Made it to the Summit!!

Why helloooo there, Everyone!

As I had hoped, a little rush of relief hit me on Saturday, February 4th- halfway!!! Mentally, I have hit that peak, and am on the downward trek. And the second half is supposed to be easier! That's what everyone says, anyways. I am guessing that by May or June, I'll look back and be like, "Where did the time go!?" and I'll really start thinking about all the things I am going to miss about this place. As of now, I'm enjoying the knowledge that the longer half is behind me.

I last posted on Thursday, and a few little things have happened between then and now. I nearly got run over by a food cart the other day, on my walk home from school. It was bound to happen really, just based on the sheer volume of those things! There are a LOT of carts that come out of the woodwork around lunchtime, and camp out outside of schools. They sell foods like Mie Ayam (noodles and chicken), bakso (the dreaded meatballs that I loathe), rujak (fruit with a spicy caramel dip), and all sorts of assorted fried goods. This one was a rujak cart. The carts are usually taller than the person steering them, and too full of food to see through; if that person is not paying complete attention, I can see how they could come into a situation of hitting someone, or being hit themselves!  For once, I was appreciative that people were taking notice of me in the street, because if a group of girls would not have shouted, I would not have glanced behind me to see the rujak cart nearly clipping my heels, and I would not have scurried out of the way! The man behind the cart thought this whole little encounter was more humourous than anything, and he cast a huge smile in my direction as he hurried on past me. It was a laughable little moment.

There are two cell phone stands that I pass on that walk each day (one being newer than the other, and that new one seems to be acquiring more and more employees, but no more customers), and I always say hello to the men working there. The other day, one of those guys asked me for my cell phone number, and I gave an apologetic shake of the head. He's been slightly less friendly since then. Random people asking for cell phone numbers is very common here. When Laura and I were on the angkota on our way to meet Nicole last weekend, a friendly woman struck up a conversation with Laura, gave Laura her business card, and then asked us for our numbers. Laura had been wise enough to leave hers in her pocket for the ride, and had an easier time getting out of giving her number away. I had not been as on-the-ball, and I knew the woman had seen my phone. Honestly, my decision in the moment was to give my number with a few skewed digits, and then pretend to receive her "missed call." It's always a tough call in those moments because a valid excuse is hard to come up with, and yet we are not wanting to give our numbers to complete strangers. We've discovered that people who we still perceive as strangers, sometimes, after just one encounter (like the lady on the angkota), perceive us as friends, and will text us accordingly (and texting is a huuuuge part of the culture here). Even though the whole fake number/missed call scene went off without a hitch, I felt bad about lying, and have decided to take the straight-up "Sorry, no you cannot have my number" approach. I feel bad saying no, but for my sake and for the sake of the next SALTer who will be given this phone with this number, I think it makes the most sense.

On Friday, I was picked up by motorbike for PPA, in a monsoon. It was raining so hard that we could barely see, and the wind was blowing the water everywhere! My host parents waved me good-bye despite the weather (a testament to how much more laid back things have gotten around here), and I wrapped myself in a poncho and hoped for the best. I was absolutely soaked by the time I arrived at PPA, but I gained a bit more sympathy for the people who have to do that often here. Since motorbikes are the number one most common mode of transportation (cars are expensive and more cumbersome than anything, given the traffic here), people usually rely on them to get everywhere. If you have to be somewhere, and the rain is falling- well tough luck for you! More brutal than the rain itself is the flooding that it causes. Semarang sits pretty much right at sea level, and the drainage system, particularly closer to the sea, is not good enough to keep up with the water. People can often be found wading or driving through ankle-deep water (which is none-too-clean, I can assure you). It doesn't take all that much rain for flooding to occur, and it really makes life more difficult for people here. I think, like we get sick of cold and snow, people here must get pretty sick of rain and floods. The rainy season should be gearing down in the next six to eight weeks (though I've been warned that it often goes into late April), and it will be nice to have clear days and sunny skies back. One benefit of the rain, however, is that the weather is cooler! I suppose it's best then to just enjoy what we've got while we've got it!

On Saturday, I went to TK, and then decided to go for a walk in the afternoon. It's nice to sometimes grab a drink and people-watch from the comfort of the coffee shop in the nearby mall (a rare opportunity to reverse the who's-observing-who situation), and I added that to my walk. Nothing too exciting popped up during my adventure, though I guess it's always unique just because it's happening here in Java. I am always offered many rides, both by angkota drivers and by becak (rickshaw) drivers. I am called to and stared at and smiled at from the second I leave the driveway to the second I return to it, and if I am in the right mood, I can find it really endearing. One woman even called to me from inside her house, out the open window, asking me (as many people do), "mau ke mana?" ("Where do you want to go?") That phrase is used as we would use "How's it going?", and is expected to be answered in the same manner (short and sweet- no one really cares all that much where you're going, just as we don't really want to hear how things are really going when we ask someone that in a casual way). The typically acceptable response is "jalan-jalan" (literally translated, this means "walking-walking", and I've heard that translation used by people here, if no one has told them that it makes no sense in English. The gist of it is that you're just exploring, looking around).

I slept over at Laura's in Kopeng last night, and we had a nice low-key evening. Her place is a beautiful respite from the city. It's so rural, and the air is clean, and it's quiet. It smells like Up North, and it is nice and cool and clear. It's just beautiful! The two of us headed into Salatiga today, and while I was at the office, a package arrived for me from my Grandma and Grandpa Penner. It was pretty much a treasure chest, both in size and in content. It was just incredible! Packages certainly make a person feel loved! (*cough, cough* ;) )
We did our typical activities of hanging out at the office and grabbing some lunch, and were thankful for our decision to leave at 12:45 instead of 12:50, as we made it into the warung just as the torrential downpours started. It was so loud that Laura and I ate most of our meal in silence, having given up trying to compete with the sound of the rain pounding down on the tin roof above. Nonetheless, it was a great day! I came back to Semarang a bit earlier than usual, by bus (though I was offered a ride by a man in a van... I declined the offer), and am now spending the evening cleaning up a bit, and sorting through the goodies that were sent in that treasure chest of a package!

Anyways, there's just a little bit of the day-to-day goings-on in my Indonesian life right now. I hope you're all doing well wherever you are! Congratulations to all you YALTers out there on sticking it out thus far! I hope that, despite the challenges, your time in your placements has been filled with a lot of joyful, rewarding, and exciting moments thus far, and I hope that those moments will come more and more frequently as you go through this second half of your term!

Take care!
Love,
Ellery