I find myself...surrounded by newlyweds and old women.There are far too many hideously bright and busy shirts that I hope were just an impulse buy for most of these people and will spend the rest of their lives in the back of a closet, serving only to remind the owners of their brief stay in Fiji. How did I get to Fiji?When I was booking my tickets home over 6 months ago I though "how cool! I am going through Fiji!"...It seems utterly surreal that I am actually here for my scheduled 6 hour layover, having finished my first semester in Auckland, New Zealand.

Leaving was hard.Harder than I would have thought. I know I am returning in a month or so, but the fact of the matter is that it will be a completely different New Zealand when I get back, there will be no more UniLodge, no more 5 minute walk to class, no more living with Americans, it is quite frankly going to be a new experience.My Kiwi friend Audsley drove me to the airport a few hours ago and now I am sitting in the balmy Nadi International airport, waiting to board my second flight of this journey to LA.It seems fitting that I am going on an epic journey to get home, because it gives my time in New Zealand justice, it gives it worth; it takes so much effort to get there, and so much effort to return from it.I would feel cheated if I had a straight flight, or just one stop over. No, I think my layovers in Fiji, LA, and NYC are make this an expedition, rather than a year abroad. It makes it seem more real.

...of course I just say that because I dont have a choice. As I sit, the woman next to me is wearing a sundress with tiger heads printed all over it. I did not know they actually MADE those things. I went out of the airport to see what Fiji was all bout and found that it was hot....very hot. Aside from that I need a car to go to a beach, so I settled for finding a nice tree and watching the sun set. Now my next stop in this epic journey will be LAX, an airport I am sure to get tired of after the ungodly 9 hours that I will be waiting there to get to the East coast for the first time in 6 months.