Bali Safari and Marine Park

I went on a safari yesterday! Ok, so it wasn’t like a real safari it was just at a park but it was still pretty legit. I got to ride an elephant, hold a baby orangutan and a python was wrapped around me! We left the Dynasty Resort at 9am yesterday morning and rode on a bus to the Safari Park which was about an hour away. The Balinese are crazy drivers! We would ride on the shoulder of the road just to cut in front of people. Also, there are tons of motorbikes and they would just zoom in and out of cars and I felt like we were going to hit one at any moment. Anyway, we got there and spent the entire day walking around the park and seeing all the exotic animals. I am planning to post pics on Facebook this weekend. We left there around 3 to go back to the hotel to catch a cab to the airport. The Denpasar airport is one that I will never forget. First of all, to enter Bali we had to pay $25 US Dollars and to leave the island, we had to pay 150,000 Rupiah. Their money was so strange and quite honestly, I didn’t figure out how to use it until it was time to leave. Everything is in the 1000s. I think the exchange rate was something close to 8,940 Rupiah for every $1 Aussie Dollar. Secondly, the airport was the strangest thing I have ever been in. We walked around it about 5 times trying to find something good to eat. I heard a lot about Bali Belly and I was determined not to get it while I was there. Lots of people get it when they visit because the water is not what our bodies are used to. We had to use bottled water to brush our teeth. Thankfully, none of us got Bali Belly! Finally, we found an okay restaurant in the airport and by that point, we were so tired because we had been up since 7am, walked all day, and we were so hungry. Pretty much everything was funny to us; you know when you get to that point when you are pretty much delirious because it has been such a long day!? Well, I get like that sometimes and Catherine said the phrase, “oh yea, rollin’ like a big shot” very nonchalantly and it made me laugh so hard. We were saying that and “Go America” (remember in one of my earlier posts when I said that to one of my students because he said that his apple was from USA?) all night long. I guess it was because we were so tired but that plane ride was one the funniest I’ve ever been on. But it was also a little scary because as we were boarding, it started raining and lightening outside. We still took off and I was praying my hardest that we landed safely. Thankfully, we got home safe and sound. I am so pumped to post pics so you can check them out on facebook soon!

Today at school flew by! I was pretty tired because I didn’t get home until after midnight but we had a lot of DOTT time (planning periods) because the kids had Indonesian and Computer today. Tomorrow is parent interviews (parent-teacher conferences) so the kids get out at 12:10. We have to stay until after 5 but at least the kids will be gone. I am pretty excited to sit on the interviews to see how they go. Something really sad happened with Danny today. I was having a serious talk with him and Jakob because they kept on calling out and goofing off today. I asked them why they were choosing to act that way in the classroom and Jakob said he didn’t know but Danny said he knows why he does it. He said, ‘it’s because I miss my brother” and then tears started streaming down his face. It was so sad because he said that his 15 year old brother was bad and the high school said he couldn’t come back so he had to be sent to another school I guess it is like a boarding school or something. He said he has to be there for 3 years and they used to share a room but now he has to sleep in his room with an empty bed next to him. I felt so bad for him but Jakob was trying to make him feel better too and he said, “I bet Miss Boehme misses her family too because they are so far away”. I felt like I was going to cry then too. But anyway, on a happier note, Mama sent a post card to my class and I brought it today. They loved it! They thought it was really cool. One of the kids said, “Your mum spelled mum wrong” and another girl (very much a little diva) said, “No, that’s how they spell it in America. And that’s how I spell it too because I like to write things like Americans do” haha last week I was doing a lesson on money and they don’t use the cents sign that we use, they just put a c. She asked me about 5 times if she could write it ‘the American way instead of the Australian way’ haha Also last week I was wearing a dress from Anthro and she said I looked ‘very Hollywood’. Her name is Dakota and she when I first met her she told me she was named after 2 of the states. Her little sister is named Jorga (pronounced Georgia).

I think that is about all that has been going on the past couple of days. Today was my half way mark. I can’t believe I only have 43 days left here! If anyone wants to come here for spring break, let me know! :)

1 Chronicles 16:11