22

Writing live from 22 July, it feels like too long since I've posted and to be sure much has happened.



Last Monday, after a 2 am arrival on a terribly uncomfortable bus ride back from Yogya, I rested up, cleaned up, and suited up for a wedding party (shoot out to my host dad for the kicks, my filthy white velcro Vans were definitely the weak link in an otherwise pretty tight impromptu formal getup). The marriage was between Ryan and Lepsi, affiliates of my host family, and we showed up just in time for the party. This was a classy affair by any standard, held at Kota Araya, Malang's high-class "golden gate bridge" resort. The reception actually wasn't too different from American analogs I've participated in, except for the notable lack of booze. I was just there for the family though, and I really felt like part of one, a great night and good excuse to look nice.

The rest of the teaching week went by quickly. In my class we talked about sports, the Olympics, cultural exchange, and on Friday we had our own miniature Olympic Games, complete with frisbee discus, water balloon shotput, and dodgeball. I also played "futsal" with my students, a kind of redacted soccer, and my team won, which wasn't nearly as enjoyable to me as hearing slang terms from the week's lessons being used on the field ("He's on fire!", "Hat trick!").





Then at 30 til 2 am on Saturday morning, we were whisked away by bus to catch sunrise at another major East Java attraction, Gunung Bromo. Bromo (the short one) is one of three active volcanoes embedded in a sea of black sand. The whole scene looks like some kind of surreal lunar landscape (above). After watching sun chase away the moon for a while and taking a lot of redundant photos, I trekked down to the crater itself. Bromo is the stuff of Javanese legend, and there is an annual appeasement ritual where the smoking earth maw is fed money and live animals. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we were not there for that, so I performed my own nondescript ritual, walking well past the limit of the restrictive safety fence to a high ridge overlooking the beast. I just sat there and luckily didn't fall in.

We got back to Malang at around 11 am, more nap catchup, then on Saturday evening some of the more youthful members of our Indonesian entourage took us out to Flame, Malang's premier night club. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I took no pictures of this. On Sunday we went to see The Dark Knight, which is the best movie of the year, all I'll say about it is I'm planning the rest of my summer around Asian IMAXs to get a proper view.



At midnight on Monday 21 July my host family woke me up with furious knocking and a burning black forest cake in celebration of my 22nd birthday. It was really touching. The rest of the day was very enjoyable, I slept in (til 9), gave a lecture on ancient art to my students, received birthday greetings from my real family and one Tu (I regret the inconsistency with this post's theme), and met up with the rest of the volunteers and a solid crew of Indonesian friends and family for a dinner and shisha sesh at Saboten, a local Japanese restaurant. I graciously received a midnight curfew so I even went out for a few games of pool afterwards. The best Indonesian birthday I could have hoped for.

Tomorrow Malang has city elections so I have a holiday from classes. Plans to visit a "floating temple", not 100% sure what that means. Then this weekend more nature, more youth culture, and preparing for my last week of classes. More later.



To a new year of life...

-Josh