sweet samoa

There are no words and pictures to justly describe my experiences in Samoa. One, because I am extremely lazy and tired, two, because two weeks is way too long to make an accurate blog, and three because I do not have the vocabulary nor the photography skills to capture every taste, touch, sight, smell, and feeling experienced on this trip. But here's my futile attempt to gather my thoughts and adventures into one blog.

Luckily I color code with my highlighters--

Departure (sixteen hours): I didn't sleep the night before time travelling. I procrastinated my essays way too much. Bad idea. We left New Zealand Saturday morning (4am) and arrived in Samoa on Friday night (10pm). Besides getting motion sickness on the drive to Christchurch, going to McDonalds for $0.33 ice cream cones, buying cheap Toblerone, and eating a kiwi (with the peel) I slept through most of the travelling. As we flew over the Pacific the world burned, if only you knew.

last sunset

Upolu (two days): We were greeted at the airport by Chris-skinny, full body tattooed, tiny red lava lava wearing Samoan. He leid us as soon as we got off the plane. I don't think many of my friends have ever been leid before (^_-). They were sooo excited. We stayed at Tatiana Motel in Apia for the weekend. Accomodations were homely. Heidi described it as "a prison with pretty sheets." Me and Allison's room was barren and concrete with a window. But it really wasn't that bad. It was an experience. Apia was humid, hot, dusty, and crowded. But we braved the heat and did all our lava lava and souvenier shopping at the market. Then we cooled down at Palolo Deep, a protected marine reserve where we snorkeled and I got my slippers stolen (T_T). Its okay... I settled for $2.00 slippers from the market which worked just fine.

the most venemous marine snake in the world - maybe

Safua Hotel (eight days): From Apia we took the ferry to Savaii, the largest but least populated island in Samoa. Safua Hotel is Chris's home, definitely an upgrade from Tatiana Motel. From Safua Hotel we did most of our sight seeing--Lava fields, Peapea cave, Virgins Grave, Village ruins, the most westernly part of the world, gi-freaking-normous blow holes, cliff walks, rainforest/jungle walks, Pulemelei mound, Palauli waterfall, and the volcano hike. All our tours were lead by Warren, a 78 year old sarcastic Aussie retired geologist who fed us biscuits after each outing. I really liked him. Every day we swam at the fresh water pool, ate 2 tala double ice cream cones ($1=2.5 Tala), woke up to roosters at four o' clock am, and had 5 million pieces of toast. Some random stuff--Kava tastes like dirt, a grown man named Silver taught me how to french braid, I jumped off another 40 foot cliff, Samoan flying foxes are really rare and we saw lots of them (^_^), I can make a legit basket from a coconut palm, we found magnetite in bulk, my right pinky toe nail fell off, coconut juice in a coconut does not taste like coconut in a can. And a funny--Leah and I we're headed to the market to do a little bit of shopping. So we wave down a bus and get on, its pretty crowded but we manage to find a seat. Next thing I know more people are getting on the bus and this middle aged woman pulls me onto her lap and sits me there till we reach the market. I'm freaking out and feeling a little bit violated, she's smiling way more than she should be with her hands wrapped around me. I swear my lava lava's coming a bit undone. But later I found this is culturally acceptable. Dodgy (Kiwi for sketchy)!!! Sigh..this could go on forever.

fire!!!

coconuts are tasty when its 90 degrees out

for Oa, sweet savaii

Faga Village (four days): After the week was over we were dropped off in Faga village-pronounced 'fanga'. It was here that we had most of our cultural clashes and experiences. The village is located right by a lagoon. Our host family situated us in a beach fale-an open hut right over the beach. Our host mom, Oa, spoke limited English and barely heard a word I said. That was...challenging. She fed me and Hannah cup of noodle, american hot dogs, fried fish, taro, and mystery soup. I'm currently sick to my stomach for some odd reason. More random stuff--Kava still tastes like dirt, stars touch the horizon, don't go snorkeling when its low tide-(i got trapped in coral >_<), just leave the giant yellow and green spider in peace, mystery meat is really bad for you, tea=lipton with twenty scoops of sugar, collected handfuls of hermit crabs, all the men at the plantation carry machete's-don't ever go alone, and sea cucumbers excrete their guts. Fia Fia--On our last night our host family got us all dressed up for the fia fia ceremony. Hah! of course I'm stuck with the green and red puletasi. I looked very native. It was a celebration of song, dance, and community. I really don't know how else to describe it. Loud, lively, intense, intimidating, happy happy.

rich's samoan brothers

fia fia!

Arrival (twenty-four hours): an hour ferry trip from Savaii to Upolu, a seven hour wait in the airport, a four hour plane ride to New Zealand, three hour layover in Auckland, an hour and a half plane ride to Christchurch, two hours in Christchurch, and lastly a three hour drive to Kaikoura. I'm home.