Damn, how did that happen?

So that’s it. Just like that vacation is over. I have work in 16 hours. Sixteen HOURS. Interesting fact: I have been out of Singapore for 504 out of the 520 hours that make up this holiday. That’s 97%!! Quite impressive, if I may say so myself.

I’m pretty much in denial, though, that a new term is starting next week and that I’m going to have 3 new classes with 120 students to get to know and figure out how to work with. And of course I also have my regular sec 3 students that I work with all year that need to get whipped back into shape after getting pretty antsy at the end of last semester. No, you know what, I’m not going to think about this until the weekend. I’ll go to the staff meetings tomorrow and Friday, zone out, and just worry about actual class work later.

Not much else to report for today, though. I slept for about 9 hours, which felt amazing, but also meant I had to get breakfast, change, and pack in about 40 minutes. I made it just in time to catch my shuttle to Kuta Beach, where I ended up spending a few hours putting the finishing touches on my tan and reading more of this great book, “Blame It on the Rain”. It mixes my two loves very well because it’s all about how natural phenomena have affected the outcome of history. Fascinating.

Then I was interviewed by two Balinese students who were doing some kind of school assignment. They wanted to know what people in my country said and did to express different things, including love, surprise, advice, pleasure, pain, permission and...something else, I forget. Yeah, it was a little odd, especially since they took a video of it while I’m sitting on the beach in a bikini and they’re Muslim girls wearing hijabs, but you know, go with it.

After that, when I sat down for some lunch, I realized I had more of those little blisters on my arms. They’re tiny and not at all painful, but they’ve been showing up almost every day for a week now and the only time I’ve ever seen them before is after a really bad sunburn. I’m not burnt, though, and have in fact been more careful since arriving in Bali than ever before to put on sunscreen. I’ve also found a few dark splotches on my left arm and hand over the last day or so and some small new moles, all of which are making me think that a visit to the dermatologist is probably in order. Maybe I should wait until all of these scrapes and bruises die down, though, so he doesn’t think I have other skin diseases, as well. I really don’t know how I get so roughed up on vacation.

From there it was just a simple matter of hailing a cab, insisting the driver use his fully-functioning meter instead of agreeing upfront to Rp40,000, paying the 19K it actually came to, then getting the correct amount of change for my 50 that did not include paying another 10K for the imaginary airport entry fee he had no proof of (I especially loved how profusely he thanked me for my business after I accused him of being a cheat and a liar). I checked-in, paid my ridiculous Rp150,000 airport “exit tax” and was soon whisked back to Singapore on a nearly empty jet.

One last comment for the day: I think I saw the future. The other two women in the shuttle were sisters from Australia. One had left her husband and kids at home to take a vacation; the other was me in 30 years. Divorced and childless, she is a wandering soul who owns a large piece of property in rural Australia (corresponding to my goal of owning property in Wyoming when I’m older) and happily admits she has no social life (check). She travels the world, though, riding motorbikes in exotic countries before returning home to her horses. Good lord, she should just will everything to me to make things easier on both of us.

Oh, don’t listen to me. I’m just depressed to be heading back to work. But if you ever can’t find me in the US, I guess check the outskirts of Darwin, Australia.