The Chronicles of Novakia: April 2010

As usual, these pics are totally random in order. Here's to a month of Maulids, Moms, and Monsters!

Spending time with our friend Iluh and the fam'...

This is inside her house...pretty typical.

Teaching Iluh how to read so she can advance in school. Me teaching Indonesian...who would have thought!?

Maulid, the celebration of Muhammed's birthday, is a really big deal here. Kind of like Christmas except the only gift is food. These are the snacks served at one of the houses I visited. After the snacks come a big plate of rice and meat of dubious orgin. It's fun to visit, but after a month of Maulids in not so sanitary villages my stomach is ready for a break

Took this one while riding on the back of a motorcyle...the Muslim women wear head coverings and long sleeves in the heat and still manage to sweat less than me.

Another Maulid. This is Ferdie's family, the boy I talked about a while ago who broke his arm. His cast just came off and he is doing great - surfing better than ever!

Every year, Hindus make big, creepy looking monsters and parade them around town to scare away the ghosts. Then the next day they hide in their houses and aren't allowed to make any noise or use electricity. There are even Hindu "police" who come around and make sure your hiding properly lest you invite evil spirits into the community.

Every Hindu neighborhood makes a monster and wears matching t-shirts for the parade.

This is a giant trap for the giant rat roaming around our house. I put poison on it for bait in hopes of doubling its chances for impending doom. It worked! He took the bait and yesterday morning we found him dead underneath the water dispenser. Luckily, my fearless neighbor was here to discard of it while my roommate threw up outside in disgust. Small victories.

These are one of my favorite trees. Really long roots hang from their branches and if you find one strong enough you can try out your best George of the Jungle impersonation..very entertaining.

Mildly creepy statue in Bali. My teammates joked that he's my boyfriend so I gave him a little smooch. Hopefully my next boyfriend is a little less gray and a little more real...

Hands down the best restaurant on our island. Arabic food and A.C. ...so good!

Me and mom on the bike! The temperature dropped in the 80s that night so I borrowed a jacket. Mom didn't seem to be cold..weird.

We went to Bubba Gumps in Bali. It's a restaurant themed around the movie "Forrest Gump". The food was okay, but hearing Forrest Gump impersonations with Asian accents was much more enjoyable

We also took the moms out on the banana boat...

Did a little surfing...

and watched a lot of sunsets...

Kelly, Matt, and Caleb's birthday party. That's me in the middle playing chicken with two girls on my shoulders. Definitely felt that the next morning...

Ronald McDonald surfing it up in Bali

Hard Rock in Bali. Mental note made to never go there for my birthday. One pregnant girl unknowingly made the mistake and ended up going through what had to be a 20 minute long procession of obnoxiously beating drums and men in scary masks dancing around while she stood on a chair and her baby cried. In fact, every child in there under the age of three was wailing in fear by the time it was over. Nice.

Another banana boat pic. I got front, which makes me the designated bouncer/tipper of the boat. It's quite fun...and a great leg workout :)

Somehow a friendly game of "share the hammock with your awesome daughter"...

...turned out to be "hey everyone, let's gang up on Amy and throw her out of the hammock" Clearly, they were unaware of my superhero power to defy gravity...ha!