Fiji Ain't No Place Like Home

Airplane Dinner + How I Met Your Mother

Fijian Dollars

Fiji is different, that’s for sure. We arrived just before 5am this morning following a ten hour flight over the Pacific Ocean and after walking down the covered, but no enclosed ramp to the main airport, we were greeted by traditionally dressed Fijian men who were serenading us. It was quite a bit much, in my opinion. Especially for five in the morning, but whatever, I’m sure it was some people’s cup of tea.

Our hotel is basically three feet from the airport. We could walk if we wanted to, but they provide a shuttle service. The downside to this is that the hotel is absolutely nowhere near town. So our first free day in Nadi, amounted to sitting around the pool, drinking the Fijian version of a Mike’s Hard Lemonade until lunchtime.

Panoramic view from our hotel room

Another view from the other side of the balcony

The pool from our front balcony

Our hotel room in Nadi

Speaking of lunch, I ate lamb today. That’s right, I actually consumed an animal that was not chicken. I had no idea what it was until after it was already in my stomach, thankfully, but still I think that’s impressive. Something tells me that Fiji is going to be full of adventurous food choices. I don’t think the hotel breakfast will hold me off all day, even if it does include unlimited peanut butter and bread :) They also have a decent supply of ketchup!

To save us from our boredom, our group leader in Fiji led us on a 30-minute ride into Nadi after lunch. Apparently, this is the last day for the town festival, so droves of people were heading into town. The public bus ride was quite cramped and un-air conditioned. However, they do seem to like American party tunes here because the bus was jamming to the point my ears started to hurt for the entirety of the ride.

Town was strange. It isn’t anything like what I would picture when someone says Fiji. In fact, it makes me think of India, minus some of the people. The drivers are crazy. The buildings are run down. And everyone is trying to sell you something. Granted, I guess that could easily describe parts of any American city as well. But let’s go with India. Especially since we walked through a temple on our brief tour around the city.

One of the streets we walked down in Nadi

The temple basically came out of nowhere

Most of the AIFS group I'm travelling with

The festival was quaint once we got there, but incredibly dusty and crowded (as you would expect on not only a Saturday but the last day of a national festival). We walked around and looked at the rides a bit, but nothing overexcited me. I took some pictures, but you’ll notice they’re fairly similar to the typical American carnival, albeit the rides might be a little older.

There were a ton of ferris wheels and they all went different speeds

There's an actual block of ice visible in the Snow Cone machine

One of the public buses in Nadi

Italia: Day Thirteen

We got to sleep in today, so I went for a run around town this morning. I got sort of lost and ended up running in a lot of circles because it seems like every road runs into the town center of Novellara. It’s kind of weird.

When I got back we took a bus to the cheese consortium, which is an official office where they determine whether or not the cheese that is presented to them is of accurate quality and production methods for certification. The presentation was really boring, but it was nice to be in a high quality, air-conditioned building for once. I feel like Europe is kind of behind on the air conditioning, but I guess that’s because so many of their buildings are so old. I made sure to take some of the cheese and chocolate they had out as souveneirs before we left the consortium.

Outside the cheese consortium

We went for pizza at sort of a high class place afterward, but the food wasn’t very good. It was supposed to be a “pizza tasting” so they brought out many different kinds for us, but the ham here is kind of strange in a lot of places and they also put weird bologna-like meat on pizza, so we didn’t eat a lot of it. Then we rushed over to a local education center where they specialize in teaching teachers how to use different methods in their classrooms to approach learning with a new attitude. The woman who gave us a tour around the facilities couldn’t speak English, so I found it really boring. I’ve learned that I need someone to speak English to me without translations for me to be able to pay attention otherwise I lose interest.

Pam, Chelsea, and I entertaining ourselves at the education center

I was relieved when the tour was over, even though it meant that we had to walk around in the city to kill time before dinner. None of the places were open, for some reason, so after we bought gelato, we were forced to walk around in the heat until we found a place to sit. We couldn’t even find a bathroom to use because everything was closed! It was kind of annoying because Pam, Beckie, Chelsea, and I, “the quad”, had decided to wear dresses today in honor of the floral prints three of us bought in Florence. It was a good idea, it was just too hot to be happy in any sort of clothes.

The "Quad"

For dinner, we went out to a newly opened ranch on the top of a mountain where they produce and bottle Lambrusco wine. We received information about how the wine is bottled and chilled for sale before indulging in a short dinner, compared to the others we have experienced in Italy. There was only three courses with an appetizer, main course of lasagna, and desert of rum cake. I didn’t really like the meal or the red wine, but the ranch was beautiful.

On the mountainside before dinner