Spanish Influences in Saipan

I spent the weekend with my friend Jackie and her Ex- Javier. Javier is from a small northern city in Spain. He was very kind all weekend and he and Sylvie got on famously. Friday night I came home from work to the two of them cooking this amazing dinner of appetizers and Paella. Yum!

What a beautiful Paella! It tasted as good as it looks. I was tasked with buying saffron and the ingredients for Sangria. What a treasure hunt it turned out to be.
Lessons learned:

• there is no such thing as Saffron on Saipan; not even in the restaurants
• wine is incredibly expensive and none of it is very good.
• There are no liqueur stores. Nor do the markets carry a great selection of liqueur. I went to many many places to find brandy and triple sec. never found triple sec. The brandy was a kind I never heard of and was not even marked with a price. They needed to wipe off the dust before it would scan.
  
• Strawberries are $10 a carton. Find other fruit
• MORAL: Never make anything that requires more than 5 ingredients. It will take you days to assemble them.
  

Saturday, we went to the Pacific Island Club for brunch and spent the day swimming. I have a fantastic video of Sylviah swimming like a fish but I can't upload it here as the internet speed is too slow.






On Sunday, we had a lazy morning. I took Sylviah to the park down by American Memorial Park.


Then I put Jackie and Sylvie down for a nap. Once they were asleep, Javier and I went to Objan for my fist Scuba Dive since arriving back in Saipan. It was amazing! Beautiful warm water. Millions of fish, big and small, and best of all, a green sea turtle that was in a particularly playful mood. This turtle was circling me and came feet from my face and hands. unfortunately, I did not have my camera setting to underwater exposure so the photos do not do the magnificent colors justice.




This little clown fish was trying to be so ferocious protecting his little anemone home. He was darting in and out of it and facing off with me as if to dare me to touch it. I almost laughed inside my mask.

No words can really explain the feeling of serenity and beauty of the underwater world. Everything appears other-worldly, like suspended animation and then flashes of action. Even the bubbles from our regulator seem spectacular.


Last words: last night Sylviah showed her first real signs of home sickness. We went for an afternoon swim. When we were showering off afterwards, she inexplicably burst into tears and wailed I WANT MY BABA. I MISS MY BABA! BABA! BABA! BABA! I WANNA GO AIRPLANE! UP! DOWN UP AND THEN BABA! She was truly inconsolable. I tried to explain the number of days until we would return home but nothing worked. Guess it is time to come home. We miss you all.