Yanchep, WA

Yesterday I went to Yanchep National Park. It was beautiful! I got to see several koalas hanging out in the trees, some black parrots and other birds, and some kangaroos! We also took a tour in Crystal Cave. I took lots of pictures and planned on uploading them to Facebook last night when I was at Jan’s but didn’t get around to it. I forgot that I had uploaded some pictures from Bali last weekend and when I got to Jan’s I started uploading pictures from Bali and it took about 45 min and then I realized I had already uploaded them. UGH. I was so frustrated with myself! By that time, it was getting late and we had to get home so I guess I’ll have to get my pictures organized this week and give it another go next weekend. Back to Yanchep, I went with Erin and Catherine and then Erin’s host family picked us up and we went to a festival nearby. They had lots of food, games, booths with cute things to buy, and music. There were lots of kids around and it was a beautiful night. The weather is starting to cool down and it was actually quite chilly last night.

This morning I went to church at Kingsley Church of Christ again. I really like it there and that will be one of the places I miss the most. I have made some great friendships and am so thankful for those people. After church some of the people from SPLAT (my bible study – Share, Pray, Listen and Talk) went to Joondalup to the shopping center to eat at the food court. Australians know that Sunday should be a day of rest and there are not many places open on Sunday so the mall was a good option to find good food! I got some Thai food and it was pretty good. After that Brittni and I looked around to see if there were any nice dresses. I am looking for one to wear at Leah’s wedding coming up in May and I thought it would be cool to get one from here. Too bad the prices are so high! Seriously, I picked up a shirt that I thought would be $30 at the most and it was $85!! That was just a shirt. The dresses are well over $150 for just a sun dress. I can’t imagine what it would cost to buy a formal dress here! After that I came home and Catie and I went for a little run around the oval (field) at the neighborhood park. Then we came back to go for a swim and get some sun! My book is starting to get really good and I while I am happy that I have a busy schedule here I wish I could have some more down time to finish it so I can start on the next one! I am reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I have the 2^nd and 3^rd one in my closet to read while I am here. Aunt Cyndie, I think one of them is yours – don’t worry I’ll take good care of it and now your book is a world traveler!

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before but one of the girls in my class had nits (lice) a few weeks ago. Since I found that out my head has been itching but I didn’t know if it was just a mental thing or if I had it too. Catie checked my head today and said she saw nothing so that was a relief! This morning I got to skype with my wonderful, beautiful, sweet, kind loving little sister – ANNA BETH!! … and peter and mama. Haha jk Pete and Moms, glad I got to see you twos! Anyway, it was great getting to see AB. She is getting so much older and I could tell a maturity in her since I left only 2 months ago! I also got a thoughtful card from her last week sometime and it was the highlight of my day!

Starting week 7 tomorrow! We have the swimming carnival on Wednesday – say prayers for Green Faction! Word around the staff room lets me know we aren’t really the best faction athletically.

Hope all of you are having a wonderful spring break and since most of you will have heaps of free time I should have skype dates scheduled quite often! I understand most of you will be at the beach but if you are bored or if you’re up late having a blast in the condo or something let me know and I’d love to join the party! :)

I got a great text today from my wonderful friends, Allison and Hannah, and it was great to hear from them! All I have to say is “B-B-B- Benny and the Jets” Great times! Love you girls!

John 16:22

Boot Camp

So this week instead of going our usual walk around the lake, Catie and I have been doing Boot Camp. Jason is her host dad and he used to be in the Army so he has been giving us a work out in the afternoons. I have been worn out when we are done! He’s a really nice guy and doesn’t seem like he would be strict on what to do for workouts but when we complain he will double it or tell us to keep running or something. I mean, it’s all in good fun and he is not pushing us to where we are dying or anything but he pushes us enough to get a good workout. He has this thing on his iPod called the Beep Test where you have to run to one side of the yard and wait for the beep and then run to the other side and wait for the beep. The time between beeps is a lot at the beginning and then as you complete levels it gets faster and faster to where you are doing full on sprints. I did it last week and got up to level 8 or something like that but it was hard as. Today we did it and we had to negotiate with him to let us stop at level 6. I think the highest level is 15 or something like that. Apparently, to enter the women’s police force here you have to get through level 11. So that has been really good to do each afternoon before dinner.

Not too much happened at school today. I had a laugh during class and I couldn’t really stop. Ha, they were building towers to see who could build the tallest one. Owain and James figured out that you need to have a good base around it to keep it up. John looked at theirs and said to his group, “oh, guys let’s copy them!” And then Owain looked at me and said, “Miss Boehme, they are copying us!” Then John said, “no we’re not! We are not.” Then he turned to his group and whispered, “Alazer, hurry and build the base like theirs” I just lost it! Thankfully, they didn’t think I was laughing at them and didn’t get their feelings hurt. They just all kind of laughed with me.

Right now I am watching Bring It On with Monique and it is bringing back so many memories of when I watched this movie literally every day. Once when we were in Chattanooga Carly, Cody, Peter and I watched it one night and then after it was over Peter said, “Let’s watch it again” So we did! Haha! Go Toro’s!!

Tomorrow I am going to the National Park so I hope to have lots of photos and be able to upload them tomorrow night when we go to Jan’s for dinner!

Galatians 5:25

Faction Marshall

Today was a pretty normal day at school. John came in for another visit and filled out some paperwork that I had to fax to the COE at Auburn. It is amazing that I can send something through a fax machine to the other side of the world and it comes out in HC 3464. I just think so much of technology is so crazy! Like text messages. This morning I got an email from my roommate back in Auburn. She had some wonderful news that she is now engaged!! I am so happy for her and Mark and I know they are just made for each other! Anyway, as soon as I got the email I texted Alice to see if the candle light had happened yet, she said they had just started chapter so it was coming! But, yea so I think it is so cool that I could send her that text message from the other side of the world and she could text me back immediately! 

Yesterday at school we had a staff meeting and I was appointed Faction Marshall for the swimming carnival next week! We have swimming lessons for all the kids in week 8 and 9 and I am looking forward to that. But next week, week 7 we have a swimming carnival where all the students compete in swimming events. Every student and teacher is put into a faction or team. We have green, gold, red and blue. I am in green faction and I hope we win on Wednesday! I’ll keep you posted on what happens. It should be a fun day because we spend the whole day at the pool!

Tonight we had dinner at Tracy’s aunt and uncle’s house. They reminded me of Sittie and Giddie and it really made me miss the family at home. We had a delicious meal and good family time. Tracy’s cousin Peter and his two sons came over as well. The boys are called Jackson and Thomas (they don’t really say, ‘their name is …’). Another thing that they say a lot over here is “cheeky”. When a kid is being cheeky, it means they are being silly or like a smart alec. The kids at school are always being cheeky, especially the little boys.

I have to be honest you guys are getting lazy with the comments and emails. I know it’s almost spring break time but I look forward to hearing from ya! Come on mate!

Peace and blessings, peace and blessings!

Psalm 18:30

Top 3 Favourites

Today we had parent interviews and I loved it! I really liked being able to sit in on the conferences and meet all the parents. Lots of them had compliments to throw my way which was nice! Connie had to remind me not to get a big head about it! One of the moms said that her daughter told me I was in her "top 3 favourite  teachers at the school but she didn't really know if I counted since I wasn't a real teacher yet" :) Anyway, it was a great day because the kids left at ten after 12 and then we had a nice lunch break and now we are done with the interviews. Kerrie Anne has a few more left so I decided to write in this while I waited on her.

Tonight I am going to Brittni and Ash's for dinner. They are such a cute couple and I am looking forward to dinner and bible study tonight. I think there will be some other people there from church that I haven't met yet so I that will be good to meet some more Aussies.

Earlier today I was talking to Connie about it being Ash Wednesday and we would call yesterday 'Fat Tuesday' She said that they call it Pancake Tuesday. Also I told her about Mardi Gras and back home we used to have King Cake at school and a everyone would wear purple, green and gold to celebrate. She said that Mardi Gras here is a celebration of the gay population. They have a parade and a big party but only the gays or gay supporters participate in it. She said that it is much bigger in Sydney but they have a smaller version in Perth.

I hope all is well at home! I got to skype with one of my best mates, Lauren this morning and luckily Amanda came home just as I was about to get off! I've been emailing her quite often but it was nice to see her! If anyone else wants to skype, please send me an email and we can set it up! Also, the phone thing really isn't that expensive. I put $10 on it two and half weeks ago and I still have minutes left!

Please continue to send me emails and comments to let me know how everything is going back home! I pray for y'all all the time and I can't wait to see you in just 6 short weeks!

1 John (cant remember the exact verse from this morning but I remember it was from this book)

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

Bali, Day 2

Today was pretty awesome. We went to the markets and got some great deals on lots of cool things! I got a pair of RayBan's for $5! Everything here is really cheap, I mean you have to barter with them but they will sell their stuff for really cheap because they need the business. It is actually kinda sad. When you are walking down the street, they will come up to you, usually saying something like "hey very pretty girl; charlie's angels; my hunny bunny" (those were our favorites from today). So you go to their little set up of merchandise and look through what you like while they are shoving stuff in your face and saying, "I give you very good price, good for me, good for you, very cheap". When you pick something and they say a price, you are supposed to say no and then say half of what they said. Then they say, "no lady, give me serious price" So then you say, "I am serious" and walk away. Then they come after you and say, "ok, ok I give it to you for that" Catie is the best at it. Catherine and I would ask her to help us so we could get good deals. I did a few on my own and got some pretty good things but I always got better deals when she was around. Everyone that we met thought we were Aussies so when we told them we were from America they said, "Oh yes, we love Barack Obama" haha

After we had a full day of shopping we walked around the beach and the city of Kuta a bit. I feel like I learned a lot today because I have never been to a third world country before. I think most people think that Bali is a tropical and beautiful place, but that is the complete opposite. I mean, the resorts and hotels are very nice but the beach and city are trashed and the people are very poor. There are stray dogs roaming the street and you can tell they are starving and have flees all over. The streets are filled with potholes and the sidewalks are all cracked and have holes in them, too. Also the weather here is so muggy and you are constantly sweating as soon as you leave the hotel. I am really glad that we came because it is an experience I will always remember. I also had a very cool War Eagle moment. Some Balinese woman in the market was wearing an Aubie Shirt!! Check out my facebook photos to see it!
Tonight we had dinner on the beach at a french restaurant while the sun was setting. It was pretty because we were far enough way so that we couldn't see the trash on the sand and we could focus on the beautiful sunset. Tomorrow we are going on a safari tour and we get to ride an elephant! I am so excited about that! It will pretty much take up the whole day and then we will head back to Perth. I will probably post again on Tuesday to let you know how the safari adventure went!

Thanks for all your prayers and support! Much love!

Hebrews 7:25

Bali, Indonesia

Hey Everyone! Wow, I feel like I have so much to say! So yesterday, Catie, Catherine and I left Perth to come to Bali for the weekend. We left Perth around 9:30 Friday night and got to Bali close to 1 a.m. We were the last flight to come in since Saturday started Nyepi Day. It is the Balinese New Year and a day of silence. All the Balinese people go back to their huts and spend the day in quiet and meditation with their family. The whole island is closed down, nothing on the TV or radio, lights are out, shops are closed, no taxis are running, I mean complete ghost town - we weren't even allowed to leave the hotel to go to the beach which is in walking distance away from the hotel. Anyway, they had lots of stuff going on at the hotel today so we had plenty of things to do. We woke up and went to the spa villa and got a massage, manicure, pedicure, body scrub and facial. It was so relaxing and much needed. After that we went to the restaurant by the pool and got some sandwiches and then went for a swim. They had a swim up bar which was pretty cool. By that time it was pretty much dinner time so we came back to the room to take showers and then we went to one of the restaurants in the hotel that had a Chinese buffet. I haven't had Chinese since I got here and I didn't realize how much I missed it! I felt like I should have tried some Indonesian food but the Chinese was delicious! After that we went to the Irish Pub that is also in the hotel. They said it was probably the only bar opened on the whole island. They had a Balinese band and when they said they take requests we asked if they knew how to play Sweet Home Alabama. And guess what?! They did! So we were sitting in an Irish Pub, at a hotel in Bali, listening to Sweet Home Alabama. It was priceless! I took a video of it and will try to post it on facebook soon. It was really funny with their accents -- Swee Tome Alahbama

They had a video shop by the pub that sells movies for 10000 rupiah which is about $1.50. We bought the movie 'Just Go With It' and we are watching it now. Basically, someone has gone to the movie theatre with a video camera and video-taped the whole movie. We can barely hear the movie because we hear the audience and the camera keeps moving around and cutting off the actor's heads. So they video-taped it and then burned it to a DVD put it in a fancy case that looks legit and sells it. Ha it's pretty funny to watch because we can still understand what is going on but its just really bad quality. I told Catherine she needs to keep it and show everyone back in the states.

So that is about it for now! Tomorrow we plan on going to the beach and going to the markets! All my Aussie friends have told me that I need to barter when I want to buy stuff in Bali so hopefully I can get some deals on stuff! I will try to write again tomorrow night. Also, I have uploaded some pics to facebook but I have a lot more to put up and I will try to do that soon. It takes a while to get them all uploaded so it may be later this week but no worries, you will see them all soon!

Peace and Blessings, Peace and Blessings!

1 Cor 1:23-24