Bula!!

So…I officially never want to leave!!! Fiji is so beautiful, relaxing, and perfect! Our plane arrived last night, and by the time we went through baggage claims, customs, and found our hotel, it was nearly 9 o’clock. We stayed at the Hexagon National Hotel in Nadi, Fiji (pronounced Nandi), and left this morning around 7:45 for the Coral Coast, about a 2 hour drive. We stopped along the way in a small town called Singatoka to shop for groceries, souvenirs, gifts for the homestay families we will be staying with in Votua village, and a sulu, the skirt we are all required to wear while in the villages. A few of us walked into a nearby market but didn’t stay for long due to the hustle and bustle and pressure from every owner to visit their stand. Many women tried to give me and my friends bracelets or necklaces as a “gift”, but we were told not to accept these because the store owners have been known to chase people down after giving them gifts, accuse them of stealing, and force them to pay high prices for them. It took a lot of will power for me to refuse these beautiful gifts, but I wasn’t going to take any chances! We bought a few groceries because we have no idea what types of food to expect while in the villages or resorts, and searched numerous shops to find a sulu pattern we liked. The sulu should be long enough to completely cover your knees and is to be worn at all times while in the villages, and we were told that the brighter the fabric, the better. My sulu is a blue and purple fabric with Hawaiian-like flowers that I will simply wrap around my waist a few times. After that, we traveled a little further and stopped at Kula Eco Park, an environmental park and zoo. We enjoyed the park but we the entire group was hot, hungry, and still not recovered from our mild jet lag. We finally reached The Beachhouse, our backpackers resort, around 2 o’clock and began to explore. Fiji is awesome! The beach at our resort is perfect, complete with a lagoon, countless palm trees, and hammocks to relax in while trying to take in every ounce of the beautiful scenery! If I could trade in my classmates and teachers for my family and friends, I could easily stay here forever  Our resort has enough to keep us busy for the next year, including horseback riding, massages, scuba diving, kayaks, or hiking but we sadly don’t have much free time. We had a lecture on tourism not long after we arrived, and then visited the Warwick Resort and Spa, a nearby 5-star hotel, that did nothing but make my classmates and I jealous and bitter. Brittany and I swam for a while at the beach afterwards and made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to avoid the curry that was served for dinner here. Tomorrow, we will have a really long day! We have to meet at our bus at 7:00 to depart for the Luva River, where we will be kayaking down the class II rapids and down the rest of the river, past numerous waterfalls before pulling our kayaks onshore and hiking through the rainforest. It will last until around 5 in the afternoon, and our guide told us that it’s his favorite part of the trip…so we are excited. Fiji is the most relaxing place I have ever been, and the people are so friendly! They wave and yell “Bula!”(Fijian phrase for hello) whenever they see us and their generosity is remarkable. The Fijiian children are so beautiful and happy, and I would absolutely love to bring one home as a souvenir!  We will leave the day after tomorrow for Votua Village and two students will stay with different families there for one night. I think we are all anxious to visit a Fijian village and learn a little bit about their culture! We will them spend two nights on Bounty Island, the “celebrate the journey…” picture from the top of the page, and one more night at the Hexagon Hotel before returning home.  I miss home, and I’m anxious to catch up on everything I have missed out on while gone, but Fiji is truly amazing and I’m so sad we will be in this beautiful country for only a week!