Day One

So finally.... I am here! Guess I should start at the beginning of the day.

Started super early, waking up at 4.30am. Mum, Dave and I all headed to the airport to be checked in by 6.30am. No problems at Adelaide airport, little bit of a line/wait but no dramas really. Had a tasty breakfast (please refer to a facebook photo from this morning), bought myself a puzzle book, then it was over to customs.

I know I'm a wuss and all, but I started to get those creepy-uppy feelings of being mega alone at this point. And let me just stress to you, I wasn't even on the plane yet. Yup, still sitting in Adelaide airport, and feeling as though I was already a world away. Once the plane was boarding though, all those thoughts had disappeared- it also helped that almost every single person I spoke to today was extra nice, the man at immigration asked if I'd like a stamp to collect, because you don't really need one when you leave. Hell yeh I want that stamp Mister.

So, on the plane- didn't have any issues, the Virgin flight staff were as amazing as I had come to expect. I will fly with them whenever it is feasibly an option, such an easy way to travel. Anyway, 4 and a half hours later and we are flying down the tarmac at Ngurah Rai Airport, and as far as travel time goes, it felt like the fastest trip I've taken to Bali or back ever. Kept myself well occupied with magazines, free foxtel and my Book Club book.

Once we were inside the airport, I walked straight past VOA (which was a really nice feeling actually) and in doing so bypassed all the people who had pushed past me in the corridor so that they could get out first. I still don't really get the whole pushiness thing. Seriously, we were the only flight that landed people?? Well, straight to immigration and I swear the exact same man has called me up to his incredibly high counter top as last years trip. And possibly the year before as well. Either that or all three of these men have the same "No polite responses, and absolutely no smiling at the foreigners" policy. It's definitely not airport-wide because the customs guy a the exit was nice- even after I couldn't understand him asking me if I was alone. Oops, and thank you to the older Indonesian gentleman behind me for helping me with the translation :)

Outside, not so hot. I guess that's easy to say seeing as it was 41 degrees back home. It's a sticky kind of hot, but not a lot of actual sun, and heaps of cloud cover. And after finding my driver and then waiting at the airport entrance for another half hour to pick up another volunteer called Carla, we realised the cloud cover was getting thicker and heavier. And yup... it's been raining pretty much ever since we hit Ubud.

Spent most of the afternoon (from 12.45-5pm) at the Starfish Language School. Dagmara is one of the friendliest/busiest/most amazingly inspirational people I have met. Tomorrow morning we have planned to go to Green School to take on some ESL students and run some lessons. We are also going out for dinner tonight with Ina (another one of the teachers) and Carla. Should be fun, but I am soooo hungry!

Ah, but here's the fun part- my new home! Dagmara drove me to the Villa on the back of her bike. I imagined being on the back of a bike out here to be really scary, but I found it to be really nice- I was hardly holding on and had my hand luggage and all. I think I might be looking into a little, low-powered scooter myself, which will make getting to the school easier, and to the shops and restaurants of course ;) Don't freak out Mum and Dad, I'll be super careful!

The villa is just as amazing as the photos on the website though, if not better in many ways because I think the website makes the rooms look a lot smaller than they really are. It's super spacious, the pool looks amazing, the furniture is lovely, the bed is comfy! I couldn't have asked for anything more here... Looking forward to my first night here, should be interesting too since I just saw the biggest Gekko in the world. Literally, it could have been a baby goanna. And it's in my villa.... somewhere. :)