Suka took a stab at Western cooking last night. She bought ground beef from Global; more on that in a moment. She looked up recipes on the internet and consulted with one of her Filipino co-workers. She made hamburgers. Her co-worker told her to add egg, chopped vegetables, and spices, which I would have advised, as well. I suggested adding cheese for cheeseburgers.

The egg and fillers were pretty necessary. The ground beef from Global is "sawdust." It sounds bad at first, but it's actually USDA approved. It just happens to be the beef collected from cutting the meat for packaging. It's done in a way that keeps it separate from bone dust. Suka's picky about her food, and she has no problem with it. And it's from the facility that she works in. She even helps out in the cutting room when they're short-handed. It's good beef, but very finely ground, which is why the egg is almost necessary as a binder.

Later in the evening our air conditioning went on the fritz. It made sleeping a little muggy, but at least it was a cool night (for Saipan) with a decent breeze. It took me a bit to get comfortable, but I made it.

Today the repair guys came and fixed it. They replaced a couple circuit boards and cleaned the filters. I was talking to the supervisor (as best I could). We were talking about how hard the salt air and the jungle humidity is on electronics. For example, all the flat screen TVs at the airport have major screen damage from water seepage. Dave's TV hisses and crackles for quite some time after you turn it on before it finally calms down, and it's getting worse. Many people keep the air conditioning on in the rooms with their computers and televisions to keep them drier.

So I haven't really mentioned it, but one of the luxuries of my trip to China was hot water. Yes, hot water. We haven't had hot water at the apartment this entire time. We knew it was supposed to be there, but didn't know how to turn it on. When things are generally as warm as they are here, it's not that much of a hardship. In fact, even cold water steams the mirror because it's warm enough to vaporize part of it and it's so humid to begin with. It's still nice when you want it. Since we were calling the landlord for a/c repair, we decided to ask about the hot water. There was this plug hanging out of the ceiling in the bathroom with an outlet near it. Apparently, that's the hot water switch. Plug it in and you have hot water a few minutes later. But since it sucks down electricity, it's "on demand." In other words, you plug it in.

So the apartment is back in working order, and Suka is cooking pike mackeral as I type. She's doing it Korean style after making sure it wouldn't disgust me. Korean style leaves a lot of the organs in during cooking for additional flavor. At least with pike mackeral, you don't eat the organs, although you do for some other fish. Let me rephrase that. "Although she does for some other fish." I'm not that fond of fish heads or fish organs. Suka can have those delicacies.