Parklife and Tommy Ball

For those who know me, you know that I spend all of my money going to shows in Boston, that I have a set list collection, and that I spend way too much time downloading (completely legal) music. That being said, when I saw a poster advertising a music festival here (its called Parklife) on my very first day in Australia, I knew I would be going. Lo and behold, I bought tickets for the fest a few weeks later and I went with Erica and my aussie friends Erin, Katelin, and Anna on October 1st. 

We wrote our set lists on our arms so that we wouldn't miss a second of the shows we wanted to see! :) 

Parklife was a BLAST. The lineup was incredible, and I was seeing a lot of the acts for the 2nd time-- they were all just as good the second time around. My favorite act of the day was Nero, who's set was absolutely mindblowing. You could feel their synth beats pulsating through the field we were in, and between the light show, the music, and their overall performance, they did an incredible job. Passion Pit was great as well, especially when they fired confetti into the air while playing "Sleepyhead", which didn't happen the first time I saw them back in Virginia. Robyn was once again phenomenal, her dance moves are stellar and for an older woman with kids who was able to make a comeback from the 90s? Well, I'll just say she's awesome and she has my utmost respect. She also still looks like an elf. 

Here's the Parklife lineup for those who are curious and so everyone can be jealous: 

While I was at Parklife, one of the craziest things happened. To give a bit of background, in Virginia I was a member of the Virginia Childrens' Chorus (VCC) for 5 years (5th through 10th grade). VCC performed in the annual Virginia Arts Festival, which included the Virginia International Tattoo, which was a massive show in our hometown arena that featured artists from around the world, all in the one show. Anyways, I sang in the Tattoo for 2 years. While in the Tattoo, I met a group of Australian guys who were in a bagpiping band from Scotch College, a school here in Perth. I fell out of touch with almost everyone after the show ended, but I remembered that they were from Perth when I was applying to study here. Needless to say, I didn't think I would see any of them while I was here--I was wrong!!
While at Parklife, I was walking from one stage to another in between acts, and I looked up and saw a familiar face--I leaned into my friend Anna and said I recognized a guy standing in front of us as one of the boys I met 5 years ago at the Tattoo, and I couldnt decide whether to go up and say something incase he didn't remember me (I also didn't want to completely freak him out or come off as a psycho stalker...) but Anna walked right up to him, asked if he remembered me (he did, thank God) and we hugged over and over again while freaking out over the odds of us running into each other! Imagine that, seeing someone you met 5 years ago, on the other side of the planet, at a music festival with thousands of people. Its just so crazy! 

Hugh and I at Tattoo 5 years ago, and at Parklife! What a crazy reunion!

After the festival ended, we were all completely exhausted, covered in dirt and mud, and riding a music high. The day was unreal between all of the acts we saw, I could not have had more fun! Here are a few more pictures of the festival :) 

Anna and I 

Katelin, Erin, and I!

Nero

Robyn!

Robyn!

 The weekend following Parklife, I went to the St. Thomas More College Ball -- the most formal event at Tommy! It was SO fun seeing everyone all dressed up, and we had the most wonderful time together. The Ball was at the University Club, a short walk over on UWA's campus across the street. After a cocktail hour and a 3 course dinner, everyone hit the dance floor where we stayed until the night ended. Between dancing "Gangnam Style" and a conga line that ran around the dance floor for a solid 5 minutes too long, everyone had the best time. The open bar probably didn't hurt either. 
Here are a few pictures of us from the ball! 

Me and my good friend Glenda, from Italy! :) 

Anna and I

Dinner menu

Still too tall 

Giselle and Jeff (from Notre Dame) and Erica!

Erica and I had to take advantage of the professional photographer that was there....

That's all I have for now, it's been another amazing couple of weeks! I'll try to put another post together next week so that I can tell you about Tommy Valete (our last formal dinner/graduation type of deal) and about my weekend trip down south to Margaret River! Now I should probably get to doing my homework, since I actually have some this week....Sometimes I forget that I'm here for school. Hahaha oops! :) 

I have another 34 days here, and I don't think I'll ever be able to leave. 

What an amazing time I'm having, I'm so lucky!

Til next time
Cheers, 
Becca :) 

Bali Ha'i

So this is will undoubtedly be my longest blog post (get ready for LOTS of pictures), because I'm about to recap the last week of my life, which was, hands down, the best week of my life.  If you aren't up for the task of reading the following novel, skip to the end where theres a link to a video I made about the trip! 

To fill those who don't know in, I went to Bali in the Indonesian islands for spring break (technically its called "study break"...but let's be honest. No one was studying in Bali!)
When I was accepted to study abroad in Perth, I immediately knew I wanted to travel to Bali while I was in Australia. When 35 friends and I booked our trip together for spring break, it was surreal--I couldn't believe I was actually going! The only thing I had to associate with Bali was the musical South Pacific, which I grew up watching. In the movie, one of the characters sings "Bali Ha'i"--a song I have always known (and occasionally sing to myself), but one that I never understood considering I had never seen the island that it is based on.
Well let me tell you, I get it now :)

After a VERY shaky flight out of Perth and into Bali on Friday, September 21st, we explored a bit but mostly settled into our hotel rooms (at the Matahari Bungalows in Kuta, Bali) to get a good night's sleep to start our first full day off right.


Day 1:
Erica and I woke up early to walk through the streets and get a feel for the city, Kuta, that we would be staying in for the next week. Kuta is tourist-central, so we were in the middle of EVERYTHING. In Kuta, everything is compact and congested because the area is overpopulated with tourists and locals trying to sell the tourists things. It sounds kinda bad, but honestly it was so cool. I was fascinated with the Balinese culture throughout the week, because it is so unfamiliar and different from my own. Erica and I walked to the Balinese markets, did a bit of bartering (so fun) and then stopped in a spa because hey, why not stop in a spa when a mani-pedi is $9! After getting acquainted with the girls who would be taking care of us, we talked and enjoyed every second of being spoiled while we got our nails done. Afterwards, Erica and I both tipped the girls who had been working away on us. When we tipped them, they were so shocked and thankful, and were clutching the extra money to their chests, profusely thanking us. They looked almost like they were on the verge of tears. I think this was when I realized how third world some areas of Bali are--I tipped this sweet girl $2 on a $9 manicure, and the $2 seemed to mean the world to her. At that point I felt so guilty, because I was just so lucky to be on a vacation in a place like that, whereas meanwhile these kind girls are scrounging for pennies. At that point I was ready to just give away my wallet!

Next, we headed down to the beach, where we were approached by a woman (with a fruit basket expertly balanced on her head) who wanted to sell us fruit. Unable to resist, we each bought a mango and sat looking out onto the ocean, soaking in the sunshine, and eating mangoes. Does life get more perfect than that?! 

At the beach

Later that night, our group went to a club called the Sky Garden which is on the tourist strip in Kuta. Here's the thing about the Sky Garden--its a 7-story club, and each story has its own club that plays a certain genre of music. On the roof, there is an all you can eat bbq (for $5) and free drinks on and off for a half hour throughout the night. Being Americans and always on the hunt for a deal, we went and got dinner and overindulged in the free drink offer.
When I say we overindulged, I mean people were running back and forth hoarding and chugging free drinks while we had access to them. And so, the most epic downfall ensued shortly thereafter.
Everyone died.
Ok not really but I don't think I have ever seen such a huge group of collectively WASTED people in my life. It was hilarious, even if we all spilled, tripped, ran around, and did things in public that you technically shouldnt... We quickly adopted the "what happens in Bali, stays in Bali" mantra, although clearly that isn't the case since I'm writing about it now :) Ooopsies. 

Day 2
The next morning, or should I say afternoon, since just about everyone slept in for personal (hungover) reasons, we lounged by the hotel pool and its swim-up bar and watched the Notre Dame vs. Michigan football game. The majority of the kids that I traveled to Bali with are from ND, so football is a religion. Apparently, to miss the Michigan-ND game is sacrilege, so I was therefore obligated to watch as well due to my new ND association with my friends :) Good thing ND won the game, or else the night might have taken a turn for the worst!

Our hotel pool! (Swim up bar included) 

I spent the rest of the day doing a bit more exploring around Kuta and shopping in the markets.

To summarize that evening (major run-on sentence ahead. Imagine im saying it all in one breath to get this little hiccup in the trip out of the way for explanation's sake):
I was out with friends listening to a band playing in a bar when this girl (lets call her Sophie, shall we?) I had never met randomly disappears and everyone freaks out and starts looking for her and so then I start looking too even when I don't know who this Sophie chick is and its a completely lost cause because we're in jam-packed Bali at 1 in the morning and you can't even hear yourself think thanks to the 86 different songs blasting from the various clubs around you. So we spend the night walking in and out of clubs looking for this girl whose actual friends are zero help and could care less. The entire time we're debating whether to call tourist police, who we know are utterly useless. Eventually, with no luck, we give up the search and pray for the best with a plan to call the police in the morning if she doesnt show up. LUCKY FOR US we found her passed out (yay alcohol) in her hotel room the next morning. YAY ALL IS WELL the funny part is I still haven't met her HAHA yay for all of us being good-ish samaritans. Ok thats the end of that little rant.


Day 3:
ELEPHANT SAFARI DAY
The elephant safari was easily one of my favorite things that I did during the week. Elephants are tied in first place as my favorite animal (along with penguins), so I had been looking forward to this for months. One of the reasons I love elephants so much is because my grandmother, who I call "YiaYia" ('grandmother' in Greek) is absolutely obsessed with them. My loved for elephants definitely stems from her own, especially because we are very close with each other. My grandma calls elephants "Gigis", so I have adopted that term into my day-to-day vocab as well. Sadly, only those in my family get what I'm talking about, but needless to say, the day of the elephant/gigi safari was one that I could not have been more excited for. On the car ride to the safari park and for weeks beforehand I was talking to and telling my friends about my YiaYia, about her love for Gigis, and about how much she would love to join in on the elephant ride. My YiaYia is a child at heart, so I know she would have been one of the first people to jump up on an elephant herself where she there with me! So, after playing and petting the elephants in the park for a solid hour (while simultaneously hyperventilating out of pure excitement), I finally fulfilled a lifelong dream and crossed off a bucket-list activity by riding an elephant. I rode the elephant with Erica, and with our elephant's trainer. While we rode through the Balinese jungle, we made casual conversation with our trainer, asking about how the elephants are trained, what their life at the park is like, etc etc.

THEN, I asked the trainer what our elephant's name was.

"This is Gigi" he said.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!!??! CAN. YOU. BELIEVE. THAT.
Seriously, what are the odds of that happening?! Gigi isn't even a real name, right?!?!
So, I immediately start sobbing on the back of this elephant. Erica just goes "Oh. my. God. no. way."

After I sort-of-kind-of-but-not-really pulled myself together, I tried to explain my tears to our trainer who was definitely a tad freaked out... Needless to say, I know my YiaYia was right there with me in spirit!
Now here are lots of pictures of elephants :) 

The baby grabbed my head! :) 

Gigi <3

I just love them so much!! 

After the elephant safari, we headed back to our hotel, where Erica and I decided to visit the spa and (for a whopping $9) get an hour long massage. When we were debating which type of massage to get, we decided to go for the Traditional Balinese massage. When in Rome, er...Bali, right?
Anyways, we were in rooms next to each other as the massages began. Everything was going per usual up until the masseuse asked me to flip onto my back. As I did so, she casually ripped the blanket off that was covering my butt naked bod.
WHOAH THERE LADY WE MET 2 MINUTES AGO.
As she started massaging my stomach (that was a first) I didn't know whether to get up and leave, to cry, or to laugh. I settled on laughing. For the rest of the massage, I was biting my tongue, trying so hard not to laugh as this masseuse ventured places that had never been visited by a masseuse before. yikes. Considering I was completely naked on this table getting a balinese massage from a woman who doesn't even know my name, I couldn't help but think that she should at least buy me a drink first....Am I right??? Hahahaha
After the massage, I met back up with Erica. I was still hysterically laughing, whereas Erica was absolutely traumatized. All the blood had drained from her face, she was on the verge of tears and in absolute disbelief over what had happened (unexpected nudity). At that moment, she decided that we were going to pretend the massage never happened, and that we'd never talk about it. So I'm sorry for bringing it up again, Erica :) Had to do it. Priceless memories in Bali, you know? love you.


Day 4:
I woke up at 7:00 to go to the beach and go surfing with a few friends. I've surfed before at home, but I'm no professional (I just like to pretend im Kate Bosworth in "Blue Crush"). After surfing for a few hours, we were exhausted and fell asleep on the beach before heading back to our hotel.
Later that afternoon, I went horseback riding through rice fields in the Balinese countryside, and on the beach. Riding horses along the beach at sunset was absolutely surreal--and also something I got to cross off my bucket list :) The beach was stunningly beautiful, and was unlike any I had seen before. The sand was a black-ish color from volcanic sediment, and the way that the setting sunlight reflected off of jagged rocks jutting out of the water across the horizon was breathtaking.

Watching the sunset while riding along the beach!

Day 5:
This was my favorite day.
I woke up at 2:00am with 15 friends, got in a car, and drove to the base of Mount Batur, the biggest mountain/volcano in Bali. The goal of the day was to climb the mountain, and to reach the peak by sunrise. Lucky for me, I got to tackle the hike in slip-on vans since I forgot my sneakers back in Australia....awesome.

Anyways, we started the hike in pitch black, along with a few young tour guides who were leading us. We each had a dinky little plastic flashlight to guide our footsteps along the treacherous, practically nonexistent path up the mountain. As we got further, the path continued to disappear until we were blazing a trail of our own up the mountainside.
I'm going to be honest--this hike KICKED my BUTT. I'm going to blame part of that on my asthma as the air got thinner while we got higher (I definitely looked really cool with my inhaler constantly in my mouth). There were parts of the trail where we were essentially vertical and pulling ourselves up onto the rocks hanging overhead. Thank god it was dark outside, because if I had known I  had cliffs on either side of me, I probably would have chickened out.
One of the tour guides, Made (pronounced Mah-day), became my best friend/savior on this hike. At one point, I was really struggling, which was all too apparent by my embarrassingly heavy breathing and my way-too-heavy-backpack with like 3 changes of clothes in it... (I wanted a broad outfit selection for after the hike. 20-20 hindsight tells me that was definitely a stupid decision.)
As I was pulling myself up onto another rock that sliced my knees, I looked up just as Made reached out his angelic, beautiful, loving hand to help me up onto the rock. I didn't let go of his hand for a solid 45 minutes as we continued our grueling ascent. One would think that climbing a mountain with one hand would be even harder, but I think that having the caring companionship of a complete stranger by my side as I tackled one of the hardest things I've ever done made it more than worth it.
Made is my hero :) When we reached the top of the mountain he got lots of hugs and gave me several high fives. He's someone I won't forget :)

Me and Made! :) 

The top of the mountain was sublime. There aren't enough words in the english language to describe what it was like up there. After climbing up, I think the top was that much more precious considering the work it took to get there. We watched the sun rise amidst volcanic smoke and the morning fog that was slowly clearing. We could see mountains on surrounding islands, and the sun illuminated the water around the coast in pink, orange, purple, and red hues. It was stunning.
When we started our descent an hour or so later, we got a really close look at the path we had blindly tackled on our way up the mountain. And let me tell you, it was terrifying. There were ample places where one wrong step would send you flying down the side of the mountain... There were also a bunch of mini avalanches from unsteady rocks crumbling beneath people's feet as we climbed down. When we reached the solid, level ground, we were all exhausted but still riding a triumphant, endorphin-filled high from the morning's excursion.
So I climbed a mountain. Another item checked off the bucket list :)

The whole group! We did it! 

Mount Batur

My favorite picture from my whole trip! I was drinking tea while looking back at Mt. Batur. Hard to believe I climbed it earlier that morning! 

After piling back into the car (we were all soaked through with sweat and caked in volcanic dust) we drove 15 minutes down the road to a natural hot spring. The hot spring was nestled next to a massive body of water and was surrounded by mountains. Again, an absolutely breathtaking place. This was when I began to realize that everything in Bali really is beautiful beyond comparison--it all was so unfamiliar to me that I found that no matter what I experienced, everything took on an etherial quality that made that experience unlike anything else. Indescribable beauty was really common characteristic shared by everything.

Relaxing in the hot springs!

Surrounded by mountains

Local fisherman we saw while visiting the hot springs :)

He was amazing to watch

After the hot springs, we traveled to a coffee and tea plantation where we got to sample products grown on-sight. All of them were delicious, of course. My favorites were the Ginseng, traditional Bali Coffee, Ginger, Herbal, and Lemon teas. Yummy :)

Makin some organic coffee!

Following the plantations, we went to Ubud, a city in central Bali. Ubud had some incredible art markets that we explored for an hour, until we went to a Hindu temple situated in the center of the city. The serenity of the temple was palpable, and the detailed and somewhat terrifying architecture of the temple is indescribable. I asked our driver why so many of the statues and imagery around the temple was so scary-looking, and he explained that the statues are scary in order to frighten away evil spirits that come to the temple. Fun fact: when we were on temple grounds, we all needed to wear sarongs to keep our legs covered. 

makin incense

After the temple, we loaded back into the car and went back to our hotel. Everyone fell asleep in the car within 15 minutes--we were all exhausted after the 15 hour day :)

Day 6:
I spent the day shopping in the Kuta markets with Erica, and went to a spa for 5 hours in the city. For $65, we both got a full body (SWEDISH, not Balinese) massage, a green tea body scrub, facial, and a mani-pedi. Just living the life of celebrities :) it was so cool.

That evening after we got home, Erica was showering and out of nowhere she started screaming. I ran to the door, about to rip it down, and couldn't get in as Erica was holding it shut and yelling for me not to come in. She finally bolted out of the bathroom, still yelling, and I looked in to see what she was upset about.
Lo and behold, there was a cockroach the SIZE OF A DINOSAUR scaling the far wall.
Ok, I can handle bugs. Spiders aren't my favorite, others I can deal with. But cockroaches? NO CAN DO. I HATE cockroaches. I blame my mother for that. I have a zero-tolerance policy with cockroaches. 
So as soon as I saw the beast that was definitely trying to kill us both, I started screaming and made a run for the front door. As I threw the door open to run out, I was greeted by the front desk man from the hotel, who was holding a walkie-talkie yelling static-y Balinese at him. He asked me if I was ok, and said that someone had reported someone in our room was hurt because there was so much horrific screaming...
Oops.
We explained the problem (a killer cockroach the size of China that was out to get us) and demanded that he get rid of it. After he stopped laughing over our hysteria, he enlisted two saints/employees to get the creature out of our room.
After the incident, the bathroom door stayed open. 
Staying alive trumps privacy in our book :)

Day 7:
Our last full day!
I went white water rafting through the jungle! It was amazing! The rapids we were paddling were level 3 rapids that ran between two cliffs covered in palm trees, vines, and other exotic vegitation. It was just so so cool. While we were rafting, I saw how third-world certain areas of Bali are. We saw countless shacks that served as homes for some of the locals, and we saw a ton of families bathing and washing clothes in the river we were traveling through.
At one point, we stopped our raft to climb up a waterfall. The power and sound of the waterfall was overwhelming. The brute force of nature can blow your mind sometimes :)
After jumping back in the raft, we ended the trip by going over a waterfall! It was terrifying but so fun--it was like a massive drop on a roller coaster, but without the guaranteed safety, and with a lot of water...

Just before piling into our rafts!

playing by the waterfall

On top of the waterfall!

The best rafting team :) 

After we got out of our rafts, we had to climb an extremely steep staircase up the side of a cliff in order to get to our lunch spot. We were all winded and exhausted by the time we reached the top. As we were sitting down, I turned in time to see local women from the area climbing the same stairs, while simultaneously balancing MASSIVE loads of soaking wet laundry on their heads.
We had just struggled to climb the same stairs, managing only our own body weight. These women were walking up, no problem, without even using a hand to hold the laundry steady on their heads. Just unbelievable!

That night, we went back to the dreaded Sky Garden where we only sort of took advantage of the disgusting free drink deal, and we ended up at the Bounty Discotheque at a FOAMMMM PARTYYYYY. Again, the epitome of cliche spring break things to do... The foam party was so much fun though. I'm not going to lie to you. Stereotypical spring break activities are fun for a reason, after all.

Foam Party!

Day 8:
The last day!
I went to Uluwatu with Erica and Giselle, which is the home of some of the best surfing in the Indonesian islands. I didn't go surfing, of course. No way was I qualified to try to ride the waves there, seeing as how if I messed up, I'd be swallowed up by the massive cliffs lining the coast. The only way to reach the water at Uluwatu is by walking through a cave of sorts--again, it was absolutely beautiful. Erica, Giselle, and I explored the caves for a while and went for a swim before climbing some very unreliable-looking wooden stairs to the top of a cliff where there was a little restaurant. We ordered mango smoothies and watched surfers for the remainder of the afternoon :)

Mango smoothies overlooking the ocean and what not

Caves at Uluwatu

My time in Bali was absolutely surreal--I can truly say it's up there as one of the best weeks of my life. I know that I will never experience anything quite like what I did there. It was the best, and I'm so so so lucky! Here are a few more pictures that I liked from the trip

The one time I will ever be a multimillionaire. Im holding 2,000,000 Rupiah (Indonesian currency) here, which is roughly $200....

I love orchids

Incense offering!

This lil guy was sitting just outside of our hotel room :) 

I made this video to document the week--lot's of juicy pictures and videos in here. Enjoy! :)
The link to the video:

https://vimeo.com/50984970

or you can    CLICK HERE

Terima Kasih Banyak! ('thank you very much' in Indonesian),
Rebecca :)