anika in saipan

On Friday morning John called me from work to ask if I’d like to go out with them to do reef surveys. Of course I said yes. They picked me up 15 minutes later. On the way John saw some guys getting ready to trim some of the Flame Trees that lead up to the construction site of the new Korean Buddhist temple. There had been some controversy when the crew had “trimmed” the first time because they essentially cut down half of the trees, which was not part of their permit in the first place. So John had to do a little investigation before we could continue on to Wing Beach.

John was concerned that I might get burnt since I’m still so pale, so instead of actually helping with the surveys, I was given one important assignment. My arduous task was to wade out with him to the spot where he would start the line of the survey and mark the location with the garmin location marker and then wade back to shore, all the while making sure to keep the device bone dry.

Task completed I was left to my own devices. I carefully applied sunblock, and went back into the water for some recreational snorkeling. I let out an actual sigh of contentment when I submerged myself to the neck for the first time. I’d forgotten just how lovely it feels to be surrounded by warm water. No shock of cold. No “getting used” to the temperature. It felt cool, refreshing, relaxing and inviting all in one.

I bobbed around in the water for a while (I didn’t bring my fins, and it was shallow enough to maneuver without them).

At 4:43am on May 6th 2009, I checked the time on my cell phone and thought to myself, “and the waiting begins.” 24 hours later I found myself in Guam passing the time before the last leg of my journey. While watching the sunset, I checked the time on my cell phone again. 4:47am. It had been almost exactly 24 hours since I had started my journey. I thought it would be another full 2 hours before I landed in Saipan, but we arrived surprisingly early.

At 8:15 the plane touched down 35 minutes ahead of schedule. I didn’t even know that was possible, but a few short minutes later I was sitting on a bench outside of the customs area, settling in to wait. I had some company. There was a taxi driver who hopefully asked me every five minutes if I needed a taxi. There was another guy who I assume was a porter, who sat next to me and chit-chatted with me. His accent was thick, but I think I deciphered most of what he said. He asked me if I had children, if I was married, and if I was single in that order. He mentioned that he was single too, but that he never goes out at night anymore because he prefers to work.

John and Vince pulled up a little after 9pm. I recognized the car from a distance because their dogs, Ume and Shelly, were in the back of their pickup truck.

Before I knew it we were zipping our way through the mostly empty streets of Saipan and then pulling into their driveway. I tried my best to stay up for a while and catch up, but I was thoroughly exhausted, so I went to bed.