Gunung Bromo

Last weekend, I got the chance to take a little excursion to somewhere closer to home. ("Home" in this case being Surabaya, of course.)

Jen, the other Fellow who lives closest to me, invited me to join her and a colleague of hers, Citra, along with a few of Citra's friends, for a one-night trip to climb Mount Bromo, or Gunung Bromo, as it's called in Indonesian.Fun fact I just learned from Wikipedia: The name of Bromo is derived from the Javanese pronunciation of Brahma, the Hindu creator god.

Bromo is a really popular tourist destination, especially in Surabaya, because it's relatively close. Usually when I talk to Indonesians, the questions are in this order:
1. Do you like Indonesia?
2. Do you like Indonesian food?
3. Where have you been in Indonesia?
4. Why haven't you been to Bromo yet?

So, it was time to prepare a better response to that third question and finally visit Bromo. Seven of us piled into a car and drove out to the city of Cemoro Lawang, a bucolic village about 45 minutes' drive from the mountain.

Jen and I kept being warned about how cold it was going to be. I was told several times to bring a jacket and warm clothing. I kept thinking, Really? Indonesians' idea of cold tends to be a bit different from mine. But I brought a sweater (I didn't even bring a jacket to Indonesia).

When we got to Cemoro Lawang at night, it actually was kind of cold! Maybe 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit? It was wonderful! Our hotel room was chilly, so Jen and I slept in our socks and used all of the blankets provided in the room. Such a great feeling!

The next morning, we got up at 3am to drive to Semeru, the tallest mountain in the area, to get a lookout of the other mountains during the sunrise. Our driver was half an hour late picking us up, making us stressed that we'd miss the sunrise (or that he wouldn't come at all). When he finally did arrive, he was quite surly, didn't apologize, and drove like a madman up the windy road to the top of Semeru. Thankfully, we did not get in an accident (or fall off the side of the road) and I think he made up the lost time. 

Unfortunately, at the top of Semeru, there wasn't much to see.

This was pretty. The beginning of the sunrise. This was the most we got.

It just became more and more cloudy, so that as the sun came up, it just looked like this:

Lots of grey. And kind of chilly!

Nurhayati, me, Dia, Jen, Citra, and one of Jen's students who was coincidentally there the same day and spotted Jen!

Thanks to Jen, by the way. A lot of the better pictures are stolen from her blog, and her much better camera.

So after waiting in vain for a view of the sunrise or any of the surrounding area, we gave up and got back in the car, driving to Bromo next. But on the way, we stopped to take pictures of this:

I don't actually know which mountain this is. I don't think it's Bromo. But what a view. I felt like I would see dinosaurs at any minute.

When we reached the area near Bromo, we had about a thirty-minute walk to get to the actual foot of the mountain. There were lots of guys trying to get you to take a horse up there. The horses were actually really pretty; most of them looked well-fed and fairly healthy (to my untrained eye).

One of the owners galloping past on his horse.

But I chose to walk up the route. It was a little tiring, since we were at higher elevation. Once we got to the foot of Bromo, it looked like this:

I don't know if you can tell, but there were a LOT of people there, waiting to hike up the 200 steps to the top. In fact, there was a line of people just waiting to get on the steps. So rather than wait in that line, I followed Hermanto, one of the guys on our trip, up the side of the steps--in the dirt. It was a bit more of a workout, but we got to the top way faster. And it was more fun.

Me, Hermanto, and Amer--the people who didn't take the stairs.

I also had the novel experience of being asked to take a photo with a stranger...using my camera! I didn't really get that he meant to use my camera until it was too late.

Cheese! Do I know you?

He never even told me what his name was! Oh well. We got some nice views of the crater.

After taking the stairs down the side of the crater, Jen and I decided to pay the $5 to take a horse the rest of the way to the cars. I picked one of the bigger horses I could find (most of them were pony size), and trotted off. The owner of the horse was a nice guy, and we had a conversation in a mix of Indonesian and English.

My horse's name was apparently Manis, which means "sweet" in Indonesian. Awwww.

Jen's horse before it tried to bite my horse.

Then we got back in the car and drove out to a couple other scenic spots. One spot that people called a savannah, and one that was called "whispering sands." I only got a couple pics at the savannah.

Me, Jen, and Citra

After visiting those spots, we came back to our hotel, where we had time to get a proper breakfast, shower, take a nap, and/or walk around the village a bit. I opted to take a walk by myself, since I wasn't sleepy yet, and I really had a great time exploring a bit. The weather was wonderful--it was probably about 75 degrees in the middle of the day, with no humidity. I didn't that kind of climate even existed in Indonesia!

As we drove home, I took a few pictures of the scenery out the car window:

It was so nice outside that we were able to spend the first hour of the drive with all the windows rolled down. Then we reached the outskirts of Surabaya, and the 90-degree heat returned. It was nice while it lasted.

Another food photo

This is a picture of a "meal box" that I got as a gift after doing a presentation at a local school this morning. It's pecel, pronounced like puh-CHULL. Pecel is a kind of breakfast food here. It's usually a little meat, in this case chicken, and some kind of gorengan (fried food), in this case fried tempeh, with rice and a lot of veggies. Oh, and the sauce is this spicy peanut sauce. I actually really liked this dish when I first came to Indonesia, but then, as with gado-gado, I ate it way too much and now I am just lukewarm about it. But at least it's mostly vegetarian-friendly!

Did I mention it's mango season in Indonesia?

A few more pics stolen from Facebook

For those people who read my blog but don't read Facebook. I know you're out there!

First, from waaaayyy back in October: 

The Banjarmassin bamboo rafting group.

Me on a bamboo raft. I was able to stand for about 10 seconds before losing my balance. 

The sight that greeted us on our morning going up to the waterfalls. All the local men showing up outside our door with their motorcycles. Which one to choose?

 At Access Camp, November 15 - 18

Tabitha and I unintentionally dressed as twins. A lot of people couldn't tell us apart that day.

Emceeing the counselor talent show.

Singing "I Will Survive" with different words (courtesy of Jon and Deirdre) for the talent show.

 Jakarta Police School Native Speaker Day--Whodunnit? Game

I was the CSI Reporter. As such, I got to be in the room with the body and explain the gory details of the stabbing. (They weren't so gory or very detailed, actually.)

Police officers checking out the body.

Jon gets (surprise!) arrested.

Adam also gets arrested, but tries to get away (he's a quick thinker!).

 Jogjakarta--November 22 - 25

The ladies at Prambanan temple: Liz, Iris, me, Deirdre, Holly, Christen, Jen, Autumn

Partying at Bintang (Indonesian for "star"), the reggae bar. Deirdre, me, Holly, Iris, Christen, and Jon. 

So much ELF love on Thanksgiving.

OK. And now it is time for a few photos.

Dinner with Sakti and Steve at their house!

Delicious homemade sambal (hot sauce)

Look at all that traditional Javanese food! The tempe was my favorite.

Weirdly shadowy picture of me, Sakti, Steve, and Jen.

Access Camp!!

Some of "my" kids (they were in my group) hanging out in the main building when it was pouring rain and we were all kind of cooped up.

It's a little hard to tell, but it's POURING outside. And yes, our campsite was gorgeous. And yes, there is a goose in the corner of that picture. I was kind of excited about the geese.

Another weirdly shadowy picture of me and Deirdre hanging out by the rain.

Jackie and Deirdre lead the campers in traditional American cheers. "One more time! Chicken style!"

Another shot of the gorgeous site. This was the (rather murky) swimming pool.

Jess teaches the campers (and me) a rhythm game called Boom Snap Clap.

Goofing around.

Jakarta!!

In Jakarta! After we left the camp, we came back to Jackie's apartment. She lives on the 26th floor in the heart of downtown. It was pouring rain at the time, so things look pretty foggy outside. And this is my attempted glamour shot.

Here's the REAL glamour shot--after we all got cream baths (a massage-conditioning treatment) and our hair blown out and pedicures. It was amazing. And it cost less than $11.

Then we put bags on our heads to walk back to the apartment because it was raining outside.

And we had entirely way too much fun squeezing four people in the back of a taxi to go out to dinner that night.

Jogjakarta!!

Skipping ahead past Native Speaker Day (I will try to steal someone else's pictures for that), this is Jen and I on the train to Jogjakarta. Sweaty but happy!

At Borobudur! They give us sarongs to respect the culture (I guess). It was hot, but beautiful.

With Deirdre and Christen

I just liked this face. Is it a dog, perhaps?

At the top of the temple, there are these things called stupas. Inside each one is a buddha. Kind of cool.

Deirdre meditates as Jon creepily watches.

I used this umbrella most of the time to keep the sun off. Perhaps the leopard print was a little disrespectful.

Cut to later in the day--Prambanan. Can you tell it was about to rain?

So awesome. As Holly said, it kind of feels like Mordor.

Deirdre, me, Christen, and Holly sitting among the ruins.

Today!!

And a total shift in gears: my Vocabulary class today! We were talking about protests and demonstrations, so I had them create slogans for bumper stickers (on the wall behind them). Then I made them all pose for a photo. I love these guys!

Is it December yet?

Yes, yes, it is (very nearly) December.

And this has been a whirlwind month. As lots of other fellows have posted in their blogs, November was crazy. (I just avoided saying cray-cray there, because I REFUSE to use cray-cray).

Anyway, I will provide a quick summary of my November:

1. Nov. 3-4: Go with English lecturers from another university in Surabaya on a 5-hour trip to Malang to do an English training for a very remote school, and then camp overnight on Sempu Island for the night, arriving back late Sunday night.

2. November 6-11: TEFLIN (Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia) Conference, which all of the Fellows had to present at, followed by a mid-year conference for the English Teaching Assistants in which we had to participate and share our teaching tips. And, oh yeah, the election happened sometime in there too. We managed to get everyone over to the Consulate to watch the results come in, which was a pretty awesome experience.

3. November 14-19: Fly to Jakarta to work as a counselor for the first (annual?) Access English Camp. Access is a State Department program that offers underprivileged high schoolers extra classes to improve their English. So this was basically a traditional American summer camp, which we tried to duplicate for 150 16-year-old Indonesian kids. Some of the elements were duplicated successfully (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, relay races), others less successfully (s'mores made with Ritz crackers instead of graham crackers, ultimate frisbee turning into a huge tackle-fest).  It was a lot of fun. The kids were great, the other counselors were great. After the camp ended, a few of us spent an extra day in Jakarta to attend Native Speaker Day at the Jakarta Police School, where Jackie and Jess work. It was great. We basically played one of those "myster dinnertime theater" games, but we were all suspects, and the police officers had to interview each of us and take notes, later accusing whom they suspected. Let's just say it ended with Jon and Adam being pinned to the floor with real handcuffs. Surprise!

4. Nov 23-25: Take the train (first time!) to Jogjakarta to celebrate a belated Thanksgiving (with no traditional Thanksgiving food, but oh well) and throw a surprise birthday party for Liz, one of the Senior Fellows here. Had a blast renting a tour bus and visiting Borobudur and Prambanan (two Buddhist temples from the 9th century) and finding a positively European reggae club to party at (how I've missed that vibe!).

So now it's November 29th, and I've been in Indonesia for over three months. The time spent here so far has been pretty great. I really like my students, my colleagues at IAIN Sunan Ampel, and of course, my fellow Fellows. At this time of the year for giving thanks, I am completely conscious of how lucky I am to be involved in this program, and have this kind of experience. And how grateful I am to have the great support network and of loving friends and family back home as well!

Rainy day in Jakarta

Back from camp, recuperating in Jackie's apartment before flying home tomorrow. It has been an awesome weekend!

Nasi Campur

Checked out of the Sheraton yesterday (kicking and screaming). Back to reality for two days before I leave on Wednesday for a youth camp in Jakarta.

I realized that I haven't posted many pictures of what I've been eating. This is a picture of the lunch I ate today (that I eat pretty much every day that I'm at work). It's called nasi campur (pronounced Nah-see Chahm-pur). The name translates to "mixed rice," and pretty much just means rice and lots of other random stuff that you select from the food cart.

As you can see, I selected green beans, lots of tempe, and a fried egg. A really greasy, pretty delicious, fried egg. Oh, and lots of "sambal," or hot sauce. It's pretty much unavoidable to get sambal with everything you order here. It costs 6,000 rupiah--the best deal around (that's about 70 cents). It's not a huge portion, but it keeps me filled up for a few hours.

Also--you may notice that I am using a fork to eat it. This is not the standard way of eating anything, really, in Java. Most people use their hands. I gave that a try for about two weeks, and then once the novelty wore off I decided it was just easier for me to stick with what I'm used to, and be able to eat more competently. I like to think people at least appreciated the effort. My coworkers are still impressed that I actually, truly like nasi campur to begin with.