university of the south pacific

When we are not living in villages, or packing up and heading off to American Samoa or Fiji, we spend our time at the University of the South Pacific (which we all refer to, lovingly, as USP) USP is a beautiful campus. It sits in a valley and is surrounded by mountains covered in greenery and coconut trees. The campus is sprawling and large. The university studies focus on agriculture, so there are fields of taro, mango trees, and other pacific island food staples planted around campus. Most of the students who attend USP are majoring in agriculture, which is a very popular and relevent major in the Pacific.
My time at USP has been full of emotional highs and lows, new experiences and challenges, and a whole lot of mosquitos...
First of all, I live in a single room, but share a common room with 4 roommates. Unfortunatly, I also share my room with an army of ants. After losing too many packages of crackers and jars of jam to the ants- I have taken extreme measures to ensure my food stays safe from their mini-ant mouths. All my of food is placed inside plastic baggies, which are then zipped inside my backpack, which is then placed inside my suitcase and stowed away- so far, with this new method, my food is untouched and the ants have gone hungry. Creepy crawlers are common here- on an average day I come in contact with  mosquitos and flies at the gym, milipedes and centipedes in the grass, roaches and ants in the bathrooms, and lizards and geckos (i like those!) everywhere at night.  I have also hung a mosquito yet above my bed, which i love- the draping netting is a lot like a canopy and it makes me feel very cozy at night.
My roommates love to play their music (imagine, the "best of the 90s", and you have a good sense of what they play) all day, and all night, all the time...every day. They talk loud and laugh louder, and because there are no soundproof walls, or windows that shut, sound carries incredibly easily... I have learned that in the Pacific, it is incredibly rude (and completely weird of you) to ask people to "please, turn it down". Thankfully, I have finally escaped this volume problem (after a month of sleepless nights) by employing the use of earplugs- which might be my new favorite things on earth. Showering at USP, is not my favorite activity. There are often lots of milipedes and ants to keep you company in the tiny stall. I have not had a heated shower since I left Hawaii. The cold water, although refreshing, is always a shock when you first get in. Cleanliness is a constant battle. My feet are covered in a thin layer of dirt 24/7. I tried to hand wash my clothes for the first 2 weeks while I was on campus, but I quickly learned that hand washing is quite possibly not one of my talents, so I resorted to paying for the washing machine (and I havent regretted my choice) I dont mind being dirty and sweaty all the time, but it will be nice to feel clean again some day...
Every day Zoe (my best bud on the trip) and I wake up at 630am and do yoga in the fale on campus. Its a pleasant way to wake up, and afterwards we head to breakfast. Breakfast at USP includes, one tiny apple-bananna (a mini, sweeter version of the palagi banana), a slice of papaya (not my favorite, as nice as it sounds), 4 pieces of white bread, and usually oatmeal or cereal or sandwhiches or something like that... Breakfast is one of the best meals. We spend the rest of our mornings (and much of the afternoon) in language class, or traveling around Apia to visit NGOs, universities, organizations, or listen to speakers discuss social and political issues in Samoa.
In the afternoon I try to hit the gym. It is the same gym that the national Samoan rugby team uses, so the weights are SUPERSIZED. It is hard to find any machine that doesnt have less than 200 lbs. stacked on it. However, Im happy to have a gym- although the only machines are bikes (with broken seats, so you must stand to ride them) or urging machines (that are also broken). Exercise, therefore, requires a good amount of creativity. Some people on campus play volleyball before dinner, and some of the boys play rugby in the large open field.
Dinners at USP vary, but a generous serving of white rice, taro or boiled green banannas always accompanies the main dish. Veggies are a rare sighting.
There is a lot of time at USP to read, so most of us spend a significant amount of our time diving into some good books. There is no TV, and the computer lab is open occasionally (the only place where there is air conditioning) but the internet moves at snail speed and is tempermental so we spend a lot of time just talking.
It is nice to spend some time, in between traveling, on campus. My room is comfortable and feels like my little home, for now.