7 Things NOBODY TOLD ME About GUAM

Summary

In "7 Things NOBODY TOLD ME About GUAM," Kawaii Tako shares insights and surprises experienced while living in Guam for over a year. Despite initial expectations, she discovered unique challenges and charms such as unpredictable driving norms, high grocery and utility costs, and vibrant local culture. Tako highlights the beauty and welcoming vibe of Guam, from its breathtaking beaches to its rich community life, making it a truly special place to live or visit. The video guides potential movers on the nuances of life in Guam, including lifestyle adjustments and cultural highlights.

Highlights

• Driving in Guam feels like a free-for-all with less emphasis on speed limits. 🚗
• Groceries and utilities in Guam come with higher price tags due to shipping limitations. 💰
• It's common to create hand-drawn maps for service providers due to address accuracy issues. 🗺️
• Guam's bug life includes massive cockroaches and biting red ants. 🕷️
• Local food, especially barbecued delights, is a must-try! 🥘
• Island life in Guam involves embracing the unexpected and going with the flow. 🌺
• Stunning landscapes and a warm community atmosphere are Guam's standout attractions. 🌄

Key Takeaways

• Guam's driving norm is quite laid-back with less strict enforcement of speed limits. 🛣️
• Living costs, especially groceries and utilities, can be surprisingly high due to logistical challenges. 🛒
• Healthcare accessibility may require off-island travel for specialist treatments. 🏥
• Expect to encounter large insects and many stray animals, especially dogs. 🐜
• Food culture is vibrant with a mix of local and Filipino influences, offering unique culinary delights. 🍽️
• Living in Guam means adapting to less product availability but embracing a chill island lifestyle. 🌴
• The natural beauty and community spirit make any adjustments worth it. 🌊

Overview

Living in Guam presents a unique mix of challenges and delights. From dealing with inconsistently enforced speed limits to navigating higher costs for everyday needs, residents adapt to a different pace and style of life. Google Maps may not always be reliable, so local guidance often relies on well-known landmarks. It's an island of stunning scenery and adapting to the quirks truly enhances the stay.

The cost of living, especially groceries and utilities, might surprise newcomers. Prices are inflated due to shipping constraints under the Jones Act, while healthcare services have limitations requiring trips off-island for specialist care. Despite these hurdles, the friendliness, culture, and cuisine, especially the local barbecues infused with Filipino influences, offer incredible experiences.

Nature lovers will find Guam breathtaking. The beaches, rich with marine life and crystal-clear waters, invite exploration, while the dense jungles and scenic mountains provide stunning backdrops for drives. The island exudes community spirit, where even the occasional scarcity of goods becomes part of a relaxed and respectful lifestyle. Anyone considering a move will find a lot to discover and cherish, making Guam more than just a home; it's an experience.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Intro and Overview In the opening chapter titled 'Intro and Overview,' the narrator describes their experiences after having lived in Guam for over a year. They reflect on the disparity between their preconceived expectations and the actual experiences encountered after moving. The purpose of the overview is to set the stage for sharing insights and lessons learned during their time on the island.
• 00:30 - 03:30: Driving in Guam The chapter is titled 'Driving in Guam.' It serves as an introduction to a discussion about important aspects to know when living in Guam, specifically focusing on driving. The narrator acknowledges having acquired insights over time and intends to share seven key points about living in Guam. However, the narrator also cautions that these are not comprehensive and highlights the intention to keep the discussion concise, focusing primarily on driving.
• 03:30 - 07:00: Cost of Living In the chapter titled 'Cost of Living', the discussion touches on the unique traffic situation in Guam, where the speed limit is technically 35 miles per hour across the island. However, this speed limit is not strictly enforced by law enforcement, and as a result, many drivers do not adhere to it. The narrator humorously notes that they haven't checked their speedometer in nearly a year, as driving in Guam feels like a free-for-all unless one is driving in a discourteous manner.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Healthcare The chapter discusses the road and traffic conditions in a new location, highlighting issues such as high speed limits and frequent traffic light outages. The narrator notes confusion among drivers about handling non-functioning traffic lights, despite the rule to treat them as four-way stops. The lack of adherence to traffic rules is evident as drivers often proceed without yielding.
• 08:00 - 12:00: Animals and Bugs The chapter 'Animals and Bugs' describes the experience of navigating traffic and relying on landmarks for directions. Finding your way around is heavily dependent on recognizing landmarks because there aren't signs on every street. Directions often involve looking for recognizable places, such as a Wendy's, to know when to keep going or make a turn. This approached worked well for the narrator as it aligns with their method of learning roads.
• 12:00 - 14:00: Local Food The chapter discusses navigating Guam using landmarks due to Google Maps' inaccuracy on the island, highlighting a personal experience of looking for a CVS pharmacy that did not exist.
• 14:00 - 18:00: Life Lessons and Tips The chapter starts with an anecdote about a potentially dangerous situation experienced while driving in Guam, emphasizing the importance of being cautious in unfamiliar areas. It suggests that although driving can be challenging, using tools like Google Maps is effective and should ease concerns about navigating tourist spots.
• 18:00 - 21:00: Beauty and Lifestyle of Guam The chapter discusses the cost of living in Guam with a focus on grocery prices. It mentions the difference in pricing if one is living on a military base versus shopping at local grocery stores. Specifically, a full cart of groceries on base might cost around $200, while the same at local stores could go up to $500. The speaker gives a personal example, mentioning spending $250 for a half cart of groceries to cover a week's shopping, highlighting the high cost of living.
• 21:00 - 22:00: Conclusion In the conclusion, the discussion revolves around the price differences of everyday items between local stores and those in the States. It highlights a notable example of Dove body wash, which is significantly marked up in price, being much cheaper in the States than when bought locally on sale. The chapter suggests that while fruits and vegetables aren't excessively priced, other goods like meat exhibit a stark contrast in cost, underlining the broader theme of varying pricing strategies across different regions.

7 Things NOBODY TOLD ME About GUAM Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 foreign [Music] hi everyone I've been on Guam for a little over a year now and honestly there was a big difference between what I thought I knew to expect before moving and what I've actually experienced here so I thought it would be a good idea to share with you some of the things that
• 00:30 - 01:00 I've learned along the way whether you're planning on moving to Guam or you just want to know more about what it's like here here are seven things you should know about living on Guam so I would like to just say that this isn't a definitive list and there are so many different things that I wanted to include in this video but it would just take way too long I don't think you want to see like an hour-long video of me just talking okay number one driving in Guam
• 01:00 - 01:30 [Music] this one is like I don't know maybe funny so for Guam the whole island technically is 35 miles per hour but law enforcement doesn't really enforce that like some people do follow the 35 miles per hour but not a lot and honestly I haven't looked at my speedometer in almost a year because it's really a free-for-all unless you're being a jerk
• 01:30 - 02:00 doing crazy Maneuvers or you're going like 80 miles an hour most likely you're not going to get pulled over so speed limit is pretty crazy another thing uh they haven't happened too much recently but there were a lot of traffic light outages when we first moved here like a lot and it is still technically the rule of like you treat it like a four-way stop nobody knows how to treat them it's just everybody tries to keep going as fast as they can until finally somebody
• 02:00 - 02:30 just like moves in and then everybody in that lane stops and then other traffic starts going going going and it is terrifying also trying to find your way around is heavily on landmarks which worked out great for me because that's how I learned the roads anyway like there are some but not on every street not on every road so when you get directions from somebody they're gonna say oh you know you're gonna see the Wendy's you're gonna keep going down for
• 02:30 - 03:00 like a mile and then like you're gonna turn and it's gonna be right next to the coconut tree that's by that really tall building it's all about landmarks also one more thing about driving in Guam is that if you're going to be relying on Google Maps to get you around just be aware Google Maps is sometimes very inaccurate and you really can't depend on it like when we first moved here we were looking for a pharmacy and Google Maps said that there was a CVS Pharmacy even though there's no CVS on the island
• 03:00 - 03:30 which we didn't know yet and it took us down this really shady Alleyway and I was like Joshua this is like where we get murdered we gotta get out of here so driving in Guam it can be a little a lot big tourist spots and things like that Google Maps is going to be perfectly okay so don't feel afraid about that number two is gonna be cost of living so I'm gonna go ahead and start this off with grocery shopping because that is a big one it is going to be different if
• 03:30 - 04:00 you're just moving here versus if you are moving on base I did see like a couple videos of people on basing like a cart of groceries is going to cost you 200 but just locally like at the regular grocery stores a full cart of groceries is gonna be about 500 I just spent 250 dollars at the grocery store the other day shopping for the week and it was maybe half of a card so that's what you're looking at pretty much everything
• 04:00 - 04:30 that you see at the grocery store is gonna be double some sometimes triple the price of what you see in the states an example is we like this one Dove body wash and this bottle in the states is eight dollars for that same size bottle it was on sale from 25 I think and it was on sale for 19 and something um and it's the same with groceries fruits and vegetables aren't really that bad at all but it's it's everything else it's gonna be meat it's going to be
• 04:30 - 05:00 Dairy and alcohol oh my God don't get me started on alcohol that stuff is expensive so if you have somebody who has base access you might want to ask them to get you certain things from base some things just are not worth it to get at regular grocery store here I have heard that the reason why groceries and everyday products are so expensive is because Guam is still part of the Jones act that only allows cargo that has
• 05:00 - 05:30 touched a U.S Stateside dock to bring in Goods all the way to Guam so it has to have touched like San Francisco or San Diego and then come to Guam so it's it's like super expensive that way also apparently there's only like one or two shipping companies that does ship all of our Goods so they have a complete Monopoly over Guam where they can pretty much charge whatever they want to okay housing housing is surprisingly not that
• 05:30 - 06:00 expensive it's definitely a lot cheaper than California rent prices now and like buying a house and all of those things and there are also other options there's a ton of low-income housing here on Guam as well what you're really paying a lot for is AC Guam it's hot it's humid some people can do it without AC and just like a fan but I know there's a lot of people who just can't cut it I enjoy being warm but sometimes you really just
• 06:00 - 06:30 need that AC so realistically what we're looking at is there's not a lot of of Central Heating and Cooling in Guam it's just units in each room our electricity bill if we have on all of our ACS that's living room which is a big one and then all three bedrooms that is going to be about seven hundred dollars a month if we only have two or three ACs on at a time that's going to be about four hundred dollars a month and what the heck I thought I'd include it let's talk about internet you know we all want internet in our house so we currently
• 06:30 - 07:00 have the best high speed plan on Guam to date um I have heard that they are working on better plans but currently the best package right now is 142 dollars a month for a hundred megabits per second when we were in the states we did help my mom beef up her internet and I'm pretty sure she got the same amount of speed but her bill is about fifty dollars a month so
• 07:00 - 07:30 that's like the difference you are paying more for Less here number three is gonna be pretty quick but I thought it should be included which is going to be healthcare for general physicians is relatively fine we found a doctor that we really like but it's just a fair warning and I've been told this a lot since I've been here that malpractice is still a very big thing in Guam so it's always good to get a second opinion for anything that you might be experiencing
• 07:30 - 08:00 also Specialists for specific you know healthy needs are limited we don't have a ton of Specialists so if you do have a specific Health Care need you're most likely going to need to go off Island to get that specific care that's just a quick one but I felt like it should be included okay number four animals and bugs I was warned that there were some big bugs on Guam but I don't think I
• 08:00 - 08:30 really understood what I was getting myself into spiders are huge and they are everywhere especially banana spiders they're these yellow guys and they are seriously like I mean that's like with legs I mean their body is probably like at the size of a quarter maybe you know the small ones are like a nickel no spiders are poisonous nothing on the island is poisonous they're just big and scary and we've got these big huge guys that are like really fast I don't know what they're called I can't remember but
• 08:30 - 09:00 like spiders there's spiders everywhere and they're big and they're scary another thing is Cockroaches cockroaches are here and they're here to stay when you have a nice hot humid climate you know cockroaches are gonna be present and they are not small they are humongous they are huge expect cockroaches you're gonna see them no matter how clean you keep your house you might see at least a few a year another
• 09:00 - 09:30 thing that I probably the one bug that I dislike the most are these teeny tiny red ants they're like fire ants and they are an invasive species they're not from here originally but they definitely took over they hurt so bad when they bite you like it burns so bad and it stings for me personally they leave huge welts that last for like weeks so I I really hate red hands um mosquitoes mosquitoes are abundant
• 09:30 - 10:00 and they really love my sweet sweet blood I was getting so many all the time when I first lived here that amount has gone down significantly if I don't scratch it within like the first day it just completely goes away and it's not as itchy and they don't bother me as much so they really like newbies one that's not a bug but a creature is there's a lot of geckos here so little little geckos they're so cute and I love them and they chirp and they get in your house they're definitely welcome in my
• 10:00 - 10:30 house I love these cute little geckos and one big thing that I really do like of the nature outside is the chickens I love the chickens everywhere that's probably a weird thing to say but I didn't know that there were just gonna be loose chickens everywhere when I moved here I love all the chickens okay one big thing about animals is dogs versus cats here on Guam dogs are King they have the most supplies in the store
• 10:30 - 11:00 so you get a lot of options for dog toys and dog treats and dog food whereas cats not so much we did have Mimi on a specific cat food and we did find it here but it's not always in stock sometimes it goes away for months so we had to switch her cat food to something that they more likely would Supply one thing we've learned is that if you see the one item that you're looking for get it and get multiple because you don't know when it's going to be back in stock
• 11:00 - 11:30 so I mean dogs are set they're settled they've got everything they need and the cat aisle is this sliver that like cuts through like okay the dog stuff is done and here's for the cat one more thing about dogs that I should mention is that there are a lot of stray dogs or wild dogs here on Guam and they are everywhere sometimes you'll just be driving down the road and you'll see packs of just 10 stray dogs and just a side note about dogs or animals in
• 11:30 - 12:00 general if you're coming from the states the way animals are treated here is not going to be the same I was in shock when I first moved here and a lot of people keep dogs outside 24 7 on an actual chain leash that's very small and they can't go far and they're just out in the hot heat or the rain at night in the morning all the time just so you know if you are moving here this is going to be something that you might see and you might see a lot you might not I have
• 12:00 - 12:30 noticed that people are getting better with how they're treating animals and that animals are becoming more of a family member but there are still a lot of people that don't see it that way it never happened weren't taught to treat animals that way so it can be shocking okay on to a different note number five is food not all food but local food which is amazing it's
• 12:30 - 13:00 so good specifically the barbecue if you get to go to a full out barbecue it's on another level we got our Guam Classics like red rice finadene shrimp Patties or keliguin which is meat cooked with lemon and I'm when I say meat I mean any meat apparently you can Kellogg win anything at least that's what my Uncle Mark says there are big Filipino influences for
• 13:00 - 13:30 food here so that's always cool but what you're pretty much gonna see at the barbecue other than those Guam Classics is pancit you're gonna have lumpia sometimes there's Sushi potato salad and specifically this barbecue chicken is Just Hits different I think it's a base of soy sauce vinegar and sugar and then you know other spices but it's just so good so definitely definitely check out
• 13:30 - 14:00 the local food here okay and number six is what I've learned while I'm here so just a couple of quick maybe helpful tips of what I've gathered while living here first off this is a big one that I haven't really seen anybody else talk about which is Maps what I mean about Maps is like physically drawing maps to your home a lot of companies will ask you to do this so I'm talking and like when we had to get our power up when we
• 14:00 - 14:30 need to get our water up when we finally got our internet you know our trash all of these different companies they asked for a map to our house and if you don't just have one to give to them they ask you to draw it out Joshua's Mom finally just like printed out like an actual like map to our house to give directions to these certain companies and she keeps spares in her purse because sometimes it's a company they're going to that you just do not expect them to ask you for a map and sometimes they do okay so
• 14:30 - 15:00 another thing it might be obvious but you're gonna be sweaty like it's not necessarily hot it's about 84 to 86 degrees regularly but the humidity is so high so I mean there are days that I don't feel hot but I'm just sweating and it was like that to an extreme when I first moved here I did finally after like six months acclimate to the humidity but before then I was a sweaty mess like I was sweating sitting down so
• 15:00 - 15:30 I mean like walking somewhere drenched one thing I would suggest is maybe bringing like a small towel or a handkerchief while you're here getting acclimated just so you can like you know wipe your face something that I did think was going to be a bigger problem and seemed like a pretty big deal when I first moved here but that's going to be Amazon Prime you can still use Amazon and get products shipped to Guam but it is a very much smaller amount of items
• 15:30 - 16:00 are going to be available to you and if you have of Amazon Prime you are no longer getting two-day free shipping one it's not going to be two days it's going to be about a week maybe longer and two it's not going to be free even if you have Amazon Prime your shipping is not going to be free each product does have a shipping fee and if you're looking for something specific it might not even ship to Guam at all for me it just didn't seem worth paying the fee to have
• 16:00 - 16:30 Amazon Prime if the only benefit I was getting was their streaming service so I did end my Amazon Prime subscription I have heard a hack from other people that if you change your address to somewhere Stateside while you're shopping you know a lot more things are available and then when you go to your cart right before checkout you switch the address to Guam and you still probably won't be able to get everything in your cart but more things will be available we've tried it
• 16:30 - 17:00 a couple of times only some times does it work not all the time but you can try it out let me know if it works for you and then one big lesson that I've learned while I'm here is that you know yes uh you know Amazon Prime doesn't you know ship everything here and yes groceries are expensive and yes a lot of things are out of stock all the time here when we get a shipment in it's once a week and it's not always the same
• 17:00 - 17:30 thing and it's not always the same product or brand or whatever so you know what we couldn't get milk today milk was just not shipped to the island or you know there was a shortage or whatever it's just not everything is always available to you here and it's not necessarily a bad thing you know it was very stressful at first but I have I've learned to make do with what I've got it's an island it's you know it's the
• 17:30 - 18:00 trade-off of living on an island is that you know you're not always going to have exactly exactly what you need at exactly the right moment but you learn to accept that and make adjustments and make those adjustments fit to what you need it's really like just easy going lifestyle and I've really learned to appreciate it and it's it's been really nice actually and maybe that's not for everyone but it really isn't that bad okay and lastly
• 18:00 - 18:30 number seven this is what I just absolutely love about Guam there really is no trade-off for the beauty of Guam it's been a pleasure and a gift to live here for the year that I've been here because it is so beautiful the beaches are unmatched the water is Crystal Clear it's warm and it's really shallow like you can walk pretty far out until you
• 18:30 - 19:00 hit the reef and then it drops down so I mean like I see people way out there just standing up you know there's like dips so like there's plenty of space to swim and snorkel or dive there are currents that you do have to watch out for especially north of the island northeast of the island currents can get pretty strong at a certain time of year so you know always watch out for that going back to snorkeling or scuba diving there's so many beautiful fish
• 19:00 - 19:30 everywhere you don't even have to scuba or snorkel to see them when you walk out one inch into the water you already start seeing fish because of that clear water and they're so beautiful and there's so many they're such a huge diversity of fish that I've never seen before it's probably my number one I love the beach I've always loved the beach and now it's just like such a magical experience going to these beaches here the other thing that I love about Guam which you know kind of goes
• 19:30 - 20:00 with it are the views the views are spectacular sometimes Joshua and I just plan a day to drive around the island we do it maybe once a month just to kind of ground us and show us again like this is where we live we're on an island this beautiful beautiful island so whatever's going on in the world like it's gonna be okay like we're okay whatever stress or little thing that we freaked out about or whatever like let's put it to the side and and really just admire what
• 20:00 - 20:30 we've been given it's incredible to see such a dense blend of so many different terrains because you have these beautiful beautiful beaches and then these beaches hit this lush jungle filled with you know coconut trees and Vines and fruits and all of this stuff this dense jungle opens up to these beautiful mountains that also have scattered patches of red Earth that's
• 20:30 - 21:00 the sand is this beautiful color of red and there are trails and and just pockets of them and it looks so beautiful and then all of this mixed in with some incredible Cliff sides and it it's it's one in a million it's really just absolutely gorgeous I'd say that you know living in Guam does come with its certain frustrations or you know you can't get what you want right away and you know whatever but like it's so
• 21:00 - 21:30 beautiful here if you don't want to live here permanently it's always good for a visit you know come to Guam it's beautiful the people here are wonderful as well everybody because it's such a small island there's such a huge sense of community so that that is my list of things that I didn't know or that I learned throughout my year here in Guam I hope you learned something I hope you'll visit and if you're moving here I hope that you know some of these things maybe helped you out to get maybe
• 21:30 - 22:00 a better understanding of what's coming for you all right I'm outside now thank you all so much for watching subscribe to the channel I hope you enjoyed the video and I'll see you in the next one bye