well i didnt get up at 5:45. um, duh. buuut grandma did, so i lived vicariously through her camera. i was up by 6:30 however and that may be the last time in my life i see the numbers 6, 3, and 0 lined up on a clock. (except in the pm...darn it, that didnt work) anyway, it was still very sunrisey at 6:30 and i sat on the balcony and soaked up the ocean morning air while grandma struggled to figure out the foreign coffee maker. unbeknownst to me, dad was on the other balcony taking candid photos of me which i later secretly deleted because, frankly, ive never looked so hideous in my life. hmm, not a morning person apparently. anyway, the views in the morning were whoa. gorgeous. i am now view-spoiled and will never look at travel brochure pictures again in my life; they are too bland. once g-dawg figured out the coffee, or ordered some up, im not sure, we all sat on the balcony together to decide what to do with the day. we decided on breakfast for starters. so we all got dressed and then headed down to the over-water restaurant. it was like out of a movie. it was an octagonal hut that had these huge open windows with gauzy white curtains billowing and big bamboo tables with flowers all over the place. we were totally surrounded by views of the ocean and neighboring islands and if you stuck your top half out of the windows and looked down you could see straight into nemo's village! it was a bright coral reef with all these tropical rainbow fish and the water was so clear it was like an aquarium! anyway,in the way of food... dad ordered the buffet and brought back pineapples, kiwis, and croissants for all of us. we cheat the system. but mom insisted we have protein so we all ordered omelettes which were the size of my head. they came with potatoes, bacon, and these weird hot pink sausages that just looked too unnatural to eat. with our board shorts and sarongs now cutting off our circulation, we left the hotel and walked to the nearby Le Truck stop. we hopped aboard and rode the trolley bus to town. first stop was the tourism office to pick up some maps. the girl who worked there had on the coolest shoes so i chatted briefly with her and finally managed to work out that she got them at "binome." mother and i vowed to go there to fetch a pair later and then we headed over to the ferry station to catch a lift to the next-door-island of Moorea. we went up on the top deck at the front (we later discovered we had been standing right in front of where the captain was steering... tinted windows, gotta love em) and me kevin and allison played a game. it involved putting your feet right next to each other and seeing who would fall over first when the boat lurched. i never won. i blame my feet. we saw a bunch of flying fish leaping around the boat and this one bird kept kamikaze dive bombing them and missing. poor thing. flying fish can defy gravity, he shouldnt blame himself. anyway, as we neared the port, i spotted a dolphin and yelped out "dolphin!". then at least 40 other dolphins joined my one and swam and leapt alongside the boat. it was the coolest thing ever! and the island was gooorgeous. it was this big towering velvety green crescent with palm trees totally blanketing the entire lower half. and the bay within the crescent was so turquoise it looked like it had to be painted underneath like they do at seaworld. anyway, we pulled up, disembarked and walked over to a gas station (which wins "best gas location of all time" by a landslide). we got some pineapple ice cream in the food mart and then dad decided to look at the gardens. and by gardens, of course, he meant the backyard of the people who owned and lived behind the gas station. he even made us take a picture with their rose bush as the teenager who lived there looked on confusedly. we then hopped in a cab to go to temae beach but our driver said he knew someone at the Sofitel Ia Ora and could get us in there. "m'okay" we said and off we went. we rented snorkles and beach chairs and grabbed a slice of beach next to a naked french lady. (we didnt know she was naked until later though) it was the best beach ive ever met. we snorkled and frolicked in the insanely warm water for a few hours and were the only ones in there for miles on either side. you can so tell the fish here dont get much action because they have no shame. they're all up in your snorkle sayin' "wanna fight?" and you have to be like "calm down and dont bite me" or else they go berzerk. as do the eels. it was sweeet. and we could wade out for ages and it just stayed the same shallowness. when we had sufficiently burned our noses and accidentally(?) cought the french lady on camera, we headed back to the ferry station and bought tickets for the express ferry. while we waited we bought fruit from a local vender and then sat on the ground and munched. once the ferry came, we hopped on and fully understood the meaning of "express" this ferry got us back in 30 minutes and the first one took 2 hours. when we pulled into the port, i tripped absurdly coming down the last step and a local guy my age laughed slightly too honkishly to be considered a "with you not at you" laugh. we went to a street cafe to get some drinks and they had orangina like in europe!!! in europe i fell madly in love with orangina and have been having major separation depression since i left it to return to the states. the only problem was that when our waiter asked what i wanted, i forgot to say orangina and answered pepsi out of habit. idiot. speaking of our waiter, i also fell madly in love with HIM. he was french and he didnt understand hardly any english, but he was hopelessly cute. for example, the people at the table next to us forgot their change and he broke into a ridiculous sprint and chased them down the street to give them their 26 pence or whatever. oh and there was this hilariously adorable dog, too. he would be curled up sleeping next to one table and when the people would leave he would mozey on over to another table and lie down at their feet. he was quite sleepy and nice. when he got to our table, mom asked the waiter "who's dog is that?" cutie replied, "Ummmmm... he es just 'ere... always, but not... not, heh's not (pats chest twice in quick succesion as if to say 'mine' because he couldnt remember the word) ah... love him!
well, there is more of this day still, but i am very bored with typing right now. ill finish tomorrow. to be continued...
au revoir!
kristen
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