Hi everyone! I have just arrived in San Francisco and met up with my great aunt and uncle, Sam and Carolyn, who I will be staying with for one week. After being taken to their lovely house in Oakland, we spoke about all the exciting activities I have in store for the week including a Jazz concert on the 4th of July, a dance show and a fantastic opportunity for visiting 3 Biotech labs and offices! I spent today driving around San Francisco with Sam and Carolyn and drove through Golden Gate Park, drove down Lombard street, and strolled along the beach with a Ghirardelli ice-cream. The weather was unusually sunny and warm for San Francisco but still not quite as hot as Fiji and it was refreshing being out of the humid climate! We saw Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge before heading back to Oakland (where they live).

Just a quick update from my last week in Fiji: I spent my last weekend with my 2 friends Julie and Krish in Sigatoka and Suva( the capital city of Fiji). I got up early on Saturday morning and got a minivan to Sigatoka where they had stayed the night before. Krish's friend worked at a very classy resort called Outrigger and we walked around it together and saw the beautiful coral coast views. We also got a sneaky tour around the spa on the top of a hill from Krish's friend where there was an Avatar-like capsule for a full body cleanse! as well as outdoor hot tubs and showers.

We then waited for the bus to take us to Suva and after a 2 hour bumpy high speed ride, we arrived in the cloudy city. From the glimpse of what I saw of Suva, it was much larger than Nadi and had more 3 story buildings but it looked somewhat polluted and run down. However, I make this description only from what I saw out of the bus window. It was another hour's journey before we got to Krish's house in Suva where he grew up. The house was currently filled with male relatives as his mother and sister were in Germany and so his cousin and 2 brothers were living there. They lived in a rural area behind a chicken farm and for dinner we prepared chicken and dalo- a fijian root crop. I then washed (cold water in a bucket) and we went out to experience some Suva nightlife. However, we think due to the local water, both Julie and I were ill and spent the rest of the night and morning on Sunday in bed. On sunday afternoon we headed straight back to Nadi!

Both myself and Julie learned that the Fijians and Indo-fijians alike both treat younger siblings in their families as servants and the poor 13 year old brother spent the whole weekend changing the volume on the TV for his brothers (who were sitting right next to the remote), washing up, feeding the dogs and ordering us taxis. In their own words 's*** rolls downhill'.

Sunday evening was the last night for Andy, the only male volunteer, who was heading back to Scotland and we had a meal to celebrate. On Tuesday I went to the orphanage where I met some new girls had arrived over the weekend. I had a great afternoon playing with the children, singing songs as well as letting them take hundreds of pictures on my camera and being ordered to do funny poses!

As a thank you to my Fijian family, I decided to cook them a meal and brownies at their home. However, due to my lack of cooking skills, the lack of variety of produce in the RK and RK shop, and no oven, my host mum, aunt and I made sausages and mash with gravy and ice-cream and pineapple for dessert. It was a really nice night as I got to spend time with the family and have a long conversation with my host aunt about Celine Dion, snow and celebrities!

On wednesday, I went out with Julie, Victoria, Ari, Abra and Isabel number 2 to a Japanese restaurant and I had some delicious veg tempura and then went for the last time to Ice bar and Ed's bar!

Finally on Thursday, Mount Saint Mary's kindergarten (where I worked) had organised a massive leaving party for me and each child had brought in different foods including some really good indian dishes and lots of cakes and radioactive-orange juice. It was a really nice morning and I got hugs from evey child and some presents including a Fiji T-shirt, bangle and flag! Teacher Rikou then gave a teary speech and then I did one too! I will do my best to put pictures up asap...

I spent may last moments in Fiji at the Hilton with some other volunteers enjoying the Fiji sun before being picked up to go to the airport.

I hope that is not too much information as I realise I rambled on for a while there...
Hope you area all well xox