Beachouse!

First week of class...not too eventful. But I'll take some pictures of the campus sometime this week and post them here. We all felt the need to take one more weekend trip before classes actually picked up so we decided to go to a backpacking resort called the Beachouse.

The Beachouse shoreline

We first arrived when the tide was super low but this wasn't the same beach we were used to. It was pretty rocky and there was coral everywhere so it was hard to even wade out to water waste deep.

However, they do have so much more to do here. There's a fishing trip every morning, kayaking, horseback riding, snorkeling, jungle trekking, etc. Friday afternoon was spent kayaking and exploring the reef from the water above because the water is so clear!

Bright blue fish

They held a session of leaf weaving which we missed but they also held a coconut making jewelry session and I decided to try my arts and crafts skills by building a bracelet! 

Started with a chunk of coconut

Cut out the coconut meat and sanded it down

Not too shabby!

 I splurged a bit and decided to do the horseback ride yesterday which included a ride up to the tops of the hills. The view was absolutely gorgeous!! I was too scared to make my horse gallop but we did get to a trot speed. We also took the horses along the beach and rode on the rocks and sand as well.

It was a beautiful ride!

Fortunately the kayaking was free, so we spent a lot of time just kayaking out to the break and "surfing" the waves in our kayaks.

On the water

The resort also coordinates a volleyball game every day at 4 after the complimentary tea time. I played so much on the first day that I was starting to bruise on my wrists, it was so painful the next day! I tried playing again yesterday and only lasted like 20 minutes. The first volleyball game is actually how we met several of the other backpackers here. There have been several who are traveling the world for a few months, mostly from Europe.

Volleyball game!

Another shot of the shoreline

I tried to get a group shot of everyone from my program, eventually I'll get one with everyone. But for now, this was everyone who happened to be in the ocean this morning. From left to right its: Austin (from WI), Evan (at Marquette), Kellie (CA), Matt (ND), Shawn (CO), and Stephanie (my roommate, from CA). 

The rest of the weekend pretty much looked like this: 

 I could get used to this...haha. Just to clarify, my life here isn't like this. Suva is an interesting city, but it is a city and nothing like what people assume Fiji is like. The closest beach is 45 minutes away and the water on the coastline isn't very clean. I know I'll grow to love it, but it is nice being able to go away to places like these for the weekend!!

Fiji Museum and Colo-I-Suva National Park

Back at Uprising for the night celebrating a birthday tonight, totally taking advantage of the unlimited internet again!

This past week has been orientation. We've just been getting to know the campus and I finally have my schedule somewhat down. Here, they do mandatory set time lectures for your class and then you sign up for a certain number of tutorials per each class period. Unfortunately I don't have Fridays off anymore annnd I have an 8am on Monday. I'm in Fiji though, I can't complain right? Haha. The international office has been helpful so far. They set up a trip for all the international kids to go down to the Fiji museum.

Bamboo house boat

War uniform for one of the islands back in the day

Compared to the Smithsonians I'm used to back home, this wasn't a very intense museum. And it wasn't air conditioned. So while it was hard to pay attention to everything, I did learn a few things about the culture and history of the making of this country.

This was the description for a necklace...how creepy!

Guns from the British settlers

The Fijians were quite the scary people back in the day. They were pretty ruthless cannibals, not a proud moment in their history! Don't worry guys, they've evolved past that. However, much of the museum was full of war weapons and explanations of the passing of power from the British to the Japanese back to the British and finally gaining their independence back in the 70s. 

War paddle...imagine getting hit with one of those...sheesh

Bugs the size of my hand! Gross!

Evolution of dress in Fiji

Sugarcane pumper car

It was interesting when I wasn't sweating my butt off. I learned some new things and was able to converse and get to know some of the other international students. There are quite a few kids from Wisconsin here because there's a program through one of the schools up there. Other than that there are kids from Australia and New Zealand, Germany, one kid from Russia, Canada, China, and the Koreas. I've been grateful to have my friends from AustraLearn though, we've bonded a lot in the time we've been here. We even planned our own trip yesterday out to the Suva National Park to hang out in the waterfalls. Maybe if we had some help planning from the International Office, we wouldn't have been lost in the park for 2 and a half hours!! We finally found the waterfalls and had a great time nonetheless. 

So grumpy after being lost!

First source of water!

Now that we know how to get to the waterfalls (its only like a 30 minute hike from the start) it will definitely be an easy favorite of the group. We didn't go to the other waterfalls which were much bigger so we'll have to check those out eventually. The park was absolutely gorgeous, much better than the "city life" of Suva. It's taking a bit to adjust, but my friends in my group are helping me with all of it. As I mentioned, classes start on Monday so I'll be in a regular schedule soon. I'm looking into getting my scuba diving license soon so maybe I'll start that next weekend! Hope all is well back in the states!

Sote Village and first few days in Suva

Hey everyone! Finally back to the internet world, although everything is already much slower and takes 4x as long to load. It can be quite frustrating at times but hopefully I get used to it soon! We arrived in Suva on Friday to drop off our belongings and see the city before leaving early Saturday morning to start the journey to the Sote Village. One of our group leaders, Lavenia, actually grew up in the village before moving to Australia several years ago so she was able to provide us with plenty of information before arriving. As soon as we arrived in the village, we were formally welcomed into the community. The elders gave speeches (that were all in Fijian...) and we joined in on their kava ceremony. As previously mentioned, kava is a root found in Fiji; they mix the cut up root with water and take turns passing cups (coconut shells) around, beginning with the visiting tribal chief and then the home tribe's elders and then so on and so forth.

Traditional kava bowl

 Once we were formally welcomed into the tribe, we truly felt the community atmosphere and they treated us just like great friends. The first day, we helped build a vegetable garden for the community and helped install a sink with running water at the school. We then spent an afternoon playing with the children, they were so awesome. We had a coconut competition, a tug of war competition, and played volleyball and rugby for the afternoon. They were entertained doing anything and everything!

Coconut competition (they had to husk, crack open, and scrape the coconut)

...where's Waldo...?

All of us with the students!

Sote kids and I 

 On saturday night, the village graced us with several different dance performances. Every the small children offered some kind of entertainment for us! In response, we would run up and put small pieces of wrapped candy in their mouths and placed a long piece of fabric around the group at their feet as a sign of thanks and respect. Afterwards, we just danced the night away with them :)

Dancing on the first night

One of the boys' dances. Powder is often rubbed on dancers'  faces while they perform.

Sunday mornings are always reserved for church. They are a methodist village and they said their mass all in Fijian. It was scorching hot, we were all so sweaty; the gentlemen from the village wore "sulus" (the sarongs, or traditional long skirts) with coats and ties! Traditionally, no one does anything on Sundays. Literally, they eat and nap and then eat and nap some more. While we partook in some of the eating and napping, we all went on an afternoon trek through a LOT of mud and then floated down the
river a bit back towards the village.

Trekking through the river

Every meal is a feast there! 

Sugarcane is everywhere, its a tasty treat!

Sunday night was spent with a lot more kava and relaxation. We spent Monday at the school "teaching" the children. I was with the 7&8 group, roughly ages 12-15. This is the last grade level before they reach secondary school, a school located in the nearest town (Nasouri, roughly an hour from the Sote village). I was able to teach them the star spangled banner, and we played pictionary on the chalkboard. They taught me a few Fijian words and we worked on some math problems involving mixed fractions. They are so well-behaved and respectful, they were truly awesome kids to be around and just as willing to teach me things from their culture as they were to learn about mine.

"Teaching" the students

We spent the afternoon just hanging out, naturally with more kava and dancing. It was a sad farewell, but I knew that the children were well taken care of and there was plenty of food (they just pluck a coconut off the tree whenever they want a snack!) A bunch of the kids wrote down their addresses for me so hopefully one day I can send them a letter with all the great photos I got this past weekend. Some of the australearn kids are talking about going back and visiting again sometime this semester.

Goodbye children!

Goodbye Sote!

My kids and I

As for now, nothing really new in Suva. It's a city, so its fun and exploring what the city has to offer but its definitely not nearly as cool as the coast or the other parts of Fiji. It's weird not having a set schedule of events and I think we were all weirded out with the amount of free time we had the first day here. Orientation and registration is going on this week and classes start on Monday. We're hoping to get a short get-away trip this weekend before classes so I'll keep you posted!

Hello from Fiji :)

Snorkeling Adventure!

Today we were supposed to have a beach day on one of the local islands but when we got there, the waves were too choppy to really see anything of value for our snorkeling adventure so we ended up going for a nice boat ride. Eventually they dropped us off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere with our rented snorkeling fins and mask and we swam around for awhile until we found the reef. It was called the "something shark reef". But it was amazing, I've never been so close to so many interesting fish and it was the first time I was anywhere near real coral. Here are some pics!!

Top floor of our boat!

Happy in fiji :)

The island we were supposed to spend the day on

Blue fish

Rainy season in Fiji...watch out!

Coral 

Coral