This morning I went to the Tegenungan waterfall! It's quite touristy, but for good reason- its beautiful! The waterfall is 15 meters tall and super strong, so much that they have a rope around the bottom so that you can't swim under. Lame, but probably necessary.
Teaching is proving to be much harder than I expected, with student understanding very little to no english. The environmental lesson plans I had prepared went out the window as I focused all my class time on teaching student basic environmental vocabulary. They are 10-12 years old, so quite a handful, but the few that are truly eager to learn make up for all the troublemakers.
After a ~stressful~ day in Bali (as if that exists), what better place to relax than Jungle Fish! Jungle Fish is a resort with a beautiful infinity pool that overlooks the jungle. I looked up rooms there and they were a hefty $200 (which goes a long way here in Bali) but luckily admission was free after 5pm.
Buying gifts for parents is always hard (especially you- mom) but it helps that my dad loves coffee and you can find that just about anywhere! I had never heard of Balinese coffee prior to coming here, but apparently it is very good! Our taxi driver offered to stop at a coffee plantation so that Caro and I could buy coffee, which we were a bit reluctant about considering our long drive ahead, but we ultimately agreed, promising to go in and out of the shop quickly. That didn't happen. We were greeted by a wonderful guide who gave us free samples of multiple types of coffees and teas. We were just in it for the free samples, but we ended up enjoying them so much that we spent a generous amount of money in the store after! Bali specializes in Luwak coffee, which is the most expensive coffee in the world! The reason for this is the quite unusual method of production. Lewak coffee is produced from the coffee beans that have been digested by a civet cat, a type of Indonesian animal. The feces of this cat are collected, finished, and sold as kopi luwak. It's also called poop coffee, and sorry dad, I didn't get you any.
It was another few hours before we arrived in Pecatu, a beach town in the south of Bali. The traffic here is horrible (and I thought it was bad in Philly...) especially with scooters weaving in and out of cars. I'm looking forward to a weekend of tanning, surfing, and eating!