garett lurking in the back, and three of four lovely ladies-sunneye, me, and olivia waiting for that beautiful 1:45 am flight friday morning at LAX (the international section is wayyy cooler! sorry southwest!!ha).....it's obviously a transition when traveling from one end of the world to another and taking it all in the new culture, the new smells, the new foods, the new people...obviously that is a whirlwind of newness! me being the only first-timer here 18 ours away in malang, indonesia it is TOTALLY BLOWING MY MIND!! especially because it's not like an easy breezy vacation i'm on here- they are totally expecting me to WORK now!! ppsh! hahaha no but really my head is spinning. it's a good thing the people and scenery has been wonderful and welcoming to us all!
here we are the next day ( i knowww we haven't showered or changed yet!! whatever! jeeezz) in hong kong! it's amazingly awesome like new york city only jam packed with asians! :D loved it! fyi... mcdonalds s like one classy place there! like... it's a big deal! and they serve noodles!! wayy crazy right? luckily we had our wonderful tour guides with us-sunneye and olivia! they are champs at the area and showed us around town on our 8 hour layover! meanwhile garett and i had not quite adjusted to the time change and were following them around like zombies! i know i personally slept like 5 hours total and found out why the flight is called a "red eye" butttt i did catch up on every chick flick i have been meaning to see! like 6 movies no kidding! the airport had "shower festivities" (facilities) as sunneye would say and i had a hard time grasping onto the fact that not everyone understands my obnoxiousness...a man working at the airport lockers had the hiccups and i tried to demonstrate how to drink water upsidedown and they would go away...i'm sure he thought i looked like a crazy person because CLEARLY he did not understand english or my hand gestures...oopppssss.. :)
after our long journey we finally made it to surabaya and then had a 3 hour drive to the richardson's beautiful home where we are staying until thursday...needless to say we all slept like rocks until 10am the next day! leela took us swimming sunday in the nicest pool ever! i'm the only one who had yet to meet her face to face so i am so glad to now know the legend that is leela fong! :) she's s sweet! and then our new friends jennifer and jessica met up with us and we swam and ate lunch together! i know i know even all covered up i still managed to look RIDICULOUS with my large and in charge sunglasses on! come to think of it that is probably why everybody was shooting me the stink eye for the last couple of days!! haha we did some prayer walking and got ready for the days ahead and garett said he never had luck in leviticus which i thought was the funniest thing have ever heard...obviously...guess you had to be there! :D then we were invited over to wenny's place where she cooked a feast for us and labeled all of the dishes and we met new friends from the polyhan school- tri, yusak, helen, santhe, and kim and patrick! wonderful people!
this is the incredible view from Charis, the first school we taught at! don't hop the fence people that glass means business! very humid but luckily there is a steady breeze that cooled us off! i was honestly quite nervous this morning before class started because i had absolutely no idea what to expect from the kids but i have to admit they totally blew me away! we danced to hannah montana which why WOULDN'T it be awesome if we were dancing to the catchy beat's of the disney queen!? duhh!! once we got going the shyness totally sweat off of them and it looked like they were having a great time! we had like classes of 10 each (music and dance switched and art and creative writing switched) which i thought was the perfect size- it worked out great!
this is jennifer, sunneye, and garett teaching the wonders of hand bells and row row row your boat! the kids were wizzes at this too! and were learning faster than we could teach! i know we were all scrambling to think of new ideas for extra material because they were so awesome and on top of things!
my awesome class number one striking a pose!
not gonna lie we have tasted many a new edible adventure so far and it's only day 2! this is a snake fruit! how do you feel about that!?! it literally looks like a snake's scales that you peel off to find garlic clove shaped fruit that tasted kind of pear-ish? crazzayyy
eating lunch at polyhan! water "air" comes in plastic cup with a plasic lid that you stab a straw through! lots of rice, soup, tofu, fried things, shrimp chips..i mean really what didn't we eat! we are having a great time and despite the language barrier we're getting the "point" across to the kids...hopefully? :) so far so good! tomorrow we will have a better idea on what to plan for but i think things are really working themselves out! we are also going to start an indonesian language lesson tomorrow down the street from charis so that should be awesome!! i have to say a few months ago i thought this trip would never come but here we are making it all happen! it's new and different and is totally opening my eyes to this ginormous world and i am just happy to be a part in this incredible group! we are safe, and healthy, and laughing a lot, and uniting for a great cause! ;) can't go wrong! not too homesick at summer camp here! haha and luckily for me smiles are universal so i think i'll be fine! love you! thanks for your support! it's 7pm here and we are like all ready for bed! grandmas! jeez i know! selamat malam! (goodnight) xoxx courtforshort
