Culture and Cockroaches

I don't really know about this blog thing! Sometimes I just forget about it or procrastinate posting, so my apologies to those of you who have been checking but there hasn't been an update for a while. My original idea was to just copy and paste my weekly email updates (which have also been a little late lately... whoops) but I know there are a couple people who check my blog and also get the updates, so sometimes they will be the same but I will try to add a bit more here for the people who would like to know more about whats up with me! So I guess here I have two weeks of things to catch up on! This counts as two... it's long!

One of the biggest new-things that I have been doing is starting language. Last week I had it four days, but now we are just doing 3 days a week, two 1.5 hr lesson and one 2 hr lesson. I am really enjoying it, its not too difficult of a language but remembering new words for everything is sometimes hard! And so is learning different grammar. I'm glad I'm a native English speaker though, because the more I learn Indonesian the harder I think English is! One of the reasons why I enjoy Indo lessons so much is because my teacher is alot of fun. Other than language, she also teaches some cultural things, and I really enjoy learning about those. We usually hang out after a lesson too, she'll take me to some really good restaurants!

Oh the food. Some of it is so good, and I eat out a lot! I honestly have not cooked in my house (besides toast) since...I don't even remember, maybe Tuesday! Food is incredibly cheap. I try to eat whatever is put in front of me, and I like trying strange things. Alot of food here is really spicy, which is getting tiresome because I can't handle spicy food very well. Another reason why I haven't cooked very much this week is because it's the Sanur Village Festival here! It started on Wednesday. There are lots of food booths with all sorts of really good food, music, sports, exhibitions, shopping... lots to do and see! There is a limit on how much the food can cost so the locals can enjoy the food as well, so the most expensive food will be is Rp. 30,000 which is about $3. Yeah! Like I said, the food is so cheap here, especially at places for the locals. I'll pay about Rp. 9000-10,000 (about a canadian dollar) for Nasi Campur (Chawm-poor), which is like rice, meat, vegetables, just a campur (mix) of whatever they have!

Last week I went with Melissa to Echo Beach in Canggu, about a 40 minutes taxi ride, it was so nice! Some great resturaunts and some hotels, but it is basically undeveloped and alot of locals hang out there. It was nice just to sit wherever we wanted and relax without having to deal with throngs of tourists and people trying to sell you stuff. The waves there are too big to swim in, but apparently its good for surfing! (I wouldn't know though, haven't tried surfing yet!). The taxi ride was an adventure though, definitely thought I was going to die (thats an over-exaggeration). These pictures are from Echo Beach.

Yesterday I went for a little tour of south Bali with my teacher and a friend of hers from Java. We rented a car and hired a driver (which was really cheap in my perspective- only like Rp. 100,000 each so $10- but for them it was a splurge, so I really had to watch what I said) We went to Nusa Dua and looked at some of the really nice resort hotels, and to the Bukit (hills) to a cultural park thing with some huge statues of Bali's "protector" it was pretty neat. I ended up in a group picture with all these other tourists from Java, it was really funny- they wanted me in there! We also went to Dreamland beach where there were lots of tourists and surfers, its beautiful, but just lots of people and people trying to sell you things. We drove through Jimbaran, where there is really good seafood apparently. Finally we went to Kuta beach (I had been here before), played in the water a bit, people tried to sell us stuff, watched the sunset, and once again I was approached by a bunch of people from Java who wanted pictures with me (I think cause I'm white and blonde and was dressed pretty conservatively). Then we went out for supper and I had a sirloin steak (not Albertan quality of course but it was still pretty good!) and spaghetti for like $2. When I get back home I'm not going to be able to handle paying $20 for a restaurant meal! The experience at this resturaunt brings me to another Bali discovery that I have made this past week and highly regret.

Cockroaches.

Oh my goodness. Seriously. There was one in my house, I did not deal with it well. Luckily it was not moving so I just left my bedroom and waited for like 2 hours until Barry got to the building. Then I went and got him to kill it while I stood on a chair absolutely disgusted. SO GROSS. So that was that, apparently they're pretty common but that was the first one I had seen. And apparently they fly, which makes me want to flip out just thinking about it. Then yesterday, at this restaurants I see something scurry on the floor under our table, but when i looked there was nothing so I forgot about it. THEN I feel something like tickling my foot... then my ankle... then my calf, I look and bat at it with my other foot, and it was a cockroach! It was ON ME. Needless to say I kinda freaked, it took alot for me to not completely make a scene, and the people I were with (all Indonesians) were looking at me like I was insane (its just a cockroach, of course) but I could not believe there were cockroaches in this fairly nice restaurant and no one cared! Then (yes, this story is not done) I see another crawling across the floor, then another! I was like, uh... what? But apparently thats just a normal thing and its not a big deal to local restaurants, so i tried to just brush it off. I still shudder when I think about it crawling on me though (like now). So sick. Definitely the thing I have the biggest issue with here so far. They fly!!! I like the geckos better.
Okay, enough about cockroaches. Think positive... I'm getting a great tan! These pictures are from the South Bali tour yesterday. On the first one you can see both the east and west coasts. If you look at a map this is the skinny little part near the bottom of Bali. The second is me and my language teacher, the third is a statue of the Bali "Protector".

Getting into somewhat of a routine has been nice. I've started going to a Study with some of the expatriates, and I meet with my mentor weekly. Also, last week the after-school kid's club kicked off last Thursday. Five boys came (we're expecting more in the coming weeks). It was interesting haha. Two of the boys are from Australia, one from France, and two from Holland. They had a blast doing a craft, playing games, swimming in a pool, and chasing the baby chickens.

Children's stuff is going good, we are starting our volunteer rotation and such as of today, and we had a really good meeting with the volunteers, and I'm excited about some of the things we are going to try to make happen. My supervisor is all about getting the children's program "up front" in the community- making it an important part of the community and having the community involved and supporting it, which is so great and encouraging! And there are some other amazing people that are a part of this community who are behind it and helping it, that I'm learning a lot from. I'm really enjoying working here.

I don't really know what else to write about... Next week is independence day here and also one of the major Balinese celebrations, so that should be interesting, loud, and colorful!

This picture is me being a space cadet in my new helmet!
The picture at the very top is one from the Sanur Village Parade that I
just got back from about an hour ago.