Mangos!!!

First day on the job couldn't be better. Besides waking up at 3 and only getting 2 hours of sleep it was a great day. For my first day my new boss took me around to his research stations on the island. One of his areas of study is fruits and which ones are suitable for different growing areas. He has collected dozens of mango trees from Asia, the Pacific, and South America and grows them on Guam. Now is the middle of mango season so we spend a few hours walking through the mango orchard and sampling each varriety of fruit fresh from the tree. I probably tasted about 20 different varrieties of mango. It was like eating my way through heaven. It wasn't just mangos either. We ate star fruit, mountain apple, jack fruit, and others I have never seen before. There was one fruit called miracle fruit that is very interesting. It grow on a bush about 6 feet tall. The fruit is about the same size as an olive and it is bright red. It contains some chemical or mixture of chemicals that makes acidic flavors sweet. I cut open a lime, tasted it and of course it was sour. But after chewing on miracle fruit for about one minute I tasted the same lime and it was so sweet and delicious. It's a very amazing and bizzare fruit. The only draw back is that it lasts about 3 hours and will affect the way other fruits taste as well so its not a good idea to eat it before a meal.

It looks like my new job will be a good one. Even though what we did with the fruits is not an everyday thing nor is it what I will be studying, it is a great place to be and I think I like it here.