Homestays

So we've moved into our homestays in Yogyakarta after a week of living in a (very nice) hotel. The transition was interesting enough, especially because mine was not seamless at all...

Since I'm the Student Fellow for the trip, Agustini asked me to go along with her to drop each person off at their homestay so that I could see them all, and that was really cool! The first person was Jake and his host family's house is gigantic, so we now refer to his homestay as Jake's mansion. Seriously, the house is two stories, marble tile, a fish pond, newly renovated bedrooms, exercise machines, a new kitchen...this place was amazing! Then we dropped off Rachel, Nina, Sarah and Stephen, and everybody else was deposited into their respective homestays. Each home had its own unique charm and the people of each homestay were all so kind and welcoming, greeting us always with a big smile and warm expressions.

Our homestays are divided up into two parts of town, one neighborhood holding 10 of us and the other one 5 of us. When I dropped off the last few people in the smaller group, I realized that each homestay in that neighborhood was more of a guest house where multiple students stay at once, they weren't families accepting one student into their home like most of the others in the big neighborhood. In fact Mas Bambang, our guide in Yogya, mentioned to me that one place was straight up a hotel. So I start to get a little antsy wondering what my place will be like, but at least the "hotel" that Avery and Betsy were staying in was SUPER nice; they each had a TV in their room and air condition, free wi-fi and their own bathrooms. I was expecting great things for my place after seeing theirs, but you all know that if I had a nice, simple, happy experience in mine then I wouldn't be writing about it now...

My homestay was the Bates motel. (Psycho anyone?) We pull up in the rain, making it all the more ominous, and I'm not kidding the only person of all the homestays who did not look friendly was behind this gate. She looked rather annoyed that we were there, and as it turns out she wasn't even the owner of the place who Agustini expected to meet there, but a worker there. It was a hotel, there was no doubt in my mind about this, but prof was trying to pull this off as a homestay. I was slightly saddened realizing I wasn't staying in a home with an Indonesian family, but I tried to perk up and not let it get me down, thinking how I'll have privacy and independence instead. Well, the looks of this "homestay" were not very promising to say the least. Karen, the other girl assigned to stay there, and I investigate each of our rooms, and a slow wave of disappointment sets over both of us...There is no air conditioning or television like the other hotel, and it's probably right around 85 degrees at this point in the evening. The bathroom consists of a toilet and a basin filled with dirty water probably still around from the previous tenant's stay. There is no toilet paper or shower, just a small bucket floating in the murky water in the basin that we are to fill with water and dump over ourselves as a bath. I think to myself "at least the bed will be comfortable" but as I sprawl out across the mattress it doesn't support me but recedes into itself like I'm lying on a bed of quicksand. Yiick.

Now I wouldn't have been so judgemental of this place if I hadn't seen all the other wonderful families and awesome digs that my companions had been assigned to live in. But I had, so I was. And to make matters worse, I started hearing odd noises as I was getting ready for bed. I heard a knock at the door, so I shyly utter "Karen?" but noone was there. I hear what sounds like water rushing from the bathroom, but I can't find where the sound is coming from. I start to get thoroughly freaked out and consider asking Karen if we can sleep in the same room when I hear her call to me from her room next door saying that she's locked in her room! She had the keys and everything but once she locked her door from the inside she couldn't get out. We had to call over the lady who let us in just to get her out; this place could definitely have been the scene of a slasher film or twisted horror movie of some sort...Karen slept in my room that night, scaredy cats we were.

Thankfully the next morning Agustini was as appalled as we were by the conditions of our "homestay" and we promptly moved out. (After a breakfast of fried rice and fly-covered fruit that is) Karen got to move into Jake's mansion and I am now living in a family run guest house that has people from all over the world staying there. Every night I have dinner with the occupants of the house, with new people coming in every day. There's an English girl working on her PhD, a Swiss boy, Filippino man, and German girl all studying Indonesian languge, a Japanese woman who works for the UN, a French couple on holiday, and two recent PhD recipients who will become professors in the fall at universities in the US, one American and one from Nepal. Needless to say, I'm endlessly enthralled in conversation with them hearing about their stories and lives. To my amazement English is our common language, they have all learned it through the course of their educations in whatever country they originate from. It's quite wonderful living in that wordly guest house, and I have an Indonesian family to talk to and learn from as well the guests from every end of the earth. So alas the homestay situation ended up just fine after all...

Ketut Liyer

I now have time to explain what happened to me on my first full day in Bali. So let me set the scene...

Only one other student had arrived so far, Nina, and she and I were bunking together in our bungalow style guest house which opened up to a luscious green garden full of tropical plants and chirping birds. We were getting to know each other and Nina asked me what I want to do when I "grow up" - which hopefully I never will ;) - and I said, slightly outlandishly that my dream is to be a travel writer. As you all know I enjoy documenting my travel experiences in a hopefully entertaining manner, so doing that for a living would be magical. Nina and I then went about the day's events, not knowing what to expect as we hopped in the car to visit some of the homestays that we would be staying with in Bali.

We're bouncing from house to house, admiring the compound-style architecture of Balinese homes and trying desperately to interpret what our professor Agustini is saying to the families in Indonesian. After seeing a few different houses Nina and I were slightly exasperated because we couldn't follow the conversation and it was so very hot outside like it is everyday in Indonesia when we drive past a sign that reads Ketut Liyer. "Ketut Liyer!" I say excitedly, recognizing the famous medicine man's name from the book Eat, Pray, Love written by Elizabeth Guilbert. The book is a travel memoir detailing the author's journey through Italy, India, and you guessed it, Indonesia, in the year after her divorce. She studies pleasure in Italy (Eat), devotion in India (Pray) and balance between the two in Bali, Indonesia (Love) and she stayed with Ketut Liyer for four months during her stay there! Ketut comes from generations of healers so he knows thousands of alternative healing methods, traditional medicines and spiritual practices such as palm reading. Nina has also read the book so we giggle with excitement at our mutual recognition of Ketut Liyer's name, thinking how cool it is that we passed his house. But we weren't prepared for what happened about an hour later...

After visiting a few more homestays, we stop the van in front of a housing compound none other than the one that belongs to Ketut Liyer! He is going to be one of our homestays! And we were going to meet him!! We fall out of the car, crawling on top of each other to get out first and spill over into the house, which is a complex made up of several small buildings where the family, elders, and extended family lives all together. Then we see him, the wise, old man nimbly walking out of his room with a huge toothless grin. Nina and I gasp in astonishment and then shyly walk over to meet him, the way that a small child might inch towards something expensive and shiny in a department store, asking permission first before touching it. Ketut greets us warmly and his giant smile is contagious. He is exactly like Liz Guilbert described him in her book: small, wrinkly, and in every way resembling the character Yoda from Star Wars. Nina spots a copy of Eat, Pray, Love on his door stoop, and when Ketut leaves to answer a phone call, we let a little more of our excitement show as we freak out knowing we're about to have an encounter with this world renound Balinese medicine man!

He comes back out and seeing that we speak English, he pulls out the dusty copy of the book and asks if we will read him the part about him. He explains that he cannot read English, so even though Liz Guilbert has left him a copy of her book (with the message "To Ketut Liyer, my teacher and friend" scribbled on the front cover) he doesn't know what she's written about him. He turns to the page where he first sees him name in print, and plops the book in my lap, looking at me expectantly. I can't even believe this is happening - I'm so in awe! - yet I get it together and start reading, with Agustini translating my spoken words into Indonesian for Ketut to better understand. Although he speaks some English, he solicits that he wants someone to teach him better English, which is hilarious because he asked the author of this book to do just that! He read her palm when she was first in Bali doing research for an article, and said "You will return to Bali and live with me for 4 months, teach me English" and she did just that. So imagine my delight when her description of him turns out to be so true it's as if I'm living out the story she wrote about in the moment.

As Agustini is tries to explain to Ketut who Yoda is, Ketut stops the reading and takes my hand to read my palm. I have no idea what to expect; I'm not a spiritual person, nor have I ever had my palm read so I'm not sure I believe anything that's about to be said, but I'm here in Bali, with a medicine man, an ancient healer with powers to see your future, and he's about to make some predictions about my life! How could I not be enthralled? And so the palm reading begins...
He takes my hand in his and squeezes it just so, so that the creases in my palm are more defined. He tells me I have a very long life line, and that I will live a long time - until I'm 105! This is off to a great start I think to myself :) and then he proceeds to look at my brain line (which is "very long" he says, "you're very smart") and some other lines which indicate I'm impatient, and emotional. Although these seem like generic assumptions, I take them to heart, noting that as a recent graduate I've been incredibly emotional awaiting the next step in my life to present itself, or dreading it rather, and I am very impatient, for things as small as waiting in line to things as big as waiting for Mr. Right to show up. He says he sees in my palm that I have strong energy, very good Karma and that I'm an influencer. He says I will get married around the age of 31 which makes me very happy, and he says at age 40 I will become very rich! So don't worry about those student loans Dad, I'll make it big when I'm middle aged ;)

I'm following his every prediction avidly, mesmorized by the reading and yet completely perplexed by it at the same time. The next line he reads is my artist line, and he says "You are capable of doing many different things (referring to an occupation) and doing them well" I smile, especially happy to hear that since I'm a recent graduate going into a shaky job market. And then he says "You're very good at writing...I see you as a writer, or you publish, good writer". I cannot believe it. This old medicine man who has only just met me has just predicted that I'm good at what I love and I'll do it for a living. I felt so elated I could float away on a cloud, and a feeling I've rarely ever felt before, of the most serene calm, came over me. It was so serendipitously wonderful, I wanted to stay with that feeling forever. How did this happen to me? I come to Bali and just so happen to be staying in the same town that Liz Guilbert stayed in, just happen to stumble across Ketut Liyer's name on a sign, he somehow is aligned to be one of our homestays, and as it turns out, who had been assigned to stay with him by the guides in Bali? Me and Nina. It was already determined! For a brief moment I felt as though the universe aligned to give me that moment, and I relished every breath of it. I'm going to be a travel writer... :)

Let's all hope Ketut Liyer's prediction is right, it's certainly a push for me to believe in myself enough so that I feel a cosmic calling to do it now. Anxiety about my future - take that! The cosmos have great things in store for me, and whether I believe in the palm reading or not, I do feel that my first day in Bali was perhaps more perfect than I ever could have asked for. <3

Temples and Nourishment

Yesterday we visited several temples including the biggest Buddhist temple in Indonesia. (Just Google Indonesia and I'm sure a picture of it will show up - with the large bell-shaped structures made of stone with holes in them house stone statues of Buddha) I was fascinated by this place, it's so vast and beautiful and filled with meanings both spiritual and cultural. Our tour guide was excellent too, making jokes that referenced American culture to keep us laughing and engaged despite the fact that English is just one of many foreign languages he's had to learn to give tours. I'm always amazed when people can be funny in another language because it requires you to understand humor from a foreign culture that you may have never known. I struggled with this so much while studying abroad - I felt that I just simply could never be funny in Spanish, that part of me was inevitably lost outside the realm of English.

So amidst the references to celebrities and jokes about American Idol, I learned about the original architectural plan for the temple and the story of Buddha along the way. By the time our sweat-drenched bodies reached Nirvana, or the top level of the temple, we felt like we had accomplished some sort of impossible feat - climbing all those stone stairs in the 90 degree heat. We each reached our long American arms through the holes in the aforementioned bell shaped stone structures to touch the Buddha for good luck and success in whatever we do. Along the way, we were bombarded by Indonesians to have their pictures taken with us, to talk to us, and even to have some of our autographs! Why? Because we're foreign giants, with our average height being easily a foot taller than most people we meet, and our light skin makes us stick out like a sore thumb this close to the equator. It's like we're being rushed by paparazzi everywhere we go! Seriously I've never felt so fabulous in my life (that's a lie, more accurately I've never felt more sweaty in my life) but people stare at me and all of us like we're aliens and shamelessly snap pictures of us with camera phones as they walk by. It's quite odd, and yet I've almost become accustomed to it in the few days we've been here.

That's got to be all for now, dinner's ready in our hotel...more later I promise, and thanks to those of you who're actually reading this : )

Week One: The Spider and the Monkey

Ok, so many things have happened since I arrived here in Bali, but I have to tell what's freshest in my mind first, so here is my story about the giant spider and the monkey...

It started off a normal day on my trip to Indonesia, we met with a woman from an NGO, visited one of our possible homestay families, and had a delicious Indonesian lunch. It wasn't until I went with our Balinese driver and friend, Bat Danu, with 2 other girls to pick up their luggage that the day got interesting.

Bat Danu has a beautiful guest house where people from all over the world come to stay. It's situated right off the road and yet the view makes you feel like you're in the most remote jungle you've ever seen, like in the movie Jurassic Park or something. The girls had told me about a rather large spider that they had seen there the other day, so of course I had to witness it for myself (and compare it to King Kong, avid blog-followers will remember from last year in Viet Nam). Bat leads us down through the foliage and shows us a massive spider perched contently on it's giant web between two palms. We're admiring it from afar and taking pictures when Bat Danu gets the fabulous idea to take it down and transport it back to the hotel to show everyone else we're staying with. I thought he was kidding. He wasn't.

Bat takes a stick and swiftly tangles the spider in its own web, pulling it down and then fearlessly grabs it, pinning all its spiney legs behind its body, rendering it unable to move or even sqirm. It looked much less intimidating like that, so we got up close and took some more pictures. Bat asks if we want to let it climb on us. We though he was kidding. He wasn't.

He goes first, letting the spider crawl all over his chest while we sqeal and take pictures. But then I wonder, what's the harm in this? Bat says it won't bite (and if it does it's not poisonous) so I think, what the hell, I'm only in Indonesia once right? I let Bat Danu put the spider on me, and it crawls around my chest up my shoulder and to my neck! (Don't worry, I have photographic proof if you don't believe me). Let me explain, this spider was huge, but very different than the furry and monstrous King Kong from my hotel room in Viet Nam. First of all, this one was black and yellow, so it looked ornate, almost beatiful. Second, it was found in nature, and the Balinese are very in tune with nature, so since Bat Danu had a way this this creature, I figured it was safe to let it crawl all over me. (This kind of logic will probably lead to my demise one day...by way of animal mauling). Rachel and Ashley couldn't get over this, neither of them would let the spider near them so they called me brave. I'd call me obliviously foolish. But now onto the next part of the story....

Bat delicately shoves the spider into a plastic water bottle for transport, making sure to poke a few air holes. (It would've taken a hole the size of a golf ball for this thing to get out) So we drive back to the hotel and show everyone, some are horrified, others fascinated, all equally amusing to show it to. But right around this time, everyone is getting ready to go to the nearby monkey forest, and in the commotion of showing everyone, I lose track of Bat Danu and he ends up leaving the hotel. Not wanting to let Mr. Aracnoid suffocate in his water bottle prison (or even worse, having him escape in my room if I left him there) I just take him with me in the water bottle, hoping I'll see Bat Danu to give him back. I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen, but worse case scenario, the spider dies in the bottle, I'm sad, but at least I tried to deliver him back to his owner. But the spider's "departure" from me was much more dramatic than that, that's for sure.

We all walk along the narrow streets of Ubud, Bali to the entrance of the illustrious monkey forest. Picture a giant playground for grown-up tourists to point and laugh at monkeys because for some inexplicable reason, everything they do is hilarious. "Look! The monkey's scratching it's head! Hilarious! It's looking at a rock! Hahahaha! It's doing absolutely nothing! Bahahaha!" For real, monkeys are just funny. So we all enter the forest, and as if we don't look ridiculous enough taking pictures in throngs and pointing and staring like idiots, the locals are selling bananas at the front, to feed to the occupants of the forest. There are so many reasons why this is a bad choice. First of all, you are not in control of when you feed the monkeys. They are. They see/smell/sense the food, they go for it. Second, when they go for it, it's not like they politely ask for it and you give it to them. They attack you and just take it, like pirates comandeering your ship and taking your booty. Third, once you give them food once, they know you have more, and they stalk you for the rest of the time you're in their sight. So naturally, we buy bananas.

The monkeys are everywhere, out to play, ready to socialize. The forest is dense and monkeys are spilling out of the trees like popcorn popping from kernals; Stephen is the first to try and feed one. We see the monkey spot the banana before it's even fully out of Stephen's bag, and it runs over to him, beelining for the fruit, Stephen shrieks and throws the banana into the brush, just in time to avoid the monkey's wrath. We all laugh, half panicked, realizing the monkeys aren't going to play nice when it comes to food. All the while noone wants to walk next to me because I'm carrying a giant spider in a water bottle. Oh yeah, the long, black and yellow spider that's in my hand, I almost forgot. I almost didn't realize how much it must have looked like food to the monkeys...Oh god.

I don't know which monkey realized it first, but all of a sudden one was just looking at me, knowingly. I was like oh, shit, this isn't going to end well. I try to casually keep walking, like I don't think the little fuz butt is going to try and take this spider out of my hand, but I knew it was. The monkey jumps down from the ledge, runs over to me, and jumps up to grab the water bottle! I yell "NOooo! This is NOT FOOD!" like it'll understand me, but the monkey is undeterred, and his eye is on Bat's spider. Oh no, Bat! What will he say if I lose his spider?! No time to think, the monkey is at it again, this time he doesn't go for the air strike, but literally LATCHES ONTO MY LEG!! (Thank you Karen, for making me change my shorts and wear pants to the monkey forest) The monkey is on me, clamboring up my leg like I'm a tree branch, and I scream and panic like a crazy person because this monkey is ATTACKING ME!! I'm yelling and lifting up my hands, trying to save Mr. Spider's life, but I'm pretty sure the beast will sink his teeth into me if I don't relinquish the bug, and the struggle is shortlived. The monkey snatches the water bottle out of my hands despite my best efforts, and runs like a bat out of hell back into the forest. I'm still in shock while everyone freaks out and asks if I'm okay. The jerk monkey perches right above us to flaunt what he's stolen from me. We watch as he claws at the water bottle trying to get at the prize inside, with Mr. Spider surely in a pure state of terror awaiting his own death.

And that's what happened to me today. I cannot believe a monkey robbed me of my Balinese friend's enormous pet spider...

First post from Bali

I got to Indonesia safe and sound! That's about all I have steam for right now, I'm so sleep deprived and disoriented but I just wanted say I'm alive and I made it.

I'll save details for tomorrow when I'm a little less cracked out. Good morning in MI and goodnight from Indo! :)

In Transit Post

Have you ever seen a poorly animated cartoon telling you how to not get the swine flu? I have. China Arilines' finest entertainment people.

I'm at some creepy internet station in the Taiwan International Airport so I figured why not post on my blog!? It's about 7pm Sunday May 10th in Michigan, but 7am Monday May 11th in Taiwan, and still many hours before I get to Bali. But I made it this far, alive and swine-flu free so hooray!

Ok now literally in the minute it took my to type that last sentence like 4 people lined up to get on this computer, so I'm gonna be a good samaritan and stop blogging. Next post from Indo... :)

The Predeparture Post

My flight leaves tonight at 7:28pm from Detroit and then I'm in transit for a full 30 hours until I arrive in Bali on May 11th! Next post will be from some internet cafe in Indonesia, hopefully announcing how smoothly the flight(s) went and how everything was on time and seamless...Yeah, right :) Cross your fingers for no airsickness this time around! I think Japan Airlines is happy I chose a different carrier for this year's flight across the Pacific...

I promise to try and write about only the most ridiculous and interesting things that happen to me while I'm traveling so I hope you all enjoy. I'll see you on the other side... :)