Recent happenings

I have finally got my UK phone unlocked, so I can use it with my Indonesian SIM card. This has allowed me to finally take part in authentic modern Jakartan culture. I went to the mall, hung out, and fucked about on my flashy hand phone while watching other people buy stuff. Brilliant.

I have been working Saturdays for the past month. It’s a pain in the arse because as well as starting at 930 on Saturday morning, its four hours long. I’ve been going out all day afterwards, meaning I’m tired all day Sunday, and then straight back to work on the Monday. It seems as if I’m never away from the school. The Saturday class is business English, so they are much more motivated and mature than my normal students; I can actually talk and have an intelligent discussion with them - a marked difference from my normal classes of hyperactive eight year olds or stroppy monosyllabic teenagers.

What’s worse is I am now embroiled in what my school calls ‘Summer Fun’. It means I have to start work at 10am everyday and work until 7ish, in addition to working on Saturday. I have it quite easy though, other teachers start at 10 and work until 9 in the evening. The class I teach in the morning is a “conversation” class. While I have nothing against conversation classes per se, I don’t like the way my school sets them up. The classes are too big, it is not possible to have a ten person conversation, and some of the students are too low a level. If you can’t (or won’t) ask and answer simple questions you have no place in a conversation class. 

Jogjakarta

A few weeks back I had a long weekend, so flew to Jogjakarta for a few days. Jogja, as it is normally known, is a Javanese cultural centre and a good base for exploring the surrounding area. The city itself is much like the other Javanese cities I’ve visited; the big draw is the presence of several temples an hours drive away. Before heading out sightseeing I first had to sample the cities food. Jogjan food is famous for two things; nasi gudeg, and nasi kucing. The former is a very sweet and spicy chicken dish cooked with jack fruit, and the latter translates as cat rice. Since Java is not Sulawesi (where they tuck into delights such as dog, rat and bat), this isn't actually cat with rice, but very small portions that are only enough to feed a cat. There are whole streets in Jogja selling this stuff, where students lounge around chatting and getting their main meal of the day for about 20p. 

While I was there, it was the annual Vesak celebration, a Buddhist festival commemorating the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha. Monks from all over the region come to the temple of Borobudur for the celebration, which involves a procession to the temple followed by prayers, chanting and meditation. The atmosphere felt quite sacred, as most of those watching seemed to be Buddhist as well, so took the whole thing very seriously. The monks then moved through the crowd sprinkling holy water, and I'm pleased to report that some hit me, so I may well be blessed. The monks would then have walked seven times around the temple, but I didn't get to see this as it had started to rain, so I scuttled off to find somewhere to hide. As interesting as the celebration was, it meant the temple was closed for the duration, so I was unable to climb to the top. Photos of the monks, and a few of the temple here: www.flickr.com/photos/amnewman.

Also in the vicinity of Jogja is the Hindu temple complex Prambanan. They are very beautiful, more so because they are set in some lovely green and well maintained gardens, a distinct rarity in these parts. I could happily have spent the rest of the day chilling out and watching some of the dances troupes in the area, but I had to get back for my flight. 

Many times I've wondered, when I've got out of a car and left the door open, whether anyone would be fool enough to drive into it. I lived in the UK for 32 years without it happening; after five months in Indonesia, and two days in Jogjakarta, it finally has. I got out of my taxi at the airport, and in the time it had taken me to check to see if I had all my belongings, a lorry had driven into the open taxi door and got itself stuck. The driver did seem to be reasonably alert, he noticed my shouts and stopped to allow me to free the door, before driving off leaving me with an irate taxi driver to contend with. 

Dentistry Indonesian style...

I started to have some tooth pain a while back, with one of my wisdom teeth making a concerted break for freedom. The area around the tooth became swollen and infected, I couldn’t really open or close my mouth, it was very painful, and I developed a fever. It got so bad that I was actually looking forward to a trip to the dentist – certainly a novel experience. I decided against one of the numerous backstreet dentists and went to the very new, very modern hospital just down the road. It’s a very shiny professional place, where they gave me some antibiotics and advised me to have it removed. The antibiotics were amazing, they killed the infection straight off, but I’ve yet to have the tooth removed. A dentist friend back home generally recommends against extraction, so I'm going with this option at the moment; mainly because I'm a coward, but also because every time I go to a privately run hospital I always have a suspicion that they are trying to sell me procedure that I don't necessarily need. However, if it gets infected again, I shall have to have it removed.