Japan: It's like a dream.

Morning all! Or, ohayo gozaimasu ^_^

6am from our hostel after our first (very early!) night. Managed to beat the weather and me, Emma and Antonia have reached TOKYO, Japan! When we landed we were greeted by beautiful winter weather- clear blue skies and very bright, warm sunlight. Really lovely change from the current drizzle and darkness from the UK... I only saw the sun in England once in the two weeks I was back from Fiji on Christmas day.

So far, Japan is really exciting and a has lots of things we expected and lots of things unexpected. Initial toilet experience - crazy electronic Japanese toilets! Even in our youth hostel the loos have heated seats (which was quite surprising) and about 12 different buttons which look terrifying and we're avoiding!People are extremely friendly and I'm really surprised at how far my broken Japanese is getting us. It's really, really fun getting to speak Japanese and I'm really glad People are responding! There's lots of English signage which is amazing as otherwise the trains and roads would be impossible- it's just huge here! However, it's interesting (and confusing) as only main roads are named. Other streets aren't named and buildings are given numbers according to when they were built, not ascending along the road. So, maps can be very confusing, but the plethora of 7/11 convenience stores, tiny family-run restaurants and shrines make navigating from landmarks a bit easier.

I'm aware we've only been here less than 24 hours, but we haven't got lost on the trains or roads yet!! As we got the train from Narita, where the airport is to Tokyo it was so amazing looking out the window. It's strange, it felt similar but not quite. There's squares of farmland like England and I guess the climate is the same, but dotted in-between the fields are houses built in Japanese style. The architecture of the domestic houses is really lovely and looks so archaic and old fashioned. We slowly saw the city build up into a metropolis as the train gathered ground and the in-between houses turned into cylindrical apartment buildings and the fields replaced by taller and taller buildings fronted with neon adverts. It was interesting to see Shinto cemeteries which would be in the towns and also, just seeing living Japan all around. On our train people were watching tv on their phones and outside on the roads would be lots of Toyotas and bicycles!

It's strange, after years of watching Japanese films and anime and reading manga and Japanese novels, the scenes around me didn't feel that foreign at all. In fact, I felt strangely at home. Even the sounds of the numerous level crossings were familiar (they feature very importantly in a great film that's a favourite of mine 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time'). I've been a Japanophile for more than 10 years, when I was 6 I first asked if we could go on holiday to Japan (!), and so being here feels a bit like a dream and a lot like the culmination to a massive achievement.... But to summarise 'Suki desu!' - I love it!

UK: Home

So... after 3 and a half months, a 42 hour journey I've finally been back at home for a week or so. Getting back into UK life has felt very weird and actually... very foreign! Reverse culture shock is a very scary thing and strangely worse than normal culture shock. Everything's so clean, everything's so dark (I haven't seen the sun yet at all here!!!), everything's SO COLD!!! It's strange how everything just works differently again and it does feel comparatively unfriendly and stressful compared to Fiji island life!

So far I've already rang and texted my friends and family in Fiji and popped a chocolate package in the post for them :) So, so, SO MANY photos to sort through (2000+) as well as Christmas and UK life getting back underway. The other day I met up with my school friends and it's relaxing that life's always the same with good friends, no matter where on earth you've been! Just to make sure they knew where I'd been, I wore a sulu (yes, in the SNOW!) when I went to meet them :)

There's definitely no place like home, but I didn't think going away and being on my own would give me so much to think about, so much more understanding of the world and so many friends who are now so far away. I never want to forget the memories and hope to bring together the island friendliness, the enthusiasm of my fellow volunteers and all the passion I had for life into my everyday life here. The world's a big place.... you just have to be there to see it!

What I've definitely learned from being right on the other side of the world is that the world is an absolutely incredible, beautiful and amazing place. The world is never a boring place, you just have to be in the right place to see it. In the morning in England when everyone's groggily waking up for the day to start, kids in Fiji and running around gathering friends together to go swimming for high tide and jumping into the ocean in the sunset. Fiji is a tiny country and I learnt so much from being there, the world is just an absolutely amazing, absolutely huge place. I don't think I could ever say life is boring again because I'll just imagine everything that's happening on the other side of the world.

From going away I've grown so much and really feel like a 'proper' adult now. It's strange being back and not being known as a teacher! But it's also relaxing not having to be so responsible anymore! I also definitely want to continue with volunteer work in England, I absolutely love it! I already volunteer with Guides and my local libraries in Berkshire, but doing the same thing abroad just makes me want to do more here and also take on new projects. I'm definitely planning on taking up regular volunteer work once I'm at Uni in London, hopefully working in a refugee center doing some conversational English work or maybe work with Shelter. I also can't wait to study Anthropology, I wrote an essay the other day on just a few of the many things I thought about whilst in Fiji.... voluntary essays for fun? Get me to Uni quick! So many questions to ask and so much I want to study and understand.

One day I'd love to go back to Fiji, who knows whether it'll be in 5 or 50 years but I've definitely made some truly awesome friends along the way and memories and experiences that no one can ever take from me. I was terrified I'd forget the life I had and all the things I did, but from being back this short time and just talking about it and remembering it all the time has made me think the experience really has become part of who I am. Fiji definitely wasn't a holiday, but it was an incredible experience that you had to work very hard to become part of, what you put in really gets given back to you. There were times I was stressed, times I was sad and also times were I was just incredibly happy, so content and couldn't imagine feeling the same anywhere else.

I'm happy to be back. Mostly because I know my new memories will never leave!

And I'll leave with a quote that I had in my mind when I left...

Journeys are measured in friends

Definitely true.

  

South Korea: "Au sa sega na via lako" (I don't want to go)

Well, the last week was emotional... and the day I left my village I don't think I'd ever felt so sad and flat whilst being in Fiji. It was very strange to see my rucksack and think that everything was in there, nothing was left in the my home and that the next few days would be spent in Nadi.... not Viro, Ovalau.

I left on the 9th with Miss Jessie from Uluibau, Moturiki and took a very rainy fibre boat journey to the mainland. From there we had a 3 buses and an 8 hour journey round Viti Levu back to Nadi where we met up with the other volunteers for a farewell. As well as making such great relationships in Fiji, I've made some incredible friends with the other volunteers and it feels so great that I can really say I have friends all over the world :) No trip to Australia will ever be a lonely one, not with my fellow island girls! A amusingly large part of our farewell consisted of checking for nits, an inevitable consequence of living and working with school kids for the past 3 months!

During the next few days in Nadi I saw a lot of friends off at the airport and also found quite a bit of satisfaction at getting the locals rate at the tourist places showing them my work visa and also by just being dressed up in my sulu jaba - I loved being able to say "No, no, I live here." and seeing the price drop! It was always fun meeting people from Ovalau (MY HOME!) and even getting to show off by speaking a bit of Lauan dialect (different to to the widely spoken Fijian dialect) which I learnt from living in Viro.

Fiji's an incredibly friendly place and I always felt like I could go and talk to anyone. In the departure lounge, the first time I was totally alone in Fiji I chatted to the shop staff about life in Viro which was really comforting.... especially as I found out these guys were the ones in charge of giving out free samples. I had my first taste of CHOCOLATE in 1/4 of the year and it was possibly one of my most amazing moments!!

On the plane it really hit me that I was leaving Fiji and I was glad to have my diary. I just consolidated my thoughts and remembered how scared and nervous I felt before I came... not knowing what awaited me, worried about who I was living with, what work in the school would be like and worrying about meeting the Australian volunteers. After I finished writing, I realised I'd written over a page of things starting with the sentance "I'll miss...." I really did have a wonderful time and experienced so many emotions over the whole trip. There's so much I'll miss though, I really feels like I have an entire life in Viro, Ovalau. But I feel happy, really happy that I did it all and now I'm so excited to be going home.... home!

20 hours in transit before my flight back to England, luckily the airport is rather snazzy and there's lots of recliners to sleep on! I also managed to leave the airport, it's dark and the city's an hour away so I went on a bus ride around the airport area before buying some exciting and mysterious (I've no idea what's in it!) Korean food from a convenience shop. It's cold here in South Korea, good practice for England. Very pleased that my passport got stamped here and I'm even more amused that it shows me entering and leaving Korea on the same day! Hopefully if I get up early tomorrow I can go on a morning temple tour before my flight. I'm finding Korean language incredibly hard to pronounce so I'm communicating with lots of smiles and thumbs up!

Moce!

Fiji: The End of Term

It's now hit December and school term finishes this Friday, after that I have my last week in Fiji before flying out from Nadi on the 13th December and arriving back in the UK on the 14th!

The last week has been completely crazy and busy! The joint Viro and Rukuruku Guide Camp went off, my library is finished and the school has been dolled up for prize giving and we're having a school picnic at a beach tomorrow! On Friday I'm going to a Fijian wedding the village (all the teachers were invited so the school is closing on Friday) and I've had a new sulu jamba (Fijian dress) made for the occasion!

Don't have time to write a long report on the guide camp (there's a lot to say, and stress wise from a teacher's point of view, I'm glad it's over!! It was a blast though!) as I want to get back to Fiji life, I'll elaborate on this post once I'm back in the UK :(

The pictures are of my girls swimming in the river after playing volleyball, the Rukuruku school girls going back to their village on a fibre boat through the mangroves after the camp (with their Lattitude volunteer teacher, Miss Kiarah), the camp programme (!) and a few pictures of my FINISHED LIBRARY!!! :D

The two last pictures are from when another volunteer and I went to Suva (the capital of Fiji). We went to visit another volunteer there who's working in the Hilton School Early Intervention Centre. It was really eye opening to see another, such different placement and we help out in the morning we were there. The Special School was a really beautiful, happy place and I absolutely loved the kids there!

Just a quick set of photos and info.... will write more when I'm in Nadi (!)

Moce!