I'm NOT dead, I promise!

So I've had a broken computer, a 3 day long conference, and numerous issues with my housing.  now I have another workshop, 3 days of SCUBA diving, a new issue with my housing, and still no working computer. 

So long story short, I am far from Mt. Merapi, and I am OK, but I won't be updating until I can get a home, internet access, and well, a computer again.

Miss you guys!!!!!

Megan

Get out of my house!

You'd think by the title, that this post is going to be about my rat and spider problem.  It's not.

When I came back from Manado, there were about 7 people in the house.  Doors and windows were open (undoing the careful kinda bug free environment I had set up with all that bug spray) and there was a half eaten fish smelling up the front room.

Remember when I said that after I came back from Bali that there were 5 extra toothbrushes in the bathroom?  Well, I asked Nihta and Imelda, and it seems that the owner's son had come home from Singapore to stay in the house for the holiday.  He either really likes clean teeth, or he wasn't alone.  The house is supposed to be off limits to other people.  I have a key to lock my bedroom, but it only locks from the inside.  Maybe to lock the rats out?  Hee hee.

Well, one week later, and it had happened again.  People had stayed for the weekend.  Plus, people had been in my room.  A HUGE NO NO.  I was NOT a happy camper.

Everyone cleared out, but about 30 minutes later, there was a knock at the front door, and Kiki, the caretaker's son was there with 3 other guys.  One of them was being carried.  Oh no!  There had been a motorcycle accident.  2 of them had been hurt.  One guy's ankle was swollen, and there were awful looking scrapes everywhere.  These were Kiki's friends, and I was there to help.  Both of them were wearing helmets (thank God). I brought with me a pretty well stocked first aid kit, but after 5 minutes, remembered that I had taken out the ace bandage.  I took my disposable travel towel, cut it into strips, and dressed everyone's wounds as best I could.  Plus, I'm probably the only person within a 30 miles radius that actually has ice in her freezer.  By this time, Om Deni, Tanta Yeti and Miracle were in the house too.  I was using my dictionary, and Google translate to communicate.  

This was the most I had spoken to these people since I had arrived.  It felt good.  Before this, my only real interaction with them was Miracle trying to hit me or throw things at me in the yard, while they laughed (and of course, them responding to my never ending comments about the tikus (rat) and laba-laba (spiders).  I have to say, this was way better.  The families of the 2 guys came in a truck to carry them back.  The bike was kinda totaled.  The parents kept thanking me over and over again.  All it was really, was Neosporin spray, Band-aids, my jimmy-rigged bandages and ice pack, and some Tylenol PM for the pain.  How they were acting though, you'd think I was a brain surgeon that just performed an operation!

This euphoria kinda helped the fact that I had discovered that my American phone was missing out of my room.  This is still a raw subject, so I don't wanna talk about it much.  Let's just say that I do tend to misplace things, but I have searched hi and low since then, and it's nowhere to be found.  Plus, the phone says that it's "off" when I call it.  I never turn it off, because it's my alarm clock.  I didn't bring it with me to  Manado, because I knew I wouldn't need it.  This was just another thing to add to the list of reasons I was pissed to still be living my "temporary home".

Which leads me to the following pictures...

The new front porch.

The new hole in the roof.

Starting to lay down the floor.

The space where the "kitchen" will eventually be.

Tiles in the bathroom.

 While I was in Bali, there were things that were supposed to be fixed the the Dean's house... some ripped screens, the gaps under the doors, some heavy cleaning of the floors.  Nothing had been done.  Plus, the roof had been torn off of the new house, and a new porch had been started.  Evidently they decided that the house might be too small.  I don't know who "they" are.  I let Dian and George know the status of the house.  They were less than thrilled.  Evidently, 2 similar situations had happened in previous years.... One ELF discovered that while she was away, the owners had slept in her room, among other things, and another ELF was in a similar situation with a house being built for him.  It wasn't even finished by the time he left to go back home to the US.  Dian made some phone calls and sent some irate emails to Nihta.  This was now the second week in a row that people had been in the house without my knowledge, and it had to stop.

I hoped things would happen soon, because I was tired of crouching while showering with one hand.

SICK!

So, the last couple of years at Maine East, I definitely had a trend going.  Getting sick the first week of school.  All those new germs in the building after the summer of my nice clean house (I said house people, not bedroom).  Well, evidently, Indonesia was gonna treat me the same way.  After getting home on Wednesday after school, I took a nap.

Now, this is a pretty strange thing for me to do here.  I am terrified of sleeping in my house, and usually can only accomplish it when I am exhausted.  Maybe that's why I felt so bad.  Plus, I LIVE to nap.  THere is nothing I like to do more than sleep.  One nap later, I woke up feeling AWFUL.  Lucky for me, I actually packed a thermometer.  Yup.  Fever of 101.  On average, I usually run at about 97 (98.6 is an average people), so 101 was pretty high for me.  Also luckily for me, I brought along a lot of medicine from the US.  One call to Nihta to tell her I was sick, and one call to my dad for some TLC later, and I was back in bed.  NyQuil, do your thing!

So, it was my first week of school, and I blew off my Thursday of office hours.  Judging by the lack of anyone really showing up since then, it wasn't that big of a deal.  I was kinda mad at being sick though, because I had arranged to go back to Manado to stay at the Novotel again that weekend.  Come on, did you see those pictures before?  It's like staying at an IKEA store for the weekend.

I did go though.  Tini (the department head) and Zyska (her secretary) drove me into Manado on their way home.  They were so cute and concerned for me.  I still had a fever.  Bad sign when Tylenol won't bring it down.  They stopped and bought me crackers, and a lot of water.  Rest they said.

Rest I did.  A weekend in the big city, and I didn't leave my room, except to eat twice.  All I did was sleep sleep sleep.  Oh, and watch a little cable.  Cable can sometimes make everything better.  By Sunday, I was feeling cured.  So, I did my typical shopping spree for pop, Force Magic bug spray, and air fresheners at the Hypermart.  Then it was back to the cabin in the rice fields.

First days of school

So, on Monday, it was time to get down to what I was here for.  Well, kinda, because I don't actually teach on Mondays.  Imelda sent a student in a microlet (tiny blue bus) to come pick me up.  She has to, because they don't go down my street.  They are supposed to, but they don't (because nobody lives there who doesn't have a motor bike, except me).  I met my class chairmans, and printed out my syllabus, first class assignment, and an introductory activity so that I could photocopy them.  That's why there's 15 photocopy places in the village.  Copyright laws here are totally non existent.  I could go in with an entire textbook, and tell them to make me 40 copies.  This is actually what they do here for textbooks.  One real text becomes the class book for everyone.  The chairmans are a pretty cool concept too.  Give them what you want copied, and they'll go do it for you, and take care of collecting the money from everyone in the class.  Yeah, because there's no free photocopying.  Not even for me in the office.  Because there's not a copier.  The chairmans also take attendance for you, will reschedule class if need be, and are basically the go to person for every class.

I am teaching Writing II and Speaking III.  These are all 3rd semester students.  My university does not stick people in classes based on placement tests.  It's everyone together just based on year.  So, my classes could have students who have no idea what's going on, next to students who I can have pretty complex conversations with.  1 class of Writing II and 3 of Speaking 3.  I was supposed to teach 12 hours (so 6 classes) but I'll have 2 English for Specific Purposes classes starting soon (supposedly) that I'll be taking for Nihta, my counterpart.  They haven't started though, but I'm super stoked, because they are for BIOLOGY STUDENTS!  How perfect for me!  2 of the Speaking III classes are in the English Education Department (these kids want to become English teachers) and 1 class for the regular English Department.

I got a ride home from Pak Robert.  Pak is a kind of way to say Mr.  He's been at the school a long time, and is very happy I'm there for the students.  It's been many years since there was a native speaker.  I think I'm the first American too.  We stopped by one of the photo copy places, and I copied everything.  It's 200 per printed page.  Which is about 2 cents.  I thought I would be nice and save paper and money by making everything double sided, but it's still the same price.  OK.  No problem.  Ooops, forgot that I didn't have any money in my bag.

This is a new thing for me.  The idea that I always have to have cash on me.  There is no, "Ooops I forgot, or ooops I'm short, here's my credit card to the rescue."  Lots of big stores don't even take credit cards.  One of these days I'm gonna get on a bus and realize I don't have the fare (you pay when you get to your destination).

Tuesday roles around, and it's the first day of class.  Classes are once a week, for an hour forty-five.  Up first, Writing II (section G).  Oh my gosh, DEER IN HEADLIGHTS kids!  It was like looking at a sea of scared faces.  I spent over an hour, just going over the syllabus.  They didn't know what it was in the first place.  Then they got to ask me questions.  A lot of, "how old, are you married, what religion are you?" type stuff.  I drew silly pictures on the board to make them laugh, and they slowly but surely started to ease up.  Then while they worked on a "Tell me about yourself" activity, I had them all come up, sign a book, teach me how to say their name correctly, and I took each person's picture.  Lots of peace signs, and a couple of English style "up yours" poses.  Very cute.  A lot of giggling.

Next up, the non-teachers section of Speaking III.  Oh my, it was like night and day!  These kids were so good at English!  They made jokes, asked tons of questions, and made me laugh a lot.

First day down, and nobody died.  Yay!

Some of my students hamming it up for the camera.

Rock lock anyone?  You know you wanna.

Day 2 - Speaking III sections B and I.  There are 9 sections of kids in their second year at school.  Each section is about 40 students.  It's like a cohort, because they have EVERYTHING together.  The non English teachers only have 1 section.  Big difference.  These classes were similar to my first Speaking III class, but a little lower.

My classroom. BTW, is the library that I posted pictures of before.  I had a schedule, but was told that my room would often be filled with another class, because nobody follows the schedule.  In true Indonesian form, I decided to not follow it either, and just have class in the library, where I had begged for a desk.  The other rooms all have lots of windows.  Since the department is all open air, and the students have no problem screaming at each other while they aren't in class, the educational setting tends to be kinda poor.  Plus, being the strange wondrous foreigner that I am, kids were always staring in through the windows at my class.  The library has no windows facing the corridor, so I am safe.  Plus, I don't have to cart my copious amounts of materials.  You know, the 1 functioning white board marker, and the eraser.

Waaaaaaay to cool for school.

Problem was, I didn't actually feel very well on Wednesday.  I had a splitting headache.  I vowed to go home and rest.

Home again home again.

On September 18th, I spent the day hanging out in Manado.  I like it there, because I can go to the Manado Town Square, and there is a Hypermart.  It's kind like Walmart or K-Mart, and it's got a grocery store.  Sections of it however, always smell like rotten fish to me.  It is a place where I can get my precious, slightly different tasting Diet Coke, and Sprite Zero.  I drink pop like most people drink water, and the only place I can get it is in Manado, or Tomohon.  Then back to my hotel to pick up my bags from storage, and it's an hour and a half back to my house by taxi.  Pretty cool thing is, that only costs about 13 bucks.

I live on a road outside of Tataaran.  Tataaran is a village.  It is in the middle of nowhere, on the way to Tondano from Tomohon.  Tomohon is pretty cool.  Tataarana and Tondano aren't really.  I don't even live really in any of these places.  There's a collection of some houses down the road even further away from the village, and these houses are considered another village, called Tonsaru.  Technically, I guess I live there.  It's about a 45 minute walk to Tataaran, where I can find a whole array of storefront shops all selling the same thing (candy and pulsa - credit for cell phones), about 15 photocopy places (why?) and a bunch of places selling food I'd rather not eat, for fear of getting sick.  If I was more computer savvy, I would take a picture of where I live on google maps, and put it here, but I can't figure it out yet.  I'll get someone to show me eventually.

Anyway, I came home, and unpacked.  No new nests of spiders, but there were 5 extra toothbrushes in the bathroom.  Huh?

Then at around 10, I walked into the kitchen, and saw this.

Herman the hunter spider.

Are you a good friend of mine?  Do you know how much I hate spiders.  They TERRIFY me.  Just typing this now, I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck raising.  This picture does not do it justice.  With it's hairy legs, it was bigger than my entire hand, fingers extended.  I think you can understand why I didn't get any closer to take a better picture.  I tried calling the caretakers.  I was afraid if I tried to kill it, I would miss (I am pretty uncoordinated) and it would run and hide somewhere I wouldn't be able to see, or worse yet, jump off the wall, and eat my face off.  Yes, I am fully aware that I'm not exactly a rational human being.  After a text and 5 frantic phone calls that were unanswered, I was in a panic.  I was sobbing and semi hysterical.  Yes, again, I know it was just a spider, but come on!  Look at that monster.  It's eyes are glowing at you!

I didn't know what else to do, so I called Julianne.  She is pretty much the only reason I haven't gone totally insane here.  Noreen, Michaela and Jackie have also been a big help, but since Julianne was here last year, she's pretty much my go to gal.  What exactly did I think someone who was 4 hours away by plane could do for me exactly, I don't know.  I already told you I was hysterical.  Ok, so I said semi hysterical, but I was lying before.  I was totally hysterical.

She calmed me down a little, and suggested I call John the ex-pat in Tomohon.  It was only a little past 10 after all, and maybe he would know exactly what kind of spider it was, and belay my fears.  Although, at that point, the only think I think he could have told me that would have totally calmed me down, was if they are blind vegetarians.  After hanging up with Julianne, I tried calling the caretakers one more time.  Oh my god, they answered.  YAY!  Why didn't I just walk over there, you ask?  2 reasons.  First, they have a baby, and I didn't want the dogs to start barking and wake up the whole house.  I figured a cell phone was OK.  Second, there was NO WAY I was letting that spider out of my sight, so it could go crawl somewhere else and hide until some other moment it decided it wanted to eat me.  I mean, it could have been full already from eating one of the rats in the house.  How did I know?  I just knew, that if I went outside, I would come back in and it would be gone.  I'm totally sure the caretakers already think I'm nuts. There's now way waking them up in the middle of the night for a non existent spider would have been good for our relationship.

So, over came Tanta Yeti and Om Deni.  At least when they saw the thing, they understood why I was standing in the kitchen, shaking and crying, with my phone in one hand, and my pocket Indo-English distionary in the other.  Om Deni went to gab the feather duster, which is their solution to almost every problem in the house.  Dead bugs in you bed, here, let me feather duster them away.  Rat dropping on the kitchen counter?  No problem.  He also grabbed the Force Magic, which is this great smelling Raid type stuff.  The he hit the spider...

... and missed.  WHAT!  The thing scurried across the kitchen counter, while Om Deni tried to hit at it,  comically missing each time because THAT THING WAS FAST!  It was like in Alien, after that thing came out of the guys stomach, and ran across the floor (don't ever try to google image a picture of that by the way....people on the internet are nuts, and I don't want to wish seeing what pops up on anyone else).  He was spraying a continuous stream of the Force Magic though, so eventually, he got the bugger.  With all of it's legs curled up and lifeless, it was still about the size of half of my palm.  They just thought this whole ordeal was SO FUNNY.  I am just a constant source of amusement to them.  Excellent.

After posting this lovely episode on Facebook, I was pretty much ridiculed by my friends.  I know that there are places with bigger and scarier spiders, but I don't want to go to those places.  I know that theoretically spiders can be the good guys, eating other household pests, like my rats, but I just can't help it.  I never should have seen the movie Arachnophobia, and as much as I'd like to forget about the guy in the jungle who woke up a a spider laying eggs on his face, and in his mouth, I can't (I really really pray that this is an urban(well jungle) legend).  Everybody has their thing, and my thing is spiders.

Ubud

So, I pretty much suck, and I'm exactly one day less than a month behind on my blog.  I really have no excuse other than the shittiest internet on the planet, and apathy.  Here goes.... we'll see if I can actually remember anything (because of course I have also not been writing in my journal).  Bleh.  Also, I apologize for the weird font.  On the template and on the "edit post" screen, it's normal writing with small for the captions....when I post, the writing becomes tiny, and the captions become huge.  Ah, technology.

On the morning of the 17th, Julianne and I prepared to depart Nusa Lembongan.  Mainski Resort brought us to the Scoot Ferry office, and we found out that as part of our fare, we actually will get driven on Bali to wherever we needed to go.  Score bonus for us, no taxi.  Julianne and I had a very relaxing ride on the boat, and listened to my iPod (Jose Gonzales and The Cure).  Then it was a beautiful taxi ride to Ubud.

This is a city of art and culture that sits a little ways in from the island coast.

Map of Bali, showing where Ubud is.
If you're savvy, you can find Sanur and  Nusa Lembongan too!

Another map to give you an idea oh where the heck Bali is anyway.
I love this one, because they don't even bother to label my island.  Why would anyone want to go there?

The girls and Cary were all off doing other things that day, so Julianne and I had a pretty relaxing afternoon.  We checked into a little oasis paradise, and there on our porch was a table with fruit and tea waiting for us on it.  2 chairs and a chaise lounge.  Into the room we went.  Gorgeous!  We promptly shut the wondows, and TURNED ON THE AC.  After the whole time in the heat on NL, we were ready for some relaxing cool.  Plus, the beds were AB FAB.  I think that was half of why I loved this part of the vacation so much.  I could have died in that bed.  :)

Off for a lunch.  This is another thing Ubud is just great for.  AWESOME FOOD.  Like real food.  Without bits of bone and grizzle everywhere, or other suspect ingredients.  Oh, and alcohol.  Not that I'm not actually able to drink alcohol where I live in N. Sulawesi.  Being a mainly Christian area, that's one of the big perks.  You can find bottles of "whiskey" and vodka at the supermarket.  You've seen a photo of that already, but I'm just not really that much of a drinker at home.  These were no watered down drinks either.  Gorgeous nummy concoctions with all the trimmings.  We just walked across the main street, and this is what we found.

A basil mojito, and Julianne's yummy drink.  I can't remember what it was.

Just your basic cheese stick!

Fried calamari rings.  They never have the whole ones here.
I think it's because the squid they are using are BIG!

Ayam Rica Rica - which is actually a Manadonese dish (from up where I am living).
Yes, I am aware of the irony.

The decor in the restaurant.  Pretty typical of Bali.
All paradise-y and gorgeous.

A door to nowhere.  It probably has some significance I don't know about.

 Julianne went to take some photos and walk around, but I was yet again, all about my room.  I am totally ashamed (kinda) that I took so many naps.  If you read the posts, you'll understand why I was so happy with my ability to sleep, worry free that something would attack me while sleeping.

We met up with the gang, and guess what, we went to eat!

Spring roll appetizer.  Julie Lam would be proud.  It was delish, but not as delish as hers!

A salad.  An honest to goodness salad.

This mudslide put Julianne on her ass.  What's funnier, is that another picture,
taken right after by someone else in the group, has Julianne drinking through the paper covering her straw.
To be fair, it had been a long day, and she hadn't taken a nap like me.  ;)
We were careful not to lose her on the walk home.

The gang, minus Jackie how had to be back already... :(
Julianne, Cary, Noreen, and Michaela.

A pretty kick ass flan.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Megan, why to you keep taking and posting all these pictures of food that we can't eat.  What can I say?  When your only food options everyday are rice, various Chinese dishes cooked in suspect looking places, or ramen on your stove, good food takes on a whole new meaning in your life.   

We sat around and listened to stories of what had gone on while Julianne and I were still in Nusa Lembongan.  The group had braved a 1:30 am (if I remember correctly) wake up call to go climb a volcano.  Transport, and a rigorous hike later, they watched the sunrise.  Cary was evidently accosted by souvenir pushing locals.  They got to see the multi colored lake.  Jackie had gone to a batik making class, which Noreen had done the following day.  There was lots of yoga, and good times. 

The following day, Cary was back to Pontianak, and Noreen and Michaela went on a bike tour of the island.  With my knee acting up, it being the first morning all vacation that I didn't have to get up super early to make a dive boat, and the call of my super awesome totally comfy bed, I took a pass.  After breakfast, I lounged on pillows, yet again.  I thought maybe I would go sit by the pool, and tan while falling in and out of consciousness, but even that was too strenuous for me.  I did miss out on a cool trip though.  They rode all over, and got to see less touristy places, a traditional home compound, walk through some rice fields, and try the most expensive coffee ever.  

Evidently pretty awesome.

So, it's made from beans that this little dude has eaten, and um, "passed".
Yup, you read right.

I'm hoping that the prevailing oder of this roasting coffee is still coffee.

I met Julianne for lunch, and we went to the 3 Monkeys Cafe.  This was the first of 3 or 4 visits in the short time I was there.  We both had awesome Milano style pizza.  Even Dan Hart would have approved.

More spring rolls.  Trying to be healhty!

Julianne's pizza with pumpkin.  A recommendation from Noreen and Michaela.

My mushroom and 4 cheese pizza.  Quite possibly one of the BEST pizzas I've ever had in my life.
I did say trying to be healthy.

Hands down, the best drink I have ever had in my ENTIRE life.
This is the most awesome liquid EVER to pass through my lips, and the reason I went back to this restaurant so often.
Mint lime ice puree.  The most refreshing drink on the planet.

 Julianne did further exploring, and met up with an ETA friend from last year.  I went back and read by the pool.  Relaxing and pretty awesome.  I think it might have been raining a little that afternoon too.  Can't really remember...everything kinda blurs together.  Either that, or my brain had stopped working as a side affect from the aforementioned perfect drink.

I met up with Noreen and Michaela, and we went to see a traditional Balinese dance.  The gang had gone to a fire dance before we arrived, but the consensus was that this Legong performance was better.  

First girl on stage.  Legong is traditionally dances by girls, but for tourists, it's usually young women instead.
This woman was so tiny though, it was kinda hard to tell.
THis girl had the best Balinese dancer "crazy eyes" going on.

The best actual dancer in the bunch, I think.  Plus, her outfit was green, and I love green.
From what I read in the program, she is a queen of some kind.

This is a picture of the Barong.  It's danced by two guys together.
It's the good demon Barong, who gave 2 brothers the gift of immortality.
Little did he know it would backfire so badly.  They decide to take this power and attack all the Gods in Heaven.

One of the 2 brothers.  

The seductive goddess.  After a meeting in Heaven,  she is instructed to "distract" the 2 brothers.

Just as they are about to obtain enlightenment, they notice the gorgeous Goddess.
They then, of course, fight each other for her love.... tiring them out (because they are both immortal and invincible),
so they pass on attacking heaven. Lucky Gods.

The open air stage, and the Japanese group in front of us.  Most of them couldn't have cared less about the performance.
Too bad they had all the first 2 rows reserved.  ;)

Monkey dudes.

The first dancer again, right before she jumped on her motorbike in the misting rain.

So Balinese Legong dancers are famous for their dramatic eye movements, but I confess...
All I could think about while watching, was Nicole Sullivan's Antonia character from Mad TV.

The dances were beautiful.  There were delicate movements, and even a dance with fans, part of which was done with the dancers EYES CLOSED.  Crazy skills!  I have to say though, that these performances are very touristy.  But I don't think that's really a bad thing.  I read some stuff about them, and a lot of them were re-choreographed years ago.  I actually learned that the fire dance isn't traditional at all.  A famous "friend of Dorthy" changed the formation (into a circle), changed the outfits to loincloths and added the fire element.  Hmm.  Still pretty cool though.  Another example of Bali being a pretty GLBT friendly, I read this on one website, "The Kebya Trompong dance was made famous in the 1920s by a flamboyant dancer named Mario."  Flamboyant, huh, codeword anyone?

The next day, I hung with Michaela.  We walked all over the city/town.  We bought some DVD's and enjoyed the sights on the streets.  Michaela was especially happy to find Point Break.  I was ecstatic to find a good copy of Juno. (BTW, I have since watched it around 5 times)  Then it was off to achieve our goal of a yoga mat.   Now, I am not really one for yoga.  I'm not very flexible, nor toned.  Of course, I get the irony that if I actually did yoga, those 2 facts might change.  My floor however, is not conducive to sit-ups with the cracks all over the place, and I do love my sit-ups!  We walked all over, shared a nice muffin and cold drink at a little cafe, and found our mats.  We also went to a clothing store.  All handmade by this super cool guy.  I ended up buying 2 pairs of the most comfortable pants ever, and a t-shirt with Ganesha (or Ganesh), the Hindu Elephant God of wisdom and success.  Hopefully I will have the wisdom to work out more, and the success to lose some weight.

Then we met up with Julianne and went to the Ubud Monkey Forest.  Now, I've been to monkey sanctuaries before.  They usually just make me sad.  Over tourist populated places where people feed the animals, and they accost passersby.  My first was Uluwatu on Bali when I was here the first time in 2000.  Then in Emishan in China.  Now here.  These are Balinese macaques.  They are pretty cute, but they aren't shy about jumping on you for food.  One of them attacked a plastic bag that had books inside, and tried to eat them through the plastic.  Here's some cool photos.

Pretty cute baby.

I love the facial expression.

We walked around, but about this time my legs were being dive bombed by some sort of insect.  We'll say mosquitoes, but who really knows.  Of course, I was the only one being bitten, and yes, of course of course, I had on bug spray.  Dad would say I'm just too sweet for my own good.  Yeah right.  So, I had to go.  My legs felt like they were on fire.  I walked back to 3 Monkeys, and enjoyed 2 more of my favorite drink.  Ok, and maybe a piece of cake.  What?

That evening, Noreen, Michaela and I went to a spa.  The girls got body scrubs, and I got an hour long massage.  Pretty fabulous, but definitely more body contact than I'm used to.  Let me explain.  While rubbing my back, all of a sudden, she climbed up on the table, and straddled me.  "Um, hi there."  This is a little different.  I at least, did not have the 8 month pregnant masseuse.  Fun.  Since Michaela and Noreen had gotten a body scrub, part of their treatments they were supposed to relax in a petal infused bath.  Problem is, only enough hot water for one bath.  Ooops!  Sharing is caring.

Then it was off to dinner, where we met back up with Julianne.  The restaurant had wine!  We shared a bottle of and Australian red.  Pretty yummy.  

On the way home, we decided to go for "one more" drink.  We tried to go to the reggae bar, but it was closed already.  We ended up at a pretty cool bar.  Yay mojitos!  We also ended up making some friends.  A couple, that had gotten engaged just that day.

I would have hung out with these cool people in Chicago.

 One of the things about Ubud, is it's full of couples.  I don't even want to start of how full it is of Oprah loving, Julia Roberts wannabes, but it's also jam packed with honeymooners.  Hot guys, and girls fresh from pre-wedding diets, all walking around sarongs, sun dresses and board shorts.  Not only do I wanna slit my wrists because they all look so good, but they are all just so blissfully in love.  It just makes me wanna gag.  This couple however, was totally cool.  I wish I could remember their names.  :(  I'm sure someone in the group will.

The staff at the Okawati Hotel.

 The next morning, Julianne and I had some time to kill, so it was off to the dive shop in Sanur.  Julianne bought a dive computer, and I actually saw in real life, a BCD that I'm totally in love with.  A Zumi.  It's green, and beautiful.  I wanna marry it and have 10, 000 of it's babies.

The coolest SCUBA gear ever.

No Dad, I didn't buy it.  Aren't you proud of me.

 Then it was off to the airport.  Poor Noreen was still there, waiting for her flight.  People were just sitting around waiting for their delayed flights, eating boxes of food, while sitting on the floor.  Then they got up and left.

Indonesian trash can.

When I got home, my flight didn't land until around 11:30.  Rather than drive all the way back to Tataaran that night, I got a room at the Novotel in Manado.

Green chaise lounge and emerald jewel toned pillows?  Yes please!

Look at this rain forest shower.  Again, yes please!
Just a little bit better than the hose and bucket in my house.

 Tomorrow morning, back to the grind.