This one's for you, Dad

I guess all of the rain stirred up the jungles yesterday, because crossing the street by my condo was a BIG LONG BROWN TREE SNAKE! Someone ran it over, because parts of it were squished, but I got my roommate Laura to come out with me to take pictures of it. I didn't think I'd end up in the picture.

The brown tree snake has been a topic of conversation in my group of friends and family back home for quite some time. Research on it led me to finding PIU last year, and I my Dad asks me if I've seen one every time I get a chance to talk to him. I am super excited about this little guy...I hope I get to see more!

Storm Update

We are waiting to see if the bigger of the two storms will be coming our way by Saturday. Yesterday could have been a huge mess, but by mid afternoon we were enjoying the sunshine. I think so many people prayed for Guam that God calmed our storm down.

Just to give you an idea of what they were expecting, all schools including colleges, government jobs, and even the post office shut down for the day. It was weird to go into a normal day after the craziness of the morning. Please look at Dave Owen's blog for more info in the storm and better pictures than what I have.

Pray for Guam!

We're having, or are about to have, a tropical storm of some kind of magnitude that is not really known to us yet. This is a picture that I took from my car of the entrance to PIU. The brown to the right of the road should be green, but the grounds are flooding. The roads are bad, too. There's a lot of activity over the ocean and surrounding islands that may or may not move this way. At this point, I'm praying for protection and for the storm to pass over quickly. Please pray for our students and faculty, as well as the island and surrounding islands. I'll update you soon.

By the way, if you were connected to my blog through Sandals church or elsewhere, I'd love to know you so I can pray for you and send you updates from Guam. Please email me at Jen.Rydzik@gmail.com

Cave Exploring

My friend Melissa (the Dean of Women here at PIU) and I went to explore this cave with fresh water, Marbo. It happens to be up the street I live off of and down a hill/boulevard with a bunch of palm trees and a coral quarry. I followed Melissa in jumping off a rock in the dark into about twenty feet of water. I can't wait to go back and do it again, plus, I get to explore more caves this weekend.

The students in the Study Skills class I teach are awesome. They filled out and shared some mad libs last week. It was a nice change of pace. This is one of the rooms I get to teach in, too. I love being at PIU.

island adventures

You know you wanna get in there



Cave paintings


This is the painted Jeff, the real one was cool and kinda smelly



I've been having some great adventures lately. Joyce teased me with a bunch of places that we couldn't go into (umm...watery glorious pools, to be exact) today and I am dying to go back and take full advantage of all the things we saw. Today, we went to Jeff's Pirate's Cove, got an amazing mahi mahi sandwich, sat by the beach, took a picture with Jeff (who looks like a pirate), explored a cave, got some shells, AND managed to find 6 GREAT items at a thrift store...all thanks to Joyce Owen. Last weekend, some of the PIU ladies and I went snorkeling. I wish I was doing something outdoors-ish this weekend, but my schedule is pretty booked. I can't wait to really explore and get to know everything Guam has to offer!

I am licensed

Yep....I stood in line, paid my dues, and took a picture...which was all transformed into an actual license that I got to take home with me in minutes. They make the faces too big...but then again maybe I just have a big face...?

the source of my teacher headaches

Me (the tutor): "What is wedging?" in regards to rock formations.

Them: "It's when you give the rock a wedgie!"


sigh... :)

Slack habits and sloppy work are as bad as vandalism. Proverbs 18:9


Yeah, proverbs...there you go convicting me again. I have reverted to some bad habits of not getting myself organized and being fearful of assignments in topics I struggle with. for example, I've posted a few new blogs this week but didn't take my seminary quiz. On top of that, I teach a study skills class. Seriously, I need to get my priorities straight. I'm working toward changing my habits. I won't go on facebook until I've finished my reading for the next class, and won't post more blogs until I do my quizzes to the best of my ability. And because I'm posting this....I think I may have some accountability. (oh man, that word...)

I get to pass this every day- a little palm tree with a LOT of coconuts. I don't know which ones I can pick or what but I'm gonna be finding out.

my scrap book

My mom made this scrapbook entirely by hand and mailed it to me. She made the paper, stitched it all together, added real leaves and shells, and made pockets. She even sent me some super glue and markers. I can't wait to fill this one day. For now, I'm saving momentos up. Maybe in 6 months or a year I'll start adding things. Isn't she talented?

Chapel

Friday's chapel was awesome. We had a sort of praise and worship chapel, with a message frim Hartmut and some fellowship and healing with Steve. I don't have a picture of Steve here, but you can follow his blog (The Stinnettes) from the link on my page. He's really dear to me (along with his awesome wife Anne) as he's the second person I knew from PIU before coming out here. We're praying for healing for Steve.


Here's the boys singing a song for the staff and girls:



And some of the ladies singing for us:



The students here are awesome and I'm really excited about being here. I even found out that one of the girls in my English class writes poetry, through a journal assignment. I can't wait to go down that road!

Jen Jen

This is PIU student Jen (Jentilly). She's one of my students and I think she's awesome. Plus, we share the same nickname. How cool is that?

adventures

Here's a photo of my friend Lisa and me on a rock over the ocean. I met her and her husband recently at the church, and she invited me on this really cool hike. Aside from myself, her sister, friend, and some other people from the church came, too. We trekked over sand, through ocean, and up these crazy rocks that looked like lava rocks. Then, we did a short hike through the jungle to find this little green pond. I had such an awesome time here and can't wait to explore more of Guam.

rooms with a view

This is the view from the Lutheran Church of Guam that I have been going to. I may stay here, or go somewhere else. Is it bad to pick a church based on the awesome view?



This is a picture of my room. Outside is a huge tree, and neither my roommate nor I know what it is. I've always wanted a sycamore tree, so we decided that it is one of those. I'll have to post a pic of this cool tree (which I doubt really is a sycamore tree- do they even grow here?) I was able to get my bedding really cheap at Ross. The rest of the stuff is from my roommates- they are letting me use a bed, desk, and nightstand- woo hoo. I love my room!

other Guam blogs

Check out Steve and Anne Stinnette's blog, Melissa's blog, along with a number of other faculty at PIU for cool updates. I will be posting some adventure updates pretty soon- and, compiling ideas and ministry updates in an email and/or upcoming blog. Right now, things are good. God is good. I will hopefully have much to share.

Dinner at PIU

I had a great time tonight at PIU eating, talking, and just taking in my surroundings. I am still so new to Guam and the campus, so all the relational stuff is in the works.

Thanks, Pastor Nathan

One of my favorite pastors from back home blogs here (and is trying2lead, on the right side of my blog). His work is usually a light for me and for things I'm struggling with, like his latest blog about worry, etc. Check it out.

initiation to Guam

Today was my most off day on the island so far and I am blaming the rain. I always refer back to Dave's Blog because he updates a lot of great stuff at the school, so definitely check it out. In today's post, you can see the results of the rainy season, and get some cool updates on PIU plus see the campus and some students.

But, back to this crazy rain. It managed to hold out all day until I got into the office. Right before that, I got to go on base to pick up my friend Lisa's husband's Jeep. He's overseas right now and she's letting me borrow it until I get a car. SWEET, right? Today was my second day driving in the rain here and it was interesting. Some of the roads became little rivers and ponds. The Jeep totally handled it, except it took me a minute to get used to controlling the windshield wipers.

Anyway, at this point in my day I was wide awake. When I got to my tutoring job, I think all four of the boys and I all wanted to just sleep where we were sitting. I did a little talking, they did a little talking, and some other weird anamalistic things 6th grade boys do (weird noises, movements, their own slang and language...) and we were all completely burnt out ten minutes early. They are fun, though. I have enjoyed working with their chaotic, sponge like minds. I find myself sitting there for brief moments while their world erupts into something dramatic and then dies down so I can start tutoring them again. None of us can really keep still, either. I managed to squeeze in some brief lessons "the perfect high five" and how to do "lion's breath" to break the monotony. (Man, I hope that's not all they are learning from all the work we do.)

Anyway, the rest of the night proceeded as follows:
I had an amazing dinner at a Thai restaurant with my new roommate Laura. After dinner, I saw my first big roach and he had a big roach head. Gross. This must have been an omen, because THEN it took me an hour to get home. The cops blocked off like 20ft of the road right before my turn for some reason. I had to drive all the way down the road I came up, looked for "route 3" from the cop's directions, turned onto a busy road without a sign- prayed for a sign (then I saw the sign for rte 3!) and went around the back part of the island just to get home. Melody and Tim waited up for me because they encountered that issue too. If I had a phone, I would have called them first. If I hadn't found rte 3, I would have found a payphone.

Can I just mention to you that in the last 13 or so days, I've seen maybe 3 or 4 cops? Tonight I saw half that doing nothing but redirecting traffic away from some mysterious thing they were doing in the middle of the busiest road. And, Guam doesn't have many street signs or roads marked. It's going to be a fun guessing game here. Trial and error, for sure.

To end on a positive note, I got to talk to my mom AND Alex today. That was really cool. I also found out I may be seeing them both sooner than I thought :) I miss my family, though I am meeting great people here every day...most of them missing their families.

As for now, I'm taking this mess to bed and will hopefully wake up to a great shower, class, sermon, and other wonderful things I'm here to do. Oh, and hopefully I'll be able to start putting up pics with every blog. But, for now, go back and check out Dave's. Oh, and if there's anything at all you need prayer for, I'd love to pray for you, or even just hear from you.

Love, Jen

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!)