saipanecdotes

Now that I’ve been in a new position for about a month (I’m a commercial salmon fisheries observer with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife!), it seems appropriate to write up a final reflection on my time in Saipan. I finished my NOAA fellowship project a few months early and moved back to the mainland in March. You can check out one of the final products from my fellowship here – it’s an interactive public web app for exploring some of the factors that may affect coastal permitting decisions in the CNMI. I’m also going to use this post to give a sort of virtual tour of the things that helped keep me busy during my time on the island.

Here’s a screenshot of my permit tool in action!

One of the first activities I got involved in when I got to Saipan was paddling. Though I discontinued my casual participation once the competition season started heating up, I got to spend a couple months learning and practicing the technique behind this ancient sport. Outrigger canoes have a long and rich history among the peoples of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia, and have been around, in various forms, for several thousand years. They were first used by ancient islanders to travel throughout the Pacific Ocean and allowed for interaction between the communities of different groups of islands. Nowadays, they are central to the sport of outrigger canoe racing, which is very popular in Hawaii and other islands throughout the Pacific (as of 2009, it’s even included as one of Team USA’s canoeing disciplines. As with any sport that places a heavy emphasis on form (ahem, archery), outrigger canoe racing relies on the execution of very specific movements and (ideally) perfect synchronicity of the actions carried out by the team of rowers in the canoe. It’s a lot harder than it looks, and it requires a high degree of mental focus to perform the techniques correctly. I thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to learn the form and skills involved in a new sport from scratch, as it’s been several years since I first learned about proper form in archery.

A few of the outrigger canoes that we used for practice

The outrigger part of the canoe, called the ama, provides stability when sailing through the water

For the last few months I was in Saipan, I attended beginner ukulele classes at the local library. Though it was generally just me and about a dozen 8-year-olds in these classes, I had a blast learning how to play everything from Van Morrison to Bruno Mars and Bob Marley. After taking some additional private lessons to help get me up to speed, I “graduated” to the adult class, which was hosted by one of my coworkers and served as a thinly veiled excuse for a group of us to get together, drink beer, and jam through all sorts of songs on the uke every Tuesday night. (No offense to my 8-year-old classmates, but this was a lot more fun.) In December, we got to perform several of our songs at the Christmas in the Marianas event in Garapan – you can see clips of us playing here (coverage of our set starts around the 17 minute mark). When my coworker Mark left island, I bought his ukulele from him and have been practicing on my own ever since.

My beginner uke class at Joeten Kiyu Public Library (photo credit: Marianas Variety)

It probably goes without saying, but one of my favorite weekend activities was hanging out at one of the many beautiful beaches around Saipan (and other islands in the Marianas archipelago). Some of these, like the beach at Bird Island, also required hiking down through the jungle along some pretty questionable paths to get there (see photo below). The pure white sands and clear blue waters of the Pacific are remarkable enough on their own, but even more remarkable is the level of privacy you can enjoy at some of these beaches. Coming from Florida, I’m used to fighting off hordes of tourists just to find a spot to lay my towel. In the CNMI, however, I was sometimes the only person within sight for hours at a time. I doubt I’ll ever get to experience this again in the mainland, and I’m thankful that I had the chance to when I lived in Saipan.

Wing Beach – quite possibly my favorite beach in Saipan

The hike down to Bird Island – ropes are the only safety feature provided in areas where the path is being washed away

As I’ve written in previous blog posts, the Mariana Islands are full of fascinating historical sites that mark different periods in the islands’ long and complex past (see my post about Tinian, for example). Visiting these sites enriched my understanding of the local culture and was definitely a highlight of my time there. The CNMI has experienced several boom-and-bust cycles of development over the years, which in times of plenty can generate considerable revenue for the islands’ economies, but during the bust phases can result in a mass exodus of business that leaves behind physical traces like the sprawling, now-abandoned Fiesta Mall. Though some of these structures are eyesores in an otherwise wild landscape, exploring them was a fun and exciting way to spend time when I wanted a break from the beaches. (Tough life, I know.) I’m hoping that the gaudy, half-built Best Sunshine casino/maybe-eventual-resort in Garapan doesn’t end up becoming one of these bygone reminders of how unrestrained development can go awry.

A derelict, 80s-era Cold War radio tower in the north of Saipan

Inside one section of the Fiesta Mall, which was all the rage in the 90s but has now been reclaimed by the jungle

Best Sunshine’s Grand Mariana (Resort and) Casino – or what’s been built of it so far, at least

Taking this position in the Mariana Islands was one of the best, most adventurous decisions I’ve ever made, and even though island life was challenging for me at times, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world. I stepped way outside of my comfort zone when I moved to Saipan, which allowed me to grow and mature in ways I don’t think I ever could have in the mainland. In hindsight, my time there went by in the blink of an eye, and I already find myself missing the phenomenal views, unique culture, and relaxed pace of life. The CNMI is a strange and special place, and I’ll always treasure the people who made my stay there so enjoyable and fulfilling. Si Yu’us ma’ase, Saipan, yan biba Marianas! 🙂

Some of my awesome coworkers at the CNMI Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality (photo credit: Fran Castro)

Back in August I was finally able to visit Rota, the southernmost Mariana Island that lies roughly halfway between Saipan and Guam. Like the other Mariana Islands it has a long history of foreign occupation, though it played a relatively small role in WWII when compared to Saipan, Tinian, or Guam. As of the 2010 census, it was the fourth most populated island in the archipelago (after Guam, Saipan, and Tinian, respectively) with roughly 2500 residents.

Rota (or “Luta” in Chamorro) is sometimes referred to as “the jewel of the Marianas,” and for good reason – it takes the stunning views, picture-perfect beaches, and diverse ecosystems you can find elsewhere in the Marianas to the next level. It’s also the self-proclaimed “World’s Friendliest Island,” a slogan that can be seen on a sign welcoming you to the island as soon as you leave the airport. Part of this designation comes from a local phenomenon known as the “Rota wave” – you’d be hard pressed to pass a car on Rota without its driver giving you a quick wave as they go by.

I don’t have as much to write about Rota as I have about my other island trips; pictures do a much better job of conveying the striking beauty of the island than words ever could. Below I’ve put together a few pictures from my whirlwind couple days of sightseeing (descriptions of each one are in the captions).

Enjoy, and Happy Holidays from Saipan!  🙂

Tonga Cave, which was used as a Japanese hospital during WWII

Sign outside the Rota airport

Taga latte stone quarry

The quaint little Valentino Hotel, where we stayed

Rota’s upper plateau, the Sabana, which lies at roughly 1600ft and consists of sprawling grasslands

Me, for scale

Teteto Beach

I’Chenchon Park Bird Sanctuary, a wildlife conservation area home to a variety of migratory shorebirds

Veteran’s Memorial Park beach

Songsong Village overlook; in the distance is Wedding Cake Mountain

Here it is, finally! Only three months late this time. 😉

The small island nation of Palau in one word? Remarkable. Unfortunately a passing typhoon threw some heavy rain and wind our way for most of the time that we were there, but even the inclement weather couldn’t detract from the incredible beauty of this unique group of islands. The Republic of Palau, as it’s officially called, is located approximately 500 miles southeast of the Philippines and 800 miles southwest of Guam. It is made up of around 250 islands that are broken up into 16 different states, most of which are located on the “big island” of Babeldaob. (For reference, Babeldaob is the second largest island in Micronesia—second only to Guam—yet it has a population of only ~6000 people). Koror, the most populous state in Palau, is composed of a much smaller cluster of islands directly south of Babeldaob (see map). The famous Rock Islands, which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, are scattered throughout the Southern Lagoon just south of Koror.

Palau by land

Though Palau is best known for its marine ecotourism, we started out our week with some land-based sightseeing. Like many of the island nations in this region, Palau has a long history of occupation and colonization by foreign powers, which have, for better or for worse, exerted a strong and complex influence on Palauan culture. After hundreds of years of foreign possession, Palau finally became its own fully sovereign nation in 1994, though it currently maintains a Compact of Free Association with the United States. (This just means that it benefits from some federal funding and social services, has English as one of its official languages, and uses the U.S. dollar as its currency.) We visited the Etpison Museum and the Belau National Museum for a more detailed look into this diverse past, and also got the chance to see some really cool traditional Palauan artifacts, like their iconic wooden storyboards.

From the museums we moved on to a drizzly driving tour of Babeldaob from a local guy who picked us up from the airport a few days earlier. Our first major stop was Palau’s oldest existing bai, or village meeting house, in the state of Airai. Bais are beautifully elaborate structures, adorned inside and out with paintings of culturally significant symbols and carvings that each tell a different Palauan legend (see photos below). After hearing a couple of these stories from our guide, we headed up the east side of Babeldaob to the state of Melekeok, where the nation’s capital is located. The capitol complex itself is massive and remarkably decadent, especially given how remote it is (the entire state only has around 400 residents). It was built in the early 2000s using a substantial loan from Taiwan, and was intended to draw more people up to the “big island” – a largely unsuccessful endeavor. Next, we drove further up to the northernmost point of Babeldaob to see the ancient Badrulchau stone monoliths, which are believed to be nearly 2000 years old. Though some have speculated that the monoliths at one point formed the pillars of a huge bai, their purpose is still generally unknown, as are their mysterious origins: the large basalt stones themselves are not from Palau. Finally, we made it to the western side of the island and embarked on a roughly 30-minute jungle hike down to the stunning Ngardmau falls. After marveling at Micronesia’s tallest waterfall for a bit, we hopped on a rickety little tram that took us back up the steep hillside. All in all, our meandering excursion around Babeldaob took up the entire 4^th of July.

Lastly, I feel like I have to mention Palau’s wonderful and occasionally wacky cuisine (including, oddly, the best Indian food I’ve ever had). Although coconut crabs can be found in the Mariana Islands, I got to try one for the first time in Palau (Google them – they’re yuuuuge), along with mangrove crab and Palauan land crab. The crab smorgasbord was topped off with some outstanding fried local parrotfish and milkfish throughout the rest of the week. The most unusual dish award, however, unquestionably goes to fruit bat soup. The entire bat—head, fur, and all—is served in a large bowl of coconut milk and spices, and diners are encouraged to eat the whole thing (one bite of a leathery, furry little wing, however, ended up being enough for me).

Traditional Palauan bai

Belau National Museum

Hike down to the Ngardmau waterfall

Ngardmau waterfall

Story carvings inside a bai

Hiking to the Ngardmau waterfall (you can just barely see the falls to the left of the photo)

Fruit bat soup

Capitol building in Melekeok

Cooked coconut crab

Etpison Museum

Badrulchau stone monoliths

Palau by sea

And now, finally, on to what makes Palau famous: its pristine waters. The Palauan islands and their surrounding waters constitute one of the most environmentally protected areas on the planet, boasting the world’s sixth-largest marine reserve and the first shark sanctuary ever to be established. This protection, however, comes at a cost: visiting the Rock Islands requires a $50 permit, for example, and tourists must pay a mandatory $50 “green” exit fee upon leaving Palau. It ended up being an expensive trip, but I was more than happy to help fund their conservation efforts. Their hard work has clearly paid off, and it was awe-inspiring to spend time in a tropical destination whose natural environment still showed so few signs of human influence, despite the large number of tourists who come through every year.

Though the weather wasn’t ideal, we went on a boat tour of the Rock Islands and got to snorkel in a couple places around the southern lagoon. It’s hard to say whether the views above or below the water were more breathtaking. Massive green, mushroom-like islands jutted out above the waves as far as the eye could see, while fish and corals of what seemed like every color of the rainbow filled the ocean below us. We also stopped in an area known as the “Milky Way” because of the chalky white limestone sediment that lines the bottom of the lagoon there. For some reason tourists think it’s fun to smear this slightly sulfurous-smelling goop all over themselves and draw designs in it, so our tour guides subjected us to a stinky mud bath before we moved on to more pleasant sights.

Later in the week when the weather was better, we went on a kayak tour through the mangroves and out into the Rock Islands again. This time it was more obvious how crystal clear and richly blue the water is (thanks to the sun being out), and we got a much more up close and personal view of the rock islands themselves. At the end of the tour, our guide also took us on a short paddle into a cool little limestone cave that cut into the side of one of the islands. Later in the day, we went back out for a night kayak tour and witnessed a completely different Palau: as we glided through the still lagoon, the sky above us was strewn with fruit bats and a seemingly infinite number of stars, while bioluminescent plankton created plumes of electric blue every time our paddles hit the water below. We spent our final night at the beautiful Palau Plantation Resort and prepared to say goodbye to this tropical treasure the next day.

Limestone cave paddle

View from the Palau Plantation Resort

Snorkeling in the southern lagoon

Kayaking through the mangroves

Rock Island kayaking

Rock Island boat tour, Milky Way stop

And, randomly, Manila

The Guam-Koror-Manila flight route essentially operates in a triangular fashion, so we couldn’t just go straight back to Guam after our week in Palau. We therefore had the unintended opportunity to explore Manila a bit during our roughly 36-hour layover there. To say the least, it was a stark contrast from the serene, natural setting we’d just come from – soon after landing that night, we found ourselves on a chaotic, nerve-wracking cab ride through the traffic-laden streets to our hotel. The weather ended up getting pretty bad again the next day so we only had a few hours to wander around the city, but we at least got the chance to check out the National Museum of the Philippines. I frankly wasn’t heartbroken that our time on the gritty, crowded streets of Manila was limited (plus it helped that we were staying at the famed Manila Hotel, which in any other city would most certainly have been outside our price range, but due to how cheap everything is in the Philippines it only cost us $140 per night).

It was only a brief glimpse into a very large, very busy city, but I think I’d be satisfied with just leaving it at that. Besides, I hear there are much more beautiful places to see in the Philippines and I’d rather visit those someday…

Outside the National Museum of the Philippines

Downpours in Manila

Manila cityscape

Lobby of the Manila Hotel

Well, that’s it for now! As always, I’m a little behind on blog posts. I recently visited the third main Mariana Island, Rota, so expect a new post on that soon. 🙂

Hey everyone! Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted an update – it’s been quite a busy few months! In the time since my last blog post, I’ve been to Guam twice, went back to the mainland once, and recently got back from a trip to Honolulu. In this post (which is probably going to be a long one) I’ll share some pictures, impressions, etc from each of these trips. Then in less than a month, I’m off to Palau! (You might remember seeing it in the news last year after its government created one of the largest marine preserves in the world.)

Guam

I went on my first trip to Guam during the MLK holiday weekend and immediately fell in love with it. In my opinion, it’s the perfect middle ground of being able to enjoy the beauty and remoteness of a small Pacific island while still having access to some of the comforts of home (read: non-moldy produce and drivable roads!). Its population is around 3 times that of Saipan and is comprised heavily of American military members and their families since Guam is home to the Andersen Air Force base. It’s also around 4 times as large as Saipan, which means you can actually go on a scenic drive around the island that lasts more than 30 minutes.

If you don’t have a car, there’s still plenty to see. The very walkable main drag in Tumon makes me think of a little Pacific Las Vegas, lined with bright lights, luxury resorts, nice restaurants, and plenty of designer brand stores. It’s bustling with locals and tourists alike, and lets you feel for a moment like you’re not on a tiny rock in the middle of the ocean – until you look out at gorgeous Tumon Bay, of course! The southern end of the island is the exact opposite: a narrow, mostly two-lane road winds around the rural bottom half, snaking through beautiful rolling hills and quaint little seaside towns.

As with its Northern Mariana counterparts, Guam is an island full of rich and diverse history—from the ancient Chamorro culture to the island’s Spanish occupation and on through to the Pacific arena of World War II. When I returned to Guam in April, this time for the Island Sustainability Conference, I was able to go to the Pacific War Museum and the War in the Pacific National Park, both of which were full of fascinating Japanese and American artifacts and very neat, informative displays. Since I was in Guam for over a week instead of just three days this time, I got to do a lot more exploring and sightseeing during conference off hours. Aside from visiting the museums, this included driving down to the Merizo crab and tuba festival, where I found myself an unwilling participant in a tuba-drinking contest (tuba is a mildly alcoholic drink made from fermented palm tree sap).

The conference was great too, and I got to present my fellowship work thus far to an audience of natural resource stakeholders from all around the Pacific. Throughout the week, the other talks highlighted an array of awesome sustainability-related projects going on across the region and gave me a chance to meet many inspiring leaders within the Pacific islands climate change adaptation movement. The highlight of the week, though, was an all-day post-conference field trip to the Humatak watershed restoration project, a multidisciplinary, collaborative effort between the University of Guam Sea Grant and several community partners to recover the ecosystem services of an area with chronic sediment runoff issues.

Guam is really a special place and I’m always sad to leave it. However, I take comfort in the fact that it’s only a 50-minute plane ride away.

Tumon Bay from the air

Snorkeling at Ypao Beach

Gun Beach, a popular hangout on the northern side of Tumon Bay

Stone pathway on the other side of Gun Beach; Two Lovers Point lookout in the distance

Looking out over Umatac Bay, on the southern end of the island

Fort Soledad

Pacific War Museum

Cool interactive display of the battle for Guam at the War in the Pacific National Historical Park

Tuba drinking contest in Merizo

The main reason for my April trip

Trip Home

In February, I got to spend a week back in Florida before heading up to Charleston for the Social Coast Forum. It was my first trip back to the mainland since I moved to Saipan, and boy was it a culture shock. Going back to a “normal” pace of life is kind of overwhelming after spending several months on an island where the biggest “highway” has a speed limit of 45mph…

It was wonderful to be home and spend time with family and friends, but the week naturally went by far too quickly (especially since I was an emotional, jet-lagged mess for the first part of it). After that, my parents drove me to South Carolina so I could rejoin my fellow Fellows for our first required conference. Aside from learning about a ton of cool new developments in the world of coastal management, I also got to meet the previous year’s cohort of fellows, hear about the successes they’ve had during their own fellowships, and talk to them about the challenges they’ve faced in their positions. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Charleston trip without some out-of-this-world southern food and craft cocktails with my colleagues.

The conference was a bit of a whirlwind, and before I knew it I was back on a massive jet to Seoul. I won’t be back to the mainland again until November, when I plan on attending the Oceans GIS Forum in southern California.

Honolulu

A couple weeks ago, I had the unexpected and fantastic opportunity to travel to Honolulu for a NOAA-sponsored GIS (geographic information system) training for state natural resource agency staff in Hawaii and the Pacific territories. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, GIS is a spatial tool that I’m currently learning how to use; it plays a critical role in my fellowship project.

The training itself was excellent, as was the chance to visit the NOAA Pacific region headquarters on Ford Island. The facility itself is enormous, very modern looking, and LEED Gold certified to boot. I had to arrange for a NOAA escort to get onto the island, which lies in the center of Pearl Harbor and is home to an active US Navy base. Access to civilians and non-federal employees is very restricted, so I consider myself quite lucky to have gotten an inside tour. Overall, this work trip was extremely valuable and I made some great contacts during my time in the training.

Though most of my time in Honolulu was spent in office buildings, I did get to explore a little bit too. Right off the bat, I was taken aback by how massive the city seems. I knew it was the largest in Hawaii, but nothing could have prepared me for the number of towering skyscrapers all around and the extremely plentiful shopping and dining options. My hotel was connected to an enormous shopping center called the Ala Moana, a sprawling, multi-story, open-air mall with just about every shop you could possibly imagine. I took full advantage of my proximity to it, and probably ended up spending around 75% of my free time there. It’s not often that I get to shop anymore!

I would have loved to see some of Oahu’s natural treasures while I was there too, but I guess that’ll just have to wait until next time…

Honolulu, rainbow capital of the world

View from the Honolulu Esri office

Ala Moana mall

NOAA Inouye Regional Center on Ford Island, Honolulu

NOAA Inouye Regional Center

NOAA Inouye Regional Center

NOAA Inouye Regional Center

NOAA Inouye Regional Center

Life in Saipan

Between all the traveling, day-to-day life on Saipan tends to be pretty slow and uneventful. I did, however, move to a new place recently and I’m loving it. It’s a cute, cozy bungalow that has a great view of LauLau Bay, a backyard where I can set up a little archery range, and a deck that’s perfect for enjoying the abundant bird life and vibrant sunset colors. I even got to see my first fruit bats fly by the other day!

As far as work goes, spending 40 hours a week in an office has frankly been a difficult adjustment for me after college – I tend to go a little stir crazy sometimes, and I definitely miss getting out in the field. Nonetheless, my project is going really well and I’m very pleased with the progress I’ve been making recently. Just within the past couple of months, I’ve experimented with different methodologies for my permitting decision support tool, elicited lots of useful staff feedback on what factors to include as well as how to integrate them, and started collaborating with NOAA partners to develop a report generating feature for the eventual web application. If all goes well, I should have a beta version up and running long before my self-imposed deadline of the end of this year. Then it’s on to piloting the tool with our permitting staff!

Well, that’s it for now – be on the lookout for a post about Palau in the next few weeks! (I promise it won’t take me 6 months to write this one.) 😉

Rachel

View of LauLau Bay from my porch in Saipan

Well, I’ve lived on Saipan for about 3 ½ months now (can you believe it?!), and I recently celebrated my first Christmas away from home, ever. As far as the weather goes, it pretty much felt like any other Florida Christmas I’ve experienced – the only difference being that this time, I was over 8,000 miles away from my family. Despite missing them all very much, my holidays have been great so far and I now get to look forward to my first trip back to the mainland in about a month. 🙂

A few weekends ago I took a trip to Tinian, which is the island a few miles south of Saipan in the Marianas island chain. You can get there via a short plane ride (about 15 minutes) on a little 6-seater airplane. Since road trips aren’t really feasible when you live on a small island, it was a really nice way to “get out of town” for a little while and go see some new sights. (Mouse over the photos for captions; click on them to view them larger.)

Star Marianas 6-seater that goes between Saipan and Tinian

The coast of Saipan from the air

Even though it’s very close to Saipan, I was surprised at how different Tinian is. Overall it’s much flatter, a feature that allows a substantial number of family-owned cattle ranches to thrive there. Unsurprisingly it’s also much more rural, with a population of around 3,500 to Saipan’s 50,000, despite being roughly the same geographic size. Differences aside, the island is just as beautiful and contains many breathtaking beaches and coastline vistas – with the added bonus that none of them are filled with tourists.

Lookout over the coast of Tinian

Natural blowhole in the rocks

Long Beach, Tinian

From a historical standpoint, Tinian played a strategically crucial role in World War II and was the takeoff point for the Enola Gay – the aircraft that was used to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Visiting the bomb pits (where the two bombs were loaded onto the plane) was an eerie experience, and seeing the many other remnants of WWII on the island was a poignant reminder of how widespread the impacts of the war really were. There are also a handful of ancient Chamorro historic sites such as the House of Taga, where several massive latte stones still lay mostly intact. Latte stones (pronounced lah-tee, not like the coffee drink) are pillar-like structures that were used by inhabitants of the Marianas as early as 800 A.D. to support their homes and other buildings, and have come to broadly symbolize the native Chamorro culture.

One of two former atom bomb pits

Air raid shelters on the North Field

Cannon in a cave

The only standing latte stone at House of Taga – it’s about 15 feet tall

Oddly enough, the island also boasts a large, opulent resort called Tinian Dynasty that up until recently contained a casino (which has been shut down for several months now after receiving some hefty fines for money laundering violations – go figure). The inside is reminiscent of something you’d see along the Las Vegas Strip, but with one stark difference: Tinian Dynasty is virtually abandoned, though still operational. When I was there, the hotel couldn’t have been running at more than a 5% occupancy rate and the majority of its former shopping area was completely closed. Staying there was definitely enjoyable, but it is a prime example of a poorly planned, speculative gaming tourism idea gone wrong. Sadly, it seems that it might also be a glimpse into Saipan’s future…

The majestic Tinian Dynasty

Lavish yet empty lobby

View from the hotel room

Anyway, hope you all enjoy the photos! Happy holidays, and stay tuned for a post about my upcoming Guam trip in a few weeks. 🙂

My move to Saipan was simultaneously one of the most disorienting and exhilarating experiences of my life (which might have something to do with the fact that I’d just spent more than 24 hours traveling and didn’t arrive here until 2am two days later). There are a lot of things to take care of when you first get here, and it can get a little overwhelming; fortunately I had a coworker guiding me along during my first day on island.

While everything is still relatively fresh in my mind, I figured it would be helpful to create an “arriving on island” guide for other people who are just moving here. Some is drawn from my own experiences, and some is material I stole from advice that other people gave me when I moved out here. Other mainlanders on Saipan: feel free to add your input in the comments on anything I may have forgotten. Without further ado, here is my (by no means exhaustive) list of tasks to complete within the first few weeks that you’re here. Note that they’re in order of when I’d recommend carrying them out (explanations in bullet points).

FIRST DAY ON ISLAND

• Set up a P.O. Box address. Most (if not all) places here lack “real” mailing addresses, so you’ll need to set up a box at a post office or somewhere similar. This is a high priority because you’ll need an address for just about anything else that you need to take care of (getting a drivers license, setting up a bank account, etc). Quick Prints on Middle Road is where I set mine up, and I’ve heard that it’s one of the more reliable postal centers on island. It’s also a full copy/print shop and they have a couple notaries on site. The P.O. Box itself costs around $120 per year. The good news is that USPS ships here pretty easily since the CNMI is a U.S. commonwealth, so packages sent via USPS are unlikely to get lost and will take about 2 weeks to arrive from the mainland. Flat rate boxes are also available here.
• Get a local phone number. Since you most likely don’t have Internet yet, you’re going to need a means of contacting people on island. You have two choices for cell phone carriers: IT&E and Docomo. I went with IT&E, which apparently tends to be more expensive and less reliable than Docomo. However, it’s also the only company that provides Internet (for now), so you can get a package deal for both cell and fiber optic services. If you’re not planning on just switching out the SIM card from your mainland phone, IT&E has plenty of options for you to choose from. Tip: getting a phone with GPS capabilities (which is what I did) ultimately doesn’t help you out that much since you can’t plug in physical addresses, so you can definitely get away with buying something a lot simpler.

FIRST WEEK ON ISLAND

• Get a local drivers license. Before you even make the trip to the BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles), there are a couple of other things you need to take care of. First, I’d highly recommend going somewhere like Quick Prints and getting a color copy of your current drivers license made; I’ve heard that the BMV will either take your current one from you or punch a hole in it to invalidate it if you bring it in. If you don’t want this to happen, when you get to the BMV you can just tell them that you lost your mainland drivers license and they’ll accept the color copy instead. Second, you’ll need to go to the cashier’s office on the first floor of the courthouse (in Susupe on Beach Road) and pay them $50 for a new CNMI license; you’ll then need to take your receipt with you to the BMV (which is conveniently located a couple buildings behind the courthouse). After that, you can just fill out your driver’s license paperwork like you would at any other DMV office on the mainland. One thing they’ll ask you is which village you live in; if you haven’t found a place to live yet, you can just tell them the village where you’re going to work. If you want to go back and change it later you’ll have to pay another fee, but from my understanding it doesn’t really matter what village is printed on your license since your P.O. Box address will be on there anyway.
• Set up a local bank account. Even though mainland debit cards are generally accepted on island (credit cards can be hit or miss though – my American Express card has been refused plenty of times), you’ll probably start to get tired of the ATM fees pretty quickly. Being able to visit a physical location for your banking needs is also a good reason for setting up a bank account with one of the banks on island, plus some places won’t accept mainland checks. Your choices here are Bank of Hawaii, First Hawaiian Bank, and Bank of Guam; I would avoid setting up an account at Bank of Saipan, as I’ve heard that they’re not even FDIC insured. I opened my checking account and health savings account with Bank of Guam and have been satisfied with it so far. As with anything on Saipan, just be prepared to wait a while for customer service if you visit any of their branches; the one in Garapan consistently stays very busy, and the parking lot is a nightmare. Make sure you also have enough money in your mainland bank account to last you a while, because your new BoG debit card will take a couple of weeks to arrive.

FIRST MONTH ON ISLAND

• Find a car. You can find plenty of other sources for car-buying advice in Saipan on the internet, so I won’t go into too much detail here. Just know that unless you’re coming over here with a surplus of extra cash to buy a brand new car, set your expectations low for the so-called “island car.” Find something that can get you around the island without breaking down too often and you’re good to go; this will usually cost you from around $2000-$5000. Also do your research before you go to any car mechanics on island (it’s generally easiest to just ask around for recommendations amongst your friends and coworkers), as scamming is a very common practice here.
• Get car insurance. Once you buy a car, it’s not a bad idea to get some insurance put on it (especially considering how some of the people here drive). Some (all?) insurance companies require you to get a car inspection before you buy insurance from them, so you’ll need to take care of that first. It only cost me $10 and about 5 minutes of my time at SJ Auto Repair, which is right next to the Mobil gas station on Middle Road (aka Chalan Pale Arnold). Once the inspection is done they’ll give you a receipt, which—you guessed it—you’ll need to take with you to the insurance company along with your car registration. Based on several positive reviews from friends, I ended up taking mine to Friendship Enterprises, Inc. on Beach Road in Chalan Kanoa. Basic car insurance from them for the entire year will run you about $170. For an extra $25 (plus the $50 cost of a new car registration) they’ll also take care of transferring the registration over to your name so you don’t have to bother going back to the cashier’s office, BMV, etc. Once the paperwork is done, they’ll give you a call and you can go pick up your updated registration and insurance card. Though I’ve heard there are plenty less expensive options for car insurance here, I personally think the extra $25 is worth avoiding the hassle of running between the same buildings that you did when you got your local drivers license.
• Find a place to live. Fellow mainlanders are very sympathetic to the experience of completely uprooting your life and coming out here with nothing more than a couple suitcases in hand. For that reason, they’re usually more than willing to accommodate you and give you a place to stay while you get your life on island sorted out. Between a few of my coworkers, I had at least 3 weeks’ worth of places to stay if I needed to while I was looking for a place to live. This is very helpful because you don’t want to jump into any living situation too quickly out here, and it pays to have a little extra time to scope out your options. Additionally, some large-scale foreign development projects are in the works on island right now and their investors have been buying up apartment complexes left and right for their workers, forcing the current tenants out. Housing is therefore in a state of shortage right now, so the more time you have to search for stable living arrangements the better.
• Set up utilities. Fortunately for me, I moved into a house with roommates so I didn’t have to set up my own power and water through CUC (the only utility company on island). From what I’ve heard, though, you’ll have to bring a copy of your notarized lease whenever you go to set it up. Be prepared: electricity is way more expensive here than it is on the mainland, and things like air conditioning can run up the bill extremely quickly. You’ll learn to be very conservative with your energy use (generally not a bad thing anyway).

That’s a lot of information to take in, but I hope it helps others like me navigate the daunting process of getting established on island. As always, feel free to add comments or ask questions at the bottom of the page. 🙂

Friends and family: I promise I’ll give an update on myself soon too!!

Hello again, world! Today marks one month since I moved to Saipan, and a lot has happened since I wrote my last post. First and foremost, I finally found a car! Though the island is small, it’d be pretty difficult to get around without one – mainly for safety reasons, but also because I feel like you’d need to be a professional cyclist to make it up some of these hills on a bike.

Aside from my car success, I also celebrated my birthday with new friends, went on a beach barbecue excursion at Ladder Beach (definitely a place I’d go back to – see bottom of post for photos), and got to experience the wonder that is the Hyatt Sunday brunch within the past couple of weeks. I’m loving both the island itself and the people I’ve met so far; Saipan isn’t a perfect place by any means, but it’s absolutely incomparable to anywhere in the states. The people are super friendly and welcoming, and there always seems to be something going on – so much so that I’m actually beginning to cherish my down time. After 2 years of grad school, though, the change of pace is definitely welcome. “Island time” is a real thing. 🙂

Now for a bit of an introduction to what I’m doing here. Despite how it might seem up to this point, I actually do more than just frolic around the island and take pictures of everything (though that does make up a significant portion of my week 😉 ). From 7:30-4:30 every weekday, you can find me in an office in the Gualo Rai area of the island. I’m stationed locally in the Division of Coastal Resources Management at the CNMI Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality, but my overall program is one of six NOAA Coastal Management Fellowships for 2015-2017.

In a nutshell, I’ll be spending the next 2 years helping the DCRM Permitting Section streamline their application review process. The overarching goal of my fellowship is to develop a decision support tool for them to use when new coastal development applications come in. For now, my day-to-day routine consists of sitting at the front desk of the permitting office, just watching and learning how the whole process works. I’ve had the opportunity to see what some of the other sections do too, though:

• One day I went out with the enforcement team on one of their routine patrols…which consisted of taking a boat out to Mañagaha Island (a beautiful little tourist destination right off the northwestern coast of Saipan), walking around the beach, and looking for violations of marine sports permit conditions (i.e. by snorkeling businesses, parasailing boats, etc).

• Last week I got to help the Marine Monitoring Team with some of their fieldwork on the southern end of the island. We spent a couple hours snorkeling and doing bottom surveys of seagrasses. It was great to get back in the ocean again, and I definitely didn’t realize how much I’ve missed doing science-y things since most of what I do is in an office now.

• I’ve also volunteered a couple of times now at the Division of Environmental Quality’s “green waste” sites. We basically spend several hours sitting and waiting for trucks to bring in loads of vegetative debris from the typhoon (of which there’s still a ton). When trucks arrive, it’s our responsibility to log how much green waste they’re bringing and monitor for trash that may have been slipped in. The wood is then either chipped and turned into mulch, or dumped into a giant former quarry.

• The permitting section staff have taken me out on a few site visits to proposed development areas, which has also been a good way to help me learn my way around the island.

I’m fortunate in that the first couple months of my fellowship have been set aside for purely learning how things work here (thanks to my project mentors), both within the office and on Saipan in general. It has definitely been an adjustment. Nothing gets done quickly, so the only way to get by is to just accept that you have to be patient. On the bright side, I feel like I’m going to be much better equipped to handle stressful situations when I move back to the states.

Anyway, that was a long one – once I spend more time here, I imagine my posts will start to get shorter and more pointed about my day-to-day experiences. Everything is still new, so there’s just so much to share right now. It’s hard to fit everything in!

And now for some more random little tidbits:

• Everyone here calls air conditioning “aircon” instead of “A/C.” I don’t know if that’s necessarily a Saipan thing, or just not a Florida thing. I was confused the first time I heard it.
• A lot of tourists (mostly Korean) rent cars from this fleet of brand new, brightly colored Hummers or Camaros, so they’re really easy to spot. The last thing you want to do is get stuck behind one of them on a one-lane road because they seriously drive 20mph, regardless of the speed limit.
• The island is filled with stray dogs, which people call “boonie dogs.” It’s a real problem, as there are no spay/neuter programs in place here.
• “Y”s are pronounced kind of like “z”s in Chamorro, so something like “Obyan Beach” would actually be said “Obdzan Beach.”

PS: I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post, Jose Mafnas.

The caves at Ladder Beach

Ladder Beach is one of the island’s many “pocket beaches,” meaning that it’s cut off on both sides by rocks or other formations

Managaha Island from the water

Managaha Island from the interior

Green Waste site at As Gonno

Green Waste site at Kagman

Hafa Adai everyone! (That means “hello” in the local Chamorro language – it kind of sounds like “half a day”).

I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to post any updates! The past week has been a total whirlwind. After the longest travel day(s) of my life (Tampa -> Atlanta -> Tokyo -> Saipan) I got here around 2am on Friday, slept for maybe 4 hours, and immediately headed to my new office the following morning to start meeting my coworkers. Since then, I’ve managed to get my local drivers license, as well as set up a local bank account, cell phone, and P.O. box address. In just one week I’ve become a real resident of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands!

Reminders of super typhoon Soudelor are still definitely visible here – there’s a good bit of debris everywhere (from both vegetation and buildings), and most places still don’t have power (including the hotel where I stayed this week). However, the island looks a lot better than I expected after seeing photos of the post-Soudelor destruction, and restoration efforts are ongoing. For the most part, the island has gone back to business as usual and it is more beautiful than I can possibly describe. I still can’t believe that this is where I live now – I don’t think my brain has fully processed it yet.

I got to see a lot of cool sites around the island right off the bat this past weekend. After waking up early Saturday morning, I went on a “hike” up Mt. Tapochau (which I believe is the highest point on the island) with my coworker Becky, who I stayed with for my first couple of nights here. It was an incredible welcome to the island, as I could see pretty much everything on the island from up there. That afternoon I went with a couple more colleagues to a place called Obyan Beach, which is on the southern end of the island. The water was of course crystal-clear, and the beach itself was a mix of rough sand and coral rubble. Coming from Florida, this was pleasantly different from the sugar sand beaches that I’m used to. Sunday afternoon, my coworker Megan took me on a full tour of the northern side of the island, where there are a bunch of historic WWII sites like Banzai Cliff. Learning about the history of these sites was really interesting, but the views were definitely the best part. I’ve never seen water so blue in my life – and not just clear blue…a million different shades of blue.

It’s now Friday here and I’m just wrapping up my first week of work. Everything has been going really well so far, and my coworkers have been fantastic about welcoming me and helping me get on my feet here. I got extremely lucky and have already found a place to live: a room in a house affectionately known as the “Jungle House.” It’s very spacious and downright gorgeous. Not only did I luck out with the house itself, but vacancies in most apartment complexes here are also really hard to find right now because of all the people displaced by the storm. Plus the casino that just opened up here is apparently buying out entire apartment complexes for its employees…but that’s a story for another day.

Some little random things that are different from the mainland:

• You don’t pump your own gas here; gas station attendants come up to your window and do it for you
• Chewing tobacco doesn’t really seem to be a thing here, but instead there’s something called betel nut (pronounced “beetle nut”); locals will pop open one of the nuts, pack in a chunk of cigarette and some lime (stone), and then tuck it in their cheeks along with a leaf of some sort…apparently the combination gives users a buzz
• Barefoot wines run around $12 a bottle, which I think is hilarious, but the stores are full of Australian wines (most of which I’ve never seen in the states before) that are pretty cheap and delicious
• SPAM apparently comes in like 50 different flavors and varieties
• More fun facts to come later…

Finding reliable Wi-Fi (besides at my office) has been an annoying task so far, which is partly why I haven’t posted anything before now. I’m hoping it’ll get better when I move into my new place. Getting used to the time difference has also been a challenge…when I get the urge to Skype or message someone, it’s usually when they’re asleep. Internet woes aside, I feel incredibly fortunate that I have the opportunity to live and work here. This is going to be the experience of a lifetime, and I can’t wait to see what the next two years hold for me!

Okay that’s all for now – I could probably keep going for 20 more pages, but I’ll have plenty of time to write more posts as time goes on.

Take care, y’all! 🙂

Rachel

P.S. My next post is going to include photos of some of the sites I’ve referenced here. Still figuring out how to use WordPress, so be patient.

Around this time today, I was supposed to be getting on a plane to Tokyo en route to Saipan. However, last Sunday typhoon Soudelor passed directly over Saipan and caused severe damage, leading to the island being declared a disaster zone. The local utility company doesn’t expect the island to regain full power and water services for several weeks or even months.

Here’s an article on the wreckage that the typhoon left in its wake:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/saipan-typhoon-soudelor_55bf338ae4b0b23e3ce32c16

As a result, my move to the island is delayed indefinitely. My new potential departure date is September 10th, but it’s dependent on how much of the island’s infrastructure is restored by then. I’ll post an update as soon as I know when I’m going out there! For now, please send some good vibes over to Saipan – its people lost a lot in this storm.

– Rachel