Hafa Adai!!

 Greetings!

Sorry I haven't written in so long. Things have been busy and a little weird the last couple of weeks. My work lost a few employees right after I started and I very quickly became second in the office and we were working lots of over time to make up for the other girls' absence. Then last week I lost my uncle to a very sudden stroke. I was very close to him and considered him a second dad.  I was unable to make it home for the funeral so there have been a lot of Skype conversations and long distance phone calls.

Things have otherwise been continuing on very well here on Guam. We are still running down by the ocean at sunset and have been exploring lots of restaurants. Did you know that a staple breakfast food here on Guam is fried rice?! Almost everyone has fried rice regularly for breakfast! Can you guess another strange food that people eat for breakfast? I can tell you that most of you have never eaten this at all much less for breakfast!

I have experienced more Guam wild life too!

 

 

a gecko that snuck into our house

a lizard giving me the eye on our patio. when they feel threatened they stick out their throats, make a clicking noise, and do push ups. it's very intimidating ;)

a large moth

my first sighting of a brown tree snake










and a bat

  in a man made cave

in the jungle.

oh and here's a neat breadfruit tree with giant fruits!


So life is still a grand adventure and we are trying to soak it all in. Miss you all!
Erin :)

Hey Everyone!

It's time for another update! Last week flew by, we were super busy applying for any and every job whilst spending money like it grew on trees. We went south and checked out Talafofo Falls. We didn't realize what a big tourist trap it was, but it was fun anyhow. We got to take a cable car down over the falls...

After seeing them from above, we went down and explored them on a closer level...

Then we went and checked out the Yokoi Cave. It is not the actual cave that Yokoi made, that's deep in the jungle, but they made one next to the falls to show the story to tourists.

We have been getting back into running and are training for a 5k this Saturday. We have been running down at Paseo Park around the baseball stadium. It is quite lovely and very motivational. There are also some dogs that hang out with us there!

And to relax on the weekend, we went down to Asan Park to grill out and enjoy the scenery.

Friday afternoon, I was offered a job working for a distribution company on the island. I will be doing accounts receiving for now and it is very different from working with kids. I will continue to keep my ears open for jobs in teaching, but this will help pay the bills for now! I just finished my first day and it was busy, busy, busy! It will definitely keep me on my toes.

That's all for now, miss you kiddos!
Erin

Greetings! Sorry I haven't written since getting here, it's been a whirlwind! We have been crazy busy getting settled in. I have a Guam driver's license now, we have a condo already, and there are a couple of job prospects on the horizon. Unfortunately, there is nothing in teaching right now... So I am looking at a few alternatives. It's been so much fun but we have hardly had time to relax! We did get to the beach on Sunday finally and went snorkeling. We brought some bologna and fed the fishies and they were swarming us! It's such a different world down there. I'll have to get an underwater camera to catch some of the amazing views.

I got a chance to go down to Paseo Park last night and took photo by the Statue of Liberty (Guam version)!

Then I went out on the rock pier with the waves in the background.

Guam is also full of karabao or water buffalo. So in honor of them, they have karabao statues all over the island decorated differently.

And in the heart of Hagatna, the capital, is a bridge called the San Antonio bridge which has been around since the 1800s and is a historical landmark.

Things are going very well and have been such a blast. I will keep you all updated on the job front and will be posting more pictures as we go! (Mark loves taking all the touristy shots for me ;) haha)

Miss you guys!
Erin

Finally made it

Hello everyone!

I finally have arrived on Guam! Mark and I caught a flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon and flew in to Guam at 11:30pm on Wednesday. Thursday we were without a car so we decided to take in the island and run our errands with a nice long walk. The only difficulty was that they don't really have a lot of sidewalks on Guam. It worked out just fine though.

We walked in between the jungle on one side and cars on the other. At one point, we even heard some snorting in the leaves next to us and I'm pretty positive we were quite close to a boar! We walked a few miles down to the nearest shopping center and bought ourselves cell phones. We needed to be able to contact the people we are staying with and each other and prospective jobs, so this was a priority. Then we met a friend for lunch and continued our walk another few miles down the road to rent a car. As beautiful as the walk was, it was very warm and sunny and I'm pretty sure both my pale husband and I are a little sun burnt even with all the sun block we wore! So a car is a necessity!

We still have lots to do to get settled in. We are going to take the rental car around today and hopefully purchase a car, get Guam licenses, get court clearances so we can get jobs, and do some shopping. We also have some really exciting news, things just keep working out so well for us! Our friends that we are staying with found us a condo in the same complex as theirs that we can stay at for free for a month to see if we want to rent it! So today, we are going to start moving our stuff over there. We have lots of luggage and are in a small bedroom and cannot even walk, so it will be very nice to have our own place right away. And the bonus, it's furnished! So we don't have to worry about buying a bed, dresser, tv, couch etc.

Things are wonderful and exciting. I'm so happy to finally be on the island. Here's a little view from our walk yesterday! I miss you all!

Where is Guam anyway?

Hello all! We are getting really excited for the move! We are going to be out of the house on Friday, February 15 and it's starting to look very bare. We've sold a lot of the big stuff and are packing the rest away into storage. We will be bringing our 2 checked bags and a carry on each, so we are pretty limited on space. We've been looking for apartments to rent but are going to stay with our friends that live out there for a little bit until we find one we like.

Another popular question I get about Guam is, where is it? An obscure U.S. Territory out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The saying goes, 'Where America starts it's day.' Guam is 16 hours ahead of Minnesota (15 hours during daylight savings) and is located at 13N and 144E. It is east of the Philippines, south of Japan, and north of Australia. It is close enough to the equator that we don't need daylight savings. If you ever find yourself on that part of the world, let me know!!

Why Guam?

My husband Mark and I sold our house, got rid of many of our belongings, and are picking up our lives and moving nearly 7000 miles to Guam. The number one question we get is, why Guam? Why not is a much better question if you ask me.

Mark has always been intrigued by this far off U.S. Territory and his enthusiasm was quite contagious. I myself have been bitten by the travel bug after spending some time abroad in college. About a year and a half ago, a couple of friends of ours announced that they were moving to Guam! We were so tickled by this because most people we talked to had never even heard of Guam and here some of our close friends were going to live on the island. I told them to get a room ready for us because there was no way we were going to pass up the chance to go visit them on the one place that we both most desired to explore.

Last July we flew down to Guam to vacation on paradise. It took us two days before we decided that this was just the right fit for us. The island is an incredible place with a very relaxed vibe. The culture is such a rich and incredible mix. The Spanish occupied the island from the 1500's to the 1800's when we won it in the Spanish-American war. Then the Japanese took control of Guam right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and held the island for the remainder of WWII. So there is a lot of influence from the Spanish, the Japanese, the Philippines are nearby and many Filipinos live on the Island, and of course the culture of the Chamorros (the native people) shines through. Then add the American influence and you have a tiny island filled with many languages and cultures squished together to create a completely unique atmosphere. I love languages and I'm so excited at the prospect of learning Tagalog, Japanese, and Chamorro.

So we got back from vacation and set into motion plans to move out of the country. So far things have been falling into place exactly as they should and we are growing anxious to see our proposed close date of February 19. I'll be posting soon to keep you updated on our adventure!