01/14/2012: Date Night in Fiji!!

Well, it's the weekend here in Fiji and since we went to bed at 9pm last night, we decided to have ourselves a nice little date night. To start the night off right, we attended a traditional kava ceremony. Kava (I think) is a plant that grows on the island and they bottle the leaves and let them sit for years (the longer the better) and then crush the leaves into a powder. We all sat in a group and watched as our fearless leader mixed the kava powder with water into a big bowl and created what looked like mud. He then told us stories of the kava, about how we're gonna want to walk on four legs or sideways back to the room and how women can drink more kava than men. Then our guy said some magic spells or prayers or something over the kava and we drank out of small bowls and cheered as each person drank. Our tongues immediately went numb--crazy!! Apparently it's true that girls can drink more than guys because mike and a couple other guys were definitely feeling good after their drinks!!

After the kava, we ate dinner and watched a lightening storm over the ocean. I had tuna fillet--amazing. I decided I like fish now...I'm no longer a cheap date, sorry boys. My goal is to get karina to try fish by the end of this trip. And olives. We did some stargazing by the pool...you can see millions of stars up there, crazy!! I think we saw Venus too. Or maybe the North Star. Do they have that in the Southern hemisphere??

After our romantic beachside dinner, a local dance group came and performed for us. The girls did hula dancing and the boys did some other dance and then did some fire throwing. How do they shake their bums like that?!?! My favorite part was watching Fat Peter dance. At least I think that was his name. Picture Buddha, or Jabba the Hut, wearing nothing but a mini hula skirt, dancing and hopping around like a fool. Great visual huh.

After the dancing it was party time. We drank some Fijian beers and fruity drinks and played cards with our new friends, the Aussies. We taught them our version of the game Kings, and Mike Chin you would be proud...they have the "little man" rule AND the "in my ass" rule in Australia (sorry mom!). A word on Fijian music: it's a throw back to the 90's. As I lay here in my bed typing this post, I can hear Sugar Ray, Aalyiah (no idea how to spell her name), Destinys Child and old school Black Eyed Peas circa 2001. Every other song is Milk Inc or Lasgo or some other old school techno mix from our camp days, ohhh the memories.

Well, tomorrow's a busy day with Fijian church in the morning and hitting the beach during the day so time for bed. Pray for sun tomorrow!!