Emails
home: Greta
Still sweating in Yogya... 20 September 2001
Well, it's been a month already
and I really don't know where that time has gone. I really do feel at
home here and the lifestyle is very comfortable and much slower in pace
than at home. My days seem to float away through a mixture of classes,
eating at the street stalls, sitting around talking to people, riding
my bicycle around and trying to avoid scary looking roosters, midday sun
and small grotty children.
TRAFFIC LAWS 101
 The
busy roads here are a whole class in themselves. The black smog
emitted by many of the vehicles is like nothing I have ever seen
in Australia - I might as well take up smoking now. I am seriously
considering buying a face mask to give my lungs some chance to avoid
cancer. The traffic is just mad, if only I could understand the
road rules. It seems that traffic lights are for street decoration,
although randomly once in a while they are obeyed -how am I supposed
to know when to obey them?? People swerve all over the road, drive
on the wrong side (there are concrete pillars along the footpaths
to stop people driving on the footpath!!) , overtake any old how
and toot their horns all the time (maybe there's a prize for maximum
toots per second?!!). It really is madness, but I am gradually beginning
to think that there might be some logic in there somewhere, although
not very much... something along the lines of 'might is right' and
'nice car is always right' and 'becak is wrong'. Silly foreigner
on bike wearing a funny looking helmet (unheard of!) - very strange
and to be avoided (helmets are only worn on motorbikes and even
then most of them have the protective qualities of an ice cream
container?!). I've noticed that people leave me lots of room and
I'm glad of it, I need it!
I have been using motorbikes
more and more and really getting an addiction there - it's fun! It is
a great way to experience life in Indonesia: swishing past street stalls,
night lights, all manner of housing, shops and people. There's also that
thrill of adventure and danger (don't stress mum!).
The cocktail of scents is really
revealing, there's the smell of rotting food and plants, kretek cigarettes
(a favourite smell), the stench of heavily polluted rivers and streams
(a squillion times worse than the Yarra River), the smell of sate cooking
by the road and the smell of tropical mould on the walls and finally the
smell of pizza at pizza hut (mmmmm... just a little bit of western sin
goes a long way?!). I think smells are one of my favourite things about
Indonesia.
Bikie girl...
30 September 2001
I like to think I'm tough,
really tough.... and now I feel even tougher with my new motorbike. It's
so much fun cruising around whenever and wherever I like in Yogja and
it's easy to drive b/c there's no clutch. Apparently it's a girly bike
and is called a bebek (duck) in Indonesian - but it does give me some
freedom and independence which I really want at the moment. It is also
the only way to get around without getting up big dirty stinky sweat patches
on your clothes and its really cheap (like about $1 AUD for a tank of
petrol??!) And no, Clare, I'm not going back on all my greenie philosophy...
just bending the rules a little, it's better than a car??! Plus, it really
sucks riding a bike around in the Yogja heat.
How to take
an exam... 25 October 2001
I just had the most amazing
exam experience ever.... in fact, damn it, I enjoyed it?!!! It is quite
a story so here goes... Tom (Greta's boyfriend), who still has his arm
in a sling, can't do his exams because it is his writing arm which is
broken (not a bad excuse if I do say so), so he has rescheduled most of
them. However, the law faculty maintained that he would still have to
do the exam at the same time as everyone else. (are law faculties tight
the world over??) They told him he would sit in an office with a friend
(yep, this old bunny) who would write out what he wanted to say, quite
an unusual concept in the first place!
So the exam came around today
and we went to the office, but it was not what I expected. I thought we'd
be placed in a nice quiet room, maybe with a supervisor, but instead we
sat at a long table in the main office with about 10 or more employees
talking loudly, working and smoking (yes, that anti-smoking law hasn't
come here yet) and with the radio blaring to top it off. Not only was
it the main law office, but it is the office where students come to enrol,
so it was really noisy, smoky and mad.... hardly ideal conditions. Then
came lunch time.... and it only got more congested and there was a big
lunch delivery (smelt good) and we continued to work away right through
the smoke and the chatter, occasionally moving our chairs so people could
get past! I really wanted to laugh, but I was too busy trying to hear
what Tom wanted me to write?!!
It was a real contrast to any
exam in Australia and I think I will have to vow never to complain about
the clock which ticks a little too loudly or the person in front of me
who writes noisily - that is nothing in comparison. So for those of you
about to sit your end of year exams, just be grateful that you won't have
to do them in conditions like that!
Otherwise all is well, although
I'm really sick of the tropical downpours. It is really, really wet.
Fame, Fortune
and Fanciful Follies... 12 November 2001
Well, I know this will mean
absolutely nothing to many of you stupidissimo ignoramuses.... but I went
backstage at the "Dewa" concert in Solo yesterday, and got my photo with
the drummer (extremely sexy and possibly not taken) and the band creator,
song writer etc. and was interviewed for TV (let's hope it is not aired
though because I hadn't brushed my hair, had a severe tropical sheen and
giggled teenage groupy style). For those of you who are ignorant of the
Indonesian Pop Scene (for christ's sake get with the groove!?) Dewa just
happens to be the most well know Indonesian band and hot to trot. I have
had a few of their CDs for a few years now and of course now I will be
forced to go and buy the compulsory Dewa paraphernalia and the other CDs.
My friend Fran, who didn't even know anything about Dewa, was given...
yes given (no begging or sexual favours involved) two private mobile phone
numbers, home address and home phone number of the drummer, Mr spunky
Tyo and the songwriter.... I am so insanely jealous (sorry Tom-only window
shopping!). Anyway, the point is that I am now an even madder Dewa fan
and possibly also a TV celebrity. Moral to the story: There is nothing
like a bit of bule (foreign) status to get you places!!!
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