Kuliah - Minggu Pertama

The last week has been a snaz one; full of fun and a few classes. Tuesday (13th September) I had my first class of Bahasa Indonesia untuk Riset (Indonesian for Research) and discovered that the what-we-already-thought-was-long-20-page report would actually be upwards of 30 pages. I later checked out some previous ones and most of them were more like forty! As long as I pick an interesting topic all will be ok though. But that is easier said than done, as we all know that decision-making is not one of my strengths.

Another decision I need to make soon is which subjects to keep and which ones to drop. This was made harder by one of my classes, Pemuliaan Pohon Terapan (Applied Tree Propagation) not meeting my expectations at all. I thought it may entail how to grow trees to revegetate forests. It was the opposite. Pretty much I will be learning how to grow trees with the least amount of effort to get the most amount of money. During the class I thought this was a bad thing, but I have thought it might be interesting to see from an Indonesian perspective. That is if I don’t have a heart attack halfway through a lecture.

In the evening we went to salsa and learnt even more moves. It’s getting harder, but lots of fun! It’s also good being the girl, as the guy just leads you around and you just go with the flow and do lots of twirling. On the way home Nick and I got some bungkus ronde (take-away ronde). Ronde is a super yum ginger drink (I usually hate ginger, but this is really yum) with pink jellies, croutons, peanuts and the most amazing, melt in your mouth, peanut ball things. Although maybe bungkus wasn’t the best idea, as eating all that from a plastic bag is hard. Even with a spoon. But if you ever come to Indonesia, eat/drink ronde!

With not much besides a day off and futsal on Wednesday, the slightly more packed Thursday was very welcome. I had Sejarah Australia dan Pasifik (Australian and Pacific History) in the morning. Probably odd coming to Indonesia to do Australian history, but I just thought it would be interesting to see it from an Indonesian perspective. Apparently later in the semester we will watch “Gallipoli” (the really long film with Mel Gibson in it) in our one and a half hour class. That could be interesting…

After classes I met up with Shelly and a few of from ACICIS went to Raminton House to celebrate Shelly’s birthday. It was quite nice, as this time I didn’t have bubur ayam (chicken rice porridge, which comes in a massive serving there). In the evening, Tim, Red and I went to a cultural performance at Sanata Dharma University (Tim’s uni). It was awesome as! There were several dances from across Indonesia, including Java, Sumatera, Kalimantan, Lombok and Bali. There was also a performance by the third best choir in Yogya. They were quite impressive, and they even had a bit of dance to go along with their amazing voices.

On Friday, Nick and I had Linguistik Historis Komparatif (which we had both chosen independently) with just four other Indonesian students and the lecturer. It was an amazing class! The lecturer was excellent! However, due to such a low enrolment she thought it may have to be cancelled, which was really disappointing as it was such an interesting subject. Although, today at uni we saw a girl from the class who said that it would still happen, which is excellent. Later in the afternoon I was supposed to have Kehutanan Sosial (Social Forestry), however it was kosong (literally empty, but in this case it means the lecturer just didn’t feel like turning up, so the class is cancelled). Apparently this is a common occurrence, but until then, not one of my classes had been kosong.

I thought I was going to have to rush after Kehutanan Sosial, but as it was kosong I was able to just take my time. After class I met with a lot of other ACICIS students and Aldo (who has been doing an internship with ACICIS) and some of Aldo’s friends nearby the campus. As part of his internship, Aldo had organised for us to spend the afternoon at a local orphanage. He did an excellent job of organising it and we all had an amazing time. There were about twenty girls between the ages of about 11-16 who we got to know by doing the chicken dance, making animal noises to find groups and them teaching us how to make plaited bracelets. For beginners, like me, it’s hard to make the bracelet by yourself; you kind of need more than two hands. So I was helped by a lovely year 8 girl and just chatted a bit. Afterwards the girls performed a couple of songs for us. Their singing was wonderful and I’m not afraid to admit that I was tearing up quite a bit.

At the orphanage

Later that night the awkward turtle gank went to the alun-alun again, to show everyone how awesome that place is. This time we rented a larger vehicle with a seat on the roof. However it was a tad scary up there when everyone’s steering skills maybe left a bit to be desired. Below is I will attempt again later to upload a video of travelling around the alun-alun, in which you can hear me have couple of panic attacks about the driving skills of a certain Red. But it was all ok in the end; we just missed the people, bikes and footpaths (which are much higher in Indonesia than Australia).

One of the many pedal-powered, brightly-lit vehicles at the alun-alun.

So going to the alun-alun goes hand in hand with a late (or early, whichever term you prefer) return home. Which then translates to a late get up/lazy day. Hence my Staurday was kind of uneventful, aside from futsal in the evening and the purchase of some snaz as, real-fake converse for Rp85.000 each pair! (Which is about $9)

I think this enough for now, I’ll get on to the next several days later. Hope you’re going well :)

Salam hangat,

Katrina

Sebenarnya, tidak terlalu menakutkan

This weekend I enjoyed my last weekend of freedom before classes started today. On Saturday I slept in until about 10am, only to be asked by my Ibu kos if I was sick, because I hadn't gone anywhere yet. In the afternoon Wahyu picked me up and I went on a motorbike for the first time, ever! (Wahyu couldn't beleive I had never been on a motorbike, but he drove slowly for me). And don't worry, I was wearing jeans, runners, the thickest shirt I have and a helmet. It actually wasn't as scary as I thought, but Nick, Jack, Joey and Teal (who were all about to got to the pool) were all keen to see me (more likely my scared face) head off on my first motorbike experience.

The reason why we were riding the motorbike was because we went off to fly kites in the corn fields. It was heaps of fun! I haven't flown a kite in yonkey donkeys, so I was pretty bad at it. But we ended up having two kites on one string, snaz as! Later on we joined up with the others for dinner at a lesehan. After now having eaten at several lesehan and surviving, I'm feeling a lot less apprehensive about them. I still do marvel at how if they were in Australia they would be shut down faster than you could say nasi goreng.

On Sunday morning I rode my bike to Mirota Kampus (which is a supermarket/clothes shop on the other side of UGM). It's kind of like Gading Mas, but they actually have what you want, including fresh fruit. I was quite proud of doing this myself, it may not sound like much of an acheivement, but anyone who knows anything about traffic in Asia could understand where I'm coming from. It also seems that everyone likes to do their grocery shopping on Sunday morning, so I was standing in line for about 15 minutes, not even moving anywhere.

When I got home, it was time for my small group (bible study) skype date. It was wonderful to be able to see and speak to the girls and to be able to discuss Jonah, as if I were there ... nearly. In the afternoon Jack, Joey and I went to Galeria (a shopping centre) to get some last minute stuff for uni. I impulse-bought some pants, that it turns out are actually really good and comfy, so for once it actually worked out! I also bought some notebooks for class and realised I could buy a pack of ten books for Rp.28.000 or just one for Rp.25.000. Needless to say I went with the pack of ten batik-style books.

After tea at a cheap as warung, aptly called Padang Murah ("Cheap Padang", padang is kind of like a buffet style warung, that always seem to specialise in deep fried things.), and desert at Dunkin' Donuts (nowhere near as cheap), the "awkward turtle gank" came back to our place to play cards.

"Awkward turtle gank" is currently in use 1) because we were trying to explain the awkward turtle (the Auslan sign for turtle, used in awkward situations) and 2) because Wahyu thought "gang" was spelt with a "k" on the end instead.

So today was my first day of classes since the end of May! Goodness it has been a long time. And I was off to great start, early and everything... which turned into really late when no-one turned up at the room. Luckily Red also had that class, so it wasn't so stressful. But we went to the office to see if the room had been changed; which it had. The new room was in the old FISIPOL building, several blocks away (see map below). So after a hot 15-20 minute walk to the new location we walked into the wrong room, didn't quite sit down because the lecturer asked what subject we were doing and finally found the correct one across the hall after discovering the updated (from only a couple of days ago) room locations of classes; I had been wondering how on earth all the Indonesian students seemed to know about the change, but not us. When we walked in there was a grand total of 5 minutes left, we were 45 minutes late. The lecturer said to us, "This class will start at 9.30 next week". He then asked us to do a speech to introduce ourselves. Red was shy, so I introduced us, and even got an applause at the end, so it was worth it.

(A) is roughly where my class should have been, (B) is where it was moved to, about 1.5km away. Just to put it in perspective, my kos is around abouts where the red dot is.

After that I got a drink, cooled down for a few minutes then ventured off to find my next class room. I went to the building I thought it would be, but was told I should be in the building in front. Unfortunately the uni isn't really organised, so I wasn't sure which way the front actually was. I ended up being escorted by a security guard form the Psychology faculty to the building I needed to be in. That was a bit nerve racking though, because I already stand out enough as it is. I got in the room ok and checked with the other students that I was in the right class. Then the lecturer turned up and asked us to follow him to a different room. It was like a small meeting room with just 12 chairs around a table, so the rest of us sat on the ground. It was good though, I'm pretty sure I understood about 90% of what the lecturer said. The time I was most lost was when he said something about bule (white person) and everyone laughed. But everyone was friendly, all wanting to know "dari mana, bule?" ("where are you from, white person?").

After a full on morning of classroom searching and lunch in the hot canteen area, I came home to read for a bit then headed off to the pool with some friends. On Saturday, Nick and I had been looking at hotels for family to stay in and we discovered that the pool at one is free to use, as long as you buy some food or drink (around Rp.8000) afterwards. Swim and a meal for $1, neat as!

That's all for now, need to get up bright and early for my two classes tomorrow.

Sampai jumpa,

Katrina

Sepeda baru, makanan yang banyak dan mata kuliah dipilih

Operation “update my blog”: Stage 3.

Unlike my first several weeks of Indonesia, this last week has been a lot less full on. It has been nice to just spend some time at home relaxing, catching up with people and exploring my local area a little bit more.

There have been some interesting dining experiences in the last week, including a western style castle that sold seafood, an avocado and hazelnut drink at “Cinnamon” café, deceivingly super spicy salad, really yum ayam bakar from a lesehan (temporary food stall on the side of the road) and really yum mushrooms at my friend’s birthday party.

There were a couple of lowlights this week, taking my friend to the hospital to see a doctor (but she’s all a-ok now, so that’s good) and being stared at by a whole line of traffic as my inability to ride a bicycle was made super obvious.

However, the actual purchasing of, and practicing riding, my bike was definitely a highlight. It is yet to receive a name, as I have been informed that it will be a lot harder separating myself from my bike when I leave in five months, but I still think a name is important. Especially as it is the snazziest bike in yogya :)

Other highlights this week included playing billiards and getting my team’s last three balls and the 8 ball in all in a row to win the game, playing futsal again, having fun at karaoke, playing soccer barefoot on an iffy field with some local kiddies, tea parties at Teal's kos, skyping friends and family, getting the “special” cake at Wahyu’s birthday and chilling with friends.

It's a bit dark, but this is part of the castle restaurant we went to.

My snaz as bike!

Attempting to dink Joey on the back of my bike, as he attempts to be cool.

(L-R) Mita, Dama, Wahyu, Eli, Tim and Dimas picking songs and having fun at karaoke.

Probably the hardest thing in the last week was doing my enrolment yesterday. We had three hours to pick our subjects according to our skill level, interests and if it fitted ok into a timetable. In the end I was the last person, taking an extra hour to decided my subjects and fill in my forms. Yes, forms, plural. I’m going to be studying in three different faculties, so I needed a form for each one.

From FISIPOL (Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik = Social Sciences and Politics Faculty) I will be studying Pluralisme Kesejahteraan (Peaceful Pluralism). I hadn’t intended on studying any FISIPOL subjects, but decided this might be a good and useful subject.

From Fakultas Kehutanan (Forestry Faculty) I will be studying Kehutanan Sosial (Social Forestry) and Pemuliaan Pohon Terapan (Applied Tree Propagation/Breeding). Social Forestry will hopefully be about how people look after and use the forest; which is exactly what I’m interested in, so hopefully that’s what it turns out to be. The other subject I picked simply because I was under pressure and it had the word ‘tree’ in the title. I didn’t know what the other words meant until I looked them up in my dictionary later.

In Fakultas Ilmu Budaya (FIB = Arts Faculty) I will be studying: Antropologi Ekologi (Ecological Anthropology), Sejarah Australia dan Pasifik (Australian and Pacific History), Linguistik Historis Komparatif (Comparative Historical Linguistics). Also within FIB I am doing one INCULS (Indonesian Language and Culture Learning Service) subject, Bahasa Indonesia untuk Riset (Indonesian for Research), which involves doing a mini research project/thesis.

It was difficult picking all of my subjects as there were no subject descriptions, just long and confusing lists of all the subjects available (from 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd year all jumbled together), organised differently according to each faculty. Fakultas Kehutanan organised their subjects by the day which they were on, FIB did it according to the type of study area and I just couldn’t figure out the pattern for FISIPOL. But that’s ok, I got there in the end. I actually have more subjects than I’m allowed to do, but as you can’t add subjects later it’s better to have more now then drop a couple before the deadline (which is only the 19^th September) than to be stuck with subjects you don’t like and no flexibility of changing. So now I look forward to starting uni (finally!) on Monday. First up... Pluralisme Kesejahteraan.

Hooray! You’re now all up to date with what I’ve been up to. From now on, it should be less full on and I should be able to keep it up to date. I hope you’re going well.

Sampai jumpa,

Katrina

Dua pengalaman yang berbeda di alun-alun

Operation “get my blog updated”:  Stage 2.

Tuesday 30^th August

Merry Fitters! (For last Tuesday and/or Wednesday, whichever day you want to celebrate it). This is the term we coined at 5.30am on Tuesday in order to shorten “Selamat hari raya Idul Fitri” (Happy Idul Fitri) in true Aussie fashion. Idul Fitri (I think maybe “Eid” in English) is the massive celebration at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan (Idul Fitri is also known as lebaran in Indonesia). The reason why it may be Tuesday or Wednesday is because there are two ways of determining Idul Fitri, I think a mathematical way and one way by looking at the moon. But both days are recognised as a holiday and you can celebrate on one (or both if you want to, I suppose).

So the reason we were up that early was to be picked up by Mita (from ACICIS) and her family to join them at the alun-alun kidul (town square just south of the kraton) to see the morning prayers. We stayed back with Mita for a bit as thousands of people poured into the area (they would have already washed and are not allowed to come into contact with members of the opposite gender, so if we bumped into anyone that would have been bad). After watching Indonesians walk further than they would dare to on any other day of the year, we walked into the square too and watched from the sidelines. Rows of men in their black kupluk (a type of hat/cap) and women in white rukuh (cloak type coverings which cover the woman from head to toe, minus the face) filled the alun-alun. It was an amazing site to see.  

Crowds of people walkng towards the alun-alun

Men at the front with their black hats and women at the back in their white garments.

Everyone praying. (Also, the two trees in the background are the ones I mention later in this post that we had to walk through)

Happy Fitters! With (L-R) Paul, Jack, Joey, Me, Red, Mita's Grandma, Teal, James, Mita's Mum, Nick and Mita's Dad (and Mita taking the photo).

After seeing the prayers we went back to Mita’s house to share in some opor ayam (a type of chicken curry traditionally eaten on Idul Fitri) with her family. We also got to see the family asking for forgiveness from Mita’s grandmother and great-aunt. Then, in what felt like the afternoon, but which was really just 9.30am, we went home and back to bed to catch up on sleep. I was woken up around 11.30 by Eyang (Bu Agus’ mum) asking if I wanted to go to Mount Merapi, right then and there. I was so tired though, so I decided to pass up the offer in favour of more sleep, as there will be plenty of other opportunities to go another time. In the evening we had tea at Dunkin’ Donuts, as pretty much everything else was closed and that was close by.

Wednesday 31^st August

On Wednesday morning a few of us gathered at Parsley (a bakery/cafe) for makan “sagi” (brunch) for Teal’s birthday. After yummy “pouch eggs” (not poached eggs) and “bake-ed beans” (not baked beans) we took Teal to Amplaz for her birthday surprise.  We blindfolded Teal and led her through the busy shopping centre to a sports shop to buy some futsal shoes and ball. Some ping-pong, courtyard soccer and dinner later, and the day had flown by without even realising it. Also on Wednesday, Jack headed off to Jakarta for a holiday in the morning and Joey went to Karimunjawa (some little islands north of Java) in the night, leaving just Eyang, Nick, Andy (a Jakartan guy who had just moved into the kos) and I as the only people at the kos.

Breakfast at Parsley (clockwise from front left) Red, Teal, Vremita, Joet, Me, Nick, Paul.

Teal with baby Mickey (a bday present) and Mario at the shopping centre.

Thursday 1^st September

Thursday was a pretty cheap day. Nick and I had breakfast from a warung, costing us a grand total of Rp.8000 (currently about 90c) for two meals of rice, beans, tempe, noodles and gorengan (pretty much just “fried stuff”) and two iced teas. Red and Paul came around and we all headed off to Gading Mas. I don’t think I have mentioned this place yet. It is kind of a supermarket (kind of like a mix between NQR and Big W) which always manages to have nothing you want and everything you don’t want. Regardless, it is an awesome place to shop. On Thursday I paid Rp.14.400 (about $1.60) for the snazziest pair of brightly-coloured, floral shorts you ever did see! I then parted ways with the others and headed off to Amplaz with Teal (we were going to buy real converse for about $20, but didn’t really like the colours there) and then to the pool at the Yogya Plaza Hotel to use up my free swim card I got from our welcome night from the hotel. On our way home, Teal and I spotted a sign, “Pancakes and Ice-cream” and we were there! I had such a yummy banana split for Rp.15.000. I don’t think you could even buy a banana for that price at the moment in Australia!

Friday 2^nd September

On Friday Nick and I caught the biskot (bis kota = city bus) (a cheap and easy way to get around Yogya, just be super careful of pickpockets and don’t worry if the roof is rusty and the seats are broken) to Nick’s heaven, the pasar buku (book market). Admittedly it was quite awesome, with two stories of stalls of piles and piles of books. There were a lot of academic books actually, so we now know the place to go when we get our reading lists. After the book market we went to another market, called Pasar Beringharjo, which was a lot more traditional with spices and food on one floor and the largest amount of bags I have seen in one spot in my life on another floor. We stopped for lunch at a stall in the middle of one of the floors, so it was a bit dark and dingy, but still yum. The only menu item they had was sate kambing (goat skewers), so that’s what we ate. There was also salad, but I noticed the lady use the same raw-meat knife and chopping board for the salad, so I just ate my goat and rice. In the afternoon, Nick and I went motor bike helmet hunting , but the mission was not a success. We did however have a chat with the ticket man on the biskot, who demonstrated to Nick how pickpockets work (luckily he didn’t actually do anything).

The ground level of Pasar Beringharjo with lots of spices and things in bags.

The 'rogue' chicken that decided to make Nick's bike it's home... until Nick had a run-in with it and "got bitten".

In the evening Andy, Nick and I met Teal and Tim for tea at a warung that is usually quite happening during the day, with band and everything, but which we discovered is quite quiet at night. After our nasi pecel (rice with vegies and spicy peanut sauce) we went around to Tim’s kos because his kos family were keen for us to visit. The tiles in that house are neat as! It’s like someone decided to turn broccoli soup into tiles... I was pretty excited! Also, the tiles in the bathroom are pretty much the same as the tiles in my shower in my apartment. I don’t know if I have mentioned before or not, but I am a bit of a fan of tiles... but I digress. We chatted with Arum (the Ibu kos’s daughter) and her husband. Arum is a bit of a joker, just completely ripping into Tim about him being too skinny and a bit boring to talk to, but she was just jesting. So after some funny, and also some awkward, conversations, as well as yummy as snacks (my personal favourite being putih salju = snow white) that we were kind of force fed, we continued our night’s journey to a cafe called Cheers (the same place Teal and I went to the previous day for our ice-cream and pancakes). When our banana splits and real coffees were finished Tim suggested we keep going (it was about 10.30/11pm by this time). So we did. Good decision. (Andy went home though).

The alun-alun (where we went to see the morning prayers on Idul Fitri) is a buzzing hive of activity late at night. There are, by far, the coolest, brightly-lit, neon-covered, pedal-powered, open car type things I have ever seen! We hopped in one and drove around the alun-alun a couple of times, feeling a little like movie stars (or possible oddities) as everyone seemed to think it was ok to just wind down their car windows, or hang out of their own pedal powered vehicles to take photos of us. So we took photos of them back. We all had a turn of steering, and we all had a turn of nearly crashing into other vehicles. When we got off there was a family who were taking a picture of us, and then they actually asked if that was ok. Then the 9-yr-old daughter (who is apparently a sinetron (soapie) star) pulled a blackberry out of her bag and asked for a photo with us for her facebook! Line of the night, though, went to her older sister with “Dari mana, bule?” (“Where are you from, white people?”). (Don’t take this all the wrong way though; it was all light-hearted and good spirited.)

We then sat down for a bit of roti bakar (which is pretty much toasted cheese sandwiches, minus the cheese, plus chocolate and/or fruit) and ronde (Nick’s favourite, which I will explain later), while being busked to with our very own requests. After our fill of sweet treats it was time to tackle the trees. There are two massive, old trees, about 10-15m apart and if you can walk through them while blindfolded, you get a wish/good luck. You stand back, maybe about 50m, put on your blindfold and then go for it, with your friends tagging along, making sure you don’t run into other people, or the trees. A lot of people take this responsibility for granted though, and may let their friend continue on the complete wrong path for quite some time (*cough* Nick, Teal and Tim *cough*). But then the neatest thing happened. You know in movies, how sometimes there is an elderly, wise figure who gives advice to the young character, who is then able to succeed? We got our very own old, wise man! I didn’t catch everything, as he was speaking very fast, but the main advice he gave was to 1: Not focus on the trees, rather the destination, 2: pray, regardless of whether you are Muslim, Christian or otherwise and 3: go at your own pace, go slowly if you want, run if you want. So we took his advice and ran on through... each one of us!

Tim, Me, Nick and Teal on our pedal-powered, bright vehicle.

"Guiding" Teal, to make sure she didn't run into anyone on her way through the trees.

It's not as easy as it looks. The white fence is around a tree, but the other tree is far to the left of this picture. 

Guiding Tim, who was on the right track nearly to the end.

It was now about 2.30am, so we decided maybe we should head home. But the loo was required first. Both the toilets at the alun-alun were closed and we were told there was another one down the street. This was true but it was also closed. Next door though was a mosque. We considered going in to use the loo, but thought it wasn’t the best idea. While weighing up this decision, the Imam rocked up on a motorbike and offered let us use the toilet. So I think that was our good luck that we gained from the trees.

I think Tuesday and Friday had the most exciting events. Since then I’ve tended to stay at home a bit and relax. So stay tuned for Operation “get my blog updated”: Stage 3 (which will hopefully be here soon).

Sampai jumpa,

Katrina

Keindahannya Borobudur

I have decided to set myself a challenge: re-cap the last several days using no more than one paragraph per day. Let’s see how this goes.

Thursday 25^th August

On Thursday, Nick got back from his trip to Banjanegara and Salatiga to visit his friend his family had been hosting for the last month in Melbourne. His friend’s aunt gave him a variety of goodies, including some (surprisingly) yummo dried-fried bananas, I think with the skins still on. In the afternoon, Joey, Teal and I went to Iga Bakar (meaning grilled ribs) which I think may be my fave food place in Yogya. After finishing our ayam bakar (grilled chicken), all the waiters wanted photos with Joey as they thought he bared a massive resemblance to Danni Pedrosa (a motorbike racer). After that we headed to the fish spa again, also with Ella (an ACICIS student from England) to get our feet all nice and fresh. In the evening, Nick, Jack, Joey and I went to the movies with Adeline (who works at the laundry across the road) and her friend Kiki to see Fast and Furious 5. I wasn’t really keen on the actual movie, rather seeing the Indo subtitles. After the movie, we were joined by Red and Teal at Raminton House, a very unique and interesting place to eat. My meal was ridiculously massive (never, ever order bubur ayam there unless you could eat a horse! Of which there were several at the back, pretty much in the kitchen). Another odd feature of Raminton House is a random spa in the middle of one of the dining areas, apparently only available for men. Loony! Around 9pm we headed off to Brett’s (another ACICIS kid from last semester) and Wahyu’s kos to grill corn. The previous night at futsal I was informed by Brett how fun it was, and as I was a bit skeptical, so they invited us all around to give it a go. As it turned out it was quite fun. Teal and I also had a bit of a djembe lesson from Wahyu and believe we are now masters of the djembe.

Wahyu teaching Teal and I the jembe (with Jack watching on).

Friday 26^th August

Around midday, Joey, Jack, Teal, Red, Eli and I met at Jombor bus terminal ready for our exciting as trip to Borobudur. It was nice timing, because as soon as we got there a bus was pretty much ready to head off. After our hour and a half bus ride and ten minute becak ride we arrived at a losmen (kind of like a hostel type place) suggested to us by the other ACICIS kids who went a couple of weeks prior. We settled in, ate some food and napped, so by the time we got to Borobudur, it was nearly closed for the day. But we still went in anyway because 45 minutes is better than no minutes. I think the pictures are the best way of describing Borobudur. But just so you know: Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It was built around the late AD700s, initially as a Hindu temple, then continued as a Buddhist temple after the ruling kingdom in the area changed religions. It consists of ten storeys, the bottom seven containing the carved stories of Buddha around it’s walls and the top three containing buddhas sitting within stupas (bell shaped things, see pictures). The different levels are supposed to represent the different stages of one’s journey to enlightenment, as the carved, story levels are seen as more straight forward and simple for those not so far along their journey and the top levels are more abstract and therefore aimed at the bodhisattvas (those close to reaching enlightenment). I wrote a couple of essays about Borobudur in my first year, so I was pretty excited to see it in the stone!

Front view of Borobudur

Back view of Borobudur

The detail of the reliefs is amazing. And that the blocks just fit together so well!

I'm trying to join iin with the party under the tree... don't know how well that worked though...

Saturday 27^th August

After not nearly enough sleep we all awoke at the lovely hour of 3.45am and then walked over to another hotel to go on a sunrise tour. We got some snaz sarongs (unfortunately not for keeping) and torches (probably for keeping because we weren’t asked for them back) before walking over to the temple at 4.30am. Once there we staked out the best sunrise viewing location, then waited. It actually took a while for the sun to finally get up, but it was nice just relaxing on the temple. It was amazing though how photo driven some people were. Admittedly I was taking a few photos too, but then I remembered something I read in The Big Issue once, that so many people go overseas craving the perfect photo, but aren’t actually concerned with making memories in their head and actually experiencing it. So I forced myself to put my camera down a few times (but you probably wouldn’t believe it with all the photos I ended up taking).

(L-R) Teal, Joey, Jack, Eli, Red and me dressed up in our sarongs very early in the morning!

Buddha's view of the sunrise with the mountain casting a shadow onto the sky.

Just couldn't resist being a tourist!

View of some of the stupas (L) and the wall (R) from the 7th level.

A buddha who has lost the top of his stupa. (There are buddhas within all of the stupas on the top three levels).

After yummy “morning tea” (read: breakfast, as it was only 6.30am) as part of our tour, we went back to the losmen and slept until check out time. Then we came home and slept some more. And of course, why not top off a nice lazy day with Mr. Burger and Dunkin Donuts for tea (don’t worry, it doesn’t/won’t happen all the time, but is nice occaisionally).

Sunday 28^th August

Sunday marked Jack’s 23^rd birthday. Since pork is forbidden in Islam, it is near impossible to find. But Jack was missing bacon, so we found a place that had an “American Breakfast”. It was a really nice place actually, with a fish pond one side of the outdoor dining area and a field on the other side (something like cassava maybe?) Our neat as makan “sagi” (our made up term for brunch, incorporating siang (afternoon) and pagi (morning)) consisted of juice, tea or coffee, any sort of eggs you wanted with bacon and real bread with both pineapple and dragonfruit jams. So good! Also at the restaurant was a swing, so we all had a bit of a go of that too! After preparations in the arvo we had a satay dinner and party in the gazebo. It was nice just chilling and chatting away. And Nick and Maisy provided entertainment by playing a game of “guess what animal I’m acting out”. Apparently Nick’s crab impersonation wasn’t good enough, so Maisy showed him how it is done. Most adorable thing. Ever.

(Closkwise from front) Joey, Red, Me, Teal, Tim, Jack, Eli, Shelly, Shelly's friend, Nick's chair. Eating our "American breakfasts".

Joey on the swing.

Shelly on the swing.

Monday 29^th August

Monday was pretty relaxing, yet somehow busy. I’m not entirely sure what I did during the day really (although I did skype a couple of people). In the evening Nick and I met our friend Vandi for the first time in person. We’ve been facebook friends for a while as he wants to practice his English. We were also joined by Nick’s friend, Clinton, visiting from Australia for a few days. After yummy bakso (a type of meatball soup) together we came back to the gazebo (yup, it’s definitely the place to be) to play a few rounds of tepuk nyamuk. Tepuk nyamuk means “hit the mosquito” and is like an Indonesian version of snap. Lots of fun, but I had a bit of a hard time keeping my competitiveness under control…

So my paragraphs may not be the most usual sized paragraphs, but I don’t think I’ve done too badly. I’m getting there and hopefully can be up to date by tomorrow.

Sampai jumpa,

Katrina