Arrival!

More on Maui will continue over the next few days, as I have not had internet access but I'm now in Guam and I'm SUPER EXCITED.

Well Guam is pretty interesting. It's very, very American in a lot of ways that I was not expecting, so I feel weird. This isn't the US, really, but it is at the same time. The currency and language is the same, which is really throwing me off. You'd think that would make it easier but for some reason it's actually kind of unnerving. I feel like I can't possibly be doing things right, since anywhere else I could possibly go overseas would be different. Even if they spoke English it wouldn't be the same kind of English, and no one else uses American dollars, or has the same tipping culture. They also don't usually drive on the right side of the road, or have the same kinds of traffic signs. It has all the symptoms of being America, but it's also so obviously NOT America that it feels unnatural and strange. It doesn't feel foreign enough, I guess, compared to anywhere else I've been, but it's also not American enough to feel like home. If Dr. Saethre really does give extra credit for a tattoo of the word “liminality” maybe he would also accept a tattoo in the shape of Guam. Maybe I can get extra credit just for proposing this idea (note to self, try this next semester) since a tattoo in the shape of Guam would probably just look like a deformed mole to most people.

The dorms are also liminal as all get out, with much nicer rooms than any of the dorms at UH but with what may be the nastiest bathrooms I've ever had the pleasure of using. There's AC in the rooms but not in the halls or bathrooms, but unlike the halls there are no big open windows to keep air circulating. Imagine, if you will, a toilet/shower room that is full of the most stagnant, humid air you have ever experienced. Imagine that the pipes from the bathroom above are exposed in many places and occasionally they drip what you hope to god is clean water, that there are lizards living in the faucets and behind the trash cans, and that the toilets' flush is so impotent it can't even clear out toilet paper in one try. There are also no shower heads and the water rushes out of pipes in the wall like a garden hose, but that's actually kind of awesome and I'm considering taking the shower head off my own shower at home now. Despite everything else, that shower leaves me feeling nice and clean, probably due to the fact that the water pressure alone is capable of taking off a layer of skin. Ahhh.

The rooms are sweet, though. The two beds are separated by two bureaus, one for each person, down the middle of the room. There's a ceiling fan above that, and a window AC unit on one side. You actually can't hear much of what the other roommate does because the window unit is pretty loud-- there are even two separate lights over each side that can be turned on/off independently. UOG 1, UH 0. I will take your funky steamy toilets any day if it means a cold, private bedroom.

While UH has a surplus of wild cats that roam campus, UOG has wild dogs. The cats at UH will run from you if you go anywhere near them, even if you offer them food. Earlier as my roommate and I were walking back from eating dinner, we passed a stray dog laying next to the building. We looked at her and said hi, and she decided we were her new friends and followed us all the way back to the dorm. She picked up sticks and things and wanted us to throw them for her, and a few times she ran ahead of us because she seemed to know we were going to the university. I even saw her look both ways before she crossed the street. UOG 2, UH 0.