Wow, this is pretty exciting! This is now my third day in Indonesia. Nick and I arrived in Bali about 2pm (Bali time, 4pm Melbourne time) on Sunday. We were met by my Aunt Gayle, Uncle Wayan and cousins Jess and Josh. We had only been there for a couple of hours when we all headed down to a big park in Denpasar (where there is the Bali war memorial, but can't remember the name). I had driven past this park before, but it was empty then. Now it was full of people playing soccer... everywhere! We walked around it and checked it out, coming across the Bali dog lovers club (their dogs were much nicer than the usual Bali dog). There was also what seemed to be the "Bali scary pets" club, as there were heaps of people with snakes, a trantuala and even a massive iguana! The guy was holding it as if it were a baby! Gila! Some people from my family's church were playing soccer there as well so we chatted with them for a bit, over some jagung bakar, then headed off to have some dinner at a warung (a warung is like a small eatery, probably not the best description, but will explain better later I'm sure). Nick and I were a bit unsure about eating fried chicken and rice with just our fingers. All those times as a child being told not to eat with my hands, I don't know why I even did because it's so hard! But I'm sure by the end of the trip I'll be a pro and won't even want to use cutlery. (By the way, cutlery is used in Indonesia, just a fork and spoon, but your right hand is common also).
After a wonderful 10 hour sleep I woke up on Monday morning ready to head to Kuta with Nick, Gayle and Wayan. Gayle and Wayan had a meeting in Legian, so Nick and I walked down to Kuta beach, strolled around some of the shops, got ripped off for a bottle of water (Rp. 11.000! Not expensive in Australian terms, as about Rp. 8.000 = $AUD1, but expensive for Indonesia standards), checked out the scenery of Bali from the top of the church and enjoyed lunch at a warung with my aunt and uncle. In the afternoon, Nick, Josh and I checked out some potential accommodation for Yogya and chilled on the balcony playing Connect Four. We then helped Gayle cook our last western meal and headed to bed, ready to bangun pagi sekali.
I got up at 4.30am (Bali time) to catch our 7am flight. The flight was so fast we got here at 7am! Hehe, it was quick, but because of the time zone difference we technically didn't lose any time! Snaz as! So now it's nearly 11am and I've been up since 3.30am, I am going to be soooo tired tonight. I've met a few of the other anak ACICIS (ACICIS students), and we'll be beginning our orientation stuff at 2 (or 3, not too sure as the info sheet mentions one time at the top and one at the bottom). But that's ok.
I hope you're going well. And I plan to put up some photos soon ( I don't have anythying too interesting yet... however our plane was flighing right next to Gunung Merapi (a volcano which erupted about October last year), so I was acting a tad like a tourist.
Sampai jumpa,
Katrina
