Goodbye to Friends, Hello to New Adventures

With the free time I’ve had since going on Leave of Absence from work, I’ve gotten to help John with the project a lot more. Besides making the daily diets for the birds, I’ve started helping with fruit trials. Usually I get to depulp the fruit (which is basically getting all of the seeds out of the fruit and cleaning them off so we can plant them), making the dirt and seed trays that the seeds will planted in, and then planting the depulped seeds along with the seeds that the birds passed. I’ve also gotten to help with data entry and collection. Every couple of days, all of the seeds we’ve planted need to be surveyed to see if they have germinated or not. All of that data then needs to be entered into data sheets to be tracked over time. This can be pretty tedious work that requires a lot of time in the greenhouse and in Excel, but it is rewarding to see that the work from the trials is paying off when the seeds germinate!

As the year comes to an end, so does some of our friends time on Saipan. Two people from the team went home last week, and another will leave this weekend. We had a BBQ at the field house on Saturday to celebrate together before people left. It was a great time grilling, eating outside, and having a bonfire to end the night. It’s sad to say bye to friends as they leave, but we’re lucky to have gotten to know everyone here!

Sunday we went to Old Man by the Sea. This is a beach with a huge rock formation that looks like the face of an old man. The hike down to the beach was nice as we were surrounded by different types of trees and birds. Right when we got to the beach we saw the rock that looked like the old man! This beach is on the side of the island where there is no reef so the waves come crashing into the rocks. We stuck our feet in the water, but soon realized that it was full of jelly fish (which we also saw washed up onto the beach in piles) so we got out and just hung out on the rocks and enjoyed the view of the ocean and the sound of the waves.

Sunday night John and I went to the Italian restaurant for dinner. It was super cute and very delicious. We got a spinach and garlic pizza and linguini carbanara. Both were really good and we had leftovers for lunch that week. It was nice to have a little taste of home so far away.