i leave for fiji in 3 days (tuesday). needless to say, i have yet to start packing. actually, i have yet to fully unpack from tanzania. i got home, headed straight to the laundry room and dumped all of my clothes into the machine. on one of the last days i was in africa, elizabeth and jenaya told me about these bugs they have there. basically, as your clothes line dry (the only way to dry them in tanzania), these little fly-like creatures lay their eggs in your clothes. then, when you wear them, the eggs burrow into your skin. you then get an itchy, painful rash-like thing. you basically have two options: cut your skin open to pull the eggs out or wait until the eggs hatch, turn into worms/larva and then they'll eventually burst out of your skin. the only way to kill them is to dry them or iron them so that they get hot and destroy the eggs. so, obviously the laundry room was on the top of my priority list.
i am so excited for fiji, yet remarkably unprepared. i really need to learn my fish species asap as i don't have much time left. i finally read over all the information and it's looking pretty sweet. we live in little grass huts on a private stretch of beach. not too shabby. we get electricity 4 hours a day, which should be interesting. it looks like most of the people i'll be with are coming from england. there's only one other american from what i can tell, and i appear to fall right in the middle age-wise.
speaking of age, i turned 22 yesterday! not really that exciting as my family left for spain and 22 doesn't come with any fun privileges, but i thought i would mention it. i dropped the fam off at the airport and then i went out to dinner with my friends kevin and matt.
i am almost definitely leaning toward the university of queensland, but i have yet to turn in my paperwork or apply for housing... sigh. those are also on my to-do list for the next 3 days. i am going to be a very stressed out, busy girl until i leave. it has been an unbearably difficult decision. let me just say: australian websites suck. they provide no information, are poorly organized, and contain no pictures. seeing as how i've never visited any of these schools and only know friends of friends who go there, it has been very difficult to figure out what any of the schools are like.
i basically narrowed it down to the university of queensland and james cook university. UQ is the better school, but JCU has one of the best marine biology programs in the world. at JCU, i would live in cairns one year and then switch to their townsville campus for the remaining 2 years. i had a hard time deciding whether that move would work in my favor or against me. i've been moving around so much recently, but i don't really mind it all that much. i like being able to see new places and meet new people, but ultimately i decided that it's time to buckle down and stay in one place, at least for a little bit. plus, everyone lives in apartments in cairns (no on-campus housing) and i thought that would make it difficult to meet people. and the rainy season is a beast. so now i'm going to have a "marine science with an emphasis on marine biology" major at UQ. if i wanted to study straight up marine biology, i needed to do their 4 year honors program. i'm not sure how future employers will view having an "emphasis" on marine biology instead of a major in marine biology, but i guess we'll see. i'm still not 100% confident in my decision... or really even 50% confident, but i don't think i really will be until i get there and actually see the school.
being back in the US has been interesting. the first few days were spectacular. it was nice to return to real showers, no scary bugs leaping into your face, and tivo. however, after a couple days, i started to feel a little ridiculous. the anger came when natasha richardson died. i'm sure she was a lovely woman, but is it really necessary to have her name and face on the front of every single newspaper, website and magazine? or even better, john mayer and jennifer aniston's breakup. what about the articles on the thousands of children dying from aids? or the orphans who are living on the street? or the kids who will forever remain uneducated, simply because they can't afford school? are these individual celebrities really who we're spending all of our time focusing on?
i made the mistake of going to the mall in town and then the mall of america right after getting back. talk about culture shock. besides the fact that there's a giant stuffed shark that walks around MOA, i kept hearing snippets of everyone's conversations... "my butt looks huge in these... he said what? is she leaving him?... i NEED that bag from nordstroms... i wish i had your arms... i'm so pissed they don't have these in my size! god, that's so annoying... my teacher is such a b!%#@..." it just went on and on. really, people? i just spent the past month listening to kids who've been home-less, school-less, parent-less. forget your butt and your bag and appreciate the fact that you have a teacher.
people here are so high-strung and yet have so much. being away and then returning home makes me realize that there's a distinct correlation between the amount of stuff you have and the amount of stress you have. i've been home two weeks and have already replaced african time (aka no watches but no worries), sunsets on the porch, and dancing around art club with shopping, and worrying about money and jobs, and worrying about how i'll look in a bikini in fiji. last night i somehow managed to break one of our tvs (one was broken a couple days ago) and this morning, i was so irrationally irritated. then i realized: 1. we have multiple other tvs in the house. 2. i don't need tv. so i went on a walk with picabo instead. i keep having to remind myself that life is not a competition. sometimes in the US it feels that way. who went to the best school/got the best job/has the nicest car? it seems so crazy.
now i'm off to try to pack. i can't wait to get to bright blue water and white sand beaches :) i'm also excited to getting back to rice and beans, as crazy as that sounds. my stomach has had an even more difficult time adjusting to life back in the states than my brain has. i thought i'd be using my pepto stash in africa, but turns out i've needed it coming back home even more. blah!
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