June 10-12 (Day one kind of) The longest day

The plane ride from LA to Nadi was the longest 11 hours ever.  No one was comfortable on the flight except Brett because he slept literally the whole time. When we arrived in Nadi we stepped off the plane just in time to see the beautiful sunrise.  There were birds singing everywhere while all of us watched the sun rise up.  When we got into the main part of the airport we were happily greeted by Fijians' bright smiles and singing.  Everyone is so friendly here. Random Fijian strangers always were saying "bula" (hello) to all of us like we were their friends.  There were two different flights to go to Taveuni from Nadi. Since Meghan, Chase, Alex Long, Jameson, Grace, Jacob, and I were in the first group to fly to Taveuni we ate breakfast at the “hotel”, Tovutovu, which was kind of weird because it felt like it was dinner time even though it was only like eight in the morning. We then settled into our bungalows. The bungalow buds were Meghan, Lucy, Grace, and I. After we unpacked in our rooms we went to a private beach to chill. It was so nice! At the beach we ran into the cold water with Lisa. One of the Nat Geo photographers, Lisa, told us about all the cool things she has done. Lisa also told us about the cool things our other leader, Brett, has done.  Lisa is a very successful photographer that does more photo journalism. She also went to Boston University. Brett is a cool photographer that takes awesome underwater pictures.  He went to UCLA and did some marine stuff at Scripps in San Diego. After we spent some time at the beach we met the rest of the group for dinner at Tovutovu. After dinner we said our highs and lows of the day. When we got back to our rooms we soon realized the water was really cold in the shower. Soon after we all passed out because we were so tired.

The sunrise we saw when we got off the plane in Nadi

Fijians that welcomed us at the airport in Nadi by singing

Meghan and I on the private beach on Taveuni