Island Beauty

Today I had lunch with Floyd at The Revolving Restaurant 360 and lucky for us, it was a beautiful day in paradise! As we slowly revolved, I took note of how much of a different perspective you have from being way up high. I literally felt like I was on top of the world!

I took only one shot from above, but also realized how much our island is rich in color! Check out the Flame Trees in bloom. Aren't they stunning?

This photo was taken one morning after mass at the Chalan Kanoa Cemetary when I was on my way to my dad's grave.

This photo was taken at my mom's house. She plants a wide variety of flowers around the house, but these orchids really caught my eye.

And of course, just because I work indoors doesn't mean that I will only allow myself to see the bright white walls around me. So this picture that I found online was hard to resist as my desktop photo. For the record, I did not take this photo of the plumeria. I found it online.

Personally speaking, I know that I've taken all this island beauty for granted. When I was in Las Vegas, I was super home sick. I didn't enjoy the dust, dirt and dryness (literally) of that place. I missed so many things we had out here. But I'm back at home and I'm so happy to be here to enjoy all this beauty our island of Saipan.

Mahalang Yu (I'm home sick)

I recently had a conversation with a friend and he reminded me of the beautiful things back home in Saipan. One of the things he remembered were the beautiful sunsets. Ahhh, those sunsets. Who could beat that? You could be having the worse day ever, but when you park at the beach to take in the beautiful colors of the sunset, it's like all your worries just melt away. I miss seeing that!

After having this conversation, it made me think of the things I missed about home.

The weather. Okay, there are only certain things I miss aobut it, minus the humidity, please. Earlier today I was on the phone with my mom and the 10pm news came on. She was talking to me about the scorching heat back home and how she wishes it would rain. As she was telling me this, I saw the weather forecast for tomorrow and told my mom it was going to be 102 degrees on Sunday! Her response: "Ewww!!!" I guess I don't mind the heat, back home sometimes it was just the humidity that got to me. I hardly break a sweat out here, but the heat here is definitely more intense!

Oh my gosh, the good food. Who is not going to miss all the food back home? My mom mailed me her so-called "secret recipe" for rosketti (a cookie) and I found it hilarious that she even had a detailed drawing (in numerical order) that showed me how the rosketti was supposed to be shaped like. Never mind that we had our fair share of rosketti baking days back home. I think she thought that as soon as the plane left Saipan, I loss all those valuable cooking lessons. I remember those comments after asking a question: "see nai you don't put too much corn starch or else this is gonna happen...ya siempre ti mungi ya u na lustima." (...and then it's not going to taste good and it'll all go to waste)

But most of all, it's my family and friends who I miss the most! The get-togethers, events to attend to, the laughter, the moments and those calls I receive to just come over and eat because they made my favorite: chicken chalakilis.

Home is definitely where my heart is. *big sigh!*