ok, ok...

...well, Emma's comment was taken very seriously--afterall, its the only comment so far so it gives it more weight. :)

so, because of her efforts, i decided i really should post a bit about my sister's visit here. we do have different perspectives and why not share mine.

its been so much fun having someone here to do fun stuff with, like traveling, eating out, and going to the last few tourist places i haven't hit yet. its also fun to "come home" to someone after work (something i hope to have in the future one day...i really love this!) we have done so many amazing things and laughed at a lot of funny cultural moments and have eaten tons of food (including all the snacks she brought from the states for me--namely Nutter Butters for me:)

our trip to Jakarta and Bali was so much fun and so much traveling! we felt like we were in airports most of the time. let's see, we traveled a total of 6 days and were at airports 5 different times!! pretty nuts. budget airlines are cheap...but you definitely lose a lot of time in delays and inefficiencies!

jakarta is a huge city--and not necessarily the best city we've ever been to. the Indonesian people are amazing and so relational, and our partners and friends who hosted us were so great. we did a lot of shopping and sat in a lot of traffic. the traffic is truly a part of the culture there.

bali---WOW WOW WOW! that's in it a nutshell. carolyn and i absolutely LOVED it. we have it on our list as the #1 spot to go back and visit again (which means a lot considering the amount of traveling we've both been lucky enough to have done). we stayed on Sanur beach in the south and it was so quiet and peaceful. yes, we might have been one of the few young people there, but it was relaxing and that's the most important part for a beach to us. the view from the beach and pool was incredible. we had a great time walking up and down the beach each night to decided where to eat dinner and then walking up and down the street in front of our hotel to shop and stop into stores. there were lots of Aussies there and they are so sociable! we were always being asked if we were having a good time--you would have thought they worked there (hmm...i'm thinking of another blogpost on this!!). and i'll never forget the phrase that one older aussie man spoke to us on the last day at the pool "are the american girls having a good time?" (you really have to hear it with the accent!). it was so cute. and to top everything off, we had the chance to ride, feed, and play with Asian Elephants...next time, its a tour at the volcano! what does this island NOT have??? everyone should add it to their list of places to visit!!

singapore--well, this was back to "normal life" for me as me and carolyn made our way back to the city, island, country. i think carolyn really enjoyed the life here. its a lot like an american city, much more western than the rest of asia. it was so much fun to have someone to hang out with at night after work. we definitely had a packed schedule. i had a list of stuff i wanted carolyn to do and she had her list too...so we packed it all in. she did her own thing during the days and then we had a great time going out to dinners, going to the Night Safari (we bought the cooleset elephant wine glasses!), walking around town, seeing a part of a Chinese opera, and hanging out with my friends. the weekend was fun too...we made it to the Bird Park (cool but exhausting!) and to my church.

all in all...it was a great visit and she left with only a few days left for me in singapore. thanks for visiting sister!!!!