Sinopsis: Semester 1 di UGM

It has been really odd writing assignments in January. But today I handed in my last one! So that’s it, I am done at UGM. This last 5 months has gone so fast, but it feels like forever ago that I first arrived in Yogya. I have done and learnt so much! I haven’t been as many places as I thought, but that will change next semester. Regardless, I have had a super duper fantastic time!

I couldn’t think of any other way to express the awesome time that I’ve had so far other than a list (anyone who knows me well knows that I really love lists). So below are some of the highlights, places I’ve been, interesting things that happened in class and things I have learnt (in no particular order, I might add).

Highlights:

• Learning how to make klepon with Red at Dede’s house (See above).
• Dressing up in traditional Javanese clothing at Imogiri Royal Cemetary.
• Visiting Bu Yacinta’s family in Semarang, especially making our very own es kelapa muda (‘iced young coconut’, a type of drink) with coconuts that we picked off the trees ourselves.
• Moviebox and Happy Puppy (karaoke)!
• Good times at the alun-alun kidul.
• Becoming familiar with the different sounds different kaki-lima (like a food cart) make. Especially ronde! Yum yum!
• Being a literal ‘rock star’ while wearing colourful ponchos and farmers hats in the Yogya Street Performance Festival.
• Exploring the streets around my area.
• Becoming confident riding a bike in Asian traffic – actually, becoming confident riding a bike full stop.
• Listening to the call to prayer and realising what the time is.
• Playing futsal. Especially playing at the oval with some kids we met there.
• Learning to salsa.
• Learning how to make bracelets from the girls at an orphanage.
• Beach trips
• Being able to show around the people who have visited me.
• Showing off Anzac biscuits and Vegemite at Gama Fest.
• Accidental double date with Wahyu, Dede and Jack.
• Receiving some super snaz parcels in the post – especially the surprise one!
• Seeing people’s reactions to Vegemite.
• Tea parties and corn baking gatherings
• Trying so many wonderful and interesting foods.
• Meeting Wahyu.
• Meeting wonderful friends, not just from Indonesia, but from Australia, America, Germany and Holland as well (see below). 

Places I’ve been:

• Borobudur (largest Buddhist temple in the world, about 1200 years old)
• Prambanan (impressive Hindu temple complex)
• Taman Sari (water palace)
• Kraton, Yogyakarata (Sultan’s palace).
• Kraton, Solo
• Imogiri (Royal cemetery)
• Mount Merapi (a volcano that exploded in 2010)
• Parangtritis beach (affectionally known as Paris)
• Other beaches
• Kaliurang
• Semarang
• Denpasar (visiting my family there, Gayle, Wayang, Jess and Josh).
• Solo
• Dieng Plateu

Interesting Happenings in class:

• Being told by two of my lecturers that having white skin is better in front of the entire class and that everyone wants skin like mine. I definitely do not agree with that! I think everyone should be happy with the skin they’re in!
• Having it stressed by the lecturer that recent references are needed for our papers, yet his own paper had references from the 1800s.
• Discussions with other students about copyright laws in Australia. They were surprised to find out we usually have to buy the books, not just borrow them from the library, copy the entire thing and then return it.
• Having a watch drawn on my arm because I didn’t have one and there was nothing else to do.
• Having the lecturer use ‘what makes an ideal partner’ as a metaphor and then all the girls in the class agreeing that ‘being rich’ is on the top of their list.

Things I’ve learnt:

• Indonesians are wonderfully patient, kind and talented people, and they’re humble about it too!
• If it starts pouring down here, it won’t stop for a long time.
• It is possible for roads to turn to rivers and for the water to seemingly disappear not long after the rain stops.
• To slow down and just go with the flow. Also, that being on time is not the most important thing in the world.
• Gadjah Mada campus is MASSIVE!
• A good golden syrup replacement can be easily made with honey and palm sugar.
• How to play the djembe... kind of... ok not really, but I can a little bit.
• How to speak Javanese – again, kind of... but I plan to improve next semester!
• Batik making is much harder than it looks.
• There is a very good reason why durian is banned from hotels and public transport.
• I really don’t need that much stuff. I think it is important to have a few homey, comforting and familiar things around you, but I am definitely having a massive clean out when I get back to Australia.

 By the way, I decided to do this post in Times New Roman. Since all my assignments have been in this font all semester I feel weird writing in anything else at the moment!

Hope you're going fantastically. Enjoy your holidays (if you have them). And Happy Australia Day for next week (because knowing me it will be a while before I post anything, in particular because Emily arrives tomorrow!)

Sampai jumpa,

Katrina

Pengunjung-pengunjung

Since the start of October I have had a number of people visiting Yogya. It has been wonderful being able to show my friends and family around, where I live, where I study, as well as the amazing things that attract people to DIY (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta). With my Mum having arrived safely back in Australia last week, I can take my tour guide hat off, pack it in my bag and bring it out when my friends from Indonesia visit Australia.

It was lovely having my mum here for two weeks. We went to Borobudur, Mt Merapi (although it was cloudy so the volcano wasn’t actually visible), on a massive mystery walk up a very tall hill, the alun-alun (my favourite place to chill in Yogya), the kraton, Tamansari, a wayang performance, caught the train to Solo and went to Candi Cetho and Candi Sukuh. By far I think the highlight for both of us (other than spending time together) was drinking tea and eating sweet potato and banana whilst overlooking the tea plantation that our tea was grown in, nearby Candi Cetho. So yup, I think we did it all!

My Dad was the very first visitor that I had here. He came to visit for just a week, especially or my 21^st birthday. Within that time we squished in a lot, including Borobudur, Prambanan, Tamansari, seeing the Ramayana Ballet, Mt Merapi, trying to see the Sultan’s daughter’s wedding and my birthday party. It was really nice to be able to share my 21^st with really great friends and my Dad.

In between my parent’s visits there were a number of friends who came to Yogya, whether just stopping by for a couple of days or a couple of weeks. Lisa came late November, Laura in December, Sammi, Mel and Kelly in January, Emily in January-February and Suzie in February. Thanks to everyone who came, it was lovely seeing you all.

Dad and I at Prambanan

Visiting the alun-alun kidul with Lisa.

At the Kraton (Sultan's Palace) in Solo with Laura.

At the alun-alun kidul with Sammi and Mel (although I couldn't find a picture with Sammi too)... btw nice face Red...

Chillin' at Mt Merapi with Emily. Teal's boyfriend, Konrad, was also visiting for a bit before they both headed back to Oz.

At Borobudur with my Mum.

So if you happen to bump into someone who has visited Indonesia (not just Bali) ask them about it. You might just find out how wonderful it is and want to come yourself :)

Hope you're well, 

Salam dari Yogya, 

Katrina

Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru 2012!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Yes, I know I'm a bit late with that greeting, but I'm immersing myself in the Indonesian concept of jam karet (rubber time) ie: time is flexible and things will get done when they get done. I hope you are all enjoying your holidays, whether you are travelling somewhere or simply beating out the heat wherever you live. Just remember while you eat your yummy tossed salads and dips with bikkies that I am still at uni at the moment. Classes are all done (they finished two days before Christmas), but I still have assessments to hand in. I'm actually quite lucky that they're assignments/take home exams, which means that I can get them done whenever I want before the due date. It also means that I won't have sat an exam the entire time I was studying at UGM (except for my gamelan exam, but that was actually kind of fun). So as I procrastinate from finishing my hardest assignment, due tomorrow, I decided that updating my blog would be a good use of time.

Yesterday, I learnt how to use bluetooth. I have been called tech savvy because I can do things like rename folders and use 'print screen' to copy images, but the truth of the matter is that I'm really not. So figuring out how to get all the photos off my phone and onto my computer (as I'm pretty sure the data cable is still in Australia) was pretty darn exciting. 


So following are a jumble of photos from various occasions:

These are the tiles at a friend's kos, I really liked them because they look like broccoli soup! Yummo!

This is at Via Via, a restaurant found in various places around the world including the south of Jogja. The food was really nice, however I thought it was hilarious that fish and chips comes with french fries.

You can see Mt Merapi in the background of this photo, not particularly clear here, but on that day it was the clearest I had seen it in four months. This photo is taken at the northern edge of UGM campus.

Teal trying on a batik hoodie at the Sunday market near my campus.

Just an example of the English found on signs around Indonesia. Another example that I saw at Ngurah Rai Airport (Bali), where they are currently doing renovations/expanding: "We apologizes for the inconvenience".

This was taken way back in August during Ramadan. I thought it was a cool play on the words ngabuburit + bowling. Ngabuburit is the act of hanging our with friends, looking for food to break the fast at sunset.

This was taken at my first ever wayang performance. Wayang is a type of Indonesian theatre, the most well known is this style, known as wayang kulit because the shadow puppets are made of leather. Even though they are shadow puppets though they are beautifully decorated. The dalang (who is the puppeteer and voice performer who decides what will happen in the loosely planned plot) sits in the middle of the screen. All the other people on the stage make up the gamelan (kind of Indonesian percussion orchestra). 

There is a very, very, VERY good reason why durians warrant a ban from many places, including hotels. I think durians are a fruit that taste quite gross and smell horrible (however I realise that many Indonesians feel the same about Vegemite).

The Malioboro Mall was crammed full of people for a couple of kilometres, waiting to see the Sultan's daughter and her new husband on one of the days of the wedding. We stood in the hot and sweaty crowd for an hour and a half without seeing anything before deciding to got home. 

Check out the size of this snail!!!! It's massive! We were walking home after Javanese tutoring one day and were amazed at how massive it was!

Cute little smiley sun in my hot chocolate :)

Dede trying Vegemite...

Mas Rachmat (Java) and Swantje (Germany) trying Vegemite. Neither of them really liked it, Mas Rachmat is just pretending....

So there's just a few random things I've been up to the last 5 months. Now that I know how to get photos off my phone things will be so much easier! Hope you're going snazzily! 


Selamat Natal dan Tahun Baru 2012, 


Katrina