Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Ok, I'm not gonna lie...Guam is a little crazy

I am up the latest I've been since I arrived on this lovely island. It's 10:30 p.m. and I have to be up in 8 and a half hours. In an attempt to only sleep 8 hours a night, I'm trying to utilize my last half hour. Reading: done. Syllabus and grading: done. Dinner: delicious, and done, with dessert. Facebook, gmail, and now time for a little blogging...about how weird Guam is! I'm going to make a list of my culture shock for you to enjoy.
(sidenote: while vacationing and backpacking, these types of things make a place "exotic" or "adventerous"- but I am living here, so now it's culture shock)

-Today, while driving, I saw over 7 cars blatently run red lights
-Dogs will chase moving vehicles, OR might be found asleep in the middle of the road
-What's the speed limit here? What's the minimum?
-The roads are made out of ground up coral mixed with other stuff which = really slippery when wet, so I am avoiding driving in the direction of clouds
-I think we just had a storm or heavy rain that lasted all of 5 minutes
-I have seen a spider and moth each the size of a small bird
-I have yet to see a bird
-The discount bin food is usually the GOURMET stuff- the Newmans, Kens, Health bars, fancy triscuits, etc (do we see a future blog post with pictures?)
-KMart has the biggest souveneir section I have EVER seen and the biggest SPAM display (see below). I could get souveneirs from any neighboring island, like Hawaiin macadamia nuts and tiki bottle openers.


These are just a few funny things I have noticed so far. I know the list will get longer. I feel like I should mention the beauty, too. For example, driving home yesterday, after being stuck in traffic for a long long time, I saw a big fat rainbow. OK, Guam's cool. I can deal with the craziness in exchange for a great working environment, warm weather, gorgeous beaches, and dried pineapple. (But, this is still some big culture shock!)

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