YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN SAIPAN WHEN...............

Hafa Adai!  It was a wonderful day in paradise because I got to go snorkeling.  Today I went to Pau Pau beach, which is about three miles from Audra's apartment.  I went to a different part of the beach this time.  I got lots of swimming in because the coral where all the fish hang out in is almost to the edge of the reef at this beach but it's worth the swim.

I saw one of my favorite royal blue star fish today.  I didn't know they came in a variety of colors until I stumbled upon one last time I was here.  This is a pic from the internet but they look exactly like this laying on the ocean floor.

 My little needlenose fish was swimming by me again too.  I even saw some pretty lavender pink coral that was beautiful! It is always an adventure floating around in the ocean with all my little sea creatures.


When I was done I talked to some guys who had just been spear fishing and they let me see their catch.  They had a couple really big fish that were impressive.  I asked where they got them at and the said at the beach next to this one so I will be going there next to scope out the big boys:)  We had a good chat then I came back home.


The other day I noticed buckets sitting underneath the rain gutter spouts by the buildings here to catch the rain water.  Audra said her friend uses that water for her cats rather than bottled water (which is expensive here).  So we went and bought a bucket yesterday.  Of course it rained like hell this morning so I grabbed the bucket and went tearing down stairs and shoved the bucket under the spout and it filled up in seconds.  In the meantime I got totally drenched but I got my bucket of water!  Audra laughed her head off when I told her about it tonight.  At least the bottled water won't be wasted on her cats any more:)

Ok, so onto "You know you're in Saipan when" theme.......you are driving down an alley street that is one block away from what is called "downtown" Garapan (the tourist city here) when all of a sudden you see what looks like a little pig tied up in a yard with a shack for a house.  I turned the car around because I couldn't believe it was a pig and sure enough it was.  Of course I had to stop the car and get out and pet the pig.  There was a guy sitting under the tree the pig was tied to and we asked him if we could pet the pig.  By the time we left two more guys had joined him, grandma came out and a little girl who recognized Audra from school came out.  They were laughing (at us I'm sure) while we petted the pig.  The pig was oinking away the whole time.  I asked if it was eventually going to be dinner and when they said yes Audra got sad:(  She wants us to go out tonight on a "save the pig" operation.  I'll let you know how that goes down......

We saw Kung Fu Panda II yesterday and it was so cute.  On the way out I had to take a picture of the "aftermath" of the show....talk about a FULL garbage can!  We decided not to add out stuff to the pile because we knew, with our luck, it would all topple over.  We left that for someone else to deal with.

Today when Audra got to her classroom she discovered her caterpillar had turned into a moth.  He's been in his cocoon for a week so she thought it was time for him to come out.  Remember the picture of the caterpillar I posted a while back?  Well this is what he turned into.  Isn't he pretty?  Audra set him free in a tree behind her classroom and when I came to pick her up he was still hanging around.  She said the kids really thought that was neat that an old green worm could turn into such a beautiful moth.  What a good teacher she is!!!!


So that is what has been happening in my time in paradise lately.  Now I'm sitting here looking out the window at the beautiful sunset.  What a life............

Until next time Hafa Adai and peace out!