24 - Ready or Not Here I Come

(9-21-09)

I had not been looking forward to my up coming birthday these past few weeks as I am not a fan of even numbers or osteoporosis, but I was getting excited as birthday plans developed. As everyone in our group are about the nicest people ever, everyone wanted to know what I wanted to do for my birthday and I told them that all I really wanted was snorkeling at Fagatele Bay. As the weekend approached I was hoping that the weather would hold out, and come Friday it was insanely perfect. I took the bus into Pago and the ocean was calm, the skies bright blue, and the temp hovering at about 80. Basically it was paradise. Thanh and I spent the afternoon reading under in a fale by the harbor, and then met Rosemary and Julia at a Mexican restaurant. The food was delicious, but the atmosphere was poisonous. The décor was from cerca 1975, and the music of choice was a medley of love ballads from about the same era. We later had some drinks at Sadie's by the Sea, and then hitched to the night market were we tried some 'sua fai' which is a hot tapioca kind of drink that tastes like liquid banana bread, and looks like banana bread that came back up after eating. Pretty tasty though. We ended the night by hijacking a cannery bus (ok maybe we just asked nicely) to get to Malio Mai, the bar down on the ocean. We ran into some friends who were at a faculty party and had a fun night dancing and hanging out. Sometime after midnight everyone assaulted me with happy birthday wishes, and even got the band to announce that it was my birthday and sing happy birthday to me in Samoan. My friends are seriously too nice here. After bumming a ride home with a palagi we just met, we crashed for the night at Rosemary's house.


Saturday dawned, and I ran to the window to inspect the weather and what did I see? SUN! No clouds! Thanh and I caught an early bus home, got ready, and met up at our meeting point with everyone who was going on the hike. Soon our nice big group was assembled and we headed down to the trailhead in groups. The trail and beach were absolutely beautiful, but I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

  Check out Picasa for the rest:

A September to Remember

After a much needed shower and rest, we eventually met back at Jade for some Chinese food, and then headed to the Tafuna House for some chilling. Of course the night ended at the Bowling Club with some dancing, and my birthday was complete as they played "Hips Swing" by Savage without me even having to request it! All in all it was definitely one of the best birthdays I have ever had.



PS. First ever horrible B-day sunburn. Please note how hilarious my tan lines are.