#GEMPA
Hello to my friends, family, and new readers - oh, do I have a day to share with you. Today started out as any other day here in sunny Canggu, but it turned into a 24-hour period with a death-gripping moped ride, a random earthquake, and a spider so big that it would make even your mother cringe.
As most of you know, Taylor and I moved out here about two months ago, adjusting to this island way of life. Part of this super-chill lifestyle consists of the dicey activity of driving mopeds. Well today, we switched drivers! Now for those of you who don’t know, I’m a horrendous driver (like I’m talking totaled two cars bad). So, you could probably imagine Taylor’s apprehension of letting me take the PCX for a spin. Sure enough, he eventually gave in and we went to this ideal practice spot by the beach with roaming cattle and a crowd of locals to watch me practice. I have never had any experience with motorcycles or such bikes previous to this, so the throttle was a dangerously fascinating thing to me. As Taylor was explaining to me the basic do’s and don’ts’ of the moped, I started envisioning myself on the roads, cruising through town, on my way to the grocery store with of course, the wind in my hair - just me and my watermelon helmet. I eventually snapped out of it when Taylor said my name like three times and I assured him I heard every word of advice he said.
* me imagining what its like to drive a moped *
It all happened so fast. I kind of decided to say screw it and unknowingly full-throttled the moped, launching myself 20 feet in the course of a few seconds. It was absolutely exhilarating. Soon enough I was able to balance with my feet on the floor, doing laps around the place. I got a little too confident when I tried making a 45 degree turn and had to clutch the brakes (that was scary because I almost hit a pile of rocks). After that little mishap, Taylor and I took a walk on the beach.
When we came back from our walk, I was feeling relaxed and ready to give the PCX another go, but this time, with Taylor on the back of the moped too. One thing I learned today is double weight equals double the trouble. We did a few wobbly laps around the cattle, barely making the gradual turns (minus that one 45 degree turn). Taylor was coaching me the entire time on the back, gasping every five seconds out of pure fear, but, and that’s when I realized - he can inform me all he wants on how to drive this thing, but I will only truly learn by actually taking this scooter on the road.
I said, “Ready to go home?,” followed by a surprised “what?!” from Taylor, and then we were off. It was so funny, he had an absolute death-grip on the back handles. Who knew that you can’t come to a dead stop on a speedbump or else you will tip over?! I guess you really do learn something new everyday! We did make it home…after the fact I had gone on the opposite side of the road forgetting that I wasn’t in the States and almost got us killed - but hey, we did survive! I made quite the entrance into the villa complex, with the manager yelling to a GoJek driver to move out of the way and to make way for my new driver shenanigans. So yeah, our daily walk on the beach turned into moped driver’s ed, turned into a ballsy ride home.
* the reality of today *
Interesting Fact: Did you know Bali has earthquakes? Yeah, me neither. Who knew that a tropical island full of plumerias and happiness has earth-trembling quakes! Alright, so after Taylor and I returned from the beach, we did our afternoon routine - swimming, making grilled chicken with pasta, and Netflix. As we were watching an episode of Riverdale (p.s. I love Bughead), we suddenly felt a weird, yet fleeting energy around us. It felt as if the entirety of our villa was being picked up by a strong gust of wind, shaking our bed and vibrating the windows. Taylor and I paused the episode, looking at each other puzzled. I sent Taylor outside to check out what was happening, expecting him to spot a tornado or say it was just a wicked blast of wind, but everything appeared to be normal according to him. I jokingly suggested that maybe it was an earthquake, but we both laughed it off, and continued watching Betty and Jughead try to figure out who the Black Hood was. However two minutes later, Taylor discovers via Twitter some alarming tweets such as, “#Gempa,” and “Bali gempa 😳.” Taylor translated this Indonesian word and sure enough, it means earthquake. We were stunned… did we just survive our first earthquake? Wait, how was this even possible… we are in Bali, not Cali. Don’t worry, we survived… how else would I be able to write this mediocre blog post lolz.
tap me!
Spiders. The only spider I don’t mind is Tom Holland (and trust me, I wish I found him in my bathroom lol). Tonight, I was traumatized by the biggest spider I have ever seen. This was no Charlotte’s Web type of friendly spider. Do me a favor and Google ‘huntsman spider’ and let me know if you don’t freak out too. This legit deadly creature was waltzing its way around our bathroom. I was simply doing my nighttime routine when I looked up and saw this appalling, eight-legged creature dangling above me. My scream sent Taylor sprinting in, shortly followed by him screaming as well and sprinting right back out. *Oh, my brave, knight-in-shining-armor…* So there we were, doing a two-person team huddle in the kitchen, looking down at our average sized Tupperware we use for catching little critters, but realizing that it was no match for this monstrosity. We decided to call security to help us dispose of the spider. 15 minutes later of anxiety, facetimes, and me lurking around the corner to see the progress being made against our little friend, the security guard reported to us there that it was gone - no more spider! He chased it out of the bathroom, up the outdoor shower walls, and back outside in nature where it belonged. Just writing about this sends a chill down my spine, ahhh. But alas, these are the things you must be prepared for if you are to do outdoor living. Our eight-legged friend is still out there, waiting for the time to strike back and freak Taylor and I the sh*t out. SOS.
