First things first: Spring Break!
Sam and I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning to fly to Fiji. After an all too expensive cab ride with a cab driver who thought we were ignorant tourists, we got to the airport and through customs, to our gate. The plane was huge, a big double-decker Air Pacific 747. The crowd going to Fiji was incredibly diverse. Most of the Hindus in Sydney were actually heading there because Fiji has a huge Diwali festival that was going on right as we got to Nadi. It was really cool to see all the women in their beautiful saris for the celebration. A great cultural start to our vacation. I immediately whipped out my Kindle and started
Middlesex, a book I've been meaning to read for almost two years. Within pages I was engrossed and so happy that I had bought it. A fantastic book makes a four hour plane ride go so fast and by the time we landed in Nadi I was well into it and hooked. It was dark by the time we arrived so there wasn't much to do besides head straight to the hotel, the Sheraton Fiji Denaru Resort. It's on its own island with three other resorts and we got an amazing deal through Travelocity. They upgraded our room and man, was it beautiful. The whole resort was gorgeous, open floor plan with views of the ocean and palm trees. The people were so friendly and kind. In Fiji you say 'Bula' for hello, welcome, and most greetings. So we had to embrace the bula attitude that they were giving us. It was great. I was exhausted and so was Sam so we headed into the room to watch some TV and get room service and sleep - my number one goal of vacation.
We woke up on Monday morning to an unfortunate sight - rain. But, rain in paradise is still paradise so we grabbed breakfast and I made the best of it by making some phone calls since my iPhone was my only calling option. I got to talk to Amanda, Danny, and Ben which made my morning. We then scheduled our spa treatments and decided to wander around the other resorts. I popped a squat on a pool chair under an umbrella to avoid the rain, curling up with my book. That's all I wanted - to read, to enjoy, to relax. Plus,
Middlesex was so engaging that any free second I could get to sit down, I would. I got some Christmas shopping done since the exchange rate was so brilliant and then headed over to the spa to get a massage and a pedicure. It was exactly what I needed after all the work and stress of the first half of the semester. The pedicure felt great too, and afterward we headed out for an Indian meal to celebrate Diwali with the country. It was quite tasty but the creeping feeling of being sick was definitely catching up to me and by the end of dinner (and two pitchers of water just to myself...) I couldn't ignore it. I had to go back to the room and sleep, hoping I would wake up feeling better.
I did not. I woke up on Tuesday morning to more rain and the feeling of being hit by a Mack truck. My sinuses were under so much pressure I could feel it throughout my head not to mention a sore throat and an obvious fever. I thought I'd try to make it through breakfast but even that was torture, so thankfully when staying at a nice resort there's always a doctor on call. After breakfast I phoned her and talked for awhile, describing my symptoms. Unfortunately, with the humidity in Fiji she advised me to go immediately back to my room and rest. Her first worry was H1N1 with all the traveling I'd been doing, so she wanted me away from the entirety of the resort and in air conditioning to control my fever. So I (surprisingly happily) went back to the room until she could see me at 2:30pm. I did the one thing I love to do on vacation: read. I devoured
Middlesex, absolutely ate it up. It was perfect, despite feeling sick, to lie in the air conditioning, in my giant comfy hotel bed, surrounded by pillows and a down comforter, reading a quality novel by myself. Even the rain and feeling sick couldn't really deter my happiness - this was vacation for me! When she showed up, thankfully my fever had gone down so she was pretty sure it wasn't the Swine Flu but instead a bad sinus infection that had spread throughout my body (I also had a painful rash on my legs and arms). Being viral, she couldn't give me an antibiotic but I got some Sudafed in my body and was able to sleep most of it off in the afternoon. I finished
Middlesex right as the sun was coming out of the clouds while setting. I decided to go do the last of my Christmas shopping and try to meet Sam for dinner. We hung out by the pool for awhile then went and had a wonderful fish dinner. I had delicious scallops and Mahi Mahi. Even though it was a day of sickness and exhaustion, I really got to do two things that make a vacation for me - read and eat good food. I was not upset at all.
Wednesday morning we woke up to bright blue skies so we decided to take a charter boat out to one of the other islands for a good beach day. We took a day trip to Beach Comber Island
and laid out on the white sandy beaches all morning. It was perfect. Soft sand, clear water, and music to listen to. We had a light lunch, met some new friends from North Carolina and chatted with them, then went snorkeling in the reef. We saw a nurse shark and I followed it as it darted away. The reef life was beautiful - lots of blue starfish and multi colored sea cucumbers not to mention tons of fish and coral. It was a good hour snorkel. Afterward, I planted myself back on the beach for a little more sun, started a new book (
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), and enjoyed the last hours of the sun. The clouds rolled back in right when we were getting back on the charter boat and the day of sun and sea really took it out of me. My sinuses were back at it so when we got back to the resort I took a long, leisurely shower, reveling in the space to move around knowing I'd be back in the tiny Unilodge shower in mere days, and threw on my PJs. I was feeling too gross and sinusey to eat so I curled up and watched
Party of Five,
Grey's Anatomy, and
Friends, thanking my lucky stars for the prevalence of US content on international TV. I fell asleep quickly, having to get up early to catch my flight back to Australia for the second half of my adventure...
Thursday morning I flew from Fiji to Brisbane, and then Brisbane to Airlie Beach or the Whitsunday coast. I realized when I got to Brisbane that the hotel I was booked in for the night was actually inaccessible from where I was flying into so I quickly canceled it and booked a new room at the Club Crocodile Resort - thank you iPhone and Travelocity! I landed in Airlie Beach just in time to watch the sunset on the bus back. I got to the hotel and crashed almost immediately, I really love sleeping in hotel beds! I did get to watch a couple episodes of
Glee and have to recommend it in the highest. It was fantastic! I got a solid night's sleep and woke up early to head into town to check in for my sailboat leaving that afternoon. Unfortunately, I woke up to a bit of a nasty surprise...pink eye. It was not what I wanted before getting on a boat for three days. But, shit happens, so I packed up, got in a cab, and headed to the pharmacy before breakfast. I made the pharmacist put the drops in because I'm a huge baby and can't do it myself and spent the morning reading near the ocean at Airlie Beach. I had a great breakfast and lunch then headed off to the marina for the departure of Silent Night, the boat I'd be spending the next two nights on. It was a beautiful boat and the people were fantastic. I got to spend all afternoon lounging on deck in the sun, finishing
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and starting
Never Let Me Go. The sun was beautiful and warm and I love a good sail so by the time we anchored in a small cove in the Whitsunday Islands I was happy to eat and chat with my fellow boat mates. I was pretty exhausted so I turned in early to wake up early - seeing the sunrise on the ocean is one of the best things in the world.
Saturday morning I woke up and we had breakfast then started sailing off to Whitehaven Beach, one of the most photographed places in all of Australia. This is the most gorgeous beaches I've ever seen, hands down. It's the largest collection of pure silica sand in the world. Silica sand is perfectly round and soft, like powdered sugar. It's so fine you can polish silver, exfoliate your skin, and brush your teeth with it. I loved it. The water was clear and bright blue and warm like bath water. I spent nearly an hour just sitting in the water swimming around. Then, I laid out and read my book a little more, enjoying the soft sand between my toes. It really was the definition of paradise, I can't think of any other way to describe it. We got back on the boat and had a much-needed lunch then sailed out to snorkel. It was the best snorkeling I've ever seen. The fish were fearless and came right up to you, not to mention the coral was bright, bright colors and so thick that sometimes you were within arms distance away from it. Our guide, Tom, told us that it was that good because it was a younger reef, still part of the Great Barrier but only 10,000 years old compared to the 30,000 years that the reef in Cairns is. There was this HUGE fish that came right up to us, it was so tame you could pet its head. It was as big as me, I loved it. After our snorkel we got back on the boat to an unfortunate plumbing problem which made the afternoon sail a little ripe-smelling but by the time we got to the cove where we would be sleeping it was fixed. Our captain, Brendan, showed us these beautiful eagles that came right next to the boat to swoop up the bread wrapped in bologna he was tossing for them. It was amazing to see them just feet from your face. After a delicious dinner we all had some wine and chatted until the evening when I got to fall asleep again to one of my favorite things in the world - the rocking of a boat. Sunday morning we got up early and had a magnificent sail back to Airlie Beach - the wind was fantastic so we were keeling and speeding along the entire way back. It was a great finish to a great couple days.
After getting off the boat and saying goodbye to my new friends I met up with some of my other friends from BU to get a cab back to the airport and fly back to Sydney. I was happy to see them after a couple days by myself and leaving Sam in Fiji, we had a great trip back. I even got to watch some Alias thanks to my friend Sam who's iPod was stocked with episodes. :) We got back late, unpacked, and went straight to bed (after a long shower, seeing as how we'd all been on boats that morning!).
Even with a sinus infection, pink eye, and rain I still had an amazing vacation. I finished three books, got to sleep in, and relaxed as much as I wanted to. I came home with a nice tan, salt in my hair, and souvenirs for everyone back home. Everybody's Christmas presents are coming from Fiji, so be ready! :) It was a wonderful, relaxing break after the stress and frenetic energy that was the end of the first teaching period. I loved it. Check out more pictures at the bottom of this page - there's a link to my Picasa Web Albums now where all of my pictures from the trip are up!
Next up: Internships!
Today was a busy morning followed by what is devolving into a very lazy but good afternoon!
We hopped on the bus and went out there, getting slightly lost for a moment or two but, following the pack of dogs, found the fair grounds right in the middle of Newtown. It was pretty early when we got there so we bought some juice drinks - fresh squeezed juice is huge here, there are smoothie and juice stands on every block, something I'm definitely going to miss when I get home. I led us slightly astray, I should really listen to Megan more often, but we eventually found where the dog show was going on. It was informal but incredibly cute and there were gaggles of dogs everywhere and of every breed. A Dalmatian found my face quite tasty, a Bull Mastiff hopped around in the rain like a lap dog, a Papillion pranced with ribbons in her tail, many Labs and Beagles and Pugs chased each other everywhere, it was amazing. We sat down right up front on the grass despite the rain and watched the agility and costume competitions oohing and aahing at how cute they all were. It made both of us pine for our pets! Australians are incredibly friendly dog owners, letting us pet and kiss their dogs left and right. I was amazed at how well they all got along, too, not a single fight broke out in the entire hour and a half we watched the show. We saw all the winners get treats and pats before heading off to get some lunch. 
My new favorite fair treat is this Turkish crepe that has spinach and cheese in it before being sprinkled with lemon juice, it's delicious. We also got some baklava and Nutella crepes while wandering the stands filled with skirts, tshirts, purses, and jewelry from local artisans. It rained pretty hard on and off, which did suck and did discourage us from staying too long, but we got to see some really beautiful pieces of art and funky designs. I have decided I'm not nearly hip enough for Newtown after seeing all of the residents! On our way out, I fell in love with a Jack Russel Terrier/Chihuahua mix named Bo, nearly dognapping him from his owner because he was so damn cute. He even smiled! I was smitten and very sad we needed to leave.
