The Fantastic Mr. & Mrs. Fox: The first two weeks.

First off, I need to say what a labor of love this post is. Last night I was making zucchini pancakes for dinner. I just finished commenting how much I love our new cheese grader because it’s so sharp and makes the process so easy. Not even 60 seconds later I grade off my fingers instead of the zucchini. My husband ran to the store, bought me princess band-aids, and forced me to eat a Twix because he was worried I was going to pass out. It was a lot of blood. Thanks to my kind husband and the healing powers of princess band-aids I’m going to live, but am now afraid of our VERY sharp cheese grader. Anyway, when you’re missing the top of your fingers it hinders your typing capabilities.

Now for our first two weeks in Guam. Guam is absolutely breathtaking and much prettier than I imagined it would be. We have been able to do some sightseeing and the more we see the more we like. When I first arrived on the island we had a date night at Hard Rock Café Guam. I’m really interested in knowing peoples stories of what brought them to the island, especially the white people who aren’t military, people like us. Our server Patrick began saving money at 16 to come here and surf with his best friend, who happened to be Chamorro but never been to Guam. As an 18 year old surf rat he came and never left, traveled, married, had kids, started a business, was happy. It’s always comforting to hear people’s positive opinions of the island. I talk to people and they either love it or hate it on Guam, no in between. I’m hoping we love it. Hard Rock is part of the main tourist strip and has lots of shopping. There were so many cute clothing stores, erasing any fear that the only place to shop here was the World’s largest Kmart. It’s funny how some of the stores are organized. They will have one rack of clothes that’s Abercrombie, one rack that’s American Eagle, Hollister, Victoria’s Secret, etc… all in the same store. There were lots of cute local shops too and I’m excited to wear skirts and maxi dresses to my heart’s content, since it’s humid all the time.

A recommendation of somewhere we had to visit was Two Lovers Point. It’s the best place on the entire island to watch the sunset. There is a story about two star crossed lovers, whose families didn’t approve of the relationship so they tie their hair together and jump off a cliff to their death. It’s basically Guam’s Romeo and Juliet. You have the most incredible view of the entire island and the colors of the sunset were beautiful. I envision lots of future sunset watching here.

Talofofo Falls was another recommendation, so last weekend we packed up our baby in the Bjorn and some sunscreen to spend the day swimming at a waterfall and swan diving off the top and stuff like that. We were lucky to get here because of downed power lines blocking the road, and when we did it was pouring down rain. One thing I have learned is that it rains, every single day, off and on, all day long. It’s not like the rain is cold so there is no reason to avoid it or change your plans because of it. I love the rain, and here you’re hot and sweaty all the time anyway so why not throw in a little rain. The sunscreen was unnecessary, but mosquito repellent absolutely was, so of course we had none with us. Little did we realize that what we were actually doing was taking a gondola ride into the jungle, with Glenn whistling the music to Jurassic Park on our way down. Luckily, the one other person there was an always prepared Japanese tourist who sprayed us down with something from a tiny brown bottle. Which I hoped was bug repellent, but I literally had 50 bites at the end of the day so who knows. The waterfalls were picturesque and beautiful, of course, who doesn’t love a waterfall? Seriously though we were in paradise! We had the best day walking along paths surrounded by cascading waterfalls, lush jungle, across suspension bridges, up and down steps that become really treacherous when muddy and wet and you are wearing sandals. We saw Yokoi’s cave, a Japanese soldier who sought refuge and built a simple three foot cave in which to hide. His resourcefulness was so great that he was able to stay alive in the jungle and the conclusion of WW2 went unnoticed for 28 years! Glenn with reckless abandon ignored all the signs about no swimming and jumped in the water. We concluded our day with a walk through Loveland, an exotic statue park with men and women in scandalous positions and statues of dogs in overalls. Ummm...yeah. Kind of interesting to have at a waterfall park and made me blush deeply walking through something like this. Overall we were sticky, dirty, mosquito bitten messes by the end, but had a fun and enjoyable day taking lots of pretty pictures and family videos.

I know it appears to be all life is perfect but my emotions have been on an up and down roller coaster. I love visiting all the pretty places, but I feel at times like I’m on vacation not actually living here. I snapped the other day when I was making dinner and we had no can opener, and no way to reach my husband, and no car, and I had to stop cooking in the middle. It’s frustrating when you’re accustomed to having a kitchen full of everything you need to having only a couple miscellaneous items. I’m frustrated because we still don’t have a majority of our stuff. We don’t want to go out and purchase items that we know are on a boat somewhere and will reach us eventually, hopefully, who really knows? The shipping situation here is a nightmare! I shipped a box filled with all of Deliah’s baby stuff, swing, bath, bumbo, etc… and was told it would take two weeks. When I get here I learned that our home address isn’t actually the shipping address. There is no mail delivery system here, so you can’t get mail direct to your home. Most people have P.O. Boxes, but we’re allowed to use the University address and ship to Glenn’s office and that’s what I needed to use. We Wanted to stop the post office before they ship the box back to the states so Glenn goes into the post office with the tracking number. I was told wrong information when I shipped the box and turns out when you ship a box standard mail it goes on a boat and takes 6-8 weeks!! That’s a big freaking difference. In addition to all Deliah’s stuff two other boxes were shipped standard mail with basically everything we decided we were taking with us to Guam, which wasn’t much to begin with. What did reach us were the three very small boxes that shipped priority. Thank goodness we have some pans, cookie sheets, a kitchen mat, and Settlers of Catan. Really though, 6-8 weeks of no Catan really would have been tragic.

I get frustrated by my lack of cell phone, and wish there was a simple affordable option here that I can call and text to the states. So far Skype, Facebook messages and e-mails have been a huge blessing! But when you’re used to having a cell phone and suddenly don’t you feel like you’re living in the Stone Ages. I especially hate not being able to reach Glenn during the day, especially if there were some kind of emergency where I might need him. We do however have a landline, which I jump up and get really excited every time that rings. I freaked out when I saw a cockroach scurry across our bedroom floor and now open the door with caution every time. I actually like all the geckos we have though, and appreciate that they eat any bugs. I think they are so cute and I’m fascinated by how fast they scurry around on the walls. I am saddened by how difficult us moving to Guam still is for my Mom, and hope that time will heal.

I really am trying my absolute best to keep everyone updated on our lives. I feel so loved with the vast support we have received from so many. Each time I open Facebook I have kind messages from friends just wanting to check in and see how we are adjusting to life in Guam. Thanks for not forgetting us a million miles away over here! Like I have said before, I was extremely apprehensive about this move, I have doubted that this was the right decision, but I am hopeful! I am hopeful that we love it, and believe that life is full of hard choices and this is where we need to be right now. For whatever reasons we may not understand yet, I believe there is purpose behind this journey.