3 inch flying cockroaches are TERRIFYING

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Hello people, its been a while since the last entry so this is what i have been up to. I took a 45 min boat ride with my 2 english friends and 1 american friend out to Mana Island for 4 nights, it was sooooo nice out there, redicoulsly hot every day and at night. Met some cool people out there, did some snorkeling, several hundred games of cards, drank some beers, layed in the sun, played beach volleyball against the locals, watched some polynesian dancing/fire dancing which was spectacular.Thepeople there were so friendlly and they treated you like gold.

Mom some things you will be surprised to hear about your son are: i havent gotten drunk once yet, i havent slept in past 9, and i havent fall in love yet so breath a sigh of relief.

After we returned from Mana we went back to Nadi for 2 nights where we met up with people that were on Mana randomly so that was nice. The second night they had started to evacuate tourists from outer islands because of Hurrican Damon, so people started pouring into the hostel. The next day me and the English guys took off to Voli Voli beach near Raki Raki. Took a taxi driven by the craziest dude on earth on this crazy road called a "highway" which was basically a 3 hour drive through villages and the jungle. Its really weird here, once you leave the resorts and tourist areas it turns into a 3rd world country, makes you stop and think how lucky you are to have what you have and be from where your from.

Spent 5 nights there and met a couple cool American girls, English girl, and some Germans. Did my open water Scuba certification and it was so amazing, breathing underwater is such a crazy feeling, seen alot of nice coral, tons of fish, and a 4 foot reef shark. Other than that we just layed in the sun, kayaked around, played several thousand games of cards, some interesting Fijian games, and just hung out. My english friends left for NZ, and my american friends flew home for christmas so now I'm all by myself in Suva, the capital, a city of around 400,000. The hostel I stayed in last night has flying cockroaches on steroids, i killed 2 so hopefully i dont see another one, frick are they huge.

So the plan is one more night here then taking off to the Coral Coast of the main island for a few nights, maybe do some diving, and see what happens from there. But basically I'm having a ton of fun and my only real problems are that happy hour is way too short, and falling asleep on the beach and missing my coconut jewllery making class is kinda annoying.

Miss you all, keep sending the messages.

Brando.

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