Makan, ngobrol, berulang.

Man! Time just keeps slipping away and once again I am a week behind! I think it’s probably just because I’m on holidays at the moment and doing so much. Once I start uni (still in two weeks time), things will settle down a bit I think.  

Monday, 22^nd August

On Monday morning, Joey and I searched the area for somewhere new to eat breakfast. But because it is nearly lebaran (when everyone goes home to their villages/goes on holidays, like Christmas time) everything we found was shut. But it was still nice to have a bit of an exploration of the area we live in. We eventually ended up eating gudeg. Gudeg has become a staple when we can’t find anything else to eat, as there is a big gudeg place 10min away that always seems to be open when nothing else is. Once Ramadan and lebaran are over though, food places will open up galore and it will be much easier to find open warungs (a warung is like a small, cheap food place), burjos (a burjo is kind of like a smaller, extra cheap warung) and rumah makan. Although it might actually be harder to get seats at the food places as everyone will actually be eating.

Not long after breakfast we (along with Jack) met Rachel and Eli to discuss our travel plans around Java. But it kind of all fell by the wayside, mostly because most of us (including others who already pulled out), just decided to stay in Yogya and explore around here, but also because the traffic at this time of year is crazy as (think Easter times a million).

For the rest of the afternoon I just caught up on people, emails and the blog (which is now behind again, which doesn’t matter too much I suppose, I just like to be up to date). In the evening we went to salsa (again), this time at a different place. We stopped by Bread Talk (same as Bread Top) at Amplaz for some dessert and there we saw the super enthusiastic guy from the Yogya Plaza Hotel. And of course, being bule, he recognised us and chatted with us for a bit. I think his girlfriend was a bit antsy to get going, but he seemed to enjoy chatting away to us. When we eventually got to salsa we learnt how to do some crazy circle salsa, which we always sit and admire the excellent salsa dancers doing. We were terrible at it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun! J

Tuesday, 23^rd August

Tuesday morning was nice and lazy, I finally had a chance to sticky tape all my photos and cards onto the boards I bought when I first moved into my kos. I decided to sit in the gazebo, as my room doesn’t get much sunlight in it; which meant that Maisy (the family’s 5 year old daughter), all her friends and Bu Agus asked me all about my photos. But that was ok, I really enjoyed showing them my friends and family.  

I’m just starting to realise so many of my accounts of each day revolve around where and what I eat. But that is a big part of culture over here, even if it is Ramadan, we’re just practising. And for some reason, days just seem to go so quickly that sometimes I feel like I eat, sit, chat, look for more food and repeat.  Which is pretty much exactly what happened on Tuesday. I had lunch with Jack, Joey, Red (Rachel Daymond, from WA) and Teal (Rachel Teal, from Vic) at a Surabayan restaurant. It was quite yummy, and not very spicy. Then we had desert/arvo tea at Chocolat (that yum as chocolate cafe) with Tim as well. I felt bad for eating at Chocolat 3 times in the last 3 weeks, but after being told that when it’s not Ramadan there are 20-30 minute waits for tables sometimes, I didn’t feel so bad. We might as well make the most of it while we can! We headed home to mandi before walking to Myoozik for salsa. It only took half an hour and it was nice walking in the cool air for once (rather than the middle of the day when you want to sit down after 5 minutes). I had always thought it was crazy how Indonesians don’t like walking anywhere and never understood why. But I think once you live in Indonesia you realise why.

Myoozik was lovely for our weekly dose of western food, although expensive (not by Australian standards, but I’m starting to think in rupiah rather than dollars – I was so confused the other day when the atm showed my balance in dollars rather than rupiah!). We then learnt a bit more circle salsa. It was lots of fun, and oddly enough the part we found the hardest was clapping hands with the people on either side. No-one seemed to be co-ordinated enough to turn the correct direction and we spent half our time high ten-ing the air.

Tea at Myoozik Cafe

Wednesday, 24^th August

As one of the main topics of conversation tends to be where everyone’s kos is, we decided to have a bit of a kos tour of a few of our places. We met on campus, then becak-ed to a few of our kos, to get an idea of the areas everyone lives in and what their kos is like too. It was also just fun scooting around in a becak. (For those of you unsure of what a becak looks like, see below, or google it). It was good to see the facilities at my friends’ kos as it made me feel a bit better about the niceness of mine too.

Rachel (Red) and Chihiro looking excited in their becak

Joey and Jack looking a little less enthusiastic, but enjoying the ride none-the-less I'm sure.

Rachel (Teal) and I smiling away in our becak

After exploring for a bit we decided to head to Jalan Malioboro (jalan means street) (also, Jl. Malioboro is a massive, busy main street where a lot of the tourist shops/just a lot of shops are) for some lunch and to see a travel agent. We had been discussing McDonalds, so when that was the first thing we saw, that became our lunching destination. I just ate chips and an ice-cream though, because I don’t want to eat their burgers (I have decided to even try and avoid it in Australia anyway). But it was ridiculous how expensive it was (once again, in rupiah terms, not so much dollar terms)! It’s interesting how McDonalds can be a cheap food in Australia, but more like a treat in Indonesia. And really, half their menu consisted of fried chicken and rice, which I’m sure you could get anywhere for a much cheaper price, and which is yummier.

We went to a travel agent to ask about getting to and from Borobudur, as well as costs and accommodation. We found out we didn’t have to book anything which was lovely and meant that we could just go whenever.

In the evening we headed off to play futsal. I am terrible at it. But I channelled my inner wing-defence from netball and just tried to stop other people from getting the ball. I even scored a goal! That was snaz! (It was also a tad of a fluke and the goalie wasn’t paying super attention, but hey, it counts). It was a bit odd though, because girls don’t tend to play futsal or soccer, so I think it was an odd sight to see four girls joining in with the guys playing. It was a lot of fun though and a good chance to do some much needed exercise.

I think that is enough for now. Over the next few days I hope to get up to date again, and then hopefully I won't be writing essay-length posts. 

Sampai jumpa, 

Katrina 

Bersantai di pantai

I just realised it has been nearly a week since I posted. Ooops! It doesn’t really matter, but the longer I leave it the longer the post, and the more I forget (so maybe that cancels out the length, but anyway).

Friday

After such a busy few days, we all thought that Friday would be a nice, relaxing, unplanned day. It was still unplanned, a little less relaxing though. At 9.50am I received a text message telling me to be at the Immigration Office in 40 minutes! So I shoved on official-occasion appropriate clothing (collared shirt, below the knee skirt and closed-toe shoes), checked if the guys upstairs were ready to head off in five and we all rushed to the main street to catch a taxi. As we were calling to order one, another drove past. So we jumped in, and thanks to quieter than usual traffic, actually made it at 10.30 on the dot. Once we got there, we just sat around for a bit, because, of course, there is jam karet (literally: Rubber time, also known as Island time). I think though for official things (and the cinema) you need to try and be on time though, even if the person behind the desk isn’t. After being photographed, fingerprinted and autographed, and a bit more sitting, we were allowed to go again.

On the way home we stopped in at Gramedia (this time the massive central Gramedia), to get kid’s books to take to the beach on the weekend. The community in the area is very poor and people cannot usually afford to buy books. So the four of us went quarters in the complete collection of Roald Dahl in Indonesian. We all thought it was brilliant (and just hoped that the translations are reasonable).

Nick and I had planned to meet our friend, Vandi, for lunch on campus. It was near enough, but a tad far, so we decided to catch a becak, the first time I’ve done that! I think we may have been ripped off a bit, but oh well, it was lots of fun. As it turned out, Vandi had a class, so we just decided to have lunch ourselves at Bonbin (the Fakultas Ilmu Budaya (Arts Faculty) canteen). On the way we came across a tunnel made of paper and bamboo set up by some students as an assignment. Within the tunnel were different sections depicting Indonesia through the ages (such as pre-history, Buddhist, Hindu, Dutch Colonial and Muslim/current day periods). It was very impressive and a lot of effort was put in. I even got to hold an old VOC (Dutch East India Company) jug! How snaz!

In the afternoon Nick, Joey, Jack and I met Sinta and Mita (who work for ACICIS) and a couple of others at a place called “Kaki kita” (Our Feet) for a reflexology massage and fish spa. I’ve never had a massage before, and reflexology was far from relaxing (which I knew, but didn’t realise it would be so painful), so that was an interesting experience. I think I preferred the fish spa, which involves putting your feet in a pool/pond full of tiny little fish that eat all the dead skin off your feet. It was very ticklish at first (Sinta, Mita and Nick were all having a good little giggle), but really nice to have clean feet. It was very reasonably priced too, I think maybe Rp.70.000 for the two (about $8).

With our body all loose and feet freshly eaten, we headed off to salsa at the Sheraton. You may be wondering if salsa is popular in Indonesia, as we have been going a lot. I don’t think it is at all, it’s just that Dimas invited us and it is lots of fun. It’s also a good way of trying to work off all the sugar rice and fat I eat! While we were at salsa I checked out the garden/pool at the Sheraton. It was amazing! What amazed me first of all is that the lobby, and where salsa is, is actually on the 7^th floor. I hadn’t even realised! But it definitely explains the massive driveway you go up to get there. The garden was so amazing. I really liked it. But then, I don’t understand why someone would come all the way to another country just to close yourself up in a mini world away from everything. But oh well, it gives me something nice to look at once a week.

Saturday

On the weekend we had an ACICIS beach trip. It was a lot of fun and a great chance to get to know the people I will be studying with, as well as relax. The guys and I were on the way to campus after breakfast when Dimas and Mita drove past and asked if we wanted a lift. It’s not like its far, but we accepted. They just said we need to pick up the camping gear. So we drove to the camping shop, which happened to be right across the road from our breaky spot! After squeezing several tents, 30-odd sleeping bags and sleeping mats and the four of us into the back of the SUV we headed off to ACICIS house.

Everyone departed in two buses from ACICIS house around 9am. While I really didn’t mind, I wonder whether the buses would be considered roadworthy in Australia. There was a bit of rust around the place, the suspension was interesting and the gaps in the roof were covered with sticky tape. But hey, it’s all part of the petualangan! We stopped off for  an hour and a bit for lunch around 11am at a little fishing area with heaps of warungs all lined up for several hundred metres. We got to pick the seafood we wanted and then how we wanted it cooked. So three of us went in for some ikan bakar  and cumi-cumi goreng (which I think also included a bit of octopus too). Enak sekali!

When we got to the beach, not long after lunch, everyone got into their bathers pretty quickly and set about staking out a bit of sand or going for a swim. Surprisingly the water wasn’t as warm as I thought it would be, but after swimming around for a little bit you warm up. Silly me, I forgot to put on sunscreen, so by the evening I was red as (and it’s only just started to go away!). But aside from the worst sunburn of my life (I don’t usually get sunburnt... maybe because I usually remember sunscreen), it was a lot of fun. A bit of frisbee, more seafood, chatting, Bintang, fire-crackers/fireworks and exploring the rockpools and a cave (not in that order though) made it a lovely afternoon/evening/night.

The boats at the fishing beach we stopped at for lunch

My attempt at a panorama of the beach we were at



Some interesting rock pool critters that I think look like the jellies in es cendol

My snaz as shade cloth



Viewing point on the cliff and the swimable part of the beach.

 

Sunday

After a surprisingly bad sleep in a tent on the sand (I don’t understand how sleeping on the sand was so hard!) I got up for some rice, egg and fruit for breakfast. Yummo! I had a bit of a swim and a bit of a rest, under a shade cloth that I made from my bed-sheet. Then a few of us just sat around and chatted over some mie goreng (packet style) until it was time to head off.

When I got home the first thing I did was have a shower to see if I could get all that sand off! It just doesn’t work in a mandi! This was when I realised my back looked like the Swiss flag (thanks to my cross over the back bathers). Must remember sunscreen next time. Luckily (or maybe not, if you want to be a glass half empty person), Yogyakarta is covered in a thick layer of smog (visible when we bussed up over the hills) so sunburn is much less likely (so, I still think this is a positive aspect).

Jack, Joey and I went off for tea soon after, leaving Nick behind as he was being picked up to visit Banjarnegara. Jack and Joey have been going on and on about “Mr. Burger” and had been wanting to visit it for ages. On Friday they ate it twice. So what did we have for tea on Sunday? Yup, Mr. Burger. They have about six or seven options, all starting with “Mr”. Such as “Mr Sunny” (with egg), “Mr Juicy” (with pineapple) and “Mr Prosperity” (I’m not too sure what that is supposed to have in it). So after our nice healthy meal of burgers, we had a nice healthy desert of Dunkin Donuts. Regardless of how bad they are, in reality they probably have as much fat and sugar as any other meal here. So now I have tried it, I know what they are going on about. But it doesn’t end there. Joey and Jack are such fans they may be starting a blog about their burger-y experiences. As Yogya is not only home to “Mr Burger”, but also “Black Burger”, “Real Burger”, “My Burger” and I’m sure some other “Burger” too. It should be a bit of a chuckle if it actually happens.

When we got home, I was all ready for a nice quiet night, when I got a phone call asking if I wanted to have Bintang and peanuts on the gazebo. So I did. It was quite nice chatting to Pak Agus, Pak Hari (who lives in the kos with his wife), Joey and Jack. But after a while I was super ready for bed.

Instalments for Monday to Wednesday are on the way. But I think this is definitely plenty to read for now. Hope you’re going well.

Sampai Jumpa,

Katrina

Beraneka macam ketrampilan diperlukan!

So this week has been quite full on too, lots happening. But I finally had a chance to unpack and settle in… today. I have been in this kos for nearly a week and until today I was living out of a suitcase!

On Tuesday there was a small NGO expo kind of thing at uni for us ACICIS students. I would love to volunteer for an hour or two a week and now it just a matter of picking one! I am tossing up between three: an organisation that teaches English to both school kids and adults, one that you spend time with kids who don’t really have a family and one that teaches science and does workshops with kids. I’m leaning towards the last one, as it sound like lots of fun and something similar to when I worked at Discovery. After the NGO thing a few of us went to have lunch (I just had es campur – mixed fruit and jellies with lots of ice and syrup! Yummo!) at the uni canteen. The canteen/food court is quite quiet at the moment because there is no uni and most people are puasa. So we may as well enjoy it while we can because I think it will be quite busy during semester.

A few of us then headed over to the ACICIS house (which is also on campus, UGM is massive if I haven’t mentioned that already) to borrow a Lonely Planet and plan a trip along the south coast of Java. We now have a rough plan, which mostly involves seeing how it goes! So we’ll see how it goes. Not long after being at ACICIS house, David Hill, the director of ACICIS came to talk to us. David is usually just in Perth at the Australian end of everything, but since he was in Yogya he wanted to meet the current semester kids. There was a good turn-out actually and he just went around and asked why we came on the program and for any positive or negative feedback.

On Tuesday night we headed to Myoozik Café for some western food and more salsa. I hadn’t wanted any western food until I saw spag bol on the menu and I had to have it. Enak! We also tried “country potatoes” as per Nick’s and my Yogya guide by Sammi and Sam. Good choice too! After some yum pasta we hit the dance floor for our second (first for some) salsa lesson. It went well I think, particularly compared to last time. I especially didn’t get pulled up as much, but I’m still pretty bad. The guys got double practice because there were twice as many girls, so they’ll all be champions at it soon I’m sure.

After getting home late and only about 2 hours of sleep, Nick, Jack, Joey and I got up at 2.30am to sahur (eat breakfast before the sun comes up during Ramadan) with our kos mates. It was so ridiculously early, but a good experience. I was super tired and fell asleep straight away at about 3.30am when I got home. Then I was up again at 7.30 to get ready for church with Pak and Bu Agus and Rachel. I know, it was a Wednesday, why in the world was I going to church on a Wednesday? (Not that odd now I think about it, as church is Thursday night back home.) Because it was the 17^th August – Hari Kemerdekaan! This year marked Indonesia’s 66^th year of independence. Church was quite snaz. It wasn’t just your average organ or guitar/drum/piano/voice ensemble… we sang to gamelan music! How super exciting! Apparently there is a gamelan service once a month, so maybe I will definitely go to those services. I didn’t actually understand as much as I thought… but I think I got the (very) general gist of the sermon.  There was one point where I nearly fell asleep though. The prayer was so long, and I was so tired, with my eyes closed it was not a good combination. Luckily, when I got home at 10 I went back to sleep for an hour or two.

At midday we got up and got ready to go bowling. I was reminded how bad I am at it. I think the last time I went was when I was at Flora Hill, and we were all crummy at it so it wasn’t so bad. But this time, apart from one strike on my second turn, it was quite obvious how bad I was. I at least got a score of 52 in the first game and 49 in the second. Most people got in the 70s, 80s or above. But oh well. One guy, Paul, did get a lower score than me, so that made me feel better. At bowling there was the neatest sign ever! “Ngabububowling”! In Indonesian, ngabuburit is to walk around finding food to break the fast. So I thought it was quite a clever play on words! After ‘ngabububowling’, we went to Choclat (kind of like Koko Black is probably the closest similarity). Over our chocolatey delights I learned how to play Indonesian poker (I think that’s what it was anyway), and I won the first game! (Something I can finally do!) After a few hours of chocolate and poker we then all moved on to Milas. Milas is a super awesome vegetarian restaurant. Don’t let ‘vegetarian’ put you off. If you are ever in Yogya, go to Milas. We sat on mats at a low table in a gazebo kind of thing and ate some very yummy and creative vegetarian dishes. I wasn’t too adventurous, just mie goreng telur dan sayuran, but it was still yummo.  After such a disturbed sleep on Tuesday night I had my first full night of sleep since my first night in Bali on Wednesday night. It was really good. But I am still so tired.  

This morning, we had a placement test for INCULS (Indonesian Culture and Language School) to determine if we are beginners, intermediate or advanced. I’m not sure when we find out results… some time. Part of the test was to write a (short) essay on one of three topics. I (and a lot of others) picked the dangers of smoking to health. After it though, I realised the marker will probably sit there, with a cigarette in their hand, reading all these essays dissing smoking.

 After lunch at a warung that does not make good es cendol (I love es cendol!) I came home to finally unpack! It is so nice to finally have everything in place. I also sat down and arranged my photos and cards onto boards to stand in my room, as blue-tac doesn’t seem to exist in Indonesia.

A view of my room (with my snaz Disney Princess sheets provided by my Ibu and Bapak kos... I don't like pink, but lucky I do like Disney).

Another view of my room (trying to sort out photos on my floor).

This evening all the ACICIS kids were invited to the Yogyakarta Plaza Hotel for a welcome party, to try and convince us to join up at their gym/pool. It is so luxurious there. We were shown the rooms as well as the gym, spa and pool. It was nice, but soooo expensive. Membership for gym and pool is Rp. 750.000 per month! That is the same as my room at the kos! Ridiculous! All I really wanted to do is aerobics classes anyway, so I will go to a different hotel, or my uni, for that at a much cheaper price. A couple of us enjoyed rice, fish, chicken, salad and super duper spicy sambal with our hands for dinner. It was very yum, but the sambal was soooo spicy! (Must remember to take Inni there when she comes to Yogya!)

Now though I am off to bed. Hopefully for another good night’s sleep. (I have a lot of catching up to do). Sorry about the essay proportions of this blog, but oh well, it is for me too. I hope you’re going well :)

Sampai Jumpa,

Katrina

 PS I have a couple of other photos on my phone, so once I figure out how to get them onto my computer I will add them into this post.

Bukan hanya orang lokal, melainkan juga wisatawan

By golly it has been a busy few days! Friday morning I packed up my bags ready to move into my temporary (maybe) kos. I say maybe because I had the best intentions to pay for a down-payment for another kos (which is currently being repaired), but decided not to because I like it here. But I’m still not really sure if I should stay here or not. I tried making a list of pros and cons, but some aspects carry more weight than others, so it kind of evened out. Oh well, I will make a decision eventually (well I’ll have to), but at least I have a month. Oh, I hate making decisions!

Me and my awesome as pendamping, Shelly

So back to Friday, Nick, Joey, Jack and I (Joey and Jack are the other anak ACICIS living here, both from WA) met Joey’s and my pendampings at the hotel and came to our kos. We put everything in place for about half an hour then headed off to find some lunch (minus Joey’s pendamping because he was berpuasa). We ate at a lovely little warung around the corner from our place, with five meals and four drinks costing a grand total of Rp.32.000! (About $3.50) I love Indonesia! We then headed off to do a bit of manchester shopping. It was just a bit funny seeing guys trying to pick out sheets and towels. Good fun :)

"Gula" = Suger, and loads of it!

Joey and Nick checking out the towels.

Jack with a snaz as Batman towel, that he nearly bought.

In the evening Dimas (one of the people who works for ACICIS) invited us to come along to a salsa night at the Sheraton hotel. Dimas is actually a really excellent dancer and came 14^th last year on Indonesia’s Got Talent! Look on YouTube if you don’t believe me. So Shelly, the guys from my kos and another guy from ACICIS soaked up the amazing luxury of the Sheraton, paid about the same price for one meal as was spent at lunch time and had free salsa lessons from a pro. Apparently though I’m not very good at salsa, as Dimas kept pulling me up. But that’s ok it was lots of fun. And there is salsa again on Tuesday so we might go again, so that we’re all better than beginners.

Saturday was a mad as, full on, touristy day. Nick, Joey, Jack, Rachel (another ACICIS friend), Dimas and I all caught the Trans Yogya bus to the Kraton (Sultan’s Palace), where we also met another anak ACICIS, Eli. I had a wonderful conversation with an old lady on the bus. We discussed everything from how many kids she had and where I am from and  where we were going, to religion and the fact that Joey looks Iranian and Nick looks English and is very tall (“Kasihan” she said, haha).

When we got to the Kraton we looked around one section ourselves and then had a tour guide for the other part. It was amazing to hear that the current sultan, Hamengkubuwana X, actually studied at UGM. So I will be studying at the very same university that the sultan studied at! How snaz is that! I also found it interesting that his dad, Hamengkubuwana IX, studied in the Netherlands for 10 years, but he had a plaque (see below) saying that he was first and foremost Javanese. I thought that was lovely. HB IX was also a special guy because he was the only sultan in Java (maybe Indonesia) who supported the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia, free from Dutch control. This earnt Yogyakarta the title of Daerah Istimewah Yogyakarta (DIY = The spedial area of Yogyakarta). We had yummy Javanese lunch at the kraton. Nick’s choice was especially interesting – pigeon. He is always going on about how much he loves pigeons (not in terms of food), so I was like “How can you eat that!?”. But he didn’t eat it all, as it came with the head and everything!

View of an outside part of the kraton, looking towards the streets of Yogya.

The sultan's crest. It consists of the Javanese letters "H" and "B", for Hamengkubuwana. All the sultans are named Hamengkubwana, the current one being the tenth.

Hamengkubuwana IX's plaque saying that he is first and foremost Javanese.

An amazingly decorated roof. Not quite sure of the significance, but the gold leaf and chandelir is quite impressive.

Hamengkubuwana II's family tree. The trunk is Hamengkubuwana, each branch is a wife, the leaves are daughters and the fruits are sons. What a busy man is all I can say.

A tad more reasonable, Hamengkubuwana IV was a bit "more modern"... still more than one wife, but less children.

After the Kraton we checked out Mirota Batik for some necessary batik clothing. Batik is a traditional Javanese fabric, with patterns made from putting wax onto fabric and dipping it into dye (the background to this blog is batik, although just imitation). I didn’t find anything, but everyone else did, so that’s good.

On Saturday night we went to the Ramayana Ballet at Prambanan Temple. Prambanan temple is a massive as Hindu temple close to Yogya. Unfortunately my camera was not a fan of taking long distance photos at night, so you can either google it or I will definitely return in the daytime with pictures to share. We had buffet dinner there, which was nice. But I think I am becoming very accustomed to spicy food already, as even though it was tasty, it was a tad bland (so that the tourists could handle it). The ballet was amazing! But it’s not ballet ballet, more like if you can imagine Balinese dancing with gamelan music, acrobatics, cute little kiddies dressed as monkeys and burning down thatched houses!

L-R: Rachel, Me, Eli, Jack, Joey, Nick at dinner overlooking Prambanan.

Little kiddies in their monkey outfits performing part of Ramayana.

When Sunday came around we decided we wanted to santai saja. So we all lazily got up at our own pace and met Rachel near our kos for some gudeg for brunch/lunch. (Gudeg is a curry made from jackfruit, which looks a lot like meat, but isn’t. And it usually comes with a ridiculously cooked egg that has turned brown… I don’t know how they do that, but it is ok, that’s how its supposed to be.) After eating, we headed to Amplaz (short for something Plaza), a super duper massive shopping centre in the centre of town. We all needed a few bits and pieces, like clothes and towels (as the ones we bought on Friday don’t dry very well). But because it was a massive shopping centre everything is pretty much what it costs in Australia. I got completely ripped off on a pair of jeans, but they were the only ones I could find in my size in several stores. Indonesians are tiny! Nick had a field day in Gramedia (a big bookshop, kind of like Borders, but still operating)! Oh! And I found a “batik” dress. It looks really nice, but is not real batik, as I bought it from CareFour, which is kind of like an Indo equivalent of Big W. For dinner I had soup – my first meal in a week not involving rice. It was nice, but I did miss the rice a bit (In Indonesia, if you haven’t eaten rice, you haven’t eaten). After wandering around a ridiculously consumerist place for several hours we came home and chatted with Pak Agus (our Bapak kos) in the gazebo and drank coffee/tea, while learning a bit of Javanese.

Monday has been good. We had an Amazing Race type thing around Yogya to familiarise ourselves with how to book and buy train and bus tickets to other cities. I was a tad disappointed my team didn’t get to all places, but we learnt what we needed to so that is the main thing (I need to try and be a little less competitive). I’m now about to go shopping at Matahari again, and this time I will buy clothes, even though they are a tad “expensive”, because I am acurrently wearing pretty much the last of my clean-ish clothes and need clothes at lest to get to the laundry to pick them up tomorrow. (But I really do need clothes anyway, I actually broght more souvenirs than clothes to Indo.)

Sampai Jumpa,

Katrina



Cari Kos

So much has happened since Tuesday. We've had a full-on few days with orientation, but it has been good. Before I go any further, here are some photos from our flights. I know they're pretty much just out of the plane photos, but hey I was maybe just super excited!

The view from our plane of Lake Eyre (I think).

Last view of Bali, witha beautiful sunrise in the background.

My first view of Java... I was pretty darn excited. (Another thing I was excited about was the literal sausage roll we had for breakfast on the plane)

The mountain on the left is actually a volcano called Mt. Merapi, which exploded last year, so I figure I'll be ok this year.

So probably one of the most important things that happened on Tuesday was that we found out we won't be starting uni until 12th September. By the time I have my first class it will have been 3 1/2 months since my last one! This break is just as long as the summer holidays! So now we have all this free time and not sure what to do. Some people are planning trips to different islands, but I think a few of us might catch a train to a few places in Java like Solo and Bandung. We'll see though...


Also on Tuesday we got to know each other. I have trouble remembering names at the best of times, so because there are 47 of us anak ACICIS it has been a tad hard, but I think I've been doing an ok job. Aside from the other anak ACICIS, we met our pendampings (aka "dumplings"). A pendamping is kind of like a student-helper-guide-person (that is the best way I can describe it). My pendamping's name is Shelly, and she is so lovely. She has worked so hard to help me find somewhere to live (but more on that later).


Yesterday we had massive form filling for several hours. But it is nothing compared to what we would have to do if we were studying as independent students. ACICIS has been amazing in sorting everything out for us. The only problem was, that all of my forms had a mistake on them... mostly just that Shepparton (my place of birth) was spelt with only one "p". But that's ok. It's only something little... it just meant that I was a bit of a white-out hog. As well as the form filling the police came along to finger/hand print us (standard procedure for going to study anywhere, even primary school I think), leaving us all with lovely black hands.


In the afternoon, we all went off with our pendampings to search for a kos (see my first post for what a kos is). Shelly and I first went to get a new Indonesian sim, so I will get around to messaging people with my new number soon... but not now, as I think it is nearly 1am in Melbourne. After a lot of kerfuffle, we then went in search of a kos. Man! It was hard! Before yesterday I had never heard the word penuh, but now I think I will never forget it. Penuh means full. Pretty much all I heard was penuh, penuh, penuh! I did find a couple of places, some of which were over Rp. 1 million (which I could afford, but people keep to themselves in those places), there was a place with western toilets but no toilet seats (I'm still bemused as to how that works, but oh well) and then there was a lovely place, with rooms a tad small, but which was all full only a couple of hours later!


So this afternoon, my dumpling and I set out again to find somewhere. The owner of the perfect kos also managed another one and we tried there. After waiting quite a while, one of the girls showed me her room and while it wasn't luxury, it wasn't too bad either. The rooms were reasonable size, all the anak kos get along (I think), it does have a squat loo and no internet, but it is reasonably close to uni. I kept it as a possibility, but still wanted to keep searching. We came across a super yellow building which was really nice and modern-ish. After looking at it I wanted to live there, however three other ACICIS kids will be there too (including Nick).


Some mild panicking by me, some "santai saja" and sound reasoning by my pendamping, and phone calls later and the long and the short of it is: I will be living in the suggested kos from September (as the spare rooms are being painted/cleaned, which is good for me) and staying in the super yellow kos for one month. The one thing about the yellow one is that upstairs is a kos putra (boy kos) and downstairs the family live, with one spare room as homestay for a girl... aka me. So it will be a very interesting experience indeed. I just hope that I don't get too accustomed to the nice place and not want to move into the other one (for which I am paying a deposit for tomorrow).

Among this massive account of me trying to find somewhere to live, I have toured the campus (which is massive as, even more so than this post), gone to Matahari (an Indo equivalent of Myer), had tea at the ACICIS house with all the other ACICIS kids and, of course, been woken every morning at 4.30 to the call to prayer (I think earplugs are going on my shopping list).

I was going to say I hope I'm not boring you, but if that was the case I'm sure you would have stopped reading by now. So I will leave you with some photos and update you again soon.

In the middle is a banner welcoming us all to Yogyakarta! How sweet :)

Outside view of the University Club Hotel, where I have been staying since Tuesday and checking out of tomorrow (Friday).

View from the Boulevard of the famous UGM building (the name escapes me atm). It mimicks Mt. Merapi (as pictured from my plane earlier) which, on a good day, can be seen in the background.

Hope you are going well.

Sampai Jumpa,

Katrina

Sudah di Yogya!

Wow, this is pretty exciting! This is now my third day in Indonesia. Nick and I arrived in Bali about 2pm (Bali time, 4pm Melbourne time) on Sunday. We were met by my Aunt Gayle, Uncle Wayan and cousins Jess and Josh. We had only been there for a couple of hours when we all headed down to a big park in Denpasar (where there is the Bali war memorial, but can't remember the name). I had driven past this park before, but it was empty then. Now it was full of people playing soccer... everywhere! We walked around it and checked it out, coming across the Bali dog lovers club (their dogs were much nicer than the usual Bali dog). There was also what seemed to be the "Bali scary pets" club, as there were heaps of people with snakes, a trantuala and even a massive iguana! The guy was holding it as if it were a baby! Gila! Some people from my family's church were playing soccer there as well so we chatted with them for a bit, over some jagung bakar, then headed off to have some dinner at a warung (a warung is like a small eatery, probably not the best description, but will explain better later I'm sure). Nick and I were a bit unsure about eating fried chicken and rice with just our fingers. All those times as a child being told not to eat with my hands, I don't know why I even did because it's so hard! But I'm sure by the end of the trip I'll be a pro and won't even want to use cutlery. (By the way, cutlery is used in Indonesia, just a fork and spoon, but your right hand is common also).

After a wonderful 10 hour sleep I woke up on Monday morning ready to head to Kuta with Nick, Gayle and Wayan. Gayle and Wayan had a meeting in Legian, so Nick and I walked down to Kuta beach, strolled around some of the shops, got ripped off for a bottle of water (Rp. 11.000! Not expensive in Australian terms, as about Rp. 8.000 = $AUD1, but expensive for Indonesia standards), checked out the scenery of Bali from the top of the church and enjoyed lunch at a warung with my aunt and uncle. In the afternoon, Nick, Josh and I checked out some potential accommodation for Yogya and chilled on the balcony playing Connect Four. We then helped Gayle cook our last western meal and headed to bed, ready to bangun pagi sekali.

I got up at 4.30am (Bali time) to catch our 7am flight. The flight was so fast we got here at 7am! Hehe, it was quick, but because of the time zone difference we technically didn't lose any time! Snaz as! So now it's nearly 11am and I've been up since 3.30am, I am going to be soooo tired tonight. I've met a few of the other anak ACICIS (ACICIS students), and we'll be beginning our orientation stuff at 2 (or 3, not too sure as the info sheet mentions one time at the top and one at the bottom). But that's ok.

I hope you're going well. And I plan to put up some photos soon ( I don't have anythying too interesting yet... however our plane was flighing right next to Gunung Merapi (a volcano which erupted about October last year), so I was acting a tad like a tourist.

Sampai jumpa,

Katrina

Sudah Siap

In just 19 hours I will be on the plane to Indonesia! Now that my adventure is this close to starting I actually feel like I'm going. Until now, I have simply felt like I am planning a trip for someone else. But now that I have said most of my "see you laters" (not "goodbyes") and my Dad has taken Sean (my car) back to Bendigo to look after, it has finally sunken in. And that has freaked me out. As I was putting  the finishing touches to my packing this morning I had a moment of "what in the world am I doing? I think I should just stay at home". But in reality I know it will be a fantsastic experience. I'm looking forward to meeting new people, seeing new places, warm weather, tiled floors, skype-ing my small group, eating lots of rice and drinking lots of es cendol.

My life for the next six months

I'm still a bit nervous, but I'm also super excited. I'm also really sad to be leaving everyone, but am happy that I don't live in the 1800s and still able to communicate with everyone pretty easily. I'm exhausted from all the preparation and the lack of sleep I know will happen tonight, but I'm energised by the fact that I'm being looked after and that I know this is what I am supposed to be doing. So with this mad mix of emotions, I'll leave you for now, but will see you in six months time.

Selamat tinggal,

Katrina