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!!