'Not sure if I like Dean Koontz but The Face gave me some cheap thrills and chills' - Or - 'Hello from Suva!'

Ten points for each movie/character indentified. Matt McGlone is not allowed to play.

Level: Beginner
"Sounds like my grandfather taking a leak, Mikey, so what"

Level: Intermediate
"Nothin left but a grease spot on the R&L"

Level: Novice
"I got a question. If you guys know so much about women, how come you're here at like the Gas N' Sip on a Saturday night completely alone, drinking beers, no women anywhere?"

Level: Suicide
"We're in the Spirit World asshole"

My latest Doctors appointment was delayed yet again. Tuesday morning has now been moved to Friday morning, so I'm still in Suva. I'm really missing my island right about now. My tikina buddy & PCV, Rachel, spent the night in my bure last night while on a sort of business trip. I asked her to try and explain a bit to my counterpart and others where i've been and why I'm gone. Her Fijian is pretty awesome so I think they will be well informed, more so than if I had to explain myself.

The last two nights I've been joined by ms. Kiva at the hotel. She is in for medical stuff two but leaves tonight. We had some fun cooking dinner the last two nights even though she insisted on mixing tofu in with the veggies. I really miss cookingfor myself. Out in the village I eat all my meals with families. This is because my one room house does not allow me to operate a gas burner. Maybe once my bathroom is completed I can move the stove into the safer tin part of the house as opposed to the bamboo and grass bit.

Today I was cruising around peoples blogs and noticed there are some new additions to the pile. The FRE-7's will be here pretty soon and it's kind of funny to see some of the same thoughts of excitement and terror that I had before leaving. Today I also noticed that I've forgotten how long i've been gone. For a long time you just knew the number of months absent from home. Today I had to count (on my fingers) how long I've been gone. The one year mark is creeping up on us Fre-6's and soon the Fre-5's will begin to depart from Fiji. It really doesn't feel like it's been so long since I left. Perhaps having the gift of visitors from the "before life" has made time do some sort of weird acrobatic trick thats both wonderous and gut wrenching to witness. What? Anyhow. If I can offer some insight to the soon to be PCT's, you're coming to Fiji. F-I-J-I, Fiji. Isn't that awesome!!??!? It did kind of suck to put up with smart ass comments before leaving. Comments such as, "Who joins the peace corps and goes to a tropical paradise?". When you arrive you will see what Fiji really is and not have the misconceptions of the ordinary tourists. "Well the resort was nice, but once you left it was kind of dirty".

Furthermore, try not to worry too much about exactly what this is like or where you will be living. Everyone you ask will give you different versions of what their Peace Corps experience is like. That, you will have to wait and see for yourself. Nobody will be able to tell where your site will be until the end of training, so really don't worry about that. I was very surprised, as were a lot of others, on site announcement day. I thought for sure I was gonna be in a city working under some ministry or NGO. Nope. I ended up on beautiful Vanua Levu, in the friendliest village and my closest town has so many amazing views that sometimes it makes me physically ill.

Personally i'm exciting for a new group to get here. And if I can offer one more bit of knowledge (if this in fact applies to you), staging is all about deception. First impressions are undeniably skewed in L.A. Don't believe the hype. Just wait for people to get a little comfortable and you'll see there are some cool people there after all. Just takes a little time and patience.

I feel a little lame for trying to be comforting or whatever. But, hey, this is the internet and by the time May comes around my cheeseball antics will be long forgotten.

Thanks for the brownies Mom! I havent eaten them yet but I heard they are in the post office back North.