At long last, the vacation recap, Part 1

I'm bummed because it took me so long to get around to this blog, I'm afraid that it won't be nearly as detailed (or interesting, for that matter) as I was hoping! If you've had a chance to look at our photos, you've got a general idea of the trip, for sure.

The main impetus for our big vacation this year was to go to Australia to visit our friends Kim and Will who have been living there since last February. Since we were already traveling 90% of the way there, Taylor really wanted to stop in Indonesia for a few days. Luckily, we were able to find tickets that worked from a timing perspective and weren't too expensive, so that's exactly what we did!

The first leg of our trip, getting to Indonesia, took 32 hours and involved 4 separate flights. You can imagine, then, that we were quite happy when we finally arrived in Indonesia on a Saturday evening :) We went straight to our hotel for a much needed shower and some relaxation. Taylor was absolutely bowled over when we arrived at the hotel and were greeted by a bell hop who said, and I quote, "Welcome Home." Apparently, he remembered us from our time there last year (which isn't altogether surprising because it's not too often that white people come stay at the hotel, especially not ones that speak English).

Here's a picture of Taylor with his Indonesian bell hop/best friend and he friend Dewa, who lives in Indonesia but is actually coming to America in about a month for a 9-month study program.

The next day, a couple other Taylor's friends from Indonesia, including Dewa, came to see us and take us up to his village, which is about an hour and a half outside of the city we were in, Surabaya. Taylor's village is near a town called Pacet. In Pacet, we stayed at this beautiful hotel called the Sativa. It really is like heaven on earth. Here are a few photos:



Shortly after checking in to our hotel, Tutik, one of our friends, came back to take us to Taylor's school. They had planned their graduation ceremony around our visit, which didn't seem like a big deal when I originally heard that since it's a small school, but it turns out that the school has grown considerably since Taylor left and the ceremony was a really big deal! Not to mention, we actually ended up being the guests of honor on account of the fact that Taylor and his Dad had decided jointly to sponsor a scholarship every year for his school. We were actually there to present the scholarship to the three recipients. It was quite humbling, since they called us up on stage and the recipients were really happy and one of them even cried. To give you an idea, the scholarship is for $600 and pays for the first year of college for all three students.

Here we are with the recipients!

The graduation was about 5 hours long, most of which was in Indonesian, so I can't say I remember a whole lot, but it was a really great experience to get to be a part of such a momentous occasion. The ceremony ended at about 11pm, so we just went straight home to bed.

The next day was Monday, and we spent most of the day relaxing at our hotel and getting lunch with Tutik and her sister. I experienced my first motorcycle ride on Monday, here I am putting on my helmet. Thanks to my Michigan upbringing, being on a bike is old hat by now :)

We had lunch at this place that Taylor absolutely loved. Basically, they are a fish hatchery where you can catch your own fish and then they cook it for you. We caught a few fish each and then sat down to our meal. Taylor had been raving about the food ever since he first had it, so I was pretty pumped to try it out. That is, until I found out that you have to eat with your hands and that the fish comes out with the bones and all and you have to actually pull the meat right off the bones! Taylor enjoyed it thoroughly, as you can see, but I was a little dubious.


But, I warmed up to it eventually:


Monday was fairly low key so I'll move on to Tuesday :) On Tuesday, we headed up to Taylor's school and village. When Taylor was in Indonesia, he taught at the school and lived abotu a 10 minute walk away in a village called Kembang Belor. We first stopped at his school for some photos and to visit some of Taylor's fellow teachers. Then, we headed up to Kembang Belor with his former Principal, our friend Tutik, and a former student. It's kind of funny actually, Taylor's old Principal actually moved his family of five into the house that Taylor had lived in by himself!

When we got to Taylor's village, EVERYONE started coming out of their houses, alleyways, you name it, to see him! He was like a celebrity! His first stop was his old friend who owns the village store (which is an exaggeration, it's actually more of a storefront). We took some photos with him and his family before heading toward Taylor's old house (and his boss's current house).

Taylor's neighbors, too, were very excited to see us, and many many people came out to say hello. I can't recount what they say, since of course I don't speak Indonesian :) But I think the basic gist is, "Where are you living?" "Who is this blonde lady with you?" "Is she pregnant yet?" "How long will you stay?"

After greeting everyone, we made a next very important stop. I had the best coffee of my life when I visited Indonesia and stopped at the home of this woman in his village who charged 10 cents for a cup of instant coffee. In fact, the photo at the top of this blog is me drinking her coffee. I was very eager to go back there! When we went there, about 30 kids from the village followed us right in to her living room. I don't know how she and her husband felt about it, but they were very gracious and they gave us the coffee for free :)

After coffee, we went back to Mr. Cecep's house, where his wife whipped up some DELICIOUS donuts for us :) We entertained ourselves with her adorable little daughter Izza, who is learning English and Indonesian and loves to show it off :)

Later that afternoon, we headed back to our hotel to relax.

With that, i'm going to take a break from this blog and will resume soon with tales of our time in Australia!