Guam House Hunters

After I accepted the position, we were very fortunate to take a house hunting trip to check out Guam and wrap our heads around moving to an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Early morning flight...

We left on Monday, January 4 at 8am and landed on Wednesday, January 5 at 6:45pm. Whoa. This place is far! The first flight on American was a little rough. They played The Intern, but the sound didn't work. I was kind of bummed. It looked like a cute movie. I look forward to watching it with sound at some point. Then a woman across the aisle from us started to breathe pretty heavy and was fanning herself. Of course, the drink cart was going by at this time. That didn't help. She was a big lady and was pretty boxed in when the cart was at her row. Her sister (also a big lady) came from her seat to be with her. But that didn't help too much. She threw up in the barf bag at her seat. I guess she didn't take her blood pressure medicine and got very nauseous to the point of throwing up. It was gross. We were thrilled to get off the plane in Honolulu.

Honolulu Airport Sushi

We picked up some sushi in the airport and grabbed a beer at a bar. Then boarded a very full flight headed to Guam. It was one of those planes with 2 seats on each side and 5 in the middle. This was the 8 hour flight, and we were unsure about the entertainment United would provide. Turns out United has free entertainment via their app so we got to binge on The Knick. (If you haven't seen, check it out. Its great!)

After landing we headed towards the baggage claim in Guam to get our box of booze that we checked. Since we flew two different airlines we were a little unsure if the box would make it with us. We were correct. It didn't make it. We talked to an airline staff member and filed a claim. She asked what was in the box and we said alcohol. She immediately looked at the customs agents, shrugged and said okay. It is funny that was her response. You are allowed to bring in 1 gallon of booze per person and then I think you pay a tax for anything over that. That's fine. We just want to get this alcohol to Guam. We walked to the customs agent and spoke the friendliest customs agent ever. He was thrilled we were getting ready to move there and was eager to provide a realtor to help us find a place. Besides missing the box of booze, that was the best welcome to Guam.

By the time we got out to the car rental area it was pretty dark. The car rental guy gave us directions to the hotel. At the time, I didn't think anything of his directions. He told us to drive in that direction and at the third stop light where the pizza hut is, turn left. At the second light with the gas station, turn right. And so on. It wasn't until we drove in the daylight that we realized Guam barely has street signs. Directions are pretty much always given by landmarks.

The Sheraton was nice. It wasn't amazing, but perfect for what we needed.

We had a great view from our balcony.

Don't mind if we do... Thanks for the wine, Mr. Kanda.

We had a long list of things to accomplish in a few days and we did it all! We got a PO Box, set up a Guam cell #, opened a bank account, dealt with the Dept of Agriculture for Henry (you can read more about that in the Operation: Get Henry to Guam post), met my cousin for dinner and found a house.

We had a great realtor, Rodney with Ellen's Realty. He is from the US mainland and has lived in Guam off and on for the past 10 years. He knew exactly what we wanted and was really nice. The first house we saw was not great. I was pretty nervous we wouldn't find anything in our price range. The military has created an interesting housing market in Guam. And by interesting, I mean terrible for anyone not in the military. The military provides a housing allowance ($2200) for the people in the military who live off base. That is great, I do not have a problem with that. However, the allowance is paid directly to the landlord/owner and the amount doesn't change. If a house is only $2000 a month, the military pays $2200. So every house we were interested in renting was on the market for around $2200. We are not interested in paying that much for a house. Fortunately, Rodney worked his magic  and we were able to find a great place for a reasonable price. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, a great kitchen and a mango tree and banana tree in the backyard. We have a guest room! Come visit!!

We met with my colleague and a friend of his who works at the Guam Dept of Public Health to learn about potential opportunities for Jonathan. We ended up meeting with the Guam Director of Public Health for about 15 minutes. That was very unexpected! Fortunately, I had on a skirt but I was wearing a sleeveless top (this is not how I roll in a professional workplace, I always cover my shoulders. ugh..) and sandals. Jonathan was wearing shorts, flip flops and a button up short sleeved shirt. Upscale vacation casual? We didn't seem to offend anyone with our attire and had a great meeting. I think Jonathan could find a pretty neat position in Guam. Stay tuned!

We were able to squeeze in a little fun after we completed our to-do list. This place is stunning! We can't wait to explore the rest of the island when we return.

What do you think about moving to Guam?

For those of you who haven't heard the play-by-play leading up to our move to Guam, I thought I would provide a little background information in our first posts. We'll start with the application process.

Moving to Guam has been a topic of conversation for months! I learned about the Guam position in April 2015 and I immediately proposed the adventure to Jonathan. On a beautiful April afternoon, we shared a bottle of Rosé and discussed the possibility of moving to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The conversation during the first glass was filled with concerns and many questions. By the end of the bottle, we were ready to move and had made a list of all the things we wanted to do when we lived there. :)  The Oregon position was also open and always been on our short list of places to live, we decided I should put my name in the hat for both Oregon and Guam.

June 17: I submitted my application for Oregon and Guam and the ultimate waiting game began. 

October 6: I was notified I would be interviewed for both positions.

November 3: I interviewed for both positions. The interview went really well and I felt confident I would be chosen for one of the positions.

November 12: I was notified I was the candidate chosen for the Guam position. After a few conversations with Jonathan and sleeping on it, I told my supervisor to put my name forward.

November 13: My name was submitted to HR. 

December 7: I received and accepted the offer.

December 14: I received my official notification.

After waiting for months, things moved very fast after December 14...