I cant believe its been a week of blue skies.
Warm too.
No, I dare say it has been hot. Hot and sunny.
A pleasant departure from the norm of hot, humid and pouring down rain.
Ive never seen rain like this before. It rains all day. And not the misty rain of the Pacific Northwest. No, it is a torrential downpour hour after hour, day after day.
It begins to get on ones nerves.
The past two weeks, though? Mostly pleasant.
Weather wise anyway.
It makes living here seem not so bad.
Here?
Well here, for now, is Fiji.
Not the Fiji you see on movies or in magazines. We live in the rainy part of Fiji.
The part without beaches!
The part with pollution and crowds.
Weve been on this rock for almost 9 months (well this and other similar rocks). While that may not sound like a long time for us it has been too long.
Were going island crazy. We need to get away.
As luck would have it there is a conference in Orlando in November that pertains to our chosen profession (although we dont currently practice our chosen profession!). We submitted an abstract and had it accepted so now we have to go.
The conference hotel, however, is far too expensive. Much cheaper to stay at the RPR. A shame really, how will we survive?
Aside: Have you noticed that the RPR is a tropically themed resort? Have you noticed that at the RPR they greet you by saying Bula?
Did you know Fiji is a tropical island? Did you know Fijians greet each other with a hearty Bula?
For those not comprehending what Im, as the kids say, throwing down our island escape is taking us to a hotel that is themed after the island we are trying to escape.
It will, I guess, lessen the culture shock.
Yes, thats it.
This hotel allows us to slowly re-integrate into the developed world. Were doing it for our mental health!
Fiji is, after all, a developing country.
Poverty. Sickness. Military government. Censored media. No constitution.
You know; that kind of place.
Dont get me wrong. We dont live a rough life. We have it pretty good. Were doing work that we think is good work and that will hopefully open even bigger doors in the future.
Despite the good work were doing its still tough to be away from the comforts of home.
The comforts of North America.
Family.
Its only been nine months, it will be ten by the time we arrive at our escape, but it seems like a lifetime.
I know many have been away for longer but we need an escape and were, how shall I say, stoked that we can escape to Orlando. Well, actually, were stoked that we can escape to Universal Orlando.
You may have met us before.
This isnt our first trip report.
That means it isnt our first trip.
Our first trip was way back in 2006 and was a short off-site trip after I finished graduate school. We were joined by my brother and my parents. We had fun.
Our second trip was with my whole family in August 2007. A big group. There were 12 of us. When that trip was planned my wife and I were living in Palestine. We went from our flat to work and back to our flat. Sometimes we would go to the grocery store. We were not allowed to go really anywhere else.
Due to being trapped in freezing cold flat we read a lot of websites.
One of them was this here one.
We decided that it would be awesome if we got a few rooms at Universal so that we could get FOTL passes for the whole crew.
We did the whole Orlando thing on that trip. A few Disney days and two Universal days. We stayed in a rented house for most of that trip but family was convinced to stay at Universal for a night to get two days of FOTL passes.
We reserved the rooms over Skype, while we lived in Palestine. We still laugh about speaking to the lovely reservations person while we were listening to gunshots in the background. Now that trip was a true escape and you can read about it here if you so desire.
Our last trip to the Darkside occurred between gigs in Nome, Alaska. I started a trip report about that Universal only trip while stuck, due to weather, in a remote Alaskan village.
We had a lot of fun on that trip.
Upon our return I learned I should take more care in writing a trip report (see why here).
So I will.
Why write? Because I like to, and Im bored. And its a way to ignore the pressing work I should be doing. Who wants to work on Saturday?
Why a pre-trip report? Well because, to borrow a commercial from the Mouse, we are too excited to sleep.
It is still five weeks away but it is the light at the end of a dark, long tunnel.
We are excited. Probably too excited for two people our age but excited we are.
Next up?
Well, Ill introduce you to the gang going on this Bula-palooza.
By the time were done it might be a rather large gang.
Warm too.
No, I dare say it has been hot. Hot and sunny.
A pleasant departure from the norm of hot, humid and pouring down rain.
Ive never seen rain like this before. It rains all day. And not the misty rain of the Pacific Northwest. No, it is a torrential downpour hour after hour, day after day.
It begins to get on ones nerves.
The past two weeks, though? Mostly pleasant.
Weather wise anyway.
It makes living here seem not so bad.
Here?
Well here, for now, is Fiji.
Not the Fiji you see on movies or in magazines. We live in the rainy part of Fiji.
The part without beaches!
The part with pollution and crowds.
Weve been on this rock for almost 9 months (well this and other similar rocks). While that may not sound like a long time for us it has been too long.
Were going island crazy. We need to get away.
As luck would have it there is a conference in Orlando in November that pertains to our chosen profession (although we dont currently practice our chosen profession!). We submitted an abstract and had it accepted so now we have to go.
The conference hotel, however, is far too expensive. Much cheaper to stay at the RPR. A shame really, how will we survive?
Aside: Have you noticed that the RPR is a tropically themed resort? Have you noticed that at the RPR they greet you by saying Bula?
Did you know Fiji is a tropical island? Did you know Fijians greet each other with a hearty Bula?
For those not comprehending what Im, as the kids say, throwing down our island escape is taking us to a hotel that is themed after the island we are trying to escape.
It will, I guess, lessen the culture shock.
Yes, thats it.
This hotel allows us to slowly re-integrate into the developed world. Were doing it for our mental health!
Fiji is, after all, a developing country.
Poverty. Sickness. Military government. Censored media. No constitution.
You know; that kind of place.
Dont get me wrong. We dont live a rough life. We have it pretty good. Were doing work that we think is good work and that will hopefully open even bigger doors in the future.
Despite the good work were doing its still tough to be away from the comforts of home.
The comforts of North America.
Family.
Its only been nine months, it will be ten by the time we arrive at our escape, but it seems like a lifetime.
I know many have been away for longer but we need an escape and were, how shall I say, stoked that we can escape to Orlando. Well, actually, were stoked that we can escape to Universal Orlando.
You may have met us before.
This isnt our first trip report.
That means it isnt our first trip.
Our first trip was way back in 2006 and was a short off-site trip after I finished graduate school. We were joined by my brother and my parents. We had fun.
Our second trip was with my whole family in August 2007. A big group. There were 12 of us. When that trip was planned my wife and I were living in Palestine. We went from our flat to work and back to our flat. Sometimes we would go to the grocery store. We were not allowed to go really anywhere else.
Due to being trapped in freezing cold flat we read a lot of websites.
One of them was this here one.
We decided that it would be awesome if we got a few rooms at Universal so that we could get FOTL passes for the whole crew.
We did the whole Orlando thing on that trip. A few Disney days and two Universal days. We stayed in a rented house for most of that trip but family was convinced to stay at Universal for a night to get two days of FOTL passes.
We reserved the rooms over Skype, while we lived in Palestine. We still laugh about speaking to the lovely reservations person while we were listening to gunshots in the background. Now that trip was a true escape and you can read about it here if you so desire.
Our last trip to the Darkside occurred between gigs in Nome, Alaska. I started a trip report about that Universal only trip while stuck, due to weather, in a remote Alaskan village.
We had a lot of fun on that trip.
Upon our return I learned I should take more care in writing a trip report (see why here).
So I will.
Why write? Because I like to, and Im bored. And its a way to ignore the pressing work I should be doing. Who wants to work on Saturday?
Why a pre-trip report? Well because, to borrow a commercial from the Mouse, we are too excited to sleep.
It is still five weeks away but it is the light at the end of a dark, long tunnel.
We are excited. Probably too excited for two people our age but excited we are.
Next up?
Well, Ill introduce you to the gang going on this Bula-palooza.
By the time were done it might be a rather large gang.
