BALI BALI BALI . . . and stuff

My goal when I moved here was to try and update my blog at least once a week . . . I suck, I know.

Things have been, well, interesting as of late. I am not going to go into too much detail but basically a vicious rumour was started by someone Kelsea and I had called a friend. Long story short she knew she was wrong and is no longer in Indonesia. Well the week that this all came out was a tad stressful so Kelsea, Tico and I decided last minute to go to Bali, this was decided on Thursday night and we left on Friday.

Friday morning I went to book the tickets and forgot to book a return flight home (I am stupid I know). Thankfully our boss found us tickets to get us home, but we had to pay double for the tickets. Anyways our flight was scheduled to leave 8pm on Friday night, I was finished work at 6:45 and the airport is 20- 3o minutes away from the school. I told Kelsea and Tico to be at the school for 6:45, of course they were late and we didn't end up leaving the school until 7:20 - 40 minutes till departure. The cab driver we had is the same guy we have had in the past and we really like him, anyways he drove like a madman on the highway, going 120km an hour. And I know you are thinking,

"um Kim don't have like 100 tickets for speeding in Canada?"

Why yes, yes I do BUT I was sitting in the back of a taxi that doesn't have seat belts. White knuckling it the whole way to the airport. We arrived at the airport at 7:50pm and booked it amazing race style to the terminal. Thankfully we made it on time, and a short 45 minutes later we were in paradise. Being the spontaneous fools that we are we didn't book a hotel or anything, so we spent close to an hour driving around looking for a hotel. Finally we found one, which was really nice and cheap (two of the best combinations outside of peanut butter and chocolate).

We went out that night and I was surrounded by Aussie's and other people with equally hot accents. Our friend Storm came down for the night, he lives in New Zealand so it was nice to see him for a bit.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and had breakfast by the pool and then headed to Sinar beach. Tico took a nap and Kelsea and I went snorkelling. Earlier that morning I stole a bread knife from breakfast to attempt to stab a fish for when we went snorkelling. Well we didn't stab a fish or even come close to catching one, not sure what we were thinking.

I love snorkelling, it is one of the most relaxing things I like to do. Under the water is a whole new world there is so much to see and it is silent, its just me, the fish and my thoughts. While we were snorkelling we saw a squid which was cool. The currents where really strong so we would swim a few meters then get sucked back towards the boat which is an exhilarating and terrifying experience all at once. The relaxing feeling usually leaves pretty quick when you are trying to swim and stay afloat so you don't get ripped to shreds by the coral, but still awesome.

The rest of Saturday was spent on the beach with food, drinks and conversation.

I really like Sinar beach, it is more a "locals" beach so you aren't harassed every 5 minutes to buy stuff. Later in the afternoon we saw some fishermen standing way out in the ocean and Kelsea and I had the bright idea to go out there and say hi, what we didn't realize at the time was why the fishermen are standing out way in the ocean is because the tide has gone out. So we swam/walked/got dragged by the current, out to the fisherman, which in retrospect weren't even that interesting. We decided to head back into shore, on the way back I got stung by a jelly fish and then stepped on a sea urchin and I now have its sharp things (no idea what they are called) stuck in my foot, I should probably take them out. Also Kelsea cut her foot up pretty bad on some coral . . . we are dumb sometimes.

Sunday morning we woke up pretty early and headed to Kutah beach. Which is the beach you go to if you want to SURF!! I sat under the umbrella applied sunscreen and attempted to look like I was relaxing, but really I was anxious to get out in the water, so I did. I had a surf instructor come with me because I am a rookie. After about 8 attempts I finally rode a wave I was so excited! I rode it all the way into shore, forgot how to get off properly and then face planted in the sand, my instructor was trying to be polite but then burst out laughing . . . my clumsiness is a global amusement. Kelsea and I got pretty burnt, Tico being the african that he is . . . didn't. We went back to the hotel, relaxed by the pool and then . . . sigh . . . headed back to reality.

Pina Coldas on the beach - doesn't get much better than this folks

Up until last week homesickness hasn't been a huge issue, usually I would have moments of sadness missing my family and friends but nothing too severe . But last week was rough, I am not sure what it was that set it off but I just missed home. I miss my room, I miss Tim Hortons, I miss coffee dates with friends, I miss my brothers, I miss my moms cooking and my mom, I miss my Dad and his philosophies about life and work and love, I miss being able to call my friends up at a moments notice and just do something crazy, I miss road trips, I miss my car (I have been missing THAT since October.). But I am realizing that all those things will be there when I get home. I am now taking it one day at a time here and I am learning to live in the moment to experience everything and to take everything as an experience. I do love and miss you all lots and lots though.

Ya I miss them - as crazy as they are.

School is going good, I am learning not to sweat the little stuff and trying to work around cultural frustrations. I am thankful for roommates who live through the same frustrations as I do on a day to day basis surrounding work. There is usually a lot of venting that happens around the dinner table. I am also thankful for students that remind me why I am a teacher, for the students that make teaching fun and for all the moments filled with laughter because kids are just hilarious.

It is exam week and I have been reviewing and making up exams with my kids, as I have said before it is a great feeling to experience the moment where a kid who is struggling all of a sudden understands a concept or a grammar rule or how to make a correct sentence etc . . .

The last few nights have not been restful, I have been having a hard time sleeping because my brain just doesn't want to shut up. I think this is part of the homesickness and part of just the way my brain works. My brain is like tetris, when things come into my mind I like to organize them so that they fit just right with my other thoughts, then I can think about it - change it and then have it disappear. But there are some things that no matter how often I try to work my way around it, how hard I try to accept the way things are sometimes - they just don't fit with my other thoughts and things just start to pile in around it. There are certain things that I have thought about over and over again for almost a decade which is a long time to be considering something over and over again. God and I have had many conversations about this one thing and all he keeps telling me is "Voortman relax, be patient." So I am . . . being patient . . . sort of.

Well thats it for this weeks edition of "Kim's life in Indonesia"

I miss you and love you all

Love from Indo

- Kim