8/20/2010

Five Things

The Island Kids and I drove down the Island today to do some shopping at the Naval base. It's a fairly long drive, for an island (30-40 minutes). On the ride back, Island Girl was sleeping and Island Boy was fairly quiet, which gave me some time to think.

We have been here for a little over two months now, which is incredibly hard to believe in some ways. There are things that I love, or am learning to love, about living here. Here's a list of my "Top Five," in no particular order.

1. Riding down Marine Corps Drive. Starting from our place and heading south, you see lots of strip malls and plazas to start with. This has given me a great start on a list of places I'd love to check out on the off chance that I actually get a morning out without the Island Kids. Right. Once you get south of that, though, you get this gorgeous drive along Tumon Bay, practically on the beach. On the other side of the road is mountains. Tall, verdant, mountains.

2. The weather. It's a given. You really can't beat it! I keep thinking that summer is almost over, and that fall, and soon winter, will be here. And while, yes, Christmas will be upon us before I'm ready, the snow will never arrive. And, I suppose, if it does, we're all in pretty big trouble, haha.

3. The variety of food options available. First, of course we don't eat out every night. But Friday night family dinner out has become a bit of a tradition for us. So it's great to have a TON of options. Of course we have our pick  of Asian cuisine. Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Phillipino, Korean, you name it. We also have local fare, which we're just starting to get acquainted with, but love. Beyond that, though, we've found good Mexican, Italian, and even have found an appreciation for the occasional trip to TGIFridays or Chili's (but not too often).

4. The variety of activities available. We go to the beach. We take a walk around the neighborhood (which, try to do that in the northern tier in the middle of January...). We go to the mall. We can take a hike in the jungle. And we can do all of it as a family!

5. The phrase "Only On Guam" or O-O-G. Yes, it gets applied negatively by many people, self included. But I've also used it in reference to our drive back from Talofofo Falls, when we saw two, yes, TWO men walking their carabao (water buffalo) down the road. Separately. And the second one had two small-ish dogs riding on top of the carabao. O-O-G indeed.

There are many many more things I am loving about living here, and a few things I'm not loving quite as much, but am trying to get used to.

No comments:

Post a Comment