Waiter, there's a face in my soup...
I have officially been a teacher for a week and a half. How am I doing? Not sure, but I have learned a lot about the fall of Rome in the past few days! Huzzah for teaching history...with my top-secret Harvard history degree and all. Ha. Anyway, Indonesia never ceases to amaze me. Every day, it's something new and, while sometimes scary, pretty entertaining.
This past weekend, Travis and I went on a day trip to Krakatau, a big volcanic island formation off the coast of West Java (or as everyone from Indonesia says, Jawa) with six other expats-Murray and Astrida, Kale, Katie and Dane and Sally. If you've never heard of Krakatau, check this out: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/southeast_asia/indonesia/krakatau.html
Cool place. We took an hour-long boat ride out to Anak Krakatau, the newest and currently rather active volcano. The volcano itself was just smoking a little, but we still could land on one side of it. We climbed (and when I say we I mean not myself, who weenied out halfway up the hill) basically halfway up the mountain. The heat got to me a little-I've never been able to handle heat well, and the temperature combined with the black, black volcanic sand was not good. But the view from my little spot on the shade was still gorgeous, so I was happy. After the hike, we got back on the boat and went to another of the islands-one that wasn't quite as, uh, active. We had lunch and then went out a ways in the boat to snorkel. I've never snorkeled before. The reef we were on was absolutely gorgeous-I couldn't believe all the fish and other sealife we saw. I really missed Ethan Domsch at this point, because I kept seeing fish that looked like the ones on Finding Nemo, and I was thinking about how excited he'd be. Snorkeling was great, though I did swallow my share of saltwater. Gack.
We didn't get home until almost midnight, mostly because we'd made a side trip into Jakarta to eat a late dinner at Outback Steakhouse-great because we were eating there with actual Australians (who were thoroughly annoyed with the pseudo-Aussie crap on the walls) and also because it's the only place you can find Ranch dressing in all of Indonesia. Anyway, here in Bukit Sentul, the residential water supply is shut off every day from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. This is because water is low during the dry season and because of deforestation. It's normally not a big deal, because we're asleep then, and if we get up to use the bathroom, there's still enough water left in the pipes. So we didn't get a shower, but figured we'd just take them in the morning and deal with being gross and salty for one night. Right. Woke up Sunday morning and there was NO water. Apparently, the water was going to be shut off Sunday and Monday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., just to replenish the supply some more. I was VERY CRABBY. Travis practically had to hide my credit card so I wouldn't hop on the next plane home-his rationale being that the water would be back on before I got home, anyway. So yeah, that was fun. Looking back, though, it's pretty funny.
Food here is also interesting. I actually really like a lot of the food here, but some of it...ack. Those of you who have eaten at Janzow...NEVER ever ever will I ever complain again about sucky macaroni and cheese or scary casseroles. NEVER. Monday, the main menu item here at SPH was fish. Not a friendly breaded stick or patty. A FISH. With a FACE. Not only did the fish have faces, they had TEETH. They looked like someone had taken an entire live fish, thrown it in cooking oil and served it on a tray. FOOD SHOULD NEVER LOOK AT YOU. Nor should food ever have teeth with which it could bite you back. Ever. Tell me, WHAT about a whole fish with teeth says "Eat me, I'm tasty!" ??? Nature should provide little labels saying "food" and "definitely not food," because apparently teeth aren't obvious enough. Ah, Indo-food.
Anyway, things here are pretty good. Like I said, there are a few things nearly every day that make Travis and I stop and go, "What the...?" But we always can laugh about it later, so that's good. Ironed underwear, eat-or-be-eaten lunches...things here will never be boring.
This past weekend, Travis and I went on a day trip to Krakatau, a big volcanic island formation off the coast of West Java (or as everyone from Indonesia says, Jawa) with six other expats-Murray and Astrida, Kale, Katie and Dane and Sally. If you've never heard of Krakatau, check this out: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/southeast_asia/indonesia/krakatau.html
Cool place. We took an hour-long boat ride out to Anak Krakatau, the newest and currently rather active volcano. The volcano itself was just smoking a little, but we still could land on one side of it. We climbed (and when I say we I mean not myself, who weenied out halfway up the hill) basically halfway up the mountain. The heat got to me a little-I've never been able to handle heat well, and the temperature combined with the black, black volcanic sand was not good. But the view from my little spot on the shade was still gorgeous, so I was happy. After the hike, we got back on the boat and went to another of the islands-one that wasn't quite as, uh, active. We had lunch and then went out a ways in the boat to snorkel. I've never snorkeled before. The reef we were on was absolutely gorgeous-I couldn't believe all the fish and other sealife we saw. I really missed Ethan Domsch at this point, because I kept seeing fish that looked like the ones on Finding Nemo, and I was thinking about how excited he'd be. Snorkeling was great, though I did swallow my share of saltwater. Gack.
We didn't get home until almost midnight, mostly because we'd made a side trip into Jakarta to eat a late dinner at Outback Steakhouse-great because we were eating there with actual Australians (who were thoroughly annoyed with the pseudo-Aussie crap on the walls) and also because it's the only place you can find Ranch dressing in all of Indonesia. Anyway, here in Bukit Sentul, the residential water supply is shut off every day from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. This is because water is low during the dry season and because of deforestation. It's normally not a big deal, because we're asleep then, and if we get up to use the bathroom, there's still enough water left in the pipes. So we didn't get a shower, but figured we'd just take them in the morning and deal with being gross and salty for one night. Right. Woke up Sunday morning and there was NO water. Apparently, the water was going to be shut off Sunday and Monday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., just to replenish the supply some more. I was VERY CRABBY. Travis practically had to hide my credit card so I wouldn't hop on the next plane home-his rationale being that the water would be back on before I got home, anyway. So yeah, that was fun. Looking back, though, it's pretty funny.
Food here is also interesting. I actually really like a lot of the food here, but some of it...ack. Those of you who have eaten at Janzow...NEVER ever ever will I ever complain again about sucky macaroni and cheese or scary casseroles. NEVER. Monday, the main menu item here at SPH was fish. Not a friendly breaded stick or patty. A FISH. With a FACE. Not only did the fish have faces, they had TEETH. They looked like someone had taken an entire live fish, thrown it in cooking oil and served it on a tray. FOOD SHOULD NEVER LOOK AT YOU. Nor should food ever have teeth with which it could bite you back. Ever. Tell me, WHAT about a whole fish with teeth says "Eat me, I'm tasty!" ??? Nature should provide little labels saying "food" and "definitely not food," because apparently teeth aren't obvious enough. Ah, Indo-food.
Anyway, things here are pretty good. Like I said, there are a few things nearly every day that make Travis and I stop and go, "What the...?" But we always can laugh about it later, so that's good. Ironed underwear, eat-or-be-eaten lunches...things here will never be boring.
posted by Erin @ 9:25 AM
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