I found enough videos on my phone to make a compilation of our adventures in Indonesia over the past two years. It’s a little bitter sweet to watch as we approach our last week here.
Enjoy!
Tag Archives: dance
End of Year Performance
Our school had an End of Year Performance today. Ellie opened her class performance with a traditional Indonesian dance. She had practiced the moves for weeks and did great!
Later my high school students performed Beauty and The Beast, and Ellie and I watched. The students painted the backdrops and created all the props by hand. You could see the natural talent some of them had when singing and acting. It was a lot of fun to watch! Then afterward Ellie had the opportunity to take a picture with Belle… And she was in heaven.
Mother’s Day
Seth spoiled me for Mother’s Day (weekend). Eliana spent the night at a friend’s house and we spent an evening out in Jakarta. This may sound strange to spend the night away from my child on the eve of Mother’s Day, but it was actually precisely what we as a couple needed.
After checking into our hotel room, we started the night having dinner at Marche, then Seth bought me a stunning white dress at Mango (picture Greek goddess). We arrived at Dragonfly (the nightclub) around 11:00 and had a few (or four) glasses of wine. The club decor and people were incredibly beautiful, so the two hours of time killing flew by with all the eye candy.
Kaskade started around 1:00 am. By then we had claimed a nice space on raised dance floor, above a private party of Ukrainian models and their promoters/managers. They had countless bottles of liquor on their table and we had empty glasses. So naturally, we placed our glasses on their table. Lo and behold, a few minutes later, the glasses were magically filled, so we picked them back up as slyly as possible. Their reaction? A smile and a thumbs up. We repeated this 4 times with a total of 5 free drinks! Score!
Drink Ninja
Kaskade played for almost three hours! This is quite a long set for a DJ, and we were thrilled with his choices, although a bit surprised with how much dubstep he included. Excellent show nonetheless. To get an idea of his music, here is our favorite song …
Her first performance
Eliana had her first big sing song performance today. Her class read, acted and sang parts of the book “The Hungry Caterpillar”. Ellie was suppose to read a line but pretty much froze every time it was her turn to speak during dress rehearsal last week. Her frantic teacher came to me asking what to do. Can she do something else? I asked. And from then, Ellie became a butterfly.
They performed in the mall for an educational showcase event. They were pretty damn cute if I do say so myself… I took a 6+ minute video that may or may not upload to the Internet. In the meantime, here are some pictures of her all dressed up.
The Parental Visit
… Is going swimmingly well!
Welcome to the rainy season
If it’s going to rain every evening for the next six months, we might as well enjoy it!
Ubud is Magical
We spent the day in Ubud buying art, and eating amazing food (specifically roasted Balinese beef, ox tail soup, and tofu and tempe empanadas). We started the day with a visit to the Bali Bird Park, which was impressive. Then we rounded out the day with a kecek dance. YouTube it for the full effect, or better yet, get your ass to Bali and see it first hand. It’s worth it.
Two Weeks in Bali
We’re going back. Some may ask, but aren’t you living in Bali? Oh no, my friend, we most certainly are not. We live in Bogor, West Java. We may be living in the same country as Bali, but on a completely different island, surrounded by a completely different religion and culture.
We love Bali. Love! Luuuuurve. And we are so beyond excited to return for two full and uninterrupted weeks of pure vacation. As a reminder, the last time we were in Bali, I worked the entire time (plus prepared my graduate portfolio for my master’s degree). Albeit I had a few chances to get out and explore, I was most certainly not on vacation.
Now, back to these two beautiful weeks we have to look forward to… We’ve had thoughts about trying to make it over to the Gilis. We have talked about these islands non-stop for the past year, have great referrals on where to stay and how to get there, but haven’t made the jump quite yet in reserving anything. You see, it can add up a bit, island hopping. And we’re on a budget. But we like to go with the flow, so we’re open to whatever unfolds.
We want to spend more time in Ubud. We will be staying in Sanur again, but we’ve only had a couple of days in Ubud and it’s just magical there. I’m hoping to get in a Wayang puppet show and a legit Kecek dance. Any chance to hear more gamelan music, we’ll get. We also want to pick up some art in the traditional markets to help decorate our home in Bogor.
I’m sure there are more waterfalls to see. Food to taste. We definitely want to see more of the westside of the island, specifically Canggu and Seminyak. Seth hasn’t experienced the most southern tip of the Bukit (specifically Balangan Beach), so I’m excited to take him there.
Ellie’s priority is deciding which barbie to take and to be able to “swim all by myself”. Swimming has really become important to her, which is great, of course. We just need to squeeze in a few more lessons before she’s really able to jump in the deep end (without us scrambling and jumping in after her).
So get ready, friends and family, for a feast of the eyes. The fun starts Sunday!
Bali or Bust 