Gi Talo Gi Halom Tåsi

So for today I am a lot more homesick than usual, and I thought I'd go over something that will always be a part of me and will always take me home, no matter where I am in the world. It's our very own CNMI Anthem. It's what we all grew up learning and singing at just about every special event back home, and it's definitely something that hits home every time it is sung. It's definitely a song that will always be special to me and will never grow old, no matter what. For those of you who can't understand Chamorro or Carolinian, I have included an english translation of the lyrics. So, without further ado, here it is, the CNMI Anthem, sung by my MHS Student Council President (I was her Vice President in '07) Juanette Villagomez.

Gi Talo Gi Halom Tåsi/Satil Matawal Pasifiko (CNMI Anthem)







Chamorro:







Gi talo gi halom tåsi



Nai gaige tano-ho



Ayo nai siempre hu såga



Malago' ho



Ya un dia bai hu hånåo



Bai fåtto ha' ta'lo



Ti siña håo hu dingo



O tano-ho







CHORUS:







Mit beses yan mås



Hu saluda håo



Gatbo na islas Mariånas



Hu tuna håo







Carolinian (Refalawasch):







Satil matawal Pacifico



Igha elo faluweey iye



Ighilal igha ebwe lootiw



Tipeey iye



Eew raal nge ibwe mwetesangi



Nge ibwal sefaalitiiy Ese mmwel bwe ibwe lighiti



Bwe falaweey







CHORUS:







Sangaras faal bwughuwal



Ay tirow ngalugh



Ling ghatchul teel



Faluw Mariånas



Ay Mwareiti







English Translation:







In the middle of the sea



Is where my home is



That is where I will spend my days



It is my desire



If I ever leave this place



One day I will return



For I can never leave you



O land of mine







CHORUS:







A thousand times and more



I will honor and salute you



Beautiful islands of the Mariånas



Glory be to you

My Labor Day 2009.

So, while the rest of America is out at parks having picnics or in the wilderness having a little mini-campout, I am here, at home, with Dylan. All day. It's just been the two of us, until just about half an hour ago, when Den came home, with an unexpected guest. Yeah, she brought her little guy friend over, the one that she had spent like the whole weekend with. I guess it's a good thing that we cleaned up the house as soon as we got home. Still though, I'm stuck here at home just using the internet on labor day while the rest of America is out having picnics and family gatherings and shit. What a bummer. I ended up spending most of my day analyzing the rest of the audio files of our Ouija board sessions (which I am not even completely done with) and monitoring for EVPs. Yep, that's my labor day for ya. I can't even have fun and drink on Labor Day, because of my surgery.... ugh this sucks!!

Memories...

So today, on the walk back to my barracks from the front gate of the base, I started thinking about Great Lakes outta nowhere... and then suddenly all the memories came rushing back in and I started remembering things like they has just happened yesterday. I remember how late it was when we all checked in to the base across from boot camp, I remember how shitty our first barracks was, meeting my first roommate, who was a buds/seal candidate (but is now an IS on my ship! haha), I remembered getting moved around to different barracks 3 times while I was there, I remembered how close everyone in the Franklin was (we truly were like a big Family in that barracks); I remembered that Michael Stuessy was my best friend, but I don't quite remember how we met... haha all I know is we hung out all the time and times were good. So many memories came to me out of just a single thought; the thought that my second year anniversary in the Navy was approaching. God, it has been a good but trying two years of my life. I miss everyone from the very beginning of it all. Back when times were good. Back in Great Lakes. Those were the good ol' days, indeed. I'd even go as far as saying that those 6 months that I spent in Great Lakes, IL were the best 6 months of my entire Naval career to date. It's funny, too, now that I think of it, because back in those days we were all saying how happy we would be to get out of there, how we couldn't wait to make it to the Fleet..... and now that we're all out here in the big United States Navy fleet, we all wanna go back.... we all would like to return to our old A school days... back when the Navy still cared about us, back when things were still good. We didn't realize how good we had it back in the day.... all we did was complain, complain, complain about how much bullshit we had to go through.... but we had no idea just how much worse the bullshit is out here in the Fleet. Oh, no.... Not a damn clue.

That is such a recurring theme throughout life; when you're somewhere doing something in particular, you complain and say you hate it, but once you're done and you've moved on you tend to look back and wish you were still over there doing what you were doing. Why is that, I wonder?