I Heart Trees

(You may remember this poem as the one my shop teacher made me memorize and recite for too many tardy arrivals to his class. But I never forgot it.)

I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the sweet earth's flowing breast

A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree. -Joyce Kilmer

And Hal, my dad.  My dad makes trees.  In fact he's kind of obssessed with them.  I call him Johnny Appleseed, because he's constantly planting trees.  Sometimes he just cuts off a branch of one tree and sticks it in the ground, and voila!  A new tree!  A tree that you better not accidentally scrape with the lawn mower because then you pretty much killed the tree and he'll never forgive you.  I often wonder if he would be as mad if somebody scraped ME with a lawnmower.  Probably not.  He'd probably suggest it was somehow my fault because, stupid, I got in the way. 

Remember this old Hal-ism? "I don't mind killing animals, but I hate killing a tree...unless it's already dead and I cut it up to burn it."

Maybe this is where I get my love for trees.  I love them.  I love taking pictures of them, and seeing their silhouette against the sky.  This year I have seen so many amazing trees.  Here are my favorites:

Bali

Australia

New Zealand, South Island

New Zealand, North Island

Cambodia

Laos

Korea

Panama

Samoa

Singapore

Thailand

But my favorite? My absolute favorite tree in the whole world? This little momma, located in International Falls, MN, on the way up to my job at Island View Lodge. I got to drive by this tree almost every day this summer. I kept meaning to take a photo, but never got around to it. You can't really see it in this shot, but there is a huge crook in the neck of this tree.  I can't get enough of it.  Finally, when I went to dinner with my parents at Island View, I made my dad pull over the car so I could take this shot in the rain. Me and dad and my tree.



Bali Photo Special

Click here to view photos from Bali

I was wondering...

You know how sometimes you just couldn't be bothered to wash that vegetable?  You're busy, it 'looks' clean, you're starving, what have you?  Well, next time picture how it got to the airport, and imagine your piece was in this guy's armpit, or next to his gas tank, or touching his flip flop, or in his crotch.

Ew.

Bathroom scare

Last night I went into my favorite toilet in the dorm share/pool bathroom.  It's my favorite because there usually aren't geckos in it, there's usually toilet paper, and because of this I overlook the fact that there's usually about a quarter-inch of water on the floor and the lock is really hard to operate. 

So anyways you have to push the door shut, putting your left hand next to the bolt action lock, and use your right hand to JAM JAM JAM JAM JAM JAM JAM it until it closes.  And even then it only sort of just touches the other part of the lock slightly and so you have to worry that somebody will bust in anyways.

I really jammed my finger last night.  But that happens every time.  So I decided to squat and not sit, even though it's totally a sittable toilet.  I just didn't happen to be in a sitting mood.  As you squat you look at the floor and as I looked at the floor I saw three drips of blood.  I totally panicked for obvious reasons, one being that I totes wouldn't be allowed into any temples:

And then I noticed that my finger was gushing blood and laughed at myself out loud in my favorite toilet stall.

Surfed!

Yah!  You know it!  I finally got off my massage-getting, book-reading, new-friend-chatting, temple-visiting, fire-dance-watching, muscle-stretching, internet-surfing, around-laying butt and signed up for a surf lesson.  I had planned on spending all eight days in Bali learning how to surf, but all of the above just sort of got in the way.  Well.  Today I went!  And I stood up a buncha times!

First we had to put on a long-sleeved shirt and shorts in 198 degree weather.  Next we had to lay on mats and do some stretching and learning about how to enter the ocean and which way to point the board, etc.  Then we got to go out into the water, and basically 'boogie board' back to shore.  We would learn how to stand up later.  It was fun.  I have tried boogie boarding and it didn't really work and I never learned how to ride a wave.  This time though with a big fat surf board I was riding waves all the way home.  Shifting my weight, turning left and right.  It was a blast, but it sure takes a lot out of you. 

So then it was time to take a water-drinking break.  So we all brought our boards up on to the shore and lined them up.  Mine wasn't quite lined up with everybody else's and so I picked up the tail end of it, and smooshed the nose forward.  Which caused a bunch of sand to collect and it didn't work.  My Balinese instructor shook his head and said:

"I am adult.  I can see *points to his eyes, then to the nose with sand on it* best way to move board.  I don't use my body to do something that can't be done."  Then he picked up the nose and moved the board. 

I was like...

"hhahahahaahahhahaahhahaahaaa"  nervous laughter.  "I have no energy left."  "hahahhahhhhhaaaaaa."

He wasn't being insulting at all, but of course I wanted to die. 

Later we learned how to Pop up! and then when we were in the water I totes did it.  Here the waves come every like 5 seconds or so and they were HUGE.  It was pretty rough just trying to get out far enough and decide which wave to ride in.  But I was told that in some parts of the world you have to wait 20 minutes for a wave and there are tons of people trying to ride it and it's pretty tough.  So in those terms Bali is probably a pretty good place to learn how.  I think it's a big surfing destination actually. 

Oh, and I didn't think about sharks.  Not even once!  Take that, shark-fear!

Monkeys

This is me, thinking about getting my picture taken next to this monkey.

Here I am yelling "Quick!  Quick!" to the girl with my camera.

And this is me, running away from the monkey.

I just hate animals!  I don't trust them.  I don't think they're safe to hang around and play with.  I'm not talking about your beloved pets right here.  Just like wild monkeys in Bali for example.

I don't want them coming anywhere near me.  And if they do, I scream and run away.  One of the monkeys had a tiny baby on her and it was SO cute, and so I put out my camera to take a picture and she HISSED at me.  Then she kept eye contact with me until I left.  I don't trust monkeys, no-sir-ee.

One of the girls that was with me bought bananas to feed the monkeys and as soon as she got the bananas from the lady who sells them, a big monkey jumped up and stole the whole bunch from her, before she had a chance to pull one off and give it to him.  Later, another monkey grabbed her shoe with both hands by the toe and pulled it toward his mouth like he was going to eat a sandwich.

Also these monkeys are anatomically correct:

Grossed Out

So a couple nights ago I went to dinner at a restaurant that offered most of their dinner options for 15,000 rupiah or so.  This works out to be $1.66.  Also their 750ml beers were only 25,000 rupiah, or $2.77.  So I was very stoked but after the beer I had to go pee so bad that I couldn't wait for the walk back to the hostel.  I asked if I could use the bathroom at the restaurant. 

The first thing I noticed was that there was no sink in the bathroom, and therefore no means to wash your hands whatsoever.  I have gotten used to sink/no soap in Bali, but no sink at all in a restaurant?  Meaning the workers are preparing your food without having washed their hands?  Kill me now.  The next thing I noticed was that there was a tiny little basin on the floor with a bucket inside, and it was filled with water.

So I found a way to go pee without getting my hands dirty whatsoever.  There was no garbage can, and so I took that to mean that it would be OK to put the toilet paper in the bowl.  I took another piece of toilet paper in my hand to push the flusher for the toilet.  The flusher went around and around and there was no flushing action at all.  It was broken.  I thought about just leaving it and not flushing, but then I remembered something horrible that I had read from a borrowed Lonely Planet book.  In SE Asia, the basin/bucket next to the toilet is for flushing.  So I had to reach my hand into the basin of water, grab the heart-shaped bucket and pour it down the toilet to flush.  So now my left hand was no longer clean. 

I sort of held in in the air like a surgeon all the way back to the hostel, where I promptly poured acid on it and then cut it off completely.

Legian Beach, Bali, Indonesia

So I made it here.  It only took a 3 hour flight to Brisbane from Christchurch New Zealand and a 6 hour flight from Brisbane to Denpasar, Indonesia.  The flight was through Virgin Blue and not even water was free.  I watched two movies on the plane (at $7 each) and bought 4 of those mini bottles of wine.  Whatever it is, the altitude, the wine, the move, I don't know, but I always laugh extra loud at the funny parts and cry extra hard at the sad parts in movies. Click here to read about when I watched Kit Kittredge: An American Girl on the way home from South Africa

Anyway when I arrived, I was scared to see a big sign that said: DEATH PENALTY TO THOSE WHO CARRY DRUG INTO BALI.  I remembered all of the scary stories you hear of people who have drugs planted into their bags and then they get busted and spend the rest of their lives in dirty rotten prisons for something they didn't do.  And so I twisty-standed in line to go through customs, just in case anybody wanted to touch my backpack.  I pretended like I always do the twist when I stand in line and kept a straight face.  Normal, right?

Then I had to get my checked bags off the conveyor and find my ride, who would be holding sign with the name of my hostel on it.  Easy.  You can't believe traffic here.  It's insane.  The roads are very narrow and there are one million motorcycles everywhere.  They dart through traffic and also drive in front of and behind you to get to the other side of the road.  It looks very dangerous. Also there are very narrow walkways that the motorcycles ride through:

It's very HOT and HUMID here.  But the atmosphere is laid back, and I have already had three massages in three days.  The first one was $9 US and was two therapists.  It's called four hands massage.  The other two have been at my hostel and are $7 US.  The woman is fantastic.  I'm going to write more about the massages later because they are stories in themselves.

Back to gecko country.  I didn't think about it and even forgot all about the geckos in Samoa.  So naturally when I was in the shower and accidentally looked up to find a gecko crawling across the wall, I freaked out.  Later a guy in my room said he was going to the bathroom and one fell on his head.  When I heard this, I said I need to go home right now.

It's so refreshing to pay only 33 cents for a huge 1500 ml bottle of water.  Dinner is $3 for amazing vegetable curry.  Internet is free.  My hostel is a tad expensive at $25 per night, but I'm saving so much money everywhere else I'm Ok with that.  Plus this place is pretty darn clean and offers free breakfast with tea.  There is a yoga studio upstairs and I used my free session today.  So my agenda for today was:

9:30 get up and have free breakfast
10:00 facebook/email
11:00 walk to beach with two girls from hostel, watch surfers
2:00 get lunch for $4.50
3:30 hour long massage for $7
5:00 stretch class
6:30 get dinner for $15.00 (this included 3 drinks)
9:30 facebook/blog/email

Chilled and relaxed and loved it.  I'll leave you with a funny story:
A girl that I met today from the hostel is from Minneapolis, so we chatted a bit and she told me that she just came from India.  Somebody she met from Switzerland shared with her a terrible story of riding a bus all day in India and feeling very sick.  She was puking into a bag, and trying very hard not to poop and pee her pants for four hours.  Finally the bus reached its destination and she ran to a restaurant across the road.  She begged for the bathroom and the man at the door said, 'yes, right this way' sensing her urgency.  Then he turned around and looked at another man, who must have been the manager.  He shook his head no.  She was in an emergency situation so she bypassed the first man, ran to the manager man and said, 'please please I need the bathroom NOW!'  He still said no.  And so she went out front of the restaurant, and diarrhea pooped right there in the street.  She felt good about it too because the man was so mean to not let her use the bathroom, but was very surprised at how long it actually took to do the pooping.  All the while this man was yelling at her.