Samoan and English are spoken throughout the two islands of Samoa.
The Samoan tala is the name of the currency used here.
A bottle of water costs about five to seven tala depending on where you are on the islands. That's about $2.00 in U.S. dollars.
The best meal I ate this week was the vegetable stir fry that my host brother, Ronnie, made. Of course, we also ate some delicious pulesami (pool-ah-sah-mee) on the side. Pulesami is cooked taro, taro leaves and coconut.
I listened to a lot of African music, which is popular with Samoans. I often hear African music on the radio mixed with "reggaeton." Reggaeton is a genre inspired by Caribbean, Latin and Puerto Rican music.
My favorite activity was swimming in the ocean because I managed to find a sea turtle that I swam alongside for a little while. Although I am a competitive swimmer and I would like to say that I swim quite well, this little fella was just a bit too fast for me in the end!
