I currently have 4 mosquito bites on my elbow, one on the palm of my hand, and too many to count on my feet. That can only mean one thing: I am finally in Indonesia- Bali to be exact. I should probably look into this as I've been told there's a mosquito-borne illness pandemic in Bali right now, though I only know the Indonesian name for the disease. I would like to just assume that it's an illness I've already been vaccinated for...

I truly enjoyed the last few weeks I was home, and was lucky to spend a lot of time with family and friends. Leaving was hard- I got a little choked up, and it took a couple flights for that lump in my throat to go away.

Mom and I at the airport



Dad and I

So I won't say too much about the flight over here. I'd much rather forget the ridiculously long flight, the cramped leg area, tiny airplane bathrooms, etc. than go on about it for too long. Also I wasn't too happy that 2 Tylenol PM wasn't enough to knock me out. Some quick highlights of the trip include befriending a young couple next to me on the flight who were going to vacation in Thailand for 5 weeks, enjoying a $6 (and yes, that's American dollars) latte at the Hong Kong airport, and watching 5 new movies I've been wanting to see over the course of the trip. Here's a picture from the Hong Kong airport:



Being in Bali again has made me feel at home, even though I am thousands of miles away. When the plane landed, I felt nervous, but after leaving the airport, the feeling of foreign familiarity set in-- where everything is different but familiar. I got a taxi from the airport to my old host family's house (from when I studied in Bali over a year ago), and I've been having a great time so far. So those of you who haven't gotten emails from me, it's a good thing- I've been busy and happy. Some quick highlights of staying with my family so far include:

-My host mom saying that I look whiter and skinnier than the last time she saw me, though I'm convinced it's merely a ploy to make me eat a lot of food, as she always does. I've already been lovingly scolded for not finishing the ridiculously large mountain of rice put on my plate for dinner. Also, if I'm hanging out with my host brother Agung, she will call me to make sure that I have eaten (Sudan makan, Erica?)- this is very common and polite in Indonesia.

-My host sister Gunggek (10 years old) also thinks I'm whiter than last time, and suggested that she could get plastic surgery a la Michael Jackson to look more like my real sister

-I would love to tell you that I've been continuing my anthropological study on Balinese Foods, but I've been doing nothing of the sort. This week has been a vacation of the best kind- full of friends! I have been hanging out with my host brother and all of his friends from his university. I went with them to Kuta to try to see Eclipse, but it was sold out (thank god), so we went to an arcade and played bumper cars, then played a game of bowling. So much fun! The only embarrassing part was that my shoe size was the same as most of the guys there. Oh, and nobody wears socks, so the bowling shoes STINK. I'm not convinced the disinfectant they gave us actually does anything.

-Went to the beach with Agung, Gunggek, and friends.


Agung (on the left) and friends sitting at the beach




Gunggek eating breakfast at the beach


-Not that anyone really wants to know, but I haven't had any "bali belly" issues yet (currently knocking on wood...), though I have eaten street food almost exclusively for the past week. Oddly enough, my only stomachache was from a type of pastry at a western-style bakery in the Kuta mall. Let's hope my good luck continues!

I've been terrible about taking pictures and don't have any yet of my host mom or dad. I'll have to round everybody up later for a "family" photo, and upload it to my next post.

On a completely unrelated note, I am now the co-author of a published academic paper! After working in a fungal genetics lab at UMKC last summer, I co-authored an article with a professor on the research we completed. Here's the link, even if you do nothing other than admire my name at the top of the article :D http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011605

I will have many more stories once I arrive in Yogyakarta on Wednesday morning and meet up with the other volunteers there.