Fiji on My Mind

I am a “Thursday’s child” with “far to go”; my mind is painted in wanderlust. Still, Fiji did not actively engage my imagination or merit an inscription on my mental “to see and to do” list until maybe ten years ago when I first saw the movie The Truman Show. When Truman, who unbeknownst to him is the star of a reality-type television show, breaks with the plan prescribed by the creator of the show and falls hard and fast for an extra in the cast—Lauren/Sylvia Garland— instead of Meryl, the chosen love interest, the executives in charge remove Lauren from Truman’s fabricated world and orchestrate a reason for him: Lauren and her family are moving to Fiji. Because Truman can’t forget Lauren, he becomes increasingly more focused on going to Fiji. He tries to explain to his best friend Marlon just where Fiji is by using a golf ball to represent the planet and two different fingers to mark where they are (USA) as compared to where Fiji is. Then Truman says, "You can't get any further away before you start coming back" And with that line, I realized I, too, wanted to go to Fiji—a place so far removed from my space on the planet that by the time I arrived there I would almost be on my way back!

When I moved from Germany to Japan, Fiji became one of those locations I regularly punched into travel search engines like Expedia or Orbitz or Sidestep or Kayak when bored or when procrastinating or when actually actively seeking a travel destination for an upcoming holiday. The cheapest airfares always showed a $3000+ price tag, an amount always way beyond my means. Until three weeks ago, that is! One evening while playing the travel search engine game with April’s spring break in mind, a game I commenced playing early in January, I discovered a Fiji flight/hotel package within the budget! And now, I wish to announce, my friend Beth and I are headed to Fiji for spring break. At moments I am nearly breathless with excitement!