BULA!

Hello in Fiji is Bula and every Fijian you see will say it to you with a big smile on thier face. They aren't trying to sell you anything, they are sincerely happy to have you in their country. I arrived in Nadi, a city on the southwest coast of Viti Levu on June 24th. I was completely confused as I crossed the international date line. It's so confusing to talk to people back home who are a day behind. I arrived in the airport and the first thing that confused me were the men all were wearing skirts. Fijian men wear sulus as a professional form of dress. They are long skirts that are worn as a part of their culture. Men also wear shorts and pants, but sulus are their formal wear. Women almost all wear dresses or skirts. I think in over two weeks I only saw 3 or 4 women wearing pants or capris. I dealt with the typical confusion in the airport and people trying to tell me the hostel I wanted to go to was full and they wouldn't come pick me up, but sure enough after a 15 minute wait, my hostel bus arrived and I was on my way to the Nadi Bay Hotel. Nadi is not a very clean city and the beach was dirty, muddy and not very appealing as a place to swim.
















I quickly left Nadi and headed east along the coast line of the main island towards Singatoka, and the beach resort of Tubakula. This was my first experience of cars driving on the lefthand side of the road which is an experience in itself, especially when cars pass each other or cows are blocking the road and people are trying to get by. During u turns I absolutly have to close my eyes and hope for the best. I ended up at beatiful Tubakula with my own little house (only $25 Fiji dollars a night which is about $20 US). The beach was covered with coral and was hard on the feet. I did see some amazing beach life though like a blue starfish.











I did dive one day on the Coral Coast (the south coast of Viti Levu) and took full advantage of the resort hotel the dive shop was located in. My dive was expensive and wasn't that great, it was a day after it rained so the visibility was murky. I did work on my bouyency and breath control so it was good practice. I did see two white tipped reef sharks at the end of the dive. I spent the rest of the afternoon lounging by the pool or in a hamock looking out at the ocean. This is the life!

Sweating in Lahaina and Loving it!

Maui has been wonderful. Riding around on Alex's beater bicycle, cruising around on scooters, laying out on the beach and making new friends.

Alex and one of his roommates.

My dive trip was great and I was impressed with how well I felt getting in the water again after over a year since my last dive. This was my first shore dive and the first dive I swam with a white reef tip shark. He must have been about 5 feet long, unfortunately the photos of him didn't turn out...but here are some others,




This is a frog fish...almost impossible to spot as he blends right into the rocks! The dive master spotted him for us.

Alex and I did pick one night to party hard and stay up until sunrise...not too far fetched for me every now and then, Sunrise was beautiful as we watched it from two chairs across the street from his house.


Alex and I went out one night and met a great group of people from Orange County California. We hing out most of the night and went back to their hotel for an all night session of Guitar Hero which I absoluty loved. For those of you who don't know, this is a video game that you play with plastic guitars and you strum along to popular songs. I was immediatly addicted as you can imagine! They invited us over the next night for a BBQ at their hotel.

"Aloha"

The first leg of my trip is not too far from home. I am still on American soil, dealing with higher than American prices. My saving grace is staying with someone who lives here which definitely cuts down the cost for 10 days in Hawaii. I am staying in the town of Lahaina, on the west side of the Island of Maui. I've been here before and came back to visit a friend Alex who I met the last time I was here a little ofer a year ago.



We hiked up to and swam in Twin Falls...the water levels were very low due to lack of rain. Alex wanted to jump in from above the waterfall, about 25 feet up, but the pool was only about 8 feet deep. We also went to the Old Lahaina Luau which was amazing! the food was great and the dancers were beautiful. I had my photo taken with George, the chanter from the ceremonies. Alex works for the company that manages the Luau so we were able to get in for free and drink Mai Tai's to our hearts content!


I've also spent some time alone while Alex works in the afternoon/evenings. He lives right across the street from the ocean so I try and grab a beer just before sunset and stroll across to watch sea turtles poking their heads above water. It's my favorite time of day and I feel so peaceful watching them, or whatever else happend to float by as I watch the sun go down.




On the way to the beach from Alex's house there is a small buddhist temple. The Buddha statue that sits on the ground is about 20 feet tall. Its a beautiful sight.



I've been trying lots of fun new things to eat and drink which is one of my favorite parts of traveling. We purchased a HUGE fruit that Alex thought was a bread fruit but it turned out to be an unripened jack fruit. We had fun cutting it open but were sad to have to throw the entire thing away because it was hard inside and tasted like paste.



I also did get a chance to take a scuba refresher course. It was my 15th dive, and my first ever beach dive. We dived right off of an old broken fishing pier in Lahaina. We saw a HUGE sea turtle, and my first ever white tipped reef shark. he must have been about 5 feet long and swam within just a few feet of us. It was exhilerating and exciting to be so close to such a feared animal. I maintained composure, but I really sucked in a lot of air because my tank ended at 500 PSI! I have two more days to enjoy the island before I move on to the next. I couldn't be happier.

"Get busy living or get busy dying"

The day has finally arrived for me to embark on my three month journey around the Pacific. I leave this afternoon for Hawaii. It is with mixed emotions that I go. I am so excited to see the world, dive in amazing waters, experience new cultures, tan on some of the world's most amazing beaches, get sick on random street foods that I can't help but taste...and at the same time leaving so many friends back home is tugging at my heart strings. I don't like being sad so I am trying to avoid it as much as possible. It's not that I don't care about leaving close friends or that I won't miss everyone dearly, I would rather just choose to be happy so that's what I do. (Hopefully I can keep that philosophy up on the road!)

The last several weeks have been so full of preparations that I am glad to be done with the planning and finally to be going. My bag is packed weighing in at a mere 22 pounds. That's pretty light to live off of for 3 months and I feel proud of my minimalism. I probably could even take less, but a few creature comforts are hard to give up (i.e. one very tiny blow-dryer, face moisturizer, and other girly necessities).

I guess the last two weeks since I left my job, I have been busy living. Playing with friends and packing have taken precedence over other things. Alas, one thing on my list of "to do's" before I left was to continue my Mallorca posts. Those of you interested in seeing more pictures follow this link. Many people asked me about the photo I posted of the dolphin (no I didn't take it) but if you check out Tom's album on the link you can see the actuals dolphins we saw.

http://www.georgejenson.com/gallery2/main.php

Username - friends
Password - jennifer

I will be updating my blog along the way so check in and see photos and be jealous. I'll try and update things weekly as I find internet cafe's.

peace, love
(as a beautiful little girl I know says)

Catching Up

Well I may finally have time to actually write my second Mallorca post now that I have some time on my hands. My last day of work was Friday. I am a free woman. "I'm free, to do what I want, any ole time" sing it!

I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog. One thing I wanted to post was that my Ultimate Team did fairly well this season. We made it to the semi finals and then played the worst game we played all season and lost. We were a great team and had one bad night. Too bad it was during such an important game. I can say that I tried and had my first ever catch in the end zone and scored one of our few points of the game! I was so excited even after we lost because I know I improved tremendously this season.

I have only a few precious 19 days left here in Arizona before I make my first stop of my trip in Maui. I have a free place to stay and a friend waiting to hang out so the first little leg of my trip is set. I'll be spending the next few days packing up all my belongings to store them, prepping for my trip, and spending time with friends and family before I go.

F Gas Prices - Ride a Bike

Are you tired of gas prices going up and your wallet suffering the consequences?

Are you tired of forwarded e-mails that tell you to not buy gas at Mobil and Exxon?

Are you tired of the lame e-mails that tell all of America not to buy gas on one particular day so that gas companies will suffer and magically lower their prices??

I may not be a major CEO of a major company that will try to impress you with my status or where I work. I am simply a logical girl with some common sense.

America - don't spend so much on gas - get out there and ride a bike! Buy a more fuel economic car. Move closer to your work. Walk to the store. Walk to your mailbox. Take the dog with you and get that poor puppy some exercise. Share a ride. Take the bus. Bust out your rollerblades. Carpool. Driving less = spending less.

Figure out a way to have a smaller eco-footprint and save yourself some money at the same time. The added bonus is that you will be healthier by getting outside and giving your body some probably well needed physical activity.

F the gas prices. We all agree they are ridiculous! They may NEVER go down. Don't drive as much they won't have such an impact on your wallet. It's working for me. It's not easy, but at least it is something I do have control over.

"The Game Is On"

I received an e-mail with "The game is On" as the subject line. My first thought was...GO SUNS! The e-mail actually stated this...


The Game Is On!!!

Describe me in one word.... just one single word. Send it to me and
to me only. Then send this message to all your friends and see how
many strange and interesting things they say about you. It's fun.
Here's how:
1. Hit the reply key and send me my one word.
2. Then return to this message, and forward it to your friends
(including me) and see what people say about you when limited to one
word!!!!

May you never forget what is worth remembering.


So far people describe me as:

Loyal
Smiley
Alluring
Venturesome
Creative

I'm diggin the game : )

p.s. GO SUNS!!!