Catch Up

above: Gili Trawangan

Above: Jogja airport, covered in ash

above: our plane, covered in ash. Flight was cancelled for obvious reasons.

Well today is a really sad day. Ari's dad has passed away. I got a message from him at 2 am this morning. I didnt know how to respond. 8 years of Indonesian language and I hadnt been taught how to comfort someone in the event of death. I guess its not something you think will really come up. And I guess noone wants to talk about it. Which got me onto the topic of death, and Christina and I were discussing it all this afternoon. What an unpleasant topic. Anyway, my love goes out to Ari in his time of grief. Aku turut berduka cita, Mas Ri. xox

In other depressing news, Yogya has been right in the middle of all of the Gunung Merapi / Volcano Merapi disaster. For a while, during the eruptions, there was ash rain. That was pretty scary. Everything was covered in ash, and the air was unbreathable. We all had to wear masks wherever we went. It was really eeery. Then the universities were used as places to put all the refugees, those people that lived within a 20 kilometer radius of merapi were evacuated. There were some people that refused to leave and they were burnt alive in their homes. I saw footage on the news and it took my breath away. It was a horrible time in Jogja. ACICIS ordered us to evacuate and I went to Lombok again with Christina.

Sorry if this post sounds rather negative but it's been a rough few weeks. On the bright side of life, two more weeks of classes left to go only!!! Two exams and three assignments to go and Im a free spirit! Then daddy comes to Indonesia on the 4 January. so lots to look forward to.

On the weekend there was the ACICIS field trip to Imogiri, which is the graveyard of all the Javanese Sultans. I got to wear traditional Javanese dress which was nice! Then we went to a Batik workshop, where I made my own Batik print.

Really miss you all.
xoxo