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Tita FINALLY got got approved for naturalization!!!
We were in Guam for the tests but since we live in Saipan we have to wait until they come up to Saipan to swear her in. Usually they do it the same or next day but we have to wait. that means we are stuck on Saipan for a while,no worries after 10 years Tita has finally (almost) gotten her US citizenship!
Just think in December Tita will be a US citizen and have a Masters Degree in Education- let the divorce proceedings begin! Just joking lucky for me that is just too strange of a Filipino to do that- says she will divorce me when I am rich and famous which is going to be NEVER!!!
Summer reregistration is dead I think this is a bad sign for the fall semester and beyond. On the good news Tita did get a job for next year teaching first grade so we will be fine in that respect.
I just applied for a PhD in Special Ed but I will have to put it off until the next year (fall of 2008 if the let me) as Tita's grad school (her MA) and her citizenship- we have to wait until she gets all done before I can think of moving we have worked too long and too hard to play with either of these things.
--- Summer numbers are down butI happened to chose the right classes so I am busy as heck
I am busy
Will be running from class to class for the next 6 weeks
Will barley be able to see my own kids so busy with work.
Good news will have brand new cars paid off in less than a year. Not bragging but happy we can do it.
Got to go RELAX i.e. get off the computer and try to play Sudoko thanks to my nephew Ben I know how to play (easy ones) and am in love with it.
David
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Saipan the past few weeks
In the four years we have lived on Saipan the past few weeks have been the best. I went on my first hash (more on that in a bit), and the kids have finally found what neighbors are. There are 5 kids who live next to us and 2 more across the grass yard. There are supposedly two Taiwanese kids but i have never seen them though I have seen their mom. I also met a girl from Mongolia but she does not speak much English. Anyway I ramble the point is that Andrew and Ashley have found kids their won age who like to play outside. In our old neighbor hood the kids mostly sat inside playing video games. There was really not much of a group that hung out together. Now at the new place the kids are looking for each other hanging out and playing doing things kids should do. i really am loving the new place we live in. I am glad Tita has a job and I am thinking we will be here for at least another two years. god forbid we end up staying here. But that was the subject of my last email On to the Hash...
The Hash House Harriers (the "Hash") is an international group of runners (hashers) whose primary goal is to have "fun". see note at end of e-mail explaining more. My first hash was amazing. I saw parts of the island I had never know existed and they were literally in my backyard. It inspired my to start treaking around the jungle. I went, with Steve Vance, on a trip up an over one of the local ridges. The trip started on my old walk in front of Andrew's school and I figured we would hit the jungle once the road ended instead of coming back like we had done previously. Well we hit the jungle and had a great journey and after about an hour of jungle treaking we came to a road passing through a valley in the jungle and we eventually decided to follow it until it hit a paved road. Well as we started to come into the clearing low and behold we were literally in my backyard. So we stopped off at my apartment and refreshed before we walked back to our cars in front of Andrew's school.
The next day Steve had a conference call until 8:30 am so I went out exploring. It turns out that there is a Japanese / Buddhist temple in my backyard as well. I am guessing that it was built when during the Japanese occupation around WWII. Anyway I climbed up to the temple and it was built inside a cave and much more impressive than I had though. But it was early still so I decided to follow the trail and climb the face of the ridge that made the cave the temple was in. I had no problem climbing it was well overgrown so there were lots of plants with sturdy roots and trunks to use for climbing. At the top of th ridge I did some exploring but all roads seam to lead to the high switch grass. It is about 5 to 8 feet tall and it gets hard to walk through as vies grow in it and they tangle you up. But I was having fun exploring until I found my sell on the ground. It turns out that the grass had covered up a hole. But all of the grass was the same hight so I could not tell the hole was there. I fell in and hit my left knee on the side of the hole with my arms holding me up on either side, while my right leg dangled down not touch the bottom of the hole. Well I got home and Steve showed up, sure my knee was sore but it did not hurt that much, so off we went on the next hike. This hike was OK it was a lot more treaking through the grass so it was just OK. The next day my knee was killing me and I could barley move it so I have been hobbled ever since then. I was upset as I could not do the Cinco de Mayo hash which sounded great- I guess they went by one of the B29's that crashed on island during WWII. I am sad I missed it but I hope to be up and into the mix by next Saturday. I am hoping to be up and moving before so I want be a total dead weight on the next hash.
David
The Hash House Harriers (the "Hash") is an international group of runners (hashers) whose primary goal is to have "fun". see note at end of e-mail explaining more. My first hash was amazing. I saw parts of the island I had never know existed and they were literally in my backyard. It inspired my to start treaking around the jungle. I went, with Steve Vance, on a trip up an over one of the local ridges. The trip started on my old walk in front of Andrew's school and I figured we would hit the jungle once the road ended instead of coming back like we had done previously. Well we hit the jungle and had a great journey and after about an hour of jungle treaking we came to a road passing through a valley in the jungle and we eventually decided to follow it until it hit a paved road. Well as we started to come into the clearing low and behold we were literally in my backyard. So we stopped off at my apartment and refreshed before we walked back to our cars in front of Andrew's school.
The next day Steve had a conference call until 8:30 am so I went out exploring. It turns out that there is a Japanese / Buddhist temple in my backyard as well. I am guessing that it was built when during the Japanese occupation around WWII. Anyway I climbed up to the temple and it was built inside a cave and much more impressive than I had though. But it was early still so I decided to follow the trail and climb the face of the ridge that made the cave the temple was in. I had no problem climbing it was well overgrown so there were lots of plants with sturdy roots and trunks to use for climbing. At the top of th ridge I did some exploring but all roads seam to lead to the high switch grass. It is about 5 to 8 feet tall and it gets hard to walk through as vies grow in it and they tangle you up. But I was having fun exploring until I found my sell on the ground. It turns out that the grass had covered up a hole. But all of the grass was the same hight so I could not tell the hole was there. I fell in and hit my left knee on the side of the hole with my arms holding me up on either side, while my right leg dangled down not touch the bottom of the hole. Well I got home and Steve showed up, sure my knee was sore but it did not hurt that much, so off we went on the next hike. This hike was OK it was a lot more treaking through the grass so it was just OK. The next day my knee was killing me and I could barley move it so I have been hobbled ever since then. I was upset as I could not do the Cinco de Mayo hash which sounded great- I guess they went by one of the B29's that crashed on island during WWII. I am sad I missed it but I hope to be up and into the mix by next Saturday. I am hoping to be up and moving before so I want be a total dead weight on the next hash.
David
Grandma, Tita & news
Turnss out my maternal Grand mother was Italian after all. Here is the e-mail from my mom...
We go down to Guam on May 17th for Tita citizenship interview. God willing she will be done with all of this paperwork then. After that we have to wait for her swearing in, which is on Siapan- it could be in June but it could be later as well. Not quite there yet as the passport will take a while to get so I doubt we will be able to go anywhere this summer. Unless we decided to come to visit the states.
On the good news Tita has found a job for next year- she will be working the streets in Garapan. Err I mean she got a transfer to the Kagaman Elementary School as a 1st grade teacher. So we will be on island for a few more years. I do not think we will be here for too long see news article below.
Well I got to get ready for church.... enjoy the posted stories
David
+++++++++++++This guy happens to live in the apartment just above me +++++++++++
http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=68121
A dancer at the Chicago Club in Garapan testified yesterday how a public school teacher beat her up when she refused to have sex with him. The dancer said Peter Edward Gannon slapped her twice and then punched her in the face in the early morning of Jan. 28, 2007. Gannon had denied the charges. The alleged assault happened after their first date, according to the dancer in her testimony in the ongoing bench trial of the 52-year-old Gannon who is being charged with two counts of assault and battery.
+++++++++As I said I doubt we will be here too much longer++++++
http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=68175&cat=1
Since 2005, the CNMI's economic situation has worsened owing to the lifting of the worldwide trade quota. This has adversely affected the local garment manufacturers, with many of them downsizing operations or closing down altogether. Last December, the island's largest apparel factory, Concorde Garment Manufacturing Inc., shut down, resulting in a huge loss of revenues for the government.
The tourism industry, meantime, which has not fully recovered from a series of international events such as the 2001 terror attack, Asian crisis, and SARS scare, was further crippled in October 2005 with the departure of Japan Airlines. This was followed by a number of unfortunate events such as the termination of Taiwan and Hong Kong direct flights in late 2005, and recently, the suspension of Osaka flight as well as the termination of evening flights from Narita.
Japan, the CNMI's main tourism market, is now served only by Northwest Airlines, which suspended the Osaka flight and reduced the Narita flights. This has resulted in a downtrend in tourist arrivals from Japan. From over 500,000 tourist arrivals in 2004, Japan arrivals are expected to drop to a little over 200,000 this year.
I found grandma and grandpa's Marriage certificate and it said she was born in Italy, will keep looking and let you know.
Passport date April 1907, said he travled with wife and 7 minor children, Grandma was born in 1906 or 1907, she died in Nov of 1979, and her birthday was in April of that year she turned 73.
Don't know anything about boat, ect.
You know I had asked dad about that several times well before he got sick and nothing came of it. Now you find it in less than a week. Thanks again.We go down to Guam on May 17th for Tita citizenship interview. God willing she will be done with all of this paperwork then. After that we have to wait for her swearing in, which is on Siapan- it could be in June but it could be later as well. Not quite there yet as the passport will take a while to get so I doubt we will be able to go anywhere this summer. Unless we decided to come to visit the states.
On the good news Tita has found a job for next year- she will be working the streets in Garapan. Err I mean she got a transfer to the Kagaman Elementary School as a 1st grade teacher. So we will be on island for a few more years. I do not think we will be here for too long see news article below.
Well I got to get ready for church.... enjoy the posted stories
David
+++++++++++++This guy happens to live in the apartment just above me +++++++++++
http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=68121
A dancer at the Chicago Club in Garapan testified yesterday how a public school teacher beat her up when she refused to have sex with him. The dancer said Peter Edward Gannon slapped her twice and then punched her in the face in the early morning of Jan. 28, 2007. Gannon had denied the charges. The alleged assault happened after their first date, according to the dancer in her testimony in the ongoing bench trial of the 52-year-old Gannon who is being charged with two counts of assault and battery.
+++++++++As I said I doubt we will be here too much longer++++++
http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=68175&cat=1
Since 2005, the CNMI's economic situation has worsened owing to the lifting of the worldwide trade quota. This has adversely affected the local garment manufacturers, with many of them downsizing operations or closing down altogether. Last December, the island's largest apparel factory, Concorde Garment Manufacturing Inc., shut down, resulting in a huge loss of revenues for the government.
The tourism industry, meantime, which has not fully recovered from a series of international events such as the 2001 terror attack, Asian crisis, and SARS scare, was further crippled in October 2005 with the departure of Japan Airlines. This was followed by a number of unfortunate events such as the termination of Taiwan and Hong Kong direct flights in late 2005, and recently, the suspension of Osaka flight as well as the termination of evening flights from Narita.
Japan, the CNMI's main tourism market, is now served only by Northwest Airlines, which suspended the Osaka flight and reduced the Narita flights. This has resulted in a downtrend in tourist arrivals from Japan. From over 500,000 tourist arrivals in 2004, Japan arrivals are expected to drop to a little over 200,000 this year.
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