Square Pegs

OMG- OOG!

It didn't take very long after arriving on Guam that we realized life here moves a little slower than what we had anticipated.  It also didn't take long before we heard the expression "Only On Guam" at least a dozen times.  Now, I have to say, I'm not sure if this is something people say when they find a unique little treasure that is exclusive to the island, or use it in place of expletives, such as "fu**in' Guam" when unpleasant situations arise that are also unique to this island.  I'm starting to think it can be used interchangeably...

Either way, I find the culture on Guam to be something that I'm still trying to figure out and acclimate to.  After living here almost 3 months now, the following clip just had both John and me in stitches!  I think Congresswoman Bordallo deserves the 'Patience of a Saint' award!

By the way, I don't know if it is just me, but Miss Madeleine Bordallo sure bears a striking resemblance to Jerry Blank from Strangers With Candy when she makes her "disapproving" face...what do you think?

Sigh of Relief

My grades from last session finally came in and all of the worry and anxiety is over- thank goodness!  My schoolwork load has been significantly less this past week and so I found myself with some free time this morning and I almost didn't know what to do with myself!  I decided to pack a nice big iced coffee and motor around for a while with my camera.  I found several of the caraboa statues, which I will add my my "Around Guam" photo album.

John finally seems to be 'over the hump' with the worst of his Chief's initiation.  He's still working 7 days a week and continues to get up early and come home late, but at least he's adjusting a little and starting to just filter out all of the manure involved in the process.  He was fitted for all his new uniforms last week and came home the other day with his new coveralls; which are sporting very stylish gold anchors! :-)  We purged the closet of all his old uniforms, and replaced them will all his new khaki trappings.  I can't wait to see him in his new uniforms on the 16th!  What a change it will be, and best of all it will mean this whole initiation process is over and he can start doing his actual job!  lol 

We did have some fun Saturday evening when John came home from work because I had to do a couple sensory evaluations from my wine class and he got to be my guinea pig.  I think his favorite was the chocolate evaluation!

It's hard to believe September is almost here, but August was kind of a challenging month for us, so it is a sigh of relief it is drawing to a close. 

Caraboa Tracking

All of my finals are completed and now I'm just in that nerve wracking stage of waiting for grades.  I started on my new classes this morning and so far so good.  I'm taking a wine and spirits management class that I'm uber-excited about.  I'm also taking hospitality management accounting (hooray, my last college 'numbers' class ever before my degree!), and a cooking course.

It's kind of a drizzly morning and not too hot, so I decided to take a little outing and snap a couple more painted caraboa photos located here in Hagatna.  Thanks to Santos and an island tourist map I picked up in Tumon I think I've charted the location of all 27 caraboa statues so can get started on my hunt.  I've decided to expand my caraboa exploration a little and try to photograph some live caraboa and caraboa souvenirs/artifacts as well.  There is a guy who I've seen several times now near Asan Beach that is in the habit of riding around a  live Caraboa, so I'm hoping to see him again sometime soon so I can catch him on film.

 

While I was out with my camera, I noticed that resting on one of the statues was a massive praying mantis!  She didn't seem to mind her photograph being taken at first, but then she pulled a major diva maneuver and tried to catapult onto my camera lens. 

When I arrived back home, I was greeted by all of the local critters that have become a part of our daily life here...

 

I'm actually starting to become strangely fond of all of the chickens, wild dogs, and geckos that share our island home.  John, however, is not too thrilled with all the geckos that perch in the carport at night and leave little lizard poop all over his beloved stealth.  There is one particularly large, fat gecko, which I have lovingly nicknamed 'Turdly Spackledroppings' that leaves bird size white splatter spots that stand out ever so boldly on the teal finish of the stealth .  I'm kind of amused by the whole thing, but unfortunately John doesn't find the humor in it. 

Chronicling Carab-Art

When we first arrived on Guam we couldn't help but notice all of the colorful painted caraboa statues that adorned street corners and business fronts.  It is my understanding that these caraboa statues gained popularly in 2006 as part of an on-island marketing scheme that allowed business to purchase these statues and then commission artists to paint them in an effort to promote business and build community relations.  It seems this "Carab-Art" has now become a cultural staple and I decided to start photographing them as I find them.  I know they are scattered all over the island, so I've decided that my goal within the next year is to visit and photograph all the "Carab-Art" on the island. I've been keeping my eye out for KitKats here on Guam, but I think may have to put my KitKat collecting on the back burner since it is rare to find any new flavors here. My new focus will be caraboa scouting!  My first tasks is to get a comprehensive list of where they are located and then get to photographing!  These are the painted caraboa near our house- my next stop is Tumon!

These caraboa even create their own statue scandals now and then when they come up missing or are vandalized in some way. 

   

Cabin Fever

As much as I'm enjoying my studies, the past couple weeks have been pretty intense and I start finals today.  With John working 12+ hour days, 7 days a week for his Chief's initiation and me here frantically trying to get schoolwork done while making sure he gets fed, has clean PT uniforms and clothes each day, and various other tasks to help him get through this time I was starting to go a little batty.  Yesterday I got up early, packed John a cooler of food for the day (he went to work around 9am and came home around 10pm) and decided I just needed an 'out of the house' day.

I started off my day by driving down to Gef Pa'go cultural village and taking a guided tour of the various huts.  My guide was great and she explained the ancient Chamorro processes of making sea salt, coconut candy, rope and also weaving various leaves and baking techniques. 

Once I finished up at Gef Pa'go, I made a trip to view Talofofo Falls and Yokoi Cave.  As beautiful as the falls are, Corporal Shoichi Yokoi's story of 28 years of hiding in the jungles of Guam after US forces retook the island is amazing and sad at the same time!  The falls played host to a large tour bus of Japanese visitors, so I used the opportunity to try speaking a little Japanese and it felt great to be around Japanese people again.

After trekking around I was beginning to build up an appetite, so I decided to stop for lunch at the famous 'Jeff's Priate Cove'.  It was full of people and music, and I hope to take John back sometime in the near future when he finally gets a day off!  I had the chicken keleguen with feta cheese on the side, it was really tasty!

I made several small stops on the way home to snap photos since it was a surprisingly clear day! 

The combination of the humidity and the direct sun was a little overwhelming at times so I was sweating buckets most of the afternoon.  Before reaching the house I decided to make a quick side trip to Lam Lam Ice Cream shop, which I heard about from fellow Guam blogger, Santos.

As I start working on my finals today my little adventures have given the the energy to not lose my mind or get tunnel vision as I finish up this set of classes on Wednesday evening and start up new classes first thing Thursday morning.  Bring on the coffee and Red Bull!  :-)

Adventures of Pedro The Guam Gecko

Although I'm still 'waging war' against the many geckos that fill our home I can't bring myself to actually do any of them even the slighest amount harm, because after all, they are just so darn cute.  I wrangle them around these days with a squirt gun, a flashlight, and my camera flash.  There is one baby gecko though that John and I have become particularly fond of- we call him Little Pedro. 

We have about 6 baby geckos that run around the house, but Pedro is by far the smallest and often finds himself being chased around the ceiling by his rivals.  Everynight at dinner time Pedro sits on the ceiling and watches me eat, and then follows me into the bedroom where I watch iTunes or a DVD.  John usually gets home around bedtime and Little Pedro perches on the computer or above the window and I usually keep an eye on him until I eventually drift off to sleep.

Today, I found Pedro is some very silly and potentially hazardous places around the house (within Gromit & Madu reach), so scooped him up in my coffee cup and took him into the kitchen where he could find snacks and take cover from the dogs and the other geckos.

As it turns out, he's pretty helpful around the kitchen..

Here he is willing to lend a hand drying the dishes with his oversize dish towel.

He does his part with crumb clean up!

But sometimes he gets a little camera shy!

Shuffle Shuffle

Although I had all of our boxes unpacked within 3 days of them being dropped off by the movers, I just haven't been pleased with the placement of items.  With guests coming to visit us in November and December of this year, I decided it was time to start shuffling things around.  With the housing policy the way it is here on Guam, we basically had about 48 hours to find a house from the time we landed on the island or go into base housing.  I knew I just did not have the constitution for living in Navy housing again,  so I did a lot of Internet searching beforehand and we were able to find a place quickly. 

It has, however, taken a couple months to really get the "feel" of the place and decide how I want things to be arranged.  I'm making a very short trip back to Japan next month and plan to pick up a few more decor items to put the finishing touches on certain rooms.

 

I've already got a few stores in mind that I can't wait to hit, but I've promised John that I won't buy anymore dishes since I've already got enough plates, glass, sake sets, and cookware to open my own small izakaya. ;-)

Live In the Now...

Ever since I read these words in "Cesar's Way" about the way dogs think, I decided it wasn't a bad tip for humans either!  Although I do my fair share of planning ahead and forecasting, I try to do my best to embrace the moment and not dwell on things I really should be letting go of.

That being said, after about 9 days of this "chief's initiation" that Guam chief selects are being asked to endure, I've been grossly disappointed by the unprofessional conduct and mean-spirited actions of many of the individuals in charge of this year's season.  In this modern day, the Navy is changing and there is simply no place for the "hazing" days of old.  It was decided this year that there would be no physical beatings or punishments, but the mental and emotional abuse is still as prevalent as ever.  It truly makes me feel disgusted that so-called professional adults who are in a leadership role still seem to find pleasure in bullying, harassing, and stroking their own egos at the expense of another person's wellbeing.  While they have now made the induction process optional, those who take a stand against such unprofessional behavior are blacklisted by the chief's mess and wear that shameful "E-7" title rather than being acknowledged as a true chief.  Although it seems that the Navy has always been a little bit behind the times when it comes to enforcing discrimination and harassment laws, strides are being made to improve the overall quality of life for sailors and this kind of antiquated behavior takes steps back rather than forward.  I know not all of the chiefs involved in this year's season agree with the browbeating and bullying, but they are sadly outnumbered by those who desperately cling to the outdated traditions that perpetuate the armed force's reputation for being a bunch of  chest beating apes who are unable to demonstrate true leadership without yelling or resorting to threats and hostility. 

Having spent the past 18 months in almost non-stop study of contemporary motivational techniques for leaders, writing numerous training manuals, and doing case studies on managerial strategies and how to apply them to today's diverse workforce I have been deeply disappointed each day to hear John's account of how he and his fellow selects have been treated.  Less than two weeks ago the group was full of smiles, laughter, and enthusiasm.  In stark contrast the overall feeling is now defeat, resentment, anger, and apathy.  When you start out with a group of highly motivated people and within a 9 day period deflate them so utterly, it may certainly be qualified as an epic human resource failure, and oddly enough many in charge of this year's season are patting themselves on the back for their unique ability to drag their future co-workers through he dirt (and they are expected to all be buddies and pals at the end of this 6 week period...talk about delusional thinking).  The foundations for trust relationships in the context of the chief's mess have been fundamentally damaged, and in their place, resentment filled adversarial relationships are budding.

I know I'm not in the majority here, but it is my personal feeling that these antiquated naval practices need to be phased out.  Just because something is a tradition doesn't mean it is sacred or useful- time changes and predominant schools of  societal thought evolve.  Don't get me wrong, I think learning about naval tradition, doing physical training, and even the silly memorization can be great team building tools as long as they are presented in an appropriate manner.  The emphasis should be shifted from bullying to teaching new chiefs how to be responsible professional stewards of junior sailors.  Setting people up for failure is irresponsible managerial behavior, and after 6 weeks of brow beating, new chiefs are then put in charge of junior sailors and the 'sh*t rolls down hill' prophecy continues.  All you have to do is look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs to know that threats and and an environment of instability isn't going to create an atmosphere for development and learning.  Many of the chief selects have been honorably serving their country for 12+ years, they have demonstrated their great professional worth, and they certainly don't need another "boot camp".  It's time to wake up, live in the now, and stop dwelling on and clinging to outdated "traditions" that have no place in today's armed service or any other professional organization. 

 

New Island Do

One of the things that can cause worry for us ladies when making a big move is finding a new hair stylist.  I know it sounds silly but getting a horrible haircut as you are meeting new people for the first time in your new locale is really unpleasant.  After getting some recommendations from locals I think I've found a winner- Marco from Domani Hair Design in upper Tumon.  I was starting to look like a shaggy dog, but I was so nervous about trying a new salon.  Luckily, he worked his magic and I don't feel like I've got wild boonie hair anymore. 

It's What You Make Of It...

This is a phrase that I've had to utter to myself several times in the past couple weeks.   John has started his CPO initiation and since about 4:30 am on Monday morning I've barely seen him since he's been out the door well before the sun is up and home well after it sets.   The poor guy is running a bit ragged but we are both still so excited about his advancement!  He'll be keeping up long hours on  a 6 day work week for the next 6 weeks, but the big payoff at the end is when he's finally frocked and can look back on all this with a big sigh of relief! 

We've officially been on Guam for a little over 2 months now and, for me, the adjustment is still slow and gradual.  While there are perks to a slower pace, I still find myself missing Japan almost every day.  Every time our electricity goes off (which is at least once a week) or our trash man just decides he's not going to pick our trash up for the week, I find myself feeling discouraged about our new home.  We've already found that some of our belongings that we left on our porch have turned up missing, and after suffering yet another horrible round of food poisoning just a couple weeks ago the transition has not been as easy as I thought.   The one HUGE payoff for being here is that John gets to come home every night and that simple fact overshadows just about everything else.  I'm doing my best to stay positive and as schoolwork permits I'm going to try and get out and experience a little more.  I've decided, just like anything else in life, the circumstances are what you make of them and I'm not giving up anytime soon!