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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!

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.

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are upon us now. The time here really is flying by. Thanksgiving week came and went quicker than I thought possible. While we definitely missed celebrating with our families back home, this Thanksgiving was just as special, filled with friends, food, and fun!

To help prepare for the holiday, everyone chose a couple dishes they wanted to make to share with everyone for Thanksgiving dinner. I chose some pretty traditional Thanksgiving sides: Green Bean Casserole, Corn Pudding, Sweet Potatoes, and Crescent rolls. With the field house not having an oven, we had whoever needed to bake their dish over to our apartment so they could cook. It was a blast cooking together and preparing for the big dinner later that night. Everything went pretty smoothly with cooking (minus the 1 hour power outage right when we wanted to start baking! Classic Saipan). By 4pm though, everything was ready. We loaded all the dishes into the truck and headed over to the field house to meet the rest of the group for dinner. All of the food was delicious! We had everything from turkey and mashed potatoes, to vegan meatloaf and beat salad, to sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. There was so much we had leftover for days!

 

The day after Thanksgiving, John and I went down to Garapan to walk around. We went in and out of a few shops. I got pretty excited when I saw them setting up Christmas trees already in the plaza! This is also a great opportunity to introduce you to Saipanda! He was already dressed up and ready for Christmas.

After getting ice cream at the I Love Saipan store, strolling through the fancy pants Galleria (high class mall) / Casino (we were very under dressed I might add), and finding some new sun glasses for John, we headed over to the American War Memorial. Right when we walked in, the park ranger greeted us and asked us if it was our first time at the museum. He was surprised to learn that it was, and we then continued to exchange stories of how we came to Saipan, how long we’re staying, and things we’ve done or places we’ve traveled to near by (side note – this might be one of my favorite things about living out here, learning others’ stories about why they came out here, what they are doing, and where they’ve traveled). The museum was extremely interesting. With exhibits describing the battles in the Pacific ocean in WWII, the route Americans took when they fought the Japanese for the island, and the impact the battle had on the local Chamorro people, we learned so much from the museum. At the end we got to view a short video that did a great job of summing up the build up and ensuing battle of Saipan. We then walked around the Memorial Park that had plaques with the names of the American soldiers and local Chamorros that perished during the battle.

On Saturday, a few of us got to visit what we voted to be the most beautiful place on Saipan, Forbidden Island. My description and pictures will definitely not do it justice in trying to portray the beauty of this place. During the hike down we stopped every few minutes because we were trying to capture the sights of the island as we got closer. When we got to the bottom, we hung out in some small tidal pools and enjoyed the waves crashing onto the rocks. In one spot there was a school of fish, each about the size of a hand, that we were swimming with and unsuccessfully trying to get a better look. It was a really great morning just relaxing in the water surrounded by the beauty of the small rock islands in front of us.

Our Thanksgiving week was not per usual, but it is definitely one we will remember for years to come. From celebrating the holiday with new friends, to experiencing the vast beauty of this small island lying in the tropical Pacific, we are truly thankful for this experience.

So you know the description of the project John is working on (if not you can go here to read about it), but what does his day-to-day work entail?

Every morning he starts off by feeding the birds. Right now there are 9 birds and 4 different species. They eat in the morning and in the afternoon. Their diet consists of veggies (green beans, carrots, and corn), berries (black berries, blue berries, and raspberries), some grapes, maybe some bananas (if they’re available at the store) and if they need some protein maybe a few meal worms or hard-boiled egg. Depending on the bird, the food needs to be cut into smaller pieces so they can eat it. I have gotten to help make the bird diets and have become a master chopper!

If the bird is new to captivity, it might not know right away to eat the food we provide it in the bowl. This means that it needs to get tube fed 2-3 times a day so it doesn’t lose too much weight. To tube feed, John uses a syringe filled with protein powder and water and feeds it to the bird directly. This happens in the morning, afternoon, and early evening for as long as it takes the bird to start eating the diets we make them. The new Fruit Doves that were mist netted last Monday are still being tube fed this week, so hopefully they will start eating their yummy fruits and veggies soon!

Now that the fruit has started growing back after typhoon Soudelor, he has been able to do a few trials. This is where he’ll feed the birds one of the types fruits that has been designated to study for the project. Then once the birds pass that fruit, he’ll plant those seeds as well as seeds from the original fruit to see if they will germinate. It is a pretty diligent process planting so many tiny seeds and keeping track of what is what.

If he did do a trial, or there are seeds germinating, then he needs to record the data so he can keep track of it for the study. This means a lot of Excel spreadsheets that need to be created and updated regularly.

Most of the work done is with the birds at the field house. The first couple months he was here, his focus was on creating the aviaries where the birds would be kept for the study. If he’s not at the field house though, he could also be out looking for ripe fruit to use for trials, searching for frozen fruit/vegetables to feed the birds, or mist netting new birds.

One of our favorite places to run in Saipan is along the beach front trail on the southern end of the island (I like to think it’s because of the great view and not that it’s the only flat running path we could find). We try to run a couple times a week, and this has definitely become our regular route. It’s a really nice paved path right along the ocean which is a great distraction while we run. The half-way point where we turn around is a tank that is from the American invasion during WWII. The start and end of our run is at a restaurant right on the ocean called Oleai. Sometimes we go there after our run to get some iced tea and a snack!

Last weekend it was the birthday of one of our friends here. He planned a dinner cruise on boat for all of us to celebrate and hang out. The boat was catamaran style, with tables set up on the front deck and inside. We were lucky to get a primo spot in the front so we could enjoy the amazing views while we ate. John had fish, I got the chicken, and they both came with grilled veggies and rice. We all had a great time on the boat and got to see the island from a different perspective along with some great views!

Thursday night we had the opportunity to go to Thursday Night Market. It was a pretty exiting experience as this has been closed since typhoon Soudelor hit back in August. There was food tents where you paid $5 and got to pick 5 items for your plate. The food was mostly different types of local food, Chamorro, Korean, Chinese, Thai, etc. All of it was really delicious, and there was also music and dancers near the middle of the market. Now that it is back open, I am sure we will be back for more good music and delicious food.

Saturday night John and I decided to take on a more challenging dish to cook (it probably isn’t actually that hard for people that cook more frequently than we do, but it was exciting for us). We found a recipe for a cream parmesan pasta with mushrooms and green onions. So we went out and got all the ingredients and whipped it up that night. To both of our surprise it turned out extremely well, and we made so much that we got to enjoy it for dinner on the following night.

Sunday morning we had a bit of free time so we drove out to Marpi, (the main protected area of forest on the island), to hike a bit and read. This is also where the team has more of their sites for the plant and bird projects, so I got to see what those look like. Later that evening we drove up to Mount Topachou (the tallest point on the island) to watch the sunset. The drive up was pretty bumpy as it is not paved and full of pot holes, but once we were up there the view was incredible. From the top, you have a 360 view of the entire island, and it really puts in perceptive just how small it is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. At the top there is a statue of Jesus, and every year on Easter there is a pilgrimage up the mountain to this statue.

Last week I had the opportunity to see first hand what mist-netting means. Early Friday morning I went over to the field house and saw the huge nets that had been setup the previous afternoon. The nets were a little taller than the house and the largest one was 15 feet wide. We had just setup our lookout spot when only about 2 minutes later a bird had flown into the net. Our first one of the morning! I spread out the net so John could take the bird out. Once he had him out, I got to hold him before we released him. Though it was not the species he wanted to get that day, it was a really cool experience to get to hold a bird. A little while later, after a few other birds had been caught and released, a Starling flew into one of the nets. This is one of the species John was looking for for the study, so we kept it. After weighing it and taking some measurements, John introduced him to his new home.

Saturday morning we went over the LauLau Bay Golf Resort driving range. We got two buckets of balls, some rental clubs, and picked out our spots on the range. A few swings in I finally hit the ball more than a couple feet! I’d say our drives were, how do I put this, inconsistent at best. We could definitely use some practice (and maybe a bit of advice so we aren’t just making up the technique), but it was super fun to just hit a bucket of balls on a beautiful resort! We’ll be back again to practice some more for sure.

For the past couple weeks we’ve been sharing our apartment with a baby gecko. He usually shows up around dinner time to hang out with us and hunt for a meal (though he’s not really the greatest at finding insects). Like most of the animals around here (White Rooster, Brown Bull, Road Dog, Marley the Bandit, Balc Honey Eater) we’ve given him a “name”, we call him Baby Gecko.

This weekend was Halloween. Friday while we were out doing laundry and running errands we saw some kids dressed up in their costumes from school. Superman and a princess seemed to be popular choices. They were all pretty adorable! Saturday we went to Fiesta beach bar in Garapan and hung out there all day. The weather was beautiful, and it was nice to just relax in the sun. The sunset was putting on quite a show that night, and I went a little crazy taking pictures!

Once it was dark, we put our costumes on and headed to Godfathers (our go-to place for dinner when we’re in Garapan) for some pizza. Everyone there was dressed up, including the people that worked at the restaurant. Some were even acting the part of their costume.

Then we went back to Fiesta because they were having a Mad Max themed Halloween party. They had a costume contest (there were some really great costumes!), a DJ, and we even got to enjoy some Halloween candy!

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.