"Working" in Lombok

Don't tell my boss*, but I got to spend four days in Mataram, Lombok (the island just east of Bali, and a burgeoning tourist destination) just to present for 10 minutes. Literally, I presented on "Poetry in the Classroom" for 10 minutes. Oh, and I answered two questions about it afterwards. And took about 10 photos.

So let me back up a bit. Christen, the ELF who lives in Mataram, was asked to get some other Fellows to attend her school's Materials and Curriculum Development Conference on April 5 and 6. Seven of us in total volunteered to present. (No need to ask twice! Lombok is gorgeous!): Christen, Autumn, Bryan,  Iris, Michael, Lori, and me. Autumn and I arrived on the same flight out of Surabaya and immediately jumped into the hotel pool once we checked in. YES.

The night before the conference, all of the presenters were invited to dinner with Christen and the coordinators/professors from her school, IKIP Mataram. We got to try some of the local specialties (whose names I unfortunately have forgotten).

Me, Iris, and Autumn all ordered dragonfruit juice. It looks cooler than it tastes. 

Bryan and Dian (representative from the Embassy) across the table. 

The next day, we headed to the swanky hotel for the start of the conference. The opening speeches and opening ceremony (where traditional drummers came out and performed for about 15 minutes) took about 2 hours total. This was not including the keynote speakers. Yikes.

Opening ceremony drummers/percussionists. (Notice the gong in the background. Did you know the word "gong" comes from Indonesian?)

Autumn and I presented on the second day. 

On the second day of the conference finished at 1pm, and the rector of Christen's school was kind enough to hire us a private car and driver to take us wherever wanted to go on the island. Score! So we booked it out the conference as fast as we could, ran back to the hotel and changed into our swimsuits, and headed down to Kuta, Lombok (you may remember Ari and I visited there for a day when he came in February). Perhaps the funniest part of the afternoon was the fact that Christen's friend, Diyah, brought us lunch to eat in the car on the drive. And what was the lunch? Pizza Hut and McDonald's, of course, because that's what Americans eat! So we all got a Coke, a burger, fries, and a slice of vegetable pizza for the drive. Honestly, it was pretty great, despite how ill we felt immediately afterwards.

Iris and Autumn are pretty excited about the wealth of junk food in our car. 

We lucked out in Kuta by getting pretty gorgeous weather again. We did have to share the water with some (naked) local kids, but other than that, it was a very pleasant afternoon. 

Autumn, Christen (on top), Iris (on bottom), me

Posing like naturals. 

Aaaahhhhhh so pretty. 

Me, Autumn and Iris trying to enjoy ourselves while three boys yelled "Help! Help!" and pretended to drown next to us. The water was about three feet deep. We weren't worried. 

We went back at about 6pm to the beach closer to Mataram, called Senggigi. Christen took us to her favorite restaurant, called Square, I think (It's hip to be Square?), where they had THE BEST PUMPKIN TORTELLINI I'VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. Either that, or my craving for decent Italian food skewed my judgement a little. But I think it's the former. 

The life-altering tortellini.

Autumn, Iris, and Bryan at dinner. 

After walking around town a little bit (and getting the world's tiniest margarita--seriously, I think I got 3 sips out of it), we headed back the hotel, where people had to fly out early the next morning. Except me; I hung out by the pool for a few more hours with Christen before heading back to Surabaya at 4pm. 

In the end, doing any kind of presentation (be it 10 minutes long, or eesh, a whole 45 minutes) is worth it, if I get to hang out with these awesome people. It doesn't even have to be at an awesome location. Although the gorgeous beach doesn't hurt.

*Just kidding, my boss is totally cool with it.