Get Ready....

A new adventure is starting soon!

I'm going to die

I havent even started and i'm already overwhelmed with the amount of work i have to do.  this is going to suck. i'll see everyone next year. also, i'm accepting applications for dog walkers and babysitters.

I turned this golf ball rack:

into this spice rack:

way better!

okay. enough procrastinating. i'll get back to school now.

oh wait, i'll eat something first. then school.

sigh.....

One year later....

Oh hey.

So, quick recap of the year:

left fiji (douchebag boss = i quit and came home)

got a dog (YAY Kenai!!!!)

went back to school (lots of science classes)

was accepted to hopkins school of nursing (i sure fooled them!)

moved to baltimore


i'm currently setting up my awesome new apartment. i just painted and am now hanging stuff on the walls. pictures and more updates forthcoming....

So here's the update...

I’ve been debating for the past few weeks about whether to stay or leave Fiji. On the one hand, I love Reef Endeavor. So much so, in fact, that on my days off I went back on  RE for a fun trip: the seven-day cruise up to Taveuni, where I stood in two days at once!

 

Yes! The dateline that separates today from tomorrow, or yesterday, or whatever.  I also toured a Pearl Farm in SavuSavu and learned how to harvest oysters (new career path?) But unfortunately I am not rich enough to buy any of the pearls that were for sale. Oh well. I did however find the best necklace of life!

On the other hand, I do need to start real life, and I’ve been thinking about starting a home and “settling” and all that, and I kind of like the idea of it. Plus, mom said she’s getting me a dog when I come home so that I’m guilted into staying in the country for a while.

So I thought I had my mind made up to stay until the end of june. That was the  tentative plan. Until I got a text message from the boss asking me to come in for a “chat.” And that chat was him lying to my face and making excuses to kick me off Reef Endeavor for good. Basically, one of the instructors told the boss that I was talking shit about him to the passengers (false, I was goofing around and making jokes with the captain and hospitality manager), and he got pissed off at me so made up a lie that there’s a rumor going around that I’m sleeping with the captain and the owners of the ship don’t want me on there anymore (all completely untrue, bc the bosses love me, and admitted that they never said any of that (I followed up)).

Then the captain was fighting to have me back on the ship, but it didn't happen bc in order for it to happen my boss would have to admit that he lied to me, and he just wont do that. So since I’m not going to be on the ship anymore, I don’t really want to stay here anymore.

So I’ve written a letter of resignation, handed it in, and i've made it official. I'll be home on the 6th of May, after a day's layover in Dallas, where I'll be hanging out with Moose Stacy! Then it's on to real life. School, jobs, puppy, etc. Thoughts?

Happy six-months-in-Fiji to me!

Wish you were here.

So glad i'm not leaving yet!

So on the 25th of February we celebrated Dan’s 28th birthday with:

  an ice cream cake, 

and LOTS of booze!

All this excitement and debauchery resulted in the near-death of my camera. It is now pseudo-functional, not functional enough that I wont need to get it replaced, but still functional enough to take with me to BEQA SHARK DIVE!!!! Which I did last week with Mike, who has now left for South Africa. Here! Look!

Pretty Much amazing and I’m definitely going again!

Ouch!

A word for the wise: fat floats and so do my legs. Not good for swimming through tunnels. Whoops!

Intercontinental

For the last couple of weeks I've been working at our site at the Intercontinental Hotel Fiji. It's a super expensive hotel on the Coral Coast, about an hour's bus ride south of Nadi. The hotel is beautiful. The food is super tasty, and super expensive. The dive shop is functional and makes decent sales, although the hotel has been dead, and ergo, so have we.

I've been playing second in command to Harry the Penguin, a brit who's been working here for the past 6 months. His tenure is about to end and I think they were wanting me to take his place, but i just dont love it here. It could be because it's been so slack. Or it could be because i butt heads with Opeti, one of the boat captains here. He and I will never be friends because he stole my flashlight and lied to my face about it. I confronted him on it, and now he doesnt like me either. I still dont have a flashlight, and i dont trust him at all.

Last week the weather was awful but this week it's been lovely. Sunny and warm, the water is beautiful. We went for a dive today through some caves which was pretty cool. Saw the Tawny Nurse Shark again. I think it got bigger! Or maybe we were just closer. Either way!

I think i'm back on reef endeavor starting saturday. I certainly hope so. I miss it.

Making pizza tonight.

notes on fiji:

Note 1: an ice-cream cake in fiji is really just cake with ice cream soup. The freezer will not stay clean.

Note 2: a bottle of wine + my camera + me = disaster!

Note 3: February is not a money-making month.

Note 4: I miss Reef Endeavor.

Note 5: I do not love Intercontinental.

Note 6: I do love my sparkly headphones.

Note 7: Spring rolls are waaaayyyy better deep fried.

Note 8: My distraction is distracting me.

Note 9: I want to go on vacation. Where should I go??

so i looked in the mirror today....

and was noticing how fat my face has gotten. i've totally been gaining tons of weight, and havent even noticed. i must be pretty happy here to let that happen. in fact, so happy that i may just go make some more cookies....

heart.

Had an amazing week with troy. xx

A full update soon

But in the meantime, I GOT A PACKAGE!!!!

Thanks mama!!!!

Have you ever raced a hermit crab like this??

The closest thing I've seen to this is a hermit crab in a soup can, which was pretty awesome. I totally love hermit crabs but if you've ever seen one out of its shell its kinda scary lookin. Also, when they pinch it really hurts. Even the little ones.

In other news, The wedding charter was BUSY. and a lot of fun. The chocolate fountain was amazing. I tried to keep from just spooning chocolate into my mouth, but i failed at that. And now i'm waiting to hear back from Brett (stand-in boss while the actual bosses are on vacation) to get my suitcase, and potentially my package which has arrived from America just a mere 3 months after mom told me she was going to mail it "this week." (Love you mom!)

Also, if you're a Phillipa Gregory fan, skip Wildacre. It's not very good. Unless you like incest. Then it's the book for you.

Natandola tomorrow at the beautiful, but busy Intercontinental Hotel. Wish me luck!

Fun Fun Fun!

Bula my friends! Loving the Reef Endeavor, even though it's extremely slow and i did one dive in the last four days. Oh well. There's going to be a wedding chartering the ship on tuesday for 4 days, and that should be a good time! Already i know there is going to be a chocolate fountain, so how could it be bad!?! Hooray!

I'm writing a children's book to be printed and sold in fiji, so i'm excited about that. And I'm catching up on season two of Glee, which is amazing and i love it. But Kurt is just a little much. And is it me or is Rachel much more obnoxious this season? Anyway.

Still having fun. Lovin' it. I'm going to spend the next six months trying to save money, since i clearly have not saved much these past 5. But in the meantime, FUN FUN FUN!

Going back on Reef Endeavor!

Two weeks on my ship until it comes out of the water for Dry Dock. Hooray!!! I love it. Just waiting for the bus now. In other news, I'm starting to write a children's book for Reef Safari. It's about a mermaid and her underwater friends who need to help save the reef. It's going to be awesome. And when it's finished we're going to get it printed and sell it! I'm going to be an author! Wheee!!!

And i found this:

South Sea Island

So i'm currently stationed at South Sea Island, the smallest island in the Mamanuca group of islands in fiji. Its very small, and during the day it gets jam packed with day trippers, mostly asians who cant swim, and then at night there are like 3 other people here besides me. It's very basic here. I dont think i like it very much, but i'm only here another five days and then i'm off to Reef Endeavor again! HOORAY!

Here's how things work on South Sea Island:

High Tech Stereo System

Heavy Duty Broom

Detailed Map of the Island

Backyard

Even my shitty days are awesome. Love Fiji!

Shark Dive!

I had a few days off so i spent one of them at the Shangri-La Fiji and went on a shark-feed dive. Mind you, this is the mini dive, and not the Super Big Awesome Shark Feed that will happen in the future. It was fun. Here's some photos.

Black Tip Reef Shark

Black Tip Reef Shark

Fish!

Remora

Moray Eel

I had the weirdest dream last night....

I dreamed i was in an art gallery and i saw a sculpture on a pedestal: a nautilus combined with a horse, and it kept falling over, so i kept righting it. And then there was a loud pop! and it turned into a donkey and then another pop! and it turned into an alligator and then it kept popping and turning into different animals and then chasing me around the gallery, which was now a house. And it was really scary at the time. I guess it doesnt really sound that scary, but trust me, it was!

And then i woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose. Excellent.

Happy 2k11!!!!

Me and Edward, a super tall Brit

No caption necessary, i think.

Me and Jim, my second-favorite gay guy (after Nathan, of course!)

Happy Christmas!

I spent X-mas 2K10 aboard my Fijian House Boat, Reef Endeavor. It was fun! We had Christmas carols and Secret Santa (I got a spa kit from Ala the current Seinika Spa rep on the ship), and a Christmas play, and a delicious Christmas dinner which was like the Thanksgiving dinner I didn’t have, so that was good. (It started with a Zucchini and Blue Vein soup (soooo good!) and finished with turkey, pumpkin and cranberry sauce!). I also traded dive masters: Dan for Tue and Sepa. The cruise we just started has 95 passengers aboard, and  over 75% of them are Indian Fijian, meaning they don’t even know how to swim. Which is why we had to perform a rescue mission yesterday:

A Drowning! Well, a near drowning anyways,  but is there a difference? We were coming back from a lovely dive at the Waya Sewa Pinnacle (Tue, a cert, an intro and me), when we come upon the scene: two Japanese snorkelers struggling to stay afloat, while Fijians throw things that float in their direction. We have to move slowly, because we are crossing a very shallow sandspit, and we try to figure out what is going on. We see Sepa in the water, helping a male snorkeler to get to a point where he can stand; we see some of the boys helping the woman to stay afloat and get her into the boat. I just in to help Sepa, who is by himself but he seems to have it under control. I jump in one boat, and tell the boat captain to take me to the other, where the woman has been pulled aboard. As soon as I jump aboard, I tell the captain to head slowly toward the ship. Then I check out the scene: The woman is laying on the deck of the boat, and she’s been put on oxygen,  and I talk to the passengers aboard. The intro turns out to be a nurse and the cert is a dive master: the perfect team to have in these circumstances. We arrive at the ship with the other boat not far behind (they’ve meanwhile picked up the man and Sepa). We get victims aboard Reef Endeavor and they them in the recovery position breathing oxygen and wrap them in rescue blankets. We call the helicopter to pick them up and take them to the hospital, in case they have water in their lungs. The man is vomiting blood. The woman is vomiting water. I feel like vomiting. But no, I keep cool in a crisis and help to control the situation which has now been somewhat taken over by Florian. It went on from there, a lot of waiting for the helicopter, and then getting them up and away. It turns out they’re both alright and are now in the hospital in Lautoka, but it was certainly a change from the daily routine! 

You would think that the Japanese, coming from an island country, would be better swimmers, but no.

In other news:

This is the Captain’s last cruise before he has his time off, so we’ve been hanging out. I’ll miss that guy.

In the meantime, Dan and I have a bet going that I can’t lose 5kg in a month. I’m not quite sure how we’re going to measure that, since we don’t have a scale, but I’m going to attempt it anyhow, so I’ll have to give up my new favorite hobby, Coconut husking!

Coconut Husking (A guide)

Step one: Make sure your coconut is a good one! Shake the coconut. It should be heavy but you should not be able to hear the juice sloshing around inside.

Step two: Find a machete and make ninja-type moves.

Step three: Use the machete to chop off the butt end of the coconut, being careful not to pierce the inner fruit, assuming you want to drink the juice.

Step four: open a small section of the fruit so you can get to the juice.

Step five: Drink the juice. The proper way to drink it involves spilling half of it on your shirt. I have perfected this method.

Step six: once the juice is drank, chop the coconut in half, lengthwise.

Step seven: scrape out the meat with a spoon or piece of the coconut shell.

Step eight: eat the meat! enjoy!!!