Off to a rocky start... but heading to South Africa

This trip got off to a rocky start. Arrive at the counter and there is that old familiar accent again, I’ve heard it once or twice – the upbeat and chipper, but still slightly strict voice/mannerisms of a British woman. Well, here I go. My bag was almost overweight at 23kilos (yes even for going all the way to South Africa!) I saved it by stuffing a few extra things in my purse. She warned me that I would have to make my carryon bag look “smaller”… how??? Because they could remove it and ask me to pay a fine if it looks too large. I didn’t think she was just being a bitch, but I thought this was ridiculous and I saw quite a few bags larger than mine. Anyways, I digress - but just in case you were wondering, no one asked me to pay a fine. I sleep the whole way to London, and am happy that I only have an hour layover. This turns into longer as we wait for the plane to be inspected. And longer. And finally, we board. About a half hour later, when we should be taking off, we get some bad news. We had already switched planes once and this one was also having some technical difficulties, so off we go. We’re staying in a hotel tonight. Which would have been fine and dandy if it didn’t take them a few extra hours to get us our vouchers and tell us where to go. I saw some really pissed off people, and yes it sucks, but my take on it is that I would rather be in a hotel than stuck on a mechanically unwell plane. Wouldn’t you? Plus, the poor crew who were being yelled at, it wasn’t their fault. What are you gonna do. Wait and get some sleep. My poor body is so screwed up. I didn’t get to the hotel till 130 am that night, and I was starving. It took an extra hour for room service to come with my bangers and mash, least I took advantage of my location right? I woke up in the morning and it took an extra 40 minutes and a lot of snoozing to snap out of my dream state and realize I had to wake up. The past couple days though I was happy, I was back in that curious, the world is what you make of it positive state that I love when it comes to traveling alone. That inspiration was back, and I was no longer as sad as I was to leave Boston. I think being home for 2 months did me well. I am going to South Africa, how unreal is that? I got to the airport and indulged in some breakfast and bought some Godiva pearls. Man I love those things. Where is my chocolate addiction coming from all of a sudden these past few months? My seatmates asked me as I boarded how my cold was doing. Poor things, they probably assumed they were sitting next to a sicky. I explained to them that my allergies are for some strange reason horrific on planes. Don’t know why I didn’t take an allergy pill earlier. I eat, watch a movie, sleep, and then get into an interesting conversation with the woman sitting next to me. She grew up in South Africa during apartheid. For some reason, this has always fascinated me. I am so quick to forget that the US went through the same thing, but not as recent as South Africa. Apartheid appears a totally different species to me, but the truth is that it’s really not. The woman told me one time she came to Maryland to visit the US at one point and she was shocked to learn that this “land of the free” went through the civil rights movement too, and face the same discriminations that are also in South Africa, to this day. She spoke of the Statue of Liberty – give me your poor, your suffering, etc. etc. She was under the impression that the US could work wonders unlike any other country, with totally open arms. Not the case. Not as welcoming as we appear to be I suppose. I arrived in Joburg and felt a little nervous/anxious. Here I go again on my own…. After all I heard about safety issues in South Africa, I felt my heart beating in anticipation. The hotel transfer was waiting for me though, and with him – another guest from the London flight. I was feeling better about that. I arrived without incident - aside from falling asleep a bit in the car. Now I’m tired, think I’ll get some rest. Till tomorrow.

Sunrise surprise... and heading home :)

I came back to the hotel and realized there was a leak in my ceiling. When I called the front desk about it, they told me I needed to change rooms. My new room is a two-room suite right next door. Pretty cool except for some reason my allergies are bad in there. There's always something, isn't there?

Oh by the way, I woke up this morning at 6am exactly and immediately looked outside. There were things floating outside my window, not even kidding. I thought I must be dreaming. Then when I REALLY woke up, I went immediately to the window and looked outside again. There were hot air ballons; about 7 of them rising just in the park right outside my window. I promise I'm not making it up, I even took some pics to prove it. It was quite a sight, especially for the fact that I was still dreaming like it was Alice in Wonderland or something.

After room-switching, I had to drag myself to go back out. I don't know what it is about this city, but I just feel so lonely in it! There are too many options; too many places to go, too many restaurants to eat in. I need someone to bring me to the good places to eat and the good places to walk. As I just posted on facebook, it's a beautiful city; but it's meant to be enjoyed at the outdoor cafes with friends, which is exactly what I don't have here. I miss Boston and I miss my friends and family. I keep walking around with this sinking feeling that I really wish I didn't have, because I'm lonely. I'm so so so ready to come home! I hope that tomorrow I can enjoy my last day.


PS I'm stressed about not having my last realtor meeting booked :/ Another reason why Melbourne has sucked... it's tough to sit back and enjoy when you have something weighing over you.

Finally, I got that realtor meeting nonsense taken care of. I took the train to a neighborhood I was hoping to see anyways to do the cold-calling walk-in. It sucked, but I got the info that I needed and that’s all I cared about. Then I got a coffee (my daily happiness) and checked out the beach – but it was a bit chilly and very windy so I didn’t stay for very long. On my way out of the city, there was a sure character sitting just across from me. He was missing an arm and he was in tattered clothing and he was mumbling to himself, clearly drunk or on drugs. I noticed the woman sitting next to him move a little closer to the OTHER side once she heard the muttering. Then, he reached his hands into his pants. I was staring intently by this point. He fished around down there and out came a pill from his pant leg which he promptly chased while it rolled away from him. He caught it and stuffed it in his mouth. He tried to talk to a child and otherwise sat to himself aside from saying hi to another character that got on and off. He got off the train just before I did. Later that same night, I was back in downtown Melbourne, just checking out after buying something small at Target when this same guy comes stumbling into the store and says something to the cashier that I can’t quite make out. He appeared to me to be in worse shape than before and he was foaming at the mouth. She pointed him in one direction without even blinking an eye. Haha… is this normal around these parts I wondered?

It was my last day in Melbourne, though I really like this city I couldn’t wait to get back home.

Some company to kill the loneliness

Another day.... and I'm still feeling lonely. I got some work done a little earlier in the day and then flew back to the hotel to meet up with Alan and his friends; Chris and I can't even remember the girls' name. It was a nice afternoon, albeit a bit awkward. These people were twice my age, and I could tell that girl was really nice, but maybe trying a little bit too hard. Chris just yawned the whole time and looked like he wanted to be somewhere else. But Alan, he was a cool guy; with two sons my age and a couple grandchildren already. (He's my Dad's age). A real free-spirit, a very open person. And not sketchy in the least bit, just a real friendly guy and I very much enjoyed his company. Scottish company, that is. We ate at a cute little Italian cafe with a screaming baby, small portions, and overly salty pasta. How do you screw up pasta, really?? Oh well. Alan was super concerned with the fact that he had just lost his bankcard to an ATM machine and the rest of his accounts seemed to be locked. Um, ya I would be freaking out a little bit too. Maybe I ought to write him a quick email to see how that turned out....

After lunch, we walked around exploring the nooks and crannies of the city until we came upon, you guessed it... another cafe. What else is Melbourne known for? So we sat and had a beer... and the beer we drank happened to be Alan's son's beer from his very own brewery. How cool is that? Alan's son owns/created a kickass, big-deal brewery in Scotland called Beerdog... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrewDog Very cool. I nearly met a beer celebrity. I mean, you gotta be a cool dude to produce a kid who is clearly pretty awesome. I took a beer bottle as a memory. So did Alan.

Lauren doesn't know what to do with too many choices

Today was a bit of a tough day, I've been down a bit since I arrived in Melbourne. I guess it doesn't help when you a) break your computer, b) get food poisoning from trying kangaroo for the first time c) get in late for an important meeting because you don't understand the public transport system and then d) have a washout Saturday. Maybe I should take it easy, this badluck has progressed day after day, man I can't wait to get home.... I'm hoping that tomorrow is a little bit different. Maybe I'll go to the zoo tomorrow..... I wanted to go out to dinner tonight, but I'm starting to feel like Melbourne is just overwhelming to me. It's such a big city with so many choices, I just don't really know where to turn! I also felt a little bit down earlier. Probably the weather, just being a little bit frustrated overall with the sequence of bad events. So disappointing because at times like this I just wish that I could stop myself and say Lauren, look at yourself. Look at where you are. You only have a short time here, being sad and cranky won't help, so WHAT are you doing and WHAT are you complaining about? And more importantly, what are you going to do about it? I ate at one of those sushi places for lunch today where you take what you want off of the turnstyle. It was so perfect for me, it was just like sushi tapas. A little this and a little that and off you go... I had seaweed salad, eel sushi with cheese on top (what?) and another 2 piece crabstick sushi. I was going to keep on walking around but I was getting soaked, and everytime I thought the rain was going to stop it just kept on pourin down.

The next day was a pretty good day. It was finally nice and sunny which sure does beat pouring rain. I got up slowly but surely, had breakfast for the first time since I've been here, and slowly made my way to the zoo which wasn't too far down the road from my hotel which was great. There were lots of animals; lions, tigers, bears, elephants, all sorts of apes and oranguatangs, zebras, giraffes - but for some reason I liked the zoo in Brisbane more than the zoo here in Melbourne. It was more homey - had a great exhibit on koalas and you could pet and feed the kangaroos! I didn't need any more than that. Also at the zoo here, there were so many annoying children it was sickening. I think actually though that the mothers were far more annoying than the kids themselves. Their stupid pictures and pushing and shoving to get their kid to see the baby animals, ugh. I shouldn't have, but I felt wrong being at the zoo taking up the precious space that their kids could be using to see the animals. In Melbourne you could see the animals from afar, but no up and close encounters. Haha, well except for a monkey that would come right up to the glass to admire the people staring at him, and when he peed he stuck his hand under his butt to get some and then put his hands in his mouth, I think he did it purposely to gross the humans out, since he was hanging from right in front of the glass! Yeah disgusting, who was in charge of teaching him about hygiene?!

After the zoo, I went out to walk around and do a tab bit of work while seeing the city. Melbourne is a beautiful city, full of life and people.... and a layout that's meant to gather with friends. The only problem that I have with this is that I have no friends to gather with. After finishing up surveying the hotels, I walked around aimlessly trying to find somewhere to eat. I passed a million places, but they all looked too welcoming, with lots of people and big benches meant for all those people. I'm not quite sure what I was looking for, but I walked to the riverfront and back, and ended up settling at one of the hotels despite all the time I had spent looking up restaurants. All the other ones just felt too... friendly, and I was feeling lonely. Oh well, Melbourne just seems like one of those places you come with at least someone, if not people that you know. I think the city would be a lot more fun that way. Although, tomorrow... I will be having lunch with Alan (from New Plymouth) and a couple of his friends if I can get my work done! Speaking of, maybe I ought to go get ready for bed now so I can get up nice and early.

On another note... It's so lovely that it gets dark later here. And, it's so strange.... so as we all know, people drive on the left hand side. So, cars that are turning right are in the lane allll the way over to the left. They have to make sure they're not going to sideswipe other cars that are going straight when they are turning right! It's so bizarre looking.

Anyways, goodnight.

Warm welcome to Melbourne

Got up nice and early yesterday for my meeting, and from the train station it should only take me 20 minutes to get there. So, I was hauling in just in time, it was 9:10 and my meeting was at 9:30. But wait, the station I wanted to go to was on the list of locations, but I had already watched 2 trains go by and the place I wanted to go was not on there. Hmmm... 5 minutes gone, 10 minutes... Finally, someone tells me I look lost, can they help. Thank GOD yes you can (I wanted help but I didn't want to leave the platform afraid that I would miss my train!) Well, turned out I had to go to another location which all the trains passed through in order to get to the station that I needed to get to. Ugh. Gonna be late. Get to the station, and by the time I find where I need to go I just barely miss the train. Next one comes in 15 minutes (9:42) Ugh. Gonna be real late. Don't you hate that feeling? Ha I know it well.

That evening after a pleasant day of walking around downtown and getting lots of prices, I stop at a very busy, crowded cafe for dinner. I thought that must be a good sign, right? I knew that I needed to try kangaroo before I left Australia, and this cafe happened to have it on the menu. So, I'll give it a go. Why not? It tasted pretty good, but looked really rare. I wondered for a few passing seconds if this was ok to eat, but I went with it and ate it. After being very full and walking a good 20 minutes back to the hotel, I was sitting at the hotel computer and I knew I wasn't feeling quite right. I was starting to get really cold, and then I felt a bit nauseas. Ugh... I knew exactly what was going on. Up to my room I went and it didn't take long before I was throwing up chunks of bloody kangaroo (since it was so raw, yup gross). That's the last time I'll eat those furry animals.

Rock climbing solo....

I was a bit sad to leave New Plymouth. I had had a really great last day with Antony and Alex and crew. They took me to the beach where Alex and I went on a nice walk while Antony surfed away. New Zealand is really beautiful, I wish I had more time to check it out. The ocean, the rolling hills, the color of the electric green grass... it's just lovely. Alex and I were going to take a short hike up a hill call Peluma or something of that sort but he was called into work unfortunately, but I still went. It was a bit of a scary hike... The first half-way up there were stairs, but then there was nothing but really steep, jutted rocks and a rope to help pull yourself up. I felt as though I was rock climbing, well - I WAS rock climbing actually, for the first time EVER. You definitely don't want to lose your step here... I thought twice about whether I wanted to go to the top but I did, with a little bit of encouragement from some people coming down. Beautiful views of the whole (small) city. I met lots of nice people going up, go figure seems to be the trend around here. One of which is from Scotland (Alan) an older man that I may have a drink with sometime this week, (he was also coming to Melbourne). I met a couple other guys as well, one from Ireland and the other from England here doing a little visiting/traveling. Lots of people here on work visas.

That evening I met up with Antony, Alex and one of their co-workers for some vino. We stayed up for hours drinking bottles of wine and talking, it was so much fun. I really get along well with them, it's always a shame when you meet nice people and then have to leave them. Even though I was just drinking wine, I really hadn't drank that much in a while, and I ended up with a bit of a hangover when I got up the next morning 4 hours after going to sleep! Poor Alex had to work in the morning, at least I was just going to be passing out on a plane.

Speaking of planes, New Zealand is the first place I have ever flown in that doesn't make people go through security for domestic flights. There is absolutely none... it's so crazy! I kept on thinking... there has to be one somewhere, nope never came. Unbelievable. This is goin down in history! I don't know if that made me feel real safe or real NOT safe. Guess they've never needed it before, I'd hate to be on the flight that does!

Jack Johnson's favorite venue to play (so I am told...)

The only department store in the town is called Farmer’s, ha! Now who would have thought that New Zealand would have a department store called Farmer’s. Make yourselves seem even more like hicks why don’t you!

Tonight I ate 3 courses at a French restaurant. I was hungggggry! Mostly though, I was craving cheese. I had a bleu cheese soufflé to start, roast duck leg for dinner, and then French onion soup to end. Wow what a meal, I was comfortably full after that! I talked with Antony a bit more, and maybe I’ll go to yoga with him tomorrow. I told him about how I took a nice walk through the park in the city today; it was beautiful with a lovely lake and red bridges. I took some pictures of a musical venue where many famous artists play (though I don’t know how many actually attend the concerts!) Apparently it’s Jack Jonson’s favorite venue to play at; there is a big grassy field for sitting and the stage it right across from a very small lake in this beautiful park. Really something to see. It was nice to listen to music today, I hadn’t listened to music in a few weeks! Though I jumped a mile when I was in the park and turned around and a car went right by me; I hadn’t realized that I was in the middle of a road, oops… that’s what happens with your head phones on! I cracked up laughing after I jumped and the people in the car must have thought I was nuts.
A realtor today told me that I must break hearts all over the world. Haha, awwww… people here are not outwardly friendly; they rarely say hi on the streets but once you get talking to someone they open up to you immediately.

Out n about with Antony

Had a really nice, relaxing day today. Antony (the waiter from last night) called me and asked if I wanted him to pick me up at the hotel. Ya, why not? He picked me up and off we went, out of town. We drove through the beautiful, electric green fields full of herds of cows with Mt. Taranaki as the backdrop. It was breathtaking. We made awkward conversation but he wasn’t all that difficult to open up to. We entered Egmont National Park and drove in a little way until we got to the tourist station where there was a little café. We sat and sipped tea as we got to know each other better. Antony is a transplant from India who decided he wanted to get out of India, following boarding school. So, he left seven years ago and has never looked back. He just recently went home on holiday, first time in seven years since he had seen his family in person. I can’t imagine. He said since he has left his whole life view has changed; his parents want to see him working for a corporate chain, he just wants to make a good living while enjoying life. Antony is a young free spirit, full of life and idealisms, and it was invigorating to hang out with him. He’s a truly genuine, caring person whose eyes light up when he remembers something fondly, or when he talks about something he feels passionate about, and I admire him for that. He seems to think that New Zealand made him this way, and even his parents have noticed the changes, and it doesn’t seem as though they like it. He went from a money-hungry culture to focusing more importance on enjoying life. I like it when he says “it’s good to have a laugh”. Simple, but makes so much sense – most of the time when we are enjoying life we are smiling and laughing. Laughter truly is a great medicine.

Anyways, after our cup of peppermint tea (with raw honeycomb, I might add!!!) we went on a short but lovely walk up the mountain, stopping only for a few pictures. I huffed and puffed up to mid-way, the sight of a beautiful lookout where suddenly there is no trees only a barren walkway. Unfortunately, the clouds surrounded Taranaki today. If I had only knew…. I arrived on a day when the sky was completely clear and the whole mountain could be seen for miles away. I would have taken a picture damnit!!!

After our walk he dropped me at my hotel and I had some chips and hummus, and then I passed out pretty hardcore. Must have been exhausted. But we were going to dinner tonight. He picked me up an hour late, (my kind of man!) and we took a brief walk along the beautiful coastline. Full-on ocean right here. Then we both ate hearty pasta meals at one of the best restaurants in town, Portofino’s. Family owned and operated. He dropped me home and here I am. Hospitality at its’ best, someone reaching out to show kindness and asking for nothing in return but a good conversation. Oh, tear. (Yep a little bit). I really think I have seen the best of humanity in some of my travels.

On to New Plymouth, New Zealand...

I hate to say it, but I do try to be honest. People, more specifically women – are very homely in New Zealand, or New Plymouth more specifically. Far from attractive people, it’s a bit bizarre. I tried to find one today, I looked into the faces of these women with not a touch of makeup, terrible style, out of shape, some with boy cuts, some with brightly-dyed hair, and some with huge freak-styled earrings that enlarge the skin on your ear. Ewwww, why? I actually saw one good-looking guy working as a bartender today at one of the places I went to get prices. I could tell he thought I was cute, he was a bit flirty. Damn, I don’t mean to be mean but I’m probably one of the best looking females in this town. And that is something I have never said before, and neither am I overly confident in my looks. The people were not as friendly as I had expected, but then again I am coming from Fiji. I don’t think you can compare the kindness of the two people.

Started the day with a bit of an accident, I’m in a handicapped room and there is absolutely no barrier for the water in the shower. Without realizing it, I aimed the water a bit too far out and when I went to make sure my clothes weren’t getting wet, I realized that the water had run WAY out of the shower, my bathroom was now flooded and the carpet in the walkway was now soaked. Shit. I used up a lot of towels and did a lot of wringing them out to try and clean it up!

I walked around the whole town today, and finished about half of the work in about 5 hours. Ridiculously easy because everything is so close together. Very sleepy little town, but they certainly have lots of good food despite the smallness of it. I ate at a lovely French restaurant tonight. A couple people said to me “you don’t sound like you’re from around here” and when I say I’m from the US they are relatively surprised. So, what the heck are you doing all the way over here, and in New Plymouth of all places? And yes, so starts the inevitable conversation which usually takes no less than 10 minutes every time. So far, I haven’t met anyone who knows anyone from my part of the states. My waiter offered for him and his flatmate to take me around the city tomorrow, or outside the city to the volcano, Mt. Talanaki. I told him I was interested, we will see!

Everything was great... until my terrible client meeting

One of the security guards at the mall that keeps bothering me looks just like Derek Jeter. Until he opens up his mouth. But he is quite attractive and has those obviously fake, electric blue contacts which I have noticed on a couple men here. I guess they wouldn’t have blue eyes, so it’s a hot commodity.

Walking around barefoot is very popular here. Gives it a very earthy feel. It almost looks like everyone is walking around barefoot but most of them actually have on sandals that are just really hard to see.

Someone from the hotel came to pick me up at a meeting that I had today. When backing up, they crashed into the back wall. I got in and there was a young guy driving, and he had the typical uniform on, and there was another young guy in the car next to him. He did not have a uniform on, and the car reeked like sweaty men. Yum. He swirved and turned and breaked real hard back to the hotel, took a couple of turns down wrong ways and dirt roads. It was quite a ride. It annoyed me a bit, this didn’t seem like a professional car company to me, and I was coming from the hotel. I heard them talking about me in their language actually, they were trying to figure out where I was from, and I heard the United States and Canada being thrown out there. When they finally ask, I heard a “Yessss!” come out of one of them, whom had obviously bet correctly. I went back to the hotel because I really didn’t want these guys driving me around anymore, to be honest. But when I went back down an hour later to go do some research at restaurants, guess who were ready and rearing once again.

I had a realtor meeting today and a couple of young guys showed up to it. I saw their faces light up when they saw a young blonde girl walking towards them calling one of them by name. Then I noticed how they looked at each other in a “really?” sort of way. Geez, I really didn’t think that white people were all that abnormal here, but I guess it’s not a lot different from being in Latin America!

All the woman have the same haircut and the same build. Everyone is larger, and the women all have short fro’s. So they all look nearly exactly the same.

I had a terrible meeting today with a client. Walked in all bright-eyed and bushy tailed, friendly, tried to make small talk. I was shot down. For being a Pacific manager of a large organization, this guy was pretty dumb. He asked me if Fiji was getting to be as expensive as Australia. Seriously? I just did a quick online search and found that Australia currently boasts 3 of the top 20 most expensive cities in the world. Suva? Around 176 or something along those lines. He asked me why colleagues in Shanghai receive a higher allowance than Suva. Seriously again? Because it’s a lot more expensive maybe? Then, he went on to say that the housing allowances all of his employees should receive should be a number that is WAY off of our charts. Umm, no. We are here to make sure you live comfortably, not like kings. Please people. Then, I tried to ask him some questions about places that we should visit for our survey and he didn’t want to answer me! Really dude, how can I help you at all if you don’t help me help you. He said in a very condescending manor that I can ask Losana (his secretary) or someone else if I want the answers, in a “I don’t have time for you” sort of way. I left very frustrated, and was happy that Losana was (a typical local) and so nice to fill in the missing links, though I wanted to rip up the questionnaire and just state: “dick wouldn’t answer me”.

No tipping in Fiji

People in Suva are super nice, but man they are much too curious and talkative than is conducive for my work. I went in and open-booked everything, which ended up working out alright, but that caused a lot of conversations to be started. I ended up talking more than I was working, it sure seemed like! I had to say quite a bit of “OK, I need to get back to work now”.

I was walking around and getting prices from cafes, and there were a few men talking on the corner. They started talking to me and asking me questions, and one was very curious about my phone. “We don’t have these here” he told me. The nicest phone we have is the blackberry. What is this one called? I let him handle it, though I was weary to. Luckily, he didn’t try to take it. These were grown men, I figured they were reasonable people. One tried to steer me away from my work for drinks, which happened more than once throughout the day. No people, I have to work! Not like I would want to get drinks with you anyways! I can’t even pronounce anyone’s name here.

The food at my hotel isn’t very good. So, on the way back from working tonight I stopped to get something to eat. There are a million Chinese and Indian restaurants around here, and after my India quarter I think everyone knows how well I do with Indian food, so I picked Chinese instead. The place looked like it was 75 years old with no renovations. It was big and grand but really ugly and made you wonder what kind of care they were putting into cooking the food. I was a little nervous, especially when the bill came out to be 11 dollars, which is the equivalent of about 6 US dollars. It was fried chicken with a goopy pink sauce and some pickled vegetables. But, it didn’t get me sick, luckily! Suva is severely lacking in good-quality restaurants. I guess they don’t have enough potential clientele willing to pay the money. After paying my bill, I asked whether there was a tip jar, and the lady just told me no, you don’t have to. And that was it. Where in the world are you ever told “no, don’t tip me?” Fiji!! Suva is super cheap and it seems as though they cater to those clients. A four-hour flight is all the difference between a $6 dinner and a $70 dinner. Quite amazing I must say.

I was walking back from work today, it was a bit late – after 10 pm and I was getting bula bula’s, (the Fiji hello), where you goin baby’s, etc. I had experienced lots of “curiosity” at the mall so I wasn’t all that surprised. But, when I got close to my hotel a cab driver pulled over and got out, so I said hello since its’ customary to do here. A few seconds later, he called after me – so, I turned around. At that point, he didn’t say anything, he just put his hand in his pocket and made a gesture back and forth. I couldn’t tell if he was making a sexual gesture, trying to say he had a gun, or drugs or what. I didn’t wait to find out…. I quickly turned around and walked away, almost to my hotel. He kept on calling after me. I felt a little eerie on the plane when a woman sitting next to me told me that she had had her purse stolen from her in Suva, and a family member had recently had her cellphone stolen as well. Crime isn’t a major issue here, but I think I’ll take a taxi instead of walking home from now on.

Chasing dolphins and staying overnight in a remote village. In Fiji.

Once I spent a few minutes in the room getting settled, I made my way down to the restaurant so I could have some dinner. I had just opened my books to get started and a woman approached me and asked if she could join me. I was a bit shocked, not sure if that’s ever happened before (drunk guys often, but not women). She told me about how she had met her ex-husband in Canada (where she was from) and moved to Fiji to be with him. She raised two children here. It is a beautiful place, but I’m not quite sure I’d want to live here full-time. She gave me a suggestion of where to go to swim with dolphins. I NEED to make it there!!

And you know what? I made it happen. It took a few phone calls, a little bit of waiting, and a long, wild bumpy ride but I made it. I called Jay (the tourguide for the resort) a couple times before I could secure a room. At first, he told me I was going to have to take a local bus up to one of the towns and then find a taxi from the town to take me to the resort. I started thinking about how adventurous I was feeling. Then, luckily, another option came up. There was a bus picking some people up from the Nadi airport (3.5 hours away) and would be swinging by Suva because of the lack of road structure and could pick me up. Yes that would be perfect! So, I make absolutely sure to make it back to the hotel within plenty of time of the bus coming. I wait around for one, and then two hours. Jay the tour guide called me to ensure that the bus was still coming. Finally, it did. After picking me up at the hotel, we went right across the street to pick up another couple of people which turned out to be Jay himself and his fiancé, of whom I can’t remember her name, but she looks just like my friend Ashley so that’s what I’m going to call her. I was surprised, I didn’t think I would see Jay until I got to the resort. I’m sure he told me at some point that he was in Suva, but I couldn’t decipher his English well enough. He did mention that he comes to Suva often though to see friends because there is no nightlife in Takalana. His fiancé is French and previously worked in the French embassy in Suva, which is when she met Jay. After spending a year back in France, she quit life to move to where Jay was, all in the name of love. Anyways, I digress.

The ride to the resort was long, it was windy, the driver was nuts and couldn’t wait to make it there. I wouldn’t be able to wait either after driving a 12 hour or so day. We tossed and turned and held the seat for dear life, the gasps from the few passengers on the bus seemed to subside the longer we withstood the craziness, and I looked to Jay for reassurance. He seemed totally not bothered by the situation. This made me feel slightly better. Along the way we stopped, after long distances to talk to random people the driver knew, to pick up dinner along the way (some mussels) and finally for a pit stop for snacks, (or beer) before the last hour stretch on the dirt road on the way to the village.

Dirt roads, they sure were. We were now lurching out of our seats because of the lack of seatbelts, but at least we had slowed down a bit because the bus couldn’t stand the same speed on the dirt road. We passed by kids bathing in the streams, desperate to wave at us. We arrived just at nightfall and dropped the first couple off at their cabin. We continued down the road a little bit until we came to another village, and I was promptly shown to my cabin. It was small, there was a candle in the corner meant to keep away the mosquitoes as well as a mosquito net over the bed and a rustic and very outdoorsy (almost basement-like) bathroom which ran only cold water, but it was only mine. The bed was creaky and uncomfortable, but that was a decent price to pay for a night in a remote Fijian village.

I organized my things and then headed to dinner, gathered, prepared and cooked by the local village but unfortunately, it wasn’t all that appetizing. I picked at it, we all did (me, Ashley and Jay) but without speaking, none of us were too impressed. There was a camp staying in the local village this week, it was a mixture of local village children and international school children from Suva. They were putting on short skits for each other, and the variety between what the local kids were presenting versus the international school was striking. First off, the local Fijian teachers spoke to all the children in Fijian, whereas the international kids could not understand. When the international school children presented, they presented skits where the local kids’ were all about dance and song-related activity. Local kids were outgoing while many of the international kids were shy. It was quite interesting to observe them all.

Jay asked if we would like to have a bonfire, and why not? They put together one unlike I have ever seen, and much better than we make in Maine! The key seems to be to make a teepee with the wood before starting it up, because they came up with a raging fire. Jay broke out his guitar and if I closed my eyes I almost forgot where I was… I could imagine myself in any of the many locations close to home and the ones I love where I have had bonfires and sat on the beach taking in the heat of the fire and humidity of the air. But then, when they realized I hadn’t had the pleasure of trying it yet, they invited me to try cava, and I couldn’t really resist. I HAD to try it while in Fiji. Drinking cava, (grog) is a ritualistic ceremony which usually takes part on the weekends that was initially introduced to be somewhat of a peace treaty between tribes because it relaxes your senses. It’s like a drug, it is an aphrodisiac, it also helps as a sleep aid, it’s quite a calming substance and can really f*** you up if you have enough of it. It’s made of a plant that is dried and smooshed into a powder and then water is added to make it into a drink. I think it tastes like tea, other people will say dirty water. But it does numb the throat a bit. I didn’t notice a difference in my state of being, it didn’t hit me like a drug, and neither did a notice a difference in how I slept (besides being scared there were ants and spiders being on me which kept me awake). It had been a nice night, but I was excited to see some dolphins in the morning. It was time for bed.

After washing up with cold water, I made sure the candle (or was it an incense burner?) was all set up and I shut the lights and climbed under the mosquito net. I tossed and turned for hours, it was like sleeping outside – hearing the moos and the hees and haws and cockadoodledoos from the farm animals. I wanted to see the sunrise in the morning, but that didn’t happen because it was too cloudy. Bummer. While as usual I didn’t really want to get out of bed, it wasn’t particularly hard to want to after finding a few ants crawling around in my bed.

I soon found out that Fijian time is very similar to Caribbean time. My host didn’t join the breakfast table until well after an hour from when he said he would. Breakfast wasn’t all that much more appetizing than dinner had been, so I picked once again. Careful about anything that could possibly contain nuts since I was in such a remote location. One of the village boys I had met the night before at the bonfire seemed to take a liking to me and that morning asked me if I would like to be shown around his town. So we walked. I met all his brothers, the oldest woman in the village, I saw the house he lived in and some of his other siblings eating breakfast at their friend’s house. An Uncle was tending to the cattle, while another stocked wood. Life here was simple, but looked enjoyable; everything you needed was right in front of you. And they had the ocean just a 2 minute walk away, if that. I could potentially live there. And I had an opportunity for it to! Haha. So, Fijian boy asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said no, but that I was dating someone at home. So he asked me, what does it mean you are dating someone? So I told him, we have been out on dates - out to dinner, to the movies, etc. and we are trying to figure out if we like each other. If we like each other, then he will be my boyfriend. So, Fiji boy says to me – well can we go out on a date? Hmmmm… well, maybe we could but I’m leaving today. Well can we go on a date today? So I laugh, and say sure. How long does it take you to get here from your country, he asks – a week? No… about a full 24 hours. During the course of the day, I was asked many times whether I would be coming back to Fiji and if he could be my boyfriend. I tried to be nice, but towards the end I found myself trying to be more harsh with my answers because he just wasn’t getting it. Fiji is very far away from my home so no, I wouldn’t be coming back to Fiji and no he couldn’t be my boyfriend. Oh men, they’re the same everywhere aren’t they…...

Finally we left to go out to our dolphin excursion. It was pretty amazing, we went out into rough waters, but all of a sudden it calmed down. Everything suddenly seemed to get much brighter and the bottom of the ocean floor didn’t seem to be that far away. Suddenly… there they were. A large school of beautiful, large mammals were hopping in and out of the water, staying very close to the surface. It sure was an absolutely incredible sight to see. We were in the middle of the Moon Reef. After following the dolphins for an hour, we stopped in the middle of the reef to take a snorkeling trip. It was the most amazing snorkeling I think I have ever done. The water was a bit rough and I was a little nervous in the vast ocean after first jumping in. The coral was totally untouched and absolutely amazing in beauty – so many bright colors, and I saw huge purple starfish, about a foot long each amongst other underwater wildlife. I did see a turtle too! I snorkeled for an hour, despite that it was slightly cold and even raining out, but I had to do it. I was shivering by the time I was going to get out, and we were quite far away from the boat – well a 5 minute swim away. After returning to the boat, we went back to the village and packed up to go. I had a nice lunch with the French girl, it was actually the first nice-tasting meal since I had been in the village. Soon after we left in a taxi.

The ride back to the city felt a whole lot safer than the one we had taken out. We took a taxi to the city and then a friend of Jay’s drove us back the rest of the way to the city. They so graciously invited me to dinner that night at an Indian restaurant, I tried to eat the food which was delicious but I was just too nervous about my nut allergy, so instead when we went across the street for dessert, I ordered a nice, juicy burger there. But, it was really nice to hang out with some fun people, that really makes or breaks survey. Some of them worked for the French embassy, some were from Asia. All were really nice young people. What a weekend it was.

Bula Bula Fiji!

Coming over on the plane to Fiji, I sat next to a woman who was coming because a family member was sick. On the second plane, the person sitting next to me wife’s father was dying. And when I arrived, there had been a poor older woman with a cane who had a lot of trouble walking and a man with her as well, both broke down sobbing when greeted by some family at the airport. Fiji is suppose to be a happy place, not a place full of sad people! When I arrived at the first airport, I had already filled out my customs card and I noticed on it that it said no one was allowed to conduct research in the country without the approval of the immigration department, or something of that. I got a bit worried. I prefer to say I’m coming for business because I don’t like to lie, but sometimes it’s just better to. The lady sitting next to me told me that I would be fine, so I trusted her and kept it. Luckily it turned out fine, I altered my real story a little bit and basically said that I was meeting with a client and helping them with rental budgets. The immigration guy thought I was an agent, so I said sure, something like that. And that got me the stamp. Phew!

I was greeted at the hotel by a man wearing a skirt. I later realized that most of the men here wear skirts. It’s fascinating to see these people, many of whom have ancestors that are indigenous Fijians. They look just like they came off a South Pacific postcard; except they’re not totally in costume. And, they are much larger people than I expected. On the way to the airport, my taxi driver filled me in that Fijians ate people until the late 1920’s/30’s. The idea was that once you captured your enemy, you would eat them. Fascinating, and disgusting at the same time.

Something I need everywhere: A waitress out to save my life

I went to ask for prices at a café in the mall today, and after being approached while staring at the menu, there was a man with a massive curly cue mustache staring up at me. I had to look away quickly in order to prevent myself from laughing out loud. The funniest part of it was that he was so “proper” in the way that he spoke. It was so difficult not to burst out laughing!

I’m pretty proud of myself; I went out 3 times in Sydney, with 2 different guys. Though, I was actually asked out 4 times because the guy from the ferry who invited me out counts, I think! Good odds, 3 out of 6 evenings! I did end up going out with Shawn again (the strange accent guy). I warned him that I couldn’t be out late because I had an early morning meeting. We ate at a Thai restaurant and the waitress was very concerned about my allergies. I told her no nuts, and no fenugreek. When she didn’t know what fenugreek was, I wrote SPICE next to it. I think she then became nervous I was allergic to all spices and limited what I could order. When we wanted to get the chicken wings, she told me that I couldn’t have them. Just like that, straight out. No, you can’t. Almost like my free will was taken from me. She said spring rolls only, so that’s what we had for an app. I loved her sternness, I have never had a waitress so insistent on what I could and could not eat! Shawn wanted me to ask him to hang out in my room, but it wasn’t going to happen. He actually said to me, invite me up to your room. I was like, what? What’s wrong with you guy, who actually says that to a girl? He asked me a couple times before finally giving up. Ya that’s right, go back home. The next day, I realized that he had left me with the $40 parking fee charged to my room to pay on my own. I’m sure he didn’t realize until he got to his car, and by that time he was probably thinking, oh well – f that I didn’t get laid, she can pay for something!

In hindsight, I like it here in Sydney, and would definitely like to at least visit once again sometime. Hopefully with some friends next time.
Coffee culture in Australia is amazing. There is a café on every corner, and people go out for numerous cups of joe everyday. As a realtor put it, each person in the office goes to a different café of their preference, and have it made by the barrister of their choice. Coffee in Australia is like wine in France, I do believe. I had quite a few good cups of it myself while I was there!

Shawn mentioned to me that if you look around, you’ll find laid-back men with sneakers, a wifebeater, shorts, tattoos everywhere (they are very popular in Australia) and a supermodel girlfriend, dressed to the nines. Goes to show you how laid back Australia is. I saw one who looked like she could be one myself when I was leaving Manly beach. Big sunglasses, perfectly toned calves, short mini skirt and a fur coat toting around a supercute toddler.

What were you doing with your legs in the air anyways?

Today was a beautiful day, I took a million pictures of the opera house and the beautiful bridge behind it, and I went out to Manly Beach (which was actually named for having lots of manly men, seriously) via ferry. I lounged on the beach… a luxury I hadn’t done much this trip and I wanted to make sure to take advantage of this since the weather was going in the opposite direction back home. I watched the surfers, I went on a very nice walk to check out the little town, and then had a delicious lunch before taking the short 15 minute ferry back to Sydney proper. Meanwhile, funny story for the ferry ride back.

I make my way up to the top of the ferry for the view and sit all the way in the back. When the boat pulls away from the shore, it’s going so fast and the wind was so strong I could barely catch my breath, so I turned around so that I could. When I did this, my shoe flew off my foot and luckily landed against the ropes on the back, and fell flat down to the bottom of the boat. Thank goodness it got caught on the ropes, otherwise that shoe would have flown straight out to sea! This prompted a conversation with a guy who was sitting close by. He was a nice English guy who invited me to meet up with him and his friends at some bar that night. I said maybe, but never exchanged information with him anyhow. As I was getting off the boat, I asked about my shoe and the shipmates said “we have your shoe, Cinderella”. “Thanks guys, my shoe flew off my foot!” To which they replied…. “what were you doing with your legs up in the air anyways?” Ummm… what do I say to that question? The guys were looking at both me and this bloke that I had a brief conversation with on the boat. I just blushed, quite a bit and laughed it off. I hadn’t been that embarrassed in white a long time!

That night, I was walking around the opera house taking lots of pictures when a guy approached me and asked if I would like him to take my picture for me. Sure, why not? Then we got to talking, which I was hoping not to do, but he was nice to talk to and I needed a little bit of company anyways. One thing led to another and he asked me if I wanted to go for a drink. Why not. He was in the financial industry and was really cute but he had the strangest accent which I swore was South American but he said that he was originally from Vancouver. There were certain words that he said very strangely which I found oddly very unattractive. Is it weird that I’m not interested in a guy because he says “really” very strangely? Sounds like rulllly….. Or am I the one who is odd? He did tell me an interesting story about having cookaburras that he feeds at breakfast daily, so they basically wake him up in the morning. That must be really cool! I couldn’t imagine sleeping through that crazy “laugh” they have anyways. I told him that maybe I would go out to dinner with him again, though I don’t really want to… but it doesn’t hurt having company. I could tell he was just trying to get laid though. Oh well, I don’t mind having a few fruity drinks for free ;)

Simon from Darwin

Simon, the guy I met in Darwin wrote to me today and asked if I wanted to meet up for a drink. Hell why not? I think I will.

I ended up having a great time with Simon. He seems to be a really interesting person. He’s a part-time pilot and has some sort of a voice-over business, I have no idea what that means. He was a radio show host in London. And, I only know all this because I stalked him online before I met up with him. A girl’s gotta know what kind of guy she’s meeting up with, right? It’s justified. We met at a hotel bar around 6 which was a bit further than I expected, in which case I ended up being 15 minutes late. I asked a guy who was sitting there who only slightly resembled him if he was Simon, but that only ended in embarrassment. Oh man, did he think I wasn’t coming? Is he upstairs in the restaurant? Finally I called him, he had never received my email back apparently, about the time we were meeting up. Phew, he didn’t think that I stood him up. So he came right over to the hotel after that incident. We chatted about this and that which almost always reverted back to travel. Took a real great picture at the end. He was heading off to London for a couple weeks or so, otherwise he said he would have loved to show me around. It’s almost OK that he was leaving, I don’t like feeling obligated with sticking with someone. But it was really nice to have a sit down chat with him, for sure. Later he sent me the picture he took of us and some pretty detailed instructions on how to get to my appointment on Friday. What a sincerely nice, sweet guy. Now, he’s someone I hope I keep in touch with.

Today was the Melbourne cup and I was really bummed that I didn’t sit down and watch the races. The only time I caught glimpse of them was in a department store, ha. How sad is that. Women were dressed to the nines and mostly looked lovely, while others looked skanky, but they pretty much all sported some pretty interested hats/decorative hairpieces. I should have stole one ;) My brain at times switched to wonder if they were dressed up for Halloween, since it was right around that time! Surprisingly, I didn’t see a whole lot of costumes. I thought I would have in Australia.

I paid $70 to catch a cab to get gas prices at one gas station today. How sad is that? And I went out to eat at a pizza place for dinner and spent $50 on a soda water, margharita pizza and a small salad. How’s that for putting it into perspective. Australia is not cheap!!

Sydney! Finding words of wisdom along the way

Today was a bit of a lazy day, especially since I went to bed so late last night. I loved waking up with the big bay window shining the sunlight from the harbor over me. The maid came in and I tried to explain to her that I was switching rooms and maybe she should wait until my room was switched (um, that makes total sense right?) but she wanted to do it while I was there. But then, she changed her mind for some reason. My room was switched from the first floor, two single beds to the 9th floor, with a beautiful view, a sitting area and a queen-sized bed. Ahhh much better. I did some resistance exercising then headed out on the city to do some research and get some food.

The Shangri-La and the Four Seasons were a couple of my stops along the way. The service didn’t seem to be as precisely perfect as I remember it being in Boston. No one really stopped me to ask if I needed any help, and neither was I greeted by anyone. Not that I wanted to be, it’s a bit difficult to be inconspicuous when you have people noticing you anyways! I got dinner at a bar. I was a bit disappointed, but it was one of my stops for survey so I had to go there anyway. It made the “hey, can you tell me the price of a beer and an espresso?” a little less awkward. Sydney is a beautiful city, and I’m staying right in the middle of it all. Modern, apparently great food (though I’ll have to work on finding it), and a beautiful skyline, of which I have a great view. Watching the sun going down tonight was pretty amazing. Thank goodness I have a camera that is good at capturing sunset colors. It’s a little chilly here at night. The daytime was perfect. (Better than dealing with a snowstorm at home, that’s for sure.) I hope it stays that way!

Tonight I had an inspirational talk with my Italian waiter, after a very filling, yet delicious meal of vegetarian house-made tagliatelli pasta and delicious bruschetta. (My hotel is in such a great location right smack dab in the downtown on the water in “Darling Harbour”. What a nice name). Anyways, well, it was more like he was talking at me, for quite a long time, but it’s ok because he got his point across. This also ties in with my thoughts about Qantas. People are SO greedy. We forget what’s really important. Was it so ridiculous that Qantas’ CEO had a salary increase from 3.4 to 5 MILLION dollars amongst a huge controversy about lack of pay increases from employees? Are the labor unions being ridiculously greedy in their requests? Did the CEO put nothing but power and greed into his thought to halt the airline for the weekend holding up hundreds of thousands of passengers? Yep, yep to everything, and especially the ridiculousness of the CEO’s salary. WHY is that necessary, especially amongst what’s happening. You have unhappy employees, and you’re rubbing exactly what they want and more into their faces. You can’t run a good business if you can’t keep your employees happy, nevermind even get along with them in the first place.

Our world has become a place of greed where money is the ultimate importance, moreso than family, friends, love, gratitude, kindness, time, and genuine character. I doubt we will ever get this back again, and how sad that is. Our innocence as a society and the underlying need for basic necessity has become so inflated and now we “need” things that we don’t, like an addiction, and we’ll do anything to fulfill that need.

Qantas strikes back

Got into Sydney today, I caught a glimpse of the opera house when I was in the cab and my heart dropped a little bit. I’m really here! That city that you see pictures of everywhere. One of the top tourist destinations in the world. My hotel is nicer than the other ones I have stayed in so far this trip. Upon conversations with other people, I figured out that the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne are actually less expensive than the other cities because there is less competition in the other cities because they are smaller. Especially when it comes to restaurants and even moreso with hotels.

So, I was a bit surprised to see that my hotel only has one real restaurant. It has a buffet but also serves a la carte. I mentioned to the lady at the front desk that I had a nut allergy and she offered to have the chef personally take me around to explain what was nut-free and what was not. This worked out perfectly! The chef was so friendly, and mentioned to me that I should stay away from the cheeses because the person who handled the nuts (which were on the same plate) handled the cheeses, but offered that if I wanted anything in particular he could arrange it to make sure there were no nuts on it. So, I mentioned to him that I would LOVE some cheese. That was that, I went back to the buffet to check out my nut free options and sat down. 10 minutes went by, and I was wondering where my cheese was, but didn’t want to (obviously) make an issue out of it and ask about it, so I just kept eating what I had on my plate. Another 10 minutes, Chef Ricardo comes back out with a few nicely sliced pieces of brie with some “absolutely nut-free” as he claimed toast and some caramelized figs. Yum! It was the perfect snack to finish off my glass of red wine. I was very impressed by the service, there’s nothing like being in a state-of-the-art city where I don’t have to guess if I’m putting something that’s going to cause me an issue into my mouth.

Today I flew on Jetstar, Australia’s discount airline (and had to pay an extra $75 for my baggage for being over 20 kilos; probably would have ended up a lot cheaper on Qantas anyways because of this!) Jetstar is similar to Jetblue, but there was absolutely no entertainment for 4.5 hours, neither were there any snacks, only breakfast that you had to pay for yourself. I refuse to buy breakfast from an airline. Puhhhh leeeease, I can wait for MUCH better! At least the water was free. Though, I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to ask for some. Actually, I couldn’t. I ended up getting off the airplane real thirsty because I spent the whole flight sleeping, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Went by real fast! Anyways, Qantas announced late this afternoon that it was indefinitely grounding the flights of all of its’ aircraft due to the labor unions and their ridiculous claims. I don’t know… if the CEO wasn’t just given a 71% salary increase then I might have agreed with the union’s ridiculousness. Pretty sure that just exacerbated the problem much, much more. So glad that I’m not scheduled to fly with them for another 2-3 weeks. Sure hope they’ve resolved their issues by then, or I’ll be pretty screwed, and they will be absolutely royally screwed. Meaning… the company, many passengers, and tourism revenue for the country as a whole.

Out of season snowstorm at home, 90 degrees + here!

I’ve heard the crazy news that it’s snowing back at home! Well, it’s a lovely 90+ degrees here! Take that, haha. MAN these days are hot. Not that I’m complaining, I love love love the heat. Today I walked around just observing, I was hoping to find a crocodile somewhere since Darwin is full of them but no luck there. I did, however; find “green ants”. They are ants with little green bums. I tried to get a good picture of them but it wasn’t working out for me. Walking around, I ran into a guy from Sydney who was asking me about the sunsets in Darwin. Of course I didn’t know, and it sounded like nothing much but a pretty bad pickup line to me, but we just had a nice conversation. He gave me his number if I wanted to contact him for a drink while in Sydney to get away from the loneliness, but I didn’t sense at all that he was trying to pick me up. I kept walking until I saw the sun starting to go down. Beautiful yellows, pinks, and especially bright oranges lined the horizon. I snapped a bunch of pictures of it, including some pictures of some strange looking seagulls that look like they had a yellow mask over their face. Bizarre.

After having a snack of wine (complimentary from the hotel!), oranges, strawberries, tomatoes and broccoli, I headed out for some protein. There was a restaurant down the street that I had heard was good so I went to check it out. It’s called Char, and it just happens to be owned by the same management as a restaurant that I actually went to in Brisbane a few weeks ago called Jellyfish. I asked for recommendations, as I normally do, and I was told that the whole barramundi was a good option. So hey, why not… I went with it. I was in awe when it came out. This thing was HUGE and it overlapped the plate that it was on. It was a whole fried fish brushed with a soy sauce base and it had shredded ginger on top. Come to find out, it was just boasting a ridiculously large appearance, once I removed the fish from the bones it wasn’t nearly as much as I thought it would be. But it sure was tasty!