Homecoming

Instead of flying straight home to Boston, I made an excellent decision (if I do say so myself) to stop in Los Angeles first for two weeks. My friend Kim met me at the airport with a balloon, an American flag, trail mix and a bottle of wine--what else does one need upon arrival to the US? I spent my first days seeing friends--Kim, Carrie, Amy Y., Mara--and then Passover started and I got to see even more friends--Amy B., Rebecca, Brad--while enjoying matzah ball soup and a retelling of how the Jews got out of Egypt before properly baking their bread. All was good--did some hiking, went to a yoga class, and spent a night in Hollywood with all of Mara's folk, but then everything changed on Saturday night.

Mara and I headed to the Santa Monica to meet up with all the west siders. We picked up Carrie, Kim and crew and headed to the meeting place, a spot called Wokcano. We walked in and it strikes the customer as a restaurant kind of place and I was like, really, we're gonna sit at a table all night? But as you walk through, the restaurant turns into a big outdoor space with a gorgeous loft like balcony. I follow Carrie up the stairs and hear "Surprise!!" Awesome. The first face I see is my friend Fef (Rebecca). She was one of my closest friends in LA and had recently moved to Austin and happened to be in LA that weekend. All was right in the world. There were so many amazing faces from all of Amy Y.'s friends to friends from high school to the girls who planned it (thanks Amy and Mara!!).

Right after I make my way around the room and say hello to everyone, I see my godmother Shelley reach the top of the stairs and I am in disbelief. She lives an hour out of LA and I had already planned to stay with her a day later but it shows how well my friends know me that they invited her. Well, Shelley is my godmother because she is my mom's best friend so literally 5 seconds later my mom walks in...and I lose it. She flew cross country the day before after finding out about the party. It is too good to be true. I haven't seen my friends and family in so long and this was such an amazing gathering. Well, I burst into tears and so does my mom and Mara and Amy and Kim...but we recover, order wine and have a truly amazing night.

My friends put in such a great effort--planning, showing up, keeping it a secret--but it was really the best to see the plotters get surprised! The night ended with me, Mara and Kim eating matzah pizza--not too shabby.

The rest of my time in LA has continued to keep me on my toes--I spent time with my mom, Shelley and her family, Amy and her friends and Kim and I are headed to Santa Barbara for a day of wine before I head back to Boston for the summer.

Now I am just missing my men...Jason, Oded and my Dad. A girl can dream!

My Best Dive Ever

Before leaving Coral View, Oded and I decided to go diving one more time. We knew the dive masters from having dove there before and knew that they only took us to the best sites. They walked up to us at breakfast and asked if we were in the mood to go diving that morning--we were. Based on conditions that day, they took us to the Blue Lagoon--think Brooke Shields in 1979 and every over the top vacation brochure you have ever seen--see through blue water, white sand beaches, remote islands. This is the Blue Lagoon. We boated over there, put on our gear, tipped over backwards and descended to the white sand below.

Almost immediately, the dive masters asked us to kneel on the sand. They opened a bag of "fish food" and schools of gorgeous fish came swimming our way, surrounding us in color. As this is happening, I see Oded writing on the dive master's underwater pad. I was immediately concerned that something was wrong with his equipment but he turned to me so I could see what he had written. The pad read, "Will you marry me?" I was so surprised but shook my head yes as best I could. In Oded's words, "She smiled, closed her eyes, slapped me on my mask a few times, smiled again, let a few bubbles come out of her mouth, and kissed me underwater. I chose to take it as a yes."

Then we dove for another forty minutes, saw amazing fish and surfaced with big smiles on our face. No dive will ever top this one...

Bula!

After two months of trekking, sky diving and more rain than imaginable, we left New Zealand more than ready for two weeks on the beach. We arrived in Fiji right in time for sunset and a fire show at our hotel. After an hour of ten Fijians tossing, eating, and swirling fire sticks, we immediately felt the difference between being in a Western culture and being in Fiji. We spent one night on the mainland before jumping on a boat and beginning two weeks of island hopping.

The first place we stayed, Bay of Plenty, was like Lost with some huts. The people were so nice, standing knee deep in the ocean playing us a welcome song on their guitars as we arrived. They taught us how to open a coconut, net fish, and dance like Fijians and served amazing homemade food. Our room was perched on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean and provided an amazing view for sunrise. We stayed only one night and headed to Coral View, a more populated island.

Our first morning at Coral View we headed out with the dive masters on a shark feeding dive. We took a boat twenty five minutes away from all land and dove 18 meters down in the middle of the ocean. Once we were all assembled and holding onto a rope, one of the dive masters opened a trash can of dead fish and at once hordes of fish came and feasted on the impromptu meal, and one by one reef sharks would swim by and take their pick.

Then, all of a sudden, you see all the small fish swim away and in comes a sickle cell lemon shark--more than 4 meters in length and fierce. It was like watching the Discovery Channel in front of your face. The shark came in, cleaned up, whipped its body as it swam through and disappeared again. We saw two of those sharks during the dive and eleven other sharks total.

We left Coral View after 4 days because we wanted to see other islands. We spent a rainy night one an island misnamed White Sandy Beach before moving on to Manta Ray Island, a supposedly high end backpacker resort. We were not terribly impressed and headed back to Coral View for our last few nights, with our new friends Colleen and Colin in tow. The staff, food and accommodation at Coral View was awesome--the staff were constantly singing, everyone knew our name and there was 24 hour power--a big deal on the islands! But this was not what would ultimately be what I remember about Coral View...