7 Quick Takes Friday - Things I Will Miss About Guam

*** 1 ***

The boringly predictable weather. This one is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, from 11-3 every day it is ridiculously hot and the humidity is a killer. On the other hand, I know exactly what I'm going to wear each day and what my kids are going to wear each day. The girls' few long pants can stand in as capris as they outgrow them, making them last even longer. Also, island formal attire occasionally includes a tie - most of the time it does not. Now I might have to actually look at the weather to see what to wear.

*** 2 ***

The first friends of my children and their families. Our oldest daughter was only 10 months old when we moved here, so all the friends she has made through her life live here on Guam. Granted, as a military community we move all over the world as a matter of routine, but that doesn't make parting ways with these other families any easier. We have many memories of our children playing with the others as our oldest learned to socialize. As much as we have hopes to get together again someday, that someday may never come.

*** 3 ***

The lack of real traffic. We do have traffic and we do have traffic jams on Guam. Some of the traffic jams can be atrocious. None of them are even comparable to the traffic you can experience daily in any major metropolitan area in America. Sure, I gripe that it took an extra 10, even 20 minutes to get home, but those days are very rare and predictable (Friday nights at 5 are usually bad). There are no interstates here, but there are no toll roads either. I can drive anywhere on this island for free, which is more than can be said for my home state of Illinois.

*** 4 ***

Christmas Village at the Friary. This will merit its own posting when we make a final visit in the days to come, but this is a Guam tradition that stretches back many decades and goes on throughout the Christmas season. Our kids have grown up going to the display and we have enjoyed seeing their fascination with the event grow every year. We are sad that our own family tradition of attendance will have to end this year.

*** 5 ***

The experience of being a minority. I've heard it said that only 10% of the population of Guam is white, while 30%+ is Chamorro and another 30%+ is Filippino. Most of my life I've lived in communities where there are members of other ethnic groups, but whites of European descent are the dominant group. It's been an odd and refreshing experience to see it from the other side. My oldest daughter's preschool class of 11 has two white children in it, including her. The other nine kids are Chamorro or Filippino. Her class photo looks very different from my preschool class photo, and we're glad she got to experience being a part of such an ethnically diverse community, even if she doesn't realize it now.

*** 6 ***

The thrill of island shopping. Please let me explain what this means. You quickly learn on Guam that if something shows up at the store that wasn't there before, and you want it, you buy it right there. Don't go home and sleep on it, don't see if it's available somewhere else cheaper. I guarantee that if you do either of these things, by the time you return to the original store, that item will be gone for months and you will hit yourself. Impulse buying holds less of a stigma here; it's not an impulse purchase if that's the only time you'll ever see it.

*** 7 ***

OK, I've tried, but I can't think of a seventh. I think my mind is having trouble thinking of things that I will miss because I'm so ready to leave. Three years is a long time for me and the family to be stuck in one place, and I'm ready to get home to spend the holidays with our extended family. More and more I concentrate on the negative, the reasons why I want to leave rather than the reasons why I want to stay. In less than one week's time we will be back on the mainland. Our household goods all left today and I am writing this on my wife's laptop on the floor of our bedroom. It is amazing how much crap we possess. So much of it is for the kids, but two days of packing with 3-6 guys per day is almost embarassing. All of this stuff is headed to storage until we find a new place to live.

If we can do without it for an indefinite period of time, do we really need it?