A Walk Down Memory Lane

We wanted to take the opportunity to explain our favorite, and not so favorite, things about Saipan. A wise person has told me a time or two, to always end on a high note, so we're starting with the lows.

Top 5 things we will NOT miss about Saipan:

5.   Prices:    Everything we have on the island is shipped in, and we pay for it. Butter was $5-$6/lb. Canned tomatoes $1.50/can. Frozen bread, the key word here is frozen, was $5 a loaf. Here's the kicker, milk was $10+ a gallon. We drank a lot of boxed milk, it ran about $1.35 a box. But this went beyond food, we were paying almost $250/ month for electricity for our 2 bedroom apartment. You may be thinking, turn off your a/c while your gone, turn off the lights during the day... we did (see #2). We had one small window unit in our bedroom that we only ran at night when we went to bed.

4.   Grocery Selections:    We got what came in on the ships and that's it. It got to a point where we could tell if the ships were slow in coming or if they just didn't bring in a new supply of certain products. There were many times when the veggies would go moldy on the shelf until the new stuff came. Do you know how frustrating it is to try and find fresh bell peppers or tomatoes when they're moldy all across the island? Just before the school year ended that whole island ran out of Dr. Pepper for about 3 weeks... I almost went crazy.

3.   Slow internet:    It was bad. Like worse than dial-up bad. We'd watch TV on hulu, a 20min show would take over an hour to watch. Some evenings we couldn't even stream Pandora and their minimum is 64 kb/s, I know because when I'd look to see why my music stopped it would tell me, "you're streaming 24 kb/s" or 9 kb/s...

2.   Sweating at home:   You're probably thinking, that since we live on a tropical island the weather must be beautiful. In fact, when were still contemplating whether or not to pursue jobs in Saipan we would randomly check the weather to see what we'd be moving to. Throughout the Texas summer, Saipan was looking great at a constant 85-87 degrees. What the weather app on the iphone does not tell you is the humidity factor. When you factor in 80-90% humidity to 87 degree weather you end up with a heat index of 105+ and this was year round. So now, factor in the cost of electricity from #5 above, and the fact that we could not afford to run the a/c all the time, we sweat a lot last year. You'd take a cold shower and before you could dry off  you'd be sweating... it was misery.

The number 1 thing we will NOT miss about Saipan: (insert drum roll...)

1.   Drama:   I know, I know... It's everywhere. But oh, how I wish it had been limited to my high school classroom...

Now, on to the good stuff.

The top 10 things we WILL miss about Saipan:
*** Disclaimer - There are many more aspects to Saipan that could and maybe should have been added to this list but we had to limit ourselves.***

10. Kingfishers:  In case you don't know, a kingfisher is a beautiful bird that eats small insects and fish. They were everywhere in Saipan. We could see and hear them from our apartment and they were so interesting to watch. They quickly became my favorite bird.

9.  Diversity:   There are so many white people here, and they all look the same... No offense...

8.  Cost of Housing:   We lived in a 2 bedroom apartment and paid next to nothing for it compared to Stateside standards. And the view, it was priceless. The picture to the left is the view from our front patio.

7. Warm weather/ Sunshine:   Come January we're gonna be really depressed... The weather in Saipan is pretty tropical. It was about 85-87 all year with 80-90% humidity. The sun was out almost everyday unless we had a storm come through, it was fabulous.

6.  Food varieties: We really miss some of the fresh tropical fruit we could get on the island. Guava, mango, bananas, papaya, and avocados usually topped our list. We also developed a greater love for Thai food. Authentic is hard to match...

5. Hiking: We loved hiking in Saipan and wish we had done more. The best part was that the trails almost always ended at the water.

Old Man by the Sea

Bird Island Hike

4.  Views:  The pictures say it all.

Wing Beach

               

Aqua Resort

Nafton Point - The southern tip of Saipan

Managaha Island

Bird Island Beach

My favorite restaurant: Poon's Chinese

3. Street Market:  Saipan thrives on tourism, so every Thursday the tourism department puts together a fair type atmosphere with local vendors as well as entertainers. Everyone from local produce farmers to smoothie vendors and local shops, bakeries and restaurants bring their goods to entice the tourists. Most restaurants offered 5-6 choices for $5. It made of a cheap easy meal at the end of the week. As a "local" the best part of street market is sitting and "observing" the tourists. Really, it's just very entertaining to make fun of their sunburns and their matching clothes...

A view from behind our favorite smoothie vendor, Champs.
They were always crowded and it wasn't uncommon to wait 10-15 min for your turn.

Local fruits and veggies. The long strings on the table are long beans, similar to a string bean.
The yellow basket holds local green mango.

It became a weekly tradition. Street Market began to symbolize the end of our work week. Friday was almost here. We'd call our friends and coordinate who was going at what time and if we were gonna car pool. And while there were a variety of food options we all kind of stuck to one or two vendors that we preferred. I, personally, got the same thing 98% of the time. Not just the same restaurant, but I got the same food from that restaurant as well. I did branch out a few times, but when I did I always left somewhat disappointed with my meal and wishing I had gotten something else.

My typical meal: fried rice, spicy squid, dumplings, shao mai, and 2 servings of beef and broccoli.
My mouth is watering right now... we haven't had good Chinese food since we've been back.

2. Beaches / Snorkeling: This one is kind of a given... If you haven't seen any of our underwater pictures let me share some with you now.

Dun da da Dun!!! The aspect of Saipan that we will miss most...

1. Our Friends...  From our co-workers to social life, we were surrounded by great people all year. We love them and miss them and are looking forward to the day when our paths will cross again.