Mirasol

The American Embassy owns a piece of property up in the mountains called Mirasole. On this property there are 2 villas, and our friends Cherylyn and Tanner, who work for the embassy, booked this place for all of us while my parents were here visiting before Christmas. It was a wonderful weekend get-a-way! It was beautiful 'chilly' weather (about 65-80 F) during the day, then in the evenings it got even colder. Unfortunately it rained a lot while we were there, so we weren't able to spend too much time outside. But when the weather was nice we enjoyed the large beautiful lawn, which you just can't do in the city because there is no lawn. The kids ran, and explored, we played botchie ball, and went to Taman Safari. When it rained, we stayed inside playing ping pong, card and board games, watched movies, and made smores in the fireplace. Eden actually lost her 2nd tooth eathing said smore. The pool was freezing!!! But all the men sucked it up and got in with the kids...way to go Dads!! We were warned before we left, that on Sunday (which was the day we were going home) the mountain road closes every 2-3 hours and changes directions. We were told to leave before 9 and we would make it down in time...ya...they were wrong!! So when we got on the road at 8am, we traveled maybe 2 miles down the mountain when we came to a dead stop and stayed there, not moving and inch for 3 hours! Seriously!! So, we did a little walking on the roadside with some views of the villages from above.

Snuggles

These are honestly some of my favorite times to catch on photo. I think they're some of Mike's favorite times as well.

Kampung Betawi

This last fall, I joined a group called the Indonesian Heritage Society. This group does many things to preserve the culture and history of Indonesia. One of the main reasons I joined the group was for Exploring! There are many groups of women that come together and organize outing to different places in Indonesia. I joined a group that only goes out once a month (due to my schedule and sweet children) but there are other groups that go out every week.

So far, we have been to a spice demonstration with Ibu Molina, an Indian woman who has lived here for over 18 years and taught us all about Indonesian spices and their uses. We went to Kampung Betawi (the Betawi Village) where we saw and tried traditional music and dance, foods, martial arts, and architecture. And most recently we went to Gunung Mas which translated means Gold Mountain, a tea plantation about 1 1/2 hours out of central Jakarta producing mostly black tea.

Here are some pictures of Kampung Betawi:

Betawi dancers put on a lovely performance for us, then taught us some steps. It was way harder than it looked!

A gentleman making Kerak Telor (egg crust). It's essentially a scrambled egg with powdered shrimp, onion, salt and pepper, and good old MSG! They cook it in a pan on a fire, then literally turn the pan upside down with the egg stuck to the bottom and cook the top directly on the open flame.

This brown stuff, is called Dodol. It is a kind of candy, that sort of reminds me of molasses taffy but it's more gummy like a gummy bear texture. These ladies stir it over the fire for 7 hours! It's thick and takes some serious muscle and leverage to stir with that paddle.

Indonesian children love having their picture taken, especially if you show it to them on your digital camera... that's some serious entertainment right there! These guys at the bottom were real posers!

Halloween

We attended a party hosted by the Key's family who has since moved away to Bangkok. We also held a primary Halloween party at our home where we did doughnuts on a string, a cake walk, a beanbag toss into plastic pumpkins, and a spider craft out of egg cartons.

Tanjung Lesung

We took a trip to the coast for 4 days when our boat trip to Krakatao (yes, the volcano) got cancelled due to bad weather. We had planned the boat trip with our friends the Prendergast's and we were all so disappointed that we came up with this plan very last minute. A teacher friend told us about it, and we booked it on the spot and left the very next morning. It was EXCELLENT!! The beaches around the island of Java are not wonderful but the water is fairly warm and there are shells everywhere which makes loads of fun for our little girls. It was a lovely get-away from the bussle of the city.

Behind Emma and Marion you can see a bit of the villa we stayed in, it had a pool and deck in the back then a huge yard space right down to our own private beach.