Rome
It's funny the sorts of things us silly Americans take for granted. Google, for example. Google is a great website. In ENGLISH!
In Japanese, it all means NOTHING! I get unhappy every time I open Firefox and Google appears with Japanese characters everywhere. WTF does any of that even mean? And it's even more depressing when all of my search results are in Japanese! How will I ever get things done again? Somebody should tell my freaking foreign IP address that when I type ".com", I MEAN ".com"! I do NOT mean ".co.jp"!!
Okay, that was my depressing rant for the day. Today was highly productive and Google didn't bother me at all until I opened my computer here in the lobby to check my email and saw nothing but a bunch of little scribbly marks all over my "home" page.
We got our overseas drivers licenses! This was quite a feat. We've been technically in the clear to do so since last Wednesday, but we have always had something preventing us from taking care of business. This morning before 8AM, Mark called me on the OBNOXIOUSLY loud room phone and said that I needed to be dressed and put together because he'd be here in 25-30 minutes and we were going to take our licensing exam.
So I dragged myself out of bed more than a little disgruntled, and got myself assembled for our outing. By 9:30 our chauffeur for the day had arrived and we were on our way to Camp Foster.
By 10:45, we were signing our licenses. We ate lunch at Macaroni Grill and then headed out to town to peruse the used car lots.
Boys and girls, we are the new owners of a 2000 Toyota Funcargo! (No, I did NOT just make that up. Shame on you for asking!)
Yes, I know what this car looks like. A little shoe. But don't knock it till you've tried it! Our dealership of choice was unfortunately out of both the Vamos and the Scion. So we went with this rather affordable Toyota. It has a ton of interior space and a huge cargo area in the back. It seats 5. And it has a CD player. Check us out, aren't we so high-tech? Okay, fine. You know what? You can shut your face! For $4300 with a 0% interest rate and a warranty that would knock the pants off of some American dealerships, I am not complaining!
So, yeah, the Funcargo. Which is just awesome, because honestly how many times in your life do you get to drive a car with "fun" in it's name, let alone OWN one? I mean, let's dissect that model name: Fun Car Go! It doesn't get much more authentic than that. And I'm pretty sure I've never seen one in the good old U.S. of A. Which makes it even more appealing, if possible.
We pick up the Funcargo on Wednesday afternoon.
Tomorrow, we'll be moving out of our lovely hotel and into our lovely industrial apartment. I have to keep reminding myself that it won't be entirely vacant when we get there, since the loaner government furniture was supposedly delivered today, although we didn't opt to borrow any beds because... Well, I don't want to sleep on their nasty beds. I'd rather wait for my nice comfy bed to arrive via the huge wooden crate it left San Angelo in. At any rate, it'll be interesting all by itself to see what kind of ugly crap they loaded into the place while we had our backs conveniently turned. And figuring out grocery and necessity shopping tomorrow while we are in between vehicular dependence and Funcargo-ness is going to be incredibly interesting. We'll see how that pans out, too.
For now, I feel like it must be nap time or something. It's been a damn long day. And tomorrow should be long, too. Isn't that special.
In Japanese, it all means NOTHING! I get unhappy every time I open Firefox and Google appears with Japanese characters everywhere. WTF does any of that even mean? And it's even more depressing when all of my search results are in Japanese! How will I ever get things done again? Somebody should tell my freaking foreign IP address that when I type ".com", I MEAN ".com"! I do NOT mean ".co.jp"!!
Okay, that was my depressing rant for the day. Today was highly productive and Google didn't bother me at all until I opened my computer here in the lobby to check my email and saw nothing but a bunch of little scribbly marks all over my "home" page.
We got our overseas drivers licenses! This was quite a feat. We've been technically in the clear to do so since last Wednesday, but we have always had something preventing us from taking care of business. This morning before 8AM, Mark called me on the OBNOXIOUSLY loud room phone and said that I needed to be dressed and put together because he'd be here in 25-30 minutes and we were going to take our licensing exam.
So I dragged myself out of bed more than a little disgruntled, and got myself assembled for our outing. By 9:30 our chauffeur for the day had arrived and we were on our way to Camp Foster.
By 10:45, we were signing our licenses. We ate lunch at Macaroni Grill and then headed out to town to peruse the used car lots.
Boys and girls, we are the new owners of a 2000 Toyota Funcargo! (No, I did NOT just make that up. Shame on you for asking!)
Yes, I know what this car looks like. A little shoe. But don't knock it till you've tried it! Our dealership of choice was unfortunately out of both the Vamos and the Scion. So we went with this rather affordable Toyota. It has a ton of interior space and a huge cargo area in the back. It seats 5. And it has a CD player. Check us out, aren't we so high-tech? Okay, fine. You know what? You can shut your face! For $4300 with a 0% interest rate and a warranty that would knock the pants off of some American dealerships, I am not complaining!
So, yeah, the Funcargo. Which is just awesome, because honestly how many times in your life do you get to drive a car with "fun" in it's name, let alone OWN one? I mean, let's dissect that model name: Fun Car Go! It doesn't get much more authentic than that. And I'm pretty sure I've never seen one in the good old U.S. of A. Which makes it even more appealing, if possible.
We pick up the Funcargo on Wednesday afternoon.
Tomorrow, we'll be moving out of our lovely hotel and into our lovely industrial apartment. I have to keep reminding myself that it won't be entirely vacant when we get there, since the loaner government furniture was supposedly delivered today, although we didn't opt to borrow any beds because... Well, I don't want to sleep on their nasty beds. I'd rather wait for my nice comfy bed to arrive via the huge wooden crate it left San Angelo in. At any rate, it'll be interesting all by itself to see what kind of ugly crap they loaded into the place while we had our backs conveniently turned. And figuring out grocery and necessity shopping tomorrow while we are in between vehicular dependence and Funcargo-ness is going to be incredibly interesting. We'll see how that pans out, too.
For now, I feel like it must be nap time or something. It's been a damn long day. And tomorrow should be long, too. Isn't that special.
September 30, 2008 at 1:58 AM
$4,000??? 0% interest??? We're getting ripped off here in America! I'm moving to Japan!
Can't say I blame you for waiting for your own bed. Good luck this week!
Fun car GO! :)
September 30, 2008 at 4:46 AM
wah? you can't read japanese? =P
what a cool lil car!
September 30, 2008 at 6:16 AM
Funcargo, I love it and I want one. Can you ship me one? I'm glad things are settling down. I think there is a way to change google, you may just need to do it manually. But you should be able to change it somehow.