Friday: The Amazing Race

Today was fun! Sure I didn’t understand half of it but it was fun! Which 1. Yay fun, and 2. I know classes are going to be haaaaard thanks to today. We had “Amazing Race: Salatiga” today. We basically had a scavenger hunt all over Salatiga. First we got a clue (in Bahasa Indonesia) and went to the library and had to find a specific book. We then were guided to a specific page that had a highlighted word in it. We had to take that word and make three different word pairings out of it. The word was ‘kepala’ or head. So hard headed, big headed, etc… Then we got a clue to go take three pictures. One of a statue on campus, one of the copy center, and one of a specific ATM.

We had to then show these photos to the guard at the administrasi (you can figure that word out on your own ya?) building. Following the photo exercise we were given a clue to get in an angkot (apparently this can be spelled angkot and angkota…) at the front of the campus and take a ride. We drove out to the edge of the village and to a rock that was protected by a small building. This rock is the founding rock of Salatiga.

We learned all about this rock and how it was written around (DATE) and is written in Sanskrit. This made me think of Devika, this made me sad. I miss her so much some days. Then we got back in the angkota and drove off to the Ramayana shopping center. We had to find one specific stand (which took us a while) and buy a hat from her. We also had to buy three kinds of Javanese snacks. We bought these from a lady pushing her cart down the street. Although because we have western stomachs we gave the snacks to others to eat. We all have to be really careful about what we eat here. Oh and by the way this wasn’t our own money either. The hats and snacks were donated to LTC. We then were directed to go to a jamu store. Jamu is basically Javanese style medicine. I can’t help but think about the class we had on jamu and how this lady kept shrilly yelling “JAMU! JAMU! JAMU!” Hilarious. We, together, had to finish two glasses of jamu, one Beras Kencur and one Kunir Asem. One is for getting rid of your tiredness and the other is to help you lose weight. Yes I did drink the lose weight one. I had to, people. Then, and this was the kicker, we had to get perfect strangers to drink one of each of these concoctions as well. Megan (who was on my team a long with Matt. Team Putih) did most of the talking. We picked two young guys, because… hey, what two young guys wouldn’t take strange liquids from us?

Then, we went to a candy store where we had to guess three ingredients in a candy we were given to eat. I liked them. They were sesame-ish. After that we rushed off to a town square with a famous statue. We had to stop at the guard post and ask the names of the three statues. Which was humorous because Ara (one of the LTC friends aka helper) had to hand the security guard a paper with their names on them. This is where Team Merah took us over. We were ahead until this time but we refused to run. It was terribly hot and running just didn’t sound fun. Especially after being so sore from Pencak Silat!! I don’t know how Emma and Julia (Team Merah) ran! Our next clue was to find two people, get their names, and have them help us with the words to a song. This song was about the dokar man or the man who drives the horse carts. We picked three high school girls. They were slightly annoyed by us interupting their lunch but I think the fact we were foreigners speaking Indonesian was enough to entertain them. Yes, you read right. I did speak some Indonesian today. Some. I’m also getting A LOT better at understanding spoken Indonesian. I still miss a lot, but I understand a lot more than a week ago.

Team Putih with HS Students

We then took a dokar to Ibu Riny’s Restuarant (different Riny from my home stay mom). It is on a rice sawah or paddy and it is beautiful.

The luck of the Irish is in Indonesia

Walking to our last clue

The COTI group with some LTC friends



At this point the folks from PIBBI, the other group studying Indonesian in Salatiga and sharing the LTC building with us, showed up and we all ate lunch. It was super yummy. The sambal was really hot and it made me happy. My tolerance for spicy (pedas) food is getting higher here. After lunch we went back to LTC and used the internet for a while. We made plans to get coffee at a favorite coffee place of the students at UKSW. Or atleast the LTC students at UKSW. But the coffee place didn’t open until 5 so we decided to shop! We walked down to the Ramayana shopping center, and I thought that was it. It was not. We walked a long way down the street the Ramayana is on. Emma and I were not expecting this. After running around all day, whoo, that was a surprise. It was ok though because when we finally got to the batik shop it was very nice and I got me some batik shorts to wear while swimming for modesty’s sake or just about the house here. They were 38,500 rupiah. Or $4.09. Awesome. Then we walked back to the angkota pick up spot and took the number 2 to Kalimangka. We walked down a hill and BAM ran straight into some of the kids from PIBBI who were on their way to the beach. Five of the PIBBI kids decided to the beach this weekend and crash in a small beach town for 2 nights since our weekends are free. I really did want to go because, hey, beach and because the PIBBI kids do rock. However, I felt it best to stay here and bond with the kids and Bu Riny since they just got here.

Have I talked about them yet? Well if I have and you don’t want to read it again… TOO BAD. I’m doing it again. Bu Riny is awesome. She is so nice. So wonderful. She also speaks English. Which for me is awesome because she helps me when I don’t know a word and can tell me what I want to say. Also I can really understand her Indonesian. Also her kids rock. They are adorable. Especially Yuma. She is 8 and apparently adores me. When I come home she is immediately in my room, asking questions, taking photos of and with me, going through all my stuff, looking at all my photos, etc. This morning she even jumped in my bed before I was ready to get up. She is just adorable. It makes me feel both loved and crowded. Keisha (10) and Alfie (9) are also wonderful. They are cute as a button. Right now, as I type, they are dancing around to Justin Beiber. Not my favorite singer but they are adorable.

Keisha, Me, and Yuma

Yuma being sweet.

Me and Yuma

At dinner Bu Riny was, again, awesome. She helped me with my Indonesian, told me I could ask her for help at any time, talked to me about politics and Lady Gaga, just… she is awesome. She makes me feel comfortable and I feel that it is ok to make mistakes and not be perfect with my Indonesian. Super cool. Except the concept of ‘gemuk’ is getting to me. Gemuk means fat and being fat here generally means you are happy. So everyone keeps trying to make me gemuk. I have been fed SO MUCH FOOD since I’ve been here. I have, currently, two mini cakes sitting on my desk. Cakes I am supposed to eat before I go to bed. I have already had one of each on top of my giant lunch and giant dinner. OY VEY! I keep saying “I have a small stomach” to which they respond “Oh, just eat more. It’ll get bigger.” Sigh, guess I’m going to be gemuk happy by the end of this.

So long story short: Classes still terrify me but everything else is going great!

Also, I experienced my first Salatiga power outage. It was interesting to say the least. It was kinda of fun texting all the other COTI peeps to see if they had power or not. Yay experiences.