I Won The Tie-Dye Award

No but seriously, I did win the tie-dye award.

Each night in Fiji/Tonga two or three girls were given awards for various things such as the "mamma award" for being so good with all the kids or the "survivor award" for putting up with so many injuries that week or the "daredevil award" for being so brave and adventurous during that day's outing. Anyway, you get the picture. One of the awards I was given one night was the "tie-dye award" because yes, I was known for my shirts of many colors throughout the trip. I can't help it, i'm just a colorful person. 

And dude here's the deal. Tonga is HOT. And you sweat a lot. My logic before leaving was that i'd just tie-dye all my old white shirts different colors and wear those through the whole trip so that you'd never really be able to tell how dirty and gross I was. Well, I think it worked pretty well! But then you see all my pictures, and it seriously looks like I wore the same technicolor shirt the entire 3 1/2 weeks. Guys: I promise I didn't. I promise I showered. I promise I did laundry. I promise I rotated through my several different articles of clothing throughout the whole trip. But yeah, it was a whole lot of tie-dye. 

And I still love it all. 

Shirt #1

Shirt #2

Shirt #3

Shirt #4

Shirt #5

And then there's one of my new Tonga buddies, Casey, who likes to give me a hard time. Despite her sarcastic teasing i'm still missing her and the rest of them like CRAZY.

P.S. All credit goes to my favorite missionary Sister Rachel Thompson for making me the tie-dye master that I am. She taught me everything I know and instilled the love of tie-dye in me :)

Busses, Cars, Boats, and Broomsticks

I already told y'all about the bagillion plane rides we took between the states and Fiji and Tonga, but I have yet to mention our other modes of transportation - there were many. Let me explain.

BUS

I can't count the number of times we filed on and off of busses over the course of this trip. They were our main source of transportation, especially on days when we were going to a hospital or to the main market in town. Here's the tricky thing though: in Tonga the busses follow no schedule. It kinda seems like they just come and go as they please, so you never know how long you'll be waiting around at a bus stop before your ride comes. And they'll stop anywhere along the road to pick someone up... no matter how full the bus already is. I've never seen so many people packed into one tight space before. No matter how full to capacity it seemed, we always made room for more. You gotta get real friendly with the people around you real quick! My favorite parts though were the holes in the sagging bus floor (can you imagine the scene if the floor in one of those full busses gave way cruisin' along the road?!) and the office bell that had a string attached to it that was pulled whenever someone had to get off. So creative, and quite effective.

I wasn't joking about the holes in the floor...

Some bus rides were pretty nice. Others caused people to fold over in ways that make you wonder where in the world their heads have gone.

The Liahona transportation bus was always the best. Roomy seating and AC say whaaaaaaat. Definitely a luxury.

This was the bus we took on the daily to get to the hospital for clinical. Often times the door either remained ajar or had at least one person hanging out of it. On this day I scored a seat right by the door and took all that refreshing wind I could get.

The very last bus we took. Off to the Tongan International Airport, homeward bound!

CAR

I'm a firm believer in seat belts. Always have been. I was that child who wouldn't let mom start the car until she put her own seatbelt on. And with how many times dad has climbed behind the wheel and told everyone to "buckle-zee-nupsin!" (the guy practically has his own language) how could it not be automatic? But Tonga mighta knocked that safe habit right out of me. At least for the duration of the trip. Why? Because seat belts were either unavailable or broken enough to be ineffective.

When we couldn't get busses, we rode in cars driven by locals. And that usually turned out to be quite the adventure. Oh and let me tell ya what, it threw me for a loop to see the driver on the right side of the car, driving on the left side of the road. So many times I thought for sure we were going to die because we were going around the roundabout the "wrong" way. Whew. Weird.

Probably my favorite was the time we rented a taxi to get to church. The driver pulled up in his white van and Debs asked him how many people he could take. After he told us seven, we stepped back, surveyed the car, and decided we could jigsaw puzzle all 16 of us in that baby. And we DID. Double stuffed big white van. Done and done.

On our day trip tour around Eua (which will have a blog post all to itself) we split up between two cars and hit the road. While we may have taken a few too much off-roading risks in these beat up pieces of junk, it was super fun. I thought so, at least. Who doesn't like to fear for their life as the car roars and sputters trying to make it up a huge hill? I mean come on.

At least we rode IN the cars. This was not an uncommon sight everywhere we went. Along with cars packed full of tiny little children all squished into a back seat. Or drivers with babies sitting or standing on their laps. Or babies standing all alone in the passenger seat. *Shudder* I am happy that clicking that belt in was an automatic for me as soon as I climbed back into an American vehicle. 

Well, I guess there was that one time in Fiji when we rode in the flatbed part of a truck on some wood benches. That one was just good fun though :)

VIDEO OF THE TRUCK RIDE

BOAT

Those of you who stay up-to-date on my blog, you already know about spider raft. Eesh. I'll never forget this thing.

Kayaks! Even though my fear of whales was spurred on a Kayak when I was like 12, our day kayaking in Vava'u was soooo fun. We saw jellyfish. And a gigantic bee. And bluuuuue blue blue water. Kayaking > canoeing by a longshot. Just saying.

While in Vava'u, we spent an entire day with the community nurses traveling from tiny island to tiny island (again, this'll get its own blog post eventually). Twenty people. One boat. THIS boat. Imagine yourself in vast open ocean water with a lot of other people on this mini beast. I'll tell you right now, you sit wherever you fit. And half the people only fit on the roof soooo, there ya go.

Finally, whenever we weren't flying or bussing or driving or boating, we were flying on our broomsticks.

Obviously.

Boy Meets World

Fact about me: I love television shows.

I love movies, too.

But there is something about a good TV show that really gets me. 

Thorough character development and good story telling is what reels me in.

Maybe i've been known to watch entire seasons of shows in a matter of a few days or weeks (LOST {twice}, Arrested Development, Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill, Friday Night Lights {twice}, the list continues).

Huge waste of time? 

Maybe.

Also totally worth it?

Uh, chyea.

In my earliest memories, I can remember watching two shows pretty religiously with my mom. 7th Heaven was one of them, and unfortunately when it hit its 179th season it went off the rails wacko with weirdo post-heart attack Pastor Camden and sweet little Ruthy turning into kind of a bad girl (please tell me i'm the only one who felt pain when all that went down). Anyway, thats not one that'll go down in history as an endlessly great classic.

But the other show we watched was pure gold from beginning to end. We're talkin' Boy Meets World here my friends. Hands down my favorite childhood show. Heck, my favorite teenage and now adult show. I distinctly remember many afternoons laying on my mom's bed after school watching a new episode together and my dad coming in the room to see Cory and Topanga kissing on screen and him saying, "WHAT are you guys watching?! This isn't appropriate!" I just rewatched the entire series from start to finish. All seven seasons. And it was magical. I smiled. I laughed. And heck yes, I cried. When I watched the series finale the other day I was a little bit embarrassed by the tears coursing down my face as I said goodbye to Cory, Topanga, Shawn, Mr. Feeny, and so many more. I can't help it. Watching those kids progress from elementary school to college, it is almost like you went through life with them as their friends and you know everything about them and love them as people. I know its just a show, I know. But i'm telling you, there is a special bond here. It is so interesting to watch these episodes now that I have grown up (a bit) and catching things that I never caught before; certain themes and jokes and undertones that went right over my head when I was a kid. It was just so FUN to relive the whole thing again.

NEWS FLASH for those who don't already know: Disney is releasing a new show in 2014 that will be called Girl Meets World. Now now, before you get too upset, know this: Cory and Topanga will both be returning to the series as the parents of a little girl. Also, this new series has the same writer and producer as Boy Meets World did back in the day. Disney, I beg of you, please don't screw this up. Please.

Here's to hoping for the best.

It is impossible to choose favorites with this show, but this episode might be my #1 pick. Eric Matthews just steals the show with his sneak attacks. And poor Jack's disgust with Eric is so great. Plus there are bloopers at the end of the episode, which they only ever do twice in the entire series. Its worth the 20 minute watch, even if you've never seen any of the other episodes. So. Dang. Funny. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, the best parts are at these times: 4:04-5:03, 8:00-8:33, 9:57-10:50, 12:59-14:57, BLOOPER: 19:53-21:26. Okay so thats a lot of best parts... but at least watch the last one and I dare you not to laugh. Maybe its only really funny if you know the characters and their whole story buuuuuut yeah I don't know, its all good stuff.

And here's the finale that made me cry like a baby, the very last scene especially:

Other great moments!

The Feeny Call:

WARRRR, what is it good for?:

Hot stuff guys' dance:

Topanga's dance (start at 1 min):

The moment Eric turned hot:

Okay, I could go on and on and on... and on. But i'll spare you. Actually y'all should just go watch the WHOLE SHOW (conveniently located on YouTube) and join in my joy of the greatness that is Boy Meets World.

Just PLANE Awesome

Over the course of my life, i've been on a lot of planes. Like, a LOT of planes. Factor in all the family vacations, flights to Utah/Texas to spend time being the favorite aunt and bonding with my bestie a couple times a year, trips home from school for the holidays, etc. and it adds up to way more than I can count. I have grown to love airports and flying and all the jazz that comes with it. I think its absolutely amazing that we can get from one side of the world to the other in such a brief period of time. I can promise you that when you're traveling from across the world jumping from plane to plane and traveling for 24 straight hours that it doesn't FEEL very fast, but boy i'm sure it is infinitely better than braving the seas by boat! Anyway, I was lucky enough to ride on the smallest and the biggest planes i've ever been on during this trip. 

10 planes, 7 airports, all in 26 days. SLC to LAX. LAX to Nadi. Nadi to Tongatapu international. Tongatapu domestic to Eua. Eua to Tongatapu domestic. Tongatapu domestic to Vava'u. Vava'u to Tongatapu domestic. Tongatapu international to Nadi. Nadi to LAX. LAX to SLC. Thank goodness flying doesn't terrify me!

Yeah baby, travel time! I was so excited to get some cool new stamps in my passport.

Here's the really big guy. The 747. My first time (I think?) on a double decker plane. And we even got to ride on the second floor on our return flight home! It is just so overwhelmingly massive. 416 passengers. Several HUNDRED TONS of weight. Traveling at hundreds of miles per hour. Over 30,000 feet in the air. Say what? Insanity.

From Fiji to Tonga we took a more normal sized plane, but the international airport is about 1/100 the size of any international airport you'll find in the states. Plus it was super fun to take the steps down off the plane like you see the cool people do in movies :) Maybe we felt like movie stars for a moment.

We spent our fair share of time in airports, and we got smart about always packing a book with us. Especially when we were traveling between the Tongan islands, because these airports have just got nothin' to 'em. In this picture you can see the entire Tongatapu domestic airport. No joke, that is all there is to it! Get this: as we checked in we had to step on a scale to make sure that we wouldn't be putting too much weight on the plane! And luggage? Yeah, YOU try packing a week's worth of stuff into one backpack. It ain't easy, folks.

That. That was our plane! 16 of us, 16 seats. It was a perfect fit, minus the fact that I was too tall to stand up straight on the inside! Our flight to Eua lasted less than 11 minutes from takeoff to landing, which was super cool to us. However, we rode in this same plane to Vava'u, which was an hour long flight, so we had our fair share of time in the fun-size plane.

So small we could see right into the cockpit and out the front window. 

Ready or not, lets do this thing!

And then of course we had the cute tiny little baggage claims to look forward to on the other side :)

Gotta say, never thought i'd use the words "cute" and "baggage claim" in the same sentence.

No People, Just Places

This is the part where you can feel free to get kinda jealous :)

The scene out the back of where we stayed in Fiji

 On our Fijian hike

 Really wishing I knew what this river was called

 Sooo green there!

I love the reflection of the clouds in the water.

 Palm trees in Tonga. They are everywhere

 The blowholes were soooo coooool! I've never seen water so blue

On a little hike we took to get to a beach on Tongatapu we got a quick little taste of some safari scenery haha

This is right in one of my favorite spots in Eua. One moment it'd be sunny, the next it'd be a downpour. I had a nice comfy chair that i'd sit on in a covered area, with my feet hanging out just enough to soak up the warm drenching rain.

From the LDS church building in Eua

 On our Eua island tour. Off roading baby!

Natural land bridge

Probably one of the more structured roads in Eua 

 The next ones are all from our community nursing day in Vava'u. We got on a boat and traveled from island to island all day, and I saw some of the most beautiful places I have ever and will ever see!

 

 We discovered a great place to eat called Aquarium Cafe, and they had a great view!

I was standing in a hospital room when I looked out the window and saw this. HAD to snap the picture 

Our hill we had to climb to get to the Ngu Prince Hospital

Right outside the Liahona where we stayed on Tongatapu

You're sure to see many pictures of these places again as I tell more stories of our travels and adventures. I just had to do a separate post so that the natural beauty of Fiji and Tonga could be appropriately appreciated!