The Bird

It's almost our anniversary!!  I love him.

 On Saturday, we took a hike to Bird Island.  I think I've been to this island about 8 times in the past two years but it's awesome every time.  On Saturday it was living up to it's name, and had a ton of birds swooping around it- so cool to watch.

 Love these two!

 Brian and I with Bird Island in the background

Thanks so much for the pictures, Aly and Nate!! :)

 This week has been so much fun meeting new friends and spending time with old ones.  On Sunday, we headed out to Bird Island with some of the returning and new teachers from Saipan Community School.  Hands down, it was my favorite trip to Bird Island, especially because of all the exploring we did.

These girls are wonderful- Kara, me, Alison, Becky, and Anna.

Earlier in the week, we spent some time at Samantha's very favorite place in the world... the dog park.  It's a little bit ridiculous how excited she gets when we pull into the park's parking lot.

 This little German Shepard pup, Tasi, is Sam's favorite playmate.  They spend the entire time at the park biting, rolling around, and chewing on each other.

 We learned some awesome training tips from our friend Atsuko (these are her three very well-behaved labs)

On Friday night, we went over to our friend Joyce and Chris's house for game night.

  

Besides that, we've been spending our days at the Summer Camps where we teach.  My school has a group of 40+ children that arrived for camp from Korea a few weeks ago, and they have been so much fun to teach.  Tomorrow we will take them all to Managaha Island for a big field trip... omg wish us luck!

Hiking club to the Old Man

I'm really proud of my husband for the hiking club he started at Hopwood Junior High, here on Saipan. Here's some pictures from the most recent hike they took to the Old Man by the Sea, a rock formation that we've documented on here before.

The whole group. Usually about 30-35 kids come, with about 10 sponsors (teachers at

Hopwood or parents of the students).

Before Brian started the club, Hopwood didn't have any kind of outdoor activity club. Brian loves to hike and wanted to share this interest with the kids at his school, which I think is so cool. The response has been huge, and the club has now taken 3 trips: Obyan Beach, Bird Island, and Old Man by the Sea. The students really enjoy the activities that are planned each time, like scavenger hunts, exploring Saipan's caves, and swimming in the ocean.

The next hiking club activity will be to hike the trail down from Suicide Cliff to the Last Command Post (both are very famous war sites here on Saipan).

I'm really proud of Brian and what he's doing at his school, and wanted to share. More pictures of the next hikes to come.

Fall in Saipan

Inside of a cave near Bird Island- this is where we hid our stuff while we swam

We had to use a muddy rope to climb down to the beach

Can you see Brian in the red shirt

Hello everyone,

Here's some things that have been happening on our little island.

- We are just loving our small group Bible study on Monday nights. Everyone brings a dish, and it's held at one of our church members houses- up in the mountainous area of Saipan, so it has a gorgeous view of the island and ocean down below. Brian actually led it yesterday, and did a great job. We're doing the series "The Greatest Question Ever" right now. We love the friends we're meeting there, and have been doing some hiking/beach trips with some of them on the weekends.

- Brian is starting a hiking club at school and he's had lots of teachers and students who are interested in helping/joining. They are going to go on one short-medium length hiking trip per month, and he's going to focus on teaching skills for hiking and navigating. I'm really excited for the first one- I'm going too and I'll get to meet some of the teachers at his school.

- I'm joining a weekly yoga class with two of my friends here- so excited for it to start this Thursday. We were looking at one that they hold at one of the resorts here (there's like 8 to 10 vacation resorts here on the island- it's nice for us because they have great food!) out on the beach, but we opted for a less expensive one. Yoga on the beach would have been aaa-mazing, though- maybe next time!

Other things that have been happening:

- swimming in the ocean

- snorkeling

- cooking lots

- nursing prerequisites for me... studying studying again..

- ultimate frisbee

- checking out some of the beautiful war memorial sites

- driving around on our scooter and getting poured on sometimes- by a raincloud out of nowhere!

- stargazing (amazing here out in the middle of the ocean)

- looking for a tutoring job for me... nothing yet- keep your fingers crossed!

"Hafa dei!" means hello in Saipan

This was on the "Old Man by the Sea" hike. Old Man by the Sea is an enormous rock formation that looks like the profile of a man's face. Pictures of it to come soon.

Our friends Laura and Josiah- both counselors in the public schools here on the island. They went to college with us, and it was through them that we got the idea to move out here.

In the background is "Bird Island"- I've only seen if from this distance so far, but Brian's been down there to check it out, and said it has some amazing snorkeling places.

Below, making flower leis for the arrival of our friends Elizabeth and Josh a couple weeks ago. We made them out of real plumeria blossoms that we had picked from local trees. They smelled so good.

Here's some things that have happened since we moved to our little island:

- Brian started school this Monday, though his students won't arrive until next Tuesday. He's working with one of his good friends, Josiah, who's also a counselor at that school- Hopwood Jr. High

-I've started my classes for nursing. Right now, I'm just taking the prerequisites that I'll need for the program, which I'm hoping to enter next fall.

- We've moved into the most awesome little one-bedroom apartment. I think I love it so much because of it's convenience... something that our other apartments in Taiwan lacked at times. Also, it's got these great vaulted ceilings which make it look bigger than it really is. We were really lucky because it was fully furnished with everything we needed when we moved in: bed, dining table, couches, washer/dryer, dressers.... even a TV. We can see the ocean from our front door, and it's also the same complex that our 4 friends from college live in. We both have to drive kind of far each day to our schools, but everything else about it makes it totally worth it.

- Truly, it's seemed so much like home coming here. People keep talking about having culture shock living here, but it just seems so "American" compared to living in Asia last year!

- One of the very best parts: We've found a church that we really like: Saipan Community Church. We've met a lot of the people there already through various contacts on the island- and it's been so nice to become involved with a church family again. We've joined one of the church's Small Groups on Monday evenings, and it has a lot of people our age in it. It's really such an answer to prayer, after how hard it was last year to find a church in Taipei. Having a church family is such an important part of our lives, and we're so grateful to have it again this year.