Beach weekend, Jepara, four months left.

About a month ago Leanne suggested we have a Jepara beach trip and we decided on this weekend. Joel and Tyler decided to bike there, and Leanne and I decided that we would like to actually enjoy the weekend and take the bus. Looking back I kind of wish I had biked and I think next time I will bike. It didn't take the boys as long as I thought it would and there wasn't a hassle for them to get from the beach to the hotel.




Apparently people don't go to the beach regularly enough in Jepara for it to be profitable to have public transportation from the city to the beach.

Last time we went we ended up hitch hiking both ways from the terminal to the beach. One way with these 15 year-old girls who we later paid in the form of tolerating harassment at the beach and then just giving in and letting them interview us -each of the girls interviewing each of us for some school project. It may sound harsh that we were so resistant to be interviewed by them but you have to understand that each of us Java SALTers work in a school so everyday of the week we're surrounded by students asking questions. We take a beach weekend to get away from that. The other way (beach to the bus terminal) we went in the back of a truck. Fun times, but always risky cause who knows what they are going to demand once you get to your destination, and plus this time it was just us chicks so Leanne and I decided to not do that.

My host dad was actually going into Jepara (it's about an hour away from Kudus) so he took Leanne and I into town but couldn't take us all the way to the beach. He dropped us by an anggota (public trans van) and we chartered it to the beach for 30,000 RP (appx $3.50US ). Pretty hassle-free getting there, thank goodness. We proceeded to strip down to our t-shirt and swim suit and get pretty fried before the boys got there at 11:30. Perfect timing- ten minutes earlier and I would have lost a bet to Leanne which won me a drink. The day was perfect, really. Plenty of sun but a nice strong breeze coming from the ocean. I forgot my camera but I've taken pics at that beach before.

We had reserved a room at the beach front hotel, Sunset Village, but as Indo luck would have it they gave our room away. Awesome. We were mad about it for a little while but then the day was so beautiful and the pancakes and juice we ordered on the beach were so delish that we were forced to forget about the fact that we were stuck on the beach and would have to find a way back into the city again. Makes telling the story more interesting but sometimes you don’t want interesting, you want predictable and simple. You want your reservation to stick. You want there to exist efficient public transportation. You want to be able to order from more than just 15% of the options on the menu. You don't want public trans to cost you seven times what they charge the local people. You don't want to be harassed with questions and stares every where you go. You want the tv to actually work in the hotel room. You want the sun to shine one or two days a week so your clothes can dry and not smell disgusting all the time. You just want the simplest things that you never had to think about or guess about before you came to this country.

I mean, you get used to it. But it's a resist-ful getting-used-to. "I don't WANT this to be how it is!" Suck it up, focus on the positive. A whole country is not going to change because a whitey moved in for a year.



Luckily, getting back was not so hard. I called some friends from school and one of my students who lived in Jepara was able to pick me up and Leanne and I only had to wait for two hours.

I am FRIED. Very red. It's weird how you can honestly not see any red when you're out there in the sun, and then you go to the restroom for something and you realize that the boys weren't just being jerks when they said they could tell who was who (Leanne is a sun block pusher) at the table from a kilometer away. Hurts pretty bad now. The rest of the weekend was filled with Juliana-being-red jokes.

So hilarious.



The hotel we got in Jepara (which the boys kindly searched out and reserved for us on their way to the beach) was great. AC, CNN and HBO on the telly, legit shower with a bath, a sit-down toilet, comfy bed, and a door between our bedrooms which made going back and forth nice. Like for when the boys kept coming in to use our outlets. And when I made coffee from my amazing REI french press with my REI plug in boiler and my starbucks grounds and shared with the boys. And when Leanne destroyed our bathroom and I used the boys' for a while till ours could sufficiently vent.



Overall a relaxing weekend. It started Friday when Tyler and Leanne came to Kudus and we had Mexican night at my house. Joel had fajitas and salsa and we bought meat, cheese, and veggies. So good.



Rest is so from God. Seriously been thinking about the holiness of rest. Started reading the Bible beginning to end and honestly ok I'm only at Genesis 2 (hey I started last Thursday, ok?!) but even just Genesis one has lessons to learn from! And the most important, I think, is the holiness of rest. I really think that Indonesians don’t rest enough. I know my host parents don't. And they pay for it with various health problems they have. Vertigo, stress seizures... To take a day and sleep, to take a trip, to get a babysitter and just go have dinner together, to read a book and refresh your mind, to play a game, to make art, to do SOMETHING that is restful. It's so clear that those who work not only DESERVE to, but NEED to and are, hello, COMMANDED by God to REST. If imitating God is a form of worship, which I believe it is, then to rest after hard work is to worship him and I'm really disturbed with the attitude that there is something noble in working, working, working, and never resting. Especially those who work in the ministry and think their lack of rest testifies to their dedication to God.

Half the people who get burned out from the ministry burn themselves out because they are too prideful to rest. That's my opinion.



I was so thoughtful on my way back from the beach.. Leanne took a bus to Semarang, I took a bus to Kudus and the boys headed off on their bikes. I got a small bus instead of a bigger one with AC and it took longer but I didn't care too much. It was a bit cheaper. I've perfected my "do NOT mess with me" look and used it on the little bus man who tried to make me pay more than the normal fare. He left me alone fast. I don't like having to look like a smug westerner but if they wouldn't try to steal my money I would totally give them a smile and "Thanks!". Today I was confirmed in my ignoring of bothering people by a lady on the anggota when I was coming from the bus station into Kudus. She gave me a "keep silent" sign with her finger to her lips when the anggota men were saying stuff and being stupid with me as I sat in the anggota. It made me feel good to know that the kind of harassment I get from some men here is not acceptable here either. Also I saw this other Indonesian girl jerk a guys hand off of her as she was getting into our anggota and he was "herding" her in. It's not accepted. Why don’t people speak out about it? Why would no one be like, "Shut up and leave her alone!" when they were being stupid with me in the station? I wish more people would verbally resist those things that are wrong here.



The sun was out today and the ride home was really beautiful in some places.

I've been having reality moments lately where it hits me that I've been here 7 months and only have 4 months left. In four months from this day I will be on a plane from Akron PA to Phoenix AZ. It really motivates me to put those irritating things out of my mind and look at the big picture. To see how unique this opportunity is, and be really thankful for this crazy, challenging, full year. So many new experiences, new observations on life service development work, myself. New ideas about human nature, culture, walls, differences, similarities, strengths, weaknesses, vulnerabilities, community, beauty, tragedy, boredom, overwhelmingness, boundaries of mind and will and ability and love, family, entertainment.



Oh. my.goodness. The LOUDEST thunderclap I have ever heard in my LIFE just rattled my room and scared the soul out of me. I thought it was an explosion at first.



Add "rainy season" to that list above. Holy cow. Oh yeah, and we haven't had electricity for the past 15 minutes. Every night it rains. Usually starts about 6 or 7 and goes until late.



Anyhow, I am glad that when I think about the next four months I don't feel panicky or anxious about the time taking forever to pass, because it won’t take forever to pass. It will go quickly. There are moments that feel like an eternity (like this Friday when I was required to sit through a 2 hour seminar on menopause where a schizophrenic man asked a ten minute long question before anyone pried his hands off the microphone) but in general I have no long days. And weeks... weeks go by so fast. I think it is because I take any opportunity I can to go do something with someone even if it sounds boring. Rarely turn down requests to hang out or go get noodles or go to a circumcision party for a thirteen year old boy (which I mistakenly told someone in the States was a castration party. Oops ) or take a bike ride or whatever. Because honestly it's when I have nothing to do that my mind wanders to those I've left in the States and in Portugal and everything I am missing there. Bad news bears. But if I have a full day, I have no time to think about what I am missing.



My life here is so National Geographic sometimes. Some of the stuff I see and experience... So NG. Rice fields… they get me every time. I love them, and they amaze me like the first time I saw them. Especially when there are workers in them, knee high in mudd and bending over so all you can see is their pointy rice hats and bright colored shirts. Joel regularly reminds me that rice fields are anything but natural beauty as they are not the original vegetation scheme of the island but I'm not hugely into environmental preservation and consider the tree tattoo on my ankle as my contribution to nature preservation. I like paper, and I like toilet paper, and I like rice fields. I'm trying to imagine my grandchildren pointing out my tattoo- grandma what is that? - because Asians have taken over the world and made all our forests into rice fields. I don't think it will happen. And if it does, I hope by then they have figured out a way to make rice taste like a bacon cheeseburger because I am so craving one right now... Oh the food I will eat when I go home....

Brightly colored houses, minarets everywhere, intricate metal work on most of the fences and doors, crazy rubber trees that all gorw at an odd angle against the earth, deep green brush, wild banana trees and coconut trees, bright and strange flowers, fruit of every shape and taste, white sand beaches, torrential rains, millions of rice recipes... I'm living a colorful life, when I see it the right way.