Bali, Indonesia

Wow, I'm finally back to the blogging world.  Probably only for the next two weeks though.  Don't get used to it :]  I haven't updated in...what?...seven months or so? Mostly because I feel like I never really have anything to say.  But being in Bali has given me LOTS to say.  Also I don't want to forget anything about this trip and my journal just does not have enough lines to fit everything.  So enjoy the next two weeks of blogs about Indonesia!

Our flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong departed at 1am Monday morning.  We waited in the airport for awhile with mostly Asian people and one large group of students studying abroad in HK.  The flight was fabulous .  I thought a 14 hour flight would seem much longer than it did.  I slept about 7 hours, waking up at 3am HK time (1pm California time).  I never did sleep after that...probably a mistake but I just wasn't tired.  There were SO many movie and TV options on the plane.  Of course with all the stuff to choose from I settled on Friends, season 6.  I watched that pretty much the whole time with one 48 hours mystery and half of Tangled mixed in.  You'd think with all the options I'd watch something I don't watch every other second of my life but it was just too tempting!  The food was OK (nothing to rave about but not disgusting either).  T & I played some word games (with a word puzzle workbook I bought before the trip) and also watched some soccer.  T only slept about 4 or 5 hours and watched movies/TV the rest of the time.

We arrived in HK at 6am.  It is HUMID there.  At 6am it was 80 degrees and very hot!  The airport was very empty when we arrived so we hopped on the free computers (which had cool chinese symbols on the keyboards) and checked emails and FB.  Of course.  Then we played Sorry! card game and did some word puzzles.  At 10:20am our flight left HK and headed to Bali.  Almost everybody on the plane was from Hong Kong.  Very few were from our last flight and I think there were only a handful of white people.  Bali is a popular place to vacation (or take a holiday, as they say) for people who live in HK.

Our flight arrived in Bali at 3pm Tuesday, Bali time (1am Tuesday, California time).  We bought our 30-day visas and went through customs then went for our baggage.  Before either of us knew what was happening, two porters grabbed our luggage and started walking us to the exit.  Tom said they just wanted money (I would soon come to learn just about everybody in Indonesia wants your money).  They waited while we exchanged our USD for rupiah and wanted T to give them $10 each! Yeah right! He gave them $2 each.  That's better but still too much for them rolling our luggage about 100 feet!  Next time we will not be caught off guard and will say no.  Our driver that we hired through Bali Car Rentals was supposed to be waiting for us at the airport.  After searching all the signs people were holding (looking for our name) - twice! - we could not find our driver.  We went to the information desk and called Bali Car Rentals and gave them our confirmation number and they said they would send someone in 30 min!  Yeah right! - we had already been in the airport for at least 45 minutes getting our visas and going through customs.  And they were supposed to have been waiting for us when we landed!  Tom said OK for them to come but then another man approached us wanting to be our driver.  At first he wanted about $60 (I'm just going to do everything in USD so I don't have to constantly write what the USD equivalent is after writing rupiah) but after some hard bargaining Tom got him down to $35 for the rest of the night.  We were going to pay Bali Car Rentals $40 - way to go, T!

Our driver took us to a temple at Ulu Watu.  It was beautiful!  We had to rent some sarongs to wear while looking around.  It's a great place to see the sunset and well-known so it was veryyy crowded.  Apparently the wild monkeys also love to see the sunset from there because they were EVERYWHERE.  At first I thought they were so cute.  And then about two seconds later one of them grabbed a fistful of my hair and started tugging.  I screamed and the first thing that went through my head was "I didn't get a rabies shot!"  Tom made him let go (thanks, love!).  After that I put my hair up in a pony to avoid being latched onto by any other crazy wild monkeys.  I did not think they were so cute after that.  We walked all around the temple area and got great views of the ocean (and saw a dolphin!) and the sunset.  We saw quite a few itty bitty baby monkeys (some with hardly any hair yet!).  Those ones were still cute.  I was attacked by an adult monkey, after all.  We bought tickets to see a Balinese dance at the temple.  It was super crowded and a little bit longer than I would have liked but still interesting.  It was the story that Sara tells on A Little Princess with Ramah and the white monkey.  I would not have understood the story at all had they not given us a sheet with each Act's summary.  It's not that they were speaking Indonesian - they don't talk at all - just that it looked more like a whole bunch of random dancing than a story!  The costumes they wore were very intricate and really beautiful.

After leaving the temple our driver took us to a warung (food stall) where we had nasi goreng (fried rice).  My first authentic bowl of fried rice.  Delicious.  Much better than the kind I make with the IndoFood seasoning packet.  Oh and the best part is it was like $1 each.  Awesome.

We were SO tired by the end of the night (by now it was 8pm Bali time and 6am California time - remember, I hadn't slept since 1pm California time the day before).  Talk about being exhausted!  Our driver took us to our hotel which is BEAUTIFUL.  When booking, we upgraded to a romantic suite and it's lovely!  There is a queen bed with a really cool drape that goes around it (I think to keep mosquitos out but it looks pretty too!) and a really cute couch and nice table.  Neither of which I doubt we'll use but still they're cute.  We have a door leading out to a balcony that overlooks the back of the hotel with the pool and water features.  The ocean is just a stone's throw away and you can hear it with the balcony doors open.  I just love being beach front!  Even though we were exhausted we took showers then a walk along the beach.  It was totally empty (I guess most of the people who come to Bali are probably young adults who party at the night clubs and old, retired people who are in bed at dark).  It was nice to have the beach to ourselves.  We walked out on a dock and sat and watched the ocean for awhile and the weather was perfect.  Very warm with an ocean breeze to keep us from being overly warm.  Perfect and romantic.  I was in love with Bali right there.  Finally we went to bed - I think we were both asleep within seconds.

This morning we woke up at 8am, got ready, and headed down to our free hotel breakfast.  It's in the hotel but the hotel is totally open to the outside so you are practically eating outside too.  It's actually a really weird concept.  The whole hotel has like places where walls just don't exist so it just leads to right outside to the beach.  But it isn't at all like a motel.  It's definitely a hotel with a few missing walls.  I love it!  The place who was supposed to pick us up from the airport yesterday was also supposed to drive us around today but we were not about to call them to have them drive us after they stood us up yesterday.  And after we stood them up after they stood us up.  We think they're probably mad about that.  But we don't care because we were pretty mad that they stood us up first.  Anyway, Tom hired a guy who is a chauffer through the hotel.  Or supposedly through the hotel.  You're supposed to book him through the hotel but he agreed to let us book him at a lower price (I guess under the table or whatever you would call it).  We ended up paying him $50 for  the day (it was supposed to be 10 hours but we used him only for 8) which is $5 more than we were going to spend to pay the Bali Car Rentals guy but we paid $5 less last night so it works.

Bagi (the driver) spoke very good English and told me he learned it just from the customers he drove around.  I was very impressed.  He took us to Katu first because I wanted to do some shopping.  He told us that a lot of the crafts were imitations or things bought in Ubud (who has high-quality crafts) and then sold in Kuta at a higher price.  He said to do a lot of bargaining since several of the crafts would be low-quality and far over-priced.  Tom was great and did a lot of hard bargaining and got me some fantastic deals!  I've picked up a few souvenirs but am waiting mostly to shop until tomorrow when we'll be in Ubud because I expect to find better things.  The Indonesian shop owners are VERY persistent!  They'll follow you down the street begging you to buy something.  Lots of times they send their little kids to follow you to try to get you to buy something.  At one point a little 3 or 4 year old girl was following us trying to get us to buy pencils.  They train them young!  Tom got some chicken satay at a warung which I had like 2 pieces of.  It was just so hot outside that it was hard to eat hot food!  After shopping, Bagi took us to see a famous temple called Tanah Lot.  It's also right on the ocean and just gorgeous!  We walked down to the ocean and walked along the beach for awhile and looked at all the shops on the grounds.  We bought some ice cream which was overpriced just because we're white.  After Tanah Lot, Tom asked Bagi to take us somewhere cheap to eat.  He asked to go to a warung and Bagi said he knew one close to the hotel.  When we got there the restaurant was called "warung" but it was not really a warung.  It was a restaurant instead of a stall.  Tom didn't want to tell him to take us somewhere else after he had already parked (since that would be kind of rude) so we just ate there even though everything was overpriced.  We ended up spending $12 which is 6 times as much as we budgeted to spend on any meal.  Good thing we brought extra money!

After eating Bagi took us back to our hotel - it was only 5:45pm but I was totally exhausted!  I sat on the balcony for awhile to warm up (I was actually cold here in Bali after being in the air conditioned car for an hour) and then showered and readied for bed.  I decided I should try to stay up at least a little later so I didn't wake up at 3am.  Jet lag.  Ugh.  Anyway, Bali has been wonderful so far and we are looking forward to Ubud tomorrow!

I've finally updated my blog!

Ha, fooled you - I didn't update this blog...yet.  But I did update my business/giveaway/craft blog! And I spent pretty much all day doing it.  It seems like a waste of time now that I look back but still I'm so excited about all I learned and accomplished! I created a button for people to add to their blogs that links to my blog, I created a signature for the end of my blog posts, and got a new background, updated my font, yadda yadda yadda. But don't let me bore you with the details - click over to my freshly updated blog using my brand-spanking-new button to the right of this post!

And PS I do promise I will update this blog too.  That's next.


[if this was my other blog my signature would appear here!]...coming soon for this blog!

Etsy Love

So...I spend a lot of time on Etsy (etsy.com).  Way more than I should.  Way more than any person should.  And almost none of the time is spent updating my own site...maybe if I spent more time there than on other people's I would have more sales :]  But I just love looking at all the craftiness of others!  Some days, like today, I feel my Etsy surf time was totally worth it...because of great finds.  Today I stumbled across Jane Joss - the cutest Etsy site!  Look at the amazing things she makes!

How cute, right?

You can visit her at janejoss.etsy.com.

I definitely want some of these cute decorations for my house when I have one!

Sometimes after looking through Etsy I feel down on myself for not being quite so crafty.  Most of the time I do nothing about it.  Tonight I decided to brighten my spirits by being crafty myself.  And I came up with this:

I feel a little less down on myself.  Maybe not quite so creative as Jane Joss but I love it nonetheless!  The best part?  $4 necklace find at a second-hand store + 2 handmade flowers = about $6.  What a deal!

My Secret Pleasures

I like to look at the bright side of things.  While I really miss Thomas I have been able to come up with a few things that I'm loving about being home alone.  Then I realized that most (or all) of them have a downside.  But the bright side is what keeps me happy until he returns.  And so I give you...

My Secret Pleasures (while Thomas is away)

• Not shaving my legs.
• Downside: It did bother me today when my leg hair was sticking out of my nylons. SICK!
• Eating In N Out while watching Friends.
• Downside: My burger was cold by the time I got home and started the DVD.
• A whole weekend of "girl time" with my sister.
• Downside: Sleeping on a couch and helping to clean up Emma's vomit.
• Not having to pick up Thomas from class late at night.
• Downside: This means he never comes home...which, in turn, means I'm lonely.
• Wearing ragged, old pajamas to bed (so NOT cute but SO comfy!)
• Downside: When I look in the mirror, I think my self-esteem drops about 10 bars.
• Not being told to clean up my messes.
• Downside: The house is a DISASTER.  And I will still have to clean it all up...it will just be all at once and will take me a couple hours instead of a few minutes each night.  Go me.
• Not having sports on 24/7.
• Downside: I don't know if there is one...
• Making SUPER easy dinners.  Salad, Cereal, Pasta, In N Out.  I have not made anything else in 5 days.
• Downside: again...there may not be one for this.  i LOVE it!
• No video games.
• Downside: that means there is nobody here to play them.

With that said...I think I could do without the video games, sports, and fancy (if you can call it that) dinners but I would rather have Thomas here and have to shave my legs, clean up my messes, wear cute pajamas, eat In N Out @ In N Out, pick Thomas up late from class, and have a "husband" (instead of girls) weekend than be without him for a week.

It's a...

...PACKAGE! (i wish i was saying boy or girl but tom says no...blame him if you are disappointed!)

when this appeared on my doorstep i was sooooo excited. because i've been waiting for like 6 days for it to come!...and i've been waiting even longer to buy this.

my very first sewing machine!!! yes, it's tiny. yes, it was cheap. yes, it works. just like a real one. it's the singer pixie plus and it's so cute and i LOVE it. i've never used a sewing machine before in my LIFE and am so confused looking at all the thread and little buttons but i think there are directions included...(hopefully)

my hair accessories are going to take so much less time when i don't have to hand-sew every little stitch! and i have so many projects saved in my favorites on google chrome that i've just been dying to make when i finally got a sewing machine. it is going to be one fun crafting week without thomas here! perfect time for my new toy to arrive :]

Recently :]

...and by recently i mean like the last 5 months...or since the last time i blogged. usually i try to go back and blog by date but that always really overwhelms me and i end up not blogging at all. proof: look at the last date i blogged. so i decided to finally just sit down and do everything at once. it might (probably will) be all out of order but here it is.

most importantly, thomas has been offered 3 second interviews for internships with three of the big 4! EY in sacramento, PwC in sacramento, and KPMG in san francisco.  we are so excited and i'm so proud of him! all the hard work is paying off.  he flies to sacramento on tuesday (november 2) for all his interviews. and i'm so jealous because he gets to stay for a whole week! we should find out shortly after who offers him an internship. and then (if he is offered more than one) we'll choose where to go.  BIG DECISION. but very exciting!

T also had a birthday -- 25! Pictures at end.  This was the day he found out about the second interviews so it was a very happy birthday! my family was in town because my brother got home from his mission the day before and they came to utah so the girls here could see him! we took family pictures then went to dinner at cafe rio and then had cake and ice cream. i gave T a jacket, an xbox football game and a sweater. i'm pretty sure the football game was his favorite. i have to say that was my least favorite. :]

as said...my brother came home from his mission in Chicago!...and he already has a GIRLFRIEND. i don't know if it's a secret or anything but he doesn't read this so he'll never know i blogged it. in fact, they went on a date the night he came to utah (the DAY AFTER he got home). yes, they met on the mission. her name is rachel and we like her :] ryan spent a week with us in utah (no pictures for proof...except for family pictures below). we had fun and are looking forward to our family vacation to disneyland in early december.

oh. i got a job. oh wait. first of all...i don't nanny anymore. first grader started school. i did not want to be their maid during the day as was their idea of my new responsibilities so i found a new job. oh but not before i told them i was going to look for other opportunities and then they let me go with only 24-hours notice. and so i applied for unemployment insurance and qualified. and was on that for 2 weeks before i found a new job. oh and then they appealed that decision and i had to do a phone-appeal hearing and the judge determined i deserved the unemployment insurance. because DUH i did! you can't just let an employee go for no reason just because they say they are going to start looking for a new job. and then not even pay them for at least 2 weeks. i think people with a lot of money forget that some people need their weekly paycheck to survive. anyway it's finally ALL over and i don't have to pay back the unemployment insurance and i have a job. the only sad part of it all is the parents hate me now and have cut off all connection i had with their kids. they even took their daughter off my soccer team. it's sad.

anyway my new job is as a secretary at a christmas light installation company. it's...well, boring. but it pays the bills. it's temporary through february 2011 and then i have to find something else. not looking forward to job-hunting again. i hate starting new jobs.

halloween! we didn't do much. went to the woodland's to pass out candy while they took emma trick-or-treating. watched max for a little bit. hung out for a little bit. went to our ward party.

oh kelli and i went to idaho to see our cousin, jenna, who goes to BYU-i! we had so much fun! we went to the byu-i gardens, the temple, bear world (where you see bears up close and personal--cool!), sammys (a cute little diner!), craigos (delicious pizza buffet). oh and we stayed up all night talking. it was a really great girls' weekend. we can't wait until jenna transfers to BYU!!

oh i also reupholstered a rocking chair. proof below. looks good, don't you think? i tried to sell it (we don't have room) but i couldn't get what it was worth. probably because it isn't worth what it's worth to me. i invested too much money and time to get enough from it. so i think i'll keep it. for a nursery...one day!

okay if i think of more i will add in a later blog post...PICTURES (you will have to guess what is from what):

Temple Square

My mom and dad are in town this week for EFY session directing in Logan.  They flew into Salt Lake today and we all (Thomas & I, Laurin-Mark-Emma-Max, and Kelli) met them for lunch at Cafe Rio then we all went to the Museum of Church History and Art.  After that, the Woodlands headed home and the rest of us went to temple square to see this cool to-scale model of the Salt Lake Temple (it shows how the inside looks).  We also searched out Ali Teerlink who just barely started her mission on Temple Square and we also found Nellie Mackey who just barely started her mission too!  It was fun to see them and talk to them for a little bit.  After temple square we went to Cold Stone and enjoyed yummy ice cream!

 

At the museum they had some gold plates that were the same estimated weight as the ones Joseph had to carry while he ran from the thieves/attackers.  You could (try to) lift them and they were SO heavy!  I could barely hold them up and definitely can not imagine having to run with them!

 

the ship bunks.  Thomas can hardly fit!