I have learned a few things about Guam during my time here so far:
1. I learned quickly that I do not live IN Guam. I live ON Guam or ON island.
2. The humidity straightens hair like magic. I won't be curling my hair every day anymore.
3. The lines on the road don't determine where people drive; the potholes do.
4. Even the bugs are beautiful and colorful: bright green beetles, red and yellow spiders...
5. It's not really out of the ordinary to see chickens and wild boars (and dogs) hanging out in the road.
6. For all the talk of Guam being infested with brown tree snakes, I have yet to see one.
7. It rains somewhere on island every day, even during the dry season.
8. Shopping at Kmart on any random day is like Black Friday shopping in the States.
9. It takes more paperwork to bring a dog (or guns) to Guam than it does to bring a child.
10. The further I travel, the more I realize how interconnected the world's people are. I've met people from my hometown right here on Guam! (This friend is from Pocatello, Idaho. Where I grew up. She was talking about me.)
We are loving it here! What an adventure! - Lindsy Crossley
1. I learned quickly that I do not live IN Guam. I live ON Guam or ON island.
2. The humidity straightens hair like magic. I won't be curling my hair every day anymore.
3. The lines on the road don't determine where people drive; the potholes do.
4. Even the bugs are beautiful and colorful: bright green beetles, red and yellow spiders...
5. It's not really out of the ordinary to see chickens and wild boars (and dogs) hanging out in the road.
6. For all the talk of Guam being infested with brown tree snakes, I have yet to see one.
7. It rains somewhere on island every day, even during the dry season.
8. Shopping at Kmart on any random day is like Black Friday shopping in the States.
9. It takes more paperwork to bring a dog (or guns) to Guam than it does to bring a child.
10. The further I travel, the more I realize how interconnected the world's people are. I've met people from my hometown right here on Guam! (This friend is from Pocatello, Idaho. Where I grew up. She was talking about me.)
We are loving it here! What an adventure! - Lindsy Crossley
Also, I had a friend from California ask me some questions about Guam so I will share what I said:
So, how is school for your kids? Kaitlynn (Katy, now.) seems to really like school. She abhors homework but she has so much less homework this year compared to last year. She should be thrilled. Cody hasn't started preschool yet and I kind of want to do a preschool co-op with my friends but I already enrolled him in the preschool on base. The one on base only goes from 745 to 1015 though. And school here starts at 735! A full hour before it did in California. Ugh! I told my friends that if we want to walk to school, we have to be up by 653. Yes, I have it down to the minute. I hate getting up early. We were really lucky to have an extra long summer and I wasn't ready to give up my sleep in and do nothing days.
Are the schools on the base? Yep, the schools (elementary and middle school) are on base - right next to each other. We walk there - on days when we wake up before 653. :) Also, the schools here are so amazing. Their "projector" is equivalent to a large IPad. They touch the screen that hangs on the wall and can move their names to hot lunch, cold lunch. They do word games on the screen and it randomly selects who's turn it is to come and help the teacher. I am not describing it well but it is incredible. Picture a giant IPad instead of the projector you usually have in the classroom. They also go to "Culture" class to learn about the culture and history of Guam, "Spanish" class, "Art" and "PE" on top of all the other cool stuff they do at school. There are 900 kids at her school but Katy only has 17 kids in her class.What is the language of Guam? The language is Chamarran. The people are called Chamarros and instead of Aloha (in Hawaii) they say "Hafa Adai" (haf a day). There are lots of weird languages though because each island around here speaks their own and then they come here and it is a big mix of all kinds. The people kind of look Latino, but don't tell them that. :)
Are the schools on the base? Yep, the schools (elementary and middle school) are on base - right next to each other. We walk there - on days when we wake up before 653. :) Also, the schools here are so amazing. Their "projector" is equivalent to a large IPad. They touch the screen that hangs on the wall and can move their names to hot lunch, cold lunch. They do word games on the screen and it randomly selects who's turn it is to come and help the teacher. I am not describing it well but it is incredible. Picture a giant IPad instead of the projector you usually have in the classroom. They also go to "Culture" class to learn about the culture and history of Guam, "Spanish" class, "Art" and "PE" on top of all the other cool stuff they do at school. There are 900 kids at her school but Katy only has 17 kids in her class.What is the language of Guam? The language is Chamarran. The people are called Chamarros and instead of Aloha (in Hawaii) they say "Hafa Adai" (haf a day). There are lots of weird languages though because each island around here speaks their own and then they come here and it is a big mix of all kinds. The people kind of look Latino, but don't tell them that. :)
What is the shopping like? Basically, picture if you could only drive to Sacramento and back -ever. (30 miles away) but you can only drive 35 mph. And your only shopping stores off base are Kmart and Ross. (but the Asian tourists shop there and drop off tour busses full of people so even if you go in to those stores it feels like a black friday with lines to the back of the store.) the Ross has 20 check out lanes. Seriously. Its just weird here. The locals are all on welfare because the military has driven up prices to where they cant afford to live here...and basically, its an American Mexico with rampant loose dogs and run down buildings. :)
Im not as devastated as I was when we first got here and it makes me laugh to think about these things.
Are you shopping online more? Yes, but I hate online shopping. Half the stores don't have Guam as an option for shipping to or as the billing address that you have to enter. Its ridiculous. And we don't have mailboxes at our house. Everyone has a PO Box so that adds complications. There is also no Fed Ex or UPS that delivers here. We just have the post office. (We all hate the post office.)
Do you have a ward or branch? We have a ward. Half the people are locals and half are military. There are a few white families that live here permanently for their husband's job. There are amazing youth in our ward. The young mens is large and they seem like great guys. (I substitute taught the 15-18 year old's Sunday school for the last 5 weeks. It was great because none of them have ever read the BOM cover to cover so we just talk about the stories, not about the deeper meanings. We were leading up to Captain Moroni, which is my favorite so I really liked it. And one young man bore his testimony about something he learned in Sunday School. It was awesome that the spirit is in the classes. All the youth are natives and only one or 2 had been to the states. It is crazy that our lives are so different. Their experiences are so different than mine.
Im not as devastated as I was when we first got here and it makes me laugh to think about these things. Are you shopping online more? Yes, but I hate online shopping. Half the stores don't have Guam as an option for shipping to or as the billing address that you have to enter. Its ridiculous. And we don't have mailboxes at our house. Everyone has a PO Box so that adds complications. There is also no Fed Ex or UPS that delivers here. We just have the post office. (We all hate the post office.)
Do you have a ward or branch? We have a ward. Half the people are locals and half are military. There are a few white families that live here permanently for their husband's job. There are amazing youth in our ward. The young mens is large and they seem like great guys. (I substitute taught the 15-18 year old's Sunday school for the last 5 weeks. It was great because none of them have ever read the BOM cover to cover so we just talk about the stories, not about the deeper meanings. We were leading up to Captain Moroni, which is my favorite so I really liked it. And one young man bore his testimony about something he learned in Sunday School. It was awesome that the spirit is in the classes. All the youth are natives and only one or 2 had been to the states. It is crazy that our lives are so different. Their experiences are so different than mine.
That's all she asked me that I can share.
So we got here after about 24 hours of flying. I stayed awake the whole time. No one else did even though Jeremy said "If we stay awake on this 8 hour flight from Hawaii to Guam we will have an eaiser time adjusting our sleep schedules when we get in at 8PM." Guess who was the first one asleep? Jeremy. (Just in case you couldn't sense my sarcasm.) We stayed at the "Royal Orchid" which I will not be staying at again. They have small, stiff beds made for Asians. Our backs hurt so bad after the first night. The pool was also on the same floor as us, which made everything smell worse than it already did. The pool looked blue, until you got in it. Then you couldn't see your legs that were 3 feet down. It was opaque. Kaitlynn went underwater and Jeremy couldn't see her. Creepy.
Luckily, we got a temporary house on base after that.
Complete with 2 twin beds for Jeremy and I to share. This made us laugh. It was actually a really nice place and Cody tells me that he wishes that we could live there still. Probably because there was a pull out couch that we opened and watched movies all the time because we were sick once we got here or I was so sunburned that I could hardly move for a week.
After a month in the temporary house we moved into this cement box. It doesn't look like much from the outside but it is really nice inside.
We painted.
Cody's room.
Katy's room.
This seems to be everybody's room. Especially since dad is gone.
Living Room.
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