indomego

once upon a time in the land of Java…

It’s been two years. Say what now? I do recall almost being late for the flight to California April 4, 2011 for PC staging the day prior to my departure to Indonesia. The night before that flight, my family gathered for dinner, my close friends came over for one last goodbye, and the morning before … Continue reading →

MAN up: Semester Empat (4)

This post has been a long time coming so I’ll dive right in. MAN or Madrasah Aliyah Negeri OR public Islamic high school is the type of school I have geared most my energy towards for over the last year or so. After our first training ended and I was still in a constant dazed … Continue reading →

Lion masks, Shadow Puppets, and Floating Rice Cones

November 15th marked Satu (1) Suro, the first day of the Javanese calendar, which also corresponds with the Islamic New Year. Which in turn set off a slew of festivities around my area: Grebeg Suro XIX. These celebrations went on for a week and usually started off in the sore or evening time. There were … Continue reading →

Medevac Maddness in the Land of Smiles

Last Sunday night I sat waiting to board the plane to Surabaya. I overheard people chatting (in Indonesian) and my nervousness to board the plane and return to Indonesia subsided. It was a few Wednesdays back, three to be exact when I was on my bike headed to school in a great mood. I rode … Continue reading →

“Holy-Bitter”: taking the high road and in search of a new one

My neighbor came up to me the other day and said, “Mary =’holy’, ellen= ‘bitter’…Yes, you here is like holy-bitter, am I false…?” I laughed because 1, he looked up the meaning of my names and 2, I strangely already knew where he was headed with this. When I asked him to farther explain, his … Continue reading →

indo day 516…inner band geek comes out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bppDVwPAY2Y&feature=plcp

Prior to dancing in a parade for last week’s carnival–delayed celebration for Indonesia’s Independence Day (or Kemerdekaan)–I prepared my students with a little marching band motivation…
Dressed in red and white they were beaming with nationalism and later dripping with sweat after a 4km route with a back to back dance routine. Although no fire trucks were paraded, there were unusual characters, accidental steps in horse dung, flying candy, and teams of teachers with H2O ready to hydrate! I was feeling quite nostalgic.

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it’s not about mangoes…

Indoland has since heated up with the arrival of musim kemarau, dry season, and mangoes are plentiful. Ramadan and Idul Fitri celebrations came to an end and the re-start into the first school semester has official begun! Repeat into round 2…on Shuffle. I’m jazzed and already feel a slight change and it’s started with the … Continue reading →

indo day 509

indo day 455

4 am wake up. thanks to this beautiful moonlight, my earlier morning start was a bit more enjoyable…once in a Blue Moon can be seen tomorrow August 31