Bali!

After 9 days of vacation in Bali, I arrived back safely to Surabaya. I have mixed feelings about being back. Of course, vacationing in Bali was great and relaxing, so it is sad to go back to work tomorrow. On the other hand, it is good to be busy and I am looking forward to seeing my students again.
I will try to give a brief recap of the trip...
We (my housemate Fei and I) flew to Bali on Friday (the 10th). As soon as we checked into our hotel, we walked down to the beach. If anyone is familiar with Bali, we stayed near Kuta beach, the most popular place for tourists to stay. Walking through Kuta square and seeing all the shops, I felt like the place could have passed for a beach town in the U.S. There were so many foreigners, mostly from Australia.
Most of our days consisted of sleeping in, going to the beach, and walking around Kuta. We enjoyed walking around because in Surabaya it is very difficult to walk outside as there are no sidewalks and motorcycle drivers wouldn't care if they ran into you. (haha, maybe they would care, but they do drive like maniacs sometimes.)
Fei Fei didn't come with me to the beach during the day because she didn't want to get any color from the sun (so different from Americans!). I, on the other hand, tried to get as much sun as I could without getting burned.
While there, we often ate just 2 meals - a late breakfast provided by the hotel, and lunch/dinner at a restaurant. We liked going to Pizza Hut because we could split the 2 person pacakge and each pay less than two dollars! I also liked going to this one outdoor restaurant where I could get Middle Eastern food. After eating at the Lebanese restaurant in Thailand, I have decided that Middle Eastern food is my favorite.
Bali has a lot of funny/interesting people! The local shopowners and workers like to yell things to tourists as they walk by. Many times we heard, "Darling, darling, I love you!" Another man was squatting and eating ice cream. When he saw us passing by, he said, "You want ice cream? With me, no problem!" I was talking with another shopowner who was trying to convince me to buy something, but I didn't want to. I told him I would think about it and maybe be back later. He said, "Please, won't you buy it?" And I said, "Not today." Right away, he said, "O.k. See you tomorrow!"
I had fun getting to know Fei Fei better too. She would often ask me questions about English, since she is still learning it. (She teaches Mandarin at school.) It was funny hearing her try to pronounce some words. I was trying to teach her how to roll her rs. (Bahasa has the rolled "r" sound.) If anyone is interested, ask me to show you the video I took of her when I get home. It was really funny.
A neat God-thing happened on the trip. Fei Fei met this one girl, Jenna, from Korea. Jenna called Fei Fei because she had no place to stay for 2 nights (her hotel was full). So we let her share a room with us. She had already been planning to hire a driver to take her to Ubud on Wednesday, so we decided to go with her. It was a lot of fun. We ended up going to Dreamland too, famous for its beautiful beach. We finished the day by Jenna treating us to a seafood dinner in Jimbaran. It was so nice to eat right on the beach.
It was neat to be able to meet Jenna and be able to help her a little bit, since she doesn't know Indonesian culture. And it was so nice to eat at the restaurant together.
We took a van back to Surabaya on Saturday night because it was a lot cheaper than flying. However, the trip was 12 hours! We sat underneath the car's air conditioner and it kept dripping on us while we were trying to sleep.
There was one fun part about the car ride though. We had to take a boat ride crossing the ocean from Bali to Java. Fei Fei and I got out of the car and stood on the deck the whole time. It was nice to feel the ocean breeze!

I want to close with this verse: "I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign Lord; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone." (Psalms 71:16)
This verse is a good reminder for me to tell what God has done for me. The verse before says that we should do that "all day long". So right now, I want to give testimony for all the good gifts that God has given me here, like the trip to Bali, and how He reminds me of His presence every day. I could not make it without Him. I praise you God!