Kerry and I arrived in Guam at 4.35 am on Monday the 17th of July. Instant shock! It is actually quite warm here, and quite humid, so both swimming and sweating are abundant. I feels as though I'm rarely dry and it usually only occurrs inside. So far we have seen a fair bit of the south side of the island. On Wednesday a couple of Americans Hunter and Jake (fellow clubmates that live across the hall) hired a car and drove us around the coast pointing out the sights. It was really cool to see some of the small local Chamorrow villages. We also saw alot of Spanish era buildings, such as churches and housing etc. On the way home we stopped at a bar before heading over the road to what is known as 'Chamorrow village' where which is like a local market with lots of cool local gear. BBQ's are the traditional means of cooking here so there were plenty of them at the market. Behind Chamorrow village was a carnival with gambling games, so of course we had to try our hand at that for a little while which was great fun.
The next couple of days involved some orientation classes and several tours of the resort which is quite large. On Thursday our actual work training began. Wow. A hot hot sun coupled with long work hours and a uniform that consists of a pair of boardshorts and thongs (referred to as slippers over here) has lead to the early development of quite a decent tan for this summer. Eeeassshh my sholders are a bit tender at the moment, but I will buy a rashie tommorrow so that should fix that problem.
The employees here have been very welcoming and warm towards me and Kerry. We have been very lucky to greeted by so many nice people over the last week which has helped emmensely with the transition to such a strange new life. My roomate like several of the workers here is Korean. His name is Jacob and he is also an intern. His major is in exercise science/nutrition. Kerry also rooms with a Korean named Soo-Yeoung who has pretty good english.
Kerry is settling in ok but is quite tired from the long hours at work, as she has been given a few days in a row working until 11pm. She is also struggling with sharing a room and losing her personal time, but she will cope, she's strong.
Stay tuned, there is plenty more to come in the future.
Brett Morgan
