Month: October 2015

Last week we went to a local restaurant called Spicy Thai for dinner. We shared spring rolls (I could probably eat about 100 of them because they were so good!), pad thai tofu, and green curry with veggies/tofu. John and I cannot handle spicy food, so it may have been our first mistake to go to a place with “spicy” in the name. The pad thai wasn’t spicy and I thought it was delicious, the curry on the other hand was hard to handle. While it was extremely spicy it was too good not to eat, so we kept going while our mouths burned. By the end of the meal our noses were running, we were chugging water, and beginning to sweat from the heat of the curry, but in the end it was worth it!

Saturday morning we went for a run. There is a trail that you can take all the way up to Suicide Cliffs, we ran a small portion of it and got a nice workout in, (the whole thing would probably take all day to hike up). The views during the run were a good distraction from the huge hill ahead, and the heat. After the run we drove up to the top of the cliffs, the views were beautiful and while the history of this place is tragic it was interesting to read about. More on that to come!

After our run we drove back down to the bottom of the cliffs and took a short walk around the Japanese World War II Memorial. This was the last command post the Japanese had in WWII when the Americans were invading the island. We saw some cannons that were left here untouched from the war, and an old hollowed out tank (smaller than a Volkswagen Beetle). The history of this island is so rich, it is difficult to sit in these places and imagine all of the destruction that took place only 75 years ago.

That afternoon we went to lunch at Wild Bills which serves “American and Thai food”. Their cheeseburger was pretty good, but their pad thai was probably the best I’ve ever had. I don’t know why this surprised me since it is run by a Thai family, but a place called Wild Bills doesn’t seem like it would serve amazing pad thai (but trust me it does!).

We’ve gotten really into the game Settlers of Catan. We played Thursday night, then again on Friday (just John and I), and then Saturday with all of our friends (and the new expansion pack!).

Sunday, after running some errands, we went to another beach (I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of exploring the beaches here). This one was a little more secluded and the drive to get down to it was along a pretty bumpy road. But once again, more than worth it to relax in this beautiful place.

This past week didn’t bring too many new adventures in the beginning. Mostly working, trying to workout, and cook. We went to Himawari (that amazing market) again for lunch on Wednesday.

Thursday we got word that a topical storm was headed our way. It was supposed to stay north of us, but of course this changed pretty quickly. Storm shutters were put up on our front windows and the rain and wind started soon after that on Thursday night. We saw people waiting in long lines to get gas and the stores were full of people buying jugs of water and canned food. Even though the storm was not predicted to be very big, a lot of people are still recovering from the massive typhoon that hit in August, typhoon Soudelor, which left the island without water, power, and a lot of people without homes. Many people still have to live without water and power from that storm (over 2 months later), and I can’t imagine having to prepare for another one when the destruction of Soudelor is still present in peoples’ every day lives. It is humbling to see how resiliant the families are on this island, even with all of the destruction, everyone we meet is willing to lend a hand. The rain and wind increased in speed throughout Thursday night. When we woke up on Friday our power was out. We (and by we I mean John) realized which way the storm was coming from and worried that our window in the bedroom that didn’t have a storm shutter on would blow in. We moved our bed into the main room to make sure it wouldn’t get soaked, which would eventually lead to mold. We also went to the store to fill up our water jug and get gas for the generator at the field house. The rest of Friday was pretty normal. Once the generator was running we were able to access the internet, so we worked most of the day inside the field house while the storm raged on outside. We stayed the night at the field house, and in the morning we went to check on our apartment. We had already gotten water and power back. All in all it was not a bad experience for my first typhoon (though a giant tin roof crashed into the front yard, and John was hit in the face by a flying lizard while securing the tarp on the dove cages).

The rest of this weekend was pretty relaxed. We went to the market for lunch, then hung out on the beach for a while. In the evening we tried a new bar called Sharky’s and went for pizza at Godfathers for dinner. We were excited to see that they had a bunch of Halloween decorations up! (we weren’t sure if they would acknowledge the holiday out here). Sunday we just did laundry (which means we get to have our favorite burger at the cafe next door called Java Joe’s!), picked up some groceries, and did a little cleaning around our apartment.

I thought you might like to see where we’re living here in Saipan. John did the apartment hunting before I arrived, and I must say he did a fantastic job on finding a great place and decorating (aka the bird posters on the walls). Our apartment is very cozy, cute, and most importantly breezy.

When you walk in the front door you come into an open living room in the front and kitchen area in the back.

 

When the front and back doors are open, there is a nice cross breeze that cools the apartment. Off to the side there are two bedrooms and the bathroom in between them.

Our bedroom	Spare bedroom
Bathroom

We are on the second floor of the building, it has four units in it and across the way there is another, identical building. Our apartment is definitely starting to feel like a home away from home, though I think the view is definitely the best part. It can’t be beat!

It’s already been two weeks here, and it has flown by! My first Saturday we hiked to Bird Island beach. It was a little off the beaten path, and the hike (and slipping down the muddy trail) added to the adventure! There was no one else at the beach except two pilots that live on Saipan and our small group which was really nice. The rest of the day consisted of us hanging out in the ocean with a cold beer and snacks back on the beach.

Sunday we went to brunch at PIC resort. The food which was themed for Korean Thanksgiving, was delicious. They had everything from fresh rolled sushi, banana crepes, Naan, and lentils, to ice cream cake, and some other Korean inspired deserts! Then of course there was the bottomless mimosa and relaxing in the lazy river all afternoon which was even better!

The second week was pretty similar to the first in terms of working and schedule, but we squeezed in a few fun things here and there. Tuesday night we went to Taco Tuesday at Godfathers ($1 tacos at a local bar, yum!). And then Thursday we headed over to Himawari (a great market full of fresh food and treats) for lunch. There was so much stuff in there that I, of course, could not decide what to get. I wanted to try everything at once (but there will be plenty of time to come back and try more). We settled on some fresh sushi and sweet & sour pork, we also picked up some freshly baked treats for later (like my new favorite item for breakfast, the blueberry bun!).

After a week of settling in, I figured I had to at least attempt to start working out again (since there is no bootcamp for me out here). I found this great site that has free yoga videos to follow. I’ve been doing these in the apartment (which can get pretty hot in the morning, so I think of it as hot yoga!).

This past Friday we had game night at our apartment where we got to break in my sweet Jenga game! It was so nice to read all the notes from friends and family on each piece. Then Saturday we went to a bar at one of the resorts in Garapan (the main tourist area) that sits on a beautiful beach. It was pretty interesting because we could see some of the naval ships that are stationed just off of the island. We stayed there from afternoon until dusk, swimming and hanging at the bar enjoying the sunset.

Sunday, John took me on a hike to one of their field sites. First we hiked up to a cliff (radar ridge) to get a birds-eye view of the east side of the island. There are no buildings or development here, so it was all forest followed by ocean. We then hiked a bit deeper into the forest where we hung out and read while enjoying the songs of the birds.

The rest of our Sunday was spent grocery shopping, cooking Sunday dinner (yes, I have actually been cooking some meals!), and getting ready for this week.