Selamat Siang!

Just a little update from my neck of the woods!

My last blog post went up on Saturday, and since then, the days have continued to fly by! I wound up having more plans on the weekend than I was expecting. I did go to youth on Saturday night. While I did not grasp too much of what was going on (youth is usually a service of some sort, and despite the improvement in language skills, I still cannot- and may never- follow the speed and vocabulary of a sermon), it was good to be there after having missed quite a few.

My host sister, Valen, had to go back to Salatiga on Sunday (instead of Monday, as she usually does) and since I was so free this weekend, I decided to take advantage of the free ride in that direction, and wound up spending the night with Laura in Kopeng. Kopeng is about 20 minutes outside of Salatiga, and is up in the mountains. It's nice and cool and rural, which is a refreshing change from the hot, busy, city. I REALLY miss having green space, and there's lots of it in Kopeng (at the sacrifice of conveniences like stores and food variety- everything has its upside and downside, right?), so I enjoyed just sitting outside and breathing in some fresh air. Before that though, Laura's supervisor (Pak Yusup) and his girlfriend treated us to dinner at a wonderful little restaurant in Salatiga. The restaurant, called Cosy Cafe, is the same one that Jason and Mike went to in the first week or two of us arriving in Indonesia. They didn't have very positive things to say about it at that time, but Laura and I LOVED it. I'm not sure if that speaks to simply a better experience than the boys, or to the fact that my standards have been knocked down a few pegs.

There was live music at the Cosy Cafe and, as always, we were asked if we'd like to sing. Laura and I usually politely decline, but we decided to seize the opportunity this time, and had a fun time singing "Oh Holy Night" (practice for my big Christmas solo at church here!) and attempting to follow the pianist (who we blame entirely for anything that sounded less than beautiful during our time in the spotlight).

Laura and I ended up staying up late, just chatting, and then sleeping in (or attempting to) on Monday morning. We decorated her room with the Christmas decorations that her aunt had sent her, before heading down to Salatiga. What was supposed to be just a quick pop-in at the office, turned into a 3-hour visit. It was nice to catch up with the folks at MCC. I miss them quite a bit!

Nicole, who had spent the night at Karen and Major's, joined us at the office, and then the three of us went out for lunch to Kafeole. It was POURING rain, but the restaurant has these cute little huts with leak-proof roofs, and we were able to enjoy our meal outdoors. (Though the poor servers had to run back and forth in the rain. I felt bad about that.)

After lunch, we headed to Dan and Jeanne's to play with their puppy, Hoffman, and borrow some DVDs. We ended up taking a nap in their living room, which was all decorated for Christmas. It was the most "at home" Christmas feeling I've had here so far.

Nicole and I took the bus back together as far as Ungaran, and then I continued on to Semarang. I employed my tactic of bartering before getting on the angkota, and this proved to be a wise move. It was a bit more than the cheapest I've ever paid, but for the first time, there was absolutely NO hassle when I got off the angkota. It was worth the extra 10 cents just for that.

While it's no Christmas season in Canada, I'm really feeling the Christmas spirit here, as classrooms are being decorated, Christmas songs are being practiced (I'm playing the music for the TK Christmas performance, and we've been faithfully practicing Away in A Manger for over a month now), and Christmas concerts are starting up. Something that I find interesting here is that the Christmas videos here all include snow. I have also been told that there will be fake snow at the Christmas performance at church. We made snowmen as a craft in TK the other day too, and most of the Christmas songs here are the same (snow-filled) ones as the ones at home. I'm interested to know why there would be a focus on snow during Christmas, in a place where there is NEVER snow. Is it Western culture weaseling its way into Indonesia? Is it simply a dream for many, just as we might fantasize about palm trees and warmth in the cold months? I'm very curious.

Monday night was the first of what sounds like many Christmas concerts for the month. This one teetered on the brink of 2 hours and 45 minutes (but it DID include a handbell choir, which almost made up for it...). These services are excellent reminders of the cultural differences in time value, and are also reminders of the importance of learning to slooooow down and just take things as they come. That is a repetitive lesson for my impatient, hyperactive, always busy self.  Who knows? Maybe by the time I come home again, I'll think an hour is too short!

Tuesday was TK, and then at 3:00, I headed to the PPA "rural" location for a games afternoon. This consisted primarily of a donut-eating contest, which was a treat to observe! The donuts were delicious! The evening was a quiet one that just passed by without anything remarkable happening. I watched "Driving Miss Daisy", which has won all sorts of awards. I cannot say I was overly impressed by it!

Today is my first of the busy day stretch, with TK in the morning, PPA (Sola Gratia) in the afternoon, and Gloria Patri Learning Centre in the evening. We have been learning about weather in PPA, but the words "rainy" and "windy" have both been coming out as "rindy", so I'm attempting to correct that today, through an extensive series of games and songs. We'll see how that goes!


Have a great day!
Love,
Ellery