Well, it is the moment that you have all been waiting for- Part 2 of hum drum life in Yogya.
Where was I- that’s right, I have just arrived at Uni after suicide busride.
Moving along: I am not sure whether I posted on here the fact that I am in the advanced class for my language subjects. We sat a placement test here in the first week, and despite my abysmal performance (or so I thought) they stuck me in the Lanjut/Advanced class with all the people who have been studying the language much longer than I. The consequence of this is that I feel like I often make a fool of myself in class, and/or leave class feeling more confused than when I arrived. That said, I really enjoy my language classes.
I take Membaca (Reading), Menulis (Writing), Terjemahan (Translation), Kosa Kata (Vocabulary) and Tata Bahasa (Grammar). Classes are two hours long, with a 10 minute break just before the hour where all the INCULS students gather at the coffee room and discuss the gossip. There is usually plenty. It’s one of the consequences of being involved in a small community of ex-pats- everyone knows everyone else’s business.
Anyway, the classes. My current favourite is Menulis with Pak Rudi. He enjoys using me as an example in class. The consequence of this is that when I am falling asleep, I am jerked awake by the sound of my name being used in a sentence. Pak Rudi is very animated, and I am sure even an observer with no Indonesian ability would enjoy his overblown demonstrations of concepts, which become increasingly large the more blank the collective expression of the class.
My second favourite is Kosa Kata in which my vocabulary of both useful and useless words is being commensurately increased. (Just briefly, I am a bit of a fan of the word commensurate, but my current favourite English word is catatonic, because it is an apt description of my default mental state in this country!) An example of a useful word that I have learned is : terpinggirkan (marginalized) and example of a useless (low frequency) word is mempesona (a verb meaning “to enchant”).
So that is a brief summary of my INCULS classes.
Perhaps more interesting is my experience in my Immersion class “International Security Studies”. There are two lecturers for this subject- one who I can understand about 80% and one who I can not understand at all, largely because he likes to mix Javanese and Indonesian language in the way that only the Javanese can. We had a test in this class on Tuesday, which caused me to feel physically ill for a time until someone told me that no matter how badly or well u do in your immersion classes, as a foreigner the rule is “B for Bule” or in other words B for foreigner. So that was a load off.
Anyway, this particular test was based on some readings in English on the basic definition of security. One of these articles in particular was bloody difficult- I read it three times, and that was how many times it took for me to have a clear picture of what the author was trying to say. And English is my first language. So I felt very sorry for my Indonesian peers. 90% of Australia would not understand that article.
The structure of the test was as follows; the dosen wrote a question on the bored and then yelled “dua minut saja” or something, which meant “2 minutes only”. I then had to scrawl an answer in Indonesian to a question about which I seriously doubted my understanding. Anyway, we will see if the B for Bule theory holds up next week.
OK, so that’s my classes. However, I may have mislead you somewhat to this point, as to suggest that I have class every day would be wrong, in fact it would be a total lie. I have Monday’s and Friday’s off, one class on Tuesday and then 2 and 3 classes on Wednesday and Thursday.
One other regular study related activity is meetings with my tutor ReRe. INCULS allocates us with a tutor and by ACICIS rules we have to meet them 6 times. ReRe is an absolute champion so I have already met with her maybe 4 times and we are only 25% through the semester. Anyway, ReRe and I go through my Indo homework and usually knock off the tough stuff in the two hour meeting that we have, leaving me with the relatively simple remainder to complete. ReRe is fluent in 4 languages (Indo, Javanese, English and Japanese) and was originally allocated to me because I was going to be learning Japanese, but since that fell through (grrr) now we just do my homework and hang out.
Now, with study out of the way. What do I do with my weekends, spare weekdays and weekday evenings?
After my activities on campus are finished, I pulang (go home). I mandi (of course) and then I turn off all the lights in my room, shut the curtains and try to istirahat (rest). Sometimes this is like the impossible dream. If the Kos Family kids have just come home from school, I have no hope because they are running around, playing with their toys and squealing as kids do. Othertimes I can’t nap because of overconsumption of a) caffeine or b) sugar. Or, because I am trying to work out when, if ever, I am going to use a word like mempesona, and whether it is worth remembering. By the time my thought process has moved that far, it is usually burned into my long-term memory.
After my often futile attempt to sleep, I wake up (or not) and realize that it is time to head out on the nightly trek for food. One probably negative side effect of the low cost of food here, is that there is no incentive to cook for yourself. There is a kitchen at the kos, fully equipped, but I usually limit my time in there to the preparation of 2 Minute Noodles and 3 in 1 Coffee (sorry, yet to find easy to prepare replacement). Why would I bother buying ingredients, preparing them and cooking them and then washing up, when I can eat a complete meal for $1-$2 usually including a drink (hot lemon tea is my current favourite warung beverage). Anyway, I have a few favourite food spots.
1) Lesehan Wida- this is 30 seconds from the kos and is a permanent warung (as opposed to the thousands that are set up on the side of the road every night). My favourite dishes there are the Ayam Bakar (roast chicken) served with rice and cucumber and consumed without cutlery (actually- no cutlery is de rigeur in these kind of places) and all of the Noodle Dishes.
2) Hollywood Warung – fried chicken, or tofu or tempe, rice and veg. for 5000 rupiah – or about 75 cents. This is a sitting on the side of the road on mats, eating with your hands type restaurant. This is warung of choice when I am bankrupt.
3) Silla- this is upmarket for Yogya- and serves Korean and Japanese food in a Hyatt type atmosphere and in traditional Japanese style with the sunken floors. I ate delicious sukiyaki with unsweetened *hallelujah* green tea here for under $5. Worth every rupiah.
4) Ananda – this is about 2 minutes from my Kos and serves a mix of Chinese, Indo food. The only downside is that you often get smoked out by the dudes at the front roasting the fish on an open grill thingy.
5) Top Java – more of a lunch time establishment for me as it is far from my house but close to Uni. It is a self-service “as you can” type place with a variety of delicious food. I went there the other day to load up on red meat after I decided that I was anemic. It cost 9000 rupiah including lemon tea. Cheap.
Anyway, that’s some of my regular food sources. But I can once again sense your fatigue, so I am going to cut this post once more and continue at a later time, with such topics as the art of nongkrong, ngopi and clubbing.
But as an addendum- I am not officially a temporary resident of Indonesia! I got my KITAS visa last week which means that I can now get a motorbike license, open a bank account and get into the various monuments, temples and other attractions at an Indo price rather than a US dollars price. Yay!
PS Continue to share the blog love people- I am going to start naming the names of my regular readers who don’t comment, and shame you into participation. So ner.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Samsons Concert Last Night
The live music scene in this city is amazing and there is ALWAYS something going on. In contrast to my crazy Goodnight Electric experience a few weeks back, Samsons are a relatively new, teen soft rock band. Admissions was 40thou ($6) at a club not unlike Heaven, and there were plenty of ABG's or teenagers packing the place out! That said, it was a decent show, that is until the final song (one of 2 that I knew), during which Ben's wallet got pinched from his back pocket, along with a heap of money and Wawan's motorbike registration (big problem- he has to go to Lombok to replace it cos he bought the bike there). So that sucked. But anyways- that's Indonesia.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
da desk
returning to the theme of photo's from "my room"- here is my desk. other riveting pictures can be viewed on the photo stream so do it y'all.
Hyatt Santai
Esther and I santai by the side of the pool at the Hyatt. Highly recommended for all you people who AREN'T coming to visit me. :-)
Cool Rumah Makan/ Restaurant
in lieu of any trip away AT all this weekend, instead, i went swimming at the Hyatt Yogya yesterday with chums, and today went with Wan, Ben, Tante (the aunty!) Om and the babies (and nanny) to lunch at this place- I think the name is Mangengking (or sumthin). Anyways, it was almost a good enough weekend to replace white sand beaches, but not quite!
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Hum-Drum Routine is Happiness on Stick with Sugar on Top
Well after being here over 5 weeks (5 weeks argh- time has actually grown wings and is flapping wildly in my face before flying by) I can proudly say that I have settled into some sort of a groove, and have, shock, a routine (!) which is becoming relatively consistent. I honestly never thought it would happen so I feel compelled to share. Hum-drum it is then.
So usually I wake up, somewhere between the hours of 6.30 and 9. Usually closer to 9. Depending on the mood of my fellow kos girls, I might wake up to hear someone shrieking at the top of her lungs across the kos, someone revving their motor bike for half an hour (usually after it has rained overnight) or someone inconsiderately blasting their stereo for all to hear. More recently, there has been someone staying in the house (quite possibly a relation of Ibu Kos) who enjoys playing the piano, about 5 metres from the door to my room, at indecently early hours. His saving grace is that he is a rather accomplished musician. At least, this is what I tell myself when I am laying in my bed, counting to 10, wishing I was still asleep and wondering how I am going to conceal the bags under my eyes when my MAC concealer runs out……!
Oh, and occasionally I wake up to hear the rare and precious sound of nothing. Occasionally.
After crawling out from under my sarong (that’s what I sleep under) I grab my coffee cup (tall, yellow, plastic) and a sachet of Nescafe 3 in 1 (sugar, milk, coffee) and go to the communal kitchen. I make my coffee. I say hello to Yuti, who is one of the Pembantu’s/house-help here. I grab a bowl and spoon from the rack and return to my room to eat cereal of some description. Of course, this is Indonesia, so that description usually includes obscene amounts of sugar. Often I eat out in the sitting area, where Ibu Kos has a daily warung/food stall. If I eat that food for breakfast I will usually consume white rice, some sort of vegetable dish, and a fish or chicken disk. If it is fish it is usually whole- like a sardine or something. Its’ eye stares up at you from the plate. You get used to it.
The other morning I also tried something new for breakfast, bubur hijau, green porridge- it is a runny green porridge with coconut. And at 1500 rupiah, what a steal. Enak sekali. Delicious. Only thing is I have to walk down and eat it in the warung down the road. So while that in itself is no problem, it has interrupted the flow of my current treatise on daily life….
After that I mandi in my kamar mandi. The psychology of mandi-ing is fascinating to me, and worthy of an entire post at a later date. Indonesian’s take their bathing very seriously. Often in my kos “belum mandi” is used as a conversation starter. It means, “you haven’t had a mandi yet?”. Sometimes I feel like retorting with a smart-alec comment in English. Not sure how much satisfaction I could derive from it though, when most of the kos girls wouldn’t uinderstand. I am developing a minor paranoia that I have a permanent appearance of being dirty. This is despite the fact that I mandi three times a day.
Anyway, terus, moving on- after brekkie and mandi I think about what I am going to wear, whether it has come back from being washed, hope that I have a clean collared shirt to wear to Uni (that is a non-negotiable- same with wearing rubber thongs- no-go on kampus), throw my various books into my bag and walk out to Jakal (the big road) and get a bus.
It may or may not surprise you to hear that Yogya buses are the polar opposite of for example, O-Bahn buses in Adelaide. To begin with you can catch them from anywhere, there are no bus-stops. You just stand on the side of the road and then as a bus approaches, you edge your way into the traffic. The reason you do this is that the bus doesn’t stop, it just slows down. You have to be adept enough to board the bus while it is still in motion. This is challenging. You then sit down in a seat close to the bus-driver- this is for safety and for avoiding pick-pockets. You then hold on for dear life.
I am not 100% clear on the go with the bus system, but it goes something like this. Buses follow a set loop, and do not follow a timetable. They have to make a certain amount in fares before they get back to the depot. “How do they do this?”, I hear you asking. Well, they do it by driving like psychopaths and overtaking other buses at high speed to attempt to collect the fares that lie ahead, that is, poach them from their fellow buses. In Yogya, if you are catching a bus, where possible avoid catching the second in two consecutive buses that are less than 100m apart. My rudimentary calculations have shown me that your chances of dying on the bus increase 10 fold if you catch the second bus. The ride on that bus may or may not involve driving at 80km/hr into oncoming traffic and indeed, other buses.
You may be fortunate/unfortunate enough to be serenaded by a Pengamen whilst aboard the bus. These are the buskers who scratch together a living by playing Top 40 Indo Soft Rock. Often they are very good, in fact the other day I had an excellent one. Other times you want to pay them to shut up. It is hit and miss. In addition to this, I once caught a bus that played techno music all the way to uni. I am yet to catch that bus again. It was much cleaner than the average Yogya bus, which I doubt have been cleaned since their manufacture in 1963.
Techno bus, where are you? I know I can wear white, board you, and end my journey without marks on my shirt……..
Anyway, then I get to Uni after about 5 or 10 minutes. The time frame depends on the extent of the driver’s borderline personality disorder and how strong his penchant for collecting fares at any cost. I leave the bus, trying not to get hit by a passing motorbike or fall flat on my backside after slipping down the stairs. I walk about 300m to INCULS for my classes, grab another coffee from the coffee room, find my buddies and go to class.
Now I think I might have to do installment 2 of this story at a later date as I know that the psychology of many of you will be “oh it’s too long I am not reading it!” So in anticipation of your laziness, I will end here.
However before I go, for your amusement, let me tell you a funny story.
I Did Something Funny on Thursday. A couple of my male friends had modeling photo’s taken here a few weeks back, and I happened to meet their ahem “agent” at dinner 2 weeks ago. He gave me his card and asked if I would be interested in doing modeling. He liked my hair and “proportionate” figure (it sounds a bit euphemistic no?). I pretty much laughed in his face and explained that the notion of me being a model in Australia is not only preposterous but wholly unrealistic as well and no, under no circumstances was I interested. I thought I had done enough to repel him.
Not so. He rang me 3 days later, insistent that he wanted to show me his portfolio and tee up an appointment. I dragged Alana along, and happened to rope in Esther and Zoe too. And to cut a long story short, we had a three hour studio photo session on Thursday night. We selected our photo’s for retouching and portfolio and pick up the finished product next Monday. The ironic thing in all this is that we can’t be paid for our work here because of our visa conditions, so it is all for a laugh. But our photo’s turned out really well, and if nothing else we have them. But Berend (agent dude) seems to think we are going to be asked to do jobs as SPG’s- special presenter girls (or something).
Anyway, many of you would be well aware how seriously I take myself when it comes to things like this, and how hilarious I find it all. But nonetheless, I thought what the hell, had a crack, and had a great time. So stay tuned for my profesh photo’slah.
So usually I wake up, somewhere between the hours of 6.30 and 9. Usually closer to 9. Depending on the mood of my fellow kos girls, I might wake up to hear someone shrieking at the top of her lungs across the kos, someone revving their motor bike for half an hour (usually after it has rained overnight) or someone inconsiderately blasting their stereo for all to hear. More recently, there has been someone staying in the house (quite possibly a relation of Ibu Kos) who enjoys playing the piano, about 5 metres from the door to my room, at indecently early hours. His saving grace is that he is a rather accomplished musician. At least, this is what I tell myself when I am laying in my bed, counting to 10, wishing I was still asleep and wondering how I am going to conceal the bags under my eyes when my MAC concealer runs out……!
Oh, and occasionally I wake up to hear the rare and precious sound of nothing. Occasionally.
After crawling out from under my sarong (that’s what I sleep under) I grab my coffee cup (tall, yellow, plastic) and a sachet of Nescafe 3 in 1 (sugar, milk, coffee) and go to the communal kitchen. I make my coffee. I say hello to Yuti, who is one of the Pembantu’s/house-help here. I grab a bowl and spoon from the rack and return to my room to eat cereal of some description. Of course, this is Indonesia, so that description usually includes obscene amounts of sugar. Often I eat out in the sitting area, where Ibu Kos has a daily warung/food stall. If I eat that food for breakfast I will usually consume white rice, some sort of vegetable dish, and a fish or chicken disk. If it is fish it is usually whole- like a sardine or something. Its’ eye stares up at you from the plate. You get used to it.
The other morning I also tried something new for breakfast, bubur hijau, green porridge- it is a runny green porridge with coconut. And at 1500 rupiah, what a steal. Enak sekali. Delicious. Only thing is I have to walk down and eat it in the warung down the road. So while that in itself is no problem, it has interrupted the flow of my current treatise on daily life….
After that I mandi in my kamar mandi. The psychology of mandi-ing is fascinating to me, and worthy of an entire post at a later date. Indonesian’s take their bathing very seriously. Often in my kos “belum mandi” is used as a conversation starter. It means, “you haven’t had a mandi yet?”. Sometimes I feel like retorting with a smart-alec comment in English. Not sure how much satisfaction I could derive from it though, when most of the kos girls wouldn’t uinderstand. I am developing a minor paranoia that I have a permanent appearance of being dirty. This is despite the fact that I mandi three times a day.
Anyway, terus, moving on- after brekkie and mandi I think about what I am going to wear, whether it has come back from being washed, hope that I have a clean collared shirt to wear to Uni (that is a non-negotiable- same with wearing rubber thongs- no-go on kampus), throw my various books into my bag and walk out to Jakal (the big road) and get a bus.
It may or may not surprise you to hear that Yogya buses are the polar opposite of for example, O-Bahn buses in Adelaide. To begin with you can catch them from anywhere, there are no bus-stops. You just stand on the side of the road and then as a bus approaches, you edge your way into the traffic. The reason you do this is that the bus doesn’t stop, it just slows down. You have to be adept enough to board the bus while it is still in motion. This is challenging. You then sit down in a seat close to the bus-driver- this is for safety and for avoiding pick-pockets. You then hold on for dear life.
I am not 100% clear on the go with the bus system, but it goes something like this. Buses follow a set loop, and do not follow a timetable. They have to make a certain amount in fares before they get back to the depot. “How do they do this?”, I hear you asking. Well, they do it by driving like psychopaths and overtaking other buses at high speed to attempt to collect the fares that lie ahead, that is, poach them from their fellow buses. In Yogya, if you are catching a bus, where possible avoid catching the second in two consecutive buses that are less than 100m apart. My rudimentary calculations have shown me that your chances of dying on the bus increase 10 fold if you catch the second bus. The ride on that bus may or may not involve driving at 80km/hr into oncoming traffic and indeed, other buses.
You may be fortunate/unfortunate enough to be serenaded by a Pengamen whilst aboard the bus. These are the buskers who scratch together a living by playing Top 40 Indo Soft Rock. Often they are very good, in fact the other day I had an excellent one. Other times you want to pay them to shut up. It is hit and miss. In addition to this, I once caught a bus that played techno music all the way to uni. I am yet to catch that bus again. It was much cleaner than the average Yogya bus, which I doubt have been cleaned since their manufacture in 1963.
Techno bus, where are you? I know I can wear white, board you, and end my journey without marks on my shirt……..
Anyway, then I get to Uni after about 5 or 10 minutes. The time frame depends on the extent of the driver’s borderline personality disorder and how strong his penchant for collecting fares at any cost. I leave the bus, trying not to get hit by a passing motorbike or fall flat on my backside after slipping down the stairs. I walk about 300m to INCULS for my classes, grab another coffee from the coffee room, find my buddies and go to class.
Now I think I might have to do installment 2 of this story at a later date as I know that the psychology of many of you will be “oh it’s too long I am not reading it!” So in anticipation of your laziness, I will end here.
However before I go, for your amusement, let me tell you a funny story.
I Did Something Funny on Thursday. A couple of my male friends had modeling photo’s taken here a few weeks back, and I happened to meet their ahem “agent” at dinner 2 weeks ago. He gave me his card and asked if I would be interested in doing modeling. He liked my hair and “proportionate” figure (it sounds a bit euphemistic no?). I pretty much laughed in his face and explained that the notion of me being a model in Australia is not only preposterous but wholly unrealistic as well and no, under no circumstances was I interested. I thought I had done enough to repel him.
Not so. He rang me 3 days later, insistent that he wanted to show me his portfolio and tee up an appointment. I dragged Alana along, and happened to rope in Esther and Zoe too. And to cut a long story short, we had a three hour studio photo session on Thursday night. We selected our photo’s for retouching and portfolio and pick up the finished product next Monday. The ironic thing in all this is that we can’t be paid for our work here because of our visa conditions, so it is all for a laugh. But our photo’s turned out really well, and if nothing else we have them. But Berend (agent dude) seems to think we are going to be asked to do jobs as SPG’s- special presenter girls (or something).
Anyway, many of you would be well aware how seriously I take myself when it comes to things like this, and how hilarious I find it all. But nonetheless, I thought what the hell, had a crack, and had a great time. So stay tuned for my profesh photo’slah.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
My Bed
This is the first in a series of foto's of my room in the kos! My traditional Javanese, wobbly, four-poster, dodgy mattressed and rather comfortable bed! I love it, and it serves as a couch too. The long pillow along the back of the bead head is an indo thing that u are meant to wrap urslef around to facilitate circulation of air etc. I just like it as a head rest m'self, but whatever. PS added some more photo's to the photo stream so just hit the link on the left of the page and check em out. And PS GIVE ME SOME LOVE ON THE BLOG PEOPLE- WHERE ARE UR COMMENTS???!!
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Santai Aja! (Just Relax!)
Yo yo yo.
Well as I predicted I have bounced back and am once again atop the wave. Explicable how? I went out to a concert last night organised by the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta and found a new love- a band called Goodnight Electric. Funky synth pop, quite 80's, uplifting and very cool. The Indo's go off to it!
That wound up at 11pm and we headed out to a club TJ's with all the Japanese and Korean students from INCULS (the faculty for foreign students where i mainly study at Uni) and partied to the sounds of one of Indo's best DJ's who also happens to be the star of a very famous Indo film called Mengejar Matahari (or chasing the sun). He is ganteng dong! (You can look that one up yourself on a translator!!!) His name is Winky Wiryawan and he was fantastic. It seems like an unusual combo no? Film star and DJ. It works for him anyway!
Anyway, I slept until 2pm (I can hardly believe it)and was awoken only by Lisa at 10am who delivered me a plate of cheese toasties and a brew because she wanted to use the bread before it went stale. What a legend! Enak sekali. So I slept 10 hours, and am here with a few hours to kill before Wawan comes to get me on his bike and we naik motobike to Tropis!
We have also sorted out our weekend to secret island. Its costing about $110 for transport and accom. and we are staying in a 4 star hotel! Yay! Hopefully we can avoid violent storms and torrential rain long enough to enjoy some sunbaking!
Anyways, thats all from me for now. Just wanted to let u know not to worry cos all is
beres (sorted!).
Sampai nanti!
Well as I predicted I have bounced back and am once again atop the wave. Explicable how? I went out to a concert last night organised by the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta and found a new love- a band called Goodnight Electric. Funky synth pop, quite 80's, uplifting and very cool. The Indo's go off to it!
That wound up at 11pm and we headed out to a club TJ's with all the Japanese and Korean students from INCULS (the faculty for foreign students where i mainly study at Uni) and partied to the sounds of one of Indo's best DJ's who also happens to be the star of a very famous Indo film called Mengejar Matahari (or chasing the sun). He is ganteng dong! (You can look that one up yourself on a translator!!!) His name is Winky Wiryawan and he was fantastic. It seems like an unusual combo no? Film star and DJ. It works for him anyway!
Anyway, I slept until 2pm (I can hardly believe it)and was awoken only by Lisa at 10am who delivered me a plate of cheese toasties and a brew because she wanted to use the bread before it went stale. What a legend! Enak sekali. So I slept 10 hours, and am here with a few hours to kill before Wawan comes to get me on his bike and we naik motobike to Tropis!
We have also sorted out our weekend to secret island. Its costing about $110 for transport and accom. and we are staying in a 4 star hotel! Yay! Hopefully we can avoid violent storms and torrential rain long enough to enjoy some sunbaking!
Anyways, thats all from me for now. Just wanted to let u know not to worry cos all is
beres (sorted!).
Sampai nanti!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
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.
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.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
My street
Or should I say, close to it? This is Jalan Kaliurang- most polluted street in Yogya. I live on the left side of this pic. That is Gunung Merapi in the background. You can't usually see it through the fog/rain clouds!
Liquid Horizon
Sunset on Krakal beach. I swear that there is no re-touching here. This is as it was. Beautiful huh>
Kerokan* 2
Possibly incorrect spelling! This is the product of one hour of coin dragging therapy. Its just starting to fade.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
masuk angin
hello ppl. my apologies for recent lack of posting. had first week of classes last week and then weekend away. all quite full on!
so whats the news? first, the title- masuk angin is essentially the equivalent of the english "under the weather" except here it is used to describe virtually anything that involves coughing or a bad chest! translated literally it means- entered by the wind!i have had a bad chest since i arrived, due largely to the fact i live 10 metres from the most polluted road in Yogya. however it has been niggling, and my issues with masuk angin culminated in a bizarre incident at the accomodation at krakal beach which basically meant that as soon as i tried to sleep, my chest tightened like that of a chronic asthmatic. after three hours of trying to resolve my apparent allergy to the very um, SIMPLE accomodation standards, i ended up sleeping on the beach with a bunch of our indo friends and some other bules! there were about 15 of us out there= and it was the only place i could breathe!
anyway, i ended up buying some ventolin to try and resolve this masuk angin issue, and it has worked partly but i think i just need to really chill for a while.....
but the story continues- last night i stayed at the house of the rich aunty of my friend wawan because she asked me to stay there (and she is not the sort of person you say no to......) to accompany another friend who has been really sick. anyway, she had organised for a masseuse to come to her house and give him a massage for general health, and then perform this traditional indo ritual whose name i have forgotten, but which basically involves repetitive dragging of copper coins over the skin until the "wind" gets out. anyway, i also was offered a massage but didn't want to coin thing, but wawan fell asleep and i couldn't understand the masseuse- an old lady who spoke Javanese not Indo- and I couldn't politely communicate to her at 1am in the morning my desire to remain red welt free. so i had a 2 hour session- one hour of mssage and one of coin dragging therapy. and all i can say is, wait till u see the pics. i have a red skeleton on my back- it is bloody awful, and i am meant to be going out with the girls on friday, and now it looks like i will have to wear a mu-mu or something to conceal my awful red lashes! aaargh. actually quite horrible.
the aunty btw, is really nice. she has offered for me to stay at her Jakarta house when i go there, but apparently it will be a 2 bour commute, so..... we will see. but they are very generous people, certainly significantly more well off than the average indonesian, and with 2 cute little kids!
anyway there is so much news and so much homework to do, and so little time!
what else....
i am singing in a band on saturday night apparently- weird things like this just happen to white people here- some random marketing guy got my number and called me to say he hears i am interested in singing and would i like to sing at valentines day gig. because i am still masuk angin- i couldn't sing, but i am practising saturday and singing sat night! hilarious eh? another example of random weird stuff happening to white people is the fact that about 15 ACICIS ppl were in an ad for a paintball place last week. i was invited but i had class! what a nerd huh!
i start japanese tomorrow. classes so far are good. teachers are great too.
might be going to lombok (island next to bali) in a couple of weeks for a friends bday. its either that or a weekend in a plush hotel with a bunch of us, but i would really like to get out of Yogya again- I love it here, but the pollution is something else.
oh and i moved into my PROPER room last Friday- have bought nice new sheets etc for the bed, and some awesome laptop speakers with a sub woofer, so i can compete with the other kos girls for space on the airwaves! i was going to get a tv but my experience of indo tv so far is hmmmm, not so good, so might think of something else to get instead! i have to exit my room for 2 days while one kos girls parents come for her graduation, but after that continuous personal space. i might go stay with "aunty" for those 2 days! she goes back to jakarta on monday with the kids leaving her amazing house empty, and she has said that we can stay there, with the 5 servants (its so full on i can't get used to it) whenever we want! what a person to know hey.
still haven't had the trotskies (new name for squidge belly!) but its gonna happen any day= everyone else has been sick (including lisa. i haven't been particularly finnicky about what i eat, but so far so good. other people have contracted strep throat, lung infections, weird gut worms etc! mainly form partying to hard! its bound to happen to me soon. i am just waiting with bated breath!
oh and PS- my USB drive got swiped the other day (my own fault- it was in my glasses case which i left at the net place) so i haven't yet worked out how to get my photo's onto the internet computers yet, so you will have to wait for the red welt pics and the krakal sunset/ liquid horizon pics! sorry!
ok till next time!hopefully next time i will be sans masuk angin!
so whats the news? first, the title- masuk angin is essentially the equivalent of the english "under the weather" except here it is used to describe virtually anything that involves coughing or a bad chest! translated literally it means- entered by the wind!i have had a bad chest since i arrived, due largely to the fact i live 10 metres from the most polluted road in Yogya. however it has been niggling, and my issues with masuk angin culminated in a bizarre incident at the accomodation at krakal beach which basically meant that as soon as i tried to sleep, my chest tightened like that of a chronic asthmatic. after three hours of trying to resolve my apparent allergy to the very um, SIMPLE accomodation standards, i ended up sleeping on the beach with a bunch of our indo friends and some other bules! there were about 15 of us out there= and it was the only place i could breathe!
anyway, i ended up buying some ventolin to try and resolve this masuk angin issue, and it has worked partly but i think i just need to really chill for a while.....
but the story continues- last night i stayed at the house of the rich aunty of my friend wawan because she asked me to stay there (and she is not the sort of person you say no to......) to accompany another friend who has been really sick. anyway, she had organised for a masseuse to come to her house and give him a massage for general health, and then perform this traditional indo ritual whose name i have forgotten, but which basically involves repetitive dragging of copper coins over the skin until the "wind" gets out. anyway, i also was offered a massage but didn't want to coin thing, but wawan fell asleep and i couldn't understand the masseuse- an old lady who spoke Javanese not Indo- and I couldn't politely communicate to her at 1am in the morning my desire to remain red welt free. so i had a 2 hour session- one hour of mssage and one of coin dragging therapy. and all i can say is, wait till u see the pics. i have a red skeleton on my back- it is bloody awful, and i am meant to be going out with the girls on friday, and now it looks like i will have to wear a mu-mu or something to conceal my awful red lashes! aaargh. actually quite horrible.
the aunty btw, is really nice. she has offered for me to stay at her Jakarta house when i go there, but apparently it will be a 2 bour commute, so..... we will see. but they are very generous people, certainly significantly more well off than the average indonesian, and with 2 cute little kids!
anyway there is so much news and so much homework to do, and so little time!
what else....
i am singing in a band on saturday night apparently- weird things like this just happen to white people here- some random marketing guy got my number and called me to say he hears i am interested in singing and would i like to sing at valentines day gig. because i am still masuk angin- i couldn't sing, but i am practising saturday and singing sat night! hilarious eh? another example of random weird stuff happening to white people is the fact that about 15 ACICIS ppl were in an ad for a paintball place last week. i was invited but i had class! what a nerd huh!
i start japanese tomorrow. classes so far are good. teachers are great too.
might be going to lombok (island next to bali) in a couple of weeks for a friends bday. its either that or a weekend in a plush hotel with a bunch of us, but i would really like to get out of Yogya again- I love it here, but the pollution is something else.
oh and i moved into my PROPER room last Friday- have bought nice new sheets etc for the bed, and some awesome laptop speakers with a sub woofer, so i can compete with the other kos girls for space on the airwaves! i was going to get a tv but my experience of indo tv so far is hmmmm, not so good, so might think of something else to get instead! i have to exit my room for 2 days while one kos girls parents come for her graduation, but after that continuous personal space. i might go stay with "aunty" for those 2 days! she goes back to jakarta on monday with the kids leaving her amazing house empty, and she has said that we can stay there, with the 5 servants (its so full on i can't get used to it) whenever we want! what a person to know hey.
still haven't had the trotskies (new name for squidge belly!) but its gonna happen any day= everyone else has been sick (including lisa. i haven't been particularly finnicky about what i eat, but so far so good. other people have contracted strep throat, lung infections, weird gut worms etc! mainly form partying to hard! its bound to happen to me soon. i am just waiting with bated breath!
oh and PS- my USB drive got swiped the other day (my own fault- it was in my glasses case which i left at the net place) so i haven't yet worked out how to get my photo's onto the internet computers yet, so you will have to wait for the red welt pics and the krakal sunset/ liquid horizon pics! sorry!
ok till next time!hopefully next time i will be sans masuk angin!
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
pusing dan bingung (dazed and confused)
Yo.
So I had big ideas for this post, and they have all just flown out of my head after hearing that our dear family friend Gillian has managed to tee me up a placement with a big international firm in J-town- Jakarta! Thanks Frilly! Wow. So now I can't remember anything that I was going to write. Der.
I had my first immersion class yesterday- International Security Studies- and I likd it, understood about 50% of what the Dosen was saying, but after sitting thru it, decided that perhaps I might drop my other 2 immersions (Japanese Foreign Policy and Globalisation) but I am going to pick up Basic Japanese instead. It is just 2 points and is called "Japanese for tourism" or somethign like that. Should be terrifying ;-)
The class was cool, the Dosen (lecturer) seems like a bit of a champ, and when we broke off for discussion, he put music on from his laptop, Cat Stevens no less. I thought it was funny and asked one of the Indo's why he was doing it and he was like "don't u do that in Australia? Its to make us feel "cozy" while we discuss the topics!". So there u go. This place is so entertaining sometimes.
Anyways, tonight something else random has happened! My new friend Wawan has an Aunty here who works for Citibank (VP in Yogya or something incredible) and I met her last night at dinner. Anyway, today we were invited to go shopping with her and her kids (Agnes, Ben and I) and then she has invited us all for dinner (Shabu-Shabu- Japanese- yum) tonight. So have to go home and mandi soon so that I am fresh and clean for dinner. I am going to take a cake, in lieu of any other ideas for a gift!
BTW at her house there is a nanny, about 4 pembantu's and security guy and 2 penjaga's. Thats the help for 4 people. I-n-s-a-n-e.
Yes. So this weekend we ACICIS posse are heading out to Krakal on a group excursion. We are staying overnight. Apparently the beaches are white sand and beautiful there. Can't wait to get my legs in the sun- the rest of me is turing brown slowly (the pollution limits it!)but my legs are still bright putih! Aya! Excusrsion is costing $7 including food.
Speaking of budget, today I got to kampus and back on the bus, and had brekkie and morning tea on campus all for 10,000 rupiah. About $1.30. Nuts eh?! The prices still amaze me. But I went to a fantastic club the other night, actually 2 connected clubs, Hugo's and Embassy, and the drinks there were more expensive than Adelaide. I had one. A Singapore Sling. I have also come to dislike the taste of Bintang beer- so haven't been drinking that either. Aren't I good.....!
Anyway, mandi time. Trying to upload some pics, but it isn't working too well, so keep checking the photo stream. Will get there in the end.
Dah!
So I had big ideas for this post, and they have all just flown out of my head after hearing that our dear family friend Gillian has managed to tee me up a placement with a big international firm in J-town- Jakarta! Thanks Frilly! Wow. So now I can't remember anything that I was going to write. Der.
I had my first immersion class yesterday- International Security Studies- and I likd it, understood about 50% of what the Dosen was saying, but after sitting thru it, decided that perhaps I might drop my other 2 immersions (Japanese Foreign Policy and Globalisation) but I am going to pick up Basic Japanese instead. It is just 2 points and is called "Japanese for tourism" or somethign like that. Should be terrifying ;-)
The class was cool, the Dosen (lecturer) seems like a bit of a champ, and when we broke off for discussion, he put music on from his laptop, Cat Stevens no less. I thought it was funny and asked one of the Indo's why he was doing it and he was like "don't u do that in Australia? Its to make us feel "cozy" while we discuss the topics!". So there u go. This place is so entertaining sometimes.
Anyways, tonight something else random has happened! My new friend Wawan has an Aunty here who works for Citibank (VP in Yogya or something incredible) and I met her last night at dinner. Anyway, today we were invited to go shopping with her and her kids (Agnes, Ben and I) and then she has invited us all for dinner (Shabu-Shabu- Japanese- yum) tonight. So have to go home and mandi soon so that I am fresh and clean for dinner. I am going to take a cake, in lieu of any other ideas for a gift!
BTW at her house there is a nanny, about 4 pembantu's and security guy and 2 penjaga's. Thats the help for 4 people. I-n-s-a-n-e.
Yes. So this weekend we ACICIS posse are heading out to Krakal on a group excursion. We are staying overnight. Apparently the beaches are white sand and beautiful there. Can't wait to get my legs in the sun- the rest of me is turing brown slowly (the pollution limits it!)but my legs are still bright putih! Aya! Excusrsion is costing $7 including food.
Speaking of budget, today I got to kampus and back on the bus, and had brekkie and morning tea on campus all for 10,000 rupiah. About $1.30. Nuts eh?! The prices still amaze me. But I went to a fantastic club the other night, actually 2 connected clubs, Hugo's and Embassy, and the drinks there were more expensive than Adelaide. I had one. A Singapore Sling. I have also come to dislike the taste of Bintang beer- so haven't been drinking that either. Aren't I good.....!
Anyway, mandi time. Trying to upload some pics, but it isn't working too well, so keep checking the photo stream. Will get there in the end.
Dah!
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Downstairs at the Kos
This is my kos again. Lisa's room is right behind where the people are sitting. That sitting area is the only place male visitors are allowed to go (i.e. the Indo girls boyfriends). And needless to say, it the main social area- where most of my vocab development will take place! Click the photo stream link for more pics of everything!
My Kos at Dusk
This is the part of the property where most of the Indo girls live. I am going in to the end room in 2 days time until my other room is ready.
Tidak Ada Peraturan Jalan (Therearenoroadrules)
So, with a little bit of time on my hands I have decided to fill you in on some of my incisive (or not so) cultural observations.
Firstly, SMS slang.Oh dear - right now it is the bane of my existence. I don't know why all my Indo friends think that if I can't undertand Indoesian generally, I will be more likely to undertand it condensed and minus most vowels! For example - the following was received2 days ago - "hey adelle. kmlagi mknmlm dngn claire y? kmmau keeurocafegak,kalau mau nanti brngkt bareng." for a start,in proper form that sentence would be double the length. secondly,they use words we don't know. so we just write back in english.its a vicious circle. ;-)
Secondly, motorbikes and the general lack of order on the roads. I think it really must be witnessed to be believed. People cut corners, run red lights,drive full speed in the opposite direction to traffic flow, fit entire families on motorbikes (the most i have seen is 5)and I am yet to see an accident. It is psychopathic to say nothing else. What's more, the way to cross the road is to walk out into the traffic with your arm out (this signal means slow down) and just trundle across without running, cos that puts them off. BTW mum- I have been on a bike twice, and while having a bike or vespa would be mighty convenient, don't worry I am not yet brave enough to contemplate buying one. He he he.
Toilets, well- the sewerage system here is what you would expect in a developing country. Pretty av. Generally you have to sluice (or as I say "sluiceroo") the dunny, unless you are somewhere with decent water pressure. Also the bak mandi phenomenon is something most foreigners freak out about and end up liking. In place of a shower, you have a bricked in tub of water in your bathroom with a bucket (see pics), and you just throw the water over yourself to wash. Lisa and I are still not able to overcome the first 2 buckets without squealing.I am sure the girls in the kos think we are mental. Anyway, bak mandi is great. Its a good thing to cool down at night with.
Another thing that for some idiotic reason I hadn't anticipated was the "muazzin" - the Muslim call to prayer- ringing out several tims a day. There is a mosque two lanes away from my kos, where the Bapak Kos and the 2 penjaga (male servants) go to pray. About 3 times a day (maybe more) a male voice rings out in Arabic across Yogya- saying something along the lines of "come on people, its time to pray. come hang at the mosque". That's a loose translation. My arabic is not very good. He he.
Anyway,when it is muazzin time, Bapak Kos and the Jaga's chuck the traditional prayer clothes on over their Adidas shorts and "I've been to Bali" t-shirts and go and berdoa "pray" for 15 minutes or something. Then they come back ad resume cleaning the fish tank or whatever they were doing before they left. Religion just seems to form an unremarkable part of their daily routines. Its pretty cool.
And food- Keith- since u were so keen to know is stupidly cheap and really good.A lot of Indo's just go out to a warung on the side of the road for dinner. Along the sides of Jalan Kaliurang ("Jakal") near where I live, every day at about 5pm loads of temporary warungs are set up cooking everything from baked catfish to fried chicken, bakso(meatball soup) and sate. You can either sit at a bench, or eat lesahan (sit on the gound). Usually, eating with your right hand is de rigeuer, but they keep spoons for scared bule.(Not me) I had fried tofu, tempeh, vegetable and rice last night for 3500 rupiah- 50 cents. I have not had any squidgebelly yet.My philospohy has been so far to test my limits by eating at warungs but eating veggo. Some of the guys ate what they dubbed "salmonella" on the first night, had the trots for 3 days and now claim to have toughened up enough to eat anything. I don't believe them....
If you don't want to eat at a warung there are plenty of rumah makan (restarants) that are a bit more mahal/expensive. Lisa and I ate masakan padang the other night, which is a style of food from Padang in Sumatra (i think)- the way they do it is you sit down, then a waiter brings about 20 bowls to your table- you eat what looks good and they take the rest back at the end. At the one we went to, we paid 49000 rupiah between us, walked out going, gee that was expensive, then did the sums and realised it was about $4. We are becoming Indo faster than we realise!!!
Speaking of becoming Indonesian - today some girls in my kos asked why I was eating rice for breakfast cos usually bule don't like it, and I just explained that I got used to rice in Japan and love the way it is cooked in Asia. And also, last night I was wearing a long sleeved jumper when it was about 26 degrees. Cipi- the other Aussie at my kos was like "why are u wearing that" and I realised it was because I was a little cold. Weird huh! The temp today feels about 25 (it has rained heaps today) and walking down here to the warnet in a skirt and t-shirt I actually shivered. I think u just get used to a constant temp of 30 degrees. Oh, and on the back of a motorbike, especially at night, it is cold!
Anyhoo, believe it or not, Earth Wind and Fire are playing in Yogya tonightand I am going. The tix are about $13 bucks. Hilarious! My Indo friend was saying it was a jazz band, but when i realised I was like 'no, no, no-its disko!" So should be good.
Have to try upload some pics now.
Firstly, SMS slang.Oh dear - right now it is the bane of my existence. I don't know why all my Indo friends think that if I can't undertand Indoesian generally, I will be more likely to undertand it condensed and minus most vowels! For example - the following was received2 days ago - "hey adelle. kmlagi mknmlm dngn claire y? kmmau keeurocafegak,kalau mau nanti brngkt bareng." for a start,in proper form that sentence would be double the length. secondly,they use words we don't know. so we just write back in english.its a vicious circle. ;-)
Secondly, motorbikes and the general lack of order on the roads. I think it really must be witnessed to be believed. People cut corners, run red lights,drive full speed in the opposite direction to traffic flow, fit entire families on motorbikes (the most i have seen is 5)and I am yet to see an accident. It is psychopathic to say nothing else. What's more, the way to cross the road is to walk out into the traffic with your arm out (this signal means slow down) and just trundle across without running, cos that puts them off. BTW mum- I have been on a bike twice, and while having a bike or vespa would be mighty convenient, don't worry I am not yet brave enough to contemplate buying one. He he he.
Toilets, well- the sewerage system here is what you would expect in a developing country. Pretty av. Generally you have to sluice (or as I say "sluiceroo") the dunny, unless you are somewhere with decent water pressure. Also the bak mandi phenomenon is something most foreigners freak out about and end up liking. In place of a shower, you have a bricked in tub of water in your bathroom with a bucket (see pics), and you just throw the water over yourself to wash. Lisa and I are still not able to overcome the first 2 buckets without squealing.I am sure the girls in the kos think we are mental. Anyway, bak mandi is great. Its a good thing to cool down at night with.
Another thing that for some idiotic reason I hadn't anticipated was the "muazzin" - the Muslim call to prayer- ringing out several tims a day. There is a mosque two lanes away from my kos, where the Bapak Kos and the 2 penjaga (male servants) go to pray. About 3 times a day (maybe more) a male voice rings out in Arabic across Yogya- saying something along the lines of "come on people, its time to pray. come hang at the mosque". That's a loose translation. My arabic is not very good. He he.
Anyway,when it is muazzin time, Bapak Kos and the Jaga's chuck the traditional prayer clothes on over their Adidas shorts and "I've been to Bali" t-shirts and go and berdoa "pray" for 15 minutes or something. Then they come back ad resume cleaning the fish tank or whatever they were doing before they left. Religion just seems to form an unremarkable part of their daily routines. Its pretty cool.
And food- Keith- since u were so keen to know is stupidly cheap and really good.A lot of Indo's just go out to a warung on the side of the road for dinner. Along the sides of Jalan Kaliurang ("Jakal") near where I live, every day at about 5pm loads of temporary warungs are set up cooking everything from baked catfish to fried chicken, bakso(meatball soup) and sate. You can either sit at a bench, or eat lesahan (sit on the gound). Usually, eating with your right hand is de rigeuer, but they keep spoons for scared bule.(Not me) I had fried tofu, tempeh, vegetable and rice last night for 3500 rupiah- 50 cents. I have not had any squidgebelly yet.My philospohy has been so far to test my limits by eating at warungs but eating veggo. Some of the guys ate what they dubbed "salmonella" on the first night, had the trots for 3 days and now claim to have toughened up enough to eat anything. I don't believe them....
If you don't want to eat at a warung there are plenty of rumah makan (restarants) that are a bit more mahal/expensive. Lisa and I ate masakan padang the other night, which is a style of food from Padang in Sumatra (i think)- the way they do it is you sit down, then a waiter brings about 20 bowls to your table- you eat what looks good and they take the rest back at the end. At the one we went to, we paid 49000 rupiah between us, walked out going, gee that was expensive, then did the sums and realised it was about $4. We are becoming Indo faster than we realise!!!
Speaking of becoming Indonesian - today some girls in my kos asked why I was eating rice for breakfast cos usually bule don't like it, and I just explained that I got used to rice in Japan and love the way it is cooked in Asia. And also, last night I was wearing a long sleeved jumper when it was about 26 degrees. Cipi- the other Aussie at my kos was like "why are u wearing that" and I realised it was because I was a little cold. Weird huh! The temp today feels about 25 (it has rained heaps today) and walking down here to the warnet in a skirt and t-shirt I actually shivered. I think u just get used to a constant temp of 30 degrees. Oh, and on the back of a motorbike, especially at night, it is cold!
Anyhoo, believe it or not, Earth Wind and Fire are playing in Yogya tonightand I am going. The tix are about $13 bucks. Hilarious! My Indo friend was saying it was a jazz band, but when i realised I was like 'no, no, no-its disko!" So should be good.
Have to try upload some pics now.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
i am going to kill centrelink
well guess what- the tribulations just keep coming- i just checked my bank balance and centrelink, true to form, have not kept the half of the bargain which involves depositing money into my account. Yes, thats right, the money I am supposed to live on. Luckily, I anticipated this happening, and have enough in my bank to last weeks, but still, I am will go to sleep tonight thinking of the many ways that i could cause serious harm to the idiots who have stuffed my payment. Its hard enough to deal with Clink from Australia, let alone from a developing country with unreliable phone connections. Mum!!!!!!!!!!! I am giving you a task!
Anyway, my kos problems sorted themselves out eaily. Rather than move to a different place I am staying in the same place and just switching rooms twice before I get my own room. No problems! It is so good there that I don't even care- I am going to upload some pictures soon.
I had a conversation in Indonesian today with my Ibu Kos and another girl that last for one hour. Actually, for the first time I have probably spoken more Indo than English in a day!! Bad Indo of course, but I can make myself understood eventually. Gesticulation helps, a lot!
Anyway, what else? I have been out the last 3 nights in a row. The best night was on Tuesday, where we went to this dodgy looking warung (little outdoor food stall with benches) to meet friends- 4 aussies and 2 indo's, near Jalan Malioboro, the main shopping, tourist area in Yogya. Anyway, we were just talking and drinking the fabulously addictive Javanese coffee that abounds here (might even meet your standards Keith) and eating various food that I thought might make me sick but hasn't (yet- apparently street food is good here cos of the high turnover- have eaten at 3 warungs now and so far am healthy!) Anyway, this pengaman- busker (also REALLY common here- they weave between motorbikes at intersections with their guitars) came up and started playing, we gave him 1000 rupiah (about 15 cents) for one song, and then he asked if we had requests. Of course we did- so we spent about an hour singing, yes singing, at this warung, with this pengaman and his friend playing to us. It was so much fun, and not even an overly late night! Oh and we tipped the guy about 7000 rupiah, about a dollar, which the Indo's we were with said was really high, even for all those songs.
The nightlife here is really good, and it is going to take so much self-discipline not to go too OTT with going out- especially when at about 6pm every night about 5 ppl send me messages saying "ngaipain?"; what you doing?- "mau ke mana?" where you going?, "apa acara mu nanti malam"- have you got a program (plans) tonight. Gee I would think I was popular, except some people I know get about 20 messages a night!!!
Anyway, what usually happens is that at about 8pm someone somewhere makes a decision, and the SMS flow thru, and people converge at 9. Tonight everyone is doing karaoke, but would you believe IT- I am not going because not only am I absolutely tired, I have a really croaky voice from all the pollution (I swear my lungs must resemble 30 year old, dried sea sponges right now) and therefore would make a bad frist singing impression. ;-)
Ha ha, so here I am. I am going to be very un-Indonesian in a minute and find somewhere to eat, alone! I will then go home, and read a book.
I find out whether I managed to con my way in the advanced language class tomorrow, so stay tuned. I also enrolled in 3 politics suibjects yesterday- Globalisation, International Security ( a new terrorism subject) and Japanese Foreign Policy. Its going to be great, I won't understand anything!!!!!!!!! That is why you make friends with people and ask to borrow their notes. ;-)
I have so many cultural observations that I want to write on here, but I might wait till another night because I am tired, and this blog is already too long. So you will have to wait for Adelle's Intro to Indonesia 101. What a shame.
Anyway, my kos problems sorted themselves out eaily. Rather than move to a different place I am staying in the same place and just switching rooms twice before I get my own room. No problems! It is so good there that I don't even care- I am going to upload some pictures soon.
I had a conversation in Indonesian today with my Ibu Kos and another girl that last for one hour. Actually, for the first time I have probably spoken more Indo than English in a day!! Bad Indo of course, but I can make myself understood eventually. Gesticulation helps, a lot!
Anyway, what else? I have been out the last 3 nights in a row. The best night was on Tuesday, where we went to this dodgy looking warung (little outdoor food stall with benches) to meet friends- 4 aussies and 2 indo's, near Jalan Malioboro, the main shopping, tourist area in Yogya. Anyway, we were just talking and drinking the fabulously addictive Javanese coffee that abounds here (might even meet your standards Keith) and eating various food that I thought might make me sick but hasn't (yet- apparently street food is good here cos of the high turnover- have eaten at 3 warungs now and so far am healthy!) Anyway, this pengaman- busker (also REALLY common here- they weave between motorbikes at intersections with their guitars) came up and started playing, we gave him 1000 rupiah (about 15 cents) for one song, and then he asked if we had requests. Of course we did- so we spent about an hour singing, yes singing, at this warung, with this pengaman and his friend playing to us. It was so much fun, and not even an overly late night! Oh and we tipped the guy about 7000 rupiah, about a dollar, which the Indo's we were with said was really high, even for all those songs.
The nightlife here is really good, and it is going to take so much self-discipline not to go too OTT with going out- especially when at about 6pm every night about 5 ppl send me messages saying "ngaipain?"; what you doing?- "mau ke mana?" where you going?, "apa acara mu nanti malam"- have you got a program (plans) tonight. Gee I would think I was popular, except some people I know get about 20 messages a night!!!
Anyway, what usually happens is that at about 8pm someone somewhere makes a decision, and the SMS flow thru, and people converge at 9. Tonight everyone is doing karaoke, but would you believe IT- I am not going because not only am I absolutely tired, I have a really croaky voice from all the pollution (I swear my lungs must resemble 30 year old, dried sea sponges right now) and therefore would make a bad frist singing impression. ;-)
Ha ha, so here I am. I am going to be very un-Indonesian in a minute and find somewhere to eat, alone! I will then go home, and read a book.
I find out whether I managed to con my way in the advanced language class tomorrow, so stay tuned. I also enrolled in 3 politics suibjects yesterday- Globalisation, International Security ( a new terrorism subject) and Japanese Foreign Policy. Its going to be great, I won't understand anything!!!!!!!!! That is why you make friends with people and ask to borrow their notes. ;-)
I have so many cultural observations that I want to write on here, but I might wait till another night because I am tired, and this blog is already too long. So you will have to wait for Adelle's Intro to Indonesia 101. What a shame.
Monday, January 30, 2006
it never goes to plan in indonesia
well, after finding the perfect kos, i can't move in until the 15th of feb!
basically, i was sharing lisa's room until the 5th when my room was to be vacated, but now the person in my future room is staying till the 15th (can't leave country- she had an air paradise ticket too!) so i have to find somewhere else, because it isn't fair to encroach on lisa's space for 2 more weeks. the other thing is that for 2 days (20th and 21st) the parents of one of the girls at the kos, Esther, will come down for her graduation, and they booked that room, so i have to bunk with lisa then too!
so in true indo style i have to make a rapid change of plans. i met a girl today called Deeko who has a spare room at her house (share house) and she says i can stay there for free. (of course i will give her some money if i go there). am checking it out with Dini tomorrow. sigh.
enrolment also didn't happen today. we enrol wednesday now, and it looks like I will take the plunge and study a law subject.... means i have to stay a little longer here though...
anyway, meeting some ppl for dinner.
my indonesian feels useless today, my head is spinning. i think i am just a bit annoyed about the kos! oh well, nggak apa-apa, as they say here- no worries!
basically, i was sharing lisa's room until the 5th when my room was to be vacated, but now the person in my future room is staying till the 15th (can't leave country- she had an air paradise ticket too!) so i have to find somewhere else, because it isn't fair to encroach on lisa's space for 2 more weeks. the other thing is that for 2 days (20th and 21st) the parents of one of the girls at the kos, Esther, will come down for her graduation, and they booked that room, so i have to bunk with lisa then too!
so in true indo style i have to make a rapid change of plans. i met a girl today called Deeko who has a spare room at her house (share house) and she says i can stay there for free. (of course i will give her some money if i go there). am checking it out with Dini tomorrow. sigh.
enrolment also didn't happen today. we enrol wednesday now, and it looks like I will take the plunge and study a law subject.... means i have to stay a little longer here though...
anyway, meeting some ppl for dinner.
my indonesian feels useless today, my head is spinning. i think i am just a bit annoyed about the kos! oh well, nggak apa-apa, as they say here- no worries!
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Lesahan Breakfast at Warung on Bulevar
This morning we walked across the road from our hotel to eat breakfast at a roadside stall (perfectly fine mum- relax!). For three of us to eat banana pancake, have a drink and me to have lonton (glutinous rice in broth) it cost 12000- or about $1.50. Murah sekali ya!
Moved into kos this arvo....... dinner at the Director's house tonight. Then tomorrow- enrolment! Yikes!
Moved into kos this arvo....... dinner at the Director's house tonight. Then tomorrow- enrolment! Yikes!
Saturday, January 28, 2006
accomodasi ya!
i found a kos! at least for one month anyway- i have a room in a lean-to attached to a family house about 10 minutes walk from uni. lisa (my traveling partner and good friend from uni) is taking the other inside room and there are 20 outside rooms where indonesian girls live.
i have no curfew (rare) double bed, fridge, fully furnished as well, shower (currently broken but will be fixed), no AC but a fan, and my laundry is included. all for the princely sum of 550,000 rupiah a month- which is about $77! unbelievable.
it is the same place i looked at yesterday and i have a really good feeling about it- especially since the ibu kos (kos mother) saved the room for me- actually turned people away- because she was hoping i would come back! so we move our stuff there tomorrow and then we will go shopping for stuff to make it homely- TV, cushions, etc.
i went to a party last night at the rumah kontrakan (contract house) of an ACICIS student who is heading off to Malang for a semester. It was a very cool house- everyone sat on the marble floor which is raised, temple-like above the main level of the house. there were lots of people from INCULS there- the centre where foreign students study language at Gadjah Mada Uni- i met a russian, a german, an austrian, and there were japanese, koreans, french and south americans there too. the only thing is after 1 and a half small bintangs i felt like i had drunk a carton of big bintangs! so i had an early night before going to look for kos today!
i don't think i mentioned yesterday that I found out that my uni here is ranked #56 by the Times education supplement- it is like the Harvard of Indonesia and carries a lot of weight around the entire country! bonus....! the campus is impressive from a distance- i haven't been there yet- that is on monday for enrolment - but when i find a warnet that actually lets me use USB i will upload some pictures. they are explaining the course options etc to us today..... still not sure how i will go in immersion subjects, and reluctant to take a class that has an exam, but will keep my mind open nonetheless.
what else??? my helper- princess dini- is taking me to see a gym about 15 minutes from my kos where they have a pool, aerobics and equipment- and i could join until i leave for about $100. a lot of the girls who have been here a while have said that it is easy to gain weight- and i am not interested in getting fat, so i have to find a way to overcome all of the palm oil, and palm sugar that is in the food! mind, swatting the scary dengue mosquito's should burn a few kilojoules!!!!
anyway, speaking of food, it is nearly lunch time and for the first time in a few days i am really hungry, so it is back to the hotel to prepare to move to my new home and decide what on earth i will study this semester!
i have no curfew (rare) double bed, fridge, fully furnished as well, shower (currently broken but will be fixed), no AC but a fan, and my laundry is included. all for the princely sum of 550,000 rupiah a month- which is about $77! unbelievable.
it is the same place i looked at yesterday and i have a really good feeling about it- especially since the ibu kos (kos mother) saved the room for me- actually turned people away- because she was hoping i would come back! so we move our stuff there tomorrow and then we will go shopping for stuff to make it homely- TV, cushions, etc.
i went to a party last night at the rumah kontrakan (contract house) of an ACICIS student who is heading off to Malang for a semester. It was a very cool house- everyone sat on the marble floor which is raised, temple-like above the main level of the house. there were lots of people from INCULS there- the centre where foreign students study language at Gadjah Mada Uni- i met a russian, a german, an austrian, and there were japanese, koreans, french and south americans there too. the only thing is after 1 and a half small bintangs i felt like i had drunk a carton of big bintangs! so i had an early night before going to look for kos today!
i don't think i mentioned yesterday that I found out that my uni here is ranked #56 by the Times education supplement- it is like the Harvard of Indonesia and carries a lot of weight around the entire country! bonus....! the campus is impressive from a distance- i haven't been there yet- that is on monday for enrolment - but when i find a warnet that actually lets me use USB i will upload some pictures. they are explaining the course options etc to us today..... still not sure how i will go in immersion subjects, and reluctant to take a class that has an exam, but will keep my mind open nonetheless.
what else??? my helper- princess dini- is taking me to see a gym about 15 minutes from my kos where they have a pool, aerobics and equipment- and i could join until i leave for about $100. a lot of the girls who have been here a while have said that it is easy to gain weight- and i am not interested in getting fat, so i have to find a way to overcome all of the palm oil, and palm sugar that is in the food! mind, swatting the scary dengue mosquito's should burn a few kilojoules!!!!
anyway, speaking of food, it is nearly lunch time and for the first time in a few days i am really hungry, so it is back to the hotel to prepare to move to my new home and decide what on earth i will study this semester!
Friday, January 27, 2006
torrential rain and lost bags
wow! it feels like i left about 10 days ago and it was only wednesday that I embarked upon this crazy journey...
for those of you not in the know- i was without luggage for a full 36 rather stressful and unclean hours, as my bags, along with Lisa's got left in Sydney. We arrived in Bali and watched for 15 minutes as the luggage carousel went around and around with no sign of our bags. we got stuck in bali for the night which was a bit crap, but we were lucky to be helped out by some lovely Malaysian business people (a husband and wife) who helped de-stress us somewhat by offering to share their transport and taking us to a hotel.
bali was a bit sad- there are no wisatawan (tourists) there and the hotels are only at about 3% of capacity. we drove through kuta and had a look at the memorial which was also quite sad, but interesting to see. but honestly, i don't feel too compelled to return to bali on this trip anyway. i think there is plenty here in java to explore!
so anyway we arrived in the same clothes we flew from australia in, to meet for the first time, our fellow ACICIS students at the Wisma Gadjah Mada. i must admit, having only had 2 hours sleep, wearing the same gross clothes for 36 hours and being generally out of sorts was not conducive to producing my sparkling best, but i struggled through and eventually our bags arrived (well 3 out of 4 anyway) at 9.30 pm last night. Lisa's other bag will arrive tonight.
last night we met our pendampings - our indonesian helpers who help us to find accomodation and just generally be our friend. mine is called dini- she is a regular little princess- a self-confessed "bad muslim" who wears stilleto heels and blue contact lenses!!!! but she is well in the know about all the important things such as where i can get my nails attended to and which is the best gym. she also took me looking at kos today which are boarding houses for students. i looked at 6 ranging from $50 per month to $100 per month. i have found a nice one which i will go and look at again- there are two rooms attached to the family house for "bule" - foreigners, and then about 20 rooms where indonesian girls live. it seems friendly and there is a servant who will apparently cater to all my culinary requests! it is a bout 10 minutes walk from uni....
speaking of uni- it is going to be an interesting experience methinks. we enrol next week and dini said i should try to take some law classes in indonesian. i think i would be hopeless, but apparently you adjust pretty quickly. my indonesian is going ok- there are some people here who are really fluent and some a lot worse than me- so i am not a complete dunce...... i can understand much more than i can say, that is for sure. so i will update you as i am further immersed- bearing in mind that i am currently staying in a hotel with aussie students and therefore able to speak english......
aside form that- the ACICIS crew are quite cool- there are actually 2 families here and quite a number of mature age students too. we did administrative stuff today- got finger-printed by the local police, and filled in very tedious visa forms- we also got the low-down on health- an assurance that we will get sick at least once! apparently people have had typhoid even with the innoculation- which is a worry. dengue fever is endemic here too- carried by these enormous very scary mosquito's- so you have to wear long pants and sleeves at dawn and dusk...... but it is really isn't that bad if you are sensible. and the health system is very very good for people who can pay...... sad, but true.
there has been torrential rain today and i have got three lots of soggy clothes in my room now. it is unbelievable- reminding me that yes, i am in the tropics in the wet season.
anyways, this is rather long and probably boring, so i will go. but please comment, i will try to get on here again soon with some updates on my indonesian learning and other things.
but here is a parting thought- yesterday i went to the supermarket and bought 3 litres of spring water, some ice tea, a gatorade and some snacks, all for 11000 rupiah- or about $1.50. so yeah, money goes far!~
for those of you not in the know- i was without luggage for a full 36 rather stressful and unclean hours, as my bags, along with Lisa's got left in Sydney. We arrived in Bali and watched for 15 minutes as the luggage carousel went around and around with no sign of our bags. we got stuck in bali for the night which was a bit crap, but we were lucky to be helped out by some lovely Malaysian business people (a husband and wife) who helped de-stress us somewhat by offering to share their transport and taking us to a hotel.
bali was a bit sad- there are no wisatawan (tourists) there and the hotels are only at about 3% of capacity. we drove through kuta and had a look at the memorial which was also quite sad, but interesting to see. but honestly, i don't feel too compelled to return to bali on this trip anyway. i think there is plenty here in java to explore!
so anyway we arrived in the same clothes we flew from australia in, to meet for the first time, our fellow ACICIS students at the Wisma Gadjah Mada. i must admit, having only had 2 hours sleep, wearing the same gross clothes for 36 hours and being generally out of sorts was not conducive to producing my sparkling best, but i struggled through and eventually our bags arrived (well 3 out of 4 anyway) at 9.30 pm last night. Lisa's other bag will arrive tonight.
last night we met our pendampings - our indonesian helpers who help us to find accomodation and just generally be our friend. mine is called dini- she is a regular little princess- a self-confessed "bad muslim" who wears stilleto heels and blue contact lenses!!!! but she is well in the know about all the important things such as where i can get my nails attended to and which is the best gym. she also took me looking at kos today which are boarding houses for students. i looked at 6 ranging from $50 per month to $100 per month. i have found a nice one which i will go and look at again- there are two rooms attached to the family house for "bule" - foreigners, and then about 20 rooms where indonesian girls live. it seems friendly and there is a servant who will apparently cater to all my culinary requests! it is a bout 10 minutes walk from uni....
speaking of uni- it is going to be an interesting experience methinks. we enrol next week and dini said i should try to take some law classes in indonesian. i think i would be hopeless, but apparently you adjust pretty quickly. my indonesian is going ok- there are some people here who are really fluent and some a lot worse than me- so i am not a complete dunce...... i can understand much more than i can say, that is for sure. so i will update you as i am further immersed- bearing in mind that i am currently staying in a hotel with aussie students and therefore able to speak english......
aside form that- the ACICIS crew are quite cool- there are actually 2 families here and quite a number of mature age students too. we did administrative stuff today- got finger-printed by the local police, and filled in very tedious visa forms- we also got the low-down on health- an assurance that we will get sick at least once! apparently people have had typhoid even with the innoculation- which is a worry. dengue fever is endemic here too- carried by these enormous very scary mosquito's- so you have to wear long pants and sleeves at dawn and dusk...... but it is really isn't that bad if you are sensible. and the health system is very very good for people who can pay...... sad, but true.
there has been torrential rain today and i have got three lots of soggy clothes in my room now. it is unbelievable- reminding me that yes, i am in the tropics in the wet season.
anyways, this is rather long and probably boring, so i will go. but please comment, i will try to get on here again soon with some updates on my indonesian learning and other things.
but here is a parting thought- yesterday i went to the supermarket and bought 3 litres of spring water, some ice tea, a gatorade and some snacks, all for 11000 rupiah- or about $1.50. so yeah, money goes far!~
Monday, January 23, 2006
ciao 4 now
The last few days have been rather frantic- between all the goodbyes, washing, ironing, packing, last minute purchasing etc, I forget at times where I am even going! But, surely enough, this time tomorrow I will be in transit, on the way to Sydney, and then Denpasar, and then Yogyakarta. For 5 whole months!
So without further ado, sayonara, sampai jumpa, later, catcha. And then next time you hear from me, I will be in a Wartel (net café) in Yogya……
So without further ado, sayonara, sampai jumpa, later, catcha. And then next time you hear from me, I will be in a Wartel (net café) in Yogya……
Chums
Claudia, Me, Kate, Paul, Lauren and Mark. This was AFTER we found the air conditioning- it was still 39 degrees at 10 at night (or something equally ridiculous).
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Wink
Walking out of my last shift at "crappy-part time job". It was 9pm and still about 38 degrees. But it was a happy moment, nonetheless.
Oh, and I have had my hair died brown! Can you tell?? For practical reasons while in Indonesia I thought brown hair might be a little easier to maintain- I hope I was right because I really don't like it! Anyway- tonight it is bon voyage drinks, tomorrow is bon voyage barbecue and then 2 days till I go!!!!
Oh, and I have had my hair died brown! Can you tell?? For practical reasons while in Indonesia I thought brown hair might be a little easier to maintain- I hope I was right because I really don't like it! Anyway- tonight it is bon voyage drinks, tomorrow is bon voyage barbecue and then 2 days till I go!!!!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Memoirs of a Geisha
Memoirs of a Geisha was released in Australia yesterday and I ventured out to see it, after my second-to-last shift at my yucky part-time job!
I have only found out since watching it that it has been reviewed pretty badly. But I (perhaps with some level of bias having just visited Japan) found it to be a mesmerising and beautiful story. I am yet to read the book, so that might have made a difference. I did think it was peculiar that all of the main geisha were played by Chinese actors though, and I am curious to see whether that will impact upon the film's reception in Japan. This had an effect on the English accent that each had- i.e. it did not sound like a Japanese accent, but to criticise the way the English was spoken (ala The Movie Show) I think was a bit rich! Watching geisha shuffle around with American accents for example, would have been absolutely ridiculous.
(See: http://www20.sbs.com.au/movieshow/index.php?action=review&id=1865)
Anyway, I enjoyed it and I am fussy about films! I am curious to see what other people think.
I have only found out since watching it that it has been reviewed pretty badly. But I (perhaps with some level of bias having just visited Japan) found it to be a mesmerising and beautiful story. I am yet to read the book, so that might have made a difference. I did think it was peculiar that all of the main geisha were played by Chinese actors though, and I am curious to see whether that will impact upon the film's reception in Japan. This had an effect on the English accent that each had- i.e. it did not sound like a Japanese accent, but to criticise the way the English was spoken (ala The Movie Show) I think was a bit rich! Watching geisha shuffle around with American accents for example, would have been absolutely ridiculous.
(See: http://www20.sbs.com.au/movieshow/index.php?action=review&id=1865)
Anyway, I enjoyed it and I am fussy about films! I am curious to see what other people think.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Pirate-Eye Reprisal
Keith is a champion- I received a new Graniph t-shirt in the post today- it is super-Kawai!
In other news, I had to send this letter to the insurer for the Japan tour today and when I re-read it I thought it was rather funny:
Tuesday, 17 January 2006
To whom it may concern
On December 7th while in Japan, I was preparing to leave my hotel room when I felt something fall into my eye. Assuming that it would eventually fall out by itself, I proceeded to try and ignore it. However, the irritant caused my eye to become extremely watery, red and sore. It remained in my eye all day, and it became very swollen overnight. After approximately 36 hours with the irritant in my eye, it was decided that Eri-Chan would accompany me to an ophthalmologist. The tomato-sauce-smelling ophthalmologist removed what he believed to be a piece of bark from my eye, and fortunately, I experienced instant relief and required no further treatment.
Yours Sincerely
“Pirate Eye”
AKA
(L)Adelle N
N.B Some names may have been changed.
In other news, I had to send this letter to the insurer for the Japan tour today and when I re-read it I thought it was rather funny:
Tuesday, 17 January 2006
To whom it may concern
On December 7th while in Japan, I was preparing to leave my hotel room when I felt something fall into my eye. Assuming that it would eventually fall out by itself, I proceeded to try and ignore it. However, the irritant caused my eye to become extremely watery, red and sore. It remained in my eye all day, and it became very swollen overnight. After approximately 36 hours with the irritant in my eye, it was decided that Eri-Chan would accompany me to an ophthalmologist. The tomato-sauce-smelling ophthalmologist removed what he believed to be a piece of bark from my eye, and fortunately, I experienced instant relief and required no further treatment.
Yours Sincerely
“Pirate Eye”
AKA
(L)Adelle N
N.B Some names may have been changed.
Monday, January 16, 2006
And now for something else completely different.....
Well, actually life is just ticking away right now. I have 8 days till departure and I hve my visa and my tickets and my insurance and all that stuff...... Now it's a case of buying all the things I need 6 months worth of that I won't be able to buy there.... Naturally i have extended this logic to clothing and have purchased virtually an entire new wardrobe to take! He he he. Any 'xcuse'll do.
So yes, it is nice hot weather here, and such phenomena as the rainbow depicted below are nice distractions from things like packing my bag, packing up my room (parents are moving while I am away) etc etc etc. And the next few days will be hectic with catching up with friends, and last days at both my jobs and getting my hair dyed a more managemable colour than blonde! And so it goes.
Please don't stop reading my blog btw, just because I am boring right now....... I promise to be more interesting in 9 days time!
So yes, it is nice hot weather here, and such phenomena as the rainbow depicted below are nice distractions from things like packing my bag, packing up my room (parents are moving while I am away) etc etc etc. And the next few days will be hectic with catching up with friends, and last days at both my jobs and getting my hair dyed a more managemable colour than blonde! And so it goes.
Please don't stop reading my blog btw, just because I am boring right now....... I promise to be more interesting in 9 days time!
I Can Blog a Rainbow
I suppose one pleasant by-product of Adelaide's increasingly humid, global-warmed climate is that if the conditions are right, a crappy shift at a crappy part-time job can be brightened by the appearance of a rainbow.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
i got my visa, i got my visa, i got my visa
I got my visa for indonesia.
I got my passport back.
Yay, phew!
I got my passport back.
Yay, phew!
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Odaiba Lemonade Bottle in Adelaide!
Look what I found at Genki Roll (sushi bar) today!!!!! It is the exact lemonade that I had in Odaiba (Tokyo) where you push a ball bearing into the bottle and it goes all fizzy! How bizarre!
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
humdrumhum
It has been rather a while since I blogged hasn't it....... To be honest since New Year life has been rather quiet..... although final preparations for Indonesia are consuming a lot of time and my cousin Charlotte's wedding was also a wonderful distraction from the humdrumhum of everyday life!
I am still waiting for my passport to be returned from the Indonesian Consulate in Perth which is rather alarming given that I leave 2 weeks tomorrow- but ACICIS (Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies) assures me that they will arrive on time, so I am not going to stress. I also managed to get my hands on some Tami-Flu the anti-bird flu drug. I hear it is relatively ineffective or has side-effects or something- so it might be $29 wasted, but on the other hand it might be $29 well spent.
I have also been typing up my final report for Mitsui which is due by Friday. I have actually really enjoyed writing it, though I did have a slight heart-attack the other day when my computer stopped working. I was pushing the power button and nothing was happening. Turns out that for the first time since I have had it- it overheated, so after several rather frantic phonecalls and rapid consideration of where I would find funds to purchase a new laptop, crisis was averted.
And finally, as you may have noticed from the photo's below- I was in my cousin's wedding on Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day, quite hot actually (33 degrees) but really perfect for the ceremony. The reception was also at home, and catered in the back garden. Compared to other weddings I have been to, it was very relaxed and enjoyable. Charlotte and Michael are now enjoying their honeymoon in Vanuatu! Lucky for some eh??!
Anyway, must get back to my report and other miscellaneous things that need doing....
Sampai bertemu lagi!
I am still waiting for my passport to be returned from the Indonesian Consulate in Perth which is rather alarming given that I leave 2 weeks tomorrow- but ACICIS (Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies) assures me that they will arrive on time, so I am not going to stress. I also managed to get my hands on some Tami-Flu the anti-bird flu drug. I hear it is relatively ineffective or has side-effects or something- so it might be $29 wasted, but on the other hand it might be $29 well spent.
I have also been typing up my final report for Mitsui which is due by Friday. I have actually really enjoyed writing it, though I did have a slight heart-attack the other day when my computer stopped working. I was pushing the power button and nothing was happening. Turns out that for the first time since I have had it- it overheated, so after several rather frantic phonecalls and rapid consideration of where I would find funds to purchase a new laptop, crisis was averted.
And finally, as you may have noticed from the photo's below- I was in my cousin's wedding on Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day, quite hot actually (33 degrees) but really perfect for the ceremony. The reception was also at home, and catered in the back garden. Compared to other weddings I have been to, it was very relaxed and enjoyable. Charlotte and Michael are now enjoying their honeymoon in Vanuatu! Lucky for some eh??!
Anyway, must get back to my report and other miscellaneous things that need doing....
Sampai bertemu lagi!
The Bridal Party
My cousin's wedding was truly Aussie style- a garden wedding, at her parent's home with the gorgeous gum-trees as backdrop! I am standing on the far-left and my sister is next to me.
Friday, December 30, 2005
this year is over
I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night, after about 3 months...
That nasty Snape!
After 5 happy years together my stereo (well the CD player) has stopped working. :-(
It was 42 degrees here yesterday! B-E-A-utiful! No seriously. Finally a hot day in Adelaide that did not culminate in a thunder storm. Usually I don't like hot weather like that, but it was really dry heat- the AC worked perfectly- no complaints here!
Anyway, that is about it from me this morning.
A quiet NY for me this year........ See you again in 2006. :-)
That nasty Snape!
After 5 happy years together my stereo (well the CD player) has stopped working. :-(
It was 42 degrees here yesterday! B-E-A-utiful! No seriously. Finally a hot day in Adelaide that did not culminate in a thunder storm. Usually I don't like hot weather like that, but it was really dry heat- the AC worked perfectly- no complaints here!
Anyway, that is about it from me this morning.
A quiet NY for me this year........ See you again in 2006. :-)
Monday, December 26, 2005
A perfect blend of cultures
I chose to drink Asahi beer at Christmas Lunch with my family! Of course, it tastes better from pint glasses in Tokyo isakaya. But it certainly quenched my thirst!I found this photo opportunity irresistible. ;-)Xmas was nice this year, quite relaxed really. I got lots of great gifts, in particular a beautiful photo album from Morgan which is made with Japanese silk! So it is all over with for another year....... *sigh*.
Friday, December 23, 2005
the unfinished definitive list
The moment you have all been waiting for.... scroll down this page to see the "unfinished definitive" list on Japan, as compiled by Chrissy, Beth, Dan, Adam and myself...... I eagerly await contributions from you other crazy kids!
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Miscellany
So I graduated yesterday! I can finally say I have an LLB (Hons). And it sure took long enough.... I will upload some photo's tonight of me wearing the silly clothes and celebrating afterwards.
Only 2 days until Xmas. Proudly I can say that I have only one more person to buy a present for - altogether organised don't you think? :-) The weather for Xmas day is supposed to be quite warm? Certainly warmer than Japan anyway, where I hear mother nature has been dumping snow all over the place? Has there been snow in Tokyo?
Lots of Japan/Australia related news lately too:
1) Miyamoto (Japan Soccer Captain) has been making some fairly interesting statements to try and psych out the Socceroo's in their opening World Cup game. BRING IT ON!! Can't wait for that one!
2) The Wiggles are "turning Japanese" - for those of you who have not had the pleasure (displeasure?) of hearing about The Wiggles- they are a group of four Aussie guys who have made themselves very rich by writing and performing songs for kids including "Dorothy the Dinosaur", "Hot Potato", "Big Red Car" and "Wake-Up Jeff". They are taking their franchise to Japan next year. All you crazy MPE's should audition. Seriously!
3) Whaling is back on the radar again with Greenpeace ships chasing Japanese ships all over the Southern Ocean to try and prevent them from catching their research quota. I honestly did not hear a thing about whaling in Japan- it doesn't even seem to be an issue there? Isn't it interesting how something that arouses such negative feeling in Australia is not really up for debate in Japan? Meanwhile it is plastered all over Australian news websites.....
Oh, and in Indo/Australia news- the travel warning has been AMENDED not upgraded for over the Xmas/NY period, and in Aceh- there was a ceremonial handing back of weapons by GAM to the Indonesian military which is pretty amazing given that in pre-Tsunami times peace looked extremely unlikely there.
And that concludes today's look at news and current affairs. Thankyou.
;-)
Only 2 days until Xmas. Proudly I can say that I have only one more person to buy a present for - altogether organised don't you think? :-) The weather for Xmas day is supposed to be quite warm? Certainly warmer than Japan anyway, where I hear mother nature has been dumping snow all over the place? Has there been snow in Tokyo?
Lots of Japan/Australia related news lately too:
1) Miyamoto (Japan Soccer Captain) has been making some fairly interesting statements to try and psych out the Socceroo's in their opening World Cup game. BRING IT ON!! Can't wait for that one!
2) The Wiggles are "turning Japanese" - for those of you who have not had the pleasure (displeasure?) of hearing about The Wiggles- they are a group of four Aussie guys who have made themselves very rich by writing and performing songs for kids including "Dorothy the Dinosaur", "Hot Potato", "Big Red Car" and "Wake-Up Jeff". They are taking their franchise to Japan next year. All you crazy MPE's should audition. Seriously!
3) Whaling is back on the radar again with Greenpeace ships chasing Japanese ships all over the Southern Ocean to try and prevent them from catching their research quota. I honestly did not hear a thing about whaling in Japan- it doesn't even seem to be an issue there? Isn't it interesting how something that arouses such negative feeling in Australia is not really up for debate in Japan? Meanwhile it is plastered all over Australian news websites.....
Oh, and in Indo/Australia news- the travel warning has been AMENDED not upgraded for over the Xmas/NY period, and in Aceh- there was a ceremonial handing back of weapons by GAM to the Indonesian military which is pretty amazing given that in pre-Tsunami times peace looked extremely unlikely there.
And that concludes today's look at news and current affairs. Thankyou.
;-)
sakamoto kyu
Look what i found! Where were these fabulous phonetic lyrics on the last night at karaoke? Does anyone know what the song is about by the way?!
Sakamoto Kyu
Sukiyaki
by N/A
Ue wo muite
arukou.
Namidaga koborenai youni
Omoidasu, haru no hi
Hitoribocchino yoru.
Ue wo muite
arukou.
Nijinda hoshi wo kazoete
Omoidasu, natsu no hi,
hitoribocchino yoru.
Shiawase wa kumo no ue ni,
Shiawase wa sora no ue ni.
Ue wo muite arukou.
Namidaga koborenai youni
naki nagara,
aruku, hitoribocchino yoru.
Omoidasu, aki no hi,
hitoribocchino yoru.
Kanashimi wa hoshi no kageni,
Kanashima wa tsuki no kageni.
Ue wo muite arukou.
Namidaka kobore naiyouni,
Naki nagara, aruku,
hitoribocchino yoru.
Hitoribocchino yoru.
Sakamoto Kyu
Sukiyaki
by N/A
Ue wo muite
arukou.
Namidaga koborenai youni
Omoidasu, haru no hi
Hitoribocchino yoru.
Ue wo muite
arukou.
Nijinda hoshi wo kazoete
Omoidasu, natsu no hi,
hitoribocchino yoru.
Shiawase wa kumo no ue ni,
Shiawase wa sora no ue ni.
Ue wo muite arukou.
Namidaga koborenai youni
naki nagara,
aruku, hitoribocchino yoru.
Omoidasu, aki no hi,
hitoribocchino yoru.
Kanashimi wa hoshi no kageni,
Kanashima wa tsuki no kageni.
Ue wo muite arukou.
Namidaka kobore naiyouni,
Naki nagara, aruku,
hitoribocchino yoru.
Hitoribocchino yoru.
Monday, December 19, 2005
stage, candles and cool night sky
i believe that the title of this one is probably self-explanatory.
beetles and carols
As a cynical and ageing 23 year old not many things make me feel like Christmas these days. One of them, that does not happen every year is "christmas beetles"- they have just hatched and are everywhere tonight. I think they usually die within 24 hours which is a bit sad.... But for now, they remind me that it will soon be Christmas! (In 5 days in fact....)
The other thing is something of a corny family tradition- our annual visit to the Elder Park christmas carols by River Torrens in Adelaide. I went last night with my family, and yet again, I shook off my "ba humbug" Uncle Scrooge tendency in favour of some merry xmas spirit! It was a beautiful night, and for all those of you who either a) don't know anything about Adelaide or b) laugh at the fact Adelaide even exists, I have attached some rather pretty photo's to this post!
Yes, I have worked out how to blog my pictures. Aren't I clever??!
The other thing is something of a corny family tradition- our annual visit to the Elder Park christmas carols by River Torrens in Adelaide. I went last night with my family, and yet again, I shook off my "ba humbug" Uncle Scrooge tendency in favour of some merry xmas spirit! It was a beautiful night, and for all those of you who either a) don't know anything about Adelaide or b) laugh at the fact Adelaide even exists, I have attached some rather pretty photo's to this post!
Yes, I have worked out how to blog my pictures. Aren't I clever??!
Friday, December 16, 2005
listing random things
Updated and condensed 23/12/05
Still lacking contributions from Elizabeth, Peta, Damon and Caroline and MPE's!
- Butter flavoured potato chips
- Teriyaki Boyz
- $2000 puppies
- 20 second zen exhale
- 6000 homeless in Ueno Park
- Yodobashi: God's gift to Geeks.
- I-Dog (cute or irritating….?)
- Koala...She's my Bitch
- Showing your neck is sexy
- Giving someone the finger either doesn't mean anything in Japan, or is THE most offensive gesture possible: I'm still not sure.
- Japanese girl's try to avoid becoming a xmas cake
- Factory uniforms make people look like serial killers.
- Butt-welded pipes are important
- The waitress at Denny's
- The world's smallest beer at Denny's
- Cuttlefish: A cruel joke, or something more sinister?
- So called 'coffee' from vending machines.
- Drunk guys shouting at us to drink beer at Tokyo University
- Hot sweet sake
- The Beatles Live 155
- Brainwashing Candy (Caroline……)
- Joypolis: Not quite as kinky as it sounds - but fun nevertheless
- Girls’ Box at Joypolis (what was this?????!!!)
- OJ in a cup in a bag: Overpackaging gone mad in a city with no bins.
- Smiling Robot Tour Guide at Toyota. Someone accidentally set her to 'Slow Walk' that day.
- Production line at Toyota- makes human’s seem terrifyingly redundant…….
- Showering together at the Crazy House Ryokan. It wasn't gay - I swear.
- Blood Type Fortunes
- Lucky charms for anything
- Nightinggale Floor Boards
- Ninja walk to avoid making nightingale floor boards squeak!
- Gum Syrup
- Cider meets Condensed Milk
- Panda Hotrods
- Geisha in an elevator in Hakone
- School Uniforms in Chigasaki
- Screaming children in high school in Chigasaki
- Signing pencil cases in Chigasaki
- I would like plastic model ... if it actually existed
- Vending machines
- 1 yen coins -damn they're annoying still have a small pile of them!
- construction hats
- huge glasses
- Aomarushin tempura
- Ginza
- Shibuya
- Akihabara
- Ueno Park
- Momiji leaves
- Kinkakuji
- ferris wheels
- love hotels (inc. Hotel “Pay-up”)
- Palette Town
- B-Flets!
- NTT
- Sakamoto Kyu "----da da da da da da da -aruko -ooooo"
- kimonos
- phone cards
- pim, pim pom
- Damon ----“Hey U..S..A!!!!”
- crunky
- air crunky
- dars
- ghana
- pinky
- nara
- crazy deer
- 23rd floor at mitsui
- 24th floor at mitsui
- tsukiji fish market -need i say more!!???
- eri-chan
- samurai
- ninja restaurant
- MPE's
- Family Mart
- Aoyama -itchome!!!
- Lesson No. 9!!! -adverts with Big Bird
- Astro Boy poster saying to stop illicit drugs!!!
- Wanted posters in sub-way equpped with helpful artist’s impressions of the effect of the ageing process….
- McDonalds Happy "Sets"
- Wham! xmas carols
- "popstar"
- I can't tell if the coffee at the *chemicals was bad or if the chemicals in the coffee were bad
- Scary smiling ladies with pink dresses and pink lace shoes
- Toyoda
- Steam cooked food thanks to sharp (to help control the pervading obesity problem in Japan- NOT!)
- The outfits of the two guides at Tokyo metro government (a bizarre cross of James bond henchmen and flight attendants)
- Skytime “Yuzu” (choose JAL for this reason alone!)
- Kirin Beer
- Crunk U
- Beer from vending machines
- Ramen
- Slurping noodles is ok, if not obligatory
- Tom Cruise, Last Samurai AKA Damon
- Apple Tea
- Soba Noodles
- Surgical Masks to stop colds spreading
- Opthamologist treatment for Pirate Eye
- Red Dragon : ingredients illegal in 37 countries, but not Japan
- Bins not being present, despite the streets being oddly clean
- Those comfortably uncomfortable bean pillows at Okatami Ryokan
- Not being handed samples of tissues or vouchers for karaoke
- Fake glases
- Graphic design T shirts, Graniph
- Being harrassed physically and sexually by deer (peta knows what I'm talking about)
- That brilliant guide at Hakone
- Fuji san hiding
- Hello Kitty EVERYTHING
- Izakaya
- Yoshinoya
- Aussie beef in Yoshinoya
- suuumimaasseeeeenn!!! (when calling for a waiter in a restaurant)
- Falling down stairs at the champagne club (Beth…..)
- Vomiting in Salsa Club (Sorry B!)
- Being chased by menacing African from Salsa Club
- Mopping up vomit with ineffectual cloth at Salsa Club
- Nap time at the ambassadors (sorry C!)
- Pinky peach mints
- Pianissimo Peche/Duos/Capri/Rose
- Wardrobe malfunctions (i.e. Beth and my trouser leg, Adelle and her heel...)
- Gaspanic cafe (huh?)
- Keith cakes
- Shouting out "Keith!" at the train station
- Being deafened when Adelle found Keith
- Charades with crazy ryokan ladies
- Drunken man passed out on genkan in Hakone
- Hankyu
- Sankyu Berry Muchie
- Happy Smile Christmas
- 200 Yen Dlinks
- Lets enjoy
- watering kiss mints
- bed up
- roppongi
- yoko san
- harajuku
- wah-oh-nine (109)
- hell-o
- it’s beautiful, it’s art, it’s new, it’s the vibe, it’s life….. yeah it’s just life
- melty kiss chocolate
- pocky
- pocky mens
- clorets
- CC Lemon
- Hot Vitamin
- pork buns
- AM PM
- Dogs in clothes
- hottokennai (MAKE POVERTY HISTORY - IN JAPAN)
- Uni-Qlo
- Pedestrian Paradise
- screaming irritating boy at Kabuki
- ineffectual translation and commentary at kabuki
- fish flavoured “candy” biscuits at kabuki
- host family generosity
- MOS Burger
- Turry's Coffee
- natto ("not suitable for foreigners")
- limosine buses
- chigasaki breeze
- volcanic sand
- karaoke
- as you can
- healin' feelin
- fake food (that one is for you caroline!)
- metro train (especially in peak hour)
- green tea
- okonomiyaki
- fresh whitebait
- umeshu AKA "prum wine"
- sho-chu
- free sho-chu from drunk salarymen
- asahi
- free asahi from drunk salarymen
- cassis
- sickening cocktails with 0.05% alcohol (or thereabouts)
- sho-chu RTD's
*sorry!- alcohol interlude*
- ecocement
- ecocement coffee (so environmental!)
- nippon steel
- gion
- geishas
- odaiba lemonade bottles with ball bearings
- yellow candy wrapped in dissolving rice paper (what was that called again??)
- braille footpaths
- opthamologists who smell like tomato sauce
- ninja restaraunt
- Harry Potter (say with Japanese accent!)
- "let's go people"
- ladies night- champagne included!
- chicken bizarro
- chicken abstracto
- tokyo style
- M-FLO (especially Vanessa)
- gingko trees (male AND female y'know!)
- gingko nuts
- egg custard
- onsen
- modesty towels
- modesty toilets
- heated toilet seats
- miscellaneous buttons in toilets
- hard gay
- japanese television generally!
PS- If you feel offended that I removed your comment- it was to save space- and because it must be really irritating for people to read "double-ups"!
Still lacking contributions from Elizabeth, Peta, Damon and Caroline and MPE's!
- Butter flavoured potato chips
- Teriyaki Boyz
- $2000 puppies
- 20 second zen exhale
- 6000 homeless in Ueno Park
- Yodobashi: God's gift to Geeks.
- I-Dog (cute or irritating….?)
- Koala...She's my Bitch
- Showing your neck is sexy
- Giving someone the finger either doesn't mean anything in Japan, or is THE most offensive gesture possible: I'm still not sure.
- Japanese girl's try to avoid becoming a xmas cake
- Factory uniforms make people look like serial killers.
- Butt-welded pipes are important
- The waitress at Denny's
- The world's smallest beer at Denny's
- Cuttlefish: A cruel joke, or something more sinister?
- So called 'coffee' from vending machines.
- Drunk guys shouting at us to drink beer at Tokyo University
- Hot sweet sake
- The Beatles Live 155
- Brainwashing Candy (Caroline……)
- Joypolis: Not quite as kinky as it sounds - but fun nevertheless
- Girls’ Box at Joypolis (what was this?????!!!)
- OJ in a cup in a bag: Overpackaging gone mad in a city with no bins.
- Smiling Robot Tour Guide at Toyota. Someone accidentally set her to 'Slow Walk' that day.
- Production line at Toyota- makes human’s seem terrifyingly redundant…….
- Showering together at the Crazy House Ryokan. It wasn't gay - I swear.
- Blood Type Fortunes
- Lucky charms for anything
- Nightinggale Floor Boards
- Ninja walk to avoid making nightingale floor boards squeak!
- Gum Syrup
- Cider meets Condensed Milk
- Panda Hotrods
- Geisha in an elevator in Hakone
- School Uniforms in Chigasaki
- Screaming children in high school in Chigasaki
- Signing pencil cases in Chigasaki
- I would like plastic model ... if it actually existed
- Vending machines
- 1 yen coins -damn they're annoying still have a small pile of them!
- construction hats
- huge glasses
- Aomarushin tempura
- Ginza
- Shibuya
- Akihabara
- Ueno Park
- Momiji leaves
- Kinkakuji
- ferris wheels
- love hotels (inc. Hotel “Pay-up”)
- Palette Town
- B-Flets!
- NTT
- Sakamoto Kyu "----da da da da da da da -aruko -ooooo"
- kimonos
- phone cards
- pim, pim pom
- Damon ----“Hey U..S..A!!!!”
- crunky
- air crunky
- dars
- ghana
- pinky
- nara
- crazy deer
- 23rd floor at mitsui
- 24th floor at mitsui
- tsukiji fish market -need i say more!!???
- eri-chan
- samurai
- ninja restaurant
- MPE's
- Family Mart
- Aoyama -itchome!!!
- Lesson No. 9!!! -adverts with Big Bird
- Astro Boy poster saying to stop illicit drugs!!!
- Wanted posters in sub-way equpped with helpful artist’s impressions of the effect of the ageing process….
- McDonalds Happy "Sets"
- Wham! xmas carols
- "popstar"
- I can't tell if the coffee at the *chemicals was bad or if the chemicals in the coffee were bad
- Scary smiling ladies with pink dresses and pink lace shoes
- Toyoda
- Steam cooked food thanks to sharp (to help control the pervading obesity problem in Japan- NOT!)
- The outfits of the two guides at Tokyo metro government (a bizarre cross of James bond henchmen and flight attendants)
- Skytime “Yuzu” (choose JAL for this reason alone!)
- Kirin Beer
- Crunk U
- Beer from vending machines
- Ramen
- Slurping noodles is ok, if not obligatory
- Tom Cruise, Last Samurai AKA Damon
- Apple Tea
- Soba Noodles
- Surgical Masks to stop colds spreading
- Opthamologist treatment for Pirate Eye
- Red Dragon : ingredients illegal in 37 countries, but not Japan
- Bins not being present, despite the streets being oddly clean
- Those comfortably uncomfortable bean pillows at Okatami Ryokan
- Not being handed samples of tissues or vouchers for karaoke
- Fake glases
- Graphic design T shirts, Graniph
- Being harrassed physically and sexually by deer (peta knows what I'm talking about)
- That brilliant guide at Hakone
- Fuji san hiding
- Hello Kitty EVERYTHING
- Izakaya
- Yoshinoya
- Aussie beef in Yoshinoya
- suuumimaasseeeeenn!!! (when calling for a waiter in a restaurant)
- Falling down stairs at the champagne club (Beth…..)
- Vomiting in Salsa Club (Sorry B!)
- Being chased by menacing African from Salsa Club
- Mopping up vomit with ineffectual cloth at Salsa Club
- Nap time at the ambassadors (sorry C!)
- Pinky peach mints
- Pianissimo Peche/Duos/Capri/Rose
- Wardrobe malfunctions (i.e. Beth and my trouser leg, Adelle and her heel...)
- Gaspanic cafe (huh?)
- Keith cakes
- Shouting out "Keith!" at the train station
- Being deafened when Adelle found Keith
- Charades with crazy ryokan ladies
- Drunken man passed out on genkan in Hakone
- Hankyu
- Sankyu Berry Muchie
- Happy Smile Christmas
- 200 Yen Dlinks
- Lets enjoy
- watering kiss mints
- bed up
- roppongi
- yoko san
- harajuku
- wah-oh-nine (109)
- hell-o
- it’s beautiful, it’s art, it’s new, it’s the vibe, it’s life….. yeah it’s just life
- melty kiss chocolate
- pocky
- pocky mens
- clorets
- CC Lemon
- Hot Vitamin
- pork buns
- AM PM
- Dogs in clothes
- hottokennai (MAKE POVERTY HISTORY - IN JAPAN)
- Uni-Qlo
- Pedestrian Paradise
- screaming irritating boy at Kabuki
- ineffectual translation and commentary at kabuki
- fish flavoured “candy” biscuits at kabuki
- host family generosity
- MOS Burger
- Turry's Coffee
- natto ("not suitable for foreigners")
- limosine buses
- chigasaki breeze
- volcanic sand
- karaoke
- as you can
- healin' feelin
- fake food (that one is for you caroline!)
- metro train (especially in peak hour)
- green tea
- okonomiyaki
- fresh whitebait
- umeshu AKA "prum wine"
- sho-chu
- free sho-chu from drunk salarymen
- asahi
- free asahi from drunk salarymen
- cassis
- sickening cocktails with 0.05% alcohol (or thereabouts)
- sho-chu RTD's
*sorry!- alcohol interlude*
- ecocement
- ecocement coffee (so environmental!)
- nippon steel
- gion
- geishas
- odaiba lemonade bottles with ball bearings
- yellow candy wrapped in dissolving rice paper (what was that called again??)
- braille footpaths
- opthamologists who smell like tomato sauce
- ninja restaraunt
- Harry Potter (say with Japanese accent!)
- "let's go people"
- ladies night- champagne included!
- chicken bizarro
- chicken abstracto
- tokyo style
- M-FLO (especially Vanessa)
- gingko trees (male AND female y'know!)
- gingko nuts
- egg custard
- onsen
- modesty towels
- modesty toilets
- heated toilet seats
- miscellaneous buttons in toilets
- hard gay
- japanese television generally!
PS- If you feel offended that I removed your comment- it was to save space- and because it must be really irritating for people to read "double-ups"!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Where do we live???
Excuse me? Can someone let me know what country this actually is??? Why the hell is there race-related violence on Sydney beaches?
For the benefit of people O/S- in the past few days there have been large gangs roaming the streets in Sydney and attacks on people of middle-eastern descent in Sydney- and then retaliatory attacks apparently by young Lebanese.
After my own recent extremely positive cross-cultural experiences in Japan, what is going on now makes me sick to the stomach. How is that on one hand people can be so tolerant, generous and willing to embrace diversity and on the other, prepared to hurt others based on their place of birth? All I can say is - thankfully, the majority of Australians are appalled and disgusted with this pointless violence and hatred, and that this rowdy mob certainly does not speak for me.
For the benefit of people O/S- in the past few days there have been large gangs roaming the streets in Sydney and attacks on people of middle-eastern descent in Sydney- and then retaliatory attacks apparently by young Lebanese.
After my own recent extremely positive cross-cultural experiences in Japan, what is going on now makes me sick to the stomach. How is that on one hand people can be so tolerant, generous and willing to embrace diversity and on the other, prepared to hurt others based on their place of birth? All I can say is - thankfully, the majority of Australians are appalled and disgusted with this pointless violence and hatred, and that this rowdy mob certainly does not speak for me.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
home.
Hello people!
I can once again use capitals and grammar because I am HOME!!!
I can't believe my Japanese adventure has ended, but now that it has, I intend to tell the entire world about what a fantastic place Japan is! (Or as close as I can get to the whole world...)
I am a little tired now- woke up in the middle of the night thinking "wow this hotel room looks a lot like my bedroom!" which was a rather weird experience... but when I catch up on my sleep and my body readjusts to western food, all will be well. All the tedious things like work, and organising my post-graduate legal training start now.
To wind up the Japan part of this blog I thought I would invite you to ask me questions about my experiences or things I have written about etc and I will endeavour to respond as best I can. So go for it!
I can once again use capitals and grammar because I am HOME!!!
I can't believe my Japanese adventure has ended, but now that it has, I intend to tell the entire world about what a fantastic place Japan is! (Or as close as I can get to the whole world...)
I am a little tired now- woke up in the middle of the night thinking "wow this hotel room looks a lot like my bedroom!" which was a rather weird experience... but when I catch up on my sleep and my body readjusts to western food, all will be well. All the tedious things like work, and organising my post-graduate legal training start now.
To wind up the Japan part of this blog I thought I would invite you to ask me questions about my experiences or things I have written about etc and I will endeavour to respond as best I can. So go for it!
Thursday, December 08, 2005
sad, sad, sad
next time i post on here i will be back in adelaide most likely.....
i am not ready to come home. this has been the most amazing trip of my life and i wish it didnt have to end! the people, the sights and the atmosphere have been unbelievable. farewell tokyo.
sad, sad , sad.
i am not ready to come home. this has been the most amazing trip of my life and i wish it didnt have to end! the people, the sights and the atmosphere have been unbelievable. farewell tokyo.
sad, sad , sad.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
i am ok!!!!
regarding my eye- the irritant remained in it all day, but just went to an opthamologist (random, random, random) and he pinced, of all things, a piece of bark from my eye. who woulda thunk it!!!
anyway, now that i am healed, time to do the crazy eye makeup for karaoke!!!!
anyway, now that i am healed, time to do the crazy eye makeup for karaoke!!!!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
tokyo my love town #2
so i forgot to write last night, that i had something in my eye all day yesterday and that it is all red and irritated and puffy. i hoped it might get better overnight but i woke up at 4 am and my eye had swollen virtually cloed (rocky eat ur heart out) but it is better now.... sort of. so the moral of the story is, i will meet the ambassador looking rather weird. fabulous.
tokyo my love town
can i just reiterate how much i love this place??? the title refers to a tshirt that can be bought here^ kinda cheesy-but when i find one- i am buying!!!! hehe.
so today we went to the tokyo municipal govt offices and took a tour. it was quite interesting especially considering that the area they are administering is two thirds the size of our national govt with a tiny fraction of the geographic size!! we also visited ntt docomo which is the biggest telecom company in japan. all i can say is - the future is now people!!! their internet is 50 times faster than our fastest. a 2 hour movie downloaded in living colour in just 5 mins!!! hello! but alas, the technology will not be coming to australia- docomo have the patent, and methinks they aint sharing!!!!!
we went out for dinnmer in harajuku tonight which is the young trendy part of town, well another one of them! the clothes and accessories are amazing, but despite my diet of fish and rice (and asahi....!), i still cant fit. actually i havent tried. might save that for my free day in my love town- thursday!!!!!
tomorrow we are meeting the australian ambassador to japan which is huge really.... hopefully my mind wont be on karaoke later that night with the awesome mitsui students the whole time i am disussing our bilateral relationship with japan...... hmmm
thursday i will be going to see harry potter, which will set me back about double the australian admission, but i consider pennies well spent.
speaking of pennies- it seems that i am burning money here even in spite of mitsui picking up virtually every tab. but with 3 days left i think i am in decent shape. might not be when i get home though..... )-: i still have one extravagant purchase to make with my mitsui travellers cheques!!! i intend to splurge on an anna sui purse. very hot! if i could find shoes to fit my clodhopping feet i would also splurge on them too, but all the girly ones are tiny... so it might have to be converse chuck taylors!!! at least the japanese designs will be unique (-:
so today we went to the tokyo municipal govt offices and took a tour. it was quite interesting especially considering that the area they are administering is two thirds the size of our national govt with a tiny fraction of the geographic size!! we also visited ntt docomo which is the biggest telecom company in japan. all i can say is - the future is now people!!! their internet is 50 times faster than our fastest. a 2 hour movie downloaded in living colour in just 5 mins!!! hello! but alas, the technology will not be coming to australia- docomo have the patent, and methinks they aint sharing!!!!!
we went out for dinnmer in harajuku tonight which is the young trendy part of town, well another one of them! the clothes and accessories are amazing, but despite my diet of fish and rice (and asahi....!), i still cant fit. actually i havent tried. might save that for my free day in my love town- thursday!!!!!
tomorrow we are meeting the australian ambassador to japan which is huge really.... hopefully my mind wont be on karaoke later that night with the awesome mitsui students the whole time i am disussing our bilateral relationship with japan...... hmmm
thursday i will be going to see harry potter, which will set me back about double the australian admission, but i consider pennies well spent.
speaking of pennies- it seems that i am burning money here even in spite of mitsui picking up virtually every tab. but with 3 days left i think i am in decent shape. might not be when i get home though..... )-: i still have one extravagant purchase to make with my mitsui travellers cheques!!! i intend to splurge on an anna sui purse. very hot! if i could find shoes to fit my clodhopping feet i would also splurge on them too, but all the girly ones are tiny... so it might have to be converse chuck taylors!!! at least the japanese designs will be unique (-:
Monday, December 05, 2005
kabuki kalamity
hmmm. kabuki. interesting...... a little dull. without commenting on the quality of what i saw tonight for i feel somewhat unqualified to assess quality, i will say, definitely, not my thing...... sorry kabuki officiandos.
came *home* tokyo today. this place is so cool and i am so happy to have three more days here.
but, that said, i have just experienced the most overwhelming hospitality and generosity with my host family in chigasaki. kobayashis- you are the best. chizu, risa nao and ally, thankyou so much! i had a fantastic weekend in this little surfer town one hour from tokyo. the experience of *everyday* japanese life is something i will never forget. and my luggage is literally twice as heavy as a consequence of the multiple gifts i have received. unbelievable kindness. overwhelming.
anyway, again, short post i apologise. the speed of events is crazy, but it will regretaby end soon. )-:bye!
came *home* tokyo today. this place is so cool and i am so happy to have three more days here.
but, that said, i have just experienced the most overwhelming hospitality and generosity with my host family in chigasaki. kobayashis- you are the best. chizu, risa nao and ally, thankyou so much! i had a fantastic weekend in this little surfer town one hour from tokyo. the experience of *everyday* japanese life is something i will never forget. and my luggage is literally twice as heavy as a consequence of the multiple gifts i have received. unbelievable kindness. overwhelming.
anyway, again, short post i apologise. the speed of events is crazy, but it will regretaby end soon. )-:bye!
Saturday, December 03, 2005
more photos
i am currently uploading some more pics to the blog- available for viewing any second.
and yes, that is a real geisha girl. i felt like paparazzi! there are only 200 i think in kyoto, so we were very lucky to see one. in other years groups havent been so lucky. kyoto was a breathtaking city, the picture of the leaves is not even 10 percent as vivid as in the real version!
i am going to kamakura today which should be good, lonely planet shall guide me i think, as risa is at work. chizu-san and nao-san are escorting me, so between their english and my japanese it should be a great day!!!! ;-)
and yes, that is a real geisha girl. i felt like paparazzi! there are only 200 i think in kyoto, so we were very lucky to see one. in other years groups havent been so lucky. kyoto was a breathtaking city, the picture of the leaves is not even 10 percent as vivid as in the real version!
i am going to kamakura today which should be good, lonely planet shall guide me i think, as risa is at work. chizu-san and nao-san are escorting me, so between their english and my japanese it should be a great day!!!! ;-)
Friday, December 02, 2005
chigasaki breeze, no english, no japanese!!!
aya!
i have been with my host family for approximately 4 hours, and already my arms are feeling tired as a consequence of the wild gesticulation i have been doing! only one person speaks english, and she is a teacher out of the house most of the day. aaaargh! it is quite funny though. chizu-san, the mum, made delicious okonomiyaki for dinner- i was so full i couldnt have the second course of noodles, but seriously, how japanese girls stay so thin with all the food they eat is beyond me!!!
anyway, went to the onsen last night in hakone, which was an amazing experience. not a co-educational one thankfully, and we foreigners were a bright white sight to behold in the baths, but it was fabulous. highly recommended everybody.
anyway, have 2 days here, which promise to be manic. keith- the mum is a tigers fan (baseball) and has already given me 2 presents for knowing that they won the championship this year (communicated with the able assistance of my phrasebook!) haha! apparently this weekend is supposed to be relaxing. i personally expect it will be anything but!!! oh well!
ps- sorry for brevity of posting lately. will try to get some more pics up over the weekend.
i have been with my host family for approximately 4 hours, and already my arms are feeling tired as a consequence of the wild gesticulation i have been doing! only one person speaks english, and she is a teacher out of the house most of the day. aaaargh! it is quite funny though. chizu-san, the mum, made delicious okonomiyaki for dinner- i was so full i couldnt have the second course of noodles, but seriously, how japanese girls stay so thin with all the food they eat is beyond me!!!
anyway, went to the onsen last night in hakone, which was an amazing experience. not a co-educational one thankfully, and we foreigners were a bright white sight to behold in the baths, but it was fabulous. highly recommended everybody.
anyway, have 2 days here, which promise to be manic. keith- the mum is a tigers fan (baseball) and has already given me 2 presents for knowing that they won the championship this year (communicated with the able assistance of my phrasebook!) haha! apparently this weekend is supposed to be relaxing. i personally expect it will be anything but!!! oh well!
ps- sorry for brevity of posting lately. will try to get some more pics up over the weekend.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
the other side of a common phenomenon
so the title of this brief post refers to the group experience in kyoto of perhaps, being the receiving end of racism. apparently kyoto is quite an insular place, and for this reason do not necesarily react to well to foreigners. it is subversive not overt, but i have frequently had the feeling of unwelcomeness, such as tonight when i wasnt allowed to try on a jumper in a shop..... but it is nonetheless one of the most beautful places i have ever seen.
anyway, am off to hakone bright and early in the morning. may not get to post until i get back to tokyo, but keep up the comments! thanks keith for posting that comment re homeless- mum- remember that 6000 homeless in a city of 12 million people is quite a small number, and they live in comparatively good conditions to australia and also receive assistance for buddhist organisations etc, so perhaps we shouldnt be too critical..... but it is sad and fascinating.
anyway am surrounded my crazy video gamers, some asleep and no doubt unwashed for 24 hours, in this internet cafe called healin feelin, and i feel far from healed. so am off for a quick bev with elzabeth peta and caroline, and then back to crazy ryokan!
anyway, am off to hakone bright and early in the morning. may not get to post until i get back to tokyo, but keep up the comments! thanks keith for posting that comment re homeless- mum- remember that 6000 homeless in a city of 12 million people is quite a small number, and they live in comparatively good conditions to australia and also receive assistance for buddhist organisations etc, so perhaps we shouldnt be too critical..... but it is sad and fascinating.
anyway am surrounded my crazy video gamers, some asleep and no doubt unwashed for 24 hours, in this internet cafe called healin feelin, and i feel far from healed. so am off for a quick bev with elzabeth peta and caroline, and then back to crazy ryokan!
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
kyoto, keith, krikey!
well, as the title may indicate, there is a slight story about how i almost did not see keith in kyoto!
you see, we missed each other at the arranged meeting point of kyoto station, and then, as luck would have it, his phone was not working so i could not contact him! lucky for us that fate decided that we would meet on the street outside out ryokan (our japanese inn in kyoto) in a somewhat random fashion. but in the end keith and i had a lovely meal, too much sake and plum wine- and all worked out well. but almost, almost, disaster did strike!
so now we are in kyoto staying at a crazy ryokan, with crazy ladies who enjoy playing charades with us when we are deciding what to have for breakfast and when to shower (in our communal shower- urgh!) all fun.
it is autumn here currently and the leaves are every shade of red and orange imaginable. the temples and shrines are breathtakingly beautiful and my camera is unable to do them justice. but it is trying.
speaking of pictures- i have uploaded some! so click the photo link on the left side of the blog to meet my excellent new friends and see me doing weird and wonderful stuff!
sorry if this post is schizophrenic btw, everyone else has finished on the computer and i am holding them up. not good!
saying goodbye to our mpe friends was very sad, but hopefully we will see them again next week... i have my homestay this weekend, plus the visit to the famous onsen in hakone (more communal nudity- very nerve racking for this gaijin- foreigner!) so all systems are go. keith has promised to meet the demand for more info re the homeless in ueno park for those of you that are interested- so keith if ur out there...... ;-)
btw- mum and dad my cough has gone. miraculous. must be all the sake and beer?? i really am not drinking that much here, but the weekend was, shall we say, big??!
ok better go join the other crazy kids. loving this place. definitely coming back. xx
you see, we missed each other at the arranged meeting point of kyoto station, and then, as luck would have it, his phone was not working so i could not contact him! lucky for us that fate decided that we would meet on the street outside out ryokan (our japanese inn in kyoto) in a somewhat random fashion. but in the end keith and i had a lovely meal, too much sake and plum wine- and all worked out well. but almost, almost, disaster did strike!
so now we are in kyoto staying at a crazy ryokan, with crazy ladies who enjoy playing charades with us when we are deciding what to have for breakfast and when to shower (in our communal shower- urgh!) all fun.
it is autumn here currently and the leaves are every shade of red and orange imaginable. the temples and shrines are breathtakingly beautiful and my camera is unable to do them justice. but it is trying.
speaking of pictures- i have uploaded some! so click the photo link on the left side of the blog to meet my excellent new friends and see me doing weird and wonderful stuff!
sorry if this post is schizophrenic btw, everyone else has finished on the computer and i am holding them up. not good!
saying goodbye to our mpe friends was very sad, but hopefully we will see them again next week... i have my homestay this weekend, plus the visit to the famous onsen in hakone (more communal nudity- very nerve racking for this gaijin- foreigner!) so all systems are go. keith has promised to meet the demand for more info re the homeless in ueno park for those of you that are interested- so keith if ur out there...... ;-)
btw- mum and dad my cough has gone. miraculous. must be all the sake and beer?? i really am not drinking that much here, but the weekend was, shall we say, big??!
ok better go join the other crazy kids. loving this place. definitely coming back. xx
Sunday, November 27, 2005
karaoke, cocktails and new friends!
well, i cant possibly do justice to the weekend i have just had in the 8 minutes i have on here. and especially not at 6.20 in the morning, which is the time right now! we are getting the train to nagoya today to visit toyota and then on to kyoto tonight.
i have quite possibly just had the best weekend of my life- we have been taken out by 8 of the mitsui graduate employees, not spent a cent, and done things including karaoke, dinner at a ninja restaraunt, visited tokyo university or a university festival（fabulous) and visited shibuya and harajuka- the young cool districts of tokyo (well 2 of them anyway). we also visited odaiba apparently the best "date spot" in tokyo..... there was an amusement park there, and what was, before the london eye, the biggest ferris wheel in the world. absolutely beautiful!
our guides were absolutely fanatastic and i am sure that i have made some close friends amongst them. mpes if you are reading this- you guys rule. i hope to catch you again later in the trip.
well gotta go! will write more soon from kyoto!
i have quite possibly just had the best weekend of my life- we have been taken out by 8 of the mitsui graduate employees, not spent a cent, and done things including karaoke, dinner at a ninja restaraunt, visited tokyo university or a university festival（fabulous) and visited shibuya and harajuka- the young cool districts of tokyo (well 2 of them anyway). we also visited odaiba apparently the best "date spot" in tokyo..... there was an amusement park there, and what was, before the london eye, the biggest ferris wheel in the world. absolutely beautiful!
our guides were absolutely fanatastic and i am sure that i have made some close friends amongst them. mpes if you are reading this- you guys rule. i hope to catch you again later in the trip.
well gotta go! will write more soon from kyoto!
Friday, November 25, 2005
crunkyou very much
i ate some chocolate called "crunky" today...... hence the title. need i say more, really??
well just checked my exam marks, and have just discovered i must have done very poorly in the evidence exam because my grade is quite dismal..... claude- if u are out there- i want a re-mark! i am serious!
anyway, we have spent the last couple of days doing technical visits to factories in the chiba prefecture. we vistited nippon steel yesterday and ichihara eco-cement and mitsui chemicals today. the tours consist of an video that we assume is shown mainly to potential investors and then a guide (mainly young females) show you around the plant. we have caught tokyo metro in peak hour too which is... hmmm... how shall i say, an experience?? people are squished into carriages like sardines, and stand there calmly, resigned to their fate.
one of the highlights thus far is yoko-san our tour guide- or as i prefer to call her "encyclopaedia japanica". she is a pocket rocket, zipping us across tokyo faster than a speeding bullet, and full of pearls of wisdom about everything from love hotels to gingko trees. she is an absolute champione (say with french accent-hence the "e").
but the real excitement is going to come this weekend. graduates who will start with mitsui next year have been given a bucket load of cash to take us out over the weekend and show us a good time. we are going to al sorts of places including tokyo university for some sort of festival, shinjuku to do ceramic making and shibuya for shopping and karaoke. we are also going to odaiba on sunday which is apparently "the best date spot in tokyo".
should be massive so may not get to post until i arrive in kyoto on monday, where, incidentally i will be catching up with keith my old chum from liquorland. anyway, better get an early night before the weekend!!!!! much love people!
well just checked my exam marks, and have just discovered i must have done very poorly in the evidence exam because my grade is quite dismal..... claude- if u are out there- i want a re-mark! i am serious!
anyway, we have spent the last couple of days doing technical visits to factories in the chiba prefecture. we vistited nippon steel yesterday and ichihara eco-cement and mitsui chemicals today. the tours consist of an video that we assume is shown mainly to potential investors and then a guide (mainly young females) show you around the plant. we have caught tokyo metro in peak hour too which is... hmmm... how shall i say, an experience?? people are squished into carriages like sardines, and stand there calmly, resigned to their fate.
one of the highlights thus far is yoko-san our tour guide- or as i prefer to call her "encyclopaedia japanica". she is a pocket rocket, zipping us across tokyo faster than a speeding bullet, and full of pearls of wisdom about everything from love hotels to gingko trees. she is an absolute champione (say with french accent-hence the "e").
but the real excitement is going to come this weekend. graduates who will start with mitsui next year have been given a bucket load of cash to take us out over the weekend and show us a good time. we are going to al sorts of places including tokyo university for some sort of festival, shinjuku to do ceramic making and shibuya for shopping and karaoke. we are also going to odaiba on sunday which is apparently "the best date spot in tokyo".
should be massive so may not get to post until i arrive in kyoto on monday, where, incidentally i will be catching up with keith my old chum from liquorland. anyway, better get an early night before the weekend!!!!! much love people!
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
heated toilet seats!
as the title suggests, today was my first experience of what i assume is a distinctly japanese phenomenon! but toilet stories are for a later time...
this place is amazing. today was a national holiday, but most retail things were open^ it is apparently only office workers who get to take the day off. we went to a stack of places inclusing ueno park, a big park in the middle of tokyo where 6000 homeless people live in permanent shelters, and where there a thousands of gorgeous cheery blossom trees. we also went to the national museum which was fantastic, and equipped with many extremely helpful english speaking guides with encyclopeadic knowledge of their exhibits. we visited the big electronics district, the name of which escapes me, but which confirms the stereotyoe of japan as mecca electronica! we ended the day in ginza, where the land is woth 15 million yen per square metre, and which had exceptional shopping. girls, i found the hottest handbag, only 5250 yen (60 dollars) and leather!
perhaps the highlight of the day was dinner in a japanese pub, where we befriended a table of middle aged salary men who then went on to buy us several bottles of beer! another table provided a marriage proposal for peta- one of the girls in the group. hilarious, will try to get pics on tonight.
some further observations on japan.....
uniformity- i have noticed that japanese women have uniformly nice figures, japanese people are uniformly stylish, and all are uniformly well-mannered! however, despite the uniformity in these areas, the place exudes diversity and eclectic-ness- there is really something for everyone here. the weather is surprisingly mild, the winter coat i brought is apparently redundant. slightly annoying given that it weighs a lot, but i suppose there are worse things than carrying wool coats in your bag.
anyway, despite the plush surroundings of cafe 246 where i find myself enjoying rosehip tea, jazz and free internet, my eyes are heavy and my cough a little irritating for those around me. so until next time, sayonara!
this place is amazing. today was a national holiday, but most retail things were open^ it is apparently only office workers who get to take the day off. we went to a stack of places inclusing ueno park, a big park in the middle of tokyo where 6000 homeless people live in permanent shelters, and where there a thousands of gorgeous cheery blossom trees. we also went to the national museum which was fantastic, and equipped with many extremely helpful english speaking guides with encyclopeadic knowledge of their exhibits. we visited the big electronics district, the name of which escapes me, but which confirms the stereotyoe of japan as mecca electronica! we ended the day in ginza, where the land is woth 15 million yen per square metre, and which had exceptional shopping. girls, i found the hottest handbag, only 5250 yen (60 dollars) and leather!
perhaps the highlight of the day was dinner in a japanese pub, where we befriended a table of middle aged salary men who then went on to buy us several bottles of beer! another table provided a marriage proposal for peta- one of the girls in the group. hilarious, will try to get pics on tonight.
some further observations on japan.....
uniformity- i have noticed that japanese women have uniformly nice figures, japanese people are uniformly stylish, and all are uniformly well-mannered! however, despite the uniformity in these areas, the place exudes diversity and eclectic-ness- there is really something for everyone here. the weather is surprisingly mild, the winter coat i brought is apparently redundant. slightly annoying given that it weighs a lot, but i suppose there are worse things than carrying wool coats in your bag.
anyway, despite the plush surroundings of cafe 246 where i find myself enjoying rosehip tea, jazz and free internet, my eyes are heavy and my cough a little irritating for those around me. so until next time, sayonara!
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
tokyo tokyo
well, after my 10 hour flight i am finally here, struggling to type on this keyboard that insists on changing back to japanese characters and confusing me, but nonetheless i have 8 minutes to update you!
yesterday was an amazing day in sydney. i will upload the pics tomorrow, but in short, i spent the day at the mitsui australia offices on the 42nd floor of the axa building with the most amazing view of circular quay. we were given several briefings on the company itself (the one that organises this trip) and japanese culture and customs. we also met the mitsui educational foundation trustees, who included amongst others, john menadue (former ambassador to japan) and bill purcell (the pro vice-chancellor of newcastle uni) all of whom were interesting and had interesting insights upon japan which i was grateful to hear. we ate tea at doyles opposite the opera house where australian idol was being decided. in conjunction with my 3.30am start, the entire experience was surreal!
the flight today was fine, although as usual on long flights, i didnt get nearly enough sleep. we landed here at about 530 and then had a 90 minute ride into tokyo. there were the 9 of us on a massive "limosine" coach which was bizarre- the bus couldnt fit down the street of our hotel so we had a short walk but that was cool- helped to wake me up somewhat.
one of the first things i notice about any country when i step off the plane is the smell- every country smells different. tokyo air smells clean- fragranced air wafts from open doors, but there is also a slightly indutrial smell in the air too- i suppose it comes from having so many people, machines and cars etc in such close proximity. it smells unlike anywhere else i have been- not like hong kong or bangkok. having been here only a matter of hours this is one of my first observations.
the second is economy of space. my room at the hotel is compact to say the least- i reckon it would fit at least 5 times in my bedroom at home. the bathroom is raised up off the floor in a little compartment and the closet too, is tucked neatly away- so much so that i couldnt find it! i have only spent about 5 minutes in there so far, but after i finish typing this i will be back up there.
we briefly walked up to roppongi which is (i think) a big shopping, nightclub "tourist" type place but as we are all quite tired so we just go there, gawked, took some photos and then walked back.
the other 7 people on this tour with me are great- they seem to have picked a friendly down-to-earth bunch- and after knowing each other less than 2 days we are all get along famously!! the good thing is, that girls outnumber boys 5-3 so when it comes time for democratic decisions on matters such as whether to go shopping or do something else, i am confident that the former will frequently win out. yay! ;-)
tomorrow is a sight-seeing day, but i should get a chance to upload some pics tomorrow night i hope. if not you will have to put up with my unpunctuated prose. (actually its the keyboard not me!) see u soon!
yesterday was an amazing day in sydney. i will upload the pics tomorrow, but in short, i spent the day at the mitsui australia offices on the 42nd floor of the axa building with the most amazing view of circular quay. we were given several briefings on the company itself (the one that organises this trip) and japanese culture and customs. we also met the mitsui educational foundation trustees, who included amongst others, john menadue (former ambassador to japan) and bill purcell (the pro vice-chancellor of newcastle uni) all of whom were interesting and had interesting insights upon japan which i was grateful to hear. we ate tea at doyles opposite the opera house where australian idol was being decided. in conjunction with my 3.30am start, the entire experience was surreal!
the flight today was fine, although as usual on long flights, i didnt get nearly enough sleep. we landed here at about 530 and then had a 90 minute ride into tokyo. there were the 9 of us on a massive "limosine" coach which was bizarre- the bus couldnt fit down the street of our hotel so we had a short walk but that was cool- helped to wake me up somewhat.
one of the first things i notice about any country when i step off the plane is the smell- every country smells different. tokyo air smells clean- fragranced air wafts from open doors, but there is also a slightly indutrial smell in the air too- i suppose it comes from having so many people, machines and cars etc in such close proximity. it smells unlike anywhere else i have been- not like hong kong or bangkok. having been here only a matter of hours this is one of my first observations.
the second is economy of space. my room at the hotel is compact to say the least- i reckon it would fit at least 5 times in my bedroom at home. the bathroom is raised up off the floor in a little compartment and the closet too, is tucked neatly away- so much so that i couldnt find it! i have only spent about 5 minutes in there so far, but after i finish typing this i will be back up there.
we briefly walked up to roppongi which is (i think) a big shopping, nightclub "tourist" type place but as we are all quite tired so we just go there, gawked, took some photos and then walked back.
the other 7 people on this tour with me are great- they seem to have picked a friendly down-to-earth bunch- and after knowing each other less than 2 days we are all get along famously!! the good thing is, that girls outnumber boys 5-3 so when it comes time for democratic decisions on matters such as whether to go shopping or do something else, i am confident that the former will frequently win out. yay! ;-)
tomorrow is a sight-seeing day, but i should get a chance to upload some pics tomorrow night i hope. if not you will have to put up with my unpunctuated prose. (actually its the keyboard not me!) see u soon!
Monday, November 14, 2005
count down time
Well, exams are finished. I managed to party hard enough at the end of Legal Ethics to make myself sick! I now have 6 days to get rid of this delightful combination of cold/hayfever.... quite a challenge.
You may also have noticed that I have managed to get a photo stream set-up... i have put a couple of pics from Alicia and Dan's engagement party on Saturday night. If you think i look tired- I was....! I got my new camera on Saturday- a very sexy Nikon S1- so hopefully it delivers the goods. I need to sit down and read the manual I suppose, but all my concentration was used up on exams!
Anyways, perhaps next time you hear from me I will be in Tokyo which is a whole lot more exciting than sitting at home on my computer, as if that needs to be said..... Until then... hopefully my brain recovers so that I can write something intelligent on here!
You may also have noticed that I have managed to get a photo stream set-up... i have put a couple of pics from Alicia and Dan's engagement party on Saturday night. If you think i look tired- I was....! I got my new camera on Saturday- a very sexy Nikon S1- so hopefully it delivers the goods. I need to sit down and read the manual I suppose, but all my concentration was used up on exams!
Anyways, perhaps next time you hear from me I will be in Tokyo which is a whole lot more exciting than sitting at home on my computer, as if that needs to be said..... Until then... hopefully my brain recovers so that I can write something intelligent on here!
Thursday, November 03, 2005
premature excitement?
Hmm, I feel i may have erred somewhat in starting my blog a month out from leaving!
How the hell do I maintain the intensity for three more weeks till I go to Japan? Nonetheless, thanks to all my pals (and their mums!) for posting.
Also, I can ZERO credit for the layout of the blog- it is template thing as my fellow bloggers would know! But the Make Poverty History band is easy to put on, just click it and you can get one too!
Hard to believe that in a week I will be finished exams, and finished Uni at Adelaide forever, and my Law degree altogether! Sort of sad :-(
Anyways, enough sentimental-ness, I have the Law of Evidence to revise, and Law of Ethics to learn from scratch. Yikes. Hopefully none of my teachers are reading this.... Some good news is that I will have a new digital camera soon to put some piccies on here of my last days of uni etc etc.
Right, no more babbling.
How the hell do I maintain the intensity for three more weeks till I go to Japan? Nonetheless, thanks to all my pals (and their mums!) for posting.
Also, I can ZERO credit for the layout of the blog- it is template thing as my fellow bloggers would know! But the Make Poverty History band is easy to put on, just click it and you can get one too!
Hard to believe that in a week I will be finished exams, and finished Uni at Adelaide forever, and my Law degree altogether! Sort of sad :-(
Anyways, enough sentimental-ness, I have the Law of Evidence to revise, and Law of Ethics to learn from scratch. Yikes. Hopefully none of my teachers are reading this.... Some good news is that I will have a new digital camera soon to put some piccies on here of my last days of uni etc etc.
Right, no more babbling.
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