Saipodities

After being here a year, I'm starting to get used to all of the quirks. In fact, I don't even notice them much any more. But I realized the other day that we haven't done a very good job of describing our bizarre little island to those of you back in the states.

So, why not blog about those funny little details?

Here are a few "Saipodities" for the day:

In the states, as you check out at the grocery store, you can reach for a magazine or a pack of gum. Here, you can buy an assortment of little treats including sushi rolls, tuna fish sandwiches, hot dogs with ketchup, mayo (w/jalapenos pictured below) squished in plastic wrap, some weird unidentified items, and, of course, betel nut. I'd never heard of betel nut before moving to Saipan...it was better that way; what a nasty little habit. Yet, everyone here loves the stuff. They mix it with lime made from burnt coral that's ground into a powder. Apparently, it 'jangles' your nerves. All I know is that it makes for some disgusting teeth (those poor dentists!) Not only that, but we constantly see people spitting the stuff all over the place. As you drive down the road you'll see car doors flying open left and right so folks can spit without spraying it on their cars. And did I mention that it's red? With the red stains covering the ground, it looks like mass murders are taking place all over Saipan.

Almost Arizona

In a matter of about 3 days Eric learned about, applied for, interviewed for, and was offered a job as a clerk for the Arizona Court of Appeals (in Phoenix). And, we almost said yes. He found out about the job opening through a former law professor, Prof. Mangrum. What a fantastic guy! In the end, however, Eric decided to turn the job down in hopes to maybe step out of the clerkship arena. Eric seems to think our next job destination will either be Singapore or England, but it'll probably be Bismarck, North Dakota...Who knows where we'll be come August of next year!

Lovely Laurels

Ok, so it's not every mutual that you get to do a photoshoot, but despite all of the teasing we've been getting, this actually was a "planned" activity. Not planned as in meticulously choreographed, but planned as in the girls chose to do it a couple weeks in advance. But it's true, the only preparation it required was bringing our smiles and a camera. I thought the girls were pretty creative with the shots they came up with actually, and I think they had fun. We'll call it a "bonding exercise".

Saipan Soul Train

Some of Eric's co-workers invited us to a 70's party this past weekend so how could we resist? It was also a charity fundraiser so it wasn't all about the gold, platforms, bell bottoms and disco music. Although, that definitely made it more interesting.








I think Saipan is about the only place where you can ask for a Farah Fawcett hairdo and have the hairdresser have no clue what you're asking for. She did a pretty good job though. It was uncanny how much I reminded myself of my mom in her younger years when the get-up was all put together. Unfortunately, my hair died by the end of the night as you can see in this last picture. The hair may have died, but the disco fever was still alive and well.

Food Fight!

They really shouldn't be allowed to have this much fun without me! It seems to be a trend for Honn family gatherings to end in massive food fights - at least if my brother Tyler is involved. And this time the celebration was in his honor so it was inevitable. His friend Trever actually bought a nice big fancy cake knowing full well what real purpose it would serve.

Before the food fight they had a big homemade slip-and-slide party and forced my poor little 68 y/o mom to test it out in her dress. She's a good sport though, and she's used to the routine with Tyler so she didn't even put up a fight...just handed her glasses over and took the plunge. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that, but I do have pictures of the frosting frenzy...

5 years strong

5 whole years of marital bliss! Normally Eric's the man to turn on the romance for our anniversaries, but I decided to do a little something for him this year. It may not have been much, but I hope he enjoyed it.

The Saipan Botanical Garden is less than a mile from our house, but we always said it would be silly to pay admission to see more of what we see everyday, free of charge, on this gorgeous island. However, I was bored one day during a power outage so I decided to walk to the gardens on my own, and I was actually pleasantly surprised and decided to keep my little outing a secret and eventually take Eric there. So today was that day! I packed us up a little Subway lunch and we were on our way.

Oh, and the pictures....Our new camera hasn't actually arrived yet, so out of desperation, I decided to try our old, previously broken, Nikon for the bazillionith time, and of course it's working now?? Not sure if this is good news or not considering a certain, pricey package that's on it's way, but I am glad we were able to get some pictures today.

And oh yeah, I love you Franky!

Fresh fruit and...

"Fresh & fruity"

Eric LOVES it when I take pictures of inanimate objects

How cool is this??

Poor Eric always seems to be wearing a suit these days. This time it's because I stole him away during his lunch break and didn't think to bring him a change of clothes. He was toasty.

The lookout at "103 steps" - Where we ate our lunches and relaxed on our hammocks

If only we had a few more hours!

It's always fun to play in treehouses covered in caution tape.

Eric as Jonah

Bizarre

So I finished Breaking Dawn a couple days ago, and all I can really say is what a strange book.

Other than that, life's been rather dull. The only exciting news is that our Lt. governor and former CUC director has been indicted on 3 felony counts of wire fraud, conspiracy and theft involving federal funds. Delightful.

In other "exciting news", our 5th-yr anniversary is next week. Let's hope Eric and I don't both completely forget like we did last year. The fact that I'm mentioning it now, a week in advance, is a good sign though.

And yes, we finally ordered a new camera. The Canon won in the end...or should I say the Canon's price tag won in the end so stay tuned for better blog posts yet to come.

Power Struggle...

I've been without power for 5 hrs today; that really puts a damper on productivity.

On top of that, Breaking Dawn won't be here until Saturday at earliest. So no one is allowed to speak of it (to me) until after this weekend. I'm sure there are spoilers all over the internet, but I'm avoiding them. I realize that everyone has probably already read it - but you're not allowed to spoil it for me! Please...

Humanitarian Project

With a lot of help from Christina Smith and a R.S. Group in the states, the YW were able to complete 25 beautiful "island style" quilts for the new Hemodialysis Center.

It was sweet to walk through the current Dialysis Unit while some of the patients were being treated. I wish we would have stayed and chatted with them, but we were just walking through, quilts in hand, and while doing so we heard a soft but excited voice ask, "Are those for us?"

Click here to read the Saipan Tribune article. And here for the Mariana's Variety article that appears on their home page.

Bah!

I don't think anyone likes to hear people complain, but, unfortunately, it's just been one of those months so I think I've earned a venting post. Maybe, to lighten things up, I'll follow every negative with a positive.

Here's the month we've had.

1. Bought a car for better gas mileage. A cherry red Toyota Echo. I like Toyotas, but I won't comment on the color & model. However, with gas prices at over $5/gallon, I was willing to make the switch. Sadly, the small, round, bald man who sold us the car failed to mention 1 tiny detail: the car needed a new TRANSMISSION.

So we thought we were getting this great deal - about $1000 later - we're not so sure. $300+ of that was loan interest/fees, on a loan that we paid off in less than a month! Grrr.

Ok, on a more positive note, we did sell our Pathfinder.

2. These power outages are making us crazy! 2-4 hours a day.

On the bright side, at least the outages lower our obnoxious utility bills.

3. Power Outages = Eric's laptop getting repeatedly fried.

But at least I've learned from his loss, and I've been more diligent in my backups.

4. Still no camera (hence, the disappointing blog posts)

On the bright side, I am experiencing no buyer's remorse.

5. Eric would like me to insert a recent loss in his life. The court, like everyone else on this strange island, is cutting costs everywhere they can which means no more internet or generator at the office after 5 PM. Eric is actually really productive after 5'clock (when the court is empty) so this was bad, bad news.

Overall, July has let us down.

At least Dark Knight was good.