BULA!

Bula from Nadi, Fiji! (I wrote this blog on Saturday my time, so Friday your time – which is weird because I didn’t even have a Friday but it got erased and all my internet time was used up so I’m writing it again!) I finally got into Fiji at about 5:45 am on Saturday morning. I left on Thursday night at 10:30 pm… and the flight was only 10 hours long. I don’t get this whole date line, time zone thing! The flight was great! I was supposed to have a middle seat, but I stole Rusty’s and I laid my head on the window and slept the whole way practically). When we arrived in Fiji it was 71 degrees J Everyone had their luggage come in and some Fijian guy drove us to our hostel (don’t worry, mom, that was his job… it wasn’t just some guy with a car).  The hostel was really, really cool. It had a nice pool, restaurant, bar, and internet/phone place. Even though it was supposed to rain everyday, it didn’t! We actually had really good weather. It was likely to rain at night and in the morning and then be nice during the day. Since it rained so much it was very humid. The staff was amazing.. it didn’t even feel like a hostel at all. They knew a few people of my group by names and helped us with whatever we needed. Yesterday night (my last night in Fiji) they performed a kava ceremony. I guess it’s some traditional ceremony that they do, they make a drink and to us its kinda like a drug.. I mean not really but kinda I drank some and nothing happened so who knows! People can get addicted though. They sang and danced and even had a couple people from my group participate, surprisingly I wasn’t one of those people.  The first day we just sat around the pool and explored a little bit. Everyone was very tired and we went to bed early. The second day we pretty much did the same, except we ventured out and went towards town. We couldnt really get into town because of all the flooding, roads were very damaged and buildings needed to be fixed. We went to happy hour at O’Hanas and ended up staying all night. The bartenders name was Elizabeth, she was so great, even though she made us pay for all of our drinks… I mean usually people at least give one free if your there the whole night, but oh well haha! We were going to leave around 9:00 to go to a place called Ed’s, but as we walked outside we realized it was closed on Sundays. We walk back into O’Hanas and everyone started cheering! Then we had a dance party in the bar. Don’t worry, we weren’t making shame. Elizabeth said that she loves Americans and that we are so fun.  I met people from Japan and New Zealand and Australia that night. Even though we had a full night.. we were all in bed by 10:30 haha we went out early. The next day we all got up and took a ferry to Beachcomber Island. Most people who study in Australia from Eau Claire go to that island for their whole trip. The island was so amazing. Seriously so amazing. I guess 40 people sleep in one room though so that wouldn’t be very fun but the rest of the island is gorgeous. We walked around it in 15 minutes. We laid on the beach and went snorkeling and even watched some of the super bowl there (when we ate lunch)! We left the Island and then just kind of had a chill night. This was the night the staff put on the kava ceremony.  Yesterday we ventured out to Sydney! We took Air New Zealand…. Awesome!! They had like 15 movies and television and music videos and games in a tv right in from of you. They had ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ and if anyone got the 1 million dollar question they won a free plane ticket to New Zealand… I tried, but no luck :/ Also they had free drinks, which is always nice to a poor college student. I had a 2 hour layover in New Zealand, and then another 3 hours flight to Sydney. The flight from Fiji to New Zealand was about 2 hours. When I arrived in Sydney another girl I am traveling with and I realized we didn’t have one of our bags. They lost my luggage! Seriously, it would happen to me. But whatever, theres nothing really we can do. They think it got lost with the connection. But I’m in Sydney for 3 more days so it should come in time. I am in Sydney right now. Our hostel is right in the middle of the city, so it’s a nice change from Fiji. Last night we got to our hostel at around 7:30. I am in a room with 3 other girls I know. The rooms are so tiny! After we showered and stuff we went to the bar/dance club in the basement of our hostel, people from all around the city was there so we met a lot of people from different countries! Now its about 11 am here and im going to go exploreee the city J I’ll write again maybe when im on the plane to Perth.

Love, Allie