just looking up at it from below.... we didn't venture up in it but did take some pictures and look in some of the funky shops around it! Next up was lunch at a vending machine noodle place... so amazing to have a hot lunch for 2 in less than 5 minutes, that you ordered from a vending machine! Classic Japan! After lunch we headed to Asakusa to see the shrine, pagoda, and many beautiful buddha statues around it.

From here we headed to the other side of Tokyo to the Meiji Shrine- one of my favorites! This is one where you walk for awhile on a wooded path before you get to it- very different from Asakusa! At the Meiji Shrine, we filled out a wooden "ornament" that you can buy and leave there with your wishes on it for the gods to read. You can see what we wrote to the left... From here we went to Harajuku- which is a street famous for it's wild fashion and "Harajuku Girls" who dress is some pretty interesting outfits... we were lucky to see so many on a Monday afternoon! After this we went to Shibuya Crossing- one of the busiest crosswalks in the world... and we crossed a few times and checked out the area... including some very interesting love hotels... yikes! A very long day but we packed it all in! Homeward bound to Yokosuka!

The next day we headed to Kamakura, a very historic area in Japan with of course LOTS to see! We started with the Big Buddha and then went to Hase-dera which was Rae-Ann's favorite temple. Amazing views and lots to explore! We had a fun time exploring it together!  We got ice cream... Sweet Potato/Vanilla swirl for SIL and Green Tea/Sweet Potato swirl for me! Then we were off to the major shopping area in Kamakura where we bought lots of unique gifts! and had fun looking in all the shops! Unfortunately everywhere we went was super crowded this day... a true Japanese experience I suppose!

The next day we had our Kimono dressing class that we went to on the base. Lucky for us we were the only 2 students and had the run of the place. Our teacher dressed us up in traditional Japanese Kimonos and taught us all about them as well... everything is very symbolic- right down to the patterns to the length of the sleeves to the different ways they tie the obi. We were able to pic our own Kimonos and Obis (the middle part) which was pretty neat! We had lots of fun with our instructor and took a lot of pictures in silly poses with our props... enjoy a small sampling to your left! The teacher kept telling SIL how cute she was and everything she did was... luckily I taught SIL the Japanese word for "cute" earlier that day!!!

Later that night we all went to a Yokohama Baystars baseball game and had yummy chu-hi's and had fun cheering with all of our new friends! We sat in the bleachers which is the BEST place to sit if you ask me! The chu-hi's went down a little too smooth and the next day was a quiet day for us!

The last day SIL was here visiting we did a few things around the base, then got to go to LT Storz's "hail & farewell" which was really nice... a little long, but they had wine!

It was a great trip and we were definitely sad to see SIL fly back to the U.S. It was an amazing trip and we can't wait to see her again soon!!!

Japanese Word of the Day:
Kawaii (ka-why-ee): Cute
(I know this is a repeat, but it's a good word you can use a lot)