End of Term

School is over!!

On our last day, my class did a play called the Fox and the Family Tree. I played the Princess.

My mom helped out, too. The play was a big success!


At the end of the day, everyone got really sad because a lot of people are going back to their countries and everyone realized that this was the end of our class.

Miya!!!!

Our friend Miya and her parents came to visit! We went to stay with them out at the beach at Candidasa. It was great. There was a pool, and the beach was right outside. One day Jim and AJ went out on a fishing boat and caught a couple of fish, then me, Miya, Mom, and Yoko went out on another boat to meet them and go snorkeling. It was great!

Here are a bunch of pictures from us.

Komang and I make houses for fairies.

My class did a Kecak performance at school. (I'm on the far left)







We went to a big ceremony last weekend - gamelan, dancing, praying, cockfights...

This is a picture from our ride home from school.

And this is our car.

April? Already?!

Sorry it's been so long since we updated the blog! We've been busy with school and moving and having fun and relaxing.

So we’ve moved into a new house – it’s really big and beautiful. Here are some pictures.

This is called a bale. Every family compound has one:

AJ's room:

Upstairs:

The kitchen:

Front room:

Awesome outdoor shower:

Mom's room:

We’re also going to school! In the beginning of the trip we visited a place called Green School. Well, now we’re going to it. It’s pretty much in the jungle, the classrooms are just about outside, there’s a huge river that runs through the middle of the school, and it’s basically pretty cool. Our classes are small and mixed-grade (1-2 and 3-4), and we have to say the work is pretty easy. We get to do things like permaculture class (I was the only one who knew that squash was nitrogen fixing! – AJ), and gamelan (which I don’t like – Padma), and mask making (which I do like – Padma). It’s great to be with other kids again – we’ve already made new friends and had sleepovers and parties.

Here's some pictures of our school.






A few days ago, my mom was going to do internet and we were going to go with her. But then my brother saw a baby chick without a mom and he said, "i want to stay here at the car." And then I saw it too and I said, "i want to stay at the car, too." So my mom left, and we caught the chick. We went into the car and waited for my mom to come back. When she came back, she said we couldn't keep the chick, but then she said ok. So now we have a little fluffy chick in our garden.

We'll try to write again soon. We miss everyone, but we'll be home pretty soon.

Bali, take 2

We’re here in Bali! It is very green here.

When we first got here we stayed at really pretty hotel.

Now we’ve rented a house.

The house we’ve rented has a fish pond. Do you know where the food we don’t eat goes? To the fishes! Our house is a 2-story house. It’s kind of like a one-story house because we don’t really use the downstairs. Except for the kitchen which is outside. To get to the kitchen, you have to go out on the porch, turn right and there it is. It still has a roof. On part of the stairs, you can peek in through a little triangular hole into the kitchen. You can spy on people that are in the kitchen. Ha ha! –julie





People here are really into Barack Obama, because he went to school in Indonesia.

Gods at the Airport

In the airport in Thailand we saw this amazing sculpture. It is a sculpture of the churning of the ocean of milk by the gods and the demigods holding on to the snake Vasuki. The churning produced the guy on top, Dhanvantari who is the doctor of the gods. It also produced amrta – the nectar of immortality but also poison, which Shiva caught and held in his throat which made his throat turn blue. A bunch of Indian people were posing in front of the sculpture and smiling. It is a fully awesome sculpture. One of the coolest sculptures I’ve ever seen in an airport. –aj

Shoe Death

My mom made me get new shoes in Bangkok, although I protested that my old shoes were NOT SHOT. I like my new shoes, but I like my old shoes better, but I agree that my old shoes were not the right shoes for Bali because it took me 15 minutes to put on and tie my shoes (I tie a lot of knots) and here you put on and take off your shoes a lot.