Friday, December 30, 2011

First of the Bali Videos!

Here's some clips of Balinese dance. I'll be updating this post with additional videos as I finish editing them. 






Thursday, December 29, 2011

Back Home in Singapore

So, we flew home to Singapore yesterday. It was kind of weird leaving the airport because Singapore really does feel like home now. The winter decorations (because apparently they aren't just for Christmas) are still up, which is nice. We opened the rest of our Christmas presents yesterday as well.

WE GOT A SEWING MACHINE!

That means I can learn to sew cosplays and lolita! Yup, I'm a nerd!

I'm going to be dealing with photos today, hopefully get some up today or tomorrow :)

Short post is short. Sorry about that. 

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Danced the Day Away

Wow, I can't believe that today was my last full day in Bali. As usual, I got a late start. My dad went walking around towards some rice paddies this morning so he didn't join my mom and I for breakfast. Mom and I did some shopping around Ubud before ending up at Starbucks. No matter where you go in th world, you can count on Starbucks to have your cup of coffee. Anyways, we went to the Ubud Museum after that, where I took a Balianese dance class. The dance style here is angular- that's the best way to describe it. Elbows up, knees bent, everything at a 90 degree angle. The teacher was really good, though towards the end he started making the dance more difficult on me. By the end, a reasonable number of people ended up watching which was rather embarassing. It is fun to have an audience though.

We ended up going to the same restaurant we had dinner at a week ago for lunch. It was pretty good but I got this weird tamarind-coconut juice that I could have skipped. Oh well. The shops around Ubud are really interesting because they have a lot of small arts and crafts that are easy to take back.

When we got back to the hotel, my mom and I went to the spa. She got a pedicure for the first time in her life and I got a massage. We figured that our hotel has the "Best Hotel Spa 2011" or something like that, so it would be worth going to. We both enjoyed our spa treatments. The weird thing about massages is that afterwards I felt like I was going to fall over. I don't know why that happpens, but whatever.

This evening we've been playing the infuriating game of "How Do We Shove All the Stuff We Bought Into Our Suitcases?!?!?!" . Overall we've done pretty well. Hopefully not too much repair work will be necessary back home.

I loved Bali. There's something strangely enchanting about this island, I think it's that the authentic culture still permeates that air. The people are also really proud of their culture and smile a lot.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Shopping in Bali is Really Something

Our second-to-last day in Bali was really busy, which shouldn't be much of a surprise. We sort of got a late start, but it was fine. We had a driver today (you do not want to drive in Bali) who first dropped us off at the Bird Park. The bird park was small compared to Jurong, but it had a lot of rare birds from all over the road anyways. There were some really pretty birds- and some strange ones. I took some mediocre photos. And some funny ones of Mom with two birds on her.
After the very hot walk around the bird park, we went to Singapadu to look at the stone carvings. They were too large and heavy to bring back, but they were fun to look at. Overall, I'd say Balinese carvings are pretty, but really creepy at night when they cast shadows.

We went to another silver village after the stone carving. Mom got a lizard pin and I got a pretty bracelet. This place had more Balianese designs than the other shoppe we visited- it was nice to see.

The last main thing we did was go to an Art Market. While on the exterior it seems horribly touristy, farther in there is some really beautiful artwork. We bought a lot of stuff there including some picture frames for the paintings we got. I also got some stuff for people back in the States.

Sorry this post is all about shopping, but that's all I really did today. When I get back I'm going to post lots of videos and also figure out how to post mutiple photos on this blog or through another site. Bali is fun to write (and hopefully read) about, but you really have to see it to believe it!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

My Very Merry Elephant-y Christmas

Aw, the title of this blog post rhymed so well until the whole "elephant-y" part. Whatever.

Instead of drinking eggnog around a fire beside a tree, my parents and I went to the Elephant Park. They have like 30 Asian elephants from Sumatra, which is very cool. 3 were born in 2009. The first thing we did was actually take an elephant safari around the park. I was by myself on a relatively small elephant while my parents were together on a larger one. It was really a lot of fun, though it took some getting used to. The forest was really nice and there were lots of pretty butterflies. Afterwards there was an elephant show, but as it started pouring rain, ended early. So, instead of going inside or something remotely logical, my family went to meet and feed a baby elephant. She was named Riski and her birth is apparently on YouTube. Riski was very cute. Petting her head was strange because elephant hair feels like wire. As we were quite hungry after feeding Riski, we had lunch and visited the massive gift shop. I got a Batik plushy elephant... If you can figure out how to leave a comment, suggest a name! We then visited the elephant museum, which was quite interesting, before heading back to the hotel.

At the hotel, I visited the spa and got a Cream Hair Bath while my parents were researching things to do. It wasn't just getting goo in my hair and having it be washed out- it was a whole scalp massage and such. Apparently it's Indonesian, but frankly I don't care if it works.

Dinner was at a place called NOmad, and was super amazing. There was a duo playing music (drumming and saxophone) that made the whole environment more Christmas-y. Food was really good too.

So, it might not have been the picturesque white Christmas with holly, but I think it was a pretty good one anyways.

Happy Christmas, everyone <3

Saturday, December 24, 2011

I Didn't Get Eaten by a Shark

I love sports that involve a board, and surfing is no exception. I had so much fun today- so far it's the highlight of the trip!

We took a very long (1 hour) drive to Rip Curl School of Surf for Mom and I to take a beginner class. After gearing up, we lugged the heavy boards down to the beach. The surf wasn't particulary rough to start, but it didn't matter because we sat on the beach and talked about theory quite a bit. We started out just getting used to pushing up on the board and coming back to the shore. It's really not that hard and the instructors were really helpful. Eventually, though, it was time to learn how to stand up, which isn't quite as easy. Mom stood up like once before she decided she wasn't strong enough to keep going. Despite going in early, she still gets +100 Awesome Mom Points for trying.

However, I managed to stand up properly on my second attempt and rode the little wave all the way back to shore. Then, of course, I had to lug the stupid thing back into the water, which is more tiring than anything else. I'm pretty certain I stood up more than usual because one of the instructors ended up dragging my out pretty far to catch some slightly bigger waves. Dancer balance is apparently very useful when trying to surf.

After surfing we went for lunch, but I think I was overheated because I felt pretty sick. I don't know if it's the food or something but I've been kind of off all week. Oh, well.

This evening we had Christmas dinner at the hotel, which was nice. Dad and I had a pretty traditional meal of turkey, ham, potatoes and corn, while Mom had ribs. Everything was very good. There was live traditional music being played during dinner. Then, there was dancing.

The first dance was a fire dance, which was interesting. Essentially, two men twirled sticks and did martial-art like movements as the sticks burned. They also were drinking some sort of fuel and spraying it out of their mouths, creating a burst of flame into the air. Very cool, but we have no idea what fuel they were using. Sure hope it wasn't something really nasty.
The second dance we saw was more Legong dancing, but by young-ish girls. They were probably 11-12 years old and very, very good. Their first dance was quite traditional, but the second one used different music and movements that clearly had Western influence. I was very impressed with those girls. It looked pretty difficult. It was really nice to see Legong dancing how it is traditionally done (by young girls).

So now, off to bed. Happy Christmas, everyone!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Nothing Went Up in Smoke

Today was a really busy, action packed day. We got up early to go to the cooking class, which was a lot of fun. It started out with a trip to a real Balianese market. Even though Bali is pretty touristy, there are still some places that are mostly untouched by the industry. This market was really special. It wasn't clean and the road wasn't well paved, but I think that was part of the charm. A woman ate almost a whole spicy pepper, but it sort of made her sick. I'm going to put a video together for the market. It was pretty special.

Then the group (there were 7 other people taking the cooking class with us, five were from Singapore) was driven to a Balianese house where the cooking class was actually held. We all did one step or another in preparing the meal. Everyone chopped spices and vegetables up. The Singaporean mother (her husband and 3 kids were there) made rice, and was pretty amazed there was no rice cooker. I stirred the soup as various things were thrown into the pot. It was a group project, creating a relatively complex meal.

The meal itself, and the work that goes into making it, are both amazing. The Balianese like their food spicy instead of sweet like most of Indonesia. So, the meal had hot parts, which was very tasty. I liked grinding peanuts to make peanut butter for the peanut sauce-it was so different from just opening a jar. Coconut oil is the main cooking oil of the food here, and each family makes their own. It is incredibly fragrant and quite flavourful. It also takes a very long time to make, but that really doesn't seem to bother anyone. Everything was really natural. We helped make everything, and gained a lot of respect for what goes into the food the Balianese eat on special occasions.

Before we ate, we learned about the Balianese religion and how they give offerings. Basically, it's a flower with various things representing the 3 main Hindu gods in it. Then, food is offered. The offering is placed in various areas around the temple, and holy water is thrown on it. Women do this in their home temples, and their town temples too. They spend like an hour doing this every single day. I have no idea how they don't get tired of doing this at some point or another. Maybe they do.

This evening we finally saw Legong dancing at the Ubud Palace. It is one of the most enchanting dance forms I've ever seen. It had striking similarities to Indian dance, such as precise eye movement and interesting positioning of the hands. It is quick, but graceful and flowing at the same time. Take it from a dancer- it doesn't look easy, and I'm sure mastering it takes years.

In the same show there was the Barong (Barung?) dancing, which is basically a Chinese lion dance, Balianese style. So instead of focusing on tricks like the Chinese, the focus was on small movements to match the tempo of the music. It was quite nice, but to be honest I prefer the Chinese lion dances.

Now I'm back at the hotel. It's time for bed... I wouldn't want to be tired for my SURFING LESSON TOMORROW!!!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Greetings From Bali

Wow, I've been a lazy butt in terms of updating my blog. Sorry about that. Anyways, I'm having a pretty good time in Bali overall. On the first day here my whole family went on a bird-seeing walk. We got to go to the rice paddies and the nearby forest. Now, I don't have my computer so I won't be posting photos and videos any time soon, but it was really beautiful. I really like the rice paddies- it was interesting to learn about the different sorts of rice and their growing times. Apparently, traditional Balianese rice takes 5 months to grow. However, the government decided to have people grow 3-month rice. This disrupts the ecosystems pretty badly. Due to this occurring, the government is now trying to get people to grow the normal 5-month rie again.

Yesterday we went on a taxi-tour to various art works places. Overall we visited a painting gallery, a wood shop, a Batik-shop, and a silver shop. They all had demonstrations outside of how the people make the goods. We ended up purchasing 3 beautiful paintings at the first shop. There were so many paintings, it would have been easy to spend all day in that place! I can't recall the order of places we went, but I think we went to the wood carving shop next. They had a lot of really large carvings for sale. I got a little painted mask there. Afterwards, we went to a silver jewlery shop. Mom and I both got a pair of earrings. Everything was kind of expensive there, which is relative in Indonesia. 9,000 RP is about USD $1.

Last we went to the Batik shop. Batik is the way people put designs on their clothing here. They use many wax layers and dyes to make really lovely patterns.

After the Batik shop we went to Turtle Island, which was really sort of stupid. There was a sea turtle conservatory (government operated), but there wasn't a ton to see other than the baby turtles in little plastic baskets. There were a pair of larger sea turtles that I fed, but for some reason it's not exactly what I expected.

I hope to go surfing soon this week, on Saturday maybe. We visited Kuta briefly yesterday, but it was too late in the day to learn to surf.


Today my mom and I went shopping while my father went on another bird-watching walk. He and a great time and took a lot of cool photos. Mom and I got some nice new clothes but we had to go back to the hotel a bit early because I'm sort of sick. I think the fruit juice did me in.

Oh well. Tomorrow we're going to a cooking class with a trip to a local market. That's going to be a story, for sure!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

I'm Alive

Oh my, has it really been 8 days since my last post?

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I've been pretty distracted with finals and general laziness. Here's a quick update:

Finals were annoying. Overall my first quarter marks are decent. Probably better than my first quarter freshman year marks! 

I went to the Winter Ball, which was fun. My date's name was Jacob and the whole evening started out really awkward, but ultimately ended up being quite fun. My friends were too funny though- quite protective of me! I was dressed as Marilyn Monroe. I think my dad has a picture, I'll ask him for it soon. 

We just opened Christmas presents, which is on video.  However, I'm too lazy to upload it now. This is the first time I've ever opened presents in a denim mini skirt, and I have to say it's a pretty weird feeling. 


What I Got From My Aunt Nancy (if you're reading, THANK YOU SO MUCH!)
- Kuroshitsuji DVDs 
- Gum (Yippee!)
- Sweets
- Beautiful Ornament
- Book-marks
-Towel
- Various beauty-related stuff
- Hot Chocolate

This is a very good early-Christmas. We decided to open presents early because we weren't going to bring the parcels with us. Also, there didn't seem like there was any reason to wait to open presents... so we did!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Awesome Day

So, I lied. I know I said I wasn't going to post until after finals, but this afternoon was a relaxing one after exam-review day and good things happened so I'm posting.

First off, I managed to finish my lab report and it didn't look like rubbish. That was nice.
Second, I discovered I am able to read on the schoolbus. This comes in handy.

Then, I had two really boring classes in the morning that aren't worth discussing further.

After lunch, I went to History of China. Since it was only a semester course, today was the very last day of class. After the teacher handed back all of our tests, he started talking about the excellence award. This is an award given to an outstanding student in the particular subject. Then, he started describing the student.

Now, there was a boy in my class I'll call... um... Chris. Because his name starts with a "C" and it's the first name that popped into my head. Anyways, he was generally considered the smartest kid in class and generally got the highest marks overall. My teacher liked to joke, "why can't you all get as high grades as Chris?" Anyways, everyone thought that he was going to get the award.

However, my teacher walked towards my desk and handed it to me! Here's my medal. I also got a certificate but I can't get the lighting to work in my room, so it just looks like a blue piece of paper.

Please forgive the weird angle- I'm lying on the floor on my stomach. 

Needless to say, I'm thrilled I got the award. I put a lot of work into my History of China class, and it's probably the best course I've ever taken in my life (so far). I also talked about it waaay too much on this blog. So, yeah. Bragging rights!

There was a Christmas song assembly after Algebra (another class not worth mentioning), which was pretty cool. I'm actually going to start tech club next semester, so I hung out in the control booth and learned a bit about how the lights work. It's confusing. 

This evening, my family went shopping and bought a somewhat lovely fake Christmas tree for S$50. Not bad, considering most places charged S$200+. Actually, quite good!

So this concludes my eventful day in a pretty rambly blog post. In short- today was great!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Why, Semester Finals?

Okay, this is basically the stupidest blog post in the world, and it is simply that I will not be posting again until after finals.

WHY?

Because I have to study >.<
Ick.

Anyways a quick update- I'm pretty stressed out with finals, last minute choreography for dance class, and life in general. I like being extremely busy, but only to a point. What's annoying is that I come home much earlier than I used to during first semester dance, but I start working around the same time at night. So be it.

Winter Ball is next Thursday, and I wasn't intending to go at all. Instead, I was going to celebrate the start of the holidays with Animax. Or... sleeping.
Instead, I will be coming home after finals only to fret about hair, makeup, clothes and jewelry... that's right, because someone asked me to go. Believe me, I'm shocked too.

I'm sure that will be a terribly interesting blog post, so until then, I'll be studying!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Time Flies

Oh my goodness, it's the first day of December. That means I only have a week until exams, 4 tests next week as teachers try to cram in last-minute units, and a huge headache. No seriously, I think the stress is making me sick!

Anyways, I've successfully not passed out yet. Okay I also haven't really been studying for semester finals because I've been so busy doing other projects.

Since no one actually cares about the daily life of a somewhat-loser high schooler (at least I'm honest with myself), I might was well reflect on how I've lived here in Singapore for roughly 4 months. Now that the holidays are approaching, it seems that time is going even faster than usual. It's weird that there really isn't any snow here and that the days are still long. It's even weirder to think we're going somewhere for Christmas this year... yeah that's right. We're going to BALI!

If I had never moved to Singapore, I probably would have never gone anywhere for Christmas. I probably never would have gone anywhere with my school but maybe Spain, or take history of China in school. I guess that's what I like about Singapore right now, because that's sort of what my life is about these days- school, studying, studying, waiting for Japan, studying, studying, and anime.

Aren't I cool?