So this is it. In just about an hour I'll be picked up, shuttled to the airport, and beginning over 28 hours worth of travel until I am back home in Philadelphia Friday night. I know I've been horrible at this blog thing. And putting up pictures, too. Sorry about that. I have a lot of pictures to get online once I get home since the internet is so slow here. Hopefully I won't forget about that but chances are I will. If you're really looking forward to pictures, as I know so many of you are, let me know and I'll get them up quicker.
Basically, this trip has been amazing and I would do it over again in a heartbeat. I love it here... not so much since winter started, but I love it nonetheless. I met amazing people who I really hope to keep in touch with and reunite over the next year.
Thanks to whoever read and kept up with my life over the past four months. I know I haven't talked about much but that's what stories are good for in the future! I can't wait to see everyone again. All I ask is that our reunions involve food because I miss it so much.
And... that's about it. I know I haven't seen much of this country, but that will just make me come back ASAP when I'm rich and famous and can blow thousands on travelling!
See you in the USA!
Friday, June 15, 2007
Friday, June 1, 2007
Two Week's Notice
I realize I've been kind of bad keeping up with the past two months or so. Things haven't been that out of the ordinary and I'm always too lazy to write about it. What is crazy is that 2 weeks from right now i'll be on a plane heading back across the Pacific.
I've been asked to go on some trips lately and due to a lack of interest and money I've decided to pass them up. I've thought about it a lot and I don't think that I'll regret the decision. Also, it's gotten a LOT colder here, going below 50 at night. I have no heat in my house and I am frozen all the time. But Melbourne, one place I was asked to go, is further south (colder!) and I've heard a lot of iffy things from people who've gone there in comparison to Sydney. Of course there are new, fun things to do there, but is it worth a couple hundred dollars to see a very similiar place? The other place I was asked to go was the Whitsunday Islands, which are apparently some of the most beautiful islands in the world. It's basically a sailing trip. And while I would love to do it, I feel like I'd want to go with certain people, when it was much warmer, and not when I would be borrowing money from the world. Hopefully I will make it back here when I am disgustingly rich and do everything I have missed. I really wanted to go to the outback, too, but that's over $1000. Traveling here is ridiculously expensive! So in the end, I'm planning on spending my last two Australian weeks in Sydney, going around and exploring different places I have yet to see over my last couple of days.
Good news: I got a much needed scholarship so I will not be dirt poor when I get home while also being able to put a substantial amount of money towards my (too many) credit cards. Then maybe I'll cut some up.
More good news: camp starts in about three weeks! I can't wait!
Even more good news: I will soon be eating all of the foods I've missed. Sometimes, I feel like I miss food more than anything else. That's kind of sad.
Sad news: this all means I'll be leaving this amazing place and people. Hopefully I will be able to meet up with some over the next school year and really keep in touch.
More sad news: I have two big papers to write and my ADD is not letting me start. And I'm sick. I doubt this will stop me from going out though.
Even more sad news: I have nothing else to say. So, to everyone from home reading this, see you all in two weeks!
I've been asked to go on some trips lately and due to a lack of interest and money I've decided to pass them up. I've thought about it a lot and I don't think that I'll regret the decision. Also, it's gotten a LOT colder here, going below 50 at night. I have no heat in my house and I am frozen all the time. But Melbourne, one place I was asked to go, is further south (colder!) and I've heard a lot of iffy things from people who've gone there in comparison to Sydney. Of course there are new, fun things to do there, but is it worth a couple hundred dollars to see a very similiar place? The other place I was asked to go was the Whitsunday Islands, which are apparently some of the most beautiful islands in the world. It's basically a sailing trip. And while I would love to do it, I feel like I'd want to go with certain people, when it was much warmer, and not when I would be borrowing money from the world. Hopefully I will make it back here when I am disgustingly rich and do everything I have missed. I really wanted to go to the outback, too, but that's over $1000. Traveling here is ridiculously expensive! So in the end, I'm planning on spending my last two Australian weeks in Sydney, going around and exploring different places I have yet to see over my last couple of days.
Good news: I got a much needed scholarship so I will not be dirt poor when I get home while also being able to put a substantial amount of money towards my (too many) credit cards. Then maybe I'll cut some up.
More good news: camp starts in about three weeks! I can't wait!
Even more good news: I will soon be eating all of the foods I've missed. Sometimes, I feel like I miss food more than anything else. That's kind of sad.
Sad news: this all means I'll be leaving this amazing place and people. Hopefully I will be able to meet up with some over the next school year and really keep in touch.
More sad news: I have two big papers to write and my ADD is not letting me start. And I'm sick. I doubt this will stop me from going out though.
Even more sad news: I have nothing else to say. So, to everyone from home reading this, see you all in two weeks!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
It's MAY!
It took 2 weeks, but Fiji pictures are finally up. There's not much to update on, though, I guess. I'm finally becoming active. I played soccer with the house yesterday and went out running today. Hopefully I'll be seeing Spiderman tomorrow. Hmm... yeah, nothing new and exciting to really write about that you haven't already heard (i.e. beach, downtown, and drinking too much).
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Quick Photo Update
After taking forever, I was finally able to upload the rest of my Jervis Bay photos and pictures from Tara's visit. They're in their own folders at the top so look out for them. Problem is, photobucket throws everything out of order. Jervis Bay album is all over the place and Tara's visit is completely backwards. Fiji will be up by the end of the week, I hope.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Tara, Fiji, Lots of Work, and Passing the Halfway Mark!
BULA! (That's Fijian for "Hello")
Sorry that I haven't updated in forever (AKA since before I left for Fiji). I know it's been hard, but we'll all get over it together. Now, I'm not making any promises but I'm going to try to do my best to recap the past 3 weeks. Because of my Alzheimer's, I don't remember that much. (Whoever is trying to make an alcohol joke, you're not funny. I really just have a crappy memory.) Regardless, bear with me. This update should be a beast.
(*The Tara week might be a lie in terms of when things happened, but the actual events did occur. I'm trying to work off of a picture timeline here.)
So let's begin with Tara's arrival on April 2nd. I woke up at about 5am to catch 2 buses and meet her at the airport. I thought I was tired, then I realized she was just getting off a 24-hour flight to come see me and felt kind of bad. Not that bad, just a little. We hung around, ate a little breakfast, and headed back to Coogee. After making best friends with her concierge (baggage person? I don't even remember...) we headed to the beach for a relaxing day in the area. Too bad there was an earthquake in the Solomon Islands (wha?) and the "tremors" created tsunamis. Therefore, the beaches on the east coast were closed down for a few hours because I think the water was a little rough. We found this out the second our feet touched the sand. Actually, we found this out just before we hit the sand when a crazy old woman ran to us to tell us. Turns out she wasn't that crazy... just a little. We decided to hang around her hotel pool for the afternoon until her room was ready, got some lunch, then went back to the reopened beach. After dinner, we headed over to a bar in the area and made it an early night.
The next day we headed downtown to Circular Quay and saw the bridge and Opera House and all that usual stuff. Then we went to the zoo (my second visit - each time is amazing) and had a blast going picture crazy, avoiding duck bites, petting baby kangaroos, making best friends with seagulls who wanted our food, and watching seals flip. Due to more tiredness, we once again stayed in the area and called it an early night.
Wednesday we went to Darling Harbor. We were originally saving this for Thursday (I think?) but the weather was not the best that morning. (It obviously got sunny as we were halfway downtown.) There we visited our future home, the Chinese Garden of Friendship (really? what is that even?!), and wandered around like fools until we headed over to the Aquarium. Tosh already knew my stance on that place (it's kind of a letdown, esp. after visiting the zoo). She claims she liked it, but I know the truth. We did pet a shark, though. Let me rephrase: She pet a shark, I just tapped it and jumped. (And by shark, I mean a baby one about a foot long, if that.) That night we headed over to the Palace where she met many people (including Cookie). We both were a little sloppy that night but as far as I can remember, it was a good time. We ended up leaving not too late (we arrived early), getting some food, and feeding random birds instead of ourselves.
Because of class Thursday, we didn't head out until later. We spent the early evening walking around the Rocks area, which is an older looking spot by the bridge. Tosh got some souvenirs, and after meeting Brian, the three of us headed to dinner at a small pizza place. We then headed back to the Darling Harbor area where we hit up Star City, the only casino in Sydney. Basically, the night did not end as planned, as the place is only meant to crush dreams. In the end, we learned our lesson and vowed never to return.
The weather was bad the next day (AGAIN!), once again crushing our beach dreams. We had actually planned to go scuba diving but due to Tosh's fears, we chickened out. We spent today relaxing around the area and I couldn't even tell you how that night went. No, I didn't drink. I just can't remember and have no pictures to remind me. (Also, I feel like I should address these alcoholic comments. I'm not one - and especially compared to the majority of people here, I've been doing pretty good as far as my alcohol intake is concerned. So you should be proud and not worried...or laugh at me.)
Saturday was her last day and we were committed to make the best of it. For the past few days, we had been planning to take the coastal walk from Coogee to Bondi Beach (something I had yet to do) but the morning weather kept deterring us. Today was the day that we'd do it, rain or shine, preferably shine. While the sun was out in the morning, it got cloudy and rainy quickly. Obviously the one day the weather flips on us, we're on the wrong end of it. The good thing was that it didn't pour while walking along the edges of cliffs. We actually watched a storm come in from the ocean and as it was heading right for us, decided to just stop and go to the left, completely missing us. It was a pretty good moment getting to avoid that. We finally made it to
Bondi, but instead of seeing a shiny, crowded beach, we saw a sad, dark, empty place. Of course, it wasn't the excitement we expected, but we were nonetheless proud of doing the whole 7km walk. We were champs. We then went to Bondi Junction (between Bondi and Coogee) which is basically just a HUGE mall and transportation depot/terminal/whatever and shopped around. We went back to Coogee, had our last supper, and after much debate, went to the bar area under her hotel for a little.
After saying goodbye to Tosh and apologizing for a hectic week of bad weather, I made my way back to the house to finish my packing for Fiji. My flight was around 8am, so the cab was picking us up at 5:30 and I was no where near ready. It also didn't help that my laundry hanging outside was soaked, therefore causing me to go into panic mode, hanging everything on top of fans and praying for the best. Luckily, things got as close to dry as they could get in that short period of time. I also got 0 sleep and heading to the airport feeling a little delirious, but extremely excited!
When we (Cookie and I) arrived at the gate, we saw two girls who went to UNSW - Danielle and Jen - who actually had the same flights and itinerary as us, so we figured we'd be spending our trips together. It was nice to know we'd be around other people. I actually knew Danielle from the first day, as we were in the same van that dropped people off at their housing. Our flight was on a tiny tiny plane that we had to board by stairway (which - I'm not going to lie - was kind of fun). Still, for one helluva expensive flight, there was zero entertainment or food provided. They all cost a lot of money. And when I say no food, I mean not even peanuts. We tried to sleep and did a little (I completely missed take-off), but the rest of the way wasn't too bad. We first realized where we were when we got off the plane (another stairway) and were blasted with heat. We were in Fiji! (More specifically, we were on Viti Levu, Fiji's main island. I think Survivor was filmed somewhere off the other big island: Vanua Levu. Kind of disappointing...I got over it, though.)
We met up with our driver (unfortunately, no one was there to give us a song and dance and shell necklaces like the internet told me) after about an hour waiting to get through customs - it was a ridiculous line. He told us our ride was a half hour long. Two and a half hours later, driving through the streets of Fiji, with cows, dogs, and horses walking around wild on the sides of the roads, small huts and villages with people looking to hitch rides to the nearest towns, green EVERYWHERE, and beautiful beaches, we arrived at our first location: Tsulu, which is in Fiji's Pacific Harbor. We were a little disappointed, seeing as though we missed out on the whole day due to travelling. The four of us got our own private room (we each had our own set of bunk beds), set up, and went to eat. We didn't see any beach around us...or anything for that matter. All we could see were a pool, a bar, and an area to eat at. Needless to say, we were let down. Still, we decided to make the best of it. We got dinner, eaten alive by bugs, and went for a swim. It was actually a really fun pool, with a big tiki man head that had a waterfall coming out of its nose, a jacuzzi in its mouth, and a water slide. We later went to the bar to watch a world championship rugby game with a lot of locals. Fiji won. They went nuts. Still, there were no Americans there, no younger people, no other guests really. It was a little odd. We decided not to drink, seeing as though we had a bar tab and wanted to wait until we were more awake to use it.
The next day we got up to go lay out by the pool. Then, we finally decided to see what the brochure was talking about when it mentioned all different shops and restaurants. After wandering around, we finally noticed that Tsulu was part of a whole little village which was soooo nice with places to eat, shop for souvenirs and groceries, and spas. It really made staying there so much nicer. We looked around and after eating, decided we would find the beach. When we did, I really felt like I was there, as the second we step foot on the sand, see all different islands out in the ocean. It was really pretty. They buried me in the sand, we spent some time in the ocean, then walked along the beach before heading back. That night, we definitely used our bar tabs and made best friends with Litiana the bartender. We also found the only 24-hour store there, where they make hot bread. And let me tell you: the fact that I was able to get a huge roll for 65 cents (which is about 35-40 cents American) really made my night. All in all, it was a lot of fun!
Our last day there we hung around, got massages (by big burly spiritual Fijian women) who - instead of giving me a back massage like I asked, rubbed my butt for 30+ minutes. We spent our last night hanging out around the pool and talking to Litiana.
The next day we had to catch an 8:30 bus back to Nadi (where the airport is). After making a couple of shady connections which included a scary cab driver and waiting for a bus at a random rundown hostel, we were on a nice big boat headed to Beachcomber Island. After about a half an hour, we arrived on the tiny tiny island (you could really walk the length of it in 10 minutes tops) and realized were in paradise in the middle of the Pacific with other little islands all around us. It had the clearest water with coral reefs.
Basically, here was the next few days summed up: mornings consisted of make-your-own omelet breakfasts (if we got up in time) with the greatest chef who loved me and knew my name. (I think all the Fijians loved me. Maybe I made that up because I loved them and don't like the rejection. Who knows...) We would lay out on the beach most of the day, maybe spend time around the bar area listening to the island band, and doing random afternoon activities such as snorkeling and banana boating. Lunch was always the worst meal of the three but would hold us off enough for when dinner would come, which was usually good and had a different theme every night. After dinner we would watch the sunset/shower and then go to happy hour. After that, there was usually a themed show, whether it was traditional Fijian song/dance, contests (limbo, dance, etc.), or a hula show with all different Polynesian dances. After that, it was usually just a dance party the rest of the night. Then we'd go to sleep in our 100+ person hut with no a/c and the loudest snorer in the world, hoping to fall asleep before we sweat to death. It was great!
I also should mention the drunkest older women I have ever seen. The three of them (Mama Chris, Lil' Brownie, and the other one we didn't name because she wasn't as exciting) arrived wasted the first night we were there and were so bad they needed to be carried off their boat because one almost fell off the side. They were drunk from the minute they arrived until we left, dancing like crazy people, running behind the bar, harassing the band, and just being all around amazing. Mama Chris claimed it was her 60th birthday, but even spending that much time in the sun, I can't imagine 60 could look so old. She had to be at least 70. I'm sticking to it.
This past week wasn't too exciting. It was mostly a hassle since I had a major paper due Thursday, as well as my usual weekly mini essay for Australian Cinema and an article due for Marine Environment. Funny story, though, was when I went to my Writing class for the first time in 3 weeks (2 weeks ago I didn't go since Tara was here - then we were off for break) only to find there was no class at the other campus because of "Research Week." I don't even know what that means! Regardless, I wasted $6 and about an hour travelling back and forth so early in the morning. Luckily, I got all of my work done, even being STUPID and going out Wednesday night and drinking way more than expected. Friday was spent downtown chasing the Real World cast around. We were literally on our way back home and out of the corner of my eye I see an 8-person camera crew in black trying to sneak around. So we turned and followed them back to the club, walking directly behind cast members. We really weren't as creepy as I'm making it out to be. Regardless, we were at the same club as them, and at one point, the crew was taking a break from filming at actually sat at the same table as us. Being a schmuck, I didn't say a word, but they seemed so busy, listening to their headphones and figuring out when to bring out their bright bright light and film the cast some more.
Tomorrow I have an oral presentation on KARAOKE that I'm trying/failing to get ready for. It shouldn't be a big deal but I should really have some sort of plan of action.
In other news, it is April 22. In less than 8 weeks I'll be back in Philly, eating Rita's, Olive Garden, Fridays, Coldstone etc. etc. etc. It's kind of exciting! I'm having such a great time, but of course I still miss a lot of things/people/places from home. After all, I've never been away for this long. I'm actually kind of proud of myself. I know it will be so hard saying goodbye, as who knows when I'll be back in Australia or seeing most of these people again. Still, I can't wait to see everyone and start camp!
If you've read this far, you're a superstar. Thanks for caring/skipping the entire middle to see what I left at the bottom.
Sorry that I haven't updated in forever (AKA since before I left for Fiji). I know it's been hard, but we'll all get over it together. Now, I'm not making any promises but I'm going to try to do my best to recap the past 3 weeks. Because of my Alzheimer's, I don't remember that much. (Whoever is trying to make an alcohol joke, you're not funny. I really just have a crappy memory.) Regardless, bear with me. This update should be a beast.
(*The Tara week might be a lie in terms of when things happened, but the actual events did occur. I'm trying to work off of a picture timeline here.)
So let's begin with Tara's arrival on April 2nd. I woke up at about 5am to catch 2 buses and meet her at the airport. I thought I was tired, then I realized she was just getting off a 24-hour flight to come see me and felt kind of bad. Not that bad, just a little. We hung around, ate a little breakfast, and headed back to Coogee. After making best friends with her concierge (baggage person? I don't even remember...) we headed to the beach for a relaxing day in the area. Too bad there was an earthquake in the Solomon Islands (wha?) and the "tremors" created tsunamis. Therefore, the beaches on the east coast were closed down for a few hours because I think the water was a little rough. We found this out the second our feet touched the sand. Actually, we found this out just before we hit the sand when a crazy old woman ran to us to tell us. Turns out she wasn't that crazy... just a little. We decided to hang around her hotel pool for the afternoon until her room was ready, got some lunch, then went back to the reopened beach. After dinner, we headed over to a bar in the area and made it an early night.
The next day we headed downtown to Circular Quay and saw the bridge and Opera House and all that usual stuff. Then we went to the zoo (my second visit - each time is amazing) and had a blast going picture crazy, avoiding duck bites, petting baby kangaroos, making best friends with seagulls who wanted our food, and watching seals flip. Due to more tiredness, we once again stayed in the area and called it an early night.
Wednesday we went to Darling Harbor. We were originally saving this for Thursday (I think?) but the weather was not the best that morning. (It obviously got sunny as we were halfway downtown.) There we visited our future home, the Chinese Garden of Friendship (really? what is that even?!), and wandered around like fools until we headed over to the Aquarium. Tosh already knew my stance on that place (it's kind of a letdown, esp. after visiting the zoo). She claims she liked it, but I know the truth. We did pet a shark, though. Let me rephrase: She pet a shark, I just tapped it and jumped. (And by shark, I mean a baby one about a foot long, if that.) That night we headed over to the Palace where she met many people (including Cookie). We both were a little sloppy that night but as far as I can remember, it was a good time. We ended up leaving not too late (we arrived early), getting some food, and feeding random birds instead of ourselves.
Because of class Thursday, we didn't head out until later. We spent the early evening walking around the Rocks area, which is an older looking spot by the bridge. Tosh got some souvenirs, and after meeting Brian, the three of us headed to dinner at a small pizza place. We then headed back to the Darling Harbor area where we hit up Star City, the only casino in Sydney. Basically, the night did not end as planned, as the place is only meant to crush dreams. In the end, we learned our lesson and vowed never to return.
The weather was bad the next day (AGAIN!), once again crushing our beach dreams. We had actually planned to go scuba diving but due to Tosh's fears, we chickened out. We spent today relaxing around the area and I couldn't even tell you how that night went. No, I didn't drink. I just can't remember and have no pictures to remind me. (Also, I feel like I should address these alcoholic comments. I'm not one - and especially compared to the majority of people here, I've been doing pretty good as far as my alcohol intake is concerned. So you should be proud and not worried...or laugh at me.)
Saturday was her last day and we were committed to make the best of it. For the past few days, we had been planning to take the coastal walk from Coogee to Bondi Beach (something I had yet to do) but the morning weather kept deterring us. Today was the day that we'd do it, rain or shine, preferably shine. While the sun was out in the morning, it got cloudy and rainy quickly. Obviously the one day the weather flips on us, we're on the wrong end of it. The good thing was that it didn't pour while walking along the edges of cliffs. We actually watched a storm come in from the ocean and as it was heading right for us, decided to just stop and go to the left, completely missing us. It was a pretty good moment getting to avoid that. We finally made it to
Bondi, but instead of seeing a shiny, crowded beach, we saw a sad, dark, empty place. Of course, it wasn't the excitement we expected, but we were nonetheless proud of doing the whole 7km walk. We were champs. We then went to Bondi Junction (between Bondi and Coogee) which is basically just a HUGE mall and transportation depot/terminal/whatever and shopped around. We went back to Coogee, had our last supper, and after much debate, went to the bar area under her hotel for a little.
After saying goodbye to Tosh and apologizing for a hectic week of bad weather, I made my way back to the house to finish my packing for Fiji. My flight was around 8am, so the cab was picking us up at 5:30 and I was no where near ready. It also didn't help that my laundry hanging outside was soaked, therefore causing me to go into panic mode, hanging everything on top of fans and praying for the best. Luckily, things got as close to dry as they could get in that short period of time. I also got 0 sleep and heading to the airport feeling a little delirious, but extremely excited!
When we (Cookie and I) arrived at the gate, we saw two girls who went to UNSW - Danielle and Jen - who actually had the same flights and itinerary as us, so we figured we'd be spending our trips together. It was nice to know we'd be around other people. I actually knew Danielle from the first day, as we were in the same van that dropped people off at their housing. Our flight was on a tiny tiny plane that we had to board by stairway (which - I'm not going to lie - was kind of fun). Still, for one helluva expensive flight, there was zero entertainment or food provided. They all cost a lot of money. And when I say no food, I mean not even peanuts. We tried to sleep and did a little (I completely missed take-off), but the rest of the way wasn't too bad. We first realized where we were when we got off the plane (another stairway) and were blasted with heat. We were in Fiji! (More specifically, we were on Viti Levu, Fiji's main island. I think Survivor was filmed somewhere off the other big island: Vanua Levu. Kind of disappointing...I got over it, though.)
We met up with our driver (unfortunately, no one was there to give us a song and dance and shell necklaces like the internet told me) after about an hour waiting to get through customs - it was a ridiculous line. He told us our ride was a half hour long. Two and a half hours later, driving through the streets of Fiji, with cows, dogs, and horses walking around wild on the sides of the roads, small huts and villages with people looking to hitch rides to the nearest towns, green EVERYWHERE, and beautiful beaches, we arrived at our first location: Tsulu, which is in Fiji's Pacific Harbor. We were a little disappointed, seeing as though we missed out on the whole day due to travelling. The four of us got our own private room (we each had our own set of bunk beds), set up, and went to eat. We didn't see any beach around us...or anything for that matter. All we could see were a pool, a bar, and an area to eat at. Needless to say, we were let down. Still, we decided to make the best of it. We got dinner, eaten alive by bugs, and went for a swim. It was actually a really fun pool, with a big tiki man head that had a waterfall coming out of its nose, a jacuzzi in its mouth, and a water slide. We later went to the bar to watch a world championship rugby game with a lot of locals. Fiji won. They went nuts. Still, there were no Americans there, no younger people, no other guests really. It was a little odd. We decided not to drink, seeing as though we had a bar tab and wanted to wait until we were more awake to use it.
The next day we got up to go lay out by the pool. Then, we finally decided to see what the brochure was talking about when it mentioned all different shops and restaurants. After wandering around, we finally noticed that Tsulu was part of a whole little village which was soooo nice with places to eat, shop for souvenirs and groceries, and spas. It really made staying there so much nicer. We looked around and after eating, decided we would find the beach. When we did, I really felt like I was there, as the second we step foot on the sand, see all different islands out in the ocean. It was really pretty. They buried me in the sand, we spent some time in the ocean, then walked along the beach before heading back. That night, we definitely used our bar tabs and made best friends with Litiana the bartender. We also found the only 24-hour store there, where they make hot bread. And let me tell you: the fact that I was able to get a huge roll for 65 cents (which is about 35-40 cents American) really made my night. All in all, it was a lot of fun!
Our last day there we hung around, got massages (by big burly spiritual Fijian women) who - instead of giving me a back massage like I asked, rubbed my butt for 30+ minutes. We spent our last night hanging out around the pool and talking to Litiana.
The next day we had to catch an 8:30 bus back to Nadi (where the airport is). After making a couple of shady connections which included a scary cab driver and waiting for a bus at a random rundown hostel, we were on a nice big boat headed to Beachcomber Island. After about a half an hour, we arrived on the tiny tiny island (you could really walk the length of it in 10 minutes tops) and realized were in paradise in the middle of the Pacific with other little islands all around us. It had the clearest water with coral reefs.
Basically, here was the next few days summed up: mornings consisted of make-your-own omelet breakfasts (if we got up in time) with the greatest chef who loved me and knew my name. (I think all the Fijians loved me. Maybe I made that up because I loved them and don't like the rejection. Who knows...) We would lay out on the beach most of the day, maybe spend time around the bar area listening to the island band, and doing random afternoon activities such as snorkeling and banana boating. Lunch was always the worst meal of the three but would hold us off enough for when dinner would come, which was usually good and had a different theme every night. After dinner we would watch the sunset/shower and then go to happy hour. After that, there was usually a themed show, whether it was traditional Fijian song/dance, contests (limbo, dance, etc.), or a hula show with all different Polynesian dances. After that, it was usually just a dance party the rest of the night. Then we'd go to sleep in our 100+ person hut with no a/c and the loudest snorer in the world, hoping to fall asleep before we sweat to death. It was great!
I also should mention the drunkest older women I have ever seen. The three of them (Mama Chris, Lil' Brownie, and the other one we didn't name because she wasn't as exciting) arrived wasted the first night we were there and were so bad they needed to be carried off their boat because one almost fell off the side. They were drunk from the minute they arrived until we left, dancing like crazy people, running behind the bar, harassing the band, and just being all around amazing. Mama Chris claimed it was her 60th birthday, but even spending that much time in the sun, I can't imagine 60 could look so old. She had to be at least 70. I'm sticking to it.
This past week wasn't too exciting. It was mostly a hassle since I had a major paper due Thursday, as well as my usual weekly mini essay for Australian Cinema and an article due for Marine Environment. Funny story, though, was when I went to my Writing class for the first time in 3 weeks (2 weeks ago I didn't go since Tara was here - then we were off for break) only to find there was no class at the other campus because of "Research Week." I don't even know what that means! Regardless, I wasted $6 and about an hour travelling back and forth so early in the morning. Luckily, I got all of my work done, even being STUPID and going out Wednesday night and drinking way more than expected. Friday was spent downtown chasing the Real World cast around. We were literally on our way back home and out of the corner of my eye I see an 8-person camera crew in black trying to sneak around. So we turned and followed them back to the club, walking directly behind cast members. We really weren't as creepy as I'm making it out to be. Regardless, we were at the same club as them, and at one point, the crew was taking a break from filming at actually sat at the same table as us. Being a schmuck, I didn't say a word, but they seemed so busy, listening to their headphones and figuring out when to bring out their bright bright light and film the cast some more.
Tomorrow I have an oral presentation on KARAOKE that I'm trying/failing to get ready for. It shouldn't be a big deal but I should really have some sort of plan of action.
In other news, it is April 22. In less than 8 weeks I'll be back in Philly, eating Rita's, Olive Garden, Fridays, Coldstone etc. etc. etc. It's kind of exciting! I'm having such a great time, but of course I still miss a lot of things/people/places from home. After all, I've never been away for this long. I'm actually kind of proud of myself. I know it will be so hard saying goodbye, as who knows when I'll be back in Australia or seeing most of these people again. Still, I can't wait to see everyone and start camp!
If you've read this far, you're a superstar. Thanks for caring/skipping the entire middle to see what I left at the bottom.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
I'mma Goin to Fiji
This past week with Tara was sort of great/sort of a mess, but I'm so happy she came. I'd update on that now but I have a cab coming in a little over an hour to shlep me and Caryn off to the airport. I'm running on no sleep dealing with wet clothes but I think it'll all work out. I hope... When I get back from Fiji (!!!!!!) I'll have a major update on the past 2 weeks.
Leave me lovin' for when I get back!
Leave me lovin' for when I get back!
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