Hellooo. Apa kabar? I'm sorry I have been gone for a few weeks. However, I have decided to start my vlogs back up. Here's the first one:
I'm sorry the quality is so poor. I was trying to figure out my webcam and forgot to change the quality. This is really just a trial run though, so it's okay! My next one will be on a specific topic, so I (hopefully) won't be rambling as much. I'll probably eventually do at least one video in Indonesian, but we'll see...
Indonesian word of the day: Matahari - Sun (literally eye of the day)
One of the first things that my host family told me when I arrived back in August was that they had planned a trip to Bali over Christmas. They then proceeded to ask if it was okay for me not to be in my new home for Christmas. Of course I said yes! I mean, come on...Bali for Christmas?! Flash forward 4 months and I just got back from the trip.
I was awakened way too early for my liking on the morning on Christmas Eve (think 3:45 am) and told to get ready. Before I knew it, we were in the car on the way to the airport. After checking our luggage and saying goodbye to the relatives returning to Padang, we boarded the plane to Denpasar. As soon as I sat down, I realized that I was hearing familiar music. It turned out to be Christmas music! Because the flight was so short, I spent most of the time looking out the window at some of the amazing mountains that we flew over. Before long we were over the water and landing in Bali. Even though we were in the domestic terminal, I was almost shocked at the number of foreigners that I saw. Of course, that was only the beginning though. As with cities on Java, Bali's cities also have lots of traffic, so the drive to our villa took a little while. When we finally arrived, my host sister asked if I wanted to go swimming, and it was then that I realized that I had forgotten a swimsuit...it was okay though because we found a solution. After swimming in a pool for a while, we decided to head to the beach to watch the sunset. It was really beautiful! Unfortunately I had the wrong phone with me though, so my pictures aren't the greatest.
Pretty sunset on the beach
The next day was Christmas, which turned out to be a very, very rainy day. I can't really complain though because it is the rainy season after all. That was also the day that the rest of the relatives arrived in Bali. There were about 35 people in all, so I had to try to remember a lot of new names! By the time breakfast was over, it felt like half the world had wished me a merry Christmas, which I really appreciated since I was the only person there who celebrated the holiday. After going out to the store to buy some snacks and stuff, we returned to the villa and had a family event. As is typical of Indonesia, there were plenty of games and some singing. At one point, each group of immediate family members was supposed to go to the front and sing a song together. When my host family was called I wasn't paying attention and didn't hear it, so when they finished, my host mom came over to me and said something along the lines of "Tori, did you forget? We are one family." I honestly thought that was like the sweetest thing ever because she even said it in English, which is not a language that she speaks very well.
It's definitely still the rainy season...
The next morning we were awakened somewhat early and told to get ready. After eating breakfast, we were loaded onto a bus. Both me and pretty much all of my host cousins fell asleep, and all the adults took pictures of us because that meant that the entire back of the bus was sleeping. When I woke up, we were somewhere in the mountains and went to go eat lunch. Apparently we were supposed to go somewhere else too, but we just ended up going to Tanah Lot, which was very pretty. In the end we all ended up getting pretty much soaked because it decided to pour while we were there. While I was with my host siblings and cousins, we took lots of selfies that ended up in lots of screaming and laughing due to the fact that the waves kept coming over our previous path and the rocks we were standing on were so slippery. It was fun and definitely memorable!
Tanah Lot
On Saturday my older host brother and his wife headed up a trip for the young people to do some water sports on the beach. It was lots of fun, and I definitely plan on going again if I end up returning to Bali before I leave. Unfortunately we couldn't really use our cameras, so I don't have any pictures from that right now. When we finished with that, we met up with the parents at a seafood restaurant on the beach.
Yummy seafood on the beach
The next two days were spent shopping and relaxing. I had just enough space to bring back all of the gifts I bought! In all, I think it's safe to say that I enjoyed my time in Bali and would love to go back, especially when it's no longer the rainy season.
We accidentally ordered tons of food because
we didn't realize that we brought our own...so ayam bakar it is!
