Boppin' around Malang

 

Malang is s city in eastern Java, a couple hours from Surabaya and Mount Bromo.  We landed in the early afternoon and were pleasantly surprised with a pretty and clean city. 

 

Town Hall

please separate dry and wet trash

 

We found lunch at Inggil: Indonesian specialties with lots of art and antiques to look at.

 

 

 

and some cute Indonesian dancers too!

 

 

 

The Wave

Because you can't have too much fun in one day.. after chocolate chip cookie making, a few moms took their kids to The Wave for some fun in the water.  There was a water play thing (see above), two wave pools, two looooong slides, and a 50-meter pool.  It was pretty amazing.

Eben and Maxence

 

Mermaids and sea monsters: Amira, Jaffa and Malvy

The Pocari Sweat (like Gatorade) boys!

 

It only took about two hours for the kids to wear themselves out completely, so it was a good plan :)

Semaine de Gout

This past week, school held Semaine de Gout (the Week of Tasting) and so parents were invited to come and cook with the kids.  Fun!!  Jaffa and I decided we would bake chocolate chip cookies, and we were paired with Afia and Amira who were cooking rice and daal from Pakistan.  We were great complements to one another.  We split the group in two, and switched midway through so we did each recipe twice. 

 

 

The kids did a great job and really seemed to enjoy it (see above.. evidence that it did get rowdy at some points.. and that was before they ingested the sugar!).

 

While we waited for everything to finish baking and cooking, we went up to the classroom and I did a quick presentation about cocoa, followed by a chocolate tasting.  During the presentation, we looked at the map, talked about where cocoa is grown, and we talked about a pie chart with percentages of cocoa grown in each country. We looked at pictures of the pods, the beans, and the machinery to process it into cocoa powder and cocoa butter.  After that, we tasted.  No one liked the 99% .. the 70% cocoa was better .. everyone loved the milk chocolate .. and most liked the white.  It was fun to look and taste the different kinds.  The kids had lots of observations about the color and texture of each, and we talked about lists of ingredients.  Smart kids!

 

Once everything was cooked, we brought both the daal and the cookies to share with the first grade class.  Everyone loved the lentils and rice (except 2 kids, out of 38!).  And, the classes declared the chocolate chip cookies as the best cookies in the whole world!  It was a great morning :))

 

 

 

 

teethbrushing

My fabulous husband has unwillingly taken on the job of dog toothbrusher.  He only does it once very week or two, and neither party enjoys it much.  But, it must be done.. and I try not to giggle when it's happening.

Nusa Dua and the Bali Democracy Forum

In all of the times that we've been to Bali, not once did we go to Nusa Dua. Nusa Dua is the very south part of the island with all of the very high end hotels and resorts.  We pride ourselves in being hippy dippy Ubud people ;)  In fact, Eben kept telling me how it was so weird that we were going to Bali and not to Ubud.

 

And then, Zeric was asked to attend the Bali Democracy Forum and was staying at the Nusa Dua Grant Hyatt. 

 

 

 

 

Thinking that we might not get another chance to see what that was all about, the kids and I jumped on a plane to Bali Thursday after school.  Of course the plane was late, but Jaffa had her Harry Potter book, Eben had the ipad, and the terminal has a Starbucks.

 

When we got to Nusa Dua, we saw that that whole part of the island is like a gated community. Given that there were a number of heads of state including Indonesia's own SBY, there were a lot of beautiful Balinese decorations..

..and a lot of security. (These are Zeric's pictures, thankfully the kids and I only saw the froo froo.)



We got to the Grand Hyatt at night, and the room was beautiful. 

The kids had a daybed all to themselves, and we had pancakes from room service before going to sleep.  The next morning we went exploring and the grounds were soooo lovely.

We had breakfast, and then headed to the pool and the beach.  There were two lagoon pools, one with a water slide. We had heard about the kids' club, but Jaffa and Eben were just so happy playing at the pool and at the beach. Somewhere in there Eben mentioned that he could live at this hotel for a year, no problem.  Didn't hear much about wanting to go to Ubud...

That was Friday.  Before we had gotten then, I thought that we would probably go out exploring for a good part of the day.  Some friends had said that they really just hang by the pool when they go to Nusa Dua, but I thought we wouldn't be able to just hang out.  I was wrong.  I now understand the inertia that keeps your body from getting out of the lounge chair.  that inertia stuck with me well into day two of being back in Jakarta, it was that powerful.

Saturday, we had a bunch of friends join us.. and Zeric got out at noon so we had a really nice afternoon together.  Jaffa's friend Cempaka came down from Ubud, so that was really nice.  They had missed each other.

 

hmmmmm.. part of the reason I wasn't moving very fast

Zeric had mentioned that he saw a giant chess board.. and we found it!  Eben and I played most of a game, until we decided it was a draw.  It was super fun to walk around on the chess board. (Of course, there were HP references..)

There was also a hot Jacuzzi right next to a cold pool.  Grown-ups and kids alike went back and forth from one to the other, with screams when jumping into the cold!

Cempaka and her zen

 

We had heard about the Nusa Dua festival going on, so we headed over on Saturday night to check it out.  We saw a Senegalese musician on his electric kora.. that was great!

We also saw a group of aboriginal dancers.. that was pretty great too.  The kids were falling asleep, so we headed back...

The next morning, before we headed to the airport, we decided to feed the fish one last time.  There were lots and lots of huge Koi, but also lots of smaller ones too.  The breakfast people had been given the kids big bags of bread upon request for fish-feeding and every time anyone got near any of the pools, they all rushed up with mouths wide open.

What happened this time was a little different.. we ended up feeding the fish AND the heron.  Only, the heron was smart.. he didn't eat the bread.. he waited until the fish came up for the bread, and then grabbed the one that was just the size of the breakfast we wanted!

 We had a great time in Nusa Dua, and then we were happy to be home again.. just in time to get homework done and have the afternoon to snuggle the dogs. 

We're glad we had a chance to enjoy the weekend there!

 

(and I successfully kept my mind away from labor practices and the waste of running such a place)

 

 

 

STOMP!

STOMP came to Jakarta!!

 

I thought that the kids would enjoy seeing another kind of music.. and I was right.  They had had school that day, so they only lasted about halfway through, but what they say and heard, they liked.  I'm not sure how anyone could sleep through the noise.. but they did!

from the program

really?

 

And then, when it was over, the kids rallied to say hi to some of the cast (white guys)..

such fun!  We've been watching our favorite songs on youtube ever since!

Fresh air on Idul Adha

So, right around the time that we are celebrating Abraham for Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, not surprisingly, Muslims are celebrating the same guy for Idul Adha.. and are sacrificing animals and eating them.  A lot of animals. And all the slaughtering happens on one morning. This is the second year that we have taken a long weekend to lock ourselves in the beautiful compound up on the mountain with friends to be sure that we can hear or see any of the sacrificing.  I do say a long prayer that morning...

 

So here are pictures of the cute kids and relaxing adults up in Puncak..

 

boys on the ipad..

Christophe and Nadege sharing some quiet time in the sunshine

Zeric, the girls, and the dogs..

negotiation..

 

happiness in the grass.. look familiar?

 

and then realized that these are actually ORCHIDS.  neato.

Marie, Lou and Nadege

Lou using skills from 35 years ago!

A hot guy by the pool

finally!  the bubbly..

four boys playing

four girls on a swing

a long, leisurely breakfast..