Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Sightseeing

















We had a great weekend in Yogyakarta! Cliff came to visit and we went to see two amazing temples just outside the city, one is the Buddhist Borobudur, the other the Hindu Prambanan. They're both about 1200 years old and just so beautiful.

I have now finished my Bahasa lessons (for now anyway) and will now have to start practicing. Needless to say I am very far from fluent after just one week, but at least I'm at a level where I can communicate with taxi drivers and people in the office. My new vocabulary came in handy today when my taxi driver fell asleep on our way from the airport.... If it happens to you in Indonesia, just say "Tidak tidur, hati-hati!" (don't sleep, be careful...)

Saturday, May 20, 2006

*&##$%&@$#!!

They say that the sound of a baby crying has a special frequency so parents will have to attend to them very soon. However, here there is another sound that is keeping me from sleeping, studying, working, thinking, or pretty much do anything that involves my brain: mosques!! And they're EVERYWHERE and NEVER stop here. They look pretty though....

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Til Bitten

På indonesisk heter lærer GURU!

Det passer veldig bra til deg synes jeg : )

Mount Merapi

I am now in the city of Yogyakarta studying bahasa. Fun but exhausting! I forgot how tiring it can be to actually use my brain...

This city is really near Mount Merapi, the volcano currently erupting and I plan to go have a closer (not too close..) look one of these days.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Indonesia!

I am now in Indonesia! So far so good - my only problem is I have no idea what people are saying to me. It became a little challenging when I got lost in a taxi, not knowing where I was going OR how to say it. So next week I am going to language training!

Right now I am in Banda Aceh, working on a damage assessment after the tsunami and conflict. Challenging! Especially since I don't know the language. Despite calling him Pocahontas until I realized his name is Ponhar, the driver here is helping me out. He's eiter the forgiving type or hasn't heard of Pocahontas (I suspect the latter...).

Another, not so good, development is that I currently have a very colourful foot in elephant size. I got a blister in the Solomon Islands that never healed and got really infected (that country really didn't do me very much good!!). So yesterday, when my shoe didn't fit me anymore, I figured it was time to check out the Aceh medical system. Fortunately there is a good UN doctor in place - who turned green when he saw my foot and pretty much said I was an idiot for not seeing him earlier... So now I am on two types of antibiotics and have to get really painful cleaning every day. Pretty stupid. As a gesture to all of you I will NOT post a picture...