Ahhh!!

Hello my lovelies!!

I am so sorry I haven't written in over a week. I know, I know...I really need to work on that!

So let's see...let me start with how much I love getting all those comments! Erica and Brittan, I was SO GLAD to hear from you!!! And yes, Brittan darling, I do miss you. More than life itself...Oh, and Erica. Everything is going BEY-OND amazingly well ;-) Except for that I miss you...

Tara!! OMG you're a published photographer. I just showed everyone here with me at this Internet cafe your picture. They all say you're very talented. Oh my goodness I'm so proud of you!!!

Amy - DON'T say anything about HP7. I haven't even gotten the chance to purchase it yet...Actually I haven't really gotten the chance to do much of anything recently. I'm really jealous that you're already finished with it!!

Here's the highlight reel of my last 10 days in Indonesia...

Teaching has been going great. Except for the part where I finish teaching this Saturday and I'm really upset about that. My kids asked me today how long I was staying in Malang, and when I said until the end of May 2008 they freaked out. They were like, "Oh, we hope you will come to visit us often!" And I just wanted to die they were so cute! I'm really going to miss them.

Saturday we had a big farewell dinner with all the volunteers and 2 host families (mine & Brandon's). It was really great - we ate at this big resto called "Inggil." They've got live music there every night, so of course they asked the Americans to grace them with a (few) song(s). Good times, great country. It was really sad, though, because it was the last time all 6 of us were going to be together :( We had an awesome time just laughing and being together.

On Sunday we went to the big Klenteng parade. It was really cool - lots of Buddhist Gods being paraded around, big Chinese dragons and just a general good time. There was a small incident with an old man exposing himself to one of the volunteers, but we got through it...

After the parade we headed out to Tumpang, a village outside of Malang, where we met an older gentleman who is a professor at one of the best universities in Indonesia. He's got lots of traditional things at his house - old puppets (wayang kulit AND wayang orang...I realize that means nothing to most of you, but you know...), topeng-topeng (masks), videos of traditional music, a FULL gamelan and all kinds of old newspaper clippings and things written in old Javanese. It was awesome! Then he took us to Elizabeth (you remember that American woman who married a Javanese man & stayed in Indo?) Karen's house. She has a huge dance studio & full gamelan there set up for people to come and practice and play. And her house, which is absolutely gorgeous, was attached to it. Unfortunately she and her husband were in Jakarta for a movie shoot (yea, I know) but we did get to meet her two daughters. Her oldest was rehearsing, so we hung out with her youngest. Little Ndaru is 8 years old and boy oh boy is she a pistol! She is the most adorable thing I've ever seen, and everyone in our group was pretty much just smitten with her. She was cheeky and funny and really outgoing. I wanted to keep her. She took a liking to me, though, so I hope I can come back and hang out with them. She speaks perfect English, Indonesian, Javanese, and the Javanese equivalent of Old English. At 8 years old! Amaaaaaazing!

Okay so the only other noteworthy thing in the land of bug bites and boats (thank you, Lauren, for that alluring alliteration) is that last night we (me, Ainsley and Octa) went to the Peterpan concert in Malang. For those of you who know me well, you know my obsession with Peterpan (a popular Indonesian rock band) goes quite far. So needless to say I was SUPER excited about this concert. So we get there at 6:30. It was supposed to start at 7, but naturally everything runs on Indonesian time here, so the concert didn't start until 8. So in the meantime, we talked to these guys standing next to us. Turns out they were from East Timor and we asked them about all the conflict there and everything. For those of you who don't know, you should look up East Timor's contemporary history. There's some crazy stuff going on there. Anyway, the guys were brothers and they said that people get shot every day right outside their house. They said many of their friends have died, and the one guy's girlfriend was recently shot and killed because his father was a big shot in the main political party that just got reelected. Apparently the opposition party was not too happy about that, and started going after members of their family and those close to the family. Pure insanity. Needless to say I was absolutely enthralled with their story, but once the concert started East Timor was the least of my worries. It started getting really out of hand, and I was pretty sure Octa was going to have a heart attack he was so worried. Let me give you a mental picture - two white girls being encircled four Indonesian guys trying to protect them from the crazy surrounding mosh pitting Indonesians. It took quite a feat of strength to escape, but we finally did and made it to the outside of the audience. Good thing, too, because it was much calmer out there. So we stood there and enjoyed our concert going experience. And made 3 good friends in the process. Plus, Peterpan was AWESOME!!! The lead singer is quite a cutie, too!! It was a really fun time!!

Okay well that's all for now. We're here at Matos (Malang Town Square) killing time before the Miss Matos 2007 competition starts. Tara, I bet you're really jealous!!!

Haha anyway I love and miss you all. Later gators.