Official Business

The Fiji trip has been officially paid for! Meredith, Amy, and I will be spending several glorious days in Fiji at the end of August. We altered the trip a little bit, so here is the finalized itinerary:

August 17 - fly to Nadi, spend the night there at Aquarious Pacific
August 18 - sail to the outer Yasawa Islands, stay on Tevewa
August 19 - boat trip to Sawailau Caves and underwater caverns, stay on Tavewa
August 20 - stay on Manta Ray Island
August 21 - sunset summit walk, stay on Kuata
August 22 - kayaking trip around the island, stay on Kuata
August 23 - stay on Bounty
August 24 - all day sailing trip around the outer Mamanuca Islands, visit a traditional Fiji village, Kava ceremony (all around the island featured in Castaway), stay on Beachcomber
August 25 - stay on Nadi
August 26 - fly home to Wellington

And that is the final trip! Really, it is going to be amazing. I can't wait. Everyone thinks it is funny that I just got to New Zealand and am already leaving to go somewhere else, but it is warm in Fiji right now! I am waiting for warm weather here to go exploring. Although, I believe Meredith, Amy, and I will be going up to Taupo and Rotorua at the end of September (meeting up with a Rotary scholar and her friends from Auckland) to go skydiving and zorbing.

I did my first presentation yesterday for my host Rotary club (Pencarrow). I think it went really well. I had to do it using overheads on a projector, which I wasn't used to, but I made the best of it. It was kind of like jumping into the deep end, giving my presentation on the first visit, but I thought it was a good way to introduce myself to everyone, rather than meeting everyone seperately and answering the same questions a lot. Everyone was really nice. They meet in the yacht club / marina in Eastbourne.

I also got my first direct questions about US foreign policy yesterday, although not from Rotary. My POLS 244 tutorial had us talking about "How a realist would define the war on terror," which of course ended up being people in the class asking me one thing after another. I didn't feel personally attacked because I am fairly good at holding up in situations like that, but I think the "moderator" (for lack of a better word) thought I was. Oh, well, it was just good practice!