Lindsay in Saipan

Well, I just had my first tropical storm warning… apparently if there is a typhoon it is coming tonight. How exciting! How scary! I guess the beach combing is amazing after a typhoon. Well, I will let you know what happens.

Wow! I can’t believe that I am approaching my one month anniversary of being on island. Time seems to have flown by, yet so much has happened. Work is going great. On Wednesday I am taking my class on our first field trip. There is a research boat that is in the port and we are going to take a tour of it. They have been collecting samples of coral, fish and other marine life from the Mariana’s islands so it should be very interesting. Another one of my students finally return from vacation. They seem to be slowly trickling in. I started off the year with 13, I have 15 as of today and there are three more that should be here any day now.
So, now I get to the camping trip that wasn’t. I was so excited for this last weekend because my friends and I were planning a trip to go camping on the beach. The original plan was to go for two nights and people could just come and go as they pleased. Then we decided that two nights was probably a little overkill - when you live on such a small island and it is impossible to put yourself in a REALLY remote location it is hard to motivate people to rough-it. So, plans changed to: Saturday breakfast at a place called Wild Bills, a SCUBA and snorkle trip to the Grotto (the best swimming hole EVER) in the morning, and head to the beach by 4pm so we could set up for camping and still enjoy sunset which is sometime around 7pm - I am still getting used to the sun setting so early. So…. by the time we got to Wild Bill’s we were already an hour and a half behind “schedule” (that word doesn’t really have much meaning, I don’t know why anyone bothers to pretend it does) and we were discussing the fact that there was a severe weather warning and that they were advising people not to dive. Well, since I have been here there have been some nasty storms and none of them have been reported, so to hear a warning about one we figured it must be a monster. We went to the dive shop and their computers showed this big red dot meaning “danger”. But, we went down to the Grotto anyway to investigate the situation. There were probably about 20 divers either getting ready to go in or on their way out so we figured it must be fine. Mind you, I am not certified yet but I was ready for some snorkling and floating around in cobalt blue water. We were at the Grotto for about two hours. Susan and I flashed some Japanese tourist that we thought were our friends (hard to tell when they are underwater with all that SCUBA gear). Oooops! Crazy white girls! Then it came time to make a decision about camping…. the storm warnings were still up and running and friends were pulling out of the deal so we decided to set up camp in our living room. Susan and I have a HUGE living room. The idea was a hit and so it was settled, SuLi Campground opened for business. We hung a sign out front, cleared out the furniture and set up a tent, camp chairs, an indoor grill and an outdoor bbq. People brought coolers, snackies and plenty of cold beer. We made some jello shots - one of the perks of indoor camping. So, about half way through the night we decided to take a tour of Dana and Jamie’s house (they are two Canadian girls who are physical therapists on island) and then we decided to hit up the kareoke bar (no laughing at my spelling if it’s wrong). That was definetely the first time I had taken a house tour and kareoke bar trip on a camp out. Then, it was back to the campground for a little late night dip in the pool. Our poor neighbors… that is all I am going to say about that. And then, just to seal the deal that this was truly the camping trip that wasn’t, everyone went home and slept in their beds. I tell ya, strangest weekend of camping this Montana girl has ever seen. Sunday, I went and looked at some furniture for the house I am moving into this week. I possibly have a jeep wrangler - the guy is not sure when he is going to sell it. I am very excited about that. I will keep you informed. Well, it is Monday afternoon and I need to get off the computer. The car wouldn’t start this morning so we got a ride from my friend Aaron and he is going to be here any minute to pick Susan and I up. Hey, drop a line sometime. I do have email you know. lindsayfrombigsky@gmail.com or lrdavis21@hotmail.com
signing out!

Well, I am back on-line. There was a huge storm last week and lightening hit the island near the school and fried the computers, DSL, copy machine, phone line, printers… everything. Life has been keeping me busy. Susan and I f0und a new place to live. The house we are in right now is nice, but it is way more than we need and it is way more than we want to pay for. We are going to rent a house (a real house, not one that is a part of an apartment complex) from a local. It has a fabulous view of the ocean and is tucked away on a hillside that is covered with flame trees. It didn’t come furnished so we are having a refrigerator delivered there today afterschool. Well, I gotta run. It is 8:00 and that means it is time for me to go get my students and get this day started.

Well, I have been on island a week now. Things have been moving at a fast and furious pace that probably won’t let up for a couple more weeks. This weekend was the first time I felt like I was really able to relax a little and just hang out. My Saturday started off by going to ACE hardware with my friend Meghan. They were having a 25% off sale, and let me tell you sales are a busy event around here. I bought a pot and some spinach seeds. I have been told that it doesn’t grow here, but why else would they have seeds in the store? My friend Aaron said they do it to trick whities like me. I will let you know how it goes. Salad greens are abysmal here so I hope it works. Next we (Meghan, Susan and her boyfriend Jamie) went to Lau Lau beach which is on the southeastern side of the island. It was pretty rocky but beautiful. Jamie let me borrow his snorkle gear and I had my breath taken away by the beauty of the sea. There were so many amazing fish of all shapes, sizes and colors. I wish I knew what they were. A few of my favorites were: one that had a marbled swirl of purple and blue, the long needle-shaped ones, and the zebra striped fish. The water stays really shallow (at most, up to my shoulders) for a long way out so you can do a lot of exploring with snorkle gear. I think I will have to invest in a set with my first paycheck. Then we took a trip to the Price Costco. It is kind of like the Costco in the states but you don’t have to have a membership card and there is half an aisle dedicated to Spam. I kid you not. There are at least five different kinds. (FYI, when you buy Spam at the Joeten market you get a free “I Love Spam” bumpersticker. Let me know if you would like one.) The food stand at Costco is a little hang out spot for the locals. There were at least 30 people sitting down, watching Shrek on the big screen there. Well, the day didn’t end there, Jamie, Susan, Meghan, Aaron and I went on a pub crawl in Garapan and consumed obscene amounts of alcohol, played darts, and got stuck out in the rain. Garapan is the neighborhood where most of the bars are and where most of the tourists hang out, there is also a mall there that has all kinds of fancy designer shops, Prada, Dolce and Gabana… don’t plan on buying anything there. We started off at this place called the Abyss that has the best fresh fish on island. I found out why they are so good, they do all their own fishing to insure freshness. There is a dish here called Poke (poki). It is raw tuna with sesame oil, sesame seeds, green onions and some kind of chili that makes it spicy. I think it is probably my new favorite food. We also ordered sashimi and a seafood curry that was scrumptious. From there we continued our crawl. At the end of the night we headed back to the house and went for a late night swim in the pool. It felt so good. Today (Sunday) has been a pretty lazy day so far. It is nice to not do anything sometimes. I am at school right now taking care of a few things and thought I better post a little in my journal. Classes start on Tuesday. My boxes with my teaching albums that I sent five weeks ago still haven’t arrived. Oh well, nothing I can do about it.

Well, I am here. Thanks to everyone that is checking out this blog. I figured it would be a better route to go than mass emails. This way if you are curious about what is going on in Saipan and my life you can just check it out.
I have been “on island” for four days now. Life has been very busy; I got my driver’s license (it looks like something I could have made in my garage), bought a car (Subaru Legacy), signed a lease on a house, p.o box… Way more running around than I wanted to do. The good news is I have already made some amazing friends. Susan (the other new teacher at the school) and I hit it off right away. We are sharing the car and are going to be roommates. She is fun, positive, intelligent, and a great friend. I worked in my classroom today. Students start next Tuesday, August 9. The classroom won’t be entirely ready to go because some materials that were ordered haven’t arrived yet. I am learning that things take longer to get done around here than they do stateside. It is helping me to slow down. Well, that is all I have to say for now. I am exhausted. Time to go out on the porch, drink my banana milkshake and gaze out at the ocean.