Project Pacific Islander

  4/1/2022 - Can you believe its April? Where is the time going, Joan and I are just having too much fun on Guam I guess, the time is really going quick. I started out the morning getting a run in at Asan beach, still one of my favorite running spots on the Island. This time I read the history signage a little closer, Im not sure I have ever run anywhere where the signage literally says to keep an eye out for unexploded ordinance. No, this isn't an April fools joke. Luckily the main areas of the beach are well traveled and the national park service has done a great job over the last 70 years cleaning up and taking care of the preserve. If I see any white phosphorous I will be sure to leave it in the water. Eye opener though, even in a place where war has not been present for close to a century, this place continues to see the after effects of those events. We have more diving to come, but many of the sites will exhibit just this evidence as well, lots of discarding objects from WWI

 3/31/2022 - A very simple meal this evening, mozzarella cheese, and fresh pears. I don't remember were Joan got these pears, but gosh they are good and fresh. I don't think they are grown on the island, but more research needed. This was a perfect fast meal, we didn't even have to turn on the stove. 

3/30/2022 - I overheard a funny conversation today at the local shell station, a couple of newbie Guam visitors pondered inside the station, "How do I fill up with gas?" The shell stations on the island are not self service at the pump, unlike the other stations on the island like the mobile, or super k. The only way to get gas at the Shell is to have an attendant pump the gas for you, and to do that you have to pay inside prior to having them pump the gas. In my mind this is a throwback type of experience, something not seen on the mainland for decades. Interestingly though, there is no way to know that this is how the station works without fumbling through it and having to go in and ask the attendant. Not great UX, but it is good service once you figure it out.  The other perk Joan and I have found for using Shell on the island are these discount cards. The grocery store chain Cost U Less, like a Costco, provides a stack of these cards to you every time you check out. Somet

  3/29/2022 - Today was Joans Birthday, Celebrating 29 again this year. I like this idea that you can celebrate 29 multiple years in a row and everybody understands the joke. This year I worked really hard to pull together a surprise bday by going out to dinner with her friends and then having champagne + cake. My poker face is just not good enough for a week and a half planning session, also coming up with excuses on why we must go out to eat and celebrate on your birthday night is just tough. So, not a perfect surprise, the cat got out, so to speak when my phone was being blown up by text messages the day or so before. My poker face isn't normally good, but when you add in we live in the tiny house and you know every-time each others phone goes off, this becomes harder to keep secrets. My friend network is very tied to Joan too here on the island, so its not like I can say so and so is texting me and leave it at that.  For dinner we went out to a place called Joinus, a Hibachi /

  3/29/2022 - I know what you are thinking, if this ep is titled new vehicles, why of all the photos to choose from did you take a photo of a Prius? This one in fact as I stated from a previous post is our host families new car, and to drive for ride hail you need a fairly new car based on expectations of the stroll service.  The thing that has stood out to me here on Guam is most of the vehicles on the island are in US terms an import. Technically all things are imported on the island, as no vehicles are made here, but lets use the term "import" to mean external to the United States manufactures. This is a trend I see in both used and new vehicles, a large majority are from Japan. This has led me one to ask the question why is this the case, but also is there a way to get some data to back up what I am seeing? (what does a good engineer do to back up a claim, build a database) The next few images below are data tables, maybe less fun to read, but bear with me as I believe th

  3/28/2022 - This is my favorite photo to date, and there has been a lot of them so far. Avocados are in season, and with the tree in the backyard they are ripe for the taking. Joan is pictured here using a long stick with a basket on the end trying to pick her "catch of the day", prior to heading into the office. Something about being in office clothes, standing outside, holding a precious object, with the potential of raining avocados was too perfect not to capture. Im so glad she enjoys, I can't eat the green fruit due to an allergy, so more power to her. 

  3/27/2022 - Joan and I stopped by the Guam Bakery this morning. We keep trying to find Bread for less, current prices at the grocery store are $4 - $5 a loaf. Generally a little less if you can buy locally through the grocery store. Makes sense, if it's made here, then there is hopefully less expense in shipping. More exciting, the Dededo farmers market is right next door to the bakery, we often go to mass on Sunday morning, then head over to this area for bread / fresh produce. (If grocery shopping is the equivalent of cake for Joan, then farmers market is like the icing. Her favorite part of the weekend) This morning, there was something a little "extra" at the bakery, a purple doughnut with purple glaze. The foodie kicked in and we said this was a must try. Post buying we asked what the doughnut flavor was, turns out its mulberry. Arsenio said a couple weeks back that the mulberry grows all over Guam and the berries are held in high esteem on Guam. I guess this is li

  3/28/2022 - Watching the sunset in Tumon bay with Joan and Winnifred. The lights of the hotels are just beginning to turn on,  as the sun disappears over the clouds + the ocean. 

  3/25/2022 - Let me start this post by saying, our host family is amazing and very gracious!! I do want to let it be known though,Vilma and Arsenio have initiated a full out food battle of which side can provide more yummy food for tasting. Of course, I am just an innocent bystander in all this. (laugh please, if the food shows up, I will eat it). Joan is the mastermind cook on this side. Its kind of like watching a tennis match, in this case the food is the ball, and between the big house and the tiny house, the ball is being hit back and forth. There is no complaints here, other than soon I will have to start two a day work outs to keep up with the calorie intake.  In all seriousness, once again I am realizing just how lucky we are. This is something that we both have given a lot of thought to, and I don't think we could have landed in Guam with a more hospitable family to show us the ropes. Lots of blessings, on top of the already neat opportunity to be overseas just post marri

  3/24/2022 - As I sit here recovering from my peeling nose, ears and face, I am reminiscing on our dive weekend. The pics also just came in so this helps that reminiscing.  The first image was from Fish Eye, the cylindrical metal form is the museum I spoke of. Note the windows near the top where viewers can look out and see into the blue abyss. We swam around the museum a couple times on day one, lots of fish, and this is where we saw the sharks too. We are positioned in the center-left of the image. Image two and three are of day two, you can see me tightly holding Joans hand for comfort, as well as the whole class as we went to 60ft. We are positioned on the left side of this image, Joan has those cool yellow fins, and I in all blue with the exception of the yellow secondary regulator.  Something fun that I didnt include on my weekend posts, the color change that occurs at depth. To get the colorful images above, the color has to be retroactively re-added. As you go deeper and deepe

  3/23/2022 - Joan and I have really enjoyed getting out on the bike here on the island. I think I said in previous posts that we have a number of bikes here that can be used based on availability. More on that in a min. The black Giant was in need of a tune up and thankfully one of the family members said they had a bike stand that I could use. I got to turn a wrench again on this trip, made my day. In high school, I worked at the local shop in my home town, close to 3 years as a salesman and mechanic. These skills just keep coming in useful, even on the other side of the world. A few adjustments and trueing of a rear wheel, and we were ready to go for a ride out to Ritidian.  Availability of the bikes has recently gotten harder with some of our host families children coming back to Guam and now starting to get places of their own. Joan and I have really enjoyed riding so we thought we would take a look at bikes while we were here and determine if this was a viable option with shippin

3/22/2022 - After dropping Joan off at work, I was excited to get out an about and see something new. Growing up, often on vacation, my family would stop at universities at whatever city or place we were in. Part of this was prep for college, and now later in life I just enjoy seeing new places, the architecture is always interesting and it reminds me a bit of my college days too. University of Guam (UoG) is positioned on the east side of the island, just south of where Joan and I did some hiking a few weeks back. This part of the island is much steeper as the you approach the shore. UoG sits at the top of the hill overlooking the ocean just half a mile or so away (image 2). Like everything here on Guam, the campus was very green and lush, fun to see palm trees on a campus, its just not something that fits my mental model.  UoG was very quiet this morning, I wonder if I was hitting spring break or Covid protocols are still in place for optimizing virtual learning. Also, based on what I

3/21/2022 - A short article for today. Joan and I are just beat after our weekend dive learning. She is a trooper as with work she is back at it with really no break between the days. Glad we both got some rest.  From my image above you get a sense of just where I write my articles from, the tiny house is at my back. Each day is gorgeous in weather, especially under the shade, sometimes daily rain for 5 - 10 mins. The only sounds I have to put up with are the chickens, dogs, and the F15s that start their flyovers at 10:30am on the dot. The planes have really picked up with all that is going on in Ukraine. Anderson must be one of the key training spots for the Airforce.  Hope everyones week is going well, hello from both Joan and I to our family, friends, and readers.  Posted 3/24/2022  

3/20/2022 - Im behind on this update as I was really hoping to get some of our underwater shots, we are still waiting with hopes that in the next week or so we will have them.  Saturday night was a little tough on both Joan and I, we both learned that dive ear can be painful and equalizing the pressure in your inner ear during descents / ascents is very important. This is one of those top five rules of diving, if you have gone underwater 5 - 7ft before, you know the feeling of the pressure build up. What I didn't know, until taking this class, is you can equalize by swallowing, or holding your nose and breathing out.  Joan had it a bit worse with some ear pain through the evening and into the night. On my side, my anxiety was up, thinking about diving to 60ft was a lot on the brain, and to add to it, the mask removal sign-off was part of day two, on edge with little sleep. Morning came early around 4:30am for me without being able to get back to sleep, 5:30am came even faster, and

3/19/2022 - Saturday was another one of those dream days here on Guam, Joan and I started our in the water diving class and certification. We are awaiting photos from both Saturday and Sunday under the water, and will post them as they are sent. As you can see from photo 1, we preped the night before to ensure all our gear was set out and ready. Part of the course was to purchase your own set of snorkel gear, this includes a set of fins, a mask, and a snorkel. Being out in the sun all day we both also ensured we wore as much covering as possible to prevent sun burn, so a long sleeve dive shirt, leggings for Joan, along with swim suits. Everything loaded in the car, including pb+j lunch sandwiches for our break, we headed out at 6:30am to make it to Piti in time for our 7:30am start time.  I should give a shout out to our instructor, Kaelyn's dive business, if you are ever in Guam check out MDA and Love Buggy Diving for certification. Interesting business, each of the dive instructo