Day Seven

It's been a whole week already. It has gone by so fast, but also so slow in so many ways. To think back to landing seems like months ago already, but I also have been filling my days with so much that each day goes by quickly. So strange.

So last night, again you guessed it, I went out on Ubud town. Ina picked me up on her bike and we ate dinner at a little cafe called Loba Loba on Jalan Hanoman. It was pretty tasty, I got the Nasi Goreng, which surprisingly was my first since arriving. We planned to go to a wedding after dinner, but the ceremony had finished and was only an after party. We still decided to go and check it out. It was kinda boring really. You could pick the wedding party because they were wearing all white. The bride was wearing something that would resemble a hens night outfit. Short, white, flowy dress with some embroidered stuff around the neckline. Not traditional looking at all, and a little veil that looked so flashy with diamontes and stuff. They were all dancing in a nightclub called XL, just near the football field in Ubud. And by football, they mean soccer or course. Almost all Ubudians will refer to a location based on the distance from the field, so it's an important place to note. :)

So, after XL, we move to CP again. Don't ask me why all these places have two letters as names, but they are fun anyway. CP is my favourite though, so many people there every night, but not in a busy way, and you are guaranteed to meet someone new each night, but all the ones you met on previous nights are there too and are so friendly and remember you. It's amazing.

I didn't drink as much last night- maybe three bintangs for the whole night. And let me stress, by 'whole night' i really mean whole night. Once again, I am being brought to my villa by the property security at 4.30am... the security men are so funny and nice though, they always try to practice their english and ask me about my night.

Which brings us to today. Because I didn't drink much last night, I got up at about 9.30 and Ina and I planned to go to the beach with Carla and our French friend Charly. Charly speaks maybe 12 words of english. It's the funniest thing though. As Ina would say, 'all of the non-english speaking countries in the world will try and learn English, but the French- they don't bother." haha.

Charly cracked me up today so many times, but the stand out conversation went a little something like this...We were trying to explain the word tiger, which he understands, in french 'tigre' I think, but Ina's pronunciation of Tiger sounds more like tiga, which of course is the Indonesian word for three. So We all giggle, but this is not where its funny yet. So Charly is laughing and going 'oh yeh, satu (one), tiga (three), dua (two)...". I go to correct him, and say "no, no Charly, satu, dua ,tiga". And he looks at me and says..."Tiger". Zero comprehension.

Maybe it's funnier in person, rather than writing, but I'm still laughing hours later just thinking about it. Anyway, I should explain more of the context too. We went to Sanur beach today. It was so ice, still a bit overcast but it was perfect Bali beach weather really, because it wasn't blistering hot, but it also didn't rain. The water wasn't cold, and I even swam in the ocean for a while which I really don't enjoy doing at home. Charly took Carla home at about 6, and Ina and I waited in Sanur, jsut strolling the beach street and stalls waiting for the night markets to start. The markets were kinda small but we had fun anyway. I bought two dresses that are the pretty much the same style as one Ina was wearing the other night. They are nice, and I haggled with the lady to get two for about...9AUD I think. And I didn't haggle very hard either because I wasn't really in the mood for it. But I like my dresses. :)

Now I am back at the villa. I think I have decided to have a night in. Have my first starfish staff meeting tomorrow morning at 10, so need some rest to get up early for it. Also have an even bigger event tomorrow... Jess and Ali will be flying in at midday roughly and I will make the trip to Kuta to meet them. I am so excited to see them here, it's going to be crazy!

Something I am starting to notice about being here... even though it's only been a week, 90% of the people I talk to have english as a second language, and have some pretty intense accents. Because of this... I feel like my english has changed so much. It's gotten really crap, because I have toned down my vocab and whatnot to communicate better. It's funny, and bad. Last night at CP I met a whole group of aussies, and I could hear them talking across the bar and picked it straight away. Such a crass and lazy sounding accent... I hate to think I sound like this all the time to my new friends. No, I always tell myself us Adelaidians are far more british in decent, right?? hahaha The Aussies last night were fun, nice people. All from Melbourne, and also turns out one of them is the bar manager at Northcote Social Club, and has been for 5 years. Which means, Stephy if you are reading this on your own wild adventure of europe right now... he totally served us that vodka tomato at the Pictures gig... bahaha, he said he was there that night. ;)

Ok... I might upload some of my photos to facebook. Missing all my family and friends at home, and a special hello/happy travels wish to Stephy and Matt on their way to Europe, and Jess and Ali on their way to ME! :) Selamat Tidur!

xx