bali ilab

hello everyone,

we arrived safetly in bali on friday night. our flight was a little scary due to a ridiculous amount of turbulence and a storm. i tried listening to the soothing sounds of the books to calm me down. then we hit a giant patch of turbulence and i heard something i had never heard before on that album. suddenly there was a sample of someone saying "i am the angel of death" over and over. i got really freaked out and tried to change the song but of course the hold button was down so it wouldn't change. anyway...we landed no problem and got to our hotel.

it has been absolutely drop dead gorgeous here. we've spent the last two days hanging out at the beach and eating at amazing restaurants. yesterday i took a surf lesson and today i rented a board on my own and spent the afternoon catching some waves. sure they might have been small but i was standing on the board and the water was moving me inland.

i just got some incredible news. my sister went into the hospital today and may leave with a small child named kade. go alicia! (as they would say at your dance recitals when you were a wee lassie) don't worry jeff we wouldn't forget about you. just a little advice, i heard when women go into labor, loss of control of bodily functions is a common occurence. don't panic. just remember, when talking to the doctor, "fluff" is the actually and preferred medical term. go jeff!

last night...not to change subject abruptly but, we met up with a bunch of people from school and our friend edwin from papua, for dinner and drinks. the restaurant we ate at was fantastic. i ordered the mahi-mahi(i am a sucker for this fish). it was incredible and the side of mashed potatoes was the perfect consistancy and butter mixture. after dinner we went to this salsa bar where leah, cindy and the other girlfriends all dance the night away. although we had to keep reminding leah that moves from the 90's (ie: the tom and jerry, the running man, and anything the new kids did) were not allowed in salsa rooms. anyway, not to be showed up by the girls. edwin and i snuck away and made up a dance and we stole center stage. it was so much fun and everyone in the room was clapping and cheering.

ok that is it for now. everyone please send a little love to my beautiful sister. take care and talk to you soon.

love grant and leah

cold wind

aduh (that is an indonesian sigh of weariness)

well...we just finished an exhausting and occassionally annoying two days of parent teacher conferences. it is strange dealing with asian parents. the indonesian parents don't come, the indian parents expect you to do tons of extra work because "the work is too easy for their child" (then they proceed to tell you how you could teach the class better), the koreans listen quietly and yell at their kids the second they walk out the door, and the chinese assume you know what is best for their child. i can't complain though, i only had a few parents come talk to me. leah actually has to deal with that stuff all the time.

sorry it has been so long since the last time we blogged but with all the vacationing we did, when we returned we realized that our jobs actually required us to do something. so we have been trying to play catch-up the last two weeks. plus we are trying to play get ahead because, sorry to say, we have a four day weekend starting friday for the chinese new year. we are heading off to bali for a little r and r after an really difficult two weeks. our lives are so hard. (that was sarcasm) we are definately enjoying our time here.

i am working, albeit slowly, on the ultimate blog for our christmas trip. i also need to work on good titles for the pics that we post. i got a lot of comments from people about how great they were. however, please understand, it takes hours upon hours to achieve greatness.

we are getting excited. the upcoming birth of our new nephew is...up...and...coming. his name is to be kade and it shall stand for greatness and well being for all humankind. i think it is important to set high standards for kids. who cares if he isn't even born yet.

the otherday i got yelled at by my bahasa teacher. i felt like a terrible person. he told me i need to spend more time studying so here i am asking lilis (start recognizing that name because i don't want to say maid) silly questions that don't even have answers.

i am really into music right now. my fingers are itching for the bass and my ears are yearning for more anything. the tastes of this week are brahms piano trio no. 1 (my friend kate reminded me how good it is), bill evans trio- sunday at the village vanguard (they weren't standards until this recording plus it is scott lafaro's last recording), the arcard fire- (one of my minneapolis favorites but recently came back into my playlist, i also just bought a recording of them performing with david bowie and an ep with the singer's grandfather's (rey alvino) song-super good), sufjan steven- come on feel the illinois (also super good and it reminds me of home with songs about john wayne gacy and the such). lots of others as well. those are just the favorites this week.

i have been reading the wild sheep chase by haruki murikami. not as good as the wind-up bird chronicles but how can you go from reading an authors most profound and complex masterpiece to reading his first novel ever. oh well. aside from that i have just been reading bahasa books trying to figure this language out. i have one now that is all slang so maybe i can finally talk to the ojek guys (you know who that is if you've read the first blog).

ok...i am just rambling now. leah is doing well she and her friend cindy hangout all of the time and when they are not together they are texting each other. i guess i don't mind. she is pretty happy and they get along well.

we are in the process of booking tickets home. i am excited to see everyone soon. plus my parents are going to come visit us at the beginning of the summer. hopefully they won't be the only ones. seriously...if you can get tickets, once you are down here you don't need to spend much.

well...if anyone besides my parents reads this, please email us back or post something. even just a hello. we miss everyone a ton.

grant and leah