Zeep Zeep

Yesterday I opted to skip my afternoon classes not to nap like I usually do, but to go ziplining! We piled into a few cabs and drove out to Wainadoi, a little town about a half hour outside of Suva, where ZipFiji is based. Again, the Wisconsin program's coordinator had connections and got us a sweet discount. I was super excited the entire time until we actually got to the first platform when I suddenly remembered that ziplining generally involves being suspended over considerable heights. This wasn't exactly great for my height phobia, and although I shrieked and wiggled and whimpered for the first few lines I had progressed to just clinging to my harness quietly with wide eyes by the end.

Nichole, Claire, Chauncey, Eli, and Kirsten at the first platform. The staff here was super cool and let us go through the course a second time. There were 4 or 5 workers that went through the course with us and they were all pretty funny and liked horsing around a lot. I think being a zipline guide would be an alright job here.

Nichole, doing crazy stuff on the line. Most people went upside down or spun around or stuff like that but I was mostly concerned with staring fearfully at the ground below. Some of the staff enjoyed screaming and kicking their legs to make fun of me, which I definitely deserved for being such a sissy about things.

Me before I flew off the platform. I look happy because my feet are still on a solid structure.

The course consisted of about 8 lines strung between trees with platforms built around to make stations between each line. The lines went through the rainforest, and a couple went over rivers and gullies. I was pretty freaked out, but I still had a really good time. Fiji has been presenting me with a lot of opportunities to try to face my fear of heights (hiking over high bridges and paths, jumping off of waterfalls and cliffs, etc.), and it's healthy for me to have to deal with that in small portions. When I go again (since some of the people in our group didn't get to do it) I'll take a video or something to give an idea of how cool it was flying between trees.

I had a little mishap at the end of the course - while unhooking my harness from one of the pulleys, one of the workers dropped a big metal clip on my face so I got a bloody swollen scratch against my eye. They were very concerned with me being okay and were really sweet about it, but I was mostly bouncing around being excited at the prospect of having a black eye. Instead, I woke up this morning with a headache and an aching eye with no bruise, which was very disappointing. I had a lot of girls in Thursday morning lab ask me if everything was okay at home, so apparently I look like a battered woman. Not so sweet.

This week has been busy with a couple of big lab reports and term essays getting finished up, so this was a sweet mid-week break. Friday we have a small field trip to our Fijian professor's adopted village, and then this weekend we're having a big group finally head out to Cagalai (pronounced Thang-uh-lie), so there are some fun things coming up. This week has been great so far and is definitely compensating for all of the bad things that happened last week!

Beqa Shark Dive

Sunday afternoon I grabbed a bus from Suva to Pacific Harbour to find a place to stay for Sunday night before heading out Monday morning for our much-anticipated shark dive. Unfortunately, the backpackers place where we planned on staying (the Uprising, where we've visited before) was fully booked, so we spent a while scrambling around trying to figure out where to stay. Also unfortunate was the fact that three of the girls that came with found out that they were on the waiting list and wouldn't know if they could dive until Monday morning, which they figured wasn't worth sticking around for so they went home and rescheduled the dive for another weekend. Once we were settled though, we watched some bootleg Indian movies and went to bed pretty early to rest up. Shark diving on Beqa is supposed to be the best shark dive in the world, so we were all very excited.

The next morning we scarfed down some breakfast and grabbed a taxi to head to the Pearl resort, where Beqa Adventure Divers is based. The local coordinator for the Wisconsin-Platteville program knows a lot of people in Fiji, and was able to get us about a $100 discount, which was amazing - this dive ended up being cheaper than most ordinary two tank dives that don't promise heaps of badass sharks. Beqa is a small island right off of Pacific Harbour (you can see it from Suva and all along the Coral Coast), and is famously home to firewalkers. The two dive companies that run the shark dives off the coast of Beqa have agreements with the local villages on Beqa where the locals won't fish on crest of the reef (preserving the sharks and other large fish species that feed there) in exchange for money provided by a small fee from everyone that dives off of Beqa. The reefs where the dives are located are protected, and the dive companies promote conservation and other environmental causes with the dives, aiming for them to be educational. We were primarily concerned with seeing a freaking ton of sweet sharks, however.

On one of the two boats heading out from Pac Harbour. We were lucky enough to be on the one with a French documentary crew - they were filming a special on eco-tourism in Fiji. The two guys were mostly filming our dive leader, Papa, on his dive briefing and explanation of the shark dive, but they also got sound and video clips of us getting on and off the boat, talking ot each other about the sharks, and asked a fair amount of questions about the dives and Fiji in general. They collected all of our email addresses and said that they would notify us when the documentary was being broadcast (they said around August), since it would also be available for viewing online. So I might end up on a French documentary. Badass!

Chauncey and I getting all of our gear on for the first dive. Our dive instructor Papa informed us that they had been out earlier that morning with hundreds of kilos of fish to feed the sharks to make sure that they weren't hungry and looking for a snack of little blonde human, which was comforting. For the first dive, we went down 30 meters (the deepest I've gone so far!) to an arena where we lined up behind a wall of dead coral and watched the dive coordinators feed the sharks buckets of fish heads. Since I've had a head cold for so long I had a really difficult time getting down: besides trouble with equalising the pressure in my ears, I also apparently have a socket left over from wisdom tooth surgery that was incredibly painful. I also kept coughing from the dry air in the tank and actually vomited underwater... I've always wondered what it would be like to boot with a regulator in, and I'm not too eager to repeat the experience. The plus side of all the trouble getting down was the fact that I was relieved to finally get to my destination and wasn't afraid of the sharks at all since I was so preoccupied with descending without having my head explode. Once I got down though, it was really cool. There were tons of sharks, and even more species of large carnivorous fish that wanted to get in on the feeding. After watching that for about ten minutes, we all swam up to another similar set up at around 10 meters, where we peeked over some coral to watch Papa feed lots more fish. We got good positions for this one, as we were pretty much in the center and had all of the animals swimming around very close to us. After watching that for 20 minutes we headed up to the surface for a break between dives.

Hanging with the Frenchies during our 1 hour surface interval. I tried speaking a little of fragmented French with them but gave up quickly and chatted with them in English instead. It was kind of funny when we got out of the water and onto the boat - they were filming each of us come up and asking each of us how the dive was, and as soon as I got on deck I ripped off my mask, which was filled with snot from my sinus struggles underwater, so I'm hoping they keep that glamour shot for their documentary, haha. We had a little snack of FMF peanut butter cookies and some very milky sugary tea, which was delicious. Diving always makes me ravenous so this may have been one of the most satisfying meals so far, although the processed cheese sandwiches at the Natadola reef on our spring break field trip is a close competitor. I noticed that Papa had a pair of chain mail sleeves that he wore down on the first dive - he said that he gets nipped a lot during the feedings, so those are essential. He also said that buying a full suit is around US$35,000 which is just unfeasible for him, so all he gets are sleeves.

My friends couldn't bring their underwater cameras down because of the pressure, but this is an idea of what we saw on the second dive. We only went down 15 meters, but the larger sharks like feeding at around that level so we saw a whole bunch. The leaders had a giant metal box filled with fish heads sunk down, and we again lined up behind some coral while laying down on some cement blocks that had been placed there. The shallower dives had lots of black tip and white tip reef sharks (along with a lot of other species that I didn't recognise), but this dive had the larger sharks, primarily bull sharks like the one in the picture. These were about 12-15 feet long and were biiiig fish. We weren't lucky enough to see a tiger shark, but the rest of what we saw was still amazing. There was a big swarm of large fish that would pick at the fish heads when they were released, until a bull shark swam through and chased them all away to gulp down the food in one bite. The spot where we were laying had a moray eel that lived just over the other side of the coral that didn't really enjoy our presence, as it kept bending around to stare at us and slither out to get a closer look. Moray eels are pretty nasty looking things with sharp white teeth, so we were a little nervous until one of the dive instructors swam over it and pretended to swat it with his hand, which made it retreat.

Overall we were all very happy with the dive. We never felt threatened or afraid, just excited. Besides the sharks, we saw tons of species of fish that we hadn't seen before that would come right up to our faces while we were sitting and watching, which was really cool too. Since it was so cheap, we might try to come out again some other weekend. I had an amazing time and this was something that I was dying to do while I'm in Fiji, so I'm happy. I can't imagine many other places where you can go and see 7 or 8 different species of sharks over the course of 2 dives.

Katchafire

Surprise surprise, our trip to Beqa fell through. It was okay though - this morning was spent roaming around the market picking up strange things. Like a big bucket of clams. And a pile of what look like oversized lima beans, but are supposed to taste like peanuts if you roast them with salt. Nichole and I bought a couple of giant clams (okay, so they're small giant clams, like the size of half a football) that we'll play around with later this weekend. I got another soursop. Then we hung around for the afternoon before heading off at night to a Bob Marley tribute concert. The band was Katchafire, a reggae band from New Zealand.

Sitting around waiting for the band to show up. Luckily we didn't get there too early so we didn't have to hang out for a long time before the music started. There were a ton of white people there! It was strange, and we couldn't figure out where they all came from until we walked by the parking lot and saw vans from a lot of local resorts that must have transported all of them to Suva.

The band was sweet, and the concert was a lot of fun - the crowd seemed like they knew all of their songs and was really into it. They only played a few Bob Marley songs though, which was a little disappointing given that it was supposed to be a tribute concert...it was a great time anyways though.

By the time we got back I was feeling very tired and needed to pass out - I think being sick is making me revert back to my 12-hours-of-sleep-a-day habits, which I'm not happy about. We're leaving tomorrow to stay at a place in Pacific Harbour for the night before going on our dive, so I need to figure that out...

Blah Week 2010

This week has not been good. After a bad start, I found it hard to keep my spirits up, and spent a lot of time slumping around the house sleeping. The antibiotics I got have pretty much cleared up my infections, which is a plus, but I still have a head cold (allergies? sinus infection? some fijian disease I didn't know about?) that has been plaguing me since Taveuni that is the next on my list of Things to Deal With. I skipped classes the last couple of days, which may be a problem back home, but since I'm taught everything via Powerpoint here it really isn't an issue. We're hoping to go to Beqa for the weekend since Eli has a friend with family there, but I wouldn't be surprised if those plans fell through. Myself and some of my friends are signed up for a shark dive on Monday morning, which we're all very excited for.

This is a soursop. Everything about this fruit is disgusting except for the taste. The name is gross, it looks gross from the outside (it's like a spiny football), gross on the inside (looks like mush, as you can see), and its texture is kind of creamy with fibrous strings - it's like a mix between a stringy mango and a...I don't even know. It come apart in little pyramids with what looks like a mutant oversized watermelon seed in the middle. But it tastes somewhere between an apple and a pear and is very delicious. If you've ever had a custard apple, it tastes like that, since the two fruits are related.

How I Became Involved in the USP Black Market

Nothing new today in terms of my internship mess - I met with the dean, who said he will speak with my professors, and we're going to meet tomorrow. Not too hopeful on that front. Was supposed to play soccer again today but our game got cancelled - I don't believe it!

I went out last night with some friends to try and lift my spirits, which was actually pretty successful. Just about everyone here is very positive and happy, so hanging out with them helps me out a lot with the whole me being bitter and negative thing. I was very tired this morning though, and it didn't help that our lab could have theoretically been completed in 20 minutes if everything had been assembled before the lab period...which I understand is too much to ask for. At least I got to play with lots of shrimps and crabs and various other crustaceans for a few hours this morning, which wasn't bad. Except at the end of class, we go to collect our last assignment: a fact sheet including sketches and identifying information for a order of insect (I had Odonata, the dragonflies and damselflies). Everyone else in the class goes up to get their graded fact sheet back, but mine isn't there, along with a couple other students' assignments. My professor reveals that it's a common problem here that when things are being handed back, papers with good grades are stolen by other students, who then sell them the next semester to students who are taking the same class. This may also explain why I don't get back a lot of my lab reports in my other classes. So, maybe next semester someone will have their hands on my stupid fact sheet, which I think is pretty funny. Plagiarism here is a major issue, and if this underground market for papers and lab reports is any indication, I can see why.

Today on the way to class a full bottle of water exploded in my bag. That was awesome. I also spent 2 hours downtown at the post office trying to send package back home to Williams. It was a real pain, but at least things are shipped off now and hopefully won't take too long to get there. I also got to witness what I'm 85% sure was an asian mafia deal, as the tiny asian girl in front of me was sending a money order of $8000 in perfectly stacked and divided piles of 50s and 100s, all the while chattering on the phone to a guy she was supposed to meet in the post office although neither of them knew who each other were. Shady!

The Worst Case of the Mondays, Ever, in the History of Mondays

I think today was a new low as far as very bad no good days go. I woke up with a new, very painful cut on the bottom of my toe, and with something that looks suspiciously like a little boil on my ankle. I've survived for three months without getting any of this crap, so why is it starting now? I then went downtown to go to the handicraft market to pick up some souvenirs for my friends back home because I'm going to send a package back so that everyone gets things before heading home for the summer. Our bus rounds the corner to go down the seawall by the port and BAM, massive cruise ship with lots of old Australians puttering around staring at tourist maps in their wraparound sunglasses. Instantly the cost of everything in the city doubles. Nevertheless, I was feeling optimistic, so I go into the market and chat up the vendors for a while, talking about how I'm a student (not a tourist) and letting them know that I know how much things are supposed to cost, etc. I get everything I wanted, I call one of the shopkeepers for bs and he lowers the price and tosses in some stuff for free, so I'm feeling pretty good at this point in the morning since I turned around the negative cruise ship finding.

Once I get home, I read an email from my mom saying that she can't come visit anymore. I'm disappointed but I figure she's got good reasons, and try to not let this weigh down my spirits as I go to a meeting with a professor about rescheduling my exam. He sits me down and tells me that leaving early is not an option, since moving my exam around is not logistically feasible. How was this not figured out last week when he told me that it should be fine? I'm very upset leaving there, but I have a meeting with the dean tomorrow and if he decides to force the professors to let me take alternative exams it could work out, but this seems like a very slim possibility. I get home and have another email from another professor saying the same thing. Wahoo. Goodbye, dream internship, it was fun while I had my five days of being happy about you.

I take some time to myself to people watch and drink a smoothie while trying to stay calm, go to take a Fijian test and don't really register anything with that. What am I supposed to do for the summer now? I don't have any other jobs back home, and Williams didn't give me a scholarship to research here for the summer (of course). I'm very upset about this, but it's not affecting me the same way that it would have at home. At home I would have locked myself in my room and attacked anyone that came to see me with rants and cursing and overall awfulness. Here, I'm sad, but it's mostly internal - I'm still happy and smiling with my friends, and it's not really fake. Maybe Fiji has made me find a better way to cope with things during those periods when my life is a joke? That would be cool. I have to go sort out my life over the next few days, which should prove to be interesting.

Mango Bay and Nukulau

After a great Friday night, I woke up a bit discombobulated kind of early on Saturday morning to find Kirsten packing stuff up to go to spend the day and night at Mango Bay, a backpacking resort on the Coral Coast. I impulsively decided to pack my stuff up in 5 minutes, hop in the shower, and go. Kirsten, Nichole, Arti and I grabbed a bus and had a long day on the beach, tanning and sleeping and napping and all other wonderful things. Nichole and I tried putting fresh oranges in our hair to see if they would lighten it (since they don't have lemons here) but it just made our hair sticky and attractive to ants. Unsuccessful.

Me in our dorm bure, waiting to go out to the beach with the girls. It was a gorgeous day.

As the afternoon wore on I realized the amount of things I had to get done this weekend, and decided to grab a bus back to Suva that night rather than stay until Sunday. I spent a nice night at home having a few drinks with friends - we didn't try going out though, since Suva was crazy, and it was impossible to get a cab to go downtown.

I woke up early Sunday morning and had a productive few hours of sorting out emails, getting some work done, and attempting to plan out the next few weeks here. Eli came over and was restless and in need of going somewhere to explore, so in the afternoon we rounded up a big group and got a local guy to take us out on his boat to Nukulau, a small island off of Suva Point.

A lone mangrove on the mudflats at low tide. Nukulau was thought to be cursed by natives, so they sold the island to an Englishman for some insanely cheap trade. When there was a coup a few years ago, the previous president (prime minister? whatever), George Speight, was thrown on the island as a prisoner. They're trying to make it into a resort, but when we got there it was pretty much empty except for a few sad palm thatch bures.

It wasn't a beautiful day outside, but we still had fun running around exploring the island and eating coconuts. The wind picked up as a bunch of rain clouds obscured the mainland, at which point we figured we would head back. We stopped at a sandbar on the way back and found a giant bloated dead fish on the sand, which Eli promptly picked up with his sandals while I poked it furiously with a stick. Overall it was a good day.