Catching up

All right, time to finally get up to date with this thing.

I left off last time with the village stay. After the village, we went to a resort in Pacific Harbour called the Uprising where we again stayed in a hostel for 2 nights.The first day, Kris took us on another adventure, called the Jewel of Fiji day trip. We took a bus over to the home base of the tour where we piled into 2 boats and took off to another village up the river. There, we were welcomed with a full  kava ceremony while the men of the village did a traditional warrior dance in full grass skirt getups and everything, then the women sang a song and did a dance as well. Then they started taking us by the hand and having us join in on the dancing, which was hot and sweaty and pretty fun. Once our group was properly welcomed to the village, we all sat down on the mat to eat, and the food was all pretty much the same as the first village. Later on while the women were cleaning up from lunch, some other women started laying out various jewelry and souvenirs. The money all went back to the village, so I felt almost obligated to buy something, so I got this pretty leather bracelet with a turquoise turtle on it for $5.

Our guide in the village also showed us around, letting us watch the women weave mats, teaching us how to open a coconut in 6 seconds (very impressive actually), and taking us to the preschool, where the kids sang us some songs. It was so adorable, I'll have to upload the video on here later. We only stayed in this village for a couple hours, then it was off in the boats again. About half an hour upriver was a small path going through the jungle. It was about a 4 minute hike before we got to an absolutely gorgeous waterfall. There was a pool at the bottom of it that was perfect for swimming, and the water was so clear and refreshing. It was incredible. Definitely my idea of paradise.

The days following weren't so good. The day after our day tour was pretty much just open for us to hang around the beach and pool at the resort. I had started to feel sick on the boat ride back from the waterfall, and really went down hard the next day. Body aches, fever, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, sore throat; you name it, I probably had it. This continued on for about a week too. After our two nights at the Uprising, we finally made our way over to Suva to get checked into our dorms. The others all went to another waterfall with a rope swing after putting their stuff away, but I unfortunately stayed back and slept instead. I went to the doctor after 5 days of this and she said it was probably from the food/water in the village.

Enough of the negatives though; I'm better now and thankful for that. I've settled in nicely to my dorm, if you can even call it that. They're really just apartments. I live in 10th hall, which is made up of 6 different buildings. Each building has 3 floors, and each floor is it's own apartment with 8 small single bedrooms. All of the buildings are connected, and the windows and doors are virtually always open to let in some air (unfortunately the halls aren't air conditioned), so it's very open and free for us to roam about and go to other apartments if we want, although boys aren't allowed in the girls' buildings.

Campus is beautiful. I need to go around and take pictures of it, but there's so many exotic trees and plants everywhere. I'm slowly learning my way around here. It's kind of confusing, and much to my dismay, there are more hills on this campus than at UWP. I figure it's good for me though. At least that's what I tell myself as I sweat buckets on my way to and from my room.

I'm learning the ropes, settling into my new home and lifestyle, but I'd be lying if I said I don't get homesick. I miss everybody back home, and I miss my American conveniences. But then I look at where I am and remember how incredibly lucky I am to be here.