Day Three

Well, my drunk blog was reasonably coherent, which is good coz I didn’t really want to have to explain it all again. The follow up to that post was sleep. Like, 9 hours of sleep. I think it was an accumulation of flight tiredness, and having a big second day didn’t help either. It was one of the best sleeps I have had in so long. I’m really starting to get used to this villa as well. Although I would have never admitted it before, I was feeling a bit worried about the place, because it is so big and I’m alone I was scared something might go wrong and I wouldn’t be able to handle it. But each day I’m getting better here, feeling more relaxed and at home.

I think I am getting acclimatised to the weather here too. Let me explain how the weather works (oh yes, it’s that complicated).

-Early morning is nice, fresh, kinda smelly, and there is a lot of low fog around the jungle of my house. It’s just beautiful and eerie at the same time, but nevertheless a lovely time of the say to enjoy outdoors.

-Mid morning: warming up a little, people are moving around a lot more.

-Midday: Pretty hot and sticky by now. Some days are quite overcast which makes it even more humid. You could just be sitting down in a café and still feel like you’re sweating a bit. If there is more sun out, like today, the humidity is pretty bareable, and at the same time it’s not too hot. A lot different from what I have experienced on my previous trips where it’s just so hot you feel like you’re melting. I think Ubud is the difference too.

-Afternoon: Usually stays quite warm, but at 3pm (or thereabouts) everyday so far, RAIN! Like, a lot of rain. Maybe not torrential, but big, heavy drops of rain for a couple of hours at least. Everything smells fresh, but only after the rotting kind of smell subsides. I’ve been caught in this rain two of the three days I’ve been here, both times on a motorbike. It’s tolerable, I think I almost enjoy it just because I’m new to it still. Everybody probably thinks I’m crazy. I kinda am anyway J

-Evenings and Night- Ubud gets really dark, really quick. There are no real idyllic sunsets like on the coast, and because of the varied altitude (?? I think that’s the word I need), you can’t really see a lot of the sky from any one spot, everything is sloping rice fields and jungle, or buildings. So when the sun starts to drop, it’s gone pretty quickly. Usually everything is still wet so it’s pretty damp feeling all around. The insects make a lot of noise at this time too...

It probably seems a little indecent to be talking about the weather here and calling it complex when there are still people recovering from the floods and now bracing for Cyclone Yasi, but I am currently watching one of the IndoSat channels called AUstralia News and they are doing live updates.

Anyway, today was pretty hectic again, although I slept through my alarm and only woke up at midday. I walked to Starfish for the first time from my villa, which is surprisingly a decent walk. Nobody stopped me once to offer transport or to sell me anything, which will surprise some of you because it's not that way at all in Kuta or Seminyak. 

Spent the afternoon helping to write up some text for a brochure and poster that the centre is going to distribute soon to bring in some more paying/expat students. It looks ok right now, should have it finished by tomorrow. Also need to work on some lesson plans for Green School, but that will have to happen tomorrow at this stage. I've only been here 3 days and already I have quite a bit to do, which is awesome, but I can see how Dagmara must stress so much because she would have 20 times more things to worry about. 

Ina and I then taught a beginners english class, because the other teacher has gone away for a few months. They were so adorable- excited to learn, which is so new and almost confusing for me to deal with! Then we went for lunch at a warung on Jalan Hanoman. Had the best Mie Goreng of my life... so far. I think I'll try it in a few other places here too... :) 

Afterwards, we got caught in the rain again on our way to and from Bintang supermarket, because we got some groceries for dinner. Ina has been here for 5 months, from Germany, and she was so excitd when she saw my kitchen because she hasn't had one. She said she loves cooking and so we decided to have dinner here tonight so she can cook. Well, we went and got groceries right, probably enough spaghetti bolognaise to feed about 4 people. The total bill was like...90,000RP. Relatively cheap yeh, maybe like $11 AUD, but this would be enough for about 7 decent meals in a restaurant, and much larger portions too. In simpler terms, eating in restaurants in ubud= far, far cheaper than cooking for yourself. That's my kid of lifestyle right there...

Anyway, Ina is on her way now, and I'm going to start cooking the pasta. Should probably change clothes too... Photo's soon, i promise... :)