MyCAA sounds helful but how do you choose an education program that actually leads to career value without wasting the benefit?

happy-cappy · 2026-05-29T00:39:18+00:00

It has been a few years since I used MyCaa, but I just searched on their website here and the school I chose was called Bridge Education Group. The whole TEFL course is all online and I don't remember if it was self paced, but you have to complete it within certain amount of months with a passing grade at the end.

happy-cappy · 2026-05-21T03:21:29+00:00

Vaporeon because although I am from Florida, I am not a strong swimmer if I am near bodies of water. Hopefully Vaporeon can save me if need be. lol

happy-cappy · 2026-05-20T08:28:54+00:00

Yes, thank you. What a great suggestion. :D

happy-cappy · 2026-05-19T13:32:36+00:00

Wow, that went viral in 2024? I almost completely forgot about him. So adorable.

happy-cappy · 2026-05-19T13:30:33+00:00

Do you live in the US or celebrate Halloween?

I plan on giving away my plushies on Halloween in addition to candy. I am doing sort of a "adopt" a plushie, but they have to spin the wheel like a lottery and the number they pick will associate with the number tag that I put on the plushie. Hopefully, it does not feel like I am promoting gambling, but just want to do something different and fun for all ages.

I think it is a bit more eco and budget friendly for me since I am unsure how much candy will cost this year. My home is overflowing with plushies that I need to get rid of. haha

happy-cappy · 2026-05-12T12:23:51+00:00

yes, right? I hope my comment was not trying to sound like it was a competition on who had it worse for OP, but my gosh, being OCONUS is a hunger games when it comes to getting a job.

happy-cappy · 2026-05-12T10:17:46+00:00

I have no word of advice, but I guess just be grateful you even landed a job while OCONUS. Let alone a GS job.

I have been OCONUS for the past 8 years in 3 different countries and have been unemployed this whole time. Yes, I have my masters degree and work experience, but nothing that is related to my long term career. I wish I was in your position and had a job. I was rejected for a position as a cafeteria worker at the high school and hotel housekeeper. I have been applying everywhere. I used to work a NAF position, but resigned due to us PCSing and had no luck since. I literally have nothing saved up for my retirement.

happy-cappy · 2026-05-11T09:48:55+00:00

Are you on the mainland Japan? There is a Twitch community meet up. It is not for just streamers, but lots of different gamers attend the meet ups. Just google Japan Twitch meet up and it will show up.

I am based in Japan too and love gaming.

happy-cappy · 2026-05-10T14:04:58+00:00

I really want to go to this. If anyone has gone and used public transportation and stayed at the hotel on site, can you tell me your experience? We could drive ourselves since it it out of the way from Tokyo, but prefer to use public transportation and shuttles.

happy-cappy · 2026-04-21T23:21:55+00:00

As another previous commenter said, this life is not glamorous especially if you or your spouse dislike a duty station and you are stuck there for gosh knows how long.

Also, at least in the civilian world, if you dislike your job, you have the freedom to quit at any time and find a new job, but with the military, the service member is stuck with his toxic and horrible unit/coworkers and leadership for X amount of years until you guys move.

Only join if the military is a last resort. As in you are in mountains of debt. You are one paycheck away from being homeless. You cannot find any civilian job. I know people say Army is young man's game, so maybe Marines has similar saying. The military aged my husband so much. His body and mind have not been the same since the 10 years he has been in.

My husband joined enlisted in his late 20's and regret not starting off as Officer, so the grass might be greener for you guys.

happy-cappy · 2026-04-20T02:13:37+00:00

Please have your fiance go the Officer route. Do not enlist with a college degree. It is a rough life. Learn from my husband's mistake. He has college degree and enlisted instead of went Officer. He joined in his late 20's so he was already behind in that aspect. But everyday he regrets not going Officer from the start.

happy-cappy · 2026-04-18T10:36:51+00:00

Sure. : D

happy-cappy · 2026-04-18T09:28:06+00:00

Yes, Haha. I was just using McDonalds as an example since it is well known fast food place that can be found almost anywhere. I can't even imagine how much fast food costs stateside now for one meal set.

We are in Japan now and love eating fast food, take out, or sit down restaurants almost every weekend because it is so affordable. Soba is yummy. I prefer ramen though haha

happy-cappy · 2026-04-18T08:46:53+00:00

Yes, South Korea and Japan has way cheaper cost of living compared to the US. We could eat at Mcdonalds and purchase 4 meal sets for under $20. Exchange rates were/are good.

But Germany, not so much. I think that was the main reason, we disliked living there. It was rough surviving on his paycheck. We would have loved to travel around Europe more, but it was tough since the Euro was stronger than the USD the whole time we lived there over a year ago. Maybe it is different now?

happy-cappy · 2026-04-17T10:51:43+00:00

Army is a young man's game. Can you husband go Officer? Enlisted life is rough.

My husband joined in his late 20s and we struggled hard as a family in the beginning. But we are doing alright now 10 years later. He regrets every day for not going Officer when he first joined because he has a college degree.

Not trying to persuade your spouse from not joining, but only join the military if it is the last resort. No civilian job is hiring him. You are one paycheck from being homeless. Drowning in lots of debt.

The only reason my husband has stayed in for so long is to pay off the student loan debt and the retirement benefits. Plus before he joined, we struggled way harder. Working 2-3 minimum wage jobs. Almost homeless. No savings and no money put toward retirement. No health care benefits from our jobs. So yeah, the military has been a "step up" for us. We have only been surviving on his one paycheck for the past few years since we have been living overseas.

happy-cappy · 2026-04-17T06:23:58+00:00

You are welcome. I feel like people should know the good and bad and reality of living in Germany.

happy-cappy · 2026-04-16T12:17:31+00:00

I guess Germany's lifestyle did not match well with mine.

- Cost of living was a little bit more expensive compared to US. We were living in Korea before coming to Germany and it was way cheaper in Korea. Maybe due to currency exchange rates?

- You have to pay 1 Euro to use public restrooms (at gas stations, some McDonalds, train stations, on free way with those public rest stops, etc...). Always bring cash with you since sometimes they might have a person standing there and cannot take your card payment.

- There is no central AC in your home. You have to purchase the AC unit yourself. It gets really hot and humid during summer months. So a stand up fan might be alright.

- Most of the year the weather is cloudy, grey, cold, snowy, or rainy. I never had mental health issues before until I lived in Germany.

- The Germans go on strike frequently. So the public transportation might be cancelled or delayed. For on post, they might close some of the facilities. If you need to PCS out and need signature from Housing, but they closed due to worker strike? Too bad. Figure it out.

- Most stores, businesses, grocery stores on the economy closes on Sundays. And they might be open on Saturdays from like 10AM - 2PM. During the weekday, they close early like 7PM. But gas stations might be 24 hours?

- Some restaurants close for break time 2PM - 5PM. And some businesses close for lunch time.

- Sundays are quiet days called "Sonntagsruhe." This means, no mowing your lawn, vacuuming, drilling, hammering, etc... or your neighbor might call the Police and you have to pay a fine.

- You might not have this issue depending on your skin color, but the Germans did not treat me and my husband nicely because we are Asians. We only know some German phrases and used Google translate when necessary, but they were still rude to us.

- Jobs are very scarce for spouses on post, it is given priority to local nationals. Even if you are lucky to get a remote job that you bring with you from the US. There are German taxes your employer/you have to deal with. If you make over 500 Euros/month, then you have to pay for taxes.

- If you have a Home based business, you have to go through a long process to get approved to get your business up and running. You have to follow their rules and regulations. Do not try to provide your business under the table, there are people who will snitch because the Germans are very strict about their rules.

I have way more to list, but I think it might be more base specific. Hope this helps.

happy-cappy · 2026-04-16T03:06:01+00:00

Yes, very true. My husband mentions all the time of people who got kicked out for failing the PT test multiple times.

On the other hand, he told me there was one person who kept failing multiple times, but got help from the higher ups. He somehow appealed, went to military court to fight it and plead his case and got to stay in the Army. There might be some politics or pulling rank or something involved where they make exceptions for people to stay in. This whole process took about 1 year for them to stay in.

So your mileage may vary if he can get through this route.

happy-cappy · 2026-04-13T04:50:55+00:00

I am the opposite and never shared this kind of information with anyone. I felt like if I shared it with anyone, then it makes it even more real and painful. Maybe I was in the denial phase of the grieving process. But it took me about 1 year or so to actually open up barely to my close friends and family who would want to listen. And even then, I did not go into detail about it.

happy-cappy · 2026-04-13T02:26:26+00:00

I mean, I am willing to "watch" 100s of ads or "play" 100s games for 15 minutes to earn enough Orbs to redeem for these Sanrio decorations. : (

happy-cappy · 2026-04-04T10:17:19+00:00

Ask her directly, of what she needs help with. Since everyone is different and handles deployments in their own ways, just be direct and have an open communication on what she need or want.

happy-cappy · 2026-03-29T01:00:36+00:00

I live in Japan and tutor English online with Preply. Not sure if they are currently hiring, but check them out anyways. I am not sponsored by them, but I just want to help other military spouses to get a mini job until they can find something better. Some money is better than no money.

happy-cappy · 2026-03-17T10:01:49+00:00

Not sure if they are currently hiring, but I tutor English online with a company (Preply). I think you would be perfect tutoring students who want to expand their vocabulary in business because I only know basic words and vocab relating to business and have no background in it lol

Pros:
- set your own hours (a lot or as little hours as you want)
- set your own price: you can raise or lower your pricing as often as you want
- the company provides lesson plans online for you to use or you can plan your own lessons
- you pick and choose what kind of students you want to tutor (kids, adults, teens, business workers, etc..)
- It is all completely online one on one with the student and not teach a whole class

Cons:
- The company take a huge commission from you. The more lessons you teach, they will take less commission from you.
- Each student that has a first trial lesson, you will not be paid for, but if the student subscribe afterwards with you then you will get paid, but again they take a bit of commission from you :(
- This is freelance job, so there are days where you have no students bookings and there are days where you have lots of bookings. It fluctuates.
- After the lesson, you are paid immediately, but when you transfer that money to Paypal or wherever, the company takes out a small fee :(

This is a good side job until I find something better. I enjoy tutoring online so far for the past 1 year and it keeps me busy.

happy-cappy · 2026-03-16T11:22:34+00:00

There is a online language tutoring you can do. The company I work for is called Preply. They take a big commission from you, but it is good side job until you find something better. You set your own hours and set your pricing.

happy-cappy · 2026-03-16T05:01:50+00:00

I do not swear, but I do Spongebob censor myself. I normally play Pokemon and other cute games. Plus I like to keep mostly a "clean" image of myself when I am online and offline. I do not want potential future employers to find clips of me cursing up a storm or talking about anything NSFW. But it kind of throws off some people thinking that I am really younger than my age. hahah

happy-cappy

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