fiji...

i originally posted this story last year. but when i lost all of my pictures with the blogging disaster, this was one of them that i knew i would have to redo. i thought i would just add the pictures back in and keep the same text from the last post. so in case you missed it a year ago, here it is.  and if you already read all this, sorry to bore you! i did add some extra text though. and i will admit, i can't post any recent pictures because we still don't have internet at home and i can't upload any new pictures. so you will have to wait a few days for an update on the house and everything. oh well that's okay right? anyway, the reason i am reposting this now is because i was in fiji almost 2 years ago from today. i never though that i would be where i am 2 years later. i love where i am. but i think i would not mind if where i was was in fjii. with sean. and mosey. and my house too. maybe i will fly my house there with a bunch of ballons like on up. anyone wanna help?

oh and if i can just say to anyone, if you are unmarried, have no kids, and are unsure about where you are going or what you are doing with your life? go out of the country.  go on a trip. do something! whether it be for volunteer work, or for fun, or both like in my case? just do it. going to australia and fiji was the most incredible thing that i have ever done. i went skydiving, surfing, scuba diving in the great barrier reef, rapelling, kayaking, white water-rafting, and tons of other neat stuff. sure, i thought it would help me "find myself", but i think i really figured out what i wanted to do with my life  when i got back. i got laid off from my job when i got home because things had slowed down and they didn't really need me anymore. i was incredibly depressed about it. i felt more lost then ever, but later i learned that if that would not have happened? i wouldn't be working where i work now, and i wouldn't have started dating sean (because he was working here too). i really do believe that everything happens for a reason. i am grateful i got to go have the summer of my life before re-meeting the guy who i would spend the rest of my life with. i know that is cheesy but it is true. anway... back to fiji.

ahhh fiji. Seriously, the most beautiful place I have ever been. Beautiful trees, water, and people. Fijians are incredibly friendly and treat everyone like family. We stayed at a resort that was owned by an amazing family. By the end of our stay, they knew everyone's names. They played volleyball with us and took us deep sea fishing. We got to go to a local school and hang out with some of the kids. We even went to the island where Castaway was filmed. I enjoyed a massage on the beach with coconut oil and even bought a package of Rolos for $9. ( i wasn't aware that it was $9 til after they swiped my card, but i can't say that would have stopped me from buying them...) See. I told you I have a problem..

oh and all of these pictures came from my camera and are un-edited. that is how beautiful fiji is.























this is the exact island that castaway was filmed on.















the below picture was taken right before our ship wrecked on the way to the airport.



this picture was taken right after all the alarms started going off. we weren't really taking the whole thing very seriously, until we realized that our ship was really sinking..



Warning: kind of a long story. You don't have to read..

So I have to explain the story of how our ship wrecked. We had just packed up and left the resort that we were staying at. There are tons of different islands in Fiji and we needed to get to the main one because that is where the airport is at. We had just had one of the nicest weeks of our lives but we were all really anxious to get home because we had been away for 6 weeks. We were on this huge boat. Now I wouldn't say that it was like Titanic or anything. But it was a fairly large speed boat that had 2 floors and could fit well over 100-150. We were speeding a long pretty quickly, some of us sleeping or just trying to enjoy the ride. All of the sudden we hear a thud thud thud. It was pretty loud and it jolted the boat. Some people joked around that maybe we hit a dolphin or something. The captain kept going right along when all of the sudden these really loud alarms went off. He slowed the boat down and realized that he had ran straight into a coral reef. Everyone just kind of sat there like "Oh, no big deal. I am sure it just scratched the boat or something." Some of the staff kept saying that we needed to put out life jackets on. I kept thinking in my head the line from Titanic. "Get your life vests on!" A lot of just just laughed it off like it was some sort of precaution and started to take pictures of us pretend freaking out. But we realized he was serious when we looked to one side of the boat and it was rapidly filling up with water. They made us all get to one side of the boat and try not to move. The boat started filling up fast and we were worried because we had ALL of our luggage, souveniers, passports, plane tickets, cell phones, cameras, and wallets with us. What were we supposed to do? A bunch of people started pulling out ziploc bags that they had and everyone just combined as much stuff in them as possible. My camera was in some strangers bag, my passport in another. We could see land, but it would have been quite a swim in who knows what infested waters. They told us to wait for the rescue boats and remain calm. About 15 minutes later the first boat came. It was kind of funny because a lot of people were crying and really scared. These little boats took us to land and we had to wait to get on another boat. We never found out what happened to the boat, but it was pretty submerged in water when we last saw it. We finally got to the airport only to find that all flights had been cancelled and we had to sleep in the Fiji Airport for 10 hours. WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING. And it smelled like vomit. Anyway, it was still soo much fun and it was kind of neat calling my parents and telling them that I was going to miss my flight back home to Utah because our ship wrecked. Anyway. Everyone should go to Fiji. It rocks. The end.