The University of the South Pacific and Suva

Hey so I promised I would take some pictures of what it's like living in Suva. We stayed in Suva this weekend because our resident director threw us a BBQ last night and some of us already have some assignments due this week. Plus, three of our kids joined the USP basketball team and their first game was this weekend so we went out and cheered for them!

 Our apartments are called the Waqavuka Flats, but in Fijian, the "q" sounds like "ng", so its pronounced "Wangavuka". 

Kitchen/Living area

Bedroom-Thanks for the sign family! :)

Bedroom

Bathroom

Bedroom

Technically we are located on campus grounds. The walk on the main road to my classes is like 15-20 minutes but if we "cut through" the back way we can get there in 10. It's not that big of a campus, but you'll see in the pictures below that there are lots of covered walkways. If necessary, you can get to anywhere on campus under some sort of shelter, which has already been tested as I've been caught in the rain several times. I've learned to bring both my sunglasses and my umbrella with me at all times!

Example of covered walkway

Another covered walkway

One of the student lounges

The main coffee shop on campus

I have my Literature lectures in this building

Faculty of Business and Economics

Inside of the Faculty of Business and Economics building

Typical lecture room-none of them are AC'ed so there are usually ceiling fans and they'll keep all the doors and windows open

Library

Backside of the library

This is where I have my tutorials for my classes

Ocean view from one of the campus buildings

Getting downtown is very easy; you can catch a bus without even being at a bus stop, but there is a bus stop right down the street from our apartments. Bus rides are 70 cents, taxis are everywhere and usually cost around $6 to get downtown. Below are some photos of around the city:

Digicel and Vodaphone are the two cell phone companies in Fiji

"Main St."

There's one huge vegetable market right in the center of downtown. It's what I've been using as a reference point to maneuver through the city. Every stand is almost exactly the same and there are hundreds of stands! Lettuce can be expensive here, but they always have coconuts, carrots, green beans, bananas, and eggs along with local fruits like papaya and breadfruit.

Bargain buy shops-you can find one on every block

Working hard or hardly working...not uncommon to see this!

Flowers are so colorful here :)

TappooCity is one of the two main malls downtown: while everything is closed on Sundays, the malls stay open and even have a grocery store inside.

The buses are nuts here, they drive so close to things and are always blaring music. Some even have LED lights and decorations on the inside. The bus bay can be quite confusing, but there are two or three places to pick up the bus on the route to USP. You always see people squeezing between the buses, even when they're pulling out, its a miracle I haven't seen anyone get hurt. 

This is the park area of downtown. It overlooks the harbor and looks really cool at night when all the boats are light up on the water. The pathway along the water is called the Sea Wall and when its not absurdly hot, you can often find a lot of people walking or running on the path.

That's it for now, hopefully I have some more exciting stuff to show next time! Hope all is well back home, I'm feeling pretty well adjusted here but of course missing everyone back in the states!!