iron chef

I have been a busy busy bee.

Today I learned lots of fun facts about food and how to cook in Fiji. We had Iron Chef day and it's exactly like it sounds. Each team had to incorporate ramen-style noodles into their recipes. We made pizza (with a roti crust), spaghetti sauce and fried eggplant and onions and garlic. Amazing. We also made carrot cake! With cream cheese icing. In a fire oven. Yeah, we do that here. And a salad. The other teams made some enchiladas, fried fish with mango salsa (delicious!), and some tasty hummus. Man, everything was so good. It gave me hope for the next 2 years! I think I'll start a garden. By the time I get back to the States I might be able to make dishes that don't come in boxes! Watch out Martha Stewart.

I've had kind of a rough week. My Mini language test didn't go so hot. I thought I was speaking pretty good Fijian but apparently I'm missing some key words or something. Then I haven't been sleeping because the village drums are right outside my house. I think the drummer from Def Leppard plays every morning at 4 and 430. Sweet. That means it's Jisu (Jesus worship) time and then the choir jams around 5ish. And since my house is right next to the church as well...It's really freaking loud. My biggest problem right now is the drums, which play 7 times on Sundays. I almost lost it last Sunday. I almost ran out and just shouted, could you give it a rest, my god! But I managed to control myself. Patience, darling, patience.

Other than that, the weather has been rocking it. I should be at a Rugby match right now. Our village is playing the city in the Shield Match. Not really sure what that means, but I think there's a monetary prize involved so it's kind of a big deal. And instead I came to the internet cafe. And I'll probably grab a beer after this. Maybe a Fiji Bitter, which is home style dank beer. Fiji Gold is what everyone likes but it takes like American Lager (aka lite beer, and for those of you who know me, you know how I feel about lite beer.) So probably Fiji Bitter. It's got kind of a bite to it, but it'll do. :)

Let me make it a point to say that I miss everyone that is reading this right now (unless you came upon this randomly, I'm basically talking about friends and family here, so sorry. get your own friends.) Ok so I miss my friends and family. And not in that way where I'm just saying that to be nice. Really. I. Miss. You. We did a visualization exercise and part of it was "Imagine the best dinner ever. Who is with you?" My table was so big. It had nearly 50 beautiful faces around it. Family, coworkers, friends from college/high school, volunteer buddies, parents of friends from high school, my sisters and cousins, game night buds, everyone I adore. So please know that I'm thinking of all of you. Singularly. Take care, all! :)