Month: January 2016

The beginning of 2016 has been quick and fun filled! The first weekend our friend on the island had a Fijian BBQ (called a Lovo) at his house. This entails digging a large hole in the ground (maybe 2 feet deep and 4 feet square) and putting hot coals on the bottom, gathering large coconut palms and placing a variety of meat in them. Then he braided the palms around the meat which are placed in the hole, buried, and left to cook for a few hours. There was also trays full of veggies and coconut milk placed in the hole to cook as well. Once everything was cooked, the food was dug up (very carefully as to not get dirt on it), unbraided or unwrapped, and placed out to eat. Everything was so delicious, and it was really cool to experience a traditional Fijian Lovo!

A few weeks ago, the team was invited to Saipan South (one of the high schools on island) to give a presentation about the project. This was a great opportunity to connect with some of the local youth of Saipan and introduce them to what EBL is doing to protect the wildlife in the Marianas. The kids were great! They asked questions that showed their curiosity and concern for the project and the island they live on. During lunch that day we had a chance to meet the Environmental club at the school. We spoke with them more about what the project does and ended up inviting them to the field house to give them a better idea of the work. Last Saturday they came over for their tour. They loved seeing the birds and their diets, tracking a model bird with the radio trackers in the yard, and even getting to do a bit of furgivery (watching a tree and seeing what birds come to eat the fruit from it). It was really awesome to see the kids get excited about nature, and we hope some of them were inspired to perhaps go into science as they start their college career!

On the field teams last Sunday on Saipan, we had a ravioli making night. A few of the girls here are really great cooks, and one of them taught us how to make raviolis from scratch. She mixed and rolled out the dough into rectangles, then we stuffed and sealed the raviolis before we put them in the pot to cook. The raviolis were filled with ricotta, eggplant, and onions. It was such a fun time cooking with everyone and most of all enjoying a fantastic meal at the end! It was a great close to their last weekend on Saipan, and a Sunday dinner we will remember forever.

On Tuesday afternoon I finally had the chance to go snorkeling! We went to Lau Lau beach where the waters are pretty calm (and you don’t have to swim over the reef to get to the good snorkeling). There you can jump into the water from a ledge and start snorkeling. There was beautiful fish of yellow, purple, black, and white, and really neat coral. It was a great afternoon enjoying the water and the true beauty of the island we are on.

Thursday evening we got some ice cream and went to Pau Pau beach to watch one last sunset with Britney (the last team member here) before she left. We walked down to the end of the beach, found some good rocks to sit on, and watched the sun set below the ocean.

Now the rest of the team is gone, and it is just John and I for the next month or so (until the new field crew comes for the next season). One of the best things about coming out here was getting to meet and work with such incredible, smart, interesting people from all over the world. They truly made this experience more memorable and will be great friends for years to come!

The holidays on Saipan definitely have a different feel than in Chicago. There is no cold weather to indicate they are coming. No need for hot chocolate or bundling up when you go outside. Even though the stores all played the usual Christmas songs and decorations were all over the island, it still didn’t feel like Christmas was coming.

When Christmas Eve finally arrived, we were all excited to experience a tropical holiday. We spent the day by the pool at one of the resorts. With a view of the ocean and the pool virtually to ourselves, it made for a great day of relaxing and enjoying time with friends. Later that night John and I had bought some shrimp to make with pasta (trying to get a bit of seafood in even though we were missing the feast back home). Two of our friends also came over to bake Christmas cookies (since there is no oven at the field house) for everyone to have the next day. We spent the night cooking and having dinner together a night full of Christmas fun! Something a bit different than back home that started on Christmas Eve was fireworks. As soon as the sun went down, fireworks could be heard, and sometimes seen if they were close enough, from around the island. This was pretty exciting at first, a cool way to celebrate Christmas on an island. Little did we know that this would last over a week and the boom of fireworks finally died out the Sunday after New Years.

On Christmas day we went over to the field house to have brunch with everyone. As always there was so much delicious food that everyone made that we ate until we couldn’t eat any more (I baked a french toast casserole that actually didn’t turn out half bad!). After that we just hung out with everyone and watched a movie before heading home for the night.

Saturday night we all went up to the top of Mount Tapochao for a bon fire. We drove up just before dusk to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful sight with a view of the entire island, I love watching the sun drop down below the ocean.

The next week was New Years already. After a long week of fruit trials with the birds we were looking forward to a night out. We all went to Himawari Restaurant for dinner. The sushi there was delicious, and we got to sit at one of those tables where you take your shoes off and sit cross legged. After dinner we went to a local bar called Johnny’s for a bit, then headed over to the Hyatt Resort that sits on the beach. We really weren’t sure what to expect, but we had heard that they had the best New Years Eve party on Saipan. Right when we walked up we knew it was going to live up to its reputation. There was a dance floor and DJ set up on the beach along with bars and a clock for the countdown. We watched the clock as it got closer to midnight and when it finally turned 12:00 there was a spectacular show of fireworks! We spent the rest of the night dancing until the party was over. After that we headed over to Ichiban (an Asian noodle place) where we had these amazing onion/eggplant pancakes and our new favorite dish the eggplant hotpot (hot because of the temperature not the spice of course)! To close the night out, John joined a table of Korean tourists next to us that were playing a Korean drinking game with a drink called Soju. Soon the rest of us joined in and we all had a great time ending the night. Luckily the game was pretty simple, but tons of fun!

It’s still hard to believe 2015 is over. With all of the amazing things that happened (weddings, new friends, graduations, and of course moving to an island), it is hard to imagine 2016 being any better, but I know it will be filled with just as much adventure, great memories, and love as last year! Happy New Year everyone!