Fiji part two

Malo!

The exciting tale of Leah and friends' epic Fiji adventure left off in a cloud of dust as the pickup trucks rolled down the mountain from the Eco-tourism village of Ambaca. Here we will pick up the story and relay the events that followed:

After waiting for Prem in a hotel's lobby for two hours, we finally saw the familiar bus stop in front of the sea wall. Reunited with our larger luggage (we had only taken overnight bags to Ambaca), I chose the day's book from the four or five I'd brought with me (I'd already finished Possible Side Effects and Tales of the Tikongs-- I recommend both, but highly recommend the second). I settled into what turned out to be a twelve-hour journey across the island with Franny and Zooey.

Taking the longer of the two routes to get to Suva, we drove through all the plantations and areas most tourists don't see. Prem's wife had prepared a most delicious Indo-Fijian feast with a smorgasbord of chutneys, curries, salads, soups, dahl, rice, and other assorted treats, which the group devoured under a mangrove tree en route. I finished my book just in time to see the outskirts of Suva, the largest city in the South pacific, coming into view.

We checked into an apartment complex/ hotel that turned out to have lights that rarely worked, a poor attempt at air conditioning, and was completely bug-infested. Luckily, we didn't spend much time here as the next two days we spent hopping between class at USP Suva (USP's main campus), shopping and eating in Suva, and exploring other parts of the city.

At USP Suva we first endured a few could-be-interesting-if-there-weren't-a-whole-country-to-see lectures and then finally got to meet some more interesting people. We saw the dancers at the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies practicing for their performance that night, a flood relief concert downtown. We went to the USP museum (a one-room gallery) and met the artists whose works were on display. We even got to go to their bookstore, an amazing treasure chest of fascinating books on the Pacific; textbooks to satisfy my nerdier side's recent craving for academic literature (psychology, sociology, graphic design, intro physics, you name it!); deliciously photographed cookbooks; edge-of-your-seat travel memoirs; and an entire section I didn't have time to visit. As it was, my roommate and I were running late to meet up with our classmates and travel to a nearby museum.

The grounds of the museum were spectacularly green and well-kept. The exhibits themselves left something to be desired, but of course my favorite was the room full of traditional Fijian dresses. There were original and reproduction tapa cloth wedding dresses and necklaces, bracelets and earrings of intricate metalwork. After we'd decided we'd had our fill of the Fijian endemic species exhibit, we headed back to the city.

And here's the part where Leah becomes the most frightened and overwhelmed she's been since arriving in Honolulu in early February: Somehow--and I don't know exactly how it happened--I found myself in a mall. It was horrible! There were escalators everywhere and shops with mannequins and posters of giant coffee cups and clothing with sequins adorned with sky-high price tags and a food court!! So I floated through, not knowing exactly what to do or how to act in such a modern setting, until I got so overwhelmed I had to leave.

The craft market was more my speed. Kind of what like Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles is going to be, it was a building with individual stalls where separate artisans sold their crafts. This I could handle. I handled it so well that I came out with my wallet much lighter than it had been going in. And with that, we hopped back onto Prem's bus and scooted on over to our next destination, the Indo-Fijian homestay.

Looks like the Fiji story will have to be in three parts, after all. My apologies, but I'm being kicked out of the computer lab. Look out for the rest of this scintillating tale, coming soon to a computer screen near you.

Alofa, alofa, alofa,
Leah