Maria Down Under

By the 5th day in Fiji, Melissa and I were getting a little restless at the same hostel and wanted to try somewhere else. Bamboo conveniently doubles as a travel agency because neighboring islands pay them to promote day or overnight trips off of the mainland. Our budget and time was limited but we were open to spending a couple nights at a hostel on one of the islands. We heard good reviews about Mana Lagoon Backpackers on Mana Island and decided to give it a shot for the next couple nights. Mana was about an hour away by ferry and we couldn’t even see the mainland in the distance anymore. We were excited about that because it meant the water would be much more clear than it was on the volcanic mainland. When we reached ... read more

The road with our hostel has a few other hostels on it but there isn’t too much else going on. Melissa, Jessie, Nate, Kyle and I decided to check out the city of Nadi to see a bit more of Fiji. We took the local bus that stops right outside of our hostel. It conveniently runs every couple hours but the schedule doesn’t mean much because it runs on “Fiji time”. This saying that they always use basically means that any scheduled time really means anywhere from 5 mins to an hour after that. Fiji time can be a real pain in the ass when I’m trying to get something done or I’m starving before dinner. Like expected, the bus came a good half hour late. This local bus was no Translink to say the least. ... read more

Fiji is sooooo great!!!! We stepped off of the plane and immediately felt the heat outside. The airport is really tropical and there were 3 guys playing Fijian songs while everyone waited in line at customs. Everyone says "Bula!" when they see you (aka hello) and it's considered rude in their culture when you don't say it back. Workers from my hostel, Bamboo, picked us up at the airport. On the drive to Bamboo I was completely taken off guard by the views out the window. I knew Fiji wasn’t the most developed country but it’s way more Third World than I was expecting. Bamboo is a bit beat up too but now I’ve realized that it’s actually pretty nice considering the standards of living in Fiji. On our first night (11/24/12) we stayed at the ... read more

The internet connection that I have for the next week isn't all that great so I can't upload pictures to my blogs. I don't want to leave them all until I get home so I'll post the blogs without pictures and then add the pics in later. We arrived at the Maori tribal house, called a Murae (pronounced mer-eye), and everyone was extremely welcoming! They said some greeting prayers in Maori language and then welcomed each of us formally by shaking hands, touching noses and then touching foreheads. The Murae was a big square room with no furniture besides some chairs stacked in the corner and the carvings on the wall. We were given mattresses and pillows to set up here for the next couple nights. That’s right, 31 students, both professors, and their families were ... read more

I was excited for the NZ portion of this semester but I knew that it wouldn’t even compare to the amazing 10-day break. When we stepped off the plane it was obvious that we weren’t on the South Island anymore. The spectacular mountain backdrop was gone and the airport was bustling with people. Wellington is the capitol of NZ so it is one of the biggest cities. It also happens to be the location for the world premiere for The Hobbit in a couple weeks. The airport and city was full of Lord of the Rings propaganda and extravagant displays to promote the premiere. I like the structure of this NZ field trip because it’s a lot more relaxed than the other four week-long field trips that we went on during the semester. We usually have ... read more