The Inherent Changeability of Things

Well if one thing is certain in this country, it is that nothing is certain. Plans made are about as likely to maintain their initial shape as a chunk of plasticine sitting on a hotplate.

Some examples ya?

Last week a bunch of us made plans to go to the Gili Islands- you might have seen a fleeting reference to this “plan” in one of the comments on an earlier post. It is Ben’s birthday (my friend who was sick last week) and so Alana, Lauren, Chris, Jenna, Claire and Daniel (a friend of Ben’s living in East Java) and myself decided it would be cool to visit a tropical paradise. Apparently this could be done quite cheaply (under $100 return flight and cheap accomodation) and arranged with ease. HA~~! I made some initial enquiries with Ibu Kos, who with fingers in many pies also happens to have an interest in a travel agent. She got quotes on Garuda flights that were about $60 return but we had to book them that day. But oh no. We waited one day because of indecision from the male members of our little group, and sure enough, there is a Hindu festival on, and those flights were miracle prices that we SHOULD HAVE BOOKED. So now, plans have changed, and we are going to a little island off Java. We’re apparently just getting the bus there and then chartering a boat to the island. But why am I even telling you? No doubt tomorrow the plasticine will have melted leaving a demented, contorted version of this “plan”. Sigh!

Another example. I sorted out my timetable for Uni approximately 2 weeks ago. I decided to take Japanese, and International Security Studies along with my four intensive language courses, Reading, Writing, Grammar and Vocabulary. Once more HA~~! A quirk of the Indonesian University system is a tendency for classes to be “kosong” that is, empty- or that is, the lecturer for whatever reason, fails to show up to class. This is particularly recurrent early in the Semester where the usual process is that the lecturer starts coming to class in about the third week, when a threshold level of attending students has been reached (who knows what percentage this is). Fortunately for me, my language courses are never kosong because the lecturers are very good. For SKI (Security) the first week was well organised, the second week was kosong, and for Japanese the first week was kosong. The second week for Japanese was today, and the dosen (lecturer) has on a whim decided to move the class to 9am which creates a clash for me that is only rectifiable if I give up one of my days off uni, which I am not prepared to do! ;-) So looks like Japanese is off the daftar and Translation is on. Dammit. Fortunately, I can probably still pick up a little Japanese here, as my personal tutor arranged by the Faculty is fluent in Jap and English as well as Indonesian and Javanese, and, some new Japanese students arrived this week who are really nice.

Anyways, returning to my point about er, what was it….plasticine- don’t ever come to Indo expecting to work with Plaster-of-Paris. Nu-uh. Plasticine all the way baby.

I have actually had a pretty average week this week- nothing too dramatic- but enough to make be a little infuriated with the inherent changeability of things. I have also had a couple of run-ins with idiotic Indonesians which has ticked me off- I had one girl who I met briefly when I was out one night, hang out with me for a while one afternoon, then proceed to inexplicably ask for a loan of a large sum of money, to which I replied in a very flustered fashion “no”. This is my no means typical, and to my knowledge I am the only ACICIS kid so far to have this happen this semester, but it leaves you with a decidedly sour taste.

I am writing this post on my laptop before heading to the warnet because I have been feeling really really tired. I can only attribute this bizarre bout of extreme fatigue to bad sleep, cause by the fact that I was out of my room for three nights this week for the reason previously explained. One of the girls in my kos is a Doctor and she checked all my vital signs- BP fine, HR fine, temp fine so she reckons it is probably sleep disturbance. Let’s hope so ya.

I just finished reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. Great book. Thanks Maude, if ur out there! And I also watched Brokeback Mountain last weekend- curious to hear ur opinions- I really liked it.

And before I go, I contemplated awhile about whether to write negative things about this place on my blog, given that Indonesia seems to receive so much bad press anyway. (Speaking of which, I hear another idiot has been caught with drugs in Lombok?) so please don’t use any of the above to vindicate your opinion that yes, Adelle is living in a hell-hole. Rather, think of this post like a shallow trough after a long time riding atop a wave. Thatsa what I’ma doin.

Oh and by the way, I have been here one month today lah.