April to September

I've been busy.  A lot has been happening...mostly good things :)  Here are some highlights and also some fun things

Me at Indonesian Independence Day celebration

A large neighborhood celebration on the beach for Independence day
A popular activity is to grease a wooden pole with prizes on top.  A group of boys have to work together to get up said pole to claim a prize (yes....that IS a bra hanging on the top)

I'm sitting in my living room.....with a great view of my neighbors temple and their idols.
 They burn incense and give food offerings twice a day.  America has churches....Bali has these

This is called a "Jack fruit".....huge but delicious!!!!

Had a friendly competition with the staff on my base (about 60).....I WON!!

Going home to America!!!!
I couldn't believe how much leg room I had on a DOMESTIC flight....in Asia, my knees would be touching the front seat!  
Americans.....we have it nice here!!!!


My time in America
September - November

The other set of twins in my family......they reminded me SO much of how my twin and I use to be (hahah!!! ok, we're still like that :)  Friendly, love to cook, and LOVE to talk :)  I loved it!!!

I 

Some of my AWESOME Alabama family
(sorry Pennsylvania family....hope to see y'all next time) 

My dad and I have the same favorite dessert:
hot butter cake....with butter melted on top (and in the middle)

So, this shouldn't look weird considering the above picture.......
and yes.....that IS a whole piece of just butter

Got to finally see my cousin (who's like a sister) with my sister.....it was loud and wonderful
:)

FINALLY!!!!!!!!
After 7 long years....I got to go to the NC State fair....and eat!!!  
I ate the following (on 1 trip):
Roasted corn, hot dog, nachos, philly cheese steak sandwich, ice cream, another roasted corn, and I think a few other things I forgot about :)
By the way.....I'm literally skipping with happiness down the food streets

BEHOLD!!!!! 

The fried food board (at the fair)

How many things can YOU count???

My favorite band!!!!!
Amazing concert!!!
SOOOO many cowboy boots and rednecks.....my people!!!!

This is for my Asian friends
This is an all-you-can-eat food buffet
(salad section, meat section, vegetable section, and a dessert section)
This means I can pay one price, and eat as much as I want.  Yes, this is why Americans are fat :)

My new favorite activity.....target shooting.  

By the way, this is NOT a BB gun...it's an actual gun that shoots actual bullets.  Powerful and fun!!!!

Thanks Chris and Carrie making this happen!!!

My sister and I went to a Renaissance fair for Halloween......and THIS!!! 

is a roasted turkey leg!!!

A witch!!!! We found a  witch!!!!!

To end.....I encourage you all to follow this example :)  

I do :)

NEXT

Thanksgiving and my time in Russia!

Getting outside Bali

Last month was very busy.  Some friends and I traveled across several islands.  We hit 8 locations in 3.5 weeks......crazy!!!!  

Here's what happened:  

Komodo Island

This is the volcano we will hike (pictures further below)

The 4-hour boat ride on a fishing boat 

We got to see MANY islands

The Komodo dragon.....he came to visit and walk with us as we hiked 

(thank goodness for our guides!)

Komodo people

population: 1700

Belief: they are literally related to the komodo dragon

the dragon was their sister

The children were real curious about the white people who preferred to visit with THEM over seeing the dragons

Next stop: another island

Our host tried to help us save money so he had us stay in a house for free! 

A house whose ceiling was falling and leaking

And, as seen in this picture, I was NOT impressed at the amount of roaches I had to kill before using our toilet (about 30)

Our condemned house :)  

Learned to be content in both plenty and....well....this

The area is known to be quite radical so we tried to "blend"....fortunately, according to people, I looked like I was from Turkey or Jordan

I got tired of all the looks so I just went fully covered...I like hijabs!

Mt. Tambora

Hiked a little on a famous volcano

It was the biggest volcanic eruption in history....it effected the entire world's weather and ecosystems for up to a year after it's explosion (1815)

Me and one of my friends can go to the most remote places in the world....

but we still have to have our coffee

This was fun!  Went to a small restaurant.  The owner took our picture like this because he said he's never seen a foreigner who could eat all the fish like this (I gave the eyeballs to my friend but the brain isn't bad)

Here, they get creative

They're putting a motorbike on the back of the local bus

We had a traveling companion...the chicken

Riding on local buses: 

Almost every guy you meet smokes and there is NO smoking rules

Imagine riding on a seat (obviously made for skinny people) for 12 hours, while inhaling the smoke of about 10 guys all around you. Wasn't fun! 

By the way, it's look down on if women smoke

Mt. Rinjani

Toward the end of our 3 weeks, we hiked another major volcano: 

The second highest volcano in Indo

I was reminded why it's important to condition before a major hike....because I didn't

The summit

"It doesn't seem that hard"

these are the infamous words spoken by me, the idiot, the day before hiking the actual summit.  

The words spoken THAT day were more like 

"dear GOD! help me! I'm going to die! We're not there yet??!!!

The night before our summit hike

The last stretch of our hike......

yes...that's sand

yes....it was for the entire 4-hour hike to the summit

yes.....i hate sand now

I couldn't believe I made it.  There were times I had to take 2 steps and stop and breath.....the air was pretty thin up there at 3726 meters (almost 2.5 miles up)

Our whole team.....the guide and our porters 

the porters: would carry ALL equipement (food and equipment for 4 days for 6 people)....most of them did it barefooted and they went 10x's faster than us.....Us foreigners are wooses!

The laundry of 4 girls after a 4-day hike

The city

This was interesting. 

This mosque is being built on one of the islands we visited.  It's suppose to be a second Mecca.  For Muslims, they are required to go to Mecca once in their life.  Many Indos can't afford to go so they're building this massive mosque to count as their Mecca trip

END OF TRIP

CULTURE TIME

A large festival in Bali....they're all worshiping their gods and ancestors on the beach

Indonesian birthday

they kidnap you, tie you up, and usually drive you around the city.....ending with a dung into the ocean and an egg on the head

I love this

No matter what country you're in, husband are always waiting for their wives to shop :)

Here, coasters are used oppositely

Being a tropical environment, insect are plentiful.  Coasters are used to keep unwanted visitors from taking a dive into your drink

My birthday

Someone blessed me with a steak.....well, it was a free steak :)

So, I'm handing out with some friends in Bali and I see this guy walk pass me wearing this shirt: 

Pell City, Alabama (the town I grew up)

When I stopped him and asked if he was from there, he started to laugh.  He's from Australia and these shirts are sold everywhere....he didn't know it was an actual place. 

Crazy!

The men are VERY touch-feely with each other.  Many times, you'll see them hold hands too (not gay)

I got the chance to teach one of my Indonesian friends how to make rainbow cupcakes (for Easter)

ANIMALS

this is what they do to their female dogs when they have that time of the month....

yeah, I know it's weird

My neighbor LOVES cats.  So, they have become comfortable coming into our kitchen too.  

The orange one is a VERY curious cat

As evidence below