I got home several hours ago from being at the beach resort called Ocean Queen. I went there last year with the Churches during Idul Fitri, but this year, we had most of the expat teachers go along, too. We all crammed into 2 bungalow huts and had a BLAST!
Here are a few photos of our time there...
Meet the Skeens family-Jared, Becky, and Cara Grace. They've spent the last 6 years living and teaching in Guam. They adopted Cara from China about 4 years ago and love traveling the world. Obviously! Jared teaches science at SPH, and Becky will, hopefully, get a teaching job there when Cara enters Kindergarten next year.
Remember Cahaya from last year's posts? She's now 3 years old, slightly bigger, and much more talkative/slightly sassy.
She and her parents joined us at Ocean Queen, and she and Cara played (fairly well) together.
Water buddies!
The girls were so cute and played together well, for the most part, but they had a problem with sharing, including sharing Miss Mandy during playtime in the pool.This photo actually turned out well, because they were playing "Tug-of-War/kiss Miss Mandy".
Cara was supposed to be "fixing" my hair, but it looks like she's baptizing me instead! Haha!Enjoy the random photos and commentaries!
I really love this photo! The colors are so beautiful because of the sunset's rays!
A close-up of a fishing boat.
Yoshie and Fera came with us. This photo is significant because I'm wearing a green tank top. There's a legend at Ocean Queen that the sea goddess, or queen, will pull in and drown anyone who wears green to the beach, so I did it just to defy the legend. The locals really believe this, so they bring food and drink to the beach to appease the goddess. How sad.
This is how the Ocean Queen workers got coconuts for people. They climbed a long, scary-looking bamboo ladder, scaled the rest of the tree, wrapped a red cord around a bunch of coconuts...
...and then they cut them down as a group. That's very considerate of them, since the coconut trees were shading the swimming pool.
Eating fresh coconut and drinking watery coconut milk with Christine and Eric.
(See my sunburned face? It's now a nice, freckly tan instead of a sunburn! Yay!)
David and Kris, relaxing in a cabana. When they weren't splashing around in the ocean like cute, little teenagers, they were reading books here. (They're still the coolest old people I've ever met!)
This is an unofficial group shot when someone in the group-NOT me-claimed he/she saw dolphins in the ocean. We couldn't see them, though. Too bad! That would've been the highlight of my beach experience, for sure!
Meet Elise. She's originally from Minnesota and is one of the three new English teachers at SPH this year. She's doing a great job teaching, especially considering she just graduated from college and this is her first full-time teaching experience. (!!!) She's also into eating wayyy healthy, organic foods, and she's ardently trying to get me to enjoy her flax seed pancakes that she likes...it's not working, though...
Dancing with Yoshie in the waves!
Here we are with our innovative sand...fort... creation...thing...
This is Diane. Diane and her husband, Scott, are new to SPH, but they're not new to Indonesia. Scott was born and raised on the island of Kalimantan, and they raised their 4 sons there and on Java over the past several years. They lived in Michigan for awhile, too.
Diane also teaches English with me. (She's drop-dead hilarious, too!) :)
Cara made sand angels! Haha!I don't think she's ever experienced snow before.
Isn't she cuuuuute????Before our trip, Cara Grace and I had made a deal with each other: I was going to help Mommy bury Cara, and then they would bury me.
The other expats found out about this and didn't believe I was adventuresome enough to allow people to bury me in the sand. (I wonder why they doubt my bravery?? Hmm...) They all wanted to help Cara/take photos.
Somehow, this deal began in reverse, and then Cara ran away from Mommy and me, so she never fulfilled her end of the deal.
Oh well.
This is Zeek. Zeek is in 11th grade at SPH and is Scott and Diane's youngest son.He's very skilled in digging in the sand and also in digging graves. He was the only one who actually volunteered to help Cara bury me. :-P
Cara discovered that it takes a lot of help-and sand- to bury Miss Mandy.
Hmm, not sure if I still want to do this or not...!
They did it!
Aaahhh, freedom from the sand!(This was taken on the last full day of being at the beach. You can tell this from my very red face...)
Here's a friendly crab Zeek found while digging through the sand. I was glad he had found it BEFORE I was buried, because he was much bigger than he looks in this photo, and my burial could've been very painful.We threw him back into the ocean and didn't see him for the rest of the vacation, thankfully.
Becky and Diane, getting massages in the cabana. On the beach. At sunset. For five bucks. Life doesn't get much more relaxing than that!
Julia and Cahaya, dancing on the beach.
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