New Blog

I have just created a new blog. As a part of my course for the semester I have to submit weekly e-journals on a given topic so thought i'd share online. www.iltiflote.blogspot.com

Memasak dan Nongkrong sama teman2 kos

I have now been in my new kos for over two weeks and as of yet haven't spent much time there. I thought that I would struggle a bit this semester for entertainment - i feel so far removed from the new ACICIS students (they're all experiencing Jogja for the first time) - but as it turns out I've been flat out but this week I decided it was time to chill out with the girls in my kos and start cooking. My mbak kos and teman kos love to cook and love trying new recipes especially western recipes.

We started off slow with pancakes, which I've cooked with them before (in the times of Katrina (kanganmu kat :( )) but as it turns out they wanted to cook again and alas what the wanted to cook was pizza. So, yesterday it was off to the supermarket to stock up on ingredients and cook pizza.

Well the whole experience was hilarious, with too sticky dough, gluten free crusts, lots of mess and an oven that is NOT what anyone in a western country would classify as an oven (it was a metal cabinet that sits on top of the hotplate). This meant that instead of taking 15-20 minutes to cook, it took well over an hour, but it did produce suprisingly good pizzas.

Next week I think the menu is nasi goreng, but i'm sure there'll be something else before then :)

Alex Unplugged

Today definitely marked a new chapter in my life. It was officially the first day I am the only Semester 31 student left in Jogja (although Sophie will be back next week); it was also the first day of study at Sadar (Universitas Sanata Dharma). I'm actually a little confused about the whole thing and feel like I have no-one to talk to about it. Ina is busy; Rifqy in Singapore, my Sem 31 buddies in Australia and due to a miscommunication the person I really want to talk to won't talk to me. There are others of course but I don't feel close enough to them to explain and I feel like people at home just don't understand. There's an air of sadness and aloneness for me but I feel hopeful and happy at the same time.


This journey has been life transforming and it's hard to explain the influence it has had on me to people on the outside. I obviously miss my friends from last semester, my friends from home and my family - I feel that they are/were my safety net - but it is strangely liberating to be in this on my own. I feel like I can do this and in many senses am free from the burdens of last semester (and subsequently the burdens of the last three years) - where marks have been everything and the pressure has been on to perform. Whilst, there's still pressure (I am here on a scholarship after all), it's now pressure I've put on myself to perform rather than pressure to pass or please people other than myself.

How to explain................ for starters I have made a concerted effort this semester to choose classes that no other bules are in (though it's hard and there is obviously a few compulsory classes we share). I want to branch out of my comfort zone (apparently moving to a third world country is not enough) and challenge myself as much as possible. I also feel unfulfilled with my language acquisition so far. I can easily hold my own in a conversation now and can communicate fairly effectively but it still isn't enough for me which is entirely my fault for not taking control of my language learning. I feel my language is still at a far lower level than I wanted to be at. So this semester is for that - achieving fluency (hopefully) - and immersing myself more in the culture (which means hanging out with Indonesian's and living like a local).


I'm also looking at this semester from the perspective of a future career now. I'm taking journalism language classes and multimedia classes because I can see myself pursuing something like that in the future (who knows). The idea of foreign correspondence continues to appeal to me so I figure I will absorb as much information as possible.

Already I've been trying to attend more cultural events, including going to concerts. I also want to try out pencak sila (an Indonesian martial art - thanks for the inspiration Kat and Yassie) and hope to take up Javanese or Balinese dance classes. I'm also considering doing a course in Indonesia ceremony etiquette and hope to do some work for an NGO, possibly teaching Children at a school set up for the needy.

What is apparent is that one chapter of my life has just closed and I'm anxious and excited to see where this new chapter takes me.

Jalan-Jalan di Desa Mangunan

Last Saturday was a hectic day of travel, touring, crazy farming adventures and off-road cycling. A couple of days ago Sina asked me to go on a promotion tour for Sheraton hotel where we would go to a village and participate in various activities and get dressed up as wayang kulit (unfortunately I couldn’t get dressed up as a wayang kulit but I’ll save it for another day). Being who I am I immediately said yes and hence why I ended up in Mangunan Village yesterday acting crazy. It was all completely set up for them to photograph and tape us but it turned into a fun, but long, day.

It all started at 8am yesterday where we got picked up and chauffeured to the Sheraton Hotel. There we got to indulge a bit in some Western Breakfast (for me this was fruit salad and yoghurt) before we were taken up to a room to get dressed up as wayang kulit. Unfortunately only two girls could be dressed up this time so I missed out but it was a laugh to watch - especially the boys who ended up wearing sarongs, make-up and weird fake ears.

We then preceeded to go to the village where I watched the dressed up people struggle to dance in their costumes and then go to a school where the boys were ask to play soccer with the kids. Meanwhile, I was sitting around being amused by all these happenings. 

After the school visit, a change of clothes and a quick snack we were lead across a river (we walked through it) to a field that we were to help plough and then plant with beras (rice). Well my insatiable need to get muddy (and boredom) meant I was the first volunteer to get muddy. So, there I was buried to my knees in mud leading a buffalo, in Javanese, through the field. Everyone who was game then had their turn and all of a sudden it was my turn again, this time i got to ride the plough......

After that we helped sew some rice in the field and it was off again to wash the buffalo. Well that didn't go over well with the rest of the bules and again I was to lead the pack in washing the buffalos. After growing bored, I decided it was time for someone else to do the work so may have started a bit of a war....oops.

After washing the buffalo we were hurried off to chase ducks in a waste deep pond of water. Not as fun as it sounds because we were blind folded and I felt stupid - especially since i managed to fall into the only deep part of the pond. Even stupider when I realised my spare closed did not include underwear so had to go without for the rest of the day. 

After that it started to rain so we had lunch and a bit of a rest whilst playing indonesian boardgames with the local kids.

Next it was off to another desa and cross-country cycling back - for me the best part of the day. Totally beat we returned home and fell asleep early.

Planting Rice

Washing the Cows

Chasing Ducks

Chasing Ducks

Wet Wet Wet

Indonesia’s Gossip Culture

I love living here in Indonesia, experiencing the Indonesia way of life and basically learning something new about myself every day. But there are definitely negatives. You leave all your long term friends behind in Australia or elsewhere in the world and are forced to make new friends – not a bad thing in itself. But you also become subject to Indonesia’s gossip culture. Indonesia is all about gossip. Everyone in the neighborhood knows your life story. Even if you have only told you Ibu Kost or one or two close friends something it will get out – that’s just life here.

And in many senses this is not a negative thing. It made it particularly easy when I first got here and told someone my story because I didn’t have to explain it over and over to everyone. This gossip is particularly highlighted amongst the pembantu’s and Ibu’s. The go to the market or the local street seller every morning to buy their food supplies for the day and exchange stories of the previous day. In this sense the gossip culture can be seen as a sign of bonding in your neighborhood, however, it’s not until recently I have seen the adverse effects of this gossip culture myself.

Having become a pawn in a friends gossiping game, I have recently been informed some of the things that have been said about me behind my back by someone I would have considered a friend. Thus, this revealed the negative side of the gossiping culture to me. Like anywhere in the world gossiping paves the path to backstabbing, deceit and bullying. The fact that stories you have told someone in confidence (or outright lies in some cases) have been making the rounds about you is not a pleasant thing to find out. It often feels like a breach of privacy and leaves one feeling betrayed – or at least that’s how I feel at the moment.

The fact that someone will use your story to progress their social standing amongst your peers and colleagues I feel is an abuse of trust and one that really leads you to question the person you are, the person you want to become, who you can trust, who you can’t and in essence who your real friends are. This has been this week’s revelation and the results have been surprising. People I’ve considered close friends, may not be as good a friends as I thought, and friendships I’ve neglected have come out to be the strongest friendships I’ve formed here. The realization of this means that in the future I will approach life here in a different light. I will no longer dismiss certain people because I’ve been told they’re using me as a bule, but get to know them face to face and then decide because in fact at the end of the day the people spreading these rumours are probably the ones I should be avoiding.

Lesson Learned Again!

Bulan Januari and the rest…….

Well January has flown by. It’s been a combination of fantastic, great, good, lumayan and terrible. Tensions have been running high as the stress and upset of people returning home has hit. The month started of great with an air of festivity; a bunch of anak ACICIS and new friends seeing in the New Year at the beach in Seminyak.  It was really something special standing on the beach in the warm tropical rain seeing in the New Year with friends from all over the world. Unfortunately, this also marked a bittersweet end. The end of ACICIS Semester 31 and the returning home of my fellow ACICIS students.  Everyone was going home either in January or February and it marked a change to the Jogja I know and love.

After returning home from Bali I said goodbye to several of my friends and then I myself went home for ten days (plus two nights staying at the airport and a quick night stop over in Bali). Going home was so strange. After six months abroad the whole experience was surreal and really strange. My ten days at home were far from relaxing and visiting Albany with to 80+ year olds one who was sick really didn’t help. I think I experienced reverse culture shock in a big way. Why there are definitely parts of Australia I miss (namely my friends and family) I feel that life in Australia is too sanitary and stagnant. I felt like no-one truly understood what I’d gone through and found that my friends and family were still in the same place they were 6 months ago. I don’t know exactly how to express how I felt in Australia and I’m sure it’s only because in the last 6 months I’ve done so much.

 Needless to say I was glad to get back to Jogja after 10 days of craziness and hectic-ness (not that it's been relaxing since). After a night stopover in Bali and picking up Koko who was coming to Jogja there was a sigh of relief when I finally touched down. As it was Steph and Katrina's last week in Jogja we decided to do what we hadn't done during the semester which turned out to be a lot. So after returning on Tuesday, it was a quick swap of clothes, repack of my backpack and straight off to Solo for the night. Solo, like the books says, is a sleepy version of Jogja. Being only an hour train ride away it had many of the same characteristics as Jogja but there was just something not quite right. Maybe it just seemed to quiet but I've definately become a Jogja Snob. We went to Kraton, the Antique Market and to the mall (because it was raining) to watch a movie - some crazy Indonesian horror movie about who knows what :(. This was all fine but nothing to special, though we did manage to find some nice vegetarian food at Warung Baru. 

The next day was another jam packed day of sightseeing as we headed to Gunung Lawu and to Candi Ceto and Candi Sukuh (some Hindu temples near the mountain). We then headed to a regional tourist haunt, Sarangan, on the advise from our driver, where we got accosted by hawkers trying to sell their wares to us bules. As foreigners living in Indonesia this is a regular annoyance we’ve become accustomed to. Next it was to the UNESCO Museum where the Java Man was found. This museum although UNESCO listed wasn’t particularly well curated and due to extensive renovations we only could see two displace rooms and only replicas of relics found. At five we took the train back to Jogja, went home and showered and then headed to Coffee Break to plan our assault on Dieng Plateau the next day.

Getting up at 5.15 the next day was a struggle; after three particularly early mornings dragging myself out of bed was the last thing I wanted to do. We then drove the particularly windy roads to Wonosobo where we ate Mie Ongklok, the areas specialty dish. We then continued on our path to Dieng Plateau – up the mountains and through the beautiful scenery. Dieng Plateau is amazing although due to the kawah sikidang (hot sulfur crater) the smell is rather pungent. Our first stop at Dieng Plateau was Arjuna Temple Complex, where we got accosted by a middle school for about a million photos (sometimes I hate being white). The temples were interesting to look at but in the end nothing particularly special. I think being hounded by a bunch of middle school girls, followed by their teachers and then the school girls again put a damper on our spirits. Next it was to the pungent kawah sikidang – it stunk so much but it was worth seeing. The hot bubbling sulfur in the crater makes you appreciate nature so much more. The fact that nature can produce such things is amazing and makes you realise that humans really are only a small fraction of what exists in nature. We followed this by a trip to the beautiful Telaga Pengilon.  By this point we were all a bit exhausted, the weather was getting worse so we decide it was time to pull the pin and go home.

We started the three hour drive home which was hampered only by the hour long traffic jam at a village that had been destroyed by cold lava at the base of Gunung Merapi. This sight has now become a tourist sight which seems rather insensitive as many of the people here have lost their houses, businesses and thus their livelihoods. Boulders taller than me and wider than my height had been swept down the mountain in a mud-slide wiping out anything in its path. It’s rather unimaginable and there we were right in the middle of it.

After getting back, mandi and having a bit of a rest we headed off to Coffee Break to watch Katrina, Yasmin and the rest of the Jogaroos perform and promote their album they recorded a few months ago. After hearing the recorded versions of the songs and several live renditions where equipment has gone wrong (microphones not working, not being turned on loud enough or the guitar being too loud) it was fantastic to finally see a performance where everyone could be heard and that sounded fantastic. Katrina’s sometimes excessive commentary (you know I love you Kat) added more festivity to the occasion. I called it fairly early that night as I was fairly tired and went home to sleep as we were taking Koko to Prambanan the following day.

The elusive Prambanan (elusive in the sense I’ve been in Jogja for over 6 months now and every time I’ve had the time to go there something else has come up) happened on the Friday before Katrina and Steph left. As Katrina has been there 3 times already she provided us her free tour guide service and guided us through these ancient Hindu temples. They truly are amazing pieces of architecture and it’s unfortunate that every time there’s a big earthquake in Jogja (which happens fairly often) Prambanan is damaged. Having some background on the building it was great to finally explore these temples and see why they have become a UNESCO listed sight.

After Prambanan we went to Ratu Boko, the ruins of another temple area about a 15 minute complementary car ride away. Whilst the landscape was certainly beautiful here, we were all so tired and hungry it would have been best to leave it for another day. So we jumped on a bus back to Amplaz then took a taxi to Pondok Cabe and enjoyed a deliciously spicy vegetarian lunch. YUM! We then continued down to Malioboro, back to Katrina’s kos and then back down south to ViaVia where we were meant to have dinner (it was a bit of a disaster with too many people coming but it all worked out in the end J). It marked the end of Steph and Katrina’s 6 month journey in Indonesia and I already miss them terribly after less than a week.

The adventures we shared, the good times and the bad, the highs and the lows and Merapi we will all always remember. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you.

Destroyed by Merapi

These are some pictures of a town completely destroyed in the aftermath of Merapi's devastating eruption. The town was completely engulfed when a landslide, caused by rain, brought cold lava down the mountain (and rocks, sand and boulders along with it).

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Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is the hardest part of a semester abroad. You don't just make friends but you make a worldwide family. Everything you do, every challenge you face, you face it together. Yesterday I had to say goodbye to Katrina and Steph and it's one of the hardest things I've had to do. It was like losing my sisters and my best friends all rolled into one. So far I've managed to avoid the goodbye scene due to a fortunately/ unfortunately??? timed trip to Australia. I missed saying goodbye to Timmy, Matty and Joel so tears had been avoided but yesterday the waterworks started as I mourn the departure of my friends and new found family.

Goodbye to everyone who made ACICIS Semester 31 so special, to my friends in Europe, Australia and in various parts of Australia thanks for the lifetime of memories. I love you and miss you all already.

Semoga sukses
Selamat Jalan
xx

Also, Katrina remember Pagaralam sisters for life :)
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