Formula 1 practice

So today the bus driver must have watched a rerun of the Formula 1 last night. He was rounding corners on 2 wheels with 17 kids, a grandma, and me on board. But I think I need to teach him how to shift smoothly. He turns up the heat everytime I'm on so he can see me take my layers off.

Do I dress for the arctic cold school (yes it is still cold in April) or the beach party on the bus?

Since I am the first stop and a foreigner, the bus drivers think they can leave the hat out of the uniform but when he sees a Japanese then he quickly fumbles for it. I thought maybe they all forget everyday, but NO when I am going home and am the last stop, after the last Japanese gets off so does the hat.

Should I grab it or should I leave it?

Since I have been pretty bad about this blogging thing, I am going to make up for it this week. The story goes like this. I went to a rugby tourney last weekend. I was going to be the team mom and got roped into playing. My endurance is not good at all anymore so I managed about a minute and then subbed out. It is pretty fast paced and lots of starts and stops. That is my defense. We got 2nd in the middle bracket. So that meant some towels. yippeeee.

This weekend I didn't do much but lay in the sun with Bernie and Jon on Friday afternoon. Then off to Sarah and Boone's for some Pizza King and movies. Always good when you can "borrow" Anchorman. I am secretly not going to give it back. Got up the next morning to go to calligraphy. My hand was not steady and should have been put back on the lesson of straight lines. For the life of me I could not do anything right. Maybe I was concentrating too hard. Sometimes that happens.

Saturday afternoon I met up with Sarah, Boone, and Bernie again for some dessert and then met up with Crazy Amy from Indonesia and we shopped at the 100 yen store and back to my place for some Yakiniku (bbq). My house still smells of the smoke on TUESDAY! Note to self, don't cook portions for 8 people on a mini grill for 2.

On Sunday I dropped Amy off at the train station in the pouring rain and decided to get some groceries. I went to use the toilet. I stepped in the bathroom and analyzed the situation. 2 squatty toilets. hmmmm Is the floor wet from the rain or did a lady miss the target. I rolled my pants up and set my wallet down on the ledge. As I get up and grab my wallet, money falls to the floor. I look down and see 2 coins. Should I grab them? Should I grab the one that is worth more? Should I leave it?

That toilet experience cost me 60 yen. If it was a 100 yen I might have grabbed it. I called Amy to tell her. She said, "Britt I know we are trying to save money but that was the best decision. I am proud of you for walking away from it."

where the muscles are

So I found where all of the muscles have been hiding. In mens aerobic competitions. I turned on my TV trying to get to the station where my DVD player works and halted when I became terribly fascinated with the international aerobic competition. Mens competition I might add. I did not see a bulge in anyone's pants and there were too many jazz hands and spirit to be men. I think all of them were born girls. Even an Aussie man with a little extra around the middle was way too jazzy in sporting his cheesy smile. As I write this, I am still on the same channel in awe.

A few words.......

A little more beach before I had to go home--- not home, back to Japan to the two pairs of pants and heaters and no smiles.

If you pay 2000 then EVERYONE will know what you just did in the the toilet.

A temple that I forgot the name of, but was pretty neat.

If you need to wash your clothes, call this lady.

Some superb views.

Our bird houses I mean bungalow.

This was our bungalow that we stayed in for a night. We were too scared to do anything by ourselves. So Amy brought a bucket upstairs in case she felt the need to "go" in the middle of the night.

Swimming in the waterfall in Lombok. Our driver is around there somewhere in his yellow undies. Am I naked?? you will never know.

Was I scared of potential snakes. Yes.

Amy and I on a trek through the rice fields.

Some random rice fields.

I got suckered into some cooking utensils by these little women hording our car.
Day 5


Eating some fruit with our driver Nyoman. I will say NO to durians, Yes to snake fruit and this other kind of fruit that is red on the outside and white deliciousness on the inside.

I found the longest bench on the ferry.

Some snorkeling after some dolphin watching and my stomach is red because of....
Me hurling myself back onto the boat.

Relaxing after eating delicious dessert. Yes we did pass out there for about 2 hours.

My wonderful rice dinner inside of a mini pineapple.

Just some kids playing as the sun goes down.

A hard days work on the beach selling his loot to me and me refusing with all of my might.

This only took 15 minutes to perfect.

Indonesia

Day One: Survived a flight and Amy touched an arm
Summary: Amy and I got a room at Rita's House with a nice little set up, cold water, and an alright location to some restaurants and shops. That night after some Mexican in our bellies we fell asleep. First our beds were apart until in the middle of the night Amy woke up hysterically screaming that she touched someones arm. She jumped on top of me in the pitch black. And we all know that I am scared of the dark and wasn't going to allllllll the way to the door to turn it on. Come to find out, her arm was asleep and she touched it. She moved the beds and this is how it ended up. The rest of the trip we slept either in the same bed or pushed them together.

Day 2: A tourist ripped of on a ferry ride and supported a poor boys education with $3.
Summary: Got up early and went to Pandangbai to catch a ferry to the island next to Bali called Lombok. The driver took us straight to the "ticket office". We paid 200,000 for a ticket and a ride to our first city (equivalent to $20). The ticket is 27,000 ($2.70). Our first mistake. I read in the book something close to that price, but was off a zero. A big zero. Whoops. The ferry was packed full of trucks, motorbikes, and only one safety boat for all of the passengers. I blew up my inflatable pillow just in case because we all know if they didn't have boats, they weren't going to have life jackets for all of us. We did get to the city of Sengigi and bought an overpriced boat from a boy off the street. All of that money was put to good use I hope. This was used for his schooling he told me in perfect English from a 10 year old, poor Indonesian. Unlike my Japanese students who have the education and can't answer, how are you.... The boy asked where I was from, I said the United States. So I asked him where he was from..... He said his mother.

The overloaded trucks packing into our old ferry.

Another ferry waiting to dock.

The view from the ferry of Lombok

Day 3: First River Crossing and witnessed extreme fishing
Summary: We woke up to see a temple. We walked along the beach and climbed over some rocks and decided to keep walking until we found this temple that actually couldn't be reached by the beach. It was soo close only a dirty river. We were assisted by some of the workers who tromped right through the river over to grab our hands and lead us back. Once inside the temple we witnessed some extreme fishing. Then we passed out at Cafe Alberto's in the sun. Ended up walking through town and watched the sun set while trying not to buy anything from the beach hagglers. That night we played dominos with boys who sold us the boat. We shared Oreos and stories of the politics of Indonesia.

The beach stalls full of food and souvenirs.


Our domino playing boys

Day 4: Markets, mountains, monkeys, and Amy uses a bucket to pee.
Summary: We started the day early with our driver named Dingdong. I loved it but then I couldn't call Amy a ding dong. We climbed a mountain for a temple and got a lovely view. Checked out some markets that sell everything. It was definitely a locals market because the rip off name brands weren't there. They were sure persistent on me buying meat from them. Let me whip out my portable grill and cook some up for all of you. Dingdong took us to some pottery place that i wanted to go to. Yes I bought some heavy stuff and had to lug it around the rest of the trip. They used egg shells to decorate it. Then off to a weaving community. Some of the things they were weaving took a month to make working full-time-job-hours. I bought it for about $35 dollars. We found our way to the south and walked along the beach and witnessed some extreme fishing. (Don't worry mom he wore a helmet just in case he slipped.) We trekked back up to the mountains to a town called Tetebatu. We got a nice little bungalow and slept in the top of it. The bungalow made of thatch had holes in it for the thatch to breath. Amy covered them up so bugs wouldn't eat her. But she was terrified that the toilet was soo far away that she brought a bucket up next to her side of the bed for the midnight run.

The temple view. On the hike up, we encountered monkeys in every direction.

The markets of everything

Extreme fishing

I got attacked by the boys and Amy got attacked by the girls.

A cute little lady from the weaving village. She told us we were beautiful.

That's what you get for tonight because it took me too long and i am out of creative juices.