my time with vpbali

I remember arriving in Bali at the airport and it was really hot. Well. It wasn’t that bad actually but very humid. So welcome to Bali, this is what it’s going to be like the next few weeks! But I promise you, you get used to it. I wanted to shower two or three times a day when I arrived. After two weeks I was okay with the climate, I got used to it. But now I’m kind of cold back home even though it’s up to 30 degrees…
But let’s go back to the airport: At the airport I waited a bit for the driver who fetched me (Bali time is different than ours, don’t forget that, they don’t forget you). There were a lot of taxi drivers who wanted to offer me a ride which is really tiring. But some also talked to me about their life and stuff, they are quite friendly. Then I found the vpbali driver I was looking for. He is a really nice, good man and he’s the owner of the homestay who’s cooperating with vpbali and brought me to the homestay where I was about to stay for the next five weeks. Since there were a lot of volunteers back then I stayed in the other one that is organized by him. So actually, I stayed only two weeks there and moved to his homestay as other volunteers left. So, what is a homestay? A homestay is very common in Bali, the family owns the land and builds other houses on their land, so tourists can rent it. It is really nice because you get to stay with the family, believe me the grandchildren of the owner are adorable, there’s no chance you are not going to love them! 😊
Since you live at their home you will find out Balinese people are morning people. If you don’t sleep very tight usually bring earplugs unless you want to be woken up quite early. But I would recommend doing that anyway, you’re going to be two people in the room and sometimes you have different plans like getting up at 2 AM to do the Mt. Batur hike! Your roommates are other volunteers of course! This is quite nice because you stay with them and if you have the same mindset you’re just going to hang out together, get some food together in one of the million possibilities (you always eat out, you don’t need to do grocery shopping unless you want to buy snacks and water; oh and go and try Clear Café!) and travel together.
Talking about plans: You’ll have time to go exploring in the mornings and on weekends. And there are plenty of possibilities, you can stay in Ubud and do some yoga, go to the north of Bali, Uluwatu in the south, the surfer area Canggu, have parties and good food in Seminyak, you can go to visit the Skygarden in Kuta, the Nusa islands, Gili islands…. You will find something!
You’re going to teach English Monday to Thursday in a funny way. But you’ll get an introduction about what’s expecting you at school by the staff once you arrive. Don’t worry too much about it and don’t worry if you never taught before, that’s not a problem at all, I didn’t do it either. But it is really cool, the kids are so cute, it’s fun to work with them. They are openminded, interested in you and thankful for you teaching them as well! It’s not hard to have a conversation once their English is good enough, they want to get to know you. At least the older ones the younger ones are really cute as well but they just begin to learn. They might sometimes look at you and ask or tell you something in Bahasa and don’t even think about you not being able to speak Bahasa. But especially for this you have helpers in your class and you can just ask them to come and help you which is very helpful.
So how do you get there? Well, you either take the car which is provided or you rent a scooter on Bali and go there on your own. You haven’t been to Bali unless you drove a scooter! You can go anywhere. You might be stuck in the traffic jam with the car but with a scooter you can go anywhere. I started taking the scooter after a friend taught me how to drive on an empty space somewhere in Denpasar. It’s quite convenient! And you get used to it very quickly. Just don’t try to do it in rush hour. And make sure you drove before you rent a scooter and that you’re comfortable when you want to take it away because otherwise no one’s going to rent you one. You can rent one at the homestay usually, if not the owner is going to help you organize one.
Well… as you see, I loved teaching and even though I like my life at home I was really sad to leave Bali. It’s a totally different lifestyle, so peaceful, so deeply relaxed, so Bali. I highly recommend doing the program! So what are you waiting for? Check their story on Instagram and you’ll know exactly what is going on, the staff and Kim are very busy keeping you up to date on social media! 😊