More anecdotes from Fiji

I forgot to add some stuff in my Fiji blog. While in Fiji I had my first massage. It was a lomi lomi massage. They used oils, you listened to music or the sound of the ocean and you get massaged while in the nude. No underwear, nada. They said you could leave on your underwear if you'd wanted to, but the massage technique uses the weight of your body or something like that. So I went the full monty. I figured since I'm getting a massage in Fiji, I might as well get it the way it was meant to be had. I did get a towel to cover the nether region and one to cover the upper region. I started it on my stomach, face down on the table with my face in a hole in the table. There was a bowl full of water and flowers beneath my face. I guess this is supposed to be a  soothing visual. She put on calming music, but then the cd began to skip and she just turned it off. I nodded off a few times while listening to the sounds of the sea. It was a interesting technique, a lot of a rolling pin motion with her forearms. It was a little strong and I guess it might have been closer to a deep tissue massage. I felt really strange getting covered in oil. I also was always on the verge of laughing. I'm a bit ticklish and I couldn't stop thinking about the Friends episode with the nontraditional massage. I kept imagining my massage lady using a rolling pin, Tonka trucks and wooden spoons, but I bit my lip and didn't laugh. By the end of the massage I was extremely proud of my reserve and ability to keep from laughing. My mom also got a massage one room over. I can't say that I'm a fan of massages, but I'm a fan of experiences, so I'm glad I got to try it.

Also the perfect shell that the chief gave me was not so perfect. It turns out there was a creature still alive in it and it ended up dying inside the shell. So the Bure smelled like death for awhile and mom eventually cleaned out the shell so it would stop scaring the lady who tidied up our Bure everyday.