Back to School

Well, I haven't updated in awhile because, well, nothing interesting has been happening.

Today is the first day of the fall semester, so in essence we are halfway done now. Teaching in korea has been quite a journey, with both ups and downs, so don't think it's all fun and games.

During the summer, the 3 weeks after Bali, I had summer camp. At first I was really into planning lessons and games, but near the end, the last week, I was like blah and just let them watch Spongebob and Tom and Jerry streaming from the Internet. The very last day I showed a
movie, Flushed Away, which was actually pretty good. One of the reasons I got less into it is because less people would come to class, like only a few per class, so I was like why bother with lessons I planned when I can just use it in the normal classes in the semester. After all, my coteacher isn't even there most of the time, so it's not like she can complain about it. (Although she did a little bit the very last day since it was one of the 3 days she was there). Other
than that, summer school was a bit annoying in the fact that I only taught until noon, but I had to stay until 4:40 all 3 weeks, which was very annoying. Aaron could go home at his lunch time, but I never get to.

We'll see what this semester holds I suppose.

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Bali, Day 9: Ubud

At our last full day in Bali, so after breakfast we dropped our luggage in the office and set off to explore Ubud. We walked around a bit, there was a lot of souvenir stores and art stores and other types of little boutique stores all over the street.

For lunch, we went to the famous Oka Ibu to get suckling pig. It was pretty cheap too, only about $2.50 for a plate of rice and pork. It was very tender and delicious, and the skin was salty and crisp. It was so delicious, we had to get an extra plate. They also had this soup with chunks of pork and veggies in it, and the broth was flavorful and delicious. The area was pretty crowded, since it was so popular, but we managed to find a table in the corner and stuff ourselves.

After our yummy lunch, we walked around more, buying some souvenirs, ducking into stores, checking out restaurants. We found a little restaurant where we tried Indonesia oxtail soup. It was quite delish as well, spicier than the Korean type, but very good. One of our drinks was a a mint coconut drink, which was very refreshing and delicious.

After walking a lot more, we finally decided to do a massage (our first one in Bali, can you believe?). The place we picked wasn't the best but the massage was good. I got a pedicure (almost not sure if I should've) and Aaron just go a massage and a shorter massage. As I said, the massage was very relaxing and good, and it was in this little curtained area where they had massage beds, but some of the other parts, like the cleaniness and the ambiance, was a bit lacking. However, it was still pretty good, and it was cheap, so I don't have to much other complaints.

For dinner we found this other organic looking restaurant, so we went there for our last meal. We ordered some hummus (won't be getting any hummus in Korea!), a tempeh burger, a veggie burger, mango juice (my last one!).

Finishing up our last yummy meal that doesn't break the bank and saying goodbye to fresh fruit juices, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and meet our driver.

Extra Entry: The flight back

The flight back wasn't too eventful. We made it to the airport and apparently there is a departure tax for leaving Bali, about $15/person. Luckily we found that out before and we actually managed to spend every cent of our Indonesian money, so we didn't have to convert anything.

The airport in Bali was very dinky, and quite small, but luckly we didn't have to spend too much time there. Since our flight is from midnight to 5, both of us zoinked out the entire flight. At Hong Kong, where we had to wait a few hours, we took short naps here and there as we waited for our next flight.

At this flight, we were actually awake most of the time, and watched Monsters Vs Aliens on the screen. We had a little interesting scenario happen when we landed, because apparently the Quarantine people want to come up and visit the plane. We think there's some "suspicious" sick person on board or something and of course Koreans are uber paranoid about swine flu, so we landed and got the gate and had to sit around for like 45 min or so while the quarantine people came on board and went to the back.

FINALLY they let us go and that was that. By the time we got the luggage carousel our luggage was already there, of course. So we picked them up, and took the long buses back home. And then next day was work, of course.

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Bali, Day 8: C Bali Daytrip to Lake Batur and Local Villages

It was a daytrip today. We booked a tour with C Bali, which does a canoe and biking tour of the Mt Batur/Batur Lake/kintamani region of Bali. We actually lucked out and had a private tour, because the two guides didn't have anyone else sign up that day, so it was just us and them. It was pretty nice though, they were an Austrlian-Dutch couple who lived in Bali for 3 years and love it there, and very easy to talk to and nice and friendly.

First they drove us up to the region, and we had a quick breakfast of some eggs and toast. First we did some canoeing. Actually, the boats look more like inflatable kayaks, but still fun. First Aaron and I had to carry one of the canoes across the street and then down a dirt bath before we can paddle, which was quite a bit of a workout for my weak arms. It was a bit windy so the waves were a little big so paddling back (towards the current) was a bit tiring. The view was quite nice though, with some mountains and the lake in the scenery. Aaron and I rode in canoes with the different two guides since we never canoed before, but it was pretty easy to learn, although that doesn't mean it didn't need upper body strength I didn't have.

After our little canoeing trip, it was lunch. We had baked fish (from the lake), chicken satay, some fried noodles and some fried rice. It was a pretty yummy Balinese meal

.

After lunch it was our bike tour, which I was still weakish from sick so I couldn't make it to some of the hills, but it was still fun. Along the bike tour we got off and walked through some local villages. The guides had used to live in these villages and now help with donations and schools and such with the village, and so the locals all know and like them.

The kids were especially cute and would smile and imitate our guide and hug her legs and just be happy kids. We also saw some of their local temples and school, and met some more local people. I felt as if this was a great experience because it was actually seeing the locals in their natural setting, not meeting them in touristy markets and them hassling you to buy a sarong. They seemed very happy and smiling and the kids were just too adorable.

After our bike and walk tour, they drove us back to our hotel, satisfied and happy. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone. For dinner, we went to back to the organic restaurant across the street and I got a veggie sandwich and Aaron got a breakfast burrito. We also tried the Balinese black rice pudding, which was creamy and very good.

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Bali, Day 7: two temples and some organic food

First day back from being bedridden, so it wasn't a very intense and busy day.

First we drove through some rice paddies and scenery to get to the Kertha Gosa Temple. It consisted of a building in the middle of a pond, with lots of pictures on the roof of the temple building, drawing of different scenes. It also consisted of a tiny museum with a few paintings and some artifacts from the past Balinese people who lived in the region. There was a lot of interesting statues around the pond area.

The next temple we went to was the Tirta Gangga, or water palace. It was a bit further from where we live, but it was worth it. It had tons of statues squirting water from their mouths, ponds everywhere, little stepping stones and statues in one of the larger pond areas, a pool to swim in with a separately entrance fee. It was in a gorgeous setting and very scenic and nice.

We had lunch in the restaurant there, which actually caters to weddings there, but the food wasn't expensive (at least to our budgets, to the typical Indonesia budget, probably). I got chicken coconut soup and Aaron got a sampler plate with consisted of many random foods (some meat, some veggies) wrapped in banana leaves, as well as egg and rice.

After this we had a long drive back to our hotel, but we made it back to our hotel area. We checked this local organic coffeehouse/restaurant type place for dinner, where we ordered way too much food: carrot ginger soup, chicken sandwich, viet spring rolls, indian plate, and two juices.

We also tried some different fruits here too. Salak, or snakefruit, has a snakelike skin and when you peel it off, it sort of tastes somewhere in between a tart apple and a hard lycee. Hard to explain it. And then of course I tried my mangosteen again, which I had in China before, it is sweet and soft, almost apple tasting.

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