Now the Differences between Guam / Saipan

With everything where there are similarities there are also differences. There are more hotels; the 1st time I stayed at a Westin, the 2nd time I stayed at a Hilton - neither hotel is on Saipan.

Guam has 2 regular type malls, where Saipan has none. Well ok, we have 1 that is closed up...

This is the outlet mall. I can't believe in the 2 times I was in Guam I didn't get a picture of the regular mall. Oh well, sorry about that. 

On 1 of my walks around my hotel (Westin), I found some interesting sites. A small fountain and a mural. What I didn't know - was there was a water park across the street from my hotel and I didn't even bring my swimsuit.

Not sure why but I was fascinated with this mural. There were 2 more on the other side of the building as well. 

This just seems peaceful. This is outside the Outback Restaurant that was across the street from the Westin. Since Outback seems to have heavy meals, I wasn't all that interested, plus my co-worker from Guam had taken me from 1 party to the next and by the time I had time to myself I was tired of food. Saipan likes to eat and BBQ as well. As a matter of fact, this Sunday is a co-worker's Uncle's sister's birthday and we will be BBQing. 

Japanese tourist come here - not sure why...but on Guam there the Japanese tourist are big but to have weddings. Here are several wedding chapels. The wedding chapels are all apart of each hotel.

Hope you have enjoyed a brief tour of Guam. Since I went back right after Thanksgiving there is more to come. 

Similarities between Guam/Saipan

Ok - I just wrote out something all nice and because it has been so long since I've posted I can never remember how to put pictures up, so what do you think happened, YEAP!!! I lost the post. Why it doesn't save somewhere I have no idea. Either that or it does save somewhere and I don't know where.

The last time I posted it was my birthday back in early August. I've been to Guam twice, a group of us from the office went on a hike, and a couple beach parties. Today I will probably only post the Similarities and Differences between Guam and Saipan.

So we shall start with my 1st trip to Guam. It was over Labor Day. Guam is twice as big as Saipan. So, Guam is 30 miles long and 8 miles wide at the widest point. There are many shops that are the same on Guam as there is in Saipan. The differences is 2 malls, KMart, Home Depot, more "american" restaurants. The government in Guam has worked out the "corrupt" politicians as well. And lets not forget the 2 military bases - 1 of which is gearing up to get 8000 Marines from Okinawa if I'm not mistaken. Believe it or not there is "traffic" on Guam. Since the roads are crowded now, I can't imagine what the roads will be like when the 8000 plus Marines and their families - what the roads will be like then. Each time I was in Guam I would trolley around to the different malls and then I would get off at the furthest part of "hotel row" and then I would walk back to my hotel. This mall is 1 of the similarities between the Guam/Saipan. But on Guam there are 2 of these malls and believe it or not - right next to each other.

Guam/Saipan have KFC though we only have 1 and it is with Taco Bell. On Guam there are probably 4 and they are building another KFC, though Taco Bell is separate. 

Believe it or not both Guam and Saipan have a Rolex store. 

And of course, it rains in both places as well. I'm riding on a trolley taking me around. I think this is hotel row. 

There are other similarities of course, I'm not sure if you can tell but the building in the picture above is made of concrete. Houses and buildings here too are made of concrete. My house is made of concrete and 1 time I dropped a dish and it just shattered everywhere. Of course some of the pieces were big enough that Simba thought it was a toy, so I had to clean it up real quick. 

A Quick Note

To my Faithful Followers:

Last week I was going to do some blog updating. On my last picture, the picture/internet decided it wasn't going to load. So I tried to find the "save for later" button. When I navigated away from the page, I lost the entry.

I don't blog from home because the internet/picture loading is REAL slow, so I normally go down to my favorite cafe and blog from there. But that particular day Halloween - even they were having trouble.

I don't have much time today to blog so I am going to put up the "new and improved" Bob and Roberta.

They aren't the scrawny/skinny/awful looking cats any longer. They look healthy now. Bob has whiskers now, which he didn't have before. Roberta has filled out, you can no longer she her hip bones. As you can see they are completely different cats.

Today I'm going picnicing. This is where I will be going. Pau Pau beach. 

I know I still have several entries to make and I will do so soon. 

Enjoy your weekend as mine is coming to a close. 

Gwen

6 Months on Island

Well, I thought I had posted my last message but apparently not, so here I am back to try this again.

As the title of this entry says, I've been here 6 months. I can hardly believe it. The summer just went right on by me. I can't believe it.

I do have to say the last 6 months have not been without some ups and downs. Some feelings of being homesick and the feeling of what in the heck did I do. I pretty much knew the reasons for these feelings but at the same time, it was discomforting at the time.

I have hit the big 5 - 0 in the last 6 months. You can read all about my day on an earlier entry.

My cats survived the whole quarantine business, but let me tell you - what a scam. When I was getting ready to take them home from the quarantine facility, they made a big deal about wanting to know where I lived and to make sure the house I picked was suitable just in case 1 of the cats got sick. Well, that would be hard for them to know since they never once came out to check on them. And if I had to take 1 of them to the vet, we should have been escorted from my house to the vet and back again, nope - they just met me at the vet's office. It is all about the money here.

Just about everything is "booney" here. I have 2 booney cats who live on the landlords property - names Bob and Roberta. I have a booney car. It is 13 years old and to be honest in relatively good condition. I have a booney broom because I keep breaking them. This weekend I will have to buy yet another broom. This will be the 3rd broom in the last 6 months. Things don't tend to last long here. You have to be real careful of rust.

Work is coming along. It is definitely a lot different than when I arrived. I have the office running relatively well now. I need to start preparing FY-11 folders. I've prepared them, now I just need to file the documents I have, which isn't very many.

I've been to Guam, been on a hike, been taking Tae Kwon Do, been walking for the most part 3 miles a day. The last couple of weeks have been sporadic, but I usually get in a good 2 or 3 days a week in of exercise. Been to picnics, pot lucks, every Thursday there's a night market with mostly food and some arts 'n crafts.

Now that the ups and downs have gone away I have the feeling the next 1 1/2 years will fly by and I will wonder once again where has the time gone.

1 of the marvels of the island is the double rainbows. And since pictures at my house take forever to upload I will only send 1. Went on a dinner cruise and got this photo. Enjoy.

Okay 1 more, you have to get a load of my booney broom. Now let me explain this broom. The bristles broke from the handle. I was in the middle of cleaning and just didn't feel like going out and buying another broom. I would have lost my enthusiasm. I had a straw broom but the handle is too short and it hurts my back to use it. So, I took the straw broom and taped it to the handle of the broken broom. You gotta love it.

Interesting Things Around Town

Before I get too far into the interesting things around town. Here is what I get around town in. My 1997 Nissan Pathfinder. Considering what some cars look like - my vehicle for the year it is - is in rather good shape. I needed to replace the shocks and now I can see why they tend to go bad here. There are still several roads that are unpaved and when the rain comes these roads develop rather "large" potholes".

As I've mentioned to mom and dad I live

to the right of the car - up the stairs. No I have not yet taken photos of the "flat" but I will. I think I have mentioned that my landlord lives on the bottom and have their own entrance and I live on the top floor. 

Still trying to figure this thing out. Just like trying to remember what time it is in the US and the fact that I'm a full 12 hours at least ahead of everyone. 

Okay back to what I was talking about. 

As I believe everyone knows this island is only 5 miles wide and 15 miles long. The average speed limit is 40 MPH. So why on earth would you want this kind of car here. Not like you can really open it up and really enjoy its speed. 

As I'm sure most know what the island was most famous for at 1 time was "illegal" making of clothes. The clothes were made here but not of American cloth. Still the manufactures put on the clothes "made in USA". This 1 sweat shop is about 1/2 blocks from my house. 1 of these days I want to go inside and take some more photos. So stand-by for more. Here are a couple from the road. 

 

Back in the late 80s or early 90s the Japanese tourism was huge here. But between price gouging that the island is known for and the Japanese economy this Mall was left abandoned almost as soon as it was built. To bad too because it looks like it would have been a nice 1 and a source of income for the island. Between the Japanese having to pull businesses out of the island and the closing of the sweat shops this island has gone down the tubes nearly - economically. Plus the still bad accounting and business management of the island govt. 

As a matter of fact mostly probably 2 more hotels will be closing down in the next year. 

Believe it or not - the island has started to recycle. Here is 1 such bin - but apparently there is the "main" site which I haven't been to. When I got close to the bin I noticed that it was for bottles and plastics and nothing for paper. 

Hope you have enjoyed the little tour of around town. 

My cats are now officially out of quarantine. They did 30 days at the quarantine facility and then 90 days "house arrest" at home. So the 4 months of quarantine was over August 24. Next weekend (Labor Day) I will be going to Guam. So more pictures later. 

Ok - Last 1 of Today - Flowers of the Island

I had thought I got all the same flowers but apparently I was better than that. Not sure what kind of flowers they are but they are awfully pretty and for whatever reason they caught my fancy.

Enjoy. 1 of the flowers is from the Flame Tree that is originally from Japan. Not sure when they were transplanted here but they are all over the island. Mostly they are along Beach Road. But you can find them just about anywhere on the island.

When the Flame Trees are in full bloom - they are quite pretty really. They have a festival each year celebrating the Flame Tree. The weekend it was ending I had just moved here so I didn't make it. I will be here next year for it so stay tuned.

I'm not sure what tree this is but it is 1 of the trees that is on my landlord's property. At the request of family members I was going to try to get pictures of the "flat"/"apartment" I'm living in but it rained for most of the day. And when the sun did come out I was involved in a book. I suppose I could look this tree up on line but I haven't so if anyone could tell me what this tree is....????

This is a Noni fruit tree. Apparently the fruit is very bitter. It is supposed to be some sort of home remedy. Anyway, a person here told me you put it in a big jar, let it drip (on it's own) into this jar. When you want some of it, you put water in a glass along with some sugar and drink it. There is supposed to be some of this fruit in Memorial Park which is across the street from the cafe I'm sitting in.

Some flowers on the island.

Enjoy. Since the Cafe's Internet is faster than mine at the house - I guess I will have to do my Blog here. It is much less painful.

Have a great rest of the weekend everyone. It is time for me to get going to meet the person I'm having dinner with.

Gwen

Make a Wish Foundation

About a month ago - I guess by now - Make a Wish Foundation had a Sand Castle Making contest on the beach of the "Hyatt". I'm not sure how the participants became participants but each group is a business on Saipan. 1 was a radio station, the junior college, probably a bank (though I'm not sure) and a few other large businesses.

As you know Make a Foundation supports children who have diseases. This year the foundation raised money to send a child and her family on an all expense paid trip for 1 week to Disney World in Fl.

Here are some Sand Castles that the "adults" made by playing in the sand. Ok - so there's going to be more than a few.....

I still haven't learned that I need the cursor at the end of the picture to put the next picture in line. Good Grief.....

I believe this 1 actually started crumbling about 10 minutes before the contestants had to stop making the sand castles. Someone made a comment on how they were getting "greedy". Who knows, but there was some serious rushing to correct the part that feel apart.

There were 3 Sponge Bob Square Pants entries. I believe I have 2 of them.

This was the Junior College entry.

Dogs best friend.

I think this was the winner. If it wasn't the winner - it was the runner up. I believe......

1 of the judges is a "Sand Castle" world champion from Australia. While he was walking around looking at the entries he made his own sand castle.

Actually quite impressive.

Hope you enjoyed the show....