It's been over a month... Apologies and a call for Donations to help Merapi's victims

Hello! So it's been close to a month without a peep from me - I am still alive, amidst all of Indonesia's natural disasters! It's been a very tragic week for Indonesia ranging from earthquakes or gempa bumi, tusnami, letusan Gunung Merapi dan Gunung Anak Krakatau or the eruptions from Mount Merapi, Central Java and Mount Krakatau Jr, Sumatra.

These two pictures were taken by my friend Matt Burgess and they show the devastation of Merapi's sadly, numerous eruptions. To see more of his photos, check them out on BBConline - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11657801. It's very exciting having his work published worldwide!

The first image is what the streets of Jogja looked like from Saturday morning, 1am. The volcanic ash had managed to reach as far as 38km away from the actual eruption thus creating a somewhat feeling of falling snow in Jogja. It was incredibly eerie - it made a lot of us wonder whether or not the Apocalypse was nigh!

This photograph is the area about 8km away from the initial eruption, 26th October, 2010. The surrounding area was completely destroyed by clouds of hot ash, hot gases and the occurrence of molten mud and rock. About 38 people have sadly been killed by the eruptions of Gunung Merapi and about 50,000 people have had to be evacuated from their homes which are within the 10km radius of Indonesia's most active volcano. A lot of cows and other animals have been petrified in the natural disaster too but true to the Indonesian spirit, so many people have begun distributing aid, assisting the displayed people and trying to rescue as many people as possible.

Rest assured, although I am in no danger in Yogyakarta, it's been a great opportunity to begin plans to assist the displaced people from Gunung Merap's eruptions. On Friday 29th-30th October, Gadjah Mada hosted their annual GamaFest 2010 - A display of international culture, food and the Gelanggang Mahasiswa Expo.

So what did that mean for us Aussies/ACICIS students? We were inivited/conscripted into creating a 'uniquely' Australian performance and selling traditional foods of the land Down Under. All in 4 days. Oh Indonesia, how you make last-minute plans an art form. So I managed to rope Yasmin (officially adopted as Australian despite being a Brit) into performing 'Waltzing Matilda' by ukelele with us singing, Sam on the didgeridoo making the sounds of a Bule riding a motobike in Indo, before inviting three brave Indonesians to try and eat as many Weetbix as they could within 90 seconds. Despite the simplicity of our performance - the crowd loved our performance, especially the zinc we wore proudly on our noses and cheeks and the hilarity of the revolted looks on the Indonesian's faces as they ate ultimately dry weetbix.

Now, you are probably wondering how making dicks of ourselves on stage is relating to helping the victims of Merapi, right? Well, the following Saturday, despite the volcanic ash that covered Yogya in an eerie-like snow, our next challenge of GamaFest2010 was to create enough Australian food for 200pax. So of course, no Aussie menu is complete without having a vegemite sandwich, damper with strawberry jam (since honey was too expensive) and a non-alcoholic tequila sunrise (yes, not particularly Australian sans alcohol). After a struggle of waking up to start preparing food and decorations at 10am at ACICIS house, we managed to decorate our stall, sell some mediocre but well-received food and raised 320,000 IDR($40) for the victims of Merapi. I know $40 seems like a meagre amount but considering you can buy a decent meal for about 50c-$1AUD - a little goes a long way!

Mas Phil manning the Aussie stall complete with our flag, little koalas, vegemite sanga's, damper, a flopped Australian tourism campaign slogan and neighbours with various countries around the globe with much better tasting food than us! Thanks to Matt again for the photo!

It was an extremely successful day of selling and trying different food, as well as most stalls donating their takings of the day towards helping buy supplies for the victims of Merapi. Currently ACICIS is also putting together a drive for necessary supplies to Merapi like blankets, nappies, sarongs, non-perishable food, clean water, medical supplies and face masks so for those who want to donate from home - please contact me via katrina.steedman@gmail.com or alternative join the ACICIS facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158804084159330&index=1

So that's my current mission, alongside my final two mid-semester exams this week! Please help out in anyway you can because every little bit does go a long way in this country :)

Promise to update the past month as there is still to come: My week in South Sumatra - Pagar Alam + Palembang, PSM UGM Choir audition, Perisai Diri Pencak Silat, Yasmin's 22nd birthday Jogya style, the European 80's party and nightclubbing throughout Jogya, Strong winds, black outs, no water - oh my! As well as my account of my Journey to Kalisuci and Gunung Kidul for caving and Pantai Krakal!

Oh, I've also moved out of my Kos Waswan Way, Deresan - tear but have find a very happy new home in Gang Jeruk No. 3, Pogung Baru! Pictures of the move out and the move in to come... gosh, I seem to be making a lot of promises that I have yet to deliver... Becoming more Indonesian; always something to do for tomorrow!

x

A very overdue blog post, that will lead to more blog posts!

Wow, I do apologise at how slack I've been at blogging! It's nearly two weeks since my lost post! I guess you could say they have been action-packed or I'm trying to get over my addiction...?

As it has been quite some time, I've had to refer to notes in my diary to be able to construct this post so things may not be a true representation of the actual time frame! I'll divide the past two weeks into three small blogs and put lots of fun pictures up :)... Hmm, that reminds me, I still need to get some photos uploaded onto facebook for anyone out there who has me on facebook! So slack!

So let's go back two weeks shall we! Alex and I decided that as

we have Mondays free, we would spend the day being all rajin or diligent, doing some homework/bludging free wif-fi/eating lunch together. As we were ordering, my friend Fajar sent me a message saying that he would like to take Alex and I to watch the sunset at Bukit Bintang or Star Hill. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to be taken somewhere within Jogya that I hadn't been before and with good company, how can you refuse?

So Fajar met us at Foodfezt with his friend Adi and we were off on the back of their motorbikes for about a 40min-1hr journey to the East of Jogyakarta. Well, it was only that quick since the boys were zooming along the streets which was fun until we had to turn corners and or approaching the inclining hill! We arrived safely of course, thanks to their expertisé haha!

A picture of Adi and Fajar guilty as charged for being speed fiends! Afraid they don't look too remorseful!

The four of us sat on a hill-top lesehan and ordered some teh jahe or Ginger tea - sooo yummy! Very addictive and really warms you up. We just chatted, shared some jokes, laughed at each other's attempts at English or Indonesian whilst the sun began to set. It was a spectacular sunset despite some cloud but the real beauty was at night-fall since the lights of Jogya looked like stars. It was easy to see how Bukit Bintang received it's name!

The pictures do not truly capture the beauty of Jogya from Bukit Bintang but it's a nice attempt!

Our other friends then invited us to Nanamia's, a very delicious woodfire pizza restaurant. Us, some other Aussies, some Indo's and some Europeans all dined on a selection of pizzas which were reminiscent of home. Very tasty! The next stop of the night was the free Monday Jazz concert outside Kompas. This has definitely become a regular haunt for some of us ACICIS students as it's very cool to watch some local Jogya musicians jam together with a mixture of jazz standards, as well as some cool fusion jazz. Also, one of the cool things is you get to sit on bamboo mats - I really am becoming fond of bamboo mats!

Something else that is becoming routine here for me in Jogya is going to the gym! Alex, Steph and I decided to become members of Jogyakarta Plaza Hotel since they have a very swank gym, a pool, morning and afternoon classes and probably the best part of the deal - a hot shower! We decided that we should try every class they have on offer as a way to gauge what works and what doesn't, as well as the fact we were beginning to feel a little too sluggish in our very cruisy lifestyle!

First up was Classic Aerobics! We arrived on Monday morning at 7am, a time that has been foreign to us for quite sometime, to only be greeted by blaring 80's electro music. Always fun right? To top things off, our instructor soon arrived in only a bikini top and bottom with a little skirt in bright yellow - it was as if we had fallen back into the 80's! Little disappointed at the lack of leg warmers but the pace of the class and calibre of the routine certainly made up for it!

After our hour of twirling, punching, grape-vining, marching on the spot, the class was over with a quick cool-down and no longer was our instructor making strange noises with her commands. It was sort of the love child between a seagull and a monkey. Very odd!

Since that Monday, I've indulged in many luxurious hot showers since most of our kos's here only have cold water, Body language, Taebo and have plans to try the step class. I think I'm a keeper to the gym and hopefully in 4 months time, I'll be super aerobics lady as currently I'm much like my highschool counter-part - Captain Unco!

In my next blog: PSM UGM Choir audition, Perisai Diri Pencak Silat, Yasmin's 22nd birthday Jogya style, the European 80's party and nightclubbing throughout Jogya, Strong winds, black outs, no water - oh my!

This will then be followed by an account of my Journey to Kalisuci and Gunung Kidul for caving and Pantai Krakal!

Stay tuned :)