...you start thinking of a motorcycle as a "family" vehicle
I just got back from a little expat-filled trip to Bali, where I was put up by the lovely Inger. After experiencing the wondrous delights of Ubud and Inger's palacial Balinese-style house, complete with home-made yoghurt and Mangosteens, we travelled south with fellow aussies Ian, Carlena and Nick (brother of Inger) to Uluwatu aka surfie-town. Our bungalow accommodation was just perfect, as was the gigantic chocolate mud-cake that we bought Ian for his b'day on Saturday!!! All-in-all, in was a food, sun and massage fest- a sensible way to spend any long weekend...
In other news (and I'll try not to gush here) I'm absolutely loving work! My role is an eclectic mix of teaching students, training tutors, working with the student council, starting new projects and developing resources.
Particularly Exciting Project
(Disclaimer: the following paragraphs are excited rambling about a project I'm working on, so if you're just after a brief update skip ahead now...)
A particularly exciting project we've just started planning is a recycling venture, which we will be working closely with the surrounding community to implement. Essentially all the rubbish in the local area is currently piled up on abandoned land, chucked in the nearby river, burnt or buried. The city collection services are either too expensive or can not access the area.
Our idea is to set up a central rubbish centre, where rubbish is sorted in recyclables, organics and non-organics. The organics will be composted, the plastics collected and sold by us or local "plastic-collectors" (as they're known here) and the rest will be sent to the city dump.
The student council and I are going to Jakarta on Monday to meet with a composting expert, who has set up a similar community-composting project. Hopefully after the visit, we will have a clearer idea about what kind of design we need and want for our project. We're starting small, but our plans are well underway and I'm tres excited!
***Stop skipping ahead HERE!***
Sunday before last I went to see an Aussie punk-rock band play in Jakarta at the Hard Rock Café. They were called The Young and The Restless- apparently they won JJJ's unearthed last year?? Anyways, there ended up being a mosh-pit, after which I had incredibly sore boobs, but it was fantastic to see Indonesians really letting loose! (they are often very quite and reserved folk, and it took the lead singer the best part of an hour to get any kind of feet movement happening!). To make a long story short, I ended up jumping up on the stage, embarrassing Australia and winning a T-shirt! ('genuine' thanks must go to Erin, a fellow AYAD, for posting the footage of me doing this onto Facebook).
Next week I'm off to Aceh to visit the incredibly hilarious Jess.
So until after then- Be Kind, Rewind (;
xxx
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