My first week of uni

Photo 1: Lonely ACICIS students

Photo 2: Prambanan

It is wednesday and I have officially finished my first week of uni! My classes have been a mixed bunch. My first class was The Development of Hinduism and Budhism. There were 5 ACICIS students in the class, and we all turned up to uni half an hour early, paranoid that we would not be able to find the room and hence be late. No need to worry. We were the first to arrive. We sat there... and sat there... and sat there. Occassionally a student would stick their head in, or walk past, but no one would come in. 20 minutes after the class was due to start we started to wonder if any one was going to show at all - apparently its not that uncommon for the lecture not to show, especially on the first week, especially at 7.00 on a monday morning (yes, 7.00). We could see a group of people congregating outside the room and began to worry that we weren't actually supposed to be in the room until the lecturer showed up. So we sat there nervously, convinced that we were disrespecting the lecturer (who was by then 25 mins late anyway). But then at 7.30 everyone suddenly came in, followed by the lecturer. My first class was intense to say the least. The guy sat up the front with the microphone and just talked and talked. Luckily for me I had studied some similar stuff before, and could essentially understand the gist of what he was saying. Unfortunately he didn't talk particularly clearly. He directed a few questions towards us ACICIS students (at least we think they were questions), to which he recived blank, nervous stares in reply.
To fill in a 5 1/2 hour gap before my next class, i decided to sit in on grammar. I have since enrolled. It is a bit easy to be honest, but it was nice to be able to understand everything that was going on. My other classes since then seem to have got better, so perhaps it just took a few tries to get used to having unmodified Indonesian fired at me at rapid pace! It's quite satisfying to be able to sit in a class and understand most of what is going on, even if it is just a little scarey. The classes I did by myself were a little intimidating at first, but there is always at least one person that will want to come and chat, and get your phone number. The one thing that is getting to me about uni over here is the lack of information about the courses. For most of them there is no course outline or set text, or if there is there is only one copy and you have to know which student is in charge of photocopying! Plus I don't really know what my assessments are! I think the best plan of attack is just to relax and get used to it.
Last night I went with a group of people to watch a performance of the Ramayana dance at the open air theatre at Pramanan temple. It was really amazing to see the temples strikingly lit against the dark night sky. Its just one of those things you can't capture in a photo (though I tried!) The dance itself had been obviously modified for a tourist audience, although it was still enjoyable (and colourful). The stage was huge, so the poor women in their tight sarongs looked quite amusing trying to quickly shuffle into the middle of it before the next phrasing began! Just to top off a lovely night, we saw the lunar eclipse! I couldn't belive that the smog and clouds had cleared enough to give us even the light of the moon, let alone a clear view! (Ok so its not that bad, but still...)

Settling In

Photo 1: My kos room
Photo 2: My bathroom

I've been in my kos for 3 nights now. I really love it actually. My room is really big, and not too hot. Even the bak mandi (indonesian 'shower') is great - saves a tonne of water, and it's quite refreshing once you get over the initial shock of pouring cold water down your back! The owner of my kos is absolutely brilliant! She is so welcoming and makes you feel part of her family. I haven't had a chance to meet all of my kos mates yet -I think there's around 15 other girls, but everyone comes and goes all the time (including me!). From what I've gathered though, they come from all over the archipelago.
Since moving into my kos I've been slowly easing my way into full on Indonesian life. Though to be honest i'm sick of paying lots of money (by Indonesian standards) for taxis and food. I'm ready to get into it a little more, and i can't wait to figure out how the buses work, and where they go! I'm looking forward to getting into a routine when uni starts tommorrow... at 7am! At the moment my subjects are:

Ethnography of Java
Social and Community history of Java 19-20th century
Javanese for Foreigners
Development of Hinduism and Buddhism
Government and Politics of Southeast Asia.

They are all immersion subjects (although Javanese is for foreigners only) so it could be a little intense. I'm thinking about picking up Indonesian Grammar, just so i can drop any subject if it turns out to be horrible!

Orientation

Photo 1: My uni for this semester
Photo 2: Jl. Kaliurang, the main road near my kos

The last couple of days I’ve had my orientation program for ACICIS. It’s been good to get to know some of the other people from Australia who are studying here. The day that we moved into the ACICIS provided accommodation was really exhausting. In the morning, we went in search of a place that sold phone credit. We wandered unsuccessfully around for about 20 minutes before we finally gave up and headed back to our hotel. On our way back we found a credit place that turned out to be incredibly close to our hotel, just on the other side of the road. At first we walked past the store (that looked like an art workshop) because we weren’t sure if the sign for phone credit was attached to that one or the one next to it. We hovered hesitantly and were about to give up when the owner dragged us in, assuring us he sold credit. He began to fill out all the forms and we were just about to pay, when he decided to tell us about his art philosophies. At first it was really interesting hearing his ideas (and trying to understand them), but 40 minutes later I was utterly exhausted from trying to keep up. So what was supposed to take 3 minutes ended up turning into a mini lecture complete with white gown, song-like chanting and the promise that we would become “princesses” if we became his representatives in Australia!

So running late we had to run back to the hotel to check out. Then we had to lug all our stuff to the ACICIS accommodation because we decided it would be better to walk there seeing it was just up the road. Which it was, but a road that had a broken footpath (when it wasn’t blocked by roadside stalls) and a road that was being scorched by the midday sun. So we trudged there, dodging taxis and motorbikes, walking down the middle of the road, and crossing right on the corner of a multi-lane, incredibly busy roundabout, all the while carrying a backpack, laptop and wheeling a 19kg bag. But we survived and arrived absolutely drenched with sweat!

So far we’ve done through all the immigration procedures (including being fingerprinted and profiled by the police) and we’ve done our placement test. Yesterday we went looking for accommodation with our Indonesian buddies. It was actually harder than I was expecting. We looked at heaps of places, but so many of the nice ones were already full (it’s the start of a new year so all the Indonesian students have been getting accommodation for the last few weeks). Most of the ones we saw were either really small, unfurnished, or shared a bathroom between four people.
After spending several hours looking we gave up and went to the mall (which seems bigger than anything in Australia – HUGE) But as we were sitting there I got a bit worried that I wouldn’t find something, which was stupid considering that we had all day today to look for one. But to make myself feel better I went back to the first place I looked at and put a deposit on it. The more I think about it the more I like it – it has its own bathroom with a western toilet (but I don’t think there’s a shower), a queen bed, bar fridge, fan, desk and wardrobe. The Ibu Kos (owner) seems really friendly, and it’s in a central position in a gang (lane) off the main road (Jl. Kaliurang). The only downside is that another Aussie is staying there. But I don’t think we’re going to be in each other’s pockets, so it shouldn’t be a problem. So my kos isn’t in the neighbourhood that I’d planned to live, and there’s another bule (foreigner) living there, but I think it will work out ok! I’ll write more about my kos after I move in tomorrow! X

Sydney - Singapore - Solo

Photo 1: Incredibly tired with the Merlion

Photo 2: Singapore city lights

So, the journey has begun!
After spending a couple of relatively uneventful nights in Singapore (eating and window shopping) I finally headed off to Changi airport for my flight to Solo, Central Java. True to form, I managed to leave my document wallet on a counter at the free internet access area. Thankfully I hadn't realised I'd done this (saving much stressing on my part). We'd just begun eating lunch when I heard my name over the intercom. A little suprised, I went through my bag, trying to find out what I'd lost. Turned out I no longer had my passport, credit cards, cash, travellers cheques, boarding pass... So I went sheepishly down to the Information counter, thankful that I was in Changi airport and not elsewhere. Luckily for me a staff member had picked it up almost straight away and everything was in one piece. Phew! I hope I've learnt my lesson, though given the number of times I have done similar things...
When we arrived in Solo we had to make sure we got the correct immigration stamp for our visa. According to the information book we were given, that meant not going through the tourist line. So we stood in the line for 'Indonesian Citizens'. Ironically, for the first time in a while the tourist queue was the shortest, whilst the citizens line moved at snails pace. As we waited, plenty of friendly people came over with big smiles trying to direct us into the tourist line, as we evidently were lost and confused. We just smiled and tried to explain that we already had a visa, although I think only one woman actually understood that we weren't idiots! Eventually we did end up with the correct immigration stamp, so that was the biggest worry out of the way.
The taxi to Yogya was a lesson in Indonesian traffics rules - anything goes. I would describe it as organised chaos. We crossed the center line into incoming traffic, dodged around motorcycles, and had both cars and motorcycles driving the wrong way down our side of the road. And all without seatbelts. Having said that everyone seems to watch out for everyone else, and it was too busy for us to get up any real speed. The scenery was an ecclectic mix of farmers working in the fields, young men hanging outside the local warungs with their motorbikes, the latest and most expensive 4WDs, push cart vendors, old temples, rows of demountable roadside food stalls and luxury western malls. And of course plenty of motorbikes! The two notable motorbike scenes of the day were a family of four all on one bike, with their shopping (although it would seem that having 4 people on a bike is fairly standard practice), and a woman who had her kid holding onto the bike in front of her. So what? But this kid could not have been more than 2 and if it had let go, or slid off...
So that's it for now. Later today we head off to our ACICIS accommodation with all the other Australian exchange students, which I'm looking forward to. X