SO.
i am going to climb a fucking volcano this weekend.
how damn cool is that?!?!?!
we have a holiday monday, so our roomates and some of our friends are going on a road trip!!!
I am stoked, like so fucking stoked.

things thing things

things i have that you dont.

-about 27 mosquito bites.
-mosquito nets on a window in each room to keep them out
-no toilet seats
-no toilet paper in public bathrooms, just hoses to wash your ass.
-12 mangosteens for 50 cents (they are 2.50 for 1 in canada)
-western food that makes you sick
-british, american, and burlington rooomates.
-becak rides (most dangerous thing i have ever done)
-ankot rides
-60 cents to 1 dollar rides around the entire city
-sleepless nights
-nightmares about my going away party, where i wake up and jamie, robyn, dave and drew all hate me.
-non stop sweating
-barbie watches for 2.50$
-men staring at you CONSTANTLY, wowing, i love you
-only cold showers, no hot water
-no internet at home
-nobody walks anywhere here
-lots of stray cats with half tails
-tidak-no, berapa-how much, duo-two, tiga-three, suta-one, termia kasih-thank you(this one i use the most), maaf-sorry or pardon.
-a crazy ass cell phone number, 6281265544824, text me please, it will make my day. really. (thank you jamie quinn you are my love.)

i cant think of anything else right now.

i miss western food, and cooking my own meals. i miss my friends like crazy. i want to call everyone but i cant find a phone card anywhere. when can i call you? when? i think we will get a lap top soon and i can get skype and call you and maybe even see your beautiful face. i think by the end of september we plan to buy a motorcycle.

I MISS YOU MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW.

my job is so hard.

I wrote this on the plane on the way here:


So far our journey hasnt been so tough. The airport was full of tears, hugs, photos and love. My whole family came plus Adams whole family and Robyn and Amir. I felt so many crazy emotions, I know what I am doing is brave and great and I will learn so much. Its just obviously really scary. For the first part of the summer I felt so far away from my friends now i am moving insanely far away, where i cant just call someone whenever i choose. I am scared of not staying in contact and people will change and forget about me and I will suddenly pop back into their lives in a bit. I know this most likely wont happen but it still scares me.

It was really nice to be home for a week. I did however remember why I moved and after being in such a beautiful, amazing city it was really hard to go back to pollution, crazies and little wildlife. It was very, very amzing to get to see all my friends and family. There are some people I wish I saw weekly, even everyday. I am so happy and grateful that so many important people in my life made an effort to see me. I am thankful I have such people in my life.

I am now on the plane heading to Taiwan, where we stop quickly to let some people off. It has been about 7 hrs total of this plane ride and 12 hrs in total plane rides so far. Its morning now and I have not a clue what time it is where you are. This plane is the most gigantic thing I have ever seen in my life. I couldnt believe it. We had a two hour delay in LA (where I did not spot any celebs) but Adam got to see his first palm tree so that was pretty cool for him. The delay didnt even suck at all because i got to sleep on the floor which was much better than sleeping upright on the plane.

Now its been 18 hrs of flying , ONLY 5 more to go. It honestly has not been that bad at all. Pretty good plane food too. I had some lentil curry and rice with carrot cake and salad. For breakfast they didnt have a veggie option (oh, i decided to be a vegetarian) so I had yogurt, fruit and a crossiant which is just about what i eat at home so it was not a problem. We stopped in taiwan for an hour. It was pretty crazy, they had a hello kitty plaza thing. we changed 20$ and got 500$ of theirs. And to buy a bottle of coke it was 25$. SO CHEAP. I bet its even cheaper in Medan. Coming into taiwan was beautiful , we hadnt seen land since LA, we saw a bit of japan but not enough to judge its beauty. Taiwan had amazing huge green mountains(pics to soon come). There were canals that flow through them so blue. We have a window seat now so hopefully we will see more things.

THE END.


now we are in medan. once we got here we were SO tired. we almost missed our flight because they didnt put our luggage through to medan only to kuala lampur, so it was a bunch of running around and stressing out. but everything was fine. The co-ordinator picked us up along with another teacher. I didnt know this but they drive like they do in England. Also the driving is pretty fucking crazy. There are lanes but there are so many motorcycles that they weave in and out of the cars and the cars really dont follow the lanes. The police are corrupt and stopped us on the way in and they make you pay them, for no reason at all.

It took about an hour to get home to our house. We live with 2 English people, who are a couple and super nice. I really like them. Bruce is another housemate, who has been in Indonesia for about 12 years. He is a really nice helpful man from burlington. And our last roomate is Danny from USA, and he has been here for 10 months, and is super nice. All our roomates are very nice and helpful and we all get along very well.

Our house is a whole different story, lots of ants! LOTS AND LOTS OF ANTS. if you keep you clothes on the ground after wearing them they are covered!!!! We live with some lizards that eat the mosquitos, so they are our friends, also they are super cute. The mosquitos are SO bad. I have got bitten probably 28 times. they are all swollen and gross. None of the toilets have toilet seats, but we are bugging them for them. We have no hot water at all. so our showers are cold, not too cold though, and its kinda nice if its really hot out. Our room is super huge though and we have a nice balcony with a hammock.

The food here is pretty delicious, VERY spicy. Lots of tempeh, rice and curry. Fresh juices which is wicked. We ride in buses that are 30 cents to get to school, 1/2 hour ride. or we could take a bechuk which is about 1 dollar and its a side car on a motorcycle. When we go out they LOVE us. always saying "hello miss, hello mr" and sometimes they even call me mr because they dont know. I have had people ask if I am married, and yell out their windows they love me. Its pretty funny and crazy. everyone stares at you and you kinda feel like a celebrity. It hasnt been so bad dressing wise, I can wear tank tops like wife beaters just not spaghetti strap ones. and i have to cover up below my knees.

So far everything is pretty good. The only time I have been sick is when I ate pizza last night, which is odd. I eat Indonesian food and I dont feel crappy at all, then I eat western food and i feel like shit. We are going to the mall with our housemates today to buy school clothes and some food, then maybe swimming this afternoon. I miss you guys and I will be home in a yearish.

MUCH LOVE!!!!!!!!!

WE ARE HERE IN MEDAN.

our address is
BECKY MADSEN
JL Malaka
No.29/59
Medan
20232


our number 62614144001

hopefully i will get a cell phone and a computer soon. I am going to try and update tomorrow with a letter of my journey to you all. I miss you real hard.

we didnt see celebs in LA, we had a 2 hour delay, so i slept on the ground, there are lizard like things in our house, along with lots of ants and no toliet seats.

PICS will come soon.

the traffic here IS nuts.

its 7 am and i leave in 4 hours.

i didnt get to say goodbye to very many people that i wish i could have, but at least my last memories with them arent cries, and i will remember our last time together with happiness and hugs. i will see you again, its no biggie.

im trying to have this comforting thought that i will actually see everyone again, i know this is NOT completely true, but there are some people that i KNOW i will be seeing again. I know that we will stay in contact, and I am going to try my darn best to keep up with mail and phone calls and emails, and BLOG. haha.

It still doesnt feel like I am leaving. I said goodbye to some people, some i have come really really close with. But still i do not feel empty. I am guessing this is a good thing, a positive change. when i left toronto 4 months ago i definitely felt empty. things are good, life is looking up. i am excited for the unknown, the complete different. It is definitely going to be a culture shock at first though.

MY last week/weekend here has been amazing. I did lots of things I wanted to do but didn't get a chance to. I went to blue moon with Lindsay, Jenna and Mish. Mish and I walked home together and I realized how much of an amazing, heartfelt, warming person she is. I wish I had got to know her better while I was here, but I guess I will just have to stay in touch more so. I went to the Kelsalls skipping and was surprisingly alright at it. Colly showed up and it was SO amazing to see her. I love that girl. We went to this hip hop night at the seahorse at about 1 am and boy was it crazy. sexy dancers everywhere. me, not so sexy dancer, felt like i needed to be REALLY drunk to be in there, this was not the case though. Adam came and we all went to pizza corner and colly and i got a donair to split, we both had never experienced it. it wasnt bad, i prefer drunk pizza though.

we went camping on thursday amir and robyn, adam and i. we had a fire the boys built, or i probably should say men built. we made yummy smores (and veggie dogs are apparently really hard to roast on a stick), we even made jiffy pop, obviously drank quite a bit, and finally went down nightswimming, while i was the only one that made it down swimming. I absolutely LOVE swimming, so incredibly much, I am so in love with all the lakes here in Nova Scotia. There was a retired lady staying next to our site and she was on a bike, we asked her where she biked from, her answer:VANCOUVER. I felt so proud of her, even though I didnt know her, also a bit jealous. I cant imagine ever being in that good of shape, even at this age. It definitely motivates me. I think if they have gyms in Indonesia, I will get a membership, its just going to be WAY too hot to be running outside. right now its 10 hours ahead so, 520pm, and it is 32 degrees celcius, but feels like 42. HOLY BALLS.

friday we had our fancy party. everyone got all pretty, and then got all sloppy. the party ended pretty early on account to excessive drinking and early start. It was a pretty good night, what i can remember of it, apart from disrespectful people, and adam vomitting all over himself and our bed. Thank gosh we arent taking our bed. I got to see kelly,erin and noah, who were all in montreal for 5ish days, so that was amazing. oh, i also woke up with a mystery black eye.

went to the ocean one last time with kelly,mish and mish's amazing roomate claire. It was so random and all over the place but SO fun. the water was so warm and i actually swam in the ocean, not just stood there and body surfed. I went to farthest out i had ever been, it was super exciting for me. my eyes were burning, but i loved every minute of it. each time i do something like this it makes me fall more in love with this beautiful province. we came home and got ready for macara house party. it was super fun. lots of people were there and james reid played some great tunes while us mostly girls danced, with adam of course. the cops showed up around 1230 and everyone got kicked out, adam and i stayed and hung out with lindsay, melanie, ryan and james for a bit. It was so nice to just chill after the crazy party mode. we got our last halifax pizza that day.

yesterday we got our lives in order, had people drop by buy our stuff, say goodbye, hang out. it was fun and cute. and i very much enjoyed it. i got some wine, we drank it and lindsay, robyn, adam and i walked to point pleasant for a very short visit because the skeeters were bad. but it was a nice walk in the ritzy neighbourhood.

today. i say goodbye. see you later. get on my first plane ride with somebody. and fly back home. right downtown toronto. we will probably experience rush hour like we have not experienced in all the time living here, and it will be hectic and crazy and rushed and nuts. but fun and refreshing. I am excited, scared, happy, sad, so many things, but all in a positive way.

Thank you halifax, and everyone in it for making my time here nothing but special and amazing. thank you for letting me fall in love with your city, and wanting me to come back. most importantly thank you for letting me relax and help me on my adventures.

i will be back. i definitely will be back.