Curiouser and Curiouser

Well I have been less than diligent with my blog lately, excepting the photo purge last week. I will try to rectify the situation a little right now.

It’s been a rather strange week. I spent the first part of the week, virtually four full days after I got back from KL, stuck in my kos, sick with flu and some weird fever thing. Took me a while to shake it, but I am on track again now. I rehearsed on Monday and Tuesday night with the ACICIS band that was playing at the closing of the soccer tournament on Wednesday. We practiced in a studio that cost a dollar an hour to rent. So much fun.

Anyway, we performed on Wednesday night. Much to my dismay I had to sing 2 songs in Indonesian as well as Holy Grail by Hunters and Collectors which was of course, far easier. It was all done on a very dodgy PA and I am sure sounded like rubbish, despite the polite support of the watchers! I had a great time, and we are going to start jamming every Monday night. All for fun. I am constantly amazed by the out-of-the-ordinary opportunities that are available to all of us. It’s really up to us how prepared we are to risk looking stupid as to how involved we get in this sort of stuff!

I had more progress tests this week, or as several people call them, regress tests! I think I went ok, but as I have said many times on here, my grades are not a huge concern as long as I pass……

Um, what else? Next week I have made plans with a few ppl to go and climb Mount Bromo in East Java and watch the sunrise. I will then be able to say that I have been to West, Central and East Java which is pretty cool…….

I went to the brand new Cinema in Yogya the other day with Alana, Ben and Sofie and watched Ice Age 2. I strongly protested having to watch a cartoon because I normally don’t like them, but it turned out to be very funny. The cinema costs the equivalent of only $3 so it’s a nice air-conditioned escape from the busy streets of Yogya with the cleanest toilets I have seen here, except for the one’s in that Jakarta nightclub!

Oh and I went to fashion parade last night which featured my friend Esther from ACICIS as a guest model, and five other top indo catwalkers, modelling gorgeous Indonesian style clothes with a modern twist- there were some absolutely gorgeous clothes and Alana and I are looking into ordering something. Some of the fabric was the most beautiful I have seen here. Esther, of course, was gorgeous too.

Tonight I am going with Agnes to a wedding ceremony. I have asked numerous times whether I am invited, to which the answer seems to be “no”, but apparently it is good luck here to have as many people at your wedding as possible, so I am actually doing them a favour by going as opposed to the other way around! Anyway, all of my clothes are entirely inappropriate so I am going to have to hope that they make some dress code exceptions for the white girl……..

Aside from all that humdrum stuff, many of you may not know that I am actually living at the foot of an active volcano (30Km away anyway). The topography between Yogya and Gunung Merapi, as the volcano is known, is such that Yogya is more or less protected from everything except the ash that will eventually spew forth. When we first arrived here, it was on a pretty high warning level, maybe two levels from the top. But about 2 weeks ago the threat took a “naik” that is a jump, to the top level. This essentially means that it is only a matter of time before an eruption. However, we have now been waiting so long for it to blow that it’s going to probably be a bit of a let-down when it actually happens. Between terrorism, bird flu, active volcano’s and diplomatic disagreements it is surprising that I manage to live such a peaceful life here really.

Oh and just quickly, wanted to say thanks for the parcels that I got the other day, one from my family and one from Lauren. So nice to get stuff in the mail! Especially with such desperately needed contents!!!!! Oh, and the Bonsai Potato kit from Lauren deserves an extraspecial mention, although I am yet to find a potato suitable to take up the challenge of being cultivated in the Bonsai style. I shall continue searching……….