my so-called boring life

ok guys, it seems i'm back to my old ways. . . it's definitely been a month since posting. we have got to stop meeting like this. . .

first i have to wrap my head around what has happened in the last month. it's a little hard to keep track of time here; the woes of living in permanent-vacation world.

 so i'm positive this happened in the last month. tom and i were involved in our first motorbike crash since being here. wait, i lied. tom's been in one other tiny crash, but i wasn't there. somehow this one seemed worse... basically, the other guy ran into the side of us while we were waiting to cross traffic. so, we weren't moving at all and didn't get any road rash this time. injury report was as follows: tom - jammed up his thumb when the other guy ran into us, me - my leg got hit between the two bikes so i had a few cuts and bruises there, what i believe was a hairline fracture on my foot, and a bruised tailbone. it sounds worse than it was though. we're all good now. my foot is still healing itself, but the bike is fixed and everything. i feel like there are so many bike crashes here that it's a rite of passage to have a few gnarley scars.

this weekend we went to a goodbye party for a friend of mine from work. twas the third friend to leave in the last couple of months. as awesome as it is to be able to work abroad and meet so many new people, saying goodbye to great people is also never easy. fortunately this isn't our first rodeo, and it gets kinda easier to cope with the goodbyes. now, it's just a side effect of the type of job we have. it's nice when you get to go out and celebrate their "new job/moving home/moving somewhere" else with them.

other than that, we haven't been doing much of anything. the same ol', same ol' going to the beach every single weekend, and a few trips to outlying towns here and there. tom's parents will be here next week, so that will be quite exciting. it will be nice to have some time off, but also to relax with family from home. they'll be staying for 10 days, so surely there will be awesome adventurous stories to tell after that. you should be excited as well! my parents still have another 3 months until their visit, but i still get excited for it all the time. seeing my dad on a motorbike will be one of the kodak moments of my life, the old geezer. (ha! dad, sorry)

a few side notes:
- on facebook i'm doing the "photo a day" thing, in hopes to stay a little bit more in touch with people. hopefully i'll be able to get some good snapshots of everyday life in bali through this. check it out if you're interested.
-i know you're all wondering, but tom and i did in fact get a good proper mexican meal to celebrate cinco de mayo. no margaritas however, but maybe we'll have those for ocho de mayo or something. . .

that's all for now folks. sorry i couldn't be more enthralling. i'll try to think of something cooler next time.

-b

easter tidings

Hello all! Here we are again. I'm trying to stay on this blog train a little more than I have in the past. Keep your fingers crossed - for the next eight months.

Happy late Easter to all of you back home. Tom and I had a wonderful three-day weekend (I know I can't rub our time off in everyone's faces this time since you all had it as well). So Friday and Saturday were both beach days. Tom is constantly telling me that he's tanner than I am - which we all know is false. He doesn't consider shadows cast from his arm hair but when you look underneath he is as pale as a ghost (<--- exaggeration). So this weekend I went outside my comfort zone of the shady umbrella to increas my tan margin. Spoiler: it was a success.

On Sunday, Tom and I had a day of pretending to be tourists. We went up to Ubud and ate at a delish healthy restaurant and went around to check out some shops. Went and played with some monkeys on Monkey Forest Road. And we capped of the night with some English Premier League Football (soccer). It was nice to have a win for Arsenal. The place was packed with Arsenal fans and it was a great time all around.

Tom was also recently sick with some kind of food-borne illness. He ate some beef rendang. It's a dish of verrrrry sloowwwwwwly cooked beef in some kind of brown sauce. It was delicious but apparently the cow was sick. There wasn't any bloodwork done, but it seemed like E coli or Salmonela to the doctor. So now we've each had a crap hand dealt to us in the under-cooked meat department. Needless to say, we won't be eating beef rendang anytime soon.

Well, that's all I have time for now. I hope everyone is doing well back home, or in Korea, or wherever you're reading this from. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pictures soon. The internet is unbelievably slow in this country. . . .

-b

life's a beach

Attention: Three days until Tom's birthday. Better get your gifts sent this way.

Let's talk about the beach.
Tom and I have been frequenting the same beach in Sanur every weekend for about two months now. Seriously, we never miss a weekend of having at least one day at Sanur beach. We go and sit on the same beach chairs that cost a meager $1US. We buy local fare, spicy grilled corn and sometimes a Bintang (beer) from the same lady with a warung (locally owned shop/cafe) behind our chair. We get hassled by the same man selling pearl necklaces, Dr. Pearl aka Wayan. Sometimes we chitchat with the chair rental guy, Ketut. We buy spring rolls from the aptly named "spring roll guy" for about 50 cents. Spring roll guy is awesome. He walks up and down the beach all day with hot spring rolls, chilis, and sauce stuffed inside a glass box that he carries around on his head. He's always prepared to answer to a holler and make you a packet of chopped spring roll/pepper mix. Stellar job. It's a joyful place. They smile each time they see us walking up and recognize our clearly western looks. Me, with bright blonde hair, and Tom, with the beard: We are noticable everywhere we go. Even in traffic people will pull up next to us and start a conversation. And as it should be the beach people were stunned and full of questions when Tom showed up without a beard. These were in fact the first people to see the beardless wonder.

So you might say going to the same beach every weekend is boring. Bahhhh. See, the thing is, we've tried other beaches.
We've gone to Seminyak where there are hawkers galore and the tide comes in so quickly on the vast flatland of beach that everything around you gets soaked. The waves are good there, so for our inner (yes, still inner) surfers it's nice to know where some gnarley waves are. But we have tried this "Beverly Hills of Bali" beach twice now and decided that's not where it's at. Plus, they charge $10US for a chair. Pssshhhhhhhhhhh. Forgetaboutit.
We went up to the black sand beaches north of Sanur. Gorgeous. You'd think black sand beaches would just look like dirt. Which they do, once the black sand transfers onto your wet skin. But the beach itself glitters. Seriously. Twilight vampire style glitter. But the terrifying thing is that you can't see anything in the water. When we happened to go, the current was really strong so it made it a little more terrifying. Translated:  We didn't go in the water at all that day.
Last weekend we went with a few friends and got a few rooms in Balangan- $6 each. Tom and I had been there for New Year's Eve as well, which was a comparably less successful night. So let's forget about NYE and talk about last weekend. Balangan is a huge mecca for surf where the tide is raging and the waves are superhuge. All along the beach there are raised houses made of wood. Most of these are some kind of restaurant/bar or cheapo rooms for rent. All of the places cater to the surf crowd morning, noon, and night. Run by really low key guys, this place was excellent. Sure there are hawkers there as well, but with other people around I was able to sit back and peacefully ignore them. Why not let my friends do the talking? So we made a full day and a half of being beach bums, definitely NOT surfing, and barely even going into the water. But it was fantastic none the less. It was also around full moon, so the tide was seemingly run by some demon dragon cult from Texas that couldn't control themselves. Seriously, by the time we left, the floorboards of the restaurant next to us were coming apart. Read: Tsunami Jr. coming to a theater near you. I'll say Balangan was a great place to spend the weekend. Cheap still and everything there at your fingertips. Absolutely gorgeous sunset, since it's on the west side of the island. But what did we do Sunday after we came home from our mini-vacay?

We went to good ol' Sanur beach 5 minutes away from the house. Got some chairs, springrolls, and took a 2 hour nap on the beach. #predictable

win-win situation

Hola amigos! So now I'm in the computer lab at work. It's great to be able to bring the kids in here to play English games. Not only does it give me a break from the c'est typique hubbub, but the kids really enjoy it. These kids are my youngest bunch, 6-8 year olds, and they're super cute. On that note, you all know Tom. Big burly bearded Tom? Yea, him. He's now teaching a class of four year olds. I would love to be a fly on the wall in that classroom. I'm sure he's great at it, there's just a certain amount of dignity that is immediately lost when you teach kids of a certain age. I'd like to see that dignity lost. Sue me.

Speaking of big burly bearded tom . . . . unfortunately the beard is gone. Beard said, "Later dudes, it's too hot here. Maybe I'll come back and visit after I go on my arctic tundra vacay." I couldn't be all that surprised. If you've seen the beard, you know it really does belong in winter climates. It was selfish of me to contain it here, in Bali where it was dry, parched and overheated all the time. But I hope Beard is having a good time romping in the snow with his beardy pals. On the up side, Tom isn't half as sweaty as he used to be. WINNING!

So now let's talk about not winning. A few weeks ago I was at this restaurant with Tom and some friends from work. Man this place is absolutely delicious. One of the top 3 places I've eaten since I've been here. Add to that the fact that the food never costs more than $3, cha ching! Okay, this sounds an aweful lot like winning. So about not winning. . . . while we were there, my helmet was stolen off the motorbike. How rude! How dare some stranger steal the POS non-safety regulation ugly (not that that matters. . . ) helmet that was given to me free when we rented the bike. What is the world coming to? So maybe I was planning on buying a new one anyway. But I didn't want to buy one specifically on that day. And those theives made me buy a new helmet on a day before I was ready to buy a new helmet. So that's the worst thing that's happened to me here. In the grand scheme of things most of you might say that's not a big deal. Especially since it only cost me about $16 bucks to get a brand new safety-regulation gorgeous green helmet. But it was slightly inconvenient, and that means tragedy.

Fact: Bali was ranked the #4 most dangerous place to ride a motorbike by _______ (some motorcycle) magazine.


(Tom knows the name, ask him)

its a crab crab crab world

Boy am I glad my actual job doesn't involve blogging. Not that I don't enjoy it when the time comes, but self-motivation is not my strong suit (polite way to say I'm lazy).

Here we are again, about to go watch a Premier league soccer game and I'm inspired to write a blog. So basically the only thing I'd rather do less than writing is watching futbol. Maybe once Formula1 season starts you'll get double the blogs. Hip hip. . .

Ok so things that are happening in our life. I'm gonna have to be honest here and say I'm having problems coming up with interest ing things to tell you about. Sure. We live on an island oasis in the middle of one of the most culturally diverse archipelagos in the world, but our life is not far from boresville. We do get to go to the beach a lot, and THAT is awesome. Ok so I guess that's a good place to start. A few weeks ago Tom (in a crab chasing frenzy) found this great little hermit crab in a shell that was altogether too big for her. After being let down in the doggie department (no pets says the mean old landlord), I was a little too excited about the prospect of a new pet. Thus we had Guinevere. Official name: Guinevere Tornado Bethancourt-Haggerty. So I set up GT in a great little Tupperware dish with several shells that we (...Tom) had collected from her home beach. Now I have never had a hermit crab as a pet before, so i had no clue what to feed the thing. Everything I saw or was told said to go to the store and buy "hermit crab food". Mmmm well obviously that isn't an option here guys. So I googled my magic-or magicked my google- and found a post that said crabs will usually feed on corpses of other animals, therefore they will eat anything. I tried feeding her some granola. It seemed to work and after a few days she even came out of her shell and moved into a better fiting one. I hope that little excitement was enough to last poor Guinevere a lifetime, because soon after, she died. Now we just play with the hermit crabs at the beach, realizing we aren't suited for parenthood just yet.

So I have read half of George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series - 3 books, and the sequel to Gregory Maguire's "Wicked" (Son of a Witch) in the last two months. To complete these two series, I would have to read five more books. And I read all of the Hunger Games trilogy. Tell me I'm crazy. I think I have a problem. At least it's not crack right?

60 days and all I got was this stupid t-shirt

A few notes:

A. I am a little disgruntled as I forgot to save my in-progress blog before my iPad died. So, you are getting a newly constructed blog with a newly lumpy attitude.

B. If this blog post dies unexpectedly, you are going to do without. (fear not, I think I learned my lesson-click save. . . . click save . . . . click save. . . )

C. The logicboard went out on my beloved apple (before you start the mourning, I'm going to try and get it fixed when I get home) literally a week after arriving in Bali. So there. That's another excuse I can throw at you for not updating. Sure Suuuuure Tom has a laptop, but it just doesn't feel natural. Oh, and don't ask me what the heck a logicboard is, I just know it's important and it's broken. TGI-iPad?


Okay so Tom and I are approaching our two month baliversary. And yes, I'm aware that I've only updated the old blog two times. You're welcome. We are both enjoying Bali thus far. My school is bigger than Tom's (we have about 1,000 kids in my school, not sure about Tom's). There are about 20 foreign teachers at my school, mostly British or Australian with some other Americans and Canadians mixed in. At Tom's school, there are 4 teachers. My day is mostly teaching in the classroom. I have about 16 classes a week, with a few online classes sprinkled around. Tom only teaches in the classroom, and he has fewer classes than I do. I don't think this is fair, but at least I have opportunities for overtime : /

I still cook often (expanding internationally to curries, stir fry, and a homemade bolognese sauce thrown in there). But food is so cheap here, that we give in to the temptation to eat out often. On average, a meal for both of us is about $8 (if you include a beer, it's between $10-15). And I'm talking nice restaurants. I eat lunch for a dollar a day, and that is still homecooked traditional indonesian food! Our groceries are still only about $40 a week. For two people, that's not bad!

Once again, Tom has taken the backseat to learning the language. Don't get me wrong, I think Tom is one of the smartest people I know. He just has a natural aversion (I call it "guys are lazy") to learning something 100% foreign to him. Understandable. In Korea, we were surrounded by shapes and symbols that had no natural meaning to us. We got around well enough without it, so it wasn't until somewhere around month 7 that I even learned to read Korean. Upon returning home, I regretted waiting so long. So I won't be making the same mistake Indo-style. I've been trying to learn at least one word a day. Which seems ridiculous that I would only learn 365 words in a year, but at least I'm getting a start at it. I can proudly count to 8 now, and of course I know more than half the stuff I see on menus. Food is obviously the most important foreign language vocabulary anyway.

As most of you know, Tom and I have been cohabitating (living in sin, whatever you want to call it) here in Bali. Let me tell you, it's going pretty well. Of course we had little tiffs here and there in the beginning, but after a bit our oddities seemed to adjust to one another. At the beach, Tom likes to chase crabs; I like to read. I like to cook our dinner; Tom likes to eat. I reluctantly clean the bathroom; Tom sits and watches TV. No, but really in all actuality it is great. After all, without a few growing pains, I'd be concerned.

I've been reading Game of Thrones. Or many would probably say "obsessed with" Game of Thrones. But baaahhh who are they? Let me live in my fantasy war-torn winter is coming world of Starks and Lannisters, midgets and Others. (obsessed.) Basically, you should read it too. For your own personal enjoyment, there's an HBO show on precisely the book I'm talking about.

So my life is now composed of teaching, beaching, biking (both bicycle and motorbike), hiking, and cooking (and Game of Thrones, obvi). I think we've covered quite a few of these topics today. Until next time . . . .

Bali Love

A brief list of things I love about Bali: Buying ripped DVDs for $1. Today we bought midnight in Paris, j Edgar, rum diary, devils double, the fighter and drive, all for $5. Getting a massage on par with the quality back home for $6 Freshly cooked lunch from a restaurant of my choosing everyday for $1 Motorbikes. Who needs four walls? Driving on the left. Driving in general here is insane and chaotic. Driving on the left just makes sure you feel like you're going to die. But you get used to it. The beach. Duh! The food is amazing. Ah mai zing. Woosh! My school. Laid back and pretty much full freedom. It makes Korea look like auschwitz. My students' English is so good having lived in a tourist destination all their lives. It makes my job delightful. Being around expats again. I love everyone from home, but something magical happens when you put adventurous like-minded people together in a room. Thats all for now. Terih makasih.