Ocean 2, Annika 0

Alright, paper is handed in, flatting situation is underway, all of which means I have time to write again. So, needless to say after my first snorkeling expedition, I was less than thrilled to toss myself again into the merciless ocean. However! I am not a quitter, so I decided to try again. Different beach, different water, no scary fish (hopefully). I grabbed a facemask, snorkel, and flippers and waddled out to the ocean. I jumped into the water and immediately got a mouthful of salt water. Ew. Hm. I tried again, only to be again mouth-deep in water. I decided something had to be wrong with the snorkel and got another from the large bin of snorkels (hygenically pure, I'm sure). Same scenario. After again peppering the air with some well deserved language, I regained my composure and decided to try again in spite of the fact that nothing is more disgusting than a mouthful of dirty sea water. (It must be dirty; fish pee in it.)

I decided that Kelley's super duper fancy flash snorkel must be better so I got that. Better. But alas, there were no real fish, plants, or anything of real interest near this beach. Blast. Snorkeling had conquered me again. But then we went aboard the Seaspray, a booze cruise with all drinks and food included in the price (Did I hear a challenge to overeat and drink the price paid? I think I did!) on which we went to see the island Tom Hanks filmed Castaway. Because we had stayed on a boat for a night as part of the tour and I had not leapt from the boat into the ocean (mostly because I'm a coward, but I blamed bikini distrust), I decided the time was right. A few of us decided to jump in from the boat and snorkel in to the island. I stepped up to the edge... and was pushed. :) Either way, I got in the water, but again salt water invaded my mouth and, unfortunately, my stomach. More obscenities. "Why is it impossible for me to snorkel?! Why?!" I did the swimming equivalent of stumbling in towards shore.

Well, let me tell you, I do not pity Tom Hanks' character. Being washed up on shore here was no treat. I was bashed, literally bashed, onto coral from the waves. I was scratched everywhere! It was so shallow and the coral was so high that it was impossible to get in (at least anywhere near where we came in) without donating approximately two pints of blood to the ocean. I sat on the beach, but still in the water, letting the ocean clean out my newly perforated body and cursing the day I decided to love water.

Kelley, God bless her, decided that I could not come all the way to Fiji and learn to hate snorkeling even though I insisted snorkeling hated me. She took me out, cut free, to the drop off where I saw a blue (and I mean blue) starfish and she brought a sea cucumber up for me to see (they are gross). Fish did swim near me, but none attacked and I felt bad for being anxious about some fish that swam quite close. They seemed perfectly nice, looked nothing like my fish attacker, but still... they were so close! So the moral of the story is: the ocean is too big to attempt on your own. And it hates me.

Pout

I need to take a minute to pout. I realised I was first pouting when a person sitting next to me at the library, a complete stranger, said, "Wow. I've never seen someone actually pout like little kids do." After a hefty glaring, I realised that yes, my lower lip was protruded, quivering dangerously. And so my story begins.

I have a paper due at ten am. It is currently 4pm and I am approximately half finished. It will not take much longer, but my goal is to be done by 5.30pm in time for class. I don't like writing when it's dark out. Usually, I can do this with no problem. I hole up in the library with my legal-Napster-like-program blasting some Bright Eyes (perfect for studying) and go at it. Well, today, I had to get my keys out because they have my removable drive on which my entire life is saved. As I was getting it out of my purse, I saw the piles of Fijian sand still stowed away. Pout. This time last week? Asleep on a hammock in the sunshine, waves splashing at my feet. Today? Writing a stupid paper for a stupid class for a stupid degree. (Feeling a wee bit bitter today.)

Then, I am typing away at a mad pace when my computer just turns off. No warning, nothing. Off. Well, after hitting the on button and muttering strong enough to make sailors blush, my computer is up and running again. I lost about half a paragraph, but that's it due to my incessant clicking of the "save" option. I start typing again, and my computer shuts off again only about ten minutes later. After resisting hurling my laptop down to the floor below me in front of the tech guy's desk, I took a walk to sooth my anger. After the third time of such spontaneous shut down, I went down to the tech guy who proudly proclaims, "Prolly a virus!"

I have had three viruses this year already. I have two different virus detectors, one of which updates itself, then runs a check every morning at three am. I also have spyware that I run on a weekly basis if I'm not feeling too paranoid, otherwise two or three times a week. I do NOT have a freakin' virus. He pokes around my computer for approximately two life times and says, "Nope, nothing obvious. Hope it doesn't happen again." Ever cool, calm, and collected, I said, "You'd better hope not. Or I'm using your computer to write my paper while you figure out what's wrong with it."

So, now, here I sit, convinced that my Napster-like program is malfunctioning, convinced my computer will shut down on me again, convinced I will be writing til the wee hours of the morning. No music, no Fiji, no fun. Just me writing for ages in the dull library noise that I detest. So my lower lip protrudes a little bit; so sue me.

Whoops

I promise that I will put up more stories and finish the terrifying saga of Annika the Snorkeling Champion, but alas, I have to write a paper for which I have not yet begun to research. It is due in 24 hours. Whoops! :)

Holiday will do that to you!

But I do want to take this opportunity to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEIF!!! (Again, the date is on New Zealand time, but it is currently his birthday in the States.) Also, happy birthday, Greg - best friend of Leif; also, happy baptism birthday to me! Such a time for celebration.

Attack of the Killer Fish!

If you think this looks like an innocent fish... well, you may be right. To be completely honest I've had a heck of a time finding a photograph of the culprit fish and may even be perpetuating racial fish profiling. But this looks like the fish that tried to attack me; it looks more like it than any other picture I can find. Who would have thought google would flounder at the phrase "mean fish who tried to attack me when I was in Fiji"?

Snorkeling seems like it would be right up my alley. I love to explore things and I like the ocean. Logic would follow that I would enjoy exploring said ocean. Not so. It's scary down there - it's like the opposite of claustrophobia because the enormity of the space and the unknown is utterly daunting. But I can handle a wee bit of snorkeling before I freak out. My first venture out was in a horrid spot, with shallow water and high coral. While thinking, "Suck in that tummy!" I courageously wandered out to the drop off. As I was going, I put my hand on the ocean floor to see how much room I had - I looked down at my hand and saw that my hand was touching a giant fuzzy clam thing! I freaked out, tried to leap into a fetal position and scratched my foot on some coral. Whoops. Bad idea. I swam quickly away before the clam could open up and snatch away my hand.

The drop off is simply cool. There's no if, ands, or buts about it. There are all kinds of fish I have never seen, big massive sea plants that are bigger than me, and colours you don't see in everyday life. But all this kinda scared me; I was anxious, but not terrified. I like to know what's going on around me and seeing a plant that is larger than me makes me steer clear. Then, the fish swim all around you. I comforted myself with repeating, "They don't want to touch you any more than you want to touch them!" This, however, is horrifically untrue.

That cute bugger you see above swam past me, stopped dead in its tracks, looked me in the eye and dive bombed my face. I kid you not. So I tried to shoo it away with my hands. Turns out, this motion, in water, only attracts said fish. At this point, I naturally screamed (without getting a drop of water in my mouth!) which did frighten away said fish. "Aha!" I thought, "Vibration is my oceanic friend!" So I started to swim back to shore through the only non-coral infested pathway and who did I find? Said fish and his buddies, back for revenge. They were ahead of me on the path and I had to follow them. So I did so, and whenever the fish would turn maliciously around, I would growl loud enough to keep them away.

However, one snuck up beside me (blast the lack of peripheral vision in a face mask) and tried to attack. Again jumping and growling simultaneously (I was clearly getting better at this game), I cut my leg on some coral. The fish had won this round, but I would come out on top.

Dum, dum, dum.... To be continued??

Fiji in Review

I'm getting requests for the happenings of Fiji. I have decided to attack this in list format because... well, because I enjoy lists.

The Number Game:
3: times I went snorkeling
9: times I cut myself on coral and/or sharp rocks
0: romantic holiday flings
3: skinny dipping people
2: unfortunate pictures of the skinny dipping
43: emails awaited my return to civilization
3: packages of Fijian peanut biscuits consumed by the traveling trio
2: cigars smoked
1: courageous jump from boat to ocean in bikini (or was pushed... whatever)
4: people going to LA following the Fiji trip (none of which was American)
1: approximate handfuls of sand taken out of one of my cuts
2: times a fish attacked me while I was snorkeling; also number of times I screamed underwater

Funny Quotes:
"What a funny looking dog! [it was a pig]"
"You gotta cross your arms over your chest, yell, 'Dingo! Dingo! Dingo!', look 'em in the eyes, and back away slowly."
"Uh-oh, Kelley, avert your eyes from the Fijian rugby field lest we crash! [said multiple times roadtrippin' to and from Suva]"
"Oh, he's not 16 yet." followed by me thinking, "Ew... I'm going to hell." (And no, I didn't touch him!!)
"...by the twilight's last gleaming... um..." [Kelley and I, under pressure and the influence of alcohol, forgetting the lyrics to the national anthem]
"Surgery, surgery!" [said by my flamboyant, favorite bartender as he fixed up one of my cuts]

Around the World: (countries represented on the trip)
Columbia
France
Brazil
England
Scotland
New Zealand
Austria
Slovakia
Australia
USA

Activities:
snorkeling
swimming
kayaking
underwater cave trip
climbing around rocks
booze cruise on the Seaspray
Kava ceremony

Points of Interest:
went to the island where Tom Hanks filmed Castaway
went to the Blue Lagoon
we found fluorescent stuff on the beach at midnight
we were one of two groups of white people we saw in the whole of Suva and both parties went immediately into McDonald's (to use the toilets)
Kelley got offered to buy weed (she said no)
a girl got bitten/stung by a sting ray

Okay that's all I can think of for the moment. I am sure more stories will occur to me and get elaborated upon in the next few days and weeks. As for now, I am missing my peeps as homecoming in Valpo is upon us. Sigh.

Boo for Home

Well, I'm back. Back to rain and cold. I will spend the next few days living in the library. But! The holiday was AMAZING!!! I will post pictures and details later. You know, when I'm not exhausted from travels. :)