Hellaarrr everyone! WELL, it's been a busy week for me as i've jsut finished my last in Honiara! Yey! Don't get me wrong, i've had a great time there, but am happy to be moving on to something and somewhere different. Gizo Hospital involves far more working with patients directly which is going to be a huge challenge compared with Honiara. So my last week has been quite chilled out really. Have been to the hospital everyday, but have found myself leaving around mid-afternoon to enjoy the pool or have a coffee/cake at Lime Lounge. Feel as if I exhausted much of what I could do and see at the hospital over the last 4 weeks and it has been great, but thought I deserved some R&R before Gizo! So had a farewell meal at a restaurant called Pamela's Place on Friday night which was really lovely. I think I mentioned that there were two new girls here from UCL - Yasmin and Caroline. We've all really hit it off and went to this restaurant with a couple of the guys at Kiwi House and had a lovely meal and CAVA - yey! First time i've had it since i've been here - great stuff! Headed home fairly early, before things got too messy, and had to pack for a 9am flight the next day. The flight was um...interesting! It was some twin-otter plane which seats about 20 people (Gary, you'll know the one i'm sure!). As Gizo doesn't have it's own airport they have to land on another island which consists of just a runway strip! Bit of a gamble I feel! Someone at the airport mentioned that about 1 month ago the pilot missed the strip, hit a boat, bounced off and landed safely on the strip in the end...um...not cool. So I was praying for good weather and a sober pilot! However, the flight itself was absolutely beautiful. It was a clear day, so had some beautiful views over the South Pacific, it's absolutely breathtaking. I took some really boring photos from the plane so will bore you with those soon! After a safe landing in the end, I was met by DiveGizo (diving company out here who look after the med students), who took me by boat to Gizo and dropped me at Phoebe's guesthouse. Phoebe's is amazing - Kiwi House on Steroids!! Bigger, cleaner and generally nicer! There are 3 girls there at the moment, Ruth (who is leaving on Monday), Emma and Jackie who are here for another 10 days and a couple of the guys I was living with at Kiwi House who are here to just chill for a couple of weeks. It was nice to see some friendly faces as moving out of my 'safety net' of Honiara was a bit daunting... having the 'half way slump' as it's known - where you're half way through your elective but it seems like you've got ages to go! It's all good though as the girls are lovely and are going to show me around the hospital in the morning. They also all took me away for the night last night to a desert island (almost) with one family living there. It was paradise, they pick you up from Gizo take you over to the island and cook you a traditional Solomon meal. It was gorgeous, far from the delicacies of deep fat fried Honiara! My favourite was the curried pumpkin - definately one to try making when I get home! We went snorkelling and sunbathing. Exercising great care as apparently they have a bit of a crocodile problem here at the moment - eek! Saw some reef sharks neer by though and didn't freak out - so I must be getting more hard core! It was a lovely evening, completely lit by lamps and candles as no electricity. Did insist on using a torch for the outside toilet though - still not cool with spiders and cockroaches! Great way to get to know all the new faces. So am back in Gizo now, which I still have yet to explore properly. It's much smaller than Honiara so shouldn't take long. Apparently you can walk from one side of the island to another in just 3 hrs! The town looks like something from an old western and they have just one restaurant. As Phoebe's is much nicer, i'm hoping we'll cook in quite a bit anyway. Yasmin and Caroline get here next weekend which will be nice so hoping to do some more trips and visit the famous 'fatboys' bar (a bar on an island which you have to stay and drink at all day...oh dear!). Best be off - please help me through my 'half way slump' by continuing the emails and messages. Miss you all lots still, even if I am in paradise! Love Lise xxxx