Home Sweet Home

Finally!! I got back to Chattanooga yesterday afternoon around 3 after a very long couple of days of traveling. I managed to stay awake until about 8pm last night and slept til 9 this morning, so no jet lag! It is so nice to be home, especially when the weather is sunny and warm, and friends are having cookouts (thanks Walker!). It was a very fun, very long month, and here are few things I have learned...

I was lucky enough to see some of the most beautiful places on earth - the Australian rainforest, Milford Sound, the mountains and lakes of New Zealand - but I have to say that middle and east Tennessee are still up there on the list of the earth's most beautiful (Sorry west TN. You're too flat)

A month of very little exercise coupled with lots of cocktails and fish n' chips will wreak havoc on your cardiovascular system.

Don't take ketchup for granted. They won't give you any in Australia or New Zealand, and if you ask for it they bring you "tomato sauce" which seems to be a squirt of ketchup mixed with a ton of water. When we had our 12 hour layover, we went to In N Out Burger, and I have never been more happy to see real ketchup in my life!

Make new friends in life, regardless of their age. As you know, I love BFF's Paul and Edna. I want to go visit them in San Diego. My other favorites were Buzz and Dorothy. Those two know how to have fun and enjoy life. Buzz is 77 and Dorothy is 73. He was a widower and she was a widow when they met at a funeral home (at a funeral for a friend - not one of their spouses). They got married 4 years ago and have a blast together. In Fiji, they would stay out late with Jake and me listening to the band, and they would be the first ones on the dance floor. They also have season tickets for Nebraska football and invited me to come to a game with them. I may have to take them up on that one.

Never take life for granted. If there is something you want to do whether it is take a vacation, find a new job, go back to school, take up a new hobby - whatever! Just go for it. In New Zealand, the person who bungee jumped after me was a 61 year old man who had terminal cancer. On our tour group there was a 41 year old woman who had an inoperable brain tumor, so she decided to go see the world. You never know what sort of curve ball life will throw at you, so live life to the fullest! I almost didn't go on this trip because I thought I needed to be at home looking for a job. After some thinking and some great advice from my self-appointed life guru Alvaro, I decided to take a couple of months to not worry about work and go have some fun. And I am so glad I did!

Be grateful for your blessings in life. I am so fortunate to have such a great and very generous dad who made this trip possible. He has taken me and my siblings on some awesome vacations. We are lucky kids, and we know it. I want to dedicate my blog to my dad, Michael E. Yes, I realize it is pretty cheap that he takes me on an amazing vacation on the other side of the world and I give him a free blog, but cut me some slack - I'm unemployed! Hopefully I will be able to return the favor someday by taking Dad back to Melbourne to see the Australian Open. So if anybody knows of a very high paying job with lots of vacation days, shoot me an email! Until the next adventure, peace out kids!

Tsunamis and sunburns

Our last night in Fiji we went to dinner with Paul and Edna and then tried to listen to the hotel band, but I lasted about 10 minutes. I think my body is slowing trying to switch me back to TN time, and being constantly on the go for 25 days was really wearing me down. So I went to bed at 10:30 and was out like a light until 7am. So at breakfast yesterday everybody is talking about the tsunami evacuation during the night. Ummmm... huh? Apparently there was a siren and an announcement telling everyone to get to the parking lot immediately. I didn't hear a thing. Dad and Jake were 2 doors down and also didn't hear a thing. Bill and Ida were in the room in between us and heard it, but opted to risk drowning in order to get some sleep. Paul and Edna took it seriously though. Edna woke up Paul, told him to grab his money and her ipod and went running to the parking lot. She has her priorities. Reason #356 that I love Paul and Edna.

So anyway, we didn't drown, but it was storming in the morning. So we just stayed at the unlimited mimosa breakfast until the sun came out. Then it was off to the pool! Since it was the last day and it would be most shameful to come home without a tan, I took it easy on the sunscreen and laid out all day. Our flight wasn't until 10pm, so I had no plans of getting out of the sun until it went down. When it did, I went back to the room to shower and pack. I thought I looked a little red, but not that bad. It wasn't until we all met up in the lobby to head to the airport that I looked in the mirror and realized I was so red I was actually purple. Fan-freakin'-tastic! It is always fun to get on a 10 hour flight with a bright shiny new sunburn!

So we got to the airport, got checked in, and said goodbye to our awesome Aussie Erica. We all went through security and thought we could go on to the gate like most normal airports. Not in Fiji! After we went through security we had to split off into 2 lines - one for men and one for women - so we could all get a thorough bag search and pat down. Seriously?? We just made it through security like 2 minutes ago. It took the boys a lot longer to get through with their friskings, so they were crying sexism. I told Paul they kept him for so long because when he was checking in he told the guy at the counter if he could get a window seat, that would be "the bomb." Edna looked horrified when he said it, and started into a long speech about how "the bomb" is a really cool slang expression and they should start using it in Fiji. Classic.

I guess it is better safe than sorry when it comes to security in airports, but in New Zealand I never once showed my passport, I got to take my bottled water through, never took off my shoes, and once didn't even go through any security at all. Jake said that Air New Zealand must have a really strict "no terrorist" policy. I guess that is working for them.

The flight wasn't nearly as bad as the one on the way to Sydney. It was about 5 hours shorter and since I was so tired (and loaded up on valium) I actually managed to sleep on and off for about 5 hours. Jake wasn't taking any chances, so he laid down in the floor at our feet and slept great for like 7 hours. Lucky weirdo. We landed at LAX at 1pm Cali time, and we don't fly out until midnight. Nothing like an 11 hour layover! So from here it is the red eye to Atlanta, a flight to Nashville, and then a 2 hour drive home to Chattanooga. God bless America!

Fiji!!

On Tuesday we took a 3 hour bus ride from Rotarua to Aukland. There are only 4 million people in New Zealand, and 1 million of those live in Aukland. I guess we didn’t find the party because we went to dinner, and Dad went to bed and Jake and I watched Pineapple Express (love it!). We pretty much just used Auklanad for its international airport to get to FIJI!! Woohoo! The plane ride was one of the bumpiest I have ever been on. So naturally, when the drink cart came around, Dad ordered a red wine. Just so you know, my dad needs to wear a poncho when he eats or drinks anything on the ground. So up in the air on a bumpy flight with him wearing a white sweatshirt and sitting next me in my off white fleece… let’s just say I was worried. But he was a champ! He waited until there was some smooth air and drank his wine in 2 gulps. It was a Fiji miracle! I was so proud it brought a tear to my eye. Of course, 2 minutes later he opened a packet clearly marked “sugar” thinking it was a wet napkin and sent sugar flying for about 3 rows. Still, it was better than being covered in shiraz.

We are staying at the Sofitel in Nadi, Fiji and it is amazing!!! If anybody is looking for a beach vacation and can stand a 14 hour flight from LAX, this place is so worth it! Yesterday we went out diving. I don’t know if I got off the dive boat in the middle of a school of razor blades or something, but I hadn’t gone down 15 feet before I had cuts all over my hands and arms. Not good, decent size cuts. Tiny little painful paper cuts. And then I got to soak in salt water for the next 45 minutes. Rockin’. I really have no idea how I got so cut up. I must have bumped into some coral or something, but I don’t remember it. Then again, we had unlimited mimosas at breakfast so anything is possible.

The dive was a wreck dive, and the dive master kept trying to get me to swim into the boat and come out on the other side. The visibility was really bad, and I could only see about a foot in front of me, so there was no way I was swimming inside a dark boat. I shook my head “no” at the dive master. He motioned for me 3 more times to swim through the boat and I just kept shaking my head “no.” Apparently he doesn’t know that is scuba speak for, “Hell no I’m not swimming through there you crazy Fiji SOB. But thanks for asking.” Dad kept thinking it was funny to throw stuff at me - like a giant sea sponge. I am the kind of diver who likes to look and not touch. I kept screaming underwater and wasting all my air. So after that, I skipped the second dive and opted to hang with BFFs Paul and Edna on the beach and drink beer. Dad said it was "the best dive ever" but I'm sure he was just saying that since I didn't go.

Last night there was a cava ceremony before dinner. Cava is some drink they have in Fiji that looks and tastes like mud, and it is supposed to have hallucinogenic effects. I was going to try it, but I'm looking for a job, and you never know when you might have to take a drug test. No telling what would show up in your system from that stuff. I wish I could find somebody to send me some this summer during Bonnaroo. Those dirty hippies would go crazy for that magical mud!

So the boys are off to play golf with all our pals from the tour, and I'm heading to breakfast to meet all the ladies for unlimited mimosas, laying at the pool, and the spa. I heart Fiji!