Just like Magellan 500 years ago hitting the shores of Guam, the Moons have hit the shores of CA. We arrived in San Fran this morning to be picked up by Gia, Gar and Greg. We’ll stay here for a few days to celebrate George’s birthday in Stockton. Then, on our way to Seattle.
It’s June 2 and we are now out of our rental home and in a hotel. Our stuff will be packed and shipped by the end of the week. It should take a good 2 months for it to arrive in Seattle. In the meantime, we are getting our selves packed and ready for shipping. We will be in hotels until we depart Guam on June 10th. We’ll visit family in CA from the 10th-14th. Then to Seattle on the 14th!! Don’t know exactly where we’ll be staying at first, but we should be available to see our old friends!
Just a short flight away from Guam, the isle of Rota is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands and physically similar to Guam. However, it’s much smaller; only 10 miles long and 3 miles wide. Our last vacation from Guam with our good friends was a quiet time enjoying the best of the tropics. We had four days on an island with less than 5000 people, 2 gas stations, 1 golf course and NO street lights. The pace was nice and slow. We snorkeled on a beautiful reef and will get some photos and video of our boat trip up later. Two turtles and a shark joined us for a swim. The bird population has been decimated by the brown tree snake on Guam, but not on Rota, the birds had free reign around the island and especially at the bird sanctuary on the NE coast. It was good to see the flying creatures again. Check out other trip photos on Recent Photos to the right.
Here’s Davis after catching his first crab with a trap he found at the beach.
Looks like our time is coming to an end here in the way western Pacific. The summer on the mainland is beckoning. Actually, our family and friends are pulling us back, in addition to getting ready for school, celebrating the 4th at Camano and camping at Wiley Creek. We are making plans for our return and we could be in Seattle by June 15. Nothing is quite certain until the proper paperwork is completed by my office. More later.
Each year my office puts on the festival. All the environmental programs set up booths to discuss what we do and why. Here I am poised to chat people up.
Ah . . . Korea, the land of hearty food redolent of garlic, public bath houses, cell phones, cherry trees and smog. April turned out to be a lovely time to visit. The weather was primarily good, the trees were blooming all over the place, and it seemed like sometimes we were the only foreigners there. What a treat to spend two weeks wandering around, seeing the beautiful and tumultuous old Korea mix it up with the gadget/technology crazy modern Korea.
My favorite memories include:
- Our first sight of Joan, Tracy, and Kaden in the elevator;
- Sleeping on the warm floor of the 500-year old home on sleeping mats;
- Relaxing in the sun on the porch of the same house;
- Scrubbing every last speck of dirt off my skin then soaking in the blazing hot water, followed up with a dip in the freezing cold pool;
- Strolling along the newly day-lighted river in downtown Seoul-it is lit up at night with thousands of tiny white lights;
- Sipping tea with Halmoni while listening to her memories of the war years and meeting Hadaboji;
- Tasting all the street vendor food;
- Exploring the twisty curvy narrow streets;
- Window shopping in Insadong; and
- Searching out the cheapest tastiest lattes available.
It was a great trip and the kids loved it too!
Gwen
She’s been practicing hard to accomplish this feat. Nice work Elli!!
In an effort to enjoy as much of the island before we leave, we played at Dodi Beach on the Naval base. The weather and water was perfect. The shallow corals made for some of the best snorkeling I’ve seen on Guam. The beach borders the north water body where dolphins frequent. So, next time we intend to go back with kayaks and a bbq.
Now that I’ve caught my breath and enjoyed a good sweat in the tropical heat, I feel the need to reflect on our recent trip to the homeland. Why do I call it the homeland? Even though I was not born there, nor have I lived there for longer than a 3 month stretch, I am full blooded Korean and feel that the values I was raised with are from that country. My parents only did arrive in the US a couple years before I was born in Washington DC. So you could say I was raised in a Korean enclave in the capitol city. Ok, enough about me.
My impressions of Korea are many. It’s polluted in the big city. You can see a haze in the sky and sadly it tends to masks the beautiful mountains all over the country. Once you leave Seoul, you can imagine how beautiful the landscape was prior to the industrial revolution. Money money money. I have visited the country in the 80s, 90s, and now the 00s. Each time, the sheer number of stores (franchises now), cars and technological advances seem far greater than the last visit. In the 80s, the streets were filled with taxis and chauffeur driven cars. In the 90s with the emergence of a middle class, more privately owned cars hit the road. Today, you see all types of models but not many of the SUV gas guzzlers like in the states and Guam. I went to neighborhoods of the past and recognized the bones of the place, but the stores had mostly changed and grown taller. Asian countries have a way of putting retail businesses on top of one another vertically. It’s common to find 5-7 story buildings full of tiny shops accessible by the same narrow staircases. I walked much slower than everyone else as I was gazing up and down to read the signs to the stores.
People dress nicely. One of the perks of living in the tropics is I get to wear shorts everyday. Let’s not underestimate how much I love that. Being warm blooded, I’m always hot. Here at least I can air out the legs. In Korea, it’s poor taste for men to wear shorts in public unless exercising. Of course, it’s perfectly fine for women to wear mini skirts and high heels though. Such a bummer for me…or maybe not. If you aren’t wearing a uniform from your workplace in Seoul, you are wearing something stylish. Number one reason I don’t fit in very well.
People are incredibly social. Walking around at night, it’s restaurant after restaurant with groups of people dining and drinking together. It’s common to see men carrying their drunken friends down the sidewalk. One fella in the subway fell off his seat and decided it was easier just the lay flat on the train floor. People just gave him space.
People work till late at night. The city streets are full until around midnight. Don’t these people go home! I see men in suits leaving bars and restaurants and can’t imagine that they will be at work at 8am. I’m sure many of them have 1-2 hour commutes too. Maybe you can’t smell the liquor on their breath the next day because of the overwhelming garlic kimchee aroma oozing out of their pores. On a personal note, the spicy foods played havoc on my system after a few days. I was seeking out mild dumpling soup to ease the fire.
You can get a hot meal anytime anywhere. Eating from a food stall on the street, some even standing there like at a bar, is completely normal. I’m not talking hot dogs, though you can now even get those with a Korean twist of cabbage or potato salad jammed in the roll. You can spicy rice cakes, steamed dumplings, chix skewers with a selection of sauces, kimbap (sushi rolls), fried anything, or just a toasted egg and ham sandwich. How about a beer, or milk, or vitamin drink? No problem. These stall have fridges too. Luckily, inflation hasn’t caught up to foods. You can still get a full meal for about $5 bucks on the street.
Lastly, I’m not so tall anymore. In the 80s while in my early 20s, I could walk down the street and be a head taller than most. Nowadays with the better wages and access to any kind of food, the next generation is growing taller. I’m only average now. Yes, it’s hard to come back down to earth. I saw a documentary about N. Korea and they said that the N. Korea 7 year olds are on average 5 inches shorter than their S. Korean counterparts. N. Korea has had horrible famine in the recent past. They say humanitarian aid is not being spread evenly to the lower classes.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip mixed with a view of the past and present. I’m confident that the kids will remember Korea for the rest of their lives. And hopefully, they will have the curiosity to explore their heritage even more as they grow. That was my goal at least.
The Guam Adventure 