Life Here

A lot of things have happened, and I need to write soon.  In the meantime, here's something I wrote back on May 7, 2013, after a trip to Bali:

Here's the thing, we're getting addicted to traveling. We look at our calendar frequently and think of the next time we have a long weekend, then try to plan something. Even if it's just two days, I always want to go do something… the beach, camping, hiking, biking. I want to see people, see places, smell things. My days are getting so busy. I'm backlogged on grading. I have been accepting way more side jobs than I can chew. But I love it all.

I think in many ways I have a pretty ideal job. My housing is free. I am getting paid. It's not much by US standards ($150/month), and I can't really save a lot, but it's enough to get to by in Yogyakarta. I can eat tempe every day (this, by the way, will probably be the thing I miss the most when I eventually leave, that is, easy access to freshly incubated tempe, fried to perfection). I can drink guava juice whenever I want. I have a job where I can impact the lives of students. Today we had a lesson on interviews, but I used it as an opportunity to instill this idea that failure isn't the end of the world. That experiencing failure is a way we can succeed.

Sometimes I get these chills when I teach, when I feel like students are really understanding the lesson, when i feel like students really care. I've been feeling it a lot more this semester than the last, and it's a feeling that I've grown to love. I am going to miss it when I stop teaching and start working at YDD.

Last week (Wednesday night - Saturday morning) I was in Bali: two days in Ubud, one day in Kuta. I met up with an old college friend, Habi. She's Malaysian but had never been to Indonesia prior to last week, so we decided what better time than now? Two months ago we booked our flights and finally last week got in touch about it again. Made last-minute plans, and it was amazing. Ubud was filled with delicious fresh vegetables. The yoga scene there (think Eat, Pray, Love) seems to have inspired a craze for healthy foods, namely organic produce. The presence of foreigners has resulted in a multitude of organic cafes, complete with fusion recipes. I had a tempe taco with guacamole, beans, lettuce, and tomatoes. What heavenly simple ideas! But sooo amazing. We also saw a lot of Hindu temples and even watched a Hindu ceremony. It was a contrast from the culture I have been experiencing in Jogja.

Habi and me, standing in front of the Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave) 

An organic strawberry farm in Bali

What I might take most from the trip, however, was probably the way Habi and I finally got to bond. We gossiped about people from college, told stories about people we had forgotten, stories of broken hearts and happy hearts.

There's so much we can miss from each other's lives if we choose to keep it to ourselves. I'm always so happy to bond with other women, and it's been happening more and more lately in Indonesia.

So there's no goal to this particular post except to say that I've been pretty happy lately, although occasionally stressed. But it's a good kind of stress, I think. I'm in a good place.