<p>EXCELLENT Hornetboy!!</p>
<p>Geez, now I understand why I pay so much in Federal Taxes!! :) ....to fund your little trips!! LOL!</p>
<p>So ya think you'll be nice and refreshed after the trip and be nice to the incoming kids this summer???</p>
<p>And Congrats also to B&P's son for his latest decison to go ROTC. He's going to make a fine officer whatever route he goes. Good luck to that handsome young man!</p>
<p>-flymom</p>
<p>At risk of going further off topic.... I will be going to another base after Israel, then to BCT as an EMT. I will be nice, I don't have to yell at them! And by nice, I mean less yelling, lol. If I'm treating someone, I'm not going to treat them as a Basic, that's counterproductive. </p>
<p>Also, no taxes fund my trips. ;) Olmstead foundation funded my Japan trip and the JINSA/Olmstead is funding the Israel trip. :) </p>
<p>Back to the previous thread. :)</p>
<p>Okay when you go to Israel, make sure you buy your Mom a prayer ball (I think that is what is called) it is a small ball, a little bit bigger than a gum ball which is enameled on the outside, but it is like a locket, it actually opens up and inside is a miniature Torah, if you go Turkey/Saudi/Dubai are, the Koran is inside. The enamal is beautiful and you can get it in any color. Also look for a cartouche (jewelry again) It is a rectangular pendent and you can have their name printed on it in hebrew letters. This is equivalent to someone having a necklace with their name on it, but much prettier. I actually have a cartouche bracelet, Bullet had each bar (pendant) with one of our names on it. (mine is arabaic), but whenever I wear people stare at and question. They make it in a traditional cartouche or in a method called skeleton (all of the letters attach, and it looks like it is floating)</p>
<p>NOW BEWARE 2 funny stories</p>
<ol>
<li><p>My gf asked her husband to buy her one, and there is no equivalent to the letter E. Her name is Peggy, when we went shopping one time and stopped in a jewelry store the owner offered her money right away for the pendant, until he read the name it was PIGGY Even funnier since she was 5'8 and 100 pounds...we all teased her endlessly over that</p></li>
<li><p>Bullet went to the badlands and his mother asked that he get her a two sided cartouche, however she wanted it to be written in Hebrew...Bullet was like do you want to put a bullseye on my back. You can get 2 sided, it is typically done with married couples, 1 side is his name and the other is hers</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Does the AFA send you on orders so you use your id, or do you go the passport route?</p>
<p>BTW I couldn't care less if the thread was hijacked, this is more interesting anyway :)</p>
<p>BTW II: remember even if our tax dollars were paying for it, so were yours :D...always the thing that ticked Bullet and I off to hear someone say my tax dollars...well this is true, but it stinks when your own tax dollars is paying your salary...I know that it was a joke...please do not try to bring the thread into a political debate, I was saying it in tongue and cheek</p>
<p>lol, you crack me up Pima. We will be on orders. I expect (please correct me, and you probably should!) it to be similar to Japan. I gave them my passport and military ID, therefore I didn't have to fill out the immigration forms and they just stamped "status of forces" onto it. </p>
<p>I will definitely keep those gift ideas in mind. They sound awesome! You guys are a treasure trove of info!</p>
<p>Now that is different than when Bullet went overseas. He just showed the id and orders. They do like you to use your passport when you travel, because of what happened eons ago with the Navy Seal.</p>
<p>Now if you already have the leather jacket and know someone going to Turkey, send it with them, what you do is get the blood chits put in....they remove the lining and then put in a new lining that says I am an American, it is written in multiple languages.</p>
<p>Now had I known you were going to Japan I could have given you the downlow on what to bring back...oh well you will visit there again in your career, I'll give it to you then :)</p>
<p>I am probably the only MOM that feels comfortable with my DS going to the sandbox, and I am pretty sure I will be the only Mom that will send a shopping list :eek: Afterall, you can never have enough rugs, and they do fit in the travel pod!</p>
<p>You are just making my day! :) A nice rug would be nice. :) </p>
<p>Having lived in Tokyo for 3 years, had a decent idea of what I wanted to get. I will probably be back there within 2 years though. Spill the beans!</p>
<p>Referring back to getting a Pilot Slot in ROTC-The Commanders Ranking is not the only thing that it depends on-GPA is 15%, Field Training Performance is 10%, Your Last PFT is 10% I believe, and the other 15% is your scores of AFOQT, SAT, TBAS, and the rest (50%) is the commanders ranking. Please don't brown nose.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why get it in writing? It wouldn't be worth the paper that it was printed on. The present unit commander will be long gone when this becomes an issue.</p>
<p>CP, if youe refer back to my post 14, I stated all of that except for TAS. We are very knowledgeable of the route since Bullet took it. This det. has had a running track record of their people getting flying slots, all the way back to Bullets day (removing the early 90's when the pipelines slowed down even for acad grads) This is why I said 90%, there are going to be kids who don't get one, typically for grades (again ref to Bullet being threatened of losing his if he didn't pull up his grades. Even in the last few years, 90% received their first choice, remember not everyone is qualified to fly and not everyone wants a pilots slot. If you ever met DS, he is a polite young man, but he doesn't brown nose, he receives respect from the fact that he gives it.
I think most adults and the heirarchy can sense who is brown nosing.
When a commander can show the numbers over a very long period in black and white, and other cadets that are there also acknowledge it, and Bullet lived it than skeptism will leave.</p>
<p>Again this was a personal decision, it is the path DS wants and we are incredibly happy for him. I have also stated that for many years he wanted to be a JAG, who knows, while he is there he could go back to that idea and vie for a law school slot. I am just a long for the ride and he is driving the car. Anybody who wants to fly bad enough will find the path to get them there. This is very true for anything in life. Think about it the cliche "where there isa will there is a way" exists because it happens.</p>
<p>Now back to more important things...a shopping list for hornet!</p>
<p>Spain...Lladros
Belgium...DIAMONDS, tulips, lace and chocolates and CHIMAY BEER...makes jeremiah weed taste like a wine cooler
Italy ...butcher blocks
Turkey...Leather, fake coaches, rugs, and pistachios
Korea...leather, fake coaches, mink blankets, calligraphy name art and guitars
England...Crystal, and china, scotch
Germany...cuckoo clocks, grandfather clocks, Gluwein (another one that has a kick to it) and take a ride into Poland for polish pottery, but remember to pay someone to watch your car.</p>
<p>Okay now, you see, as Bullet's career is winding down we need DS to do our global shopping for us :D. I of course am more than happy to do the shopping if he ever gets assigned to MOST of these areas. I have no desire to go Turkey or Korea, so I will just pay for his airline ticket to come home in those cases or meet him in an area that I can go shopping ;)</p>
<p>
<p>Korea.............fake coaches,
</p>
<p>Unless he plans to wear it and then throw it away, I am surprised that you are suggesting that cadets perform illegial acts.</p>
<p>Buying a fake coach is not illegal. They are knock offs, it is not even close to being illegal It is not if they are stolen, they are imitations that if you walk on any street corner in any major city you will find them. GEEZ, if it was illegal, every woman in NYC would have an arrest record... and there wouldn't be 1 vendor on a street corner. </p>
<p>Go to Chicago, Atlanta, DC, Rome, Venice, London, etc...they are everywhere...it's just that Korea has the best knock offs.</p>
<p>You need to understand the difference between fake and stolen
Now on the other hand to purchase stolen property is illegal, but I am positive I never said anything to that fact, and nor would I endorse that! It would also be illegal for them to re-sell the items as the real thing, but I never spoke about them reselling them either!</p>
<p>You better also round up every military member that has ever been to Korea, for a TDY or a tour, since almost everyone has them...I know when the 90th went, when the guys came back we all had a purse. I also know many military members who were assigned there and their wives closet is filled with knock offs. AGAIN KEY WORD KNOCK OFFS</p>
<p>If the goods have the "Coach" label on them or a "coach" design and they are not made by "Coach" then they are probably illegal. It would suprise you to know how many people are walking around with illegal goods.</p>
<p>Coach is a registered trademark. Some designers have also started to register their designs to prevent knock-offs.<br>
Not all knock-offs are illegal but some are.</p>
<p>Now - when we lived in Germany there was a guys who used to go around selling oil paintings. I can remember him sitting in our living room and showing paintings to my parents. They brought home 3 and they are beautiful.
My mother bought her sterling in France. Crystal in Germany.
Back then Germany was big on electronics and everyone came home with the most awesome stereo systems (remember tape decks?) haha.</p>
<p>back to our regularly scheduled program.......</p>
<p>To know a real coach, look inside, the C symbols are in it, one side should be right side uup and the other upside down, since it is one long piece. The fake coaches also do not have the coach zipper pull.</p>
<p>On the thought of paintings...in the UK, there is a guy who is well known...Wong, if you go to the UK, everyone wants to buy one of his portraits, it is what we wives call D &D (death and destruction) with the plane you fly on the tail number over some heroic looking battle. I was the mean wife and said no way will I hang that in our house. He eventually got his airplane print (litho) called Yukon Crap shoot by Dave Hume. It is just his plane with names and tail number flying over the Alaska terrain...I have it hanging in his study, with the CGSC class print and his other "I love me" items.</p>
<p>BTW, that is what wives call it the "I Love Me Wall/Room"</p>
<p>Bought, stolen, gift, fake, take off, spin off, knock off, whatever. So long as it looks like or has the Coach name or logo anywhere on it, it is illegial. Just because everyone is doing it, does not make it right.</p>
<p>Okay, you need to look at womens fashion, fake, spin off and knock off is everywhere. Go back and read my posts, it is a knock off, there is nothing illegal about it, unless, it has all of the trademark qualities.</p>
<p>Look at Charter Club by Macy's it is merely knock off of Jones, Evan Picone and Liz. Are you stating that Macy's is now doing illegal acts because their line is a "knock off".
[quote]
So long as it looks like or has the Coach name ...it is illegal
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Please get over it, it is only illegal when they purchase stolen goods. Why you have taken it to this level, that it is illegal, I am not even positive.</p>
<p>As JAM said
[quote]
Not all knock-offs are illegal but some are
[/quote]
...you just need to be sure that it isn't illegal...i.e. in Italy anyone selling on a side street in the middle of the night and only wanting cash, probably is doing something illegal. Going into a store on a main street thta has hundreds of knock-offs is probably not illegal. I say probably because they may have bought them off of a truck, then again my husband wouldn't know a real or fake if I put it in front of them. </p>
<p>Also if it is so illegal, why did Fox news do a whole segment on how to get a good fake and how to tell a real one?</p>
<p>Now it really is time to get back to the thread</p>
<p>It is illegal to bring fake, knockoff clothing, purses, CDs, electronics, computer software and anything else through customs. The illegal act is not the source of the material, whether it was stolen or not, but the fact that one is attempting to bring it illegally into the country. I absolutely do not believe that I am having this discussion with an officer's wife of more than 6 months. </p>
<p>You were the one who got the thread off topic by posting 'shopping lists' which would cause those reading them, to commit illegal acts. Do some research before you post again.</p>
<p>Actually, the thread went off-topic due to me....</p>
<p>Well, it was Pima's thread to begin with so I think she can lead it whichever way she wants....</p>
<p>I was enjoying reading all the shopping tips and I'd kill for a Coach---real or fake! Okay, not REALLY "kill" but you know what I mean. I can see how these threads can get outta hand fast...</p>
<p>Back to your DS's decision, doesn't he have until May 31st to sign with ROTC?......I hope he waits ......just in case....(selfish me again...) :)</p>
<p>He is going to sign on Friday, so it is basically a done deal. It was actually done for many weeks, but we just felt that we wanted him to take his time and be really sure. When he was positive, than that is when we set up his meeting and speaking with the det.</p>
<p>I'll stay in touch and tell you where you need to go when your DD starts her operational tours...I know all of the stores and when you need to go for china in England (Stoke on Trent in Jan or July) Go to Belgium in Feb (Brugge is great for the tulips)...never go to Venice in the summer it smells (Aviano is where the base is)...when she does her summer tours overseas give me a call :)</p>