Since I am doing this internship this semester, I have more free time on my hands, so I have been doing some crafts. Here’s my latest project-
Remember those “Thank You” signs we had from our wedding?
Well, I just took the white sign, painted over it, and glued everything on. Pretty fun and way easy! :)
Yep, I was nontraditional for my wedding, and I don’t regret one bit of it. Kenneth saw me in my wedding dress before the wedding day because I decided that I wanted to get bridals (which I am extremely happy we did so because it rained on our wedding day), but I didn’t want a million pictures of myself . . . call me weird.
So Kenneth came with me to take bridals! Let me tell you, there are some gems. Here are my favorite three:
This is when we were asked not to smile. This picture cracks me up. I look extremely angry, and I love Kenneth’s slightly pouted lips. It reminds me of Bambi. Pretty sure we are going to be asked to be on America’s Next Top Model.
Did you know that Kenneth dresses up like Michael Jackson on the weekends? It certainly looks like it in this picture! We were all posed, and then this huge gust of wind came, which resulted in this picture. Then Kenneth proceeded to do the full fourteen minute thriller dance by himself . . . not really, but that would’ve been awesome.
And then, of course, Kenneth and I decided that we wanted to switch it up a bit, so he spiked my hair up to give me devil horns. Cute, right?
Though we had these awkward pics, we really did get a few good ones. Looksy here:
Thanks, Mason Wooley!
Have you ever met a girl named Stacy LeCheminant? (Tip: Don’t spend too much time sounding out that last name. Just think of it like “Le . . . ” You’ll save a lot of brain power.) She’s a pretty spunky girl, and she has a pretty cool blog. I hate to admit that in case her pride gets blown out of proportion, but her blog is seriously my favorite. It’s not because she writes hilariously funny posts, remembers the funny details that I never can, summarizes freshman year so nicely, or makes awesome videos of fun nights, but mainly because I have a huge section all about me! Ha, I kid.
But seriously, check her out. She’s pretty rad . . . occasionally. Plus, she always looks really good:
This is the album cover of her new CD titled Owl Eyes.
A little too up close and personal, collecting unwanted doughnuts, rockin’ the Shirley Temple, and pretending to be a cat.
And then of course, the diva look. We mustn’t forget that one.
While we were in Fiji, we came the week of the Hibiscus! No, I am not referencing the flower, even though the hibiscus flower is quite beautiful as well.
The Hibiscus Festival is basically the Miss America pageant, but there is a big carnival and parade as well. Thankfully they show the Hibiscus competition or Miss/Mr. Fiji on televison. Let’s just say that we found a few gems from the Hibiscus festival.
One night we were trying to walk back from the marketplace with all of our souvenirs we had just bought. We happened to start walking right when the big parade was starting. People were lining up all over the place to watch, and the streets were obviously occupied due to the parade, so we were kind of stuck. It was one of our last days, so we were trying to get everything done before we left Suva, so we did not have time to stop and watch the parade. . . but we practically did stop and watch. We had to walk 4 blocks to get to our hotel. Just 4 blocks, people. Guess how long it took us? Forty-five minutes. Surprisingly, it was not completely horrible. The Fijian people were pretty nice and polite. The humorous part of the story, though-
After politely shuffling along 4 blocks, we started to see the opening from the crowd. At this point, so many people were watching the parade that if you were trying to walk on the “sidewalk”, you had to walk in a single file line. We were just a few feet from the opening of this chaos, when all of a sudden I trip on these people sitting down! Yes, a family of five was sitting on the sidewalk at the mouth of the swarm of people. I apologized for tripping over the mother, and she looked up at me like I was the rudest thing. I wanted to be like, “Lady, do you realize how long I have been stuck in a huge crowd of people because you were clogging the walkway because you decided to sit on your fanny right here?” But I decided that might not be polite or something.
The second gem that we ran across is hard to adequately describe. To try to set the stage and help you understand the atmosphere, we were watching the Mr. Fijian contest on television one night when one of the contestants got on stage and showed everyone how he was really good at making picture slide shows. You may be asking yourself, “How can you show an audience how to make a picture slide show?” Well, you can’t. To display his talent, he brought his computer up onstage, sat down on the floor, and waited for his computer to boot up. It was way awkward.
The reason why I tell you this story is to show that the contestants’ talents aren’t adequately screened, which brings me to my favorite talent. The contestant who sang “You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban. It was awful! He had the corniest dance moves to go along with his horrible singing. Kenneth and I were watching it on television with some locals. We were trying so hard not to laugh because we didn’t want to offend them, but all of the sudden one of the kids said, “Man, it sounds like he is sick!” And then we lost it. I seriously thought it was a spoof. I was hoping that I would be able to find it on YouTube because it was so bad, but not many people have video cameras, so I tried to find the closest thing-
The last gem that we came across from the Hibiscus festival is my personal favorite. We were walking around the carnival one night and we came across this-
The Rise 'n Fall of Osama: "The Fox of the Desert"
It is a plane from one of the little rides that goes up and down in a circle. So funny!
Growing up I had a Young Women’s teacher that would have us at the beginning of class say one thing that we liked about the week and one that we did not like about the week. I loved how she gave everyone this opportunity because it helped us grow closer. We got to celebrate the joys and support one another in the hard times. If I am ever a YW teacher (bless those girls), I want to do this as well.
The reason why I share this thought is because I am about to tell you my three favorite things about Fiji and my least favorite thing about Fiji (because I could not think of three things I did not like).
First, I will tell you my least favorite thing-
In Fiji, they speak English, Fijian, and Hindi. Thankfully, almost everyone can speak, or at least understand, English. Sometimes I would get a little crazy and try to speak in Fijian to impress people. The most confusing thing ever is trying to say “uh-huh” and “uh-uh” in Fijian. They are switched! To say yes you say “uh-uh” and to say no you say “uh-huh”. How and why did that happen? To make me look dumb, I believe.
I don’t know how many times someone would ask me “Do you like Fiji?” to which I replied “uh-huh”. The worst was when it would seem as if I was ungrateful or did not like the food that a family would make for us. I wish I could say, “Lesson learned. Won’t do that again” but I did do it again and I am sure I will in the future yet again. It’s so hard for me to wrap my mind around the switch.
Anyway, on to my favorite parts. First, I loved the people! These kids are definitely my favorite-
There are so much fun! The one on the right was my little buddy. Since I am a “palagi” or a white person, I did not know how to sit right in a “sulu” or cloth skirt. I would sit down, and then she would smooth out my skirt for me. She would touch my hair and skin because she was not use to it, and she was just a hoot to be around. It was fun trying to teach her what my favorite food is, which is pasta. It was a hard concept for her since the closest thing to pasta is Ramon Noodles.
I also loved the beaches. They are so beautiful! It was fun to be able to have a few days to relax on the beach.
The last thing I really enjoyed is summed up pretty well in this picture-
I love the ‘lax feeling of Fiji! I hardly know any Fijian words, but one of the phrases that I know is “sega na leqa”, which means “no worries”. It’s so laid-back in Fiji, and I am not saying that just because we were vacationing. One time Kenneth asked his Fijian friend to come hiking with us during a weekday. His friend was able to just “skip” work because for a lot of Fijians, work is farming, so they can go to work whenever they do or do not want to. Also, Fijians like to tease one another that they are on “Fiji time” aka they are always late. The reason being is because most of the people do not have cars, so they have to ride the bus. There is a general time-slot for when the bus will arrive, but it really depends day-to-day.
One day we had just gotten back from hiking, and we were trying to catch the bus. We started walking up the road, and sure enough we found the bus. In the middle of the street. Without the bus driver in sight. All the village kids were playing out in front of the street like it was the coolest thing they had seen in a while, which is probably true.
I just loved the great perspective the Fijian have on life.
So I don’t have much time, but I wanted to do a quick post.
Fiji was AMAZING! >that sums it up pretty well. More details to come.
We got home at 10:30 am, and I had to be at work at 12 to go on an internship trip. Fortunately, I made it on time, but I did not have time to help around the house.
I was gone for four days while Kenneth stayed at our house. I encouraged him to go to the store and get some food since we cleaned everything out for our two week trip. He said, “Rachel, I was single at one point and didn’t have you around. I survived then like I will for the next four days.” After seeing these next two pictures, you will realize that he barely survived.
This is what I came home to:
Whey protein, peanut butter, an onion, crackers, and hard taco shells
When I saw this, I asked him what he had been eating. Soy sauce? Butter? Yeast? Peanut butter? He said no, I’ve been having meals. I asked him how since he didn’t go to the store. To which he replied, “No, I went to the store twice!” Apparently he went to the store twice because he could not remember the three things he wanted to buy in one trip. He got milk, toothpaste, and m&m’s. Really? Two trips and you could not even get bread? haha
Thankfully Suzanne invited him over to dinner one night (that’s what is in the black tubberware). Thanks, Suzanne! :)
P.S. I had Kenneth proof-read this. While reading, he said,
“You don’t give me enough credit! You said that I barely survived, but I had meals! . . . It was just the same thing three days in a row…pancakes and milk for breakfast, oatmeal with a banana for lunch, a Clif Bar for a snack, and a smoothie for dinner” * 3 days (except Suzanne’s delicious meal).”
The Alford Crew 