The following is from an email that I sent back in January, when we first arrived in Guam:
Hafa Adai (pronounced 'hafa day'), greetings from Guam!
We finally have an address, albeit a PO box for now, as we are still waiting for a house to open up for us. We had to move out of the hotel on base (they call the base Big Navy here) and into a hotel out in town on a month to month lease while we wait for a suitable house. We are willing to wait for exactly what we want, but it may be a good three months of living out of this hotel room before we get something. It is definitely going to be a challenge, and we are feeling it already, but seeing as we are going to be here for at least three years, I want a house that I will be perfectly happy in, and that means waiting! It will be worth it.
The hotel we are living in is called Alupang Beach Tower. It is in the town of Tamuning, which is only about a 15 minute drive away from the base. It is a glorious location and we have a lanai with an amazing view of the Pacific ocean. We even have an outdoor pool, which, believe it or not, is actually colder than the ocean! We can literally get our bathing suits on, walk out the back of the hotel and jump in the ocean. Almost the entire island of Guam is surrounded ("protected") by coral reefs. This is interesting because all of the water on the inside of the reef is really shallow and calm, and beyond the reef is where it gets deeper and the surf gets rough and the break on the reef can be harsh. I am typing this on our lanai, and I can see out to the reef, where it is calm today and there is very little break. On this side of the reef, the water is a gorgeous turquoise green, and on the other side of the reef it is a brilliant dark blue. The water is about waist to neck high out to the reef, so it's pretty safe, as long as the currents are good. There are fisherman out there right now, way out by the reef, just standing throwing out their round nets to catch whatever reef fish are out there, and there are plenty.
The actual hotel itself is a bit of a relic, kind of like everything else here on Guam. It was built in the 1970s and has fallen into disrepair. I think it still functions as a hotel, but it's bread and butter (I think) is the fact that they let people live here on a permanent leased basis. So it's an interesting mix of Japanese tourists and military singles and a few families. At one time, when the hotel was new, it must have been grand, because the entire main entry, concourse if you will, is made of marble. Marble floors, marble walls. There used to be a couple of restaurants, but they have been closed now for what seems like a long time. It's eerie. The restaurants are not gated up or locked, so the kids and I explored them when we first got here. They feel haunted because they are shells of what once was. Dusty, empty, baron kitchens, dead roaches on the floor, old decayed carpeting. One of the restaurants had a bunch of tables with grills in them. The tables and grills are still there. It's just weird and spooky!
I have dubbed the hotel The Guam Overlook, in reference to the Overlook hotel from The Shining. I have gotten used to it now, but for the first week, every time I would step out of the elevator and walk down our long hallway to our room, I was just waiting for twin ghosts to appear at the end of the hallway. The wallpaper on the walls is shabby and old, just like everything else. There are stains on the wallpaper, which kind of blends in with the wallpaper pattern, and one of the stains (which I'm sure was coffee) looks to me like old dried blood. Ah, my imagination runs rampant here! Redrum anyone, lol :).
The room itself is fine, not like the hallways at all although it is just as old. Just kept up better. However, we still have cruddy old 1970s appliances and pink bedspreads and curtains straight out of the 80s. Knowing that we would be here for a long time, I went out the other day to buy new sheets and a comforter for our king size bed. The sheets that came on the bed (the room is fully furnished, btw, because we don't have any of our stuff), are two top sheets and they kept coming off which was driving me nuts. It's stuff like that that is proving to be the challenge. Being without all of our things is beginning to get old. So we just think positively about how lucky we are to be in this location with this view. People pay tons of money for this experience for only a few days and we get to enjoy it for much longer than that. There are cool beach bars and restaurants just a walk down the beach. Ray walked down last night to Meskla on the Cove for drinks. Beautiful view of the ocean. At sunset it's amazing. How cool is that, just walk down a practically deserted beach to an open air bar that is not crowded to watch the sun set over the ocean and then walk back to the light of the moon? They have an expression here, OOG, Only in Guam. That's Guam for you.
The kids are settling into school just fine. Chance says that the kids here are friendlier than in Virginia Beach. Makes sense, as everyone in the school is military and transitory. The indigenous local people here are called Chamorrans. And just like at the kids' school, everyone here on Guam, military, locals, Guamanians, Chamorrans, are all extremely friendly and helpful and giving. And it's genuine. Guam is such a melting pot, almost more so than Hawaii, and everyone just gets along very peacefully. It doesn't matter where you were from originally, if you make Guam your permanent home, you are Guamanian or even Chamorran. Unfortunately, unlike Hawaii and the native Hawaiians, the Chamorran culture really got decimated by the Spanish, so the term Chamorran is very vague and general here. At least that is the way I understand it. There is no museum here, no one place you can go to learn about the old Chamorran ways. It's a shame. Ray and I met this wonderful man who opened a little shop to sell local art and teach people about Chamorran culture and he told us more about Chamorrans than anyone we've met. I don't think that there is anyone who lives here who has full Chamorran blood in them. I think the Chamorran bloodlines became so diluted with Spanish and other cultures, that there is just no way to tell who is Chamorran and who isn't. Hence everyone just being Guamanian and Chamorran and welcomed equally.
