Hello there, neglected blog

I suppose it's about time I post on here before I have even more adventures to tell. Last week was spring break and it was one of the best I've had (of course spring breaks in Kiawah will always be treasured memories -- lookin at you, Becca).

Soooo, we started off on our adventure on Saturday morning last week. The whole UWP clan was back together, even Kris and Kyle (the coordinators), and it was nice because we haven't really done anything all together since the beginning. Dylan, Kaci, Alex, Jake, and Josh came with us too, so we had a pretty sizable group. We were supposed to board the minibus at 9:30 sharp, but naturally it ended up coming at almost 11 because the driver had too much to drink the night before and forgot he was hired to drive that day and his brother had to replace him. Typical Fiji, really. Anyway, we didn't even really know for sure where we were going until that morning, but our first destination was Robinson Crusoe Island. It's an island that's roughly a square mile, so the resort is the only thing on it, similar to Leleuvia. It's kind of a touristy place, but it was still really fun. The staff all seemed super into their jobs and did a good job of getting everybody to participate in the games and dancing and other silly stuff. We went snorkeling that day too, but most of the coral I saw was dead and there weren't as many fish as in other places. Still though, if my weekend consists of snorkeling in Fiji, I'm not going to complain.

The island

After dinner and a Fijian toffee making demonstration (just sugar and coconut shavings in a pan until it caramelizes -- simple but sooo delicious), the staff started their show and it was amazing. They did traditional dances that reminded me that Fijians of the past were fearsome warriors, and did a lot of dances involving machetes and fire. The fire dancing blew my mind, they were all so good at what they did. Later on in the night, one of the dancers even brought out his torch and let us try some of it ourselves on the beach. One of the most impressive things I saw them do was put the torch in their mouth and have fire remaining on their tongue, so I asked him to teach me how. Turns out there's nothing more to it than just sticking a lit torch in your mouth, so of course I tried it anyway. I wish I had a picture of that, I felt like such a badass, even if my tongue did get mildly burnt.
This place was also like Leleuvia in that they turned off the electricity on the island at midnight. A couple of us went out on the beach at midnight to look at the stars without any light pollution, and it was absolutely incredible. I've never seen so many stars, and the Milky Way stood out clear as day. We sat there just stargazing in awe until Jake went to pee in the ocean. Once he had taken care of his business, he called us over but wouldn't tell us why. When we went over and asked what was up, he didn't say anything but kicked at the water and we immediately saw why we had to go over. Turned out the water was full of bio-luminescent plankton, and they glowed when the water was disturbed. So now not only did we have all the stars in the sky, but we had a whole ocean of green "stars" to play with too. We were probably out there for a good hour or so taking in everything and enjoying the beauty of it all, until Carl said to me, "Alex, get out of the water right now." I looked down and lo and behold, there was a big sea snake just inches from my left foot. We didn't know for sure if they were poisonous or not, but I wasn't about to find out, and the safest route is to always just assume that most things in the ocean want to kill you. I found out later that they actually are highly venomous but have small mouths that make it hard to bite much more than fingers or toes. Still though, I don't want to think of what would have happened if Carl hadn't seen it and I had taken another step to the left. That was the point where we all decided to just go to bed.

This is the snake. Or maybe its brother.

The next day, we left around noon for our next stop on the trip, Natadola Beach. This is the same beach that we went to our first week in Fiji, the one where Diana got her face messed up by the giant waves. There was talk of surf lessons, but unfortunately the surfing never happened. Still though, the weather was perfect and we had a beautiful day just playing at the beach together. Kris and Kyle arranged for us to stay in some beachside villas, so when the sun went down it was like a big slumber party with all of us.

Our final destination was to Abaca (pronounced aum-ba-tha because Fijian language doesn't make much sense), which is a village at the base of Mt. Evans, the 4th tallest peak in Fiji (which is saying something since most of Fiji is mountains). We got there a little later than planned (Fiji time) and ended up starting our hike up the mountain around noon. The first half of the hike was out in the open under the noontime Fiji sun, so we were all just dripping sweat. I started struggling, but I didn't want to be the whiner that held the group up. I paid for it though when we took a break. I sat down on a rock to take a drink of water, and suddenly all the colors in the center of my focus started getting very bright and vibrant while the rest of my vision tunneled out to black. I tried just taking deep breaths and not make a big deal of it, but then I realized I was in trouble when Michelle ran over to me and asked if I was okay and her voice sounded distant. I never fully lost consciousness, but I got to the point that apparently I was white as a sheet and my lips turned blue and Kyle had to dump cold water over my head, at which point I gasped and felt like I had suddenly come back to life. After I was "revived" to the point that I could see and hear properly again, Kyle helped me over to a shady spot to lie down for a few minutes and rehydrate. I stayed there for about 15 minutes to make sure I'd be okay to continue while the rest of the group went ahead at my insistence. After that I paced myself a bit more and allowed myself to take breaks when I needed it.

This sums up my feelings during the ascent

Fortunately, I was fine the rest of the day and caught up to the rest of the group soon enough. I was a bit embarrassed and felt bad for scaring the others, but in my defense, it was a very difficult hike. Not only was it hot, but it was ridiculously steep and slippery in some spots, and to call what we were on a path is to use the word path loosely. A lot of it was crashing through blade grass and undergrowth or clinging on to tree branches to pull ourselves up. It took over 3 hours, but we finally made it to the summit, and the view made it all (in hindsight) worth it.

We were in the clouds!

Almost a mile up

You can see how sweaty and tired I am, but I did it!

For the second half of the week, almost everybody I know and hang out with left either on multi-day field trips or up to Taveuni. I spent one day doing nothing other than nap, eat, and read, then went to watch a movie with a friend who was actually still around (Searching for Sugarman is a fascinating documentary, by the way). Then yesterday, I hopped on an early bus to the Beachouse and got there by noon. Sam, Jeremiah, and Dan were already there, so it was a good excuse to get out of Suva for the day. I rented out a surfboard again and gave it another go. Sam helped me and gave me tips again, and I did a lot better! I still got pummeled plenty, but I managed to stand up almost as many times as not, so I was pretty proud of that. Discovering a love of surfing is just reconfirming my belief that I am meant to live near the ocean. Plus I was still out there by the time the sun set, and a surfboard out in the ocean is really the place to watch a sunset.