Day at the Beach

The lounge chairs where women come by and give you a
pedicure, manicure or massage right on the beach

Today we headed to Sanur, the closest beach to Ubud.  Gede, our driver knew of a quiet beach that was perfect.  There were almost no waves, there were lounge chairs you could rent, a small restaurant right on the beach, a nice bathroom and a gelato stand.  The boys enjoyed playing in the sand with a British boy and a local boy making dribble castles.  There was also a small man-made island that we swam to that had a couple of pagodas to hang out in.  It was great to swim in warm water and play on the beach.

After heading home, we ended up walking through the rice paddies over to Sari Organik, a restaurant and organic farm located in the rice paddies about 800 m from the closest street.  This fixed a major calorie deficit that was causing a case of extreme grumpiness in the boys.  On the walk home, Henry said to me, "Mom, if someone who smokes asks you for money, you should never give them money because they might buy Tabasco Sauce."   

Green School

Henry's Classroom

The boys seem to be enjoying school.  Henry is in Pre K and he goes 3 full days a week.  The school day is from 8:15-3:15, a long day for him so we decided to just do 3 days a week.  This also gives us 2 days with just him which are rare and we have been enjoying.  After his first day, he said that he gave it 103 million thumbs up.  There are about 15-18 kids in his class with about 3 teachers and an intern or two. It is a play based program with different areas set up around the class.  They also have music time, library time, green studies and maybe more.  Time will tell and we are still learning.  He told me that he traced his body, went to the library and that his class will soon have their own offering boxes for the daily offerings that are made in Bali.

The swings made out of old tires with Henry's class in the background

Owen's class. They have garden beds in front of their class,
lemongrass growing along the walkway and it is open air.

All the furniture is bamboo and the whiteboard is a car window

Owen is in Grade 2B.  There are a lot of second graders so there are 2 second grades.  He is in the class that is boy heavy, currently with 8 boys and 3 girls but 2 twin girls will be coming in February and one other girl may be returning while we are here, but they just found out that the mom has lung cancer so they may stay in Australia for medical care.  Initially, I was bummed that he ended up in this class given that Owen tends to connect with girls more, but he has made friends and likes his teacher a lot.  When I asked what he thought of his class after the first day, he said, "Ibu Sara (his new teacher) is great".  They just started a unit on "Saints and Sages" that is built around fictional stories and the lives of a selected number of saints and sages taken from Christian and Hindu traditions.  The intended learning will be around the values these people lived by that made them such respected and honorable citizens. 

The Honey Pot, the circle time area of the classroom

 

 

All of the classes at the Green School have at least one Indonesian teacher and one other head teacher that may or may not be Indonesian.  In addition, there is a large specialist staff for PE, Green Studies, Performing Arts, Indonesian Studies, Music, Outdoor Games, Computer Lab, Library and Visual Arts.  

The rice paddy that Owen's class is in charge of.  They haven't
harvested the rice that was planted last semester.

Green School Warung

After dropping the boys off at their classrooms, we usually hang out for a bit at the Green School Warung (cafe) and get a coffee and a snack and socialize with other parents.  Some parents seem to hang out here much of the day using the wifi and socializing.  The older kids also come here at snack time to buy a snack if they have been given some money.  Owen insists that we give him 10-20K rupiah (1-2$) a day so he can get snack.  The pre K class stays at their classroom and eating area for both snack and lunch. 

In the foreground is the 4th grade and a bathroom, in the middle
are the solar panels and in the background is the Heart of School
building that houses the library, a couple high school classes,
the administrative offices and the lunch area.

Settling In

We have now been in Bali for one week and it feels like a lot longer than that. The first couple of days were filled with the feeling of overload, so much newness to take in and so little knowledge about how things worked.  We had yet to meet other families and were parenting 24/7 with little time to figure out how to get things done.  Now that school has started and we are starting to settle into life here, it feels less overwhelming now than it did just 3 days ago.  


Living the expat life has been a trip.  The shared common experience seems to bring people together very fast and people put all their cards on the table.  We have already been invited to dinner at a friend's house, are planning weekends away and one of Owen's friends already wants a sleep over.  So far we have been hanging out the most with a family from Mendocino that just moved here after selling the bed and breakfast that they owned there, a family from Bend, OR who have been here for 2.5 years and the dad works at the school and a family from El Cerrito who have been her for 2 months.  We have also met families from England, Australia, DC, Moscow and more.  Many of the families at the Green School have lived elsewhere in Asia before coming to Bali and are familiar with the life of an expat that is unfolding for us.  

Our neighbor is Paul, a Canadian who lived in the house we are staying in for 7 months before building his own place next door.  He was the one who set up the wifi for us, introduced us to who he claims is the best masseuse in Bali and who let us babysit Abby, his dog this evening to give the boys a dog fix since they have been missing Luna.  

Wired and settling in

We arrived in Bali on the night of January 6th.  It wasn't until the next morning that we realised we were living in a great spot.  Owen woke up and said, "I love Bali".  This was a huge switch from his fairly constant moans about going to Bali and his numerous schemes on how to derail the trip.

The picture above is the view from our house.  We live at the end of Jalan Kajeng, about a block up a hill from where it becomes a walking path.  It is a great respite from the bustle of town and the traffic noises of lots of motorbikes and cars.   Instead, we are serenaded nightly by frogs, cicadas, geckos and the sound of the wind through the palm trees and woken up in the morning by the crowing of roosters and the barking of dogs.  

We just got wifi at the house so now that we are connected, I imagine we will be able to give you more frequent updates and more pictures to come when Henry isn't asking me to play with him.

Hong Kong

We are now in Hong Kong after 14 hours on the plane.  The boys were fantastic, but sleep was limited.  We arrived in our room at the YMCA just in time for the light show on the Victoria Harbour and then fell fast asleep until an early wake up at 2:30 am.  We watched the Rose Bowl from 2:30-5 am and were happy to find out that the swimming pool opened at 6:30 am. The rest of the day we spent walking around, playing at Kowloon Park, more swimming and Rock telling stories about Earl and Ray, two fisherman in a small row boat in the harbor that had multiple close calls with ferries, tug boats, barges and cruise ships.  The boys were laughing up a storm and luckily this was enough entertainment to keep them awake until dinner time. Hopefully we will post a picture of Ray and Earl's boat (really only a speck on the water) once we find the cord to the camera since that has been the highlight of the day so far.

We are looking forward to seeing our friend Heather tomorrow who happens to be in Hong Kong right now and sleeping past 2:30 am.  

One Day to Go!

Here we go.  We are all packed, moved out of our house, renters moved in, clothes for the plane set out and movies for the plane loaded.  It has been a whirlwind of holidays, packing and cleaning to prepare for tomorrow, but it is finally here and our adventure begins.  4 large bags, 4 carry ons, 15 hours en route to Hong Kong, 3 nights in Hong Kong and then 6 months in Bali.

We will miss you all and cherish the family and friends in our lives.  Saying goodbye, although only a temporary goodbye has really brought to light how wonderful our community of friends is and how lucky we feel to have you all in our lives. 

I am feeling too exhausted right now to write more, but it felt like a monumental day that need to be documented on the blog. 

22 days to go!

Just practicing putting in photos

Owen asked me today "how long until we leave for Bali?"  "About 3 weeks," I said.  "No, how many days exactly," he responded.  "Well 22."  "That is horrifying," he said.  "I am feeling pretty excited," I countered.  Ahhh, the range of emotions running through our house these days.

With only a little over three weeks (22 days to be exact) before we leave, emotions are running high.  The last couple of weeks have put us through a test.  Our renters backed out, both of our cars stopped working, our washing machine broke, the new washing machine had to be delivered 3 times before they were able to install it so it functioned and we found out that we needed to get a visa ahead of time after all.

All of these issue have been resolved, well, our visa approval is supposed to come on Tuesday.  Although, it was a stressful patch, it seemed to have served a useful purpose.  Rock and I are ready to get out of here!   

We are starting to believe it will really happen.  The house is almost ready and we are about 75% packed.  Since we will be in Philo and then Wisconsin over the holiday break, we are trying to have almost everything done by this coming Friday.  Wish us luck!