Arrival/First Day

Yesterday (April 29) was so much fun. I'm writing this at 5am Thursday morning which is about 11am Wednesday morning in Idaho. I'm writing  lot more than I probably will in the future because no one else is awake! I won't have internet for a few hours and it may not be on this device so I will shorten a  lot. When we arrived it was 5:30am Wednesday (yesterday) for us. As we stepped of the plan, the sun hadn't come up yet but the air was so warm and VERY humid! We had our travel guy - Anthony - scheduled to come at 7 so that we could get out of the plane, get our luggage, and then through customs. Our flight was the only one arrive so customs was super easy. We just had to fill out this little paper declaring what we had and as long as we declared everything correctly and weren't bringing animals or fruit or anything like that then we were fine. One of the girls' moms threw and apple in her bag and the girl didn't realize it so she declared that she didn't have anything. They have these decteters that you send your bag through that can tell if there is anything like that in there. The customs people found out and they made her throw away the apple and pay a $400 fine (that's in FJD) or they wouldn't let her in the country. It was crazy!
Since customs for the most part was pretty easy we had a while to wait, I think only about 45 minutes. Where we all gathered was inside this little cove towards the outer end of the airport and Fijians would constantly come up to us and ask if we needed a Taxi or which resort we were going to or just come up and say hi--Bula in Fijian but you put a little m in front of the B when you say it. The sun was rising just as we were waiting and so a few of us ventured out just a little so that we could see it. It came up between these two mountains and was just picture perfect. We weren't in the greatest spot to take pictures though so mine don't really do it justice.
(side note about Anthony. He is a Kiwi - which means he is from NZ - and he owns a company called Tamarillo Travel Agency. It started as a sea-kayaking fiji trip for tourists to go and visit some of the outer islands. As his company has grown he has started doing more educational trips with universities, taking the students into villages and giving them an in depth experience in traditional Fijian culture) When Anthony got there, he loaded us all onto a bus that had one seat on one side and then two on the other but then the aisle folded down into another seat so that it was wall to wall seats. They drive on the opposite side of the road here which actually trips me up more than I thought it would. A right turn here is more like a left turn at home and to cross the street and look both ways you have to look the opposite way for the traffic. When you cross the road here you just go jaywalk but you still wait until it is clear. We flew into Nadi (pronounced Nandi because with every D in Fijian there is a silent N before it) which is the 2nd largest city in Fiji. To get to the hotel we mostly drove past neighborhoods and some businesses. It was funny becuase there were billboards around here and there but they looked so out of place next to the little houses. Anthony took us to our hotel - the Nadi Bay Resort Hotel - and we were able to get our stuff situated, relax for a little while, and freshen up just a little bit. Then we headed over to the market and to find a place to buy a Sulu (it's much like a Lava Lava swim suit cover up but it's thicker and a little bit bigger. We will need this on the island that we go to the traditional villages).
At the market we had to get to know one of the "vendors", find out about them, tell them about us, and learn about their business, how they advertise, deal with competition, etc. Sloane and I decided to partner up and we ended up talking to this guy whose name was Sadiq. We noticed right away how he advertised his fruit and that was just by coming up to people who were looking at his stuff and talking to them about it. When he learned that we were from America he opened up a papaya (which they call a Hawaiian Pop -- nothing to do with sodapop). The way that he peeled it was such that you held it at the bottom kind of like a banana and ate it from the top. It was pretty good but not my favorite. We learned more about Sadiq, he grew up in this island but is from Indian descent. He farms some of the fruit that he sells and imports others. He is the "boss" but didn't really call himself that. He had a huge area that him and his employees were selling from, about 3 times the amount that others were selling. The fact that he is selling so many different kinds gives him a big advantage because he could talk people into buying more and more from him rather than from other people. Everyone else at the market was really fun and they were so happy and friendly.
After the market we came back and swam in the pool, went out to eat Indian food (it is so good here and so authentic I loved it!), we walked around town a little and then came back. It got dark around 7 so we mostly just hung around the hotel after that. The stars were really cool and the moon was as bright as a flashlight!
*add later*
This morning (April 30) we went on a run to see the sun rise at the beach and it was so much fun!! So beautiful. We fly out to Kadavu in a few hours and I won't have any internet for maybe a week. Have a great week!