Today I woke up, saw an amazing sun rise . . . oh and climbed a FREAKING volcano!

Well another week is done. I have said it a few times already, but time is FLYING by. My two month mark is quickly approaching.

This week was really stressful, more than it needed to be I believe. We finished our semester last week and used this week to prepare for the upcoming semester, I was actually looking forward to this because last semester I came in the middle and just picked up where the last teacher left off, but now I have my OWN classes and I got to make my own schedule.

Well on Monday I was sick I woke up and the mosquito's had feasted on my face and I had a pretty bad reaction, my face swelled to an abnormal size and I was just not feeling good so I called in to work, missing the first day of prep. I went to the doctors that night got a nice little injection and things where peachy. Now our class lists where supposed to be ready last week so when I came into work on Tuesday I was fully expecting to have my class list so I could begin preparing . . . I get to work and the schedule was not ready I was so frustrated because at times like this the cultural difference is so frustrating and makes me want to poke my eye out with fork - long story short things got figured out and I started prep around 2pm that day. Now sitting in an office with no windows for 8 hours a day makes a girl LOSE her mind. Thankfully my co-workers come prepared with board games and hilarity to ensure sanity is kept.

Friday FINALLY arrived, we had a short day. As appreciation for the staff our bosses arranged a trip to Mount Bromo which is an active volcano about three hours away from here. I was so looking forward to this for many reasons. One being I have never been to an active volcano so I was pretty excited to see it. Second being since it is so high in elevation the temperature is cool which meant I got to wear a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, which if I had a choice, I would wear every day of my life.

We left Surabaya around 3pm and arrived in Bromo around 6:30pm. Driving up to our hostel was crazy, it was dark and really foggy so we couldn't see how high we were actually going but judging by the amount of turns we had been taking I knew we were up pretty high. Once we got there all the native Indonesians that work with us were FREEZING they have been living in tropical climate their whole life, so as soon as the temperature goes below 20 they lose their minds, it was actually pretty funny to witness. They were putting on winter jackets, mittens and toques, it was around 15 degrees. We ate a quick dinner then I went to bed around 7:30, we were getting up at 3:00am to go see the sunrise over Mount Bromo.

I don't care how early you go to bed 3:00am comes WAY TOO EARLY. We all hustled out to our off - roading vehicles and made the trek to the peak to see the sunrise, when we got there there were probably 100 people at the peak. We watched the slow progression of the sun rise for about an hour, it was breath taking to see it rise, such an amazing experience. It is at times like that that I feel closest to our creator.

After watching the sun rise we got back in our trucks and headed down to the base of the volcano which - I - Kimberley Ann Voortman - climbed. Now let me give you an example of just how lazy I am. The previous night my roommate and I were laying in our room and we rock paper sicossered to see who would turn out the light. I lost, but instead of getting out of bed to do it I picked up my book, threw it at the light switch - nailed it! Then I didn't have to get out of bed. Climbing wasn't TOO bad it did make me realize how horribly out of shape I am though. The climb was so worth the view at the top. The volcano wasn't THAT cool in all honestly it was just a bunch of steam pouring out of a crater. But the view was amazing - I felt like I was in the movie Avatar. Once at the top I thought it was at least 12:00 in the afternoon - I asked my co-worker and it was 7:30 AM, I was shocked that I had accomplished so much so early in the morning. Walking down was much easier, we got back into our trucks and headed back to the hostel.

I am now back in the city - sigh. Well that's been my adventurous week I am looking forward to the many more I am sure to have. I haven't put my pictures on the computer yet - maybe I will get to that now - or maybe I will go to bed.

Love from Indo

Kim