80 degrees, scattered clouds, mostly sunny
White unlined paper
Dear Mom,
Got your letter about your car trip – sounded wonderful. Your observations about the class differences are very similar to that which occurs in Saipan. I got your letter you’d written on Joyce’s birthday (post marked 11/8) It was so late because somewhere along the way, it’s gotten wet and the stamp had fallen off. I could read ¾ of your letter because the ink had smeared so badly. Use ballpoint pen? It doesn’t smear as bad if it gets wet. I understood the letter none-the-less. When addressing, just put SEA after my name, not clubmate.
New job is ok. I’m basically a secretary and make sure the whole department runs smoothly. I do the purchasing, faxes, all inter-departmental communication, distribute mail, interface with our recruits in S.F., get everything ready for new clubmates, do all the financial transactions for the department, and basically be the person who holds everything together. I missed aerobics so I whined enough to be allowed to teach 2x a week. The entertainment manager teaches land aerobics 3x a week so I go to that as well.
A haole is a white person.
According to some people here, Amelia Earhart never landed here. She probably crashed and burned out in the water. I asked people here about the bottle washing up on the shore but no one knew about it.
This is my story about diving Tinian:
I finally was able to dive somewhere other than Saipan. A dive company here on Saipan takes divers to Tinian for the day for two dives. The company caters to the Japanese (as most businesses in Saipan do) so there were. only us PIC people who were white (I am getting used to being a minority–my culture shock when I return to the states is for everyone to speak English). Since we brought our own scuba instructor and dive master with us, we got a good price for the trip-there were five of us from PIC and maybe 50 Japanese guests on an open air boat, sort of like a fishing boat. with a roof on it. One of the PIC women got major sea sickness when we were out on the open sea; felt so bad for her.. Luckily I don’t get sea sick so I had a great time. Sailing all those years paid off!
The trip between Saipan and Tinian took about an hour and a half. The channel between them is DEEP- 1500 feet deep because it runs along to meet the Marianas Trench (the deepest spot in the world). Since it’s so deep, the surf is really rough so we had a bumpy ride much to my friends dismay. I, on the other hand, loved it.
The first dive was the Tinian grotto. Wow! The coral and fish looked different even though we weren’t that far away from Saipan. We had an underwater camera so we got lots of pictures too. Coming out of the grotto, there was a sheer cliff of coral that we began to explore and descend down. We got down to 115 feet and leveled off. The water was so clear that we could see the ocean floor 200 feet further beneath us and it only really looked another ~0 feet away. Visibility that day was 300 feet. My gawd it was amazing how blue the water was.
We moved on to a calm bay to eat. We snorkeled around and some of us snorkeled onto the beach. So now I can actually say I have been on Tinian although I’d like to go back and spend a couple days there. The ocean floor where we snorkeled was white rippled sand between the coral reefs- just exquisite.
Our second dive was at the Coral Gardens. I’d never seen some of the coral that I encountered there. It was a spectacular sight. For picture purposes, I got rather close to a black “feather duster” (an animal related to a starfish) and accidently touched it – it was sticky and I was so startled I screamed. My diving companions thought that was just the funniest thing and
laughed themselves silly. I also got to pick up a neon blue starfish, a pillow starfish. and some big ugly namakos (sea cucumbers). I had scraped my knee on coral at lunch time and when I went down my scrape was green! After coming up I asked why and it was because you lose the color spectrum as you descend due to the lack of light and I guess red is one of the first to Go!
On the way back, we went to the front of the boat and held onto the rail while we bounced over the waves. It was a wild ride back but a lot of fun. The whole day was perfect. I was so tired I just watched TV that night! Before I leave Saipan, I want to jet ski and go on a helicopter ride – maybe to do that today!
There is no library on the island. There is a small community college that has a rude sketch of a library but books are acquired by people bringing them in or having them sent. Needless to say we all end up reading the same stuff. Steven King is the favorite out here. I’m even starting to read his stuff again. Boy, he really knows how to tell a story. I think he fancies himself as a general writer and wants to write mysteries. Murder, romance, etc, not just horror but when he tries, the horror always comes through. He puts a writer character in the story – puts himself in every story. It’s still good – just an observation.
I don’t know if ANYONE knows the permanent population here – there’s 34k here now but it’s transient with the tourists and imported help – nothing like slave wage labor.
Got my ticket to Bali yesterday before the 8% hike in fare. The good news was that the price I was quoted was $106 more than I actually had to pay! Thought I was paying $1711 and bought it for $1605. That’s the best news I’d had in ages. Food and housing in Bali is cheap. I’m getting info on where to dive and Hash and how much $ I should reasonably pay for stuff (bargaining system like in Mexico.)
Typhoon Owen was something everyone watched carefully. We thought it was going to hit but it changed directions several times and we have only gotten feeder strands from it. No big deal. I figure I had my distual disaster with the earthquake. I’m not scheduled for another disaster for quite some time now.
After 6 months of being here, I’m finally tired. I’m not hashing today nor doing anything really wild tomorrow. Much more interested in writing and reading, and laying in the sun.
In terms of real jobs, I’ve thought about being a dorm director, doing some kind of coordination/administration for the YMCA and working as a camp counselor/administrator. Part of me wants to utilize my counseling education (maybe not the same part) but I know I can’t do straight counseling. In terms of non-reality jobs, I’ve thought of clubMed, or the cruise lines. I really like traveling and entertaining.
I really like island life too. I feel like “tuna girl,” my childhood imaginary friend. My image of my invisible friend is a lot like who I am now – pretty ironic really. My hair is finally lightening like it was when I lived in Riverside before I moved to the sunless northern CA.
The video is your x-mas present. The new show is fun. The time warp is a better version of what I had already sent you (except I don’t get the Madonna solo.) I didn’t like what I looked like in the time warp that I sent before so I made changes in my style and like it a lot more. So show this video to people (Broadway’s good too though!) I love you.
