Saipan?!? Did you accidentally misspell Spain or something?

A little background is needed before we really get into the meat of this blog. Almost every single person I know responded to the news that we were leaving by saying "Huh? Saipan? Where is that?". So here's the low down on our new home:

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

. . . is a chain of islands between the Philippine Sea and the North Pacific Ocean. The three main inhabited islands are Rota, Tinian, and Saipan. Saipan is the main island. The climate is tropical year-round and the average daytime temperature ranges in the mid-high 80s fahrenheit.

. . . indigenous peoples are the Chamorro and Carolinians. The official languages of the CNMI are Chamorro, Carolinian, and English.

. . . was established in political union with the United States of America. The Covenant that established the political union was approved on March 24, 1976 (48 U.S.C. § 1801 et seq.) and took full effect on November 3, 1986 (Presidential Proclamation No. 5564). Presidential Proclamation No. 5564 declared that persons born in the Northern Mariana Islands, with limited exceptions, are citizens of the United States of America.

. . . has it's own Constitution, just as the 50 U.S. states do. However, unlike the 50 U.S. states, not all of the provisions of the U.S. Constitution are applicable in the CNMI.

. . . uses only one U.S. Postal Service zip code - 96950 - throughout the CNMI. Similarly, only one telephone area code - (670) - applies throughout the CNMI. Postal mail and phone calls to the CNMI are domestic U.S. mail/calls and not international.

(summary courtesy of http://www.cnmilaw.org/aboutcnmi.htm)