I have returned to Kwajalein after a whirlwind trip back to the states where I signed an apartment lease and purchased a car. Talk about a stressful three days… It’s July 3rd and I have 8 days of island life left before I head back to the states and start my new job with TriQuint on July 14th. I’m excited and a little nervous about getting back into the swing of things. I know I’ll be fine once I get settled in, it’s just the stresses of relocation and change that are starting to wear on me. On another note, I have completed all of the requirements for my PADI Dive Master certification. Now all I have to do is write a check and send off the application package. I might look into being a certified assistant once I get back to the states. I believe there are many PADI dive shops around the Dallas area that I could possibly be associated with. We shall see :)
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As many of you know, I’ve been looking at job opportunities back in the states for the past couple of months. After countless interviews and discussions with various companies around the DFW area, I have accepted a job offer with TriQuint Semiconductor. I submitted my formal resignation letter to KRS this week to inform them that my last day of work will be July 10th and I will leave the island on July 11th. I’m headed back to the states on a house hunting trip from June 25th to July 1st. Hopefully during that time I will be able to find an apartment that will be able to accommodate a July 11th move in date. I’ll have my cell phone on during my return trip, so give me a ring if you have any hot leads on good places to live! So I finally uploaded the pictures to my gallery. Get ‘em while their hot! I’ve also posted a video on youtube of the wild pig hunting. The link is below, but be forewarned, this video is not for the skirmish. Keep in mind that these Kosraeans hunt 2 to 3 times a week, so they are seasoned professionals. It’s Monday and my plane arrived on Kwaj just a few hours ago. Overall the trip was great. We caught two boar on the hunting trip without any severe injuries. The diving was great as well as the hiking in the rain forest. I’m in the process of collecting pictures from Jon and Jerrod and editing the ones I took. I’ll upload them when I’m back in the states next week. It definitely feels good to be back in “civilization” :) I’m headed to Kosrae for some diving and boar hunting. I’ll be unreachable until May 13th. Have a great weekend :) I purchased my plane ticket and vacation package today for 4 days and nights on Kosrae (5/8 to 5/12). At some point I’ll either be diving, mingling with the locals, or last, but not least, preying on the island pigs of Kosrae with a machete in hand. The only thing I can’t decide on is whether or not to wear a ceremonial cod piece or just a regular loin cloth… (HA) I just hope we don’t run into any polar bears (for you Lost watchers out there). I’m sure there will be pictures of the ensuing mayhem and dives. We might actually get to see some hammer head sharks and other aquatic species we don’t usually get to see on the Kwajalein atoll. I’m pretty excited! In the mean time, I’m still having the occasional job interviews with companies in the DFW area. As I’m in no hurry to leave, I’m waiting for the perfect job to land in my lap. Hopefully they still exist and I’m qualified for them! While Jerrod and Donna were planning a vacation to some of the surrounding islands, it was discovered that Kosrae, one island to the west, has seasonal pig hunting. It entails heading out into a dense, unpopulated jungle with a machete and a rope. The plan is for Jon and I too meet up with Jerrod and Donna at the tail end of their vacation and go wild boar hunting for a couple of days. There’s a high probability that I’ll have some new office decor. More info to come… We are still undefeated after two games! Yesterday’s game was interesting since only one girl (Donna) showed up. The rules of the co-ed water polo state that each team must have at least two women present in the pool at all times. Since Donna was the only one that showed up, we were immediately at a disadvantage since we were one person down in the pool. The game was tied after halftime, then things got ridiculous. We held them scoreless in the second half with one player out. We were almost two people out after Donna got nailed in the face with the water polo ball while she was playing defense. I have to give her credit for sticking out the rest of the game instead of getting out of the pool. She definitely earned the already given nickname “trooper”. I know some people were taking pictures of the water polo game so I’ll try to round them up so I can post them in the gallery I had my first technical interview of hopefully many to come today. The position I was interviewing for was extremely similar to my work at Motorola (which is what I want to get back into when I return to the states) except for the manufacturing/production part. It was strictly a research and development job (which is ideal). Hopefully I’ll hear back from them sooner than later. If they are interested they will have me fly back to the states for a second interview. I have a second interview tomorrow with another company in the DFW area. This company is located near downtown Fort Worth. I don’t know a lot about the position but I hope that will all be revealed tomorrow. We shall see… Sorry for the lack of updates over the past few weeks. I’ve been either crippled, busy working, or crippled and busy working. As you might have heard, I had a pretty vicious bike wreck a few weeks ago that required stitches on my chin as well as bandages all over my body. The wounds are almost healed, and I have been lucky enough to not get an infection in any of them. The most annoying one left is the scrape on the palm of my left hand. It’s right in the crease so every time I open or close my fist it squeezes or pulls the gash apart. Annoying. The softball team I am playing on has made it to the Kwajalein World Series of Softball, I’m sure the ESPN crews are on the way out to cover the series. Fortunately there are many good players on the team so I get to sit back and watch most of the time. I’ve missed the last few games due to some conflicting schedules with work and the games, but I should be at least at the field if not on the field for the remainder of the series. We’re playing in a night golf scramble today. The last one I played in was pretty fun, so I expect this one to be the same. Anyways, I’ve only had about 30 hours of sleep in the last week so I’m going to cut this short instead of senselessly babbling. I’ll try to update more often and post more pictures in the not too distant future… So halfway through the game I got my normal substitution call to get into the game. This time they put me at 2nd base (literally). It came down to the final play of the game and I stopped the ball and dove on the bag to get the last guy out! It was a hit all around! I think I’ve made up a little for the first caused loss, but not quite totally… |
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