Mail - Cascadian Abroad

It Takes A Village

November 28, 2014 by Robert Haddan

The support of our family and friends during our journey has been so appreciated. And when that support includes chocolate, it’s just that much more appreciated!

Eight months in and with autumn in full swing, the recent round of care packages from home came at a perfect time. So, without further ado, let’s get to unboxing!

Care Package from Mom — At the end of October, a fall-themed care package arrived from Cascadian Mama Val

Shortly before we headed out for our trip to Osaka and Kyoto, a package arrived from Viktoria’s mom. It included some pantry staples like split green peas, lentils and quinoa; dark chocolate from Oregon’s Dagoba Organic Chocolates; Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Bar mix; and a host of goodies from Costco and “The Russian Store” as we all refer to the European-goods store back home. More than a few of these things made it into the backpack for our trip and more than a few of these things have already been eaten.

KronWeld Care Package — The first of two packages from Cascadian KronWeld arrived in mid-November

After we returned from our trip, the first of two boxes from Cascadian KronWeld showed up at our door. I only managed a picture of one, but the second box was full of spices that we’ve had a hard time finding. Among the treats were Costco-sized bags of pistachios and walnuts, Sriracha hot sauce, caramels, pumpkin-spice tea and a giant bag of tortillas. Extra-large containers of smoked salts, cayenne pepper and pumpkin pie spice followed shortly. A special thanks to Cascadian Brian for carrying that smoked salt in your car for a couple hundred miles.

A special treat worth it’s own paragraph: Pumpkin Pie Almonds (I’m assuming from Costco). These only lasted a little over a week despite the giant bag. Almonds with a pumpkin pie flavored candy coating. Holy $&@^ these things were amazing!

Care Package Vera — Today’s arrival from Cascadian Mama Vera. In other news, Justin’s Peanut Butter stock is through the roof.

Today, I heard a faint ringing while washing the dishes. Fortunately, I investigated as it was the mailman delivering a package from my mama. This one had some odd specific requests (which I chose not to include in the photo, but Thank You Mom!) as well as some creature comforts from home, such as Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, every package of Justin’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups on the Oregon Coast, fresh cranberries (which were still cold after a week in transit), Starbucks instant lattes and some static-cling mustaches, which I’m certain will end up in some interesting places.

Thanks again to everyone for your support during our adventure!

Odds and Ends

May 7, 2014 by Robert Haddan

Notes from a laundry-filled Wednesday.

Care package!

About a week ago, I asked my mom to send me some seeds. I’ve yet to see jalapeños—or any other heat-packin’ pepper for that matter—in the grocery stores. We’ve found cilantro, but it’s about ¥220 ($2.16 USD) for a single sprig. So, I thought I’d just try to grow some myself. The climate should be great for the peppers and I’ll probably grow the cilantro inside to keep it from bolting.

The package arrived today, about a week after it was sent, although we’ve not had mail service the last two days because of the Golden Week holidays. It was a nice treat to find a little taste of home inside, although Mom already gave away the surprise when she mentioned a box, which seemed overkill for two small seed envelopes. According to the customs tag on the package, there are 75 pieces of authentic Oregon Coast salt-water taffy protecting the seed packets. Well, there are 72 pieces of taffy now…

Sentaku-ki

We’ve more or less figured out the washing machine (sentaku-ki) by randomly pushing buttons until something happened, but it seemed like there might be more to it than that. Today, with the help of Google Translate I figured out the rest of it. I bet there’s a market for someone who has nothing better to do than translate appliance instructions into English.

When I help my wife with a project, she frequently says “Are you being a perfectionist?” which means “It doesn’t have to be pretty. Can you just get it done so we can go to bed, please?!” But, when it comes to projects requiring more than one Adobe Creative Suite product, I just can’t help myself (hoping the cross-link to Adobe’s site will encourage them to sponsor my blog—”Cascadian Abroad, brought to you by Adobe” has a nice ring to it).

While likely an unnecessary exercise, it was a good learning experience. I added both the English translation and the rōmaji to help us learn the Japanese words and characters. I’m about halfway through doing the same for the heater/air conditioner remote control. Look out television… you’re next!

Odds and Ends

April 30, 2014 by Robert Haddan

Really just one odd and end.

Envelopes are not self-sticking

We had a few pieces of business to take care of that required mailing documents back to the U.S. The postal service isn’t that much different here than back home. You go to the counter, buy some stamps and send your letter on its way.

However, the envelopes are not self-adhering. At first I was impressed by the lack of taste of the envelope glue (yes, I licked it). But when the flap didn’t stick, I was puzzled.

Again, thank goodness for the internet. We are now the proud owner of a glue stick, the preferred method for sealing envelopes here in the land of the rising sun. The post office also has a courtesy stick, just in case.