Back to Bali (Ladies' Trip)

PASSING OUT BOOKS FROM MY SUITCASE FRIENDS DONATED FOR THEM
OUR ELEPHANT PLAYING THE HARMONICA MY GUIDE & I RUNNING OUR HORSES ON THE BEACH
Yes, I went to Bali again...please don't hate me. I know I just went with Sean in May but my friend Melissa REALLY wanted to go and completely twisted my arm. :) So I saved up my little money from teaching yoga and English (for 3 months) so I could go with my friend (who watched our girls while Sean and I went to Bali last time). After I told her about it she couldn't wait to go so we took 2 other girlfriends and had a blast. Some things I had done before with Sean (elephant riding, surfing, Balinese dances) but some I hadn't like jet-skiing, riding horses on the beach (Nina & I ran ours) and flying about 9 stories high in the sky behind a boat on a air mattress (called a Flying Fish). That was fun! I also had the opportunity of delivering 62 children's books to a local school (books that my friends from church and the Oakleaf Club donated and I brought in my suitcase). That was the highlight of my trip. I truly love the Balinese people, there is something about their culture that makes me want to keep coming back here. Next year I'll bring my girls they would love it. Remind me to tell you the story of when I was doing yoga on the beach and was almost run over by a bulldozer. Also, the story of Melissa acting as my bodyguard and getting physical with a local shopkeeper. Later..I don't want to make this post too long.

MEETING COLBIE CALLIAT in TOKYO!!

If you haven't heard of my favorite singer (Colbie Calliat) some of her best songs are playing on my playlist for your listening pleasure. :) I usually have at least one of her songs playing on my blog but after meeting her on Friday night I can't stop listening to her, the show was THAT good. It was my friend Celeste's 30th birthday so I thought it'd be fun if we all took her up to Tokyo and went to the concert. We had SO much fun, especially since most of us are moms who haven't yet been to a concert in Japan. What was even better was the venue was so small (only 300 people) and we got there early so she was singing seriously 5 feet from us. It was AMAZING!!! She is uber talented and on key with every song. We were the only Americans there so we had a fairly easy time meeting her outside after the show. (I didn't think we would because the Japanese security guards weren't letting us backstage even though I jokingly offered them 2,000 yen - $20) and pretended not to understand when they asked me to leave. :) Yes, my friend Renee said I went from cool to "geeked out" when I met Colbie but she is just WAY BEYOND any other female singer right now. What I love about her is she's so down-to-earth, beachy, cool, understated and honest with her whole style and music. She's like a female Jack Johnson. I LOVE HER!!!

The GW Carrier Comes Home to Protests

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington is replacing the USS Kittyhawk (a carrier my dad flew jets off of back in the 60's). But now this new carrier is nuclear powered (which obviously brings back painful memories for the Japanese people) so many of them held protests prior to the GW's arrival and on the day it came into port. I teach English off base near the bay every other Thursday and this past week I taught happened to be the same day the carrier came home. My Japanese students take the train from Yokohama (30 minutes north) so stepping out of the station and seeing the protests near the base got their hearts pounding. They had to pass through a couple of demonstrations on their way from the train station to our meeting place, but they were fine, the Japanese protesters aren't violent. Compared to European protesters they are quite civilized and non-threatening. They raise their voices and shout at times but mainly they're just a well-organized group of disgruntled people holding signs. I can see both sides of the argument but the GW is not being reassigned to another location so we'll just have to be a little nicer to our Japanese friends off base and help them get through this awkward transition. Gomen! (Sorry)! I should have baked the protesters some homemade chocolate chip cookies. It's hard to be mad if you're eating something sweet. :) Peace, love & cookies!

Dayna's Olympic Surprise Party in China?

It all started with this crazy invitation on people's doorsteps...when I invited my friends to a "Beijing Olympics themed" surprise birthday party (10 days ago when the Olympics were still going) for my close friend Dayna (yes, that's her head on the invite & a medal on her neck). The Chinese robe is draped over a bottle of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider and the fan in her belt has the invitation written on the inside. This was my poor attempt to combine her birthday celebration with the Olympics: "Confucius say... You are invited to join us at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing where an honorary gold medal will be given to Dayna for her winning performance 27 years ago swimming freestyle in the hospital delivery room!" Yes, it's a stretch but that's just how my brain works! So if you read the post earlier about Marissa and I going to Chinatown for the decorations you'll know we found some fun ones (Chinese lanterns, Chinese print table runners, placemats, napkins, etc.) Oh, and the hardest thing to find in Japan - Chinese fortune cookies! Which we did find in Chinatown and they even came in cute little Chinese take-out boxes. I put those in silky Asian drawstring bags as party favors. We also had a friend (who is a gourmet chef & teaches cooking classes on base) cook all the Chinese dishes during the party in my own little kitchen! Everything was so tasty! Lisa brought the yummy dessert we put candles on & Renee made a tasty "Gold Medal Punch". Everyone helped put up lanterns as they were arriving early and set the table. They also helped me make more last minute Olympic torches (tissue paper flames in a gold cardboard base). We put gold confetti in them and when she came inside we tossed the confetti from the torches on her. It was so much fun, I love surprising people! :) For the entertainment Lindi thought of some "Olympic games" we could compete in. The one she thought of... Couples' Syncronized Swimming! Too funny! Each couple competed (syncronized dancing) for 40 seconds to their favorite song, trying to stay in sync & were judged by numbers afterward. It was the highlight of the night, it was hysterical! We gave fake little medals to Dayna & Garrett for the "most fun to watch". :) The girls also made Dayna go through our "Chinese Torture - Spanking Machine" (Lindi & I share that same family tradition, weird but fun). Thanks to everyone's help we had an awesome night and accomplished our goal of helping the birthday girl realize how much she means to all of us. She's always doing things for everyone else (she was my shoulder to cry on when I came back to Japan from Dad's funeral). She's 1 in a million and I'm blessed to have her as a friend. Happy Birthday D! We love you!