as a Foreign Service Officer i would be able to represent the United States to the world.

my uber-supportive girlfriend, Meghan, bought me the official  study guide for the Foreign Service Officer Test.  Frank wanted to take the practice test with/against me.  we bet $20 against each other to see who would triumph.  my mother decided she wanted to take the test too.  our mother whooped our asses.  we were humbled.

i began studying.  a lot.

i took the Foreign Service Officer Test for the first time on June 9th.

3.1 weeks later i found out i passed!  i’m very excited and working on the next step in the process right now:  essays and (hopefully) Oral Assessments to come.  writing and talking are my strong points as you may know.  cross your fingers.

following that intellectual confidence boost, i signed up for the GRE for a test date in late August.  i’ve got my eyes on the prize now for sure.  i’m thinking International Relations/Affairs.

in news about the Americans Abroad crew:  Spoo is returning to the great USA in two weeks!  assA!  after her return to SE Asia and her success at becoming a semi-pro scuba diver, Sarah D is in North Carolina working hard and enjoying summertime.

as a Public Service Announcement, i don’t recommend traveling from equatorial Malaysia to Chicago in late December.  just don’t do it.

my mother and i took a snowshoeing trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  we crossed into Canada and rode the Algoma Railway Snow Train through the Agawa Canyon.  we visited a frozen and stunning Tahquamenon Falls:

snowshoeing on a frozen and snowy Lake Superior was breathtaking. altogether, Momma and i had a great visit to the UP.  here we are trying to catch a timer shot with Lake Superior to the rear:

on our way back South we stopped for gas and grub and stumbled upon a dog sled race!  this was my first live dog sled race so we hung out for awhile and watched the starts and some of the race action.  there were competitors of all ages, genders and it was exciting to see them cruise around the groomed course.

here’s  a race start for you:

i moved to Indianapolis to be near friends and my girlfriend, Meghan.  i turned 28 in May 2009.  Meghan organized a great lil’ surprise party for me downtown at The Rathskeller.  here belongs a special note of gratitude for the Macks: coming out for the festivities and immediately afterwords going to the hospital to deliver their cutey firstborn Annabelle.  she shares my birthday.  what a doll.  thanks to the wonderful Macks!

i’ve been working two jobs: teaching English as a Second Language at Berlitz during the morning and managing a nice liquor/wine store in the evenings.  the teaching is fun and the liquor store keeps me busy and pays a few bills.

i ran the Indy half marathon.  my good friends, DJ and Ammie, had their second baby, a tiny, awesome baby girl: Zoey.  i drank Jason McClure’s homebrew hard cider at his Orchard in Peru (Indiana).  he let me drive the tractor on his Orchard! on one orchard visit Meghan and i watched Jason harvest a bee hive:

i saw many people i’ve missed for years while i lived in Colorado or South Korea.

Sally visited us from Denver.  here are Sally and Meghan in the Kitchen where she helped us hang shelves:

i sailed with Meghan, Ryan Hauk and Mark Ward-Bopp, Sr. on Lake Waveland in west central Indiana.  there was great wind and we were heeling like mad! i’ve enjoyed Indianapolis and the Broadripple neighborhood.  i’ve been running on the Monon Trail.

H. O’Neal Turner III visited briefly for a free couch and some scrumptious pizza at Bazbeaux’s. Here we are in the apartment:

yes, that’s a Perfect Pull Up in the background cuz i’m gonna get huge.  thanks to Boppie for that birthday gift.

Meghan and i frequent the many area farmers’ markets to enjoy the fresh, local produce and goods.  we’ve been making some spectacular suppers whenever time and our different schedules allow.  here’s a great example with some most of the produce from a farmer’s market and some shittake mushrooms from a little Asian market my Japanese student recommended to me:

Indiana sweetcorn may be the best stinkin’ corn in the world.  we decided to accompany the sweet corn with baked asparagus, salmon with dill, a little steamed Spinach (like Momma taught me) and a blend of sauteed mushrooms.  yum.

it’s good to be back and have an oven and as much gustatory diversity as any person can dream of!

As Sarah and I arrived in Semporno we were immediately approached by a boat taxi guy offering to take us to Mabul for 200 MR, so we found more people to share the cost with us and later the entire situation turned weird.  The taxi guy wanted us to pay him first so he could by gas but we refused and only paid him half until we arrived in Mabul.  The boat ride to the island of Mabul was refreshing and wonderful.  The engine stopped six times because garbage was getting stuck in the engine, nevertheless it was breathtaking as we passed islands in the distance and water houses in the middle of the sea. 

We stayed at the Long House, a collection of rooms suite style, perched above the water and its dock stepping down into the ocean during high tide.  The ocean was crystal clear looking 10 feet down, Amazing!  Our accomadations were simple.  Two twin beds on wooden frames and fan.  The shower/toilet was separate and breakfast and dinner was included for  50 MR/night.  Sarah was getting attacked by the smallest ants I’ve ever seen and I remained untouched.  We later realized that Sarah was indeed the culprit in having an old sack of left over doughnuts in her book bag.  She also had a battle with the fitted sheets untucking…ah…and the morning hotness.  We both woke up with intensely oily faces, as we looked at each other with morning eyes and busted out laughing…so attractive and hilarious!  The fish was fishy but the cabbage/vegatables sho’ was good.  We had power from 6pm to 6 am so it got steaming  in our room by 8am…nothing like waking up sweating in a room which feels like hot breath.  Our bikinis was our day wear…loved it. 

The next morning, I started my advanced open water course while Sarah fun dived on the same boat.  As we got on the boat, we found out that they didn’t pack our diving equipment, so I ended up with a shredded full body suit which had a badass rebel look and yellow baby fins (I had to kick double time).  Despite a disapointing and unorganized course, I am now an Advanced Diver, Yeah!  Underwater Photography was a really awesome experience, I think it improved my buoyancy skills and now I’m proud to say that I’m quite stellar.

Our last night on the island was great fun.  Who knew you could have hours of high quality enteratainment with coke, rum, and a plunger.  Anyone could be plunged in the back and yanked backwards off their seat at anytime.  Needless to say, it was a plunging good night!

Upon our arrival, we found ourselves, along with several cat-sized rats,  in the deserted streets with few options for accomadations.  We ended up sleeping at the Petaling Hotel for 55 MYR per night.  The hotel owner was Chinese, so Necia got to brush up on her Mandarin skills!  Her Mandarin came in quite handy many times in KL.  This was a basic room with en suite bathroom, air con, and hot water.  We decided we needed somewhere a bit more lively and clean, so in the morning we started our search for a new place to rest our weary heads.  We were pleasantly surprised to find last evenings deserted streets now bustling with activity.  By day this place was lined with shops, people, and food stands.   We browsed a few shops and drooled over the knock-off Coach and Prada purses before quickly stumbling upon a really great hostel called Reggae Guest House.

At the Reggae Guest House we were living in hostel luxury!  It was like Ikea blew up in that place!  It was also brand spanking new so everything still smelled clean instead of musty and mildewy like most places we’ve stayed.  We met some great people here and toured the city with our newly made friends.   We were real urbanites traveling the city not only on foot but also by bus, subway, and trains.  We enjoyed seeing the Petronas Towers, mosques, and going to the craft fair where we were the only tourists!  We could have done without the Batu Caves though–very unimpressive.

KL is filled with malls.  The mall in the Petronas Towers was by far the nicest mall I’ve ever entered in my entire life!  High end stores like Dolci and Gabana, Coach, Gucci, Jimmy Choo, and Prada filled this enormous shopping complex.  Of course, the poor backpackers couldn’t afford much of anything here.  We did splurge on our very handy and trendy Billabong rash gaurd diving shirts!

I have to take a bit of time to rave about the Malaysian people.  Salamat Datang!  This is Malay for welcome and it truly describes how I felt as a foreigner traveling in Malaysia.  It was so refreshing to be in a country where people actually go out of their way to talk with you and help you in any way they can without expecting anything in return.   There is also no hassle here–even at the street shops.  If you say you’re not interested, that’s usually the end of it–so refreshing!   Here are a couple of examples of the hospitality we experienced.  Of course, our parents are not going to think this first one was a good idea…

Necia and I were wandering the streets of KL trying to find our way back to the Reggae Guest House after our long day site seeing on foot.  We were reading a map when three Malay business men approached and asked if they could help.  They said to us “you are going in the absolute wrong direction!”  They also told us that we were pretty far away from our destination and asked if they could give us a lift.  We were slightly hesitant but quickly agreed and piled in their brand new Honda CRV.  One was of Indian descent, one Chinese, and one Malaysian.  They were hilarious guys around age 40 who’d been friends since grade school.  They spoke immaculate English and wanted to know all about where we’d traveled, what we were doing in Malaysia, and about our jobs back home.   I never once felt in harms way.   I know there is no way I would have ever gotten in a car with three complete strangers back in the States!

Another day we were at a loss for which subway would take us to the Super Mall!  A sweet Malaysian postal worker approached us and offered to show us to the correct platform.  He even bought our tickets for us!  He was again very interested in why we were traveling in Malaysia, were we lived back home, and what we did for a living.  He had actually heard of Spartanburg, SC (where Necia is from) from mailing packages to the States!

Overall we really enjoyed the city of KL.  The people, the sites, the food, the guest house, and the friends we made!

March 30th

Sarah and I are in Sandakan in Malaysia Borneo.  We arrive last night around 1030pm.  But let’s start from the time we landed in Kota Kinabalu shall we?  The flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia went smoothly, took a bus to the bus station in Kota Kinabalu …I ate some Malaysian buffet and Sarah and Cathy ate weird fried rice with egg, where the scrambled egg blanketed the entire mound of fried rice instead of being mixed.  They love some egg here.  We searched through a couple of guest houses and finally settled in Borneo Backpackers.  It was in a dorm style with fan and breakfast for 20 MR. 

It rained that afternoon, so it gave us a chance to cool down.  The next morning we took minibus to Mt. Kinabalu in Sabah where we hiked basically around in a large, indirect circle…in the rainforest…in the hotness with a mixture of suntan lotion, deet, sweat, and dirt..in that order, each one of us, everyday.  I was like “I am so over it” very exhausting by the way…by late afternoon we gave up our quest to hike a simple 5 km.  We concluded that the map sucked and that I’m not a jungle type of girl, Sarah’s innate sense of direction was not utilized even when it was in truth correct, and Cathy was all bout it bout it (Beth’s colleage from her residency program)…since it was her dream to be in a rain forest.  Other than that the rainforest was beautiful and saw some great arthropods.  I will share pictures later on my facebook when I return home…my memory sticks have viral infections.   Nasty buggers.
 
After hiking we took a minibus to Poring for 20 MR/person.  Sarah and I had good sleep while Cathy was in the back snapping pics of the mountain side.  1.25 hrs later we arrived before sun down and eager to see the infamous hot springs, butterfly farm, canopy walk, waterfall and bat cave.  We got a nice room for 25 ringgets/person, got shower and the most delicious resturant tucked underneath the hotel…where we ate dinner, breakfast, and lunch…OMG…the meehong noodles and fried rice was soooo delicious.
 
Since we were all shweaty, we decided to head to the hot springs to a cool down…no…to get clean…yeah.  Walked through the park in the dark with no torch…just the moonlight whilst bats were flying over head and mosquitos buzzing around.  We found a great hot spring pool and it felt so good to get in…scorching hot…but really good…I felt like it was getting sanitized the right way…afterwards my skin was actually dry for the first time.  We stared good and well into the night sky the stars were so much brighter and larger here…seeing a faintness of O’rions belt.  Back at the room Sarah and I paper rocked scissors for dibs on first shower, strung up clothes line, flipped Sarah’s eyelid, told a bedtime story about taking candy from a stranger, and went to bed.  You know, our usual bedtime routine.
 
The next day we took a minibus to bus stop in Ranau to catch 4 hr bus ride to Sandakan.  This bus broke down about half way to Sandakan for 1.5 hrs until a new bus came to rescue.  The locals make a radical bonfire as it got dark.  which was really good since it kept the mosquitos away. 
We were soooo grimey and sweaty, we were relieved to finally get a decent room at the May Fair Hotel.  This room was hooked up!  We had a flat screen tv and clothes line!  So we did massive laundry before bed.
 
The orangutan sanctuary was pretty cool…they rehabilitate orphan, injured, or mistreated orangutans back to the wild.  We were 3 ft away from a male orangutan…it was incredible  along with mother and baby in a tree nearby.  Afterwards we took a hike through the forest and watched for leeches…everyone got a leech on us except for Sarah.  Cathy left us to go on Uncle Tan’s Jungle Safari for 3 days while Sarah and I and smelly guy returned back to hotel.  We ditched the smelly guy fast and spent the rest of the afternoon looking for a place to swim, all lotioned up in our bathing suits walking through the city, quite an interesting look.  We ended up at the water village but no luck finding a boat to take us to another island…apparently there is no place to swim because the water is so filthy from trash, oil, muck, crude, and crap.  So we ate lunch at KFC and dinner at Pizza Hut to make ourselves feel better.

recently, i put pictures on my ipod touch to show some of my family and friends photos from my trip, and i realized how much i miss traveling now. sweet even mentioned how he had read the blog and it made him a bit nostalgic. so we’ve made an agreement that our next trip will be australia/new zealand, though we haven’t made any further plans than that.

i officially finish my contract on july 3rd, and thinking about that has actually made me a bit homesick for the first time in nearly 2 years.  i’ve been tentatively planning on a return to the US in mid july (around the 15th).  but that all depends on whether or not my younger sister decides to come to the US for 6 months to a year, though it seems highly unlikely at this point in time.  if she does happen to come, i’ll definitely be back by the 15th.  on the other hand, if she doesn’t come, then i hope to travel japan for a week or two, so that puts my arrival towards the end of july.

speaking of being homesick, my parents have told me that they’re going to see the final four in detroit.  i’m completely envious as i would LOVE to go see my spartans play this weekend.  but alas, i’m stuck here in seoul.  all i can do is wake up early and watch the game online without making a sound so that i don’t wake up my housemates.

well, i finish work in 3 months!  see you all shortly!

i was on my way from lovina beach on bali to mt. bromo (a volcanic mountain inside a huge crater) on java.  it was a late bus and i didn’t arrive in probolingo until 3am, earlier than i had expected.  the well known travel service (perama) dropped me off at a travel agency.  i was very skeptical of everything the man said since probolingo is notorious for scams.  i agreed to go up to an area near mt. bromo and a ride to the next big town the following day without any other services.  at $30, i thought it was a bit expensive but it was 3am and i had hoped to catch the sunrise over the volcanic mountain.

i had to take a public minivan up 3 hours with double the occupancy limit, though on occasion it was nearly 2 1/2 times the limit (there were a good amount of kids going to school).  i was fortunate that no one tried to sit either on  my lap or my bags.  unfortunately, the people that rode all the way to the top with me only paid 4000 rupiah (about 40 cents).

when i arrived on the crater, the sun was already up, but it was difficult to tell with all the mist and moisture that the clouds brought with them.  being 2000m (over 1 1/2 miles) up, it was extremely cold, and for the first time in my trip, i had to put on 3 layers.

the next day, i was picked up  with 2 dutch couples in a small van and we were driven to probolingo (this time taking about an hour and a half).  they were taken to (presumably) their buses heading to bali.  i grabbed my stuff, had to get on the back seat of a motorbike with both bags, and was taken to a train station.

since i had paid for a “vip air/con bus”, i thought they’d use the money and pay for a nice ticket on the train.  they seemed really apologetic as well, so i never doubted them for a minute.  when the train was approaching, the motorbike driver handed  one of the guards a ticket for me and when i was boarding the train, the guard handed me the ticket.

the train was dirty and reeked of urine.  i then looked at my ticket only to realize that i have no seat number, so i’d have to find an open seat, and to further add insult to injury, my ticket was a mere 26000 rupiah ($2.60).  i sat on this train for 12 hours (well, i stood for 4 hours and sat for 8 hours) and tried to put a smile on my face, which i was able to do for about the last 30 minutes.

basically, what i’ve come to realize is that i didn’t care as much about the money as i did in losing faith in humanity.

i digress for a moment for a quick story: i rented a motorbike today and was stopped by 2 policemen saying that my license isn’t valid, then they said i was speeding (but wouldn’t say how fast i was going or what the speed limit was). they told me they were going to write me a $30 ticket but i was their “friend’ so i could just pay a warning fee of $20. i finally got them down to $10, reluctantly paid and then drove away.

most of the scams involve buses/shuttles that have already left, temples that are closed but they can get you inside, required guides for areas that don’t require them at all, random fees that they try to make you pay and, of course, trying to charge you 3 or 4 times the amount you should pay…(though i have the worst scam story EVER! which will be my next post/rant)

i spent one sunset traveling south of kuta to one of the islands more popular temples, ulu watu.  located on the tip of the southern peninsula, its sheer rockface gives it a perfect location for a sunset kecak (local bali dance/play).  there are also tons of macaque monkeys that reside in ulu watu and are notorious for taking things like sunglasses from tourists (literally off their face) only to give them back in exchange for some fruit.  the dance is performed by 60 or so chanting men while actors dance around them, sometimes using the chorus men as props.

the next few days were spent in legian beach.  its relaxed atmosphere, constant easy breaks and few hawkers make legian beach a beginner surfer’s paradise.  flocks of men and women in rash shirts (long sleeved surfer/diver shirts) carrying boards with locals yelling directions at them make it an interesting sight.

a few km north of legian lies seminyak beach.  there really isn’t much on the beach, especially since there are red flags with skulls on them warning people of the dangerous currents, except for the oasis, Ku De Ta.  Sweet told me that he had read about this place in Outside Magazine.  so i felt compelled to go see this place.  amazing.  it caters to the rich and beautiful (and wannabes, like me), but everything on the menu is well priced, delicious and great service.  there’s even a small kids pool so parents can be left alone to soak in the sun.  i would have taken photos, but i felt that everyone thought i was taking pictures of the women.  needless to say, it’ll have to be a place for you to check out on your own.  it’s definitely worth it!

when i first arrived, it was around 4pm, i looked for a cheap bungalow and decided to wander the coast.  when i came back around 5, i saw a bunch of kids playing soccer on a field of sand with small concrete pillars (about 10″ high) as goals.  that alone made me love the gilis.

the 3 islands each have a distinct atmosphere.  gili meno is the least populated, which gives meno a very relaxed atmosphere and also the best island to go to if you don’t want to see many tourists.  gili trawangan is the most populated and is known to have a “party” vibe since it has the most accomodation and bars (also dive shops).  gili air is the balance between the two.  it has restaurants and bars on the east coast but isn’t as crowded, though i’ve been told that it can get quite lively during the touristy season.

i feel that i cannot write about the gili islands and do it the justice it deserves.  so just take a look at some of the pictures below!

i had a hard time falling asleep, even though i was tired.  i also had some mosquitoes in the room.  or so i thought…  when i woke up this morning, i found a small bug near me and killed it quickly.  it wasn’t until i took a shower and saw myself in the mirror, did i realize the full extent to what had occurred during the night.

i know it’s not a great picture, but the bites went down the left side of my back.  it started at my shoulder and went all the way down to my lower back.  i was also bit along my left elbow, parts of the right side of my back and neck.

i had to wikipedia bed bugs since i had thought they were too small to see.  i was incredibly wrong!  this is what i killed this morning.

if you add the total amount of bed bug, mosquito and leech bites from my trip.  then multiplied it by two, i think it’d be close to the amount of bites i received last night.

i have taken zyrtec, rubbed hydrocortisone and even the local wonder medicine, tiger balm.  i still want to amputate the left side of my body…

so far bali (which stands for Bedbugs And Lots of Itching!), more specifically kuta, has been a disappointment.  the famed beach is decent.  i’d compare it to miami’s beaches with se asia waters and the worst locals of all of se asia.  tomorrow i plan to head a little north to seminyak before going up to the ubud and the craters.