dearest friends,
hope you are all well!
i was starting to think that perhaps i won’t write any more ‘reports’. when you first move to a new country, everything is interesting, fascinating, strange.. and you are learning so much! you are also unlearning quite a lot (like expecting people to be on time, relying on google maps or shopping for clothes and shoes in this particular case ;-). as the time goes by, things get kind of ordinary and not so exciting any longer. i thought i have reached that point – and didn’t want to bore you!
but..
warning warning! i certainly shouldn’t complain (not even in my mind) that our life is getting boring!!! fairly speedy succession of an earthquake, attack of flying ants, visit of spitting cobra and mysterious deadly smell in the house have all proven me wrong!
so – what was going on in our little village?
ordinary things – yoga, cooking, celebration of dan’s birthday, working, more and more adored school, ceremonies.. and ceremonies.. and ceremonies.. spending time with new friends.. and old ones too! we got our first visitor from faraway lands, then second visitor and we are about to get the third one! can’t wait!!! (-; just wondering what is the attraction – us or bali??? then snake appearances.. first very special, then becoming increasingly common (was starting to feel like in the five-a-day campaign.. ) just wonder if that is a good thing or not.
then dan went on a business trip (now this is starting to sound similar to other stories that seem to be taking place in his absence – what a tradition!!!) to korea and japan. we were doing really great without him – electricity was more or less working, snakes absent (or maybe it’s fairer to say not spotted..), no major disasters.. kids moved back to our bedroom as they usually do when dan is traveling (does this ring a bell with any of my “mother” friends?). i went to bed early and was waken up by the strangest sensation of being on a sailing boat.. the bed was rocking with me!!!! now if you were growing up in a country where earthquakes are common, you probably won’t share my excitement. but i come from central europe and nothing ever happens there!!! i have to admit i was quite shaken.. ((-; now i feel a bit silly to confess but what really helped me in the middle of the night – no! it was not a glass of something!!! – apart from sharing my shock with dan – you know, if you share it you split it – was funny enough facebook. looking at the ubud community page i saw other people sharing the same experience, everybody was safe and it really comforted me (-; dan was a bit worried..but then his bed in japan was rocking too and he felt it’s just fair!
i really needed to calm my nerves and that’s exactly what happened on the following day – we left bali and joined dan in beautiful, colourful japan, country that i learnt to love very much. kyoto in autumn, onsen, yoga, postcard frenzy.. and especially some of our dearest friends.. i couldn’t ask for better holidays! maybe i could ask for a little bit less arguments with our tweenager.. but hey, there needs to be balance in life!
we got back from japan to a finally started rainy season (it looked like it’s never going to come – as it was raining in the summer when it was supposed to be dry). when we arrived home we had a few thousands of uninvited visitors there. now – we have been warned by a kind soul that at one point some sort of ants would just grow wings and decide to fly.. but i was not prepared for what was expecting us. all surfaces covered by wings, swarms of these ‘ants’ (in the meantime we have learned they are actually flying termites) around any light left on – looking for a new place to live. although they are completely harmless (maybe not so much to untreated wood..) i found them quite disturbing. and the mess.. anyway, they have become kind of regular occurrence in the last couple of days and we have learnt to live with them. the only solution to avoid them is to switch ALL the lights off, go inside and tightly close doors, windows and curtains. so we had some nice evenings playing card games (-: hopefully the flying termites season will finish shortly.
as a result of rainy season everything is getting mouldy 5 times quicker so we had to invest into a magic drying machine. let’s see how that works!
as for our other adventures – on our second attempt, we managed to climb one of bali’s beautiful volcanoes – mount batur. in spite of it being rather touristy (we certainly weren’t the only people going up there), it was worth to wake up at 3 a.m. and see the sunrise from the top. pure beauty!!!
what was also beautiful but rather frightening was the visitor we got last week. comfortably sitting in our open kitchen in the morning, planning the day ahead, dan suddenly spots a big snake (peacefully) sliding alongside the entrance of our bedroom. now i have become kind of used to (ok maybe that’s a bit of a stretch to say so..) snakes but then dan yells – it’s a cobra! i’m going to kill it! i almost got a heart attack! i started to yell at dan: no, don’t kill it.. and afterwards was not really able to say whether i didn’t want the cobra to be killed or i didn’t want dan to be killed (or at least spitted at as this particular specimen was a spitting cobra..). anyway then our cat got involved and in order to safe her life things took a bit of a nasty turn. don’t want to get into much detail but suffice to say dan survived. the cat survived. the cobra didn’t. bamboo spear proved useful. it took couple of days for my heart rate to get back to normal. of course i was not able to accomplish anything that had been planned for that day! just in case you are wondering what i actually do here..
as a result of that little encounter we had an amazing guy (bali snake patrol personified) coming over and giving us a talk about the bali snakes, how to live with them/avoid them, what to do with our house to discourage them.. it was an extremely interesting morning, what a guy! he left a huge python skin for linda as a keepsake. well.
to calm myself down before i finish this already long e-mail i’ll get to more “ordinary” things :
i carry on with my bahasa indonesia classes (dan dropped off but promised to get back) and i feel really stupid about saying how easy indonesian language was. it’s not so easy once you get over good morning and thank you.. or my brain is not what it used to be. anyway we had couple of hilarious classes when (of course by mistake!!) we (women only) discussed french guys in our house, denied paternity of our children and resolutely agreed to most stupid things without understanding what we are agreeing to.
linda and me visited beautiful dance performance in our village – it was a breathtaking experience (including night ride on the motorbike sitting sideways – dressed in ceremonial clothes you can’t really be astride!!) and we were deeply touched by the grace and dedication the village women shown.
and as for the mysterious smell.. i’ll get back to it next time! for now, you can guess (-;
anyway darlings –
soon we will be leaving bali for 3 weeks, coming to dubai and prague – hopefully i’ll be lucky to see at least some of some of you!!!
if i don’t see you in person, let me wish you and your loved ones merry christmas (if you don’t celebrate just enjoy the break!!!) and all the love in the world in 2017.
jarka&co.
xx