Last Days in the Tropics

While life in Fiji was slower than my own crazy life at home, I still found plenty to do. Always helps that I had some awesome new friends to spend time with, as well as old friends that I hadn't seen in a while! I enjoyed my time with the Grays. I hope they were as glad to have me as they said they were. I can attest that it is nice to have someone from home visiting. Tho' I couldn't bring the cold, snow and hockey sticks, we still had a good time. And we've made plans for when they come back to Alaska.... I think somehow I owe the boys a steak dinner. Haha

Some things I experienced were brand new experiences.... like standing outside waiting for the bus.... it's bright and sunny and in a matter of seconds, the sky opens up and dumps buckets of rain. So I go back to the house to get an umbrella, head back out to the edge of the driveway.... now with an umbrella, one that leaks a bit, I must say. After waiting in the pouring rain for about 45 minutes I decided to change plans and stay in that day. Sunshine and rain is a good description of Fiji. 

with my leaky umbrella

My final week at the Grays, I got the urge to do some baking. Course, they were pretty okay with that, seeing as they have three older boys who like to eat. :) Bro. R had some misgivings about my cooking abilities, though in the end I think he conceded that I do know how to cook. Pretty sure he just liked to give me a hard time. One day I made cinnamon rolls; a double batch to be exact. That was a lot of rolls! but they were gone within two days. I also made apple pie that week. And gave them a recipe for BBQ sauce (thanks Carpenters) that we made pulled pork with. It had a slight twist to it, so it was more like Fijian Louisiana bbq sauce, but it was still good. 

half of the batch

yum!

 We had Youth Night my last weekend in Suva. Many of the youth I had met previously, but we had others show up also. It was a grand time, I mostly just hung back and watched the excitement. The highlight of the night had to be CG acting like a pig. Ha! And Bro. J did an excellent job teaching and sharing the Gospel. 

yay! their team won!

Saturday we went out visiting. During the time I was out and about that day, I baked in the sun (the most sunburn I had of the entire four weeks) and got drenched in the rain. Like I said, Fiji = sunshine and rain. The morning was sunny and HOT and then the afternoon was cool and rainy. There was impressive thunder and lightning! I LOVE thunder & lightning. But my friend who was with me doesn't have the same appreciation. :) 

I am so grateful I had the great opportunity to travel to Fiji, visit my friends, make new ones and mark another country off my list to visit. :) The people are very friendly and I have many wonderful memories of my time there. Hot climates are not my favorite, but it was an awesome experience. 

last Sunday

my amazing housemates

Around the Island

I know I'm a little behind on blogging, that's what happens when you travel and internet is not readily available all the time. oh well, life happens. 

One week while in Fiji, Filo and decided to travel around the island. It's a fairly small island, so you can drive all the way around in a day (roughly 10 hours). But I wanted to see more than the road, so we took about four days to do it. 

First bus ride was almost four hours. We were only stopping briefly in that town before heading to a small village on the beach. While waiting for a our bus, we had a little food so had us a mini picnic on a random cement picnic table near the river. Only thing was it started to rain, so we tried eating our food without it getting soggy and keeping our possessions dry. It didn't rain long thankfully; we had a taxi driver next to us that kept talking to us, he offered to let us sit in his car out of the rain if it got bad. Ha. 

When we arrived at the village, it was pretty quiet. Everyone was at work still, so after greeting the old grandfathers we went for a swim. It was raining lightly, but hey we can swim in the rain too! That was only my 2nd time swimming in an ocean. We also went swimming the next morning in the beautiful, bright, HOT sunshine. We ate fish (go figure) for dinner and there was octopus soup for appetizer, but after one bite, I determined I wasn't hungry. ;) 

The sunset was spectacular. We sat on the big rocks overlooking the ocean and watched the sky change colors until it settled into a deep blue. So cool to sleep at night with the ocean roaring and crashing in the background. 

after swimming in the rain

eating fish Fijian style 

3rd time swimming in the ocean!

sunset at the beach

the village near the beach

traditional Fijian hut

The next day we traveled on. Stopped on the west side of the island for two nights. Went into the big town of Nadi (pronounced Nandi) to look around and do some shopping. Don't think I bought anything though. I didn't realize that they sell Ugg boots in Fiji! Yep, they sure do. Have no idea why you would want to wear winter boots in a tropic climate. crazy. (shaking my head)

day two of traveling (at a bus stop)

look like a tourist, eh? 

traveling by bus 

I had a great time! The last day we traveled by taxi, since others were going our direction and they already had a taxi reserved. It saved us money, but no a/c in the car, so rode with our windows down. My hair was blown to frizziness, I was hot and sticky and the sun burned the top of my knee. Yep, the only sun burn from that week was the top of my knee. Weird. Both Filo and I were so glad to get home that night. 

We had  a lot of fun.... I enjoyed swimming in the ocean and she liked the small green friend in her purse. Ha!

last day of traveling (headed home!)

Life in the Tropics

If you had asked during my first two weeks in Fiji, I would have told you that I was sure Fiji meant "outside sauna." It was HOT and very humid! I was tired a lot, some I'm sure from traveling, but I think the heat also made me exhausted. I went to bed early for the first week and slept in most days also. Felt like a bum, but I was SO tired! Now I've adjusted and it's helped that it has cooled off. Normally this time of year it would be getting hotter as we coming up on their hot season. But maybe the Lord knew this Alaskan girl can only handle so much heat! The past week it's been really breezy and cooler. Lots of rain also. Some people have been wearing coats and jackets, but not I. Still not cool enough for that. :) 

Life here has been interesting to say the least. Never have to worry about being lonely at least... there's always a lizard around somewhere to keep my company. I don't mind the lizards except for when they run across my foot unannounced while I'm taking a cold shower. Didn't scream, okay, so I yelled, but it was just a short, quiet yell. Just glad it wasn't the large spider that had watched me on a previous day. Then I probably would have screamed. My first night I arrived, I had gone to bed early on account of traveling for so many hours. Had just laid down on my bed (only about six inches off the floor), when I glanced over and saw a tiny mouse peeking through my doorway. I looked at him, he looked at me, then he ran off. I rolled over and went to sleep. 

Alaska is far from humid, so living in such humidity has been different. One of the biggest challenges is putting on mascara every morning. Each time, I pray that a sneeze won't sneak up on me for the first five minutes after application. If it does... well, time to start all over again. Sometimes I wonder what people would say if I left the black lines on my eyelids for the rest of the day... haha 

As for taxi rides, well some are uneventful and others.... last week we cooked up a huge meal at our house and had to take it to the church for dinner. There were five of us in a station wagon, plus the driver. They piled in and there was no room left on the back seat. I was the last one... "uh guys, where am I going to sit?" so I crawled in on top of the three girls' lap in the back seat. We barely got the car door closed. My head was practically touching the ceiling and I couldn't lay down across their laps, cause one girl had a pitcher of hot sweet and sour sauce behind my head and another girl had a cake and pan of meatballs near my lap. My abbs sure got a workout that day. You should have seen the looks we received from people on the street. Getting out when we reached our destination was interesting as well. We laughed and laughed about that trip. 

my house for the month

at the bus station

cooking dinner

dinner with my lovely friends