Monday, December 01, 2008

Saipan Trip Day 1

I arrived in Saipan last night for the TRACS accreditation team visit. We are evaluating Eukon International College. I was here three years ago as part of the team when we evaluated them for candidacy and now we are helping them get ready for full accreditation. I have not been back to Saipan since that visit three years ago and I am amazed at how empty the place seems now. Many businesses that were operating when I was here last time have shut down. When we were here for vacation with our kids back in 1995 we had a lot of fun in Saipan and it is sad to see so many things gone.

Today was the day to get to know the rest of the team. Tomorrow we will get down to business. But today we drove around the island and did a little sightseeing. I had an odd thing happen on the trip. We stopped at the Aqua Resort to pick up a map and I realized that the Aqua was the hotel where Joyce, Michael, Missy and I stayed in 1995 on our vacation. We took a picture there by the pool that I posted a while back on my Facebook page. I tried to stand in the same place today and have my picture taken there. It looks pretty much the same except the flower bed is gone. However, you can see from the pictures that some things have changed.

2 comments:

Jen said...

Saipan looks beautiful- and also hot, very hot.

Dave Owen said...

It is like Guam only less developed. It was about 85 degrees and pretty humid while I was there