As always, the last couple of weeks have slipped by so quickly I feel like the rock performance was just yesterday. But it was two and a half weeks ago!
In the last fortnight I have learnt more snaz salsa moves, had lovely skype conversations with family and friends, witnessed interesting contemporary dance at Taman Budaya (Culture Park), sung RAN songs in the international student tea room with Red, watched the grand final on a fuzzy TV, tried a new church, eaten pizza while watching the Lion King, handed in my first assignment, started learning Javanese, eaten mie Aceh (Acehnese noodles), ronde, real vegetables and famous nasi goreng from a ridiculously popular lesehan, laughed until my stomach was sore, sung karaoke, seen amazing kites at Paris, played futsal, went swimming, had a couple of massages and finally watched ‘Chicken Park’ (a C-grade, Italian, dubbed to English film that Nick had been insisting we all watch). Oh, and of course, uni.
Oddest moment of the fortnight: Seeing the Yogyakarta International Performing Arts Festival (a continuation of the Street Performance that we did with the rocks) at Taman Budaya. A couple of performances, such as the interpretive dance that was supposed to represent the Mount Merapi explosion last year and another by a Korean guy who just ran around a lot, were really odd. That’s the best way I can describe them. However, there was a funny performance by a Chilean guy who did a lot of miming and had snaz as music.
Funniest moment of the fortnight: Playing spoons with Brett, Red and Swantje for Brett’s birthday was a lot of fun. Red tried to say both the Indonesian and English word for spoon/sendok at once and came up with ‘spendok’. From there we just laughed so much. I was then talking about when I went along to a laughing club in Bendigo once and was describing the lawn-mower laugh. Jolly good!
Moment when I felt a bit homesick: Watching the AFL grand final at a café was lots of fun….especially explaining the rules to Wahyu, Vremita, Rennie and Paul (who are from Indonesia, Holland and USA respectively) who had no idea about the sport. But watching the footage of the MCG, Melbourne and even the Australian ads made me miss home a bit. It was also odd that here I was, in the heat, watching everyone in Melbourne with jumpers and rain coats.
Moment when I got to see something new: On Saturday I went to Parangtritis Beach, known colloquially as ‘Paris’, with Wahyu. To be downright honest, the beach is really ugly. The sand is brown, so it looks like dirt, and it is so wavy that you can’t really swim. Regardless, people flock there, as it’s the closest beach to Yogya (only one hour away). We went there for the “National Kite Festival”... I’m not sure who dubbed it ‘national’, as it wasn’t as big as I expected. But it was neat as to see all sorts of different kites that I had never seen before. There were some amazing 3D kites, such as bugs, dragons and planes, with body of bamboo and paper/plastic and wings. In the traditional category there were kites that reminded me of moths, with something similar to a bow (as in bow and arrow) that made a sound like cicadas when it was flying.
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| One of the traditional kites (the thin stick you can see at the front is the part that made the sound). I also really like the colours of this kite. |
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| One of the dragon kites in action. |
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| Check out the size of this kite! It's bigger than me! |
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| Kites high in the sky! |
Moment when I felt most at home: Eating pizza in the gazebo and then watching, and singing along to, The Lion King with wonderful friends was a lot of fun. It was also good motivation for me to knuckle down and get my assignment done before everyone got here.
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| (L-R) Red, Me, Jack, Teal, Vremita, Calvin, Cindy, Rennie, Eli and Wahyu all ready for The Lion King! |
So there we are. The last two weeks in a much more succinct fashion than usual. I hope you’re happy and healthy.
Salam hangat,
Katrina
