WOW!! Been married for 2 weeks already!

Hi hi hi!

Well, I thought I would update...but I don't really have a whole lot to update on....sorry :-(
Eri works in the store downstairs 6 days a week....so we spend a lot of time at the house, lol, which is cool actually, lots of quality time spent together.

What else....Eri got a motorcycle!! It fits all his traveling needs for the little town of Mojokerto, and now he can go out to the grocery store, or whatever need be..!! It's cool, it's a Honda Wario (pronounced Vario)....but it's cool. I will take a pic of it and post it soon.

Hmm.....other than that.....we went into Surabaya again last Tuesday...and I finally remembered to take a picture of the "Shark and Alligator" statue thingie. I have been wanting to take that pic since my arrival here and I was finally able to do it. But I'm entirely too lazy to find Eri's camera to post the pic, lol, sorry.

Well that's it for now.

Mrs. W

Wedding Photos

Well, I think the title is pretty self explanatory ;-)

At the altar praying to Eri's parents....asking for their blessing for our marriage, etc....

Walking into the ceremony.....

Here come the Monks.....there were 4 of them in attendance....

Lighting the 5 candles.....color means something......I can't remember.......

Awwww.....there we are......at this point we already exchanged rings, and were about to wrapped up in the blanket....

This was a very fun moment....once it was tied all the family and guests started clapping their hands. Our hands were also tied, then they put the blanket around you while the Monks sprinkle holy water on you and give you blessings.

That's us :-D

Saying thank you for coming....in a Chinese traditional way....

This is our wedding cake..........we had 2 of them.....yummmm......

After the ceremony everyone came back to the house and we all had dinner and cake and just say around til about 8pm........overall it was a great time. I have about 150 more pictures and lots of video and a wedding dvd, so everyone be ready...I will show them all to you when I come back.

Love ya.

Mrs. W

Phew!!! What a great day!!!

Eri and I woke up early and went into Surabaya for the day......

We woke up at 6am and left the house by 7........
And went to the Immigration Office to extend my VISA (WOW!! been here 2 months already!!!!).........then that was super quick....so we then went Hi-Tech Mall, which guess what...sells everything Technology related. Computer's, hardware, software, everything. We picked up a headset and microphone to use Skype......then we headed to the one of the many malls of Surabaya, and ate lunch at Pizza Hut -- Indonesia. I was thinking it might be better than Pizza Hut in USA, because KFC is so much better.....but it was.....disapointing. But filling. So after lunch, we headed to the Cinema XXI, and watched Quantum of Solace, the new (new in Indo....) James Bond movie...and it was good!! From that mall, we headed to Mal Galaxy (Galaxy Mall, lol) to go grocery shopping at 99 Ranch....which is like an import grocery store. But first we went to the top floor and battled it out in 2 rounds of Mario Kart in the Arcade, then went grocery shopping. Then we went to eat dinner at The Duck King (click the link...this is really the one we went to!!). After dinner we went to BreadTalk, for some bread....and then J.Co Donunts, for donuts and some coffee drinks. Then headed home at about 6pm!! WOW!! What a full day!!

I'm talking to my Mom and Sister on Skype!! It's exciting.....but sometimes it's not as great as expected...

That's it for not. I'm going to go start cooking spaghetti!! Yumm!!!

CW

Let's talk about......food!!

So, I'm sitting here, it's about 1:30 Thursday afternoon, enjoying a bowl of my Indonesian-style Ice Cream, I thought I would share with everyone some of my favorite (and not so favorite) foods of Indonesia, so far--

Here's my scale of deliciousness...dollar signs....lol....but anyway, the more dollar signs, the more delicious ;-) Five is the max, 0 is the least. 

Ice Cream -- $$$$$

It's like traditional American Ice Cream, but with ice, bread and gummies, with a light coating of sweet chocolate sauce. Yes I said bread. The gummies are green and pink. The pink ones are frozen and round, while the greens ones are fat little worms. All piled together in a bowl. Yummmmm.......I'm going to miss it when I come home. 

Eri's Favorite Drink -- $$$$$

I have no way of describing this drink other than it's good, and full of sugar, oh and also full of those green short fat wormies from before. It looks like a glass of throw-up based on the color, but you sip it, and it's just delicious. What's in it? Sugar, and lots of it. That's why I only drink a small tiny amount, cause too much sugar makes me sleepy.

Nasi Goreng -- $$$$$

It's Indonesian for fried rice. Different than American Chinese style fried rice. But good still the same. You should totally try it. Especially you Patricia...packed full of rice and veggies. 

Mie Goreng -- $$$$$

I love this stuff. It's fried noodles, with meat and sweet soy sauce, and and and what else.....hmmmm.....veggies, and something else I can't remeber.... But there are many variations of Mie Goreng. Order it one place, then order it somewhere else, it's totally different. Sometimes it's wet, sometimes you need broth to pour over it. But reallllly good. 

Bakso -- $$$$$

Well, Bakso is meatball w broth...and then there's Bakso Goreng, which is guess what....Fried Meatball.....but it's good nonetheless. I love the meatballs. The broth is good, usually poured over noodles. I had noodles and Bakso, both fried and normal for lunch today. Yummmm.....oh and Eri's drink, and ice cream. Gosh...I'm sounding like a pig, but it wasn't really as much food as it sounds....

Soto Ayam -- $

It's ok...every once and a while....back when I first arrived we had it for lunch, then dinner, then lunch again, and I had enough Soto Ayam to last a lifetime. Ever since, I have had no interest in it. But it's cheap and easy, so people like to eat it a lot. Oh yes, before I forget, it's I have no idea....it's like a soup you pour over rice with miscellaneous parts of a chicken floating around. Actually now that I think about it, it's not the taste that is so bad, it's the miscellaneous parts of the chicken is why I most likely won't eat it.......

Fried Tofu -- $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Yumm!!!!!! It's delicious! And a variation is stuffed fried tofu, and it's just as good. One time I had veggies stuffed inside, and the other time I had meat. Yumm yumm!!

Beef Soup -- $$$$

It's good. It's exactly what it's name implies. 

Sweet and Sour Chicken -- $$$$$

Very good stuff. Again, not like American style Sweet and Sour chicken, Indonesian style. 

Steamed veggies -- $$$$$$

Good

Shrimp Chips -- $$$$$

They are.....hmmm....let me explain them most accurately. They are shrimp flavored, but their texture is like pork rinds...... they are good. I used to feed them to the birdie outside Eri's Uncle's house.......

Mooncake -- $$$$$

It's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. But entirely too much grease, and butter. But they are like cakes with nuts and a little bit of chocolate. If you need to use the bathroom quickly, these are the things to eat, but they are sooo worth it. They are freakin good!!

Ding-a-ding Tofu Cart -- $$$$$

It's a dude that comes around at night and goes ding-a-ding-a-ding and we know it's the tofu dish. It's fried tofu with potato, rice thingie, peanut sauce, and some veggies I don't know the name of, and it's good stuff. Especially when it's warm. 

Sate Ayam -- $$$$$

Chicken skewers with peanut sauce and rice thingies. Rice thingies are like sticky rice but cone-shaped...... Yumm!!

Lamb Sate -- $$$$

Lamb skewers....peanut sauce ones, and soy sauce ones....but the place that sells those has THE BEST limeade in the whole world, so far. It's most likely because of the sugar, cause the sugar here tastes so good!

Little green coconut balls -- $$$$$

They are little green balls with warm liquidified sugar on the inside, and coconut on the outside. They are good. 

Shark Fin Soup -- $$$

Eri's Aunt that just returned from Japan, made it for us after our wedding. I drank the broth, and I wanted to eat it, but I couldn't bring myself to eat shark. I love those guys.....and I just couldn't do it....it's a major delicacy, I at least had to try to eat it. The broth tasted surpringsly delicious.

Egg tofu w peanut sauce -- $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

It's egg and tofu mixed together, fried, then has peanut sauce on top!! So good! I love it!!

KFC -- Well, KFC I eat maybe once a week.....I eat the chicken wrap #4 combo with a Pepsi....lol. Sometimes fish filet. But it just tastes better here!!

I get made fun of (in a nice way of course) for eating rice 1.) by itself w no sauce or meat or anything and  2.) I eat it with a fork. They have never seen anyone eat rice with a fork before, lol. They eat rice with their hands or a spoon. But never a fork!! Hahahah!!

Now that's all the food I can think of at the moment......or at least the ones I eat on a regular basis...

I must go wash my ice cream dish now.

Love ya. 

CW

Ok ok I have some explaining to do.....

Yikes!!

In that picture below, Eri and I had just gotten married!! Yes yes, married. I think everyone pretty much knows by now, but on Friday we had the civil ceremony, then on Saturday we had the Religious ceremony.....our wedding date is 11/08/08!!  You have to have both types of ceremony for marriage to be legal here in Indonesia.......why did I decide to get married in Indonesia, you ask? Well, to think about it, Eri and I were already engaged.....and being here with his family, chances are we aren't going to come back anytime soon, (especially since the last time Eri was here was 8 years ago) so we decided to get married here..... 

On Saturday his Uncle presided over our religious ceremony, and it was quite beautiful. All the chanting was pretty cool too. The civil ceremony....was....interesting....but it's all said and done now.

Eri and I can finally stay in the same room and it not be looked down upon. But on Saturday we also moved into his Mom's home, and get to stay together. Thank goodness.....

His Mom's home/store is really cool. It's a four story house in the city part of Mojokerto. The bottom floor is the business, Hardware Store, like Mojokerto's version of Home Depot, then the top 3 floors are the house. The house is huge btw. It's fun seeing all the pics of Eri with his parents, and old year books from Singapore.....and he was the cutest baby!!

The bottom floor has a very distinct smell to it, and that smell reminds me of my grandpa's workshop. Papa's workshop in Bobby's basement. I was telling Eri the other day how the smell just brings back soooo many memories of him. And we have talks about him....

Speaking of which, today is the anniversary of his death, he passed away on 11/11/92..... it's hard to believe it was 16 years ago. Time really does fly. This morning when I was paying respects to Eri's parents and Grandpa, I also payed my respects to Papa for this day. Gosh.....I really miss him. He was/is a very important man in my life. 

Rest In Peace Papa. Love you.

That's it for today. I have to go do wifely things, I made a promise to the Indonesian government I would do so ;-)   Seriously. I'm not kidding. I had to promise some crazy stuff, but that's for another blog. 

Goodnight everyone. I must finish my Tuesday now. :-D

Mrs. W

ohh what does the weekend hold in store for me?

It's Friday here in Indonesia....and Eri is taking a nap. We just got back from lunch a few hours ago with his Aunt and Uncle and Grandma...... it looks like it's going to be a pretty easy going weekend, not much too do.

Let's hope I survive, they keep opening the fridge, which as Durian in it, and trust me, if you have ever smelled Durian, you know how I feel!! But yeah, I can't even describe it's horrid smell, but it oddly enough doesn't taste like the smell. (Mama.....it's the stuff that Eri gave me a while back that I kept in the fridge, that you told me to never bring in the house again!! ;-) only except this one is open so smells 10x worse!!!

Eri and I took this photo today before his nap....so I thought I would share it, I thought it was kind of cute. Say cheeeeeeese!!!



Have a good weekend!!

Carle

I drive on the other side of the road NOW!!!

Hi hi!

Eri and I are back from our mini getaway to Mount Kawi.
It was a lot of fun, and is a super cool place. Literally. It felt soooo nice up there!!! And lots of people, and stuff to buy. Mount Kawi is a holy place. Buddhist and Muslim both worship here, in the same place, which is really kinda neat that they come together here. But story goes that there were 2 guys, who were like brothers, one being a native Indonesian and Muslim and the other being a Chinese and Buddhist, and they are really good people, lived good lives, and the place where you pray is where they are buried, and it's a holy place. That's all I got out of Eri about the story BUT it's really neat to see Buddhist and Muslims praying side by side. Here are a few pictures:

This photo is of the entrance into the place where you pray....you can't take pics of the temple, so I took a pic of the entrance. The temple itself is quite beautiful, we gave flowers and money as an offering. Inside of the temple there are probably about 25 or so Grandfather clocks ticking away. Also inside, are guru type people, that you give your offerings to.

This is just a street view. It's a city built on a mountain (volcano) side....so all the shops are going downhill. This pic was actually taken to show the trees in the background, see that one on the left side that is really curved? And it's cool there's that lady with the stuff on her head too, and those trees to the right are neat. I was kinda a little bit obsessed with the tress while we were here, they were just amazingly beautiful.

I just thought this picture was funny. Native American heads in little town in Indonesia.......

Yeah, this is a better view of showing what the little city was like.....how it goes down....does that even make sense?

Yep. That would be me :-)

Me standing outside the entrance to the temple.

I love this picture, this is taken up where the temple is, and that's a mosque. I really love this picture. Great job Eri!!

I asked Eri to stand there to show how HUGE that tree was!! He looks thrilled, lol. But that tree was big!! And beautiful.

Since the Internet seemed to be working quite well today, I decided to add some more pics that I haven't been able to put up since the Internet is funky. Below is the dinner Eri and I made for his Buddhist Uncle, his wife (whose body we see in this photo) and his 3 kids, Lia, Vania and Dharmadi. We had garlic mashed potatoes, with gravy, creamed corn and garlic spicy BBQ chicken!! All homemade!! And it was gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!! They loved it too. It's funny, because they eat rice with every meal, his Uncle had to cook some rice to have with it.....and I had to show everyone how to eat it, it was a great time, and everyone helped in preparations!! I had fun, and so did Eri, and everyone else too.

This is me, being silly on the couch. Dad, that's your chin right there!! Yes I was hot, cause it's hot here at the equator.

Obama won Obama won!!! OMG this is just amazing!! Eri and I were sooooo excited!! Indonesia is quite excited also, cause Obama has roots here...... it's just absolutely amazing, and I am sooo amazed and excited.....Eri and I were jumping around this morning with excitement!! We even managed to get this:
And I got to drive the Toyota Kijang, and it was amazing. I must admit my head was spinning because I was driving manual from the right side.....and on the other side of the road, but I still got it. I'm the woman!!

And today for lunch I had KFC and it tastes soo good. Lunch for Eri and I cost 53,000 IDR. That's about $5.30!! But that's considered expensive...take a look at their menu, it's very neat to see what they offer.

Tonight, Eri and I are going with his Uncle to Surabaya, for what? I'm not sure, I just got a text message (they all call it SMS here....which is what it is...but sometimes I get confused like SMS? What's that? blehhhhhhh, lol. And also Sauce is Ketchup, Ketchup is Sweet Soy Sauce, so you gotta be careful to say what you want, be sure to call it the right thing, unless you are talking to Eri of course, cause he speaks Carle. Like the other day we were eating Mie Goreng [fried noodles] and you are supposed to put broth on them, and I called the broth sauce, and his Uncle got up and brought me Ketchup, lol. Which when I said Ketchup, that's sweet soy sauce.) But anyway, Eri sent me a SMS/Text message said we are going to Surabaya tonight. So yea, that's all I know :-)

Here is lil fact about Mr. Wahyudi:
When he says we are going to be somewhere in a little bit/while, he really means right now.
-OR-
When he says we are going to be here for just a minute, it's really like 6 hours. :-)

Yes, I think this blog is long enough.

Yay!! Obama!!!

Love ya.

Carle