Calamansi

I started off trying to write this about food here in general, kept getting stuck, and after typing a few paragraphs just on calamansi, I figured that should be the focus of this post:

Since getting here, I've done my best to try out fresh, local, ingredients and try to incorporate them into our diets (as well as some of the Asian pantry staples) both in traditional ways and in twists to our standard eating. I'm starting to love quite a few things I've been finding, and though I know a few of them I'll be able to find in the mainland (and actually have a clue now what to do with them) others I'm already trying to figure out how I'll live without.

For example, our first night here we tried calamansi, otherwise known as Phillipine lemons. They're about the size of my thumb, and have a flavor that is tangerine-y sweet with a bright lemony sour note if that makes sense. The sweet/sour balance changes as the color changes from green to orange, though the green ones are the most common for use and sale. They're standard in all sorts of Phillipine dishes, and you can even buy calamansi infused soy sauce at the market. They are also now a standard in our household for about anything requiring a squeeze of lemon or lime juice, including my gin and tonics.

<< sidebar:Thinking about it, I should try them as a base for sour mix to add an island twist to standard drinks. OH! As a margarita base too. I'll let you all know how those turn out.>>

My kids are in love with calamansi too. Every time they see them they want me to buy more and squeeze them and make juice. Given how small they are I'm grateful for the fact that I can just go buy the already squeezed juice instead, or if I'm feeling particularly nice the already mixed calamansi lemonade.

The kids have also talked me into buying a calamansi bush (that I still need to actually get in the ground). I'll admit, it really wasn't that hard to sell me on the idea. Hopefully it produces something before we move, or I think the kids will be heartbroken.

Is it bad that I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to get these on the mainland?

Ipan Beach

Today we broke tradition and went to the beach....before noon. We typically go in the evenings when the sun starts to go down and isn't as intense, but since I wanted to go this morning we went this morning.

This time, it was to Ipan, a Pacific coast beach not too far south of where we live.

It was glorious. Unfortunately, my camera (despite telling me my batteries were fine when we left the house) died right after I took this one picture

I promise more the next time we go, though it seems now looking at it to be a pretty decent representation of the beach. The water was so clear. Just paradise.

As always, we enjoyed playing in the water and looking at shells. The benefit of going there at the time we did was that there were actually other people there (though still as you can tell from the picture, very few). The kids quickly made friends with some local children and played quite hard with them while we were there. It was so great watching them and seeing how well they can adapt to new areas and make new friends so easily.

I'm so glad we decided to move here.

More Randomness

1. There are chickens everywhere here. There's a whole family of them that spends half their time in my yard (until I figure out how to catch them.......)

2. This is probably the coolest guy. Ever. Walks his carabau down One of the main roads here with the dogs on its back frequently. He's very friendly and lets kids walk and ride the carabau.

According to him, he caught the carabau wild a few years back and trained it gradually not to freak out near cars. He used to ride the carabau himself, but no longer. Now just his dogs and random kids ride it (I personally think the dogs are the best).

3. Tried homemade pickled green papaya this week that I bought from a random vegetable stand on the side of the road. Amazing. I need to figure out the pickling spices they use here, they pack a punch.

4. I have no idea why, but there was a pig in my street this week.

5. Being in a port that ships from all over the world pull in and out of all the time is neat. Getting to catch up with old friends because they pull in randomly is even better!

6. I need to learn how to properly clean an octopus. This is so that when I'm driving down the street and I see the girl selling the ones she just caught I can stop and buy one from her and have a clue what I'm doing with it.

7. The power crews here are neat to watch. My power went out randomly 2 nights in a row this week and I guess the power company decided to completely redo some of the lines as a result. Saturday morning I woke up to no power, but at least 5 trucks and cherry pickers working simultaneously on the street lines. Only took between 6 and 7 hours (non-stop) for them to finish.

8. In a related note, waiting until the power went out for an extended period to get the generator out was not the best idea I've ever had. On the bright side, the outage wasn't due to a storm so it was an easily recoverable mistake.

9. Sunsets here still astound me every time I see them.

Taga’chang Beach

I keep saying I need to get back out to the beach. It's only been a few weeks, but it feels like forever. While it's nice seeing the ocean all the time, there's an aspect of dipping my toes in the water and sitting on the beach while listening to the waves that will never, ever, be replaced.

To that end, despite stupidly rolling my ankle while (of all things) getting on the elliptical this morning, we went to the beach again. This time, it was Taga’chang Beach, which is just south of Pago Bay on the Eastern side of the island.

Like a few of the beaches we've gone to since getting here, to get to it we had to descend the mountain. As with the others, the view from above was astounding

 As you can probably tell from the picture above, when we headed to the beach it was pretty cloudy. I banked on the direction of the cloud movement keeping the rain away for a little while at least so we could go out.Luckily, it worked! :)!

At the bottom we found a little cove surrounded by high cliffs.

looking north

looking south

Like so many other beaches, other people were a rare sight. The restrooms there are under renovation, but the work was so far away from the waterfront it had no impact on us and our visit.

view of the clear water looking out to the Pacific

We had a great time swimming, looking for shells and just sitting and letting the waves crash on us. The kids found large bamboo sticks to play with, and at one point the 4 oldest ones were trying to use them like rafts. Part of me wondered if they were trying to get away, especially when the middle one mentioned my previous joking comments about turning them into a Polynesian-style rowing team so we could island hop.

Unfortunately after only an hour we had to leave to ensure we beat the rain. It was nice to get out and enjoy the quite beach time that we already love so much about this island, though, even if only for a short time.

Agat Mango Festival

Hafa Adai!

Last night we went to the annual Mango Festival in Agat, which is the village just south of the Naval base. The location and set up for the event was great, and being able to see the sunset during the event was priceless.

We all had a great time walking around and meeting the merchants and seeing the displays. They had one display showcasing all the different mango varieties, another with about 6 different types of mango pickles, and another with the winners from each contest category: biggest, prettiest, and most bizarre. They even crowned a "Little miss mango" (the oldest girl has a goal in life now I think).

Trying Mango Jam

Of course, tried lots of food. The mango pie, which had a cheesecake consistency was my favorite, though the sweet and sour mango pickles were great as well. The mango jam was amazing, so we picked up a jar to share with Adam when he gets home.

I purposely skipped the McDonald's tent that was selling their "Mango Pineapple" smoothies. Though I'm sure they contributed financially to the event, it just didn't seem right given what was available from locals.

On our way out there was an area with representatives from local nurseries. I was naturally curious (I've been looking for a local nursery since I got here) and was fully drawn in when I saw the selection of orchids. They had many other plants beyond orchids, and my kids spent a good 5 minutes trying to convince me to buy a ghost chili pepper plant, but the orchids won the night. I ended up buying 2 plants and let the girls decide which. As a result they are both pink.

All in all, another great Guam night. I hope to start hitting the beaches again this week now that things are settling out.

Settling in

This past week since we've moved in has been spent mostly unpacking and trying to figure out how to make our stuff fit in the new place. This house is not small by any stretch, bigger than anything we've ever lived in before (2600 Square feet) but it's still a game of deciding where I want everything to go and making it fit there. As of today, I think the whole downstairs area is about set up how I want it. I now need to get into the kids rooms and help them organize a bit better than they did when they unpacked.

I also need to buy patio sets so we can enjoy our balconies.

View from one of our balconies

Beyond unpacking, I've been supervising our landlord's handy man in fixing issues with the house, getting our car out of the vehicle processing center and back in our possession, getting the huge move-in-stock up the house shopping trip in (especially important for typhoon preparedness) and coordinating paperwork between myself here in Guam and Adam in Hawaii so we can get the travel claims and such paid out.


Part of settling in is always getting into a routine. I redid the kids chore list for the new house, though as before Tuesday is laundry day. This past Tuesday when I called up for the kids to bring me all the bedsheets and such, the kids were legitimately excited about it. I guess they're happy to get into a routine again too :)! I've gotten back to cloth diapers (yeah for no more buying disposables!) and menu planning to keep food costs down.

ready to brew!

I've been making bread since our arrival, but last night I started our first batch of beer, a Scottish 80 Shilling. I picked it because it has a longer ferment time and I'm hoping that Adam will be able to drink at least some of it when he gets home (it's one of his favorites).




  

boiled grains

Of course, nothing here gets wasted, so some of those grains that give the beer such a great flavor got reused in a batch of bread (with the rest stored in the fridge for more bread!).

Note on the first picture: Yes, I had a beer while I was making beer. There's a rule around here that says "you must drink beer to make beer"....Adam has dubbed it the Law of Conservation of Beer. It's the law, and as my physics professor used to say in his thick Russian accent, "It's the law, and you can't break the law"


 In other news, the baby has figured out how to climb stairs already. Oh joy.

Move In!

It has been a crazy week, but as of yesterday we are officially moved into the place that will be our home for the next 3 years.

Most of the week leading up to Friday was spent doing things to prepare to move in, like running paperwork around and setting up utilities. Well, except for Thursday. Thursday I had to switch hotel rooms so I could stay beyond the 31st. I got to pack up all our stuff (remember, we already had our express shipment) and move it and all our kids luckily only 2 doors down......unfortunately through the rain. I managed to fit half the stuff in the car but the rest had to be hand carried. It was a major pain, especially since I was moving again the following day and it honestly was a "what the hell am I doing here?" moment for me. We made it though :)

Friday we were up early to go meet our Realtor for the move in inspection and to prepare for the movers. The day was long, but things went quite smoothly. Both my Realtor and the movers were amazingly professional and helpful, more than I could have ever asked for.

After the movers left I gave the kids an option: we could go back to our suitcases and stay with them in the hotel, or unpack our room and checkout entirely and stay in the house. Despite how  long the day was, and how tired they were, they went for the second option. I can't blame them. After 2 months of being on the road and living out of suitcases, seeing all our things brought some sort of normalcy to life again (even if most of those things were still in boxes). By the time we went to bed our oldest daughter had unpacked the girls whole room and put everything away. Granted, it's not how I would like it set up, but she did it herself and there's nothing on the floor so I let it be.

Today we had to run around and get things like bath mats and trash cans, but once we came home it was back to unpacking. I'm amazed by how helpful the oldest 2 are being. They're so sweet I try to make sure I say thank you often for all they're doing. With their help the bathrooms have been cleaned and set up, the kitchen is almost unpacked (given that I think half our weight is kitchen stuff this is a major accomplishment). and I've had 2 other sets of eyes on the baby so I don't have to worry so much.