Pantai Kuta

On my middle weekend, I took myself to the beach. Actually, I met a friend (Jo) in a restaurant Thursday night and asked her if she wanted to come too. She's also traveling alone for the first time having also left her spouse at home. She lives in London and now we're best friends. Essentially.

Kuta Beach is the most popular beach in Bali, being closest to the airport and in the island's largest (and capital) city, Denpasar. Because March is low tourist season, it wasn't too crowded. It was, however, unbelievably hot. And lovely.

AND we took surfing lessons. In other words, I'm going to return to the States with a shaman and as a surfer. As basically everyone could have predicted, I was pretty good at surfing and pretty quickly so. I would have also been good at the bigger waves had I been ten percent more willing to jump on the board instead of step-step. The couple of times I did (the waves were like, eh, eight-ish feet tall), I rode to the shore. And I managed to only get very marginally sunburnt, which considering it was the vernal equinox and we're basically on the Equator, I would have a hard time getting more sunlight and still being on the planet.

I don't have much to say about the beach because it was a beach and it was beautiful and it was fun and we drank icy cold beers in the sand and I talked, as much as I could, in Indonesian to everyone, and our hotel was super cheap and its pool was perhaps its greatest aspect. Um, no, its air conditioning was. Yes, definitely its air conditioning.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures:

Look! The Indian Ocean. And probably, the Equator. It's REALLY hot here.

Jo: "oh, I know. I should really get the perfect instagram, huh? Okay. Okay. Watch this."
Me: "Oh I will watch this. And photo it myself."

Oh! Sunset. Also known as the time of the day when the sand finally stops being so hot that walking
on it makes you want to die. It made me think that if I had to save a princess from a castle and walk across burning coals,
I'm not sure it's worth it, tbh.  Sorry, Sarah. Save yourself. 

Jo and me, being so delighted with our holiday from holiday. Which is ahhhhviously what we kept calling it.

Oh, just the hotel pool that was perfectly cooled.

The beach again. And its accompanying ocean. And its very, very hot sand.

I am sure that finding yourself includes, at least in moments like this, being horribly cliche. So I LEANED in, baby.

Jo and I receiving instructions from Jimmy. 

I'm a surfer now. 

So is Jo. 

We surf TOGETHER.
Jo: "okay, I'm going to come to the States. Where can we go surfing?"
Me: "OMG, uh, long island, I guess? We should probably go surfing and then go to the mountains."
Jo: "UH, OKAY."
Me: "America's sort of awesome."*

Ugh, what great balance, tbh. 

Guys. Check on this face-protecting sun hat. First of all, so Bali. Second of all, with all of the Downton Abbey
I've been watching, I really need more hats in my life. Third of all, skin protection. SO MUCH OF IT. #crushingit

Anyway, I am back at school this week and have, now, nine days of instruction left. Today I told my teacher about how Americans pay for college. Now I have some homework, so I should do that. And put some aloe on the back of my legs (sadface). K, bye.

*said America's next top diplomat.