quick update

Selamat natal everyone! I hope you all enjoyed merry Christmases. Things here have been good so far minus a bout with some horrible illness I caught on Christmas day. I must have been a bad girl all year. I woke up Christmas morning at 4:00am with a headache so bad I thought my skull was going to split in half and my brains were going to explode and shoot out my head like a bloody eruption. After that, I put on mosquito repellant, attempted to eat breakfast, then went on a six hour trek through the jungle. I'll tell more about that later when I can upload the amazing pictures of eight wild orangutans we encountered at a very close distance and even got to feed! But this blog is all about complaining and making everyone feel bad for me so please, allow me to continue. During the trek I was gradually overcome with nausea and my head now felt like it was shrinking into the nape of my neck, throbbing during the process. When I finally returned back to our lodge via five tubes tied together by rope down a wild river dressed in an amazing palm leaf headdress and skirt (made for me by my guides), I unfortunately had to decline going down to the river for a dip as I thought I was already too near to death. During my freezing cold shower where the power went out, I thought my insides had literally frozen. I crawled into bed and shivered, fevered, felt intense stomach and head pains and tried to eat a piece of toast. Missed dinner and had to wake up early to take a three hour bus ride to Medan followed by a two hour plane ride to Jakarta followed by a two hour layover in Jakarta airport (the most obnoxious airport ever built) followed by a two hour plane ride to Lombok followed by a one and a half hour bus ride to our resort where we arrived at 1:00am. By that point I was certain I would not live to see another day. I felt like death and had by then obtained a fever and chills and was nearly doubled over in pain. From there I spent the evening liquidizing my assets and distributing them at the porcelain bank if you catch my drift. Yesterday was a good day though. Felt a little better and continued my cleansing process (it's a great diet this illness apart from how horrible it feels) and got a little sun burn on my nose. Today I might be ready to eat something as I am happy to announce I had a normal bowel movement not long ago. With that, I am ready to sign off. Love you all very much. More upon my return to Palembang! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Selamat Natal dan tahub baru!

indonesian lesson

cumi is squid and babi is pork

my new room

neil moved to the philippines, tom moved into 

neil's house and i moved into tom's room.  look

at all that natural light!  i just love it! what i don't

love is that lime green lamp.  i HATE lime green.

love the chair but the cushion is not sturdy and rests very 

precariously on two narrow pieces of wood.  i have already nearly 

fallen through it twice.  imagine it.  it's hilarious to think about.

the condensation from my cold room and the warm outdoors.  

i play christmas music and pretend there has just been a blizzard outside.

here's that breakfast i was telling you about in my last post.  YUM!

view from my room.  note the awesome balcony i have.

citronella candles to ward off the evil mosquitos.

my self portrait.  better from a distance.

see what i mean?  it's all just a little wrong but i will keep practicing.

Top Ten Randoms Part I

There comes a time (or for some, many times) in every blogger's life when they have nothing exciting to report.  Luckily for you, I always have something exciting to report and I always wait days at a time to tell you, my millions of viewers, so that you are always kept on your toes.  In this present blog, I will be introducing a new entry listing ten random things going on in my life.  Enjoy.

10.) I noticed today with some great alarm that the ceiling fan in the kitchen seems to be held together with duct tape.

9.) My yoga instructor wants to know if I'll teach a class at her studio.  That would be maybe the most hilarious thing ever.

8.) Kim Jong-Il is dead.

7.) Will Kim Jong-Un live up to his father's legacy?  Read this to learn more: "Kim Jong-Un Privately Doubting He's Crazy Enough to Run North Korea"

6.) As usual, and Kunming can attest to this, I am keeping my room at shockingly cold temperatures and currently shivering and trembling with lack of heat, covered in goosebumps and rapidly losing feeling, movement and control over my limbs.

5.) I am going to take a break to eat something now.  I will post a picture of it later.  

4.) Since I arrived, I have watched twenty-two movies, read six books, and documented sixty-one dreams.

3.) As much as I loathe, detest and abhor road trips, I think I will take one across the country upon my return to the Land of the Free.  I better do it because I'm not getting any younger and I don't know how else to deal with my quarter life crisis.  

2.) I'm working on a self portrait.  It never fails to amuse me that my eyes, nose and mouth are all pretty much the same size and shape.  I could potentially draw two extra eyes in the place of my nose and mouth and you might not notice a difference at quick glance.

1.) I want to say something like, "Now, what are your Top Ten Randoms?  Leave a comment!  LOL!  BRB!  TTYL!" but I am certain that no one will reply and it will disappoint me so instead I will say that I'm leaving on holiday from December 23rd-January 2nd and may not post anything until my return.  Everyone enjoy their holidays!  Love you all!

traditional muslim wedding

on sunday we were invited to nanda's wedding.  she and her husband are both muslim and were having a traditional wedding in her parents' village at nine IN THE MORNING.  crazy.  since the village was two hours away, we all got up and left around seven.  the ceremony didn't start until maybe ten or something.

when we got there, because we are foreigners, they made us sit at the front VIP section (where usually the parents of the betrothed in a modern wedding would sit) in leather couches that they moved outside which was a little strange because we don't know nanda that well. 

when the wedding starts, there are friends and family members that walk down the aisle carrying loads of gifts that are supposed to represent presents that the groom is going to give to the bride (i think this is what is happening from hilda's explanation).  they place it all on the stage, then the bride and groom sit in their thrones and the parents of the bride and groom sit in their thrones.  soon after, women in traditional costumes do a dance with the bride and then a circle is formed with a bunch of men to do prayers for the couple.  after that there appeared to be some very long speeches then the bride and groom shook hands with all the men in the prayer circle and sat back down.  afterwards, everyone enjoyed the buffet, took pictures and went home.

it's strange though, no one really pays attention to anything going on in the wedding.  everyone in the audience just hangs out and talks to each other, smokes cigarettes, gets up and comes back with an ice cream bar to eat.  the parents of the groom were up on stage falling asleep and playing on their phones, the groom looked like he had better things to do and even the bride was playing on her phone during all of this.  strange.  but it was a great experience and the village people and houses were so beautiful.  sorry for all the text.  here are some pictures:

the blue kitchen in nanda's parents' house

all the muslim women sat on the bride's side

nanda and her husband in their amazing traditional costumes

the dancers

here are the gifts that the groom is supposed to give to the bride

all laid out on the stage (parents of the groom seated in the back)

the couple seated on their thrones

the dance

it was probably just her turn on words with friends

about three hours into the wedding

beef rending, fish, rice, veggies, chicken.  delicious.

okay so now this next picture is with the bride and groom.  

the gentleman taking pictures told me he would take a picture 

with my camera.  i said okay.  this is what he gave back to me:

yeah, that's me behind the pole.  hilarious.

i gave it to someone else to try.  much better.  (left to right: unknown man, wulan (steve's wife) with little adinda, hilda, kurt, annie, groom, nanda, me, steve, serena, nick, regina, gandi, unknown man)

oh and another thing, they don't seem to believe it garbage cans so by the end of it, the ground was literally covered in water bottles and ice cream bar wrappers.  everywhere!  there was a kid who couldn't finish the food in her hand so her mother just told her to throw it on the ground.  

another kitchen picture

the lovely village houses

village gals

the people in the village were so friendly and cheerfully welcomed my picture taking

ladders and purchases

no big deal, just sitting on someone's bike carrying a ladder

i went to the book/art store at the mall today and got carried away 

in the envelope, paper and pen aisles.  hi-tec-c pens!  i was in heaven.

bakpia

'Bakpia Pathok（Chinese:肉饼）are small round-shaped Indonesian pastries, usually stuffed with mung beans, but have recently come in other fillings as well (e.g. chocolate, durian, and even cheese). They are one of Yogyakarta's specialties named after a "suburb" in this city (Pathok) where these sweet pastries were originated.  -wikipedia

my lovely student brought me some and they were so delicious!  we had the 

keju (cheese) filled ones but they did not at all taste like cheese.  good with coffee.

and these are just some amazing noodles i had the other day.

drawings

i've been really into graph paper lately.  here are some recent doodles.

  

i finally got around to organizing the stationery supplies i brought with me.  

i had a hard time figuring out where to put my pens and 

where to put my tapes then suddenly an idea popped into my head!

your indonesian language lesson for the day.