MISS | DON'T MISS |
The people/branch - Obviously, our favorite part of Saipan was the sweet, accepting, loving, humble, non-judgemental people of the island. Especially those from the Saipan branch. They were quite possibly the easiest group of people to join and the hardest to walk away from.
- And I REALLY love the youth! I can't even express how much I love and respect those kids.
| The customer service - This was weird to me because everyone on the island was so nice - except when it came to their customer service. If I tried to approach someone at the store to ask them a question, they would literally start speed walking in the opposite direction. Maybe it was me.
Being at church for 10 hours on Sunday. Planning Girls Camps and Youth Conferences. |
The beach - White sand and crystal clear, WARM! ocean water
- Snorkeling/discovering all sorts of beautiful sea life
- Beach combing
- There was even a beach within walking distance of our house.
| Discovering sand in every crevice (of car, home & body) Eric throwing/squishing sea cucumbers at me. Yes, "squishing". When you squeeze a sea cucumber it squirts out a liquid (hopefully, water), and a pretty good distance too. |
The weather - Always 85 degrees. Guinness lists Saipan as having the most equable temperatures in the world.
| The humidity. The sticky clothes. The worthless hair staightening and instant frizz. |
The sky/sunsets/sunrises - The sunsets in Saipan are unlike anything else. Vibrant colors, huge fluffy, dense clouds, and the reflection on the water.
| The short days - It was a tragedy to live on such a gorgeous island but have the sun go down before Eric even got home from work (around 6:30)
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The jungle - Lots of luscious green EVERYWHERE.
- Our incredible view...
| The jungle overtaking our car - We literally had plants growing out of our trunk at one point.
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Having few shopping options. Makes decision-making easy. When I say "shopping", I mostly mean grocery shopping because we were (and still are) too broke to shop for clothes. During our 2 years on Saipan, Eric and I did both go on one big shopping spree at ROSS (!) when we visited Guam. I wasn't tempted by home decor either b/c 1. I knew our stay their was temporary, 2. The humidity tends to destroy things, and 3. If it didn't fit in the 2 pcs of luggage that I arrived on Saipan with, then there was no point. | Having few shopping options - Sometimes it’s nice to have selection.
- It’s especially nice to not have to go to 6 stores looking for cottage cheese and still not find it, and in fact, no one's even heard of the stuff!
- Everything’s more expensive. Although, a good friend once put it this way – “Getting frozen ice cream, transported by a ship and across the ocean – that’s not expensive, that’s magic!”
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Having few restaurant options - Again, easier to choose.
- And, we did have a handful of places that we loved - Teppanyaki's, Bobby Cadillac's pizza, Happy Hour smoothies, vegetable lumpia and hot wings on the beach at the Pacific Island's Club (while watching the sunset).
| Having few restaurant options - Because groceries were so expensive, we often had an empty fridge so we ate out a lot (which saved us a ton of money I'm sure!). Subway almost every day. As for American chains, they also had a McDonalds, Pizza Hut and a KFC. While we were there, they even got a Taco Bell which was a huge deal. The first few days they had a line out the door.
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Diversity - Surrounded by people from the Philippines, Japan, China, Russia, Chuk, Yap, Palau, Marshal Islands, Gilbert Islands, etc.
- Fun to be a minority for a change
| Being mistaken for a Russian ("dancer") |
Fun cultural experiences
- Food
- Traditions
- Dancing
- Thur. night street markets
| Not-so-fun “cultural” experiences. - Cock fighting
- Betel nut (the locals are constantly chewing/spitting betel nut)
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Easy access to travel - We were in close proximity to so many cool new places.
| Constant temptation to travel
- BUT, just because we were close to these places didn't necessarily mean cheaper airfare. Flying from a small island is never cheap.
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Living in the jungle and feeling very secluded | Living with lizards, massive wolf spiders, ants and, worst of all, shrews. - Waking up to mysteriously half-eaten bagels, etc.
- Having lizards fall in my lap while I worked.
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Our boonie dog "Skinny" - Skinny was the sweetest thing. She only came around some of the time, but she was always happy to see us.
| The boonie dogs - It was pretty heart-breaking to see the dozens of malnourished dogs all over the streets in Saipan.
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| Having a PO Box instead of an address
- Having to pay for that PO Box that was only available 9-5pm.
- Having to travel 15-20min to check that often empty mailbox
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Fun island adventures | Not-so-fun island incompetence that led to a summer of island-wide dark and sweaty power outages.
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4 comments:
Great list. My favorite was plants growing out your trunk! Love the table you made...man it's so beautiful.
This makes my heart happy! And also incredibly homesick! Saipan really is a one-of-a-kind place. :) On my list, I would have added the boxed milk we all drank...now that I've tasted the real stuff, I can never go back!
Very true Taylor. It tooks us a good few months to even try that milk in a box stuff, but I have to admit, it was strangely nice to have milk stored in our cupboards.
i personally love the boxed milk. we miss you nelsons! and taylor!
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