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!!