we have moved!

For the last week, we have been "household shifting" over to the new and permanent island home.

 

(photo credit goes to L. for this one)

It has a large yard with some fruit trees and tropical flowers and waving bamboo so tall it bends down and rests on the branches of other trees.  It has a large wrap-around porch that is shaded.  The house is breezy and very cool. 

 

It has a wide open living space that will suit us just fine when it comes time to start schooling.

 

There is a room for guests in the downstairs area, with a separate bath.  The house itself is not large, but we think it will be just right for our needs for this year.

 

There is no ocean view, but we get that anytime we leave the house and drive for 5 minutes in any direction.

 

(did I mention the large lush yard?!?)

 

Oh, and there is a gazebo.  And a pool.

Yup.  A pool!!!!

360 view

The island's highest point is Mt. Tapochau (1,500 ft).  There are some WWII memorial plaques and you can see in all directions.

 

(see that rain coming down out there?)

(cool, right?)

"Concrete Jesus"

"Do you know why I was born in California, Mom?" BR asked me today.
(Because we lived there?  Because Daddy's job was there?  Because that's where the hospital was?  What is he trying to get at?)
"Um, why?"
"Because...(breathless pause)...Disneyland!"
 

"I lost a tooth, now take a picture!"

Thanks to a friend from school, BR was expecting a toy rather than cash from the tooth fairy.  Evidently, that friend learned that if you are traveling or somehow away from home when you lose a tooth, instead of coins you get a hot wheels car or something similar. 

But thanks to the tooth fairy's habitual forgetfulness, BR also wasn't devastated to wake up the next morning to find neither a toy nor any coins.  "Eh, that's allright," he said casually, and then knowledgeably added: "Sometimes it just kinda' takes her a coupla' days, that's all."

Father's Day

This year Father's Day was also the day the island was remembering the U.S. landing that began the Battle of Saipan in 1944.  That battle was 70 years ago; it lasted 23 days later and when it was over, the island was no longer under Japanese control, but now belonged to the U.S.A.  It is now part of the "Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands."  (You're welcome for that little history lesson.)

 

There was a small parade to mark the occasion:

 

Just being outside to watch the parade was almost unbearably hot. 
We were in the shade.
(I can't imagine what it must have been like for the marching band and others)

Later we went snorkeling to celebrate Father's Day.

We swam out to one of two partially-submerged tanks that rest near the shore, leftovers from the war.  All kinds of exotic fish have congregated on the algae-covered tank.  I don't have an underwater camera yet but I wished I did, on this little excursion.

Korean dinner to celebrate Daddy (of course!)

And then we got some grass jelly drinks (one of Jeremy's favorites) and took them to the beach to watch the sunset.

 

Ahh...

she's 10

Over the last few days I have teased her, calling her "nine year-old" as often as I can.  As in, "How's it going, Nine year-old?"  She groans. "I am almost ten." 

 

Today I teased her that since we are not in the U.S. Central time zone (in which she was born), she is not actually ten yet.  She just rolled her eyes at me.

 

the calendar says 06/18 so it is official

We hosted a pool party with a few of our new friends and even though we didn't have any flour or baking powder or a baking pan, a mixing bowl or beaters, we still managed to produce a cake. 

Sadly, running the oven didn't make any difference at all to the overall temperature in our apartment.  Hot is hot.

Sadly, in this kind of heat, icing doesn't stay put even on a cooled-to-room-temperature cake.  The dragon and lettering she so carefully worked on mostly melted away into a goopy mess.

She didn't mind.  In her own words, "It will still taste good."  Atta girl.

 

 

One guest showed up with some homemade fresh mango-and-coconut ice cream

she had whipped up.  I hope you are all suitably jealous.  It was dee-lish.

 

I guess innovative creativity must run in the family: look at the "10" her son made out of legos!

 

 

The party was a success and L. had a great time.  We watched the movie "Holes" in the evening (having just finished the book a few days ago) and then we had seconds on the cake.  She was really, really happy.

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Ever since we rounded the corner into 2014, I have spent some time fretting about what reaching this milestone might mean, and what changes are on the way.  It's time to let that go. 

 

Tonight I am keeping an eye on Ebay for some "heelys" she bid on with some of her birthday money. 

 

I also found this photo among others on my camera (she still likes to steal away and take photos while I am not watching) of a squatter in our apartment who likes to show up in the evenings:  

 

She loves animals.  She loves photography.  She is interested in just about everything.

New decade, same old L.   Happy birthday, kiddo.

where in the world ARE we??

With its Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Russian residents and tourists, not to mention the 60% Filipino local population, Saipan feels in many respects more Asian than North American. 

 

case in point: soup for breakfast at Saturday's farmer's market!

Evidently, A. found it so disorienting that she was shocked to see me using a US dollar bill one day.  "They use American money here?"  Yup, they sure do. 

Just look around, isn't it obvious this is the grand ol' US of A!   It's not like folks don't even speak English...

 

 

 

(okay, so this one is in English, but it's just really too awesome not to include in this set)
 

But once you get some reference points, it's really not so hard to navigate your way around town.  I mean, it's not like you just landed in a fantasy world in outer space. 

 

 

 

Or did you...

fun and funny

 The job is putting us up for a month.  The apartment is really very nice, and the complex is well-kept, and has a pool.  If they could, the kids would ditch the apartment and move into the pool.  I am tempted to, as well.   

 

view from our balcony

 

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Funny kids:

 

 

L's long hair last 2 days and then it was over.



 

goofy and funny

 

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The "flame trees" are in bloom right now.   They are just stunning and my photos don't do them justice.

 

this is the view along "Beach Road"--love it




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(J's hair is also shorter now...photos to follow)

Jer doesn't start work for another week.  We are loving that, too, and plan to maximize the fun. 

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We got local cellphones and pretty much right away the bizarre text messages started rolling in:

 

 

 

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On Sunday we went to Mass.  It went a little over an hour and at the end we found out it had been in Tagalog all along. 

Not that we had mistaken it for English, we just assumed it was the Chamorro language.  ("My, don't all of these islanders look Filipino?" and "I guess Chamorro must've been more influenced by the Philippines than I realized!") Over an hour and we never caught on.  Ha!  Shows what we know...

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A look at the prepared food section of the Japanese market. 

 

 



tags: fun, yum fun, very yummy and fun

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this business has got it figured out.  I mean why work all the
time when you could just limit it to 3 days/wk

 



 

(teehee)

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

this was in the Filipino food section. I only wish I
knew what to use it for.  I am taking suggestions.

 

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 And I don't know if this is exactly "funny" but it was certainly creative.  Today I saw a bumper sticker that read, "I Brake for Garment Workers."