Category: Guam

Best Laid Plans

Posted on by Caroline
We had a plan for Meg and Kate’s visit: a day in Tokyo to meet them, a couple days in the tourist hotel in Guam to introduce them to the island, a few days in our house to show them our daily life, and then back to Japan to see Kyoto and then visit The Making of Harry Potter before sending them back on their way home to France. But life has a sense of humor, and all our plans were thrown into disarray when illness joined the party and proceeded to tear through the house, felling Duke, Kate and Amelia in rapid succession. So we lost three days to illness and then a slow recovery. And sometimes I wonder…...Read More

New Years Day 2022

Posted on by Caroline
Our favorite way to celebrate New Year’s Day is by getting outside for a nature walk. On New Year’s Day in 2020, we had just arrived in Guam. Still wildly jet-lagged and muddled, we decided to head down to Umatac Bay for a walk along the beach. Everything felt foreign, exciting, and breathtakingly beautiful. It felt like a sneak-peak into the mysterious new life we’d leapt into. As the devastating 2020 turned to the inexorable 2021, by New Years Day we were still in Denver for an extended visit with my parents. We drove to the foothills of the Rockies for a snowy and cold New Year’s Day hike in a park charmingly named the Lair of the Bear (thankfully...Read More

Map of My Day

Posted on by Caroline
Last week I pulled out some old books and articles about maps for an informal lesson. We read about the history of maps, going all the way back to a stone map made in Babylon in 600 BC. We talked about why we use maps and some of the quirks of maps. Why do we draw north up? What do our choices about what we include and exclude say about us? How do we draw a round Earth on a flat piece of paper? Next, we drew our own maps inspired by Sara Fanelli’s Map of My Day. We had fun drawing, and I was impressed with the kids' level of detail. The kids drew maps of our house and...Read More

High Winds

Posted on by Caroline
I don't think I'm giving out any trade secrets if I share that the airlines are going through a rough time in the wake of the coronavirus. As a family, we don't have any way of knowing exactly what will happen in the upcoming year. But we do know that the forecast is exceptionally cloudy, and we're getting out our proverbial umbrellas. Tim and I have been cycling through every possible emotional reaction to everything that's been going on. That will probably continue until we know how everything will ultimately shake out. But we've weathered storms before, and made it through hard times. We're lucky enough that we have many layers of security net. So even in the worst-case scenarios,...Read More

Abnormal Normal

Posted on by Caroline
When I wrote the tagline for our new blog, "Adventures in Our New Life", these were not the adventures I was planning on. Soon we'll pass the break-even point, when we'll have spent more time in quarantine in our new house then we've spent not in quarantine. And so it shouldn't be a surprise that our new abnormal reality is starting to feel startlingly…. normal. We’re settling in. Of course, we get stir crazy. But oddly, life within these walls feels so routine, even as life outside them is less and less recognizable. But within these walls, we’re doing our best to continue to find adventure and moments of happiness. A week ago the kids found a caterpillar and put...Read More

In My Head

Posted on by Caroline
I had been doing really well about keeping my equanimity. Keeping informed. Worried but not anxious. Until a couple days ago. For whatever reason, all of my mental stability stopped feeling... stable. Suddenly. I started imaging all the worst outcomes and they kept swirling in an endless loop. I just couldn't get out of my head. I couldn't sleep. Even though we've been spending every-single-second-of-every-single-day together as a family, I wasn't present for my kids and Tim. I was too absorbed in all the dire future possibilities that I just wasn't present in the now. The thing is, I think it finally hit me that when life resumes after the coronavirus, the world will be a changed place. I'd like...Read More

Rhythms of Our New Life

Posted on by Caroline
We have never been creatures of habit. I’ve always marveled at and admired the kind of people who set a daily schedule for themselves and their family and then stick to it every day. Even when my life should have been very routine, I always ended up going to bed at a different time every night or packing a different lunch every day or driving a different way to work. But still. Before we moved, the kids and I had work or school every weekday and our lives were filled enough that we inevitably fell into a schedule. But in our new life, everything seems to be up for grabs. Every month when Tim gets his schedule for the next...Read More

Coconut Experiment

Posted on by Caroline
[modula id="212"] We've been obsessed with coconuts.  We just can't get over the idea that they're everywhere.  Everywhere. The welcome packet we got when we were first assigned here included a warning not to park our car under a coconut tree, or else you may get unwanted dents.  It may be my favorite piece of advice before moving to a new place. The Polynesian Dance performance at our hotel includes a demonstration of how to crack a coconut and get the juice and the milk out of the coconut. Within about 90 seconds, they go from intact coconut to husked coconut.  They make it look so easy.  As we've walked around and driven the island, coconuts are just laying on...Read More

New Year’s Hike

Posted on by Caroline
We have always enjoyed celebrating New Years Day even more than celebrating New Years Eve. When I was younger, I tried to start the new year with a dawn nature hike. Lately that’s been harder to do, but this year we managed to get out to a trail by mid-morning. The trail we chose started in Umatac Bay and followed the coast line to the south. We didn't actually travel very far - we got distracted by hermit crabs and coconuts and the incredible scenery. There will be other days for long, vigorous hikes. This hike along the coast was the perfect introduction to our new home.

We’re off!

Posted on by Caroline
Amelia and Duke and I left my parents house at 5:00 AM. We’re on our way to San Francisco, where we’ll meet up with Tim. From there we’ll fly to Honolulu and then on to Guam. We’ve had to say some hard goodbyes. We’re lucky that we have so many people rooting for us and wishing us well. We’re looking forward to some pen pals and occasional visits back to the states and sharing our adventures along the way. In the meantime, I think I’m done with lists now - finally! We’ve packed our last box and everything we own (almost) is on its way to the island. We’ll have work to do to get ourselves unpacked and settled in,...Read More