First language class

Today, after four months in Aceh I had my first language class. My brain hurts. Unfortunately I appear to have been born without the slightest gift for languages. A shame really considering that I seem compelled to go to places where people don't speak English as their first language.

My teacher worked hard to correct my accent, which is apparently more Medanese that Acehnese. That will come in handy the next time I am in Medan, but for now I really need to nail the Acehnese accent. I had a hard time explaining that my inability to roll my 'r's is not a new discovery. I realised this deficiency first when learning Italian in year 8 and later when learning Turkish. Apparently a fair bit of Italian blood wasn't enough to ensure the gift of the rolling 'r'.

Speaking of Italian, some Italians dropped into the office earlier this week to talk about post-conflict projects. When they discovered that my surname was Fortuna they asked me all the usual questions like where I was from, which part of Italy, which part of Sicily...etc. etc. but the conversation quickly degenerated into, "why can't you speak Italian" and "why don't you know anything about Italy". Sorry guys...

Thanks to those who skyped me the other day. My colleagues in the office were so excited to see my family, especially my Ibu (mother). I was particularly pleased to see cute kids and Jess's belly. And most importantly, my friends were jealous that I was so loved! I have established that the skype sound problems rest with my computer, but have no idea how to fix them. The sound works in pretty much everything else, although a little while ago I couldn't hear anything when I played DVDs. Any ideas of what to try? The computer thinks all components are functioning normally.

More generally I think my computer is on the brink of a total breakdown. If it were human I imagine it would be hiding in the toilets crying and binge drinking after work.

Finally Lars and I are co-posting just a few minutes before she leaves, so this post will be heavy on photos and light on witty commentary (that stuff takes time people, it doesn't just happen).

This weekend we went to Pulau Weh.
We stayed in accommodation that looked like this:

















With Laras that looked like this:

















We snorkeled a lot and saw a huge yellow moray eel.
This is me after snorkeling:














We took a boat to Rubiah Island just a stone's throw from where we were staying. Here is some youtube footage of me trying to take a photo of Lara on the boat. Technology isn't as easy as it looks.














There was also a goat...

















We took the ferry back to Banda Aceh on Sunday afternoon, and on the becak drive home (see vehicle in photo for explanation of what a becak is) we stopped by the famous generator ship that was swept approx. 3km inland by the tsunami. Yep, it's big.












That's Clara next to Lara. The inevitable jokes when we introduced ourselves as Sarah, Lara and Clara never got tired. EVER.

Here are a couple more photos from Lara's 1o days in Aceh. Did we mention that it rained?

The first photo is of Naomi and Lara on our stroll along the beach last weekend. We got very, very wet. Not really the best location in the world for a wet t-shirt competition.












Yesterday, I took the day off work so we could do some last minute sightseeing. We'd lined up a driver ahead of time and everything....but we decided to stay home and watch DVDs instead.

Anyway, turns out we are clever cookies because it rained a tonne yesterday and instead of getting soaked, we took photos from inside our comfy (but actually muggy and hot) house. This photo was taken before the backyard flooded. I thought about putting the dog in the laundry to escape the rain, but soon found out that the laundry had flooded too.

















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In other important Where is Sarah?-related news:

1.Suharto is dead and the flags are at half mast. He got a state funeral even though he was on trial for defrauding the state of squillions. He was also "widely considered to be one of the most brutal rulers of the last century". That was paraphrasing a quote that BBC has been using repeatedly for the last week or so. The Indonesian TV news reports are mournful and speaking of 'forgiving the sins of a great nation builder'.

2.Kopi Manis is a girl! The vet told her owner (Jesse) that she was a he, but in fact, to quote Clara when she was playing with Kopi last night, "it's a girl...IT'S A GIRL!!" We couldn't be prouder temporary guardians.

3.Clara is leaving at the beginning of next week. I have no idea what I am going to do with myself when she goes. I have a new house mate lined up, but who knows if he will be willing to gossip with me? Sigh....

Boat Trip

Lara and I tried to co-post yesterday but instead we were sidetracked by the surprisingly difficult task of buying Lara a flight out of Indonesia.

On Sunday we went on a boat trip to an island about an hour or two from Banda Aceh. This boat trip was the mostly highly anticipated event on the Banda Aceh foreigner calendar for some time. So on Sunday morning we all arrived at the port like kids going on school camp and loaded the boat with supplies enough for 100 people (there were probably only 20).

After an hour or so we arrived at our destination and began the mission of getting necessary supplies from the boat to the beach via surf boards and waterproof bags. Once everything was on dry land we made a fire and cooked up a storm (actually I collected firewood and went for a swim while the cooking happened). We had fish and prawns and chops, and one very resourceful person was even able to bring salads across from the boat in Tupperware containers.














At one point Lara pondered whether the location could be any more perfect and I reminded her of the coral cuts we all had from crossing a reef as we swam from the boat. I retrospectively added to the 'what's not perfect about the boat trip' list:

1. my decision to climb up a steep hill in bare feet
2. the strong current that nearly swept us out to sea as we swam back to the boat
3. Sunburn even though I lathered on the sunscreen

But even the list didn't make the day anything less than brilliant. Here is me and Lara at the end of the day on the way back into town.















For a change of pace, this weekend Lara and I will stay put on an Pulau Weh (Weh Island) for three days. It's nice to mix it up a little you know?

Lara comes to town

Yesterday Lara arrived in Banda Aceh. Here is photographic evidence:















This is her sitting in my office. Today we ran errands together and were generally just busy bees.

Tonight we will be the guests of honour at my friend's dinner for his students and later on we might open the bottle of red Lara brought from Australia. Tomorrow we will go to the beach and the following day we'll be going on the ultimate fishing trip. Photos of all that fun later.

Peter Russel Clarke

My whole world has been turned upside down by this YouTube clip Bryant showed me. Embedding has been disabled though, so you just have to follow the link.

Peter Russel Clarke Bloopers

I should probably give you an extreme foul language warning, but that will spoil the surprise.

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It's been a while since I've actually written anything of substance (if you don't call posting YouTube clips substance) so I'll give you a brief rundown of my activities of late.

I don't think I've posted much since New Year so I'll work from there. Sadly for my blog, not a whole lot out of the ordinary has been going on. Just work and hanging out mostly.

There were people taking photos of me through my bedroom window, which I guess could be considered not awesome. I put a blanket up and stopped them in their tracks. YEAH, I showed 'em who's boss.

On the weekend a few of my friends and I played golf. I was pretty shocked when I wasn't completely excellent at it. That was just weird because I'm such a natural sports player.

Last night I ate some sensational crab. Best I've had since being in Aceh to be sure.

Yep, that's it.

An Album a Week

Album 2. Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War


















Stars are a Canadian band who share three band members with Broken Social Scene. I actually wanted to buy their 2004 album Set Yourself on Fire but iTunes doesn't have it, which seems really dumb. Especially considering that Stars released this new album on iTunes two months before it was available in stores. Stars and iTunes should be best buddies but I think they are just using each other.

I've been listening to this album for a week and I like it a lot. I don't love it the same way I loved the tracks I heard from the last album, but it's still very nice. I'm not going to review every album I buy because, let's be honest, my opinion is about as informed as "I reckon it sounds orright". If you want to hear any more tracks just lemme know.

Next week: Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

The marvels of lontong

I've tried almost everything to garner comments on this blog and nothing has worked (I was sure the puppy would rouse interest), so now I will try a tactic that is very popular in the blogosphere (ha, I just wanted to say blogosphere).

Expose of dirty laundry part 1.
I am at work and have a terrible hangover. It's Muslim New Year so it's a public holiday for everyone but me. More truthfully it's a public holiday for everyone but me and the other suckers who work for a certain multilateral organisation (here's a tip idiots: forcing your staff to work on public holiday is not enough to counter allegations of gross inefficiency).

Last night some friends who work for a well known international NGO (that gives more annual leave and lets staff take public holidays) had cocktails to celebrate the beginning of a very long weekend. Of course I went. I didn't come all the way to Banda Aceh for the work you know.

Anyway, long story short: too much gin=sick Sarah.

I trialled a new hangover food this morning and it seems to have done the trick. Behold the lontong:















The white chunks are a long stick of sticky rice chopped into pieces. The soup/sauce is coconut-y and curry-ish with peanuts and vegetables. There is also an egg in there for good measure. This is tasty tasty and maybe even more satisfying when I have a hangover. The only thing holding lontong back from being the primary hangover food is that it's only eaten for breakfast so if I snooze too late I lose the chance to eat it. 3.5/5 stars.

Kopi Manis

My friend Jesse found a little puppy underneath a rubbish bin just before Christmas. He was one week old and practically dead. After a week at the university Veteranary School he's doing much better. His name is Kopi Manis (which means sweet coffee).

These photos were taken at New Year. He'd already doubled his size since he was first found.


















Here Kopi is sitting on my legs while I lie in the hammock. He hasn't really figured out how to wriggle yet, so if I hold him in place he just sits there, trapped. It's fun.














Here Kopi is trying to climb over my friend Sarah's legs. As you can see it's a pretty serious obstical.

















I'll post more pictured when Kopi turns into a big mangy dog.

An Album a Week

My new year's resolution was to buy a new album from iTunes every week I'm in Indonesia. We should all make resolutions that are fun to keep. It would make the system work a whole lot better. I'm sure some happiness-hater out there will point out that a resolution should be about personal growth, so I will tell you why this activity will make me a better person:

1. I will actually pay for this music instead of stealing it like I usually do
2. Listening to music has been scientifically proven to lift your mood (unless you have bad taste in which case it probably just increases self-loathing) so having more music to listen to should make me listen to it more and thus be happier
3. I will have a great music collection which will make me infinitely cooler (I know, cooler than I am already must be freezing) and being cool definitely makes you a better person

Feel free to add to this list in the comments section. I have a traffic counter now people, so I have proof that you are reading this blog. You can't hide anymore.

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Album 1. The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High (e-deluxe edition with music video included if you don't mind)

Download a track from the album

I chose "Science is Golden" which you might already know, so if you want to hear something else just let me know and I'll make another selection.

But if you haven't heard this song get ready to get Jem truly outrageous! and dance around your bedroom with your hairbrush.

Creepy Sesame Street

I promise this is the final post about Sesame Street for the morning (but anything can happen in the afternoon...)

I have had many serious discussions about the following clip (I think all of them have been with Jess). I could never quite remember what happened in it, but I remembered it was creepy. I think I've mixed the images with another clip that was even creepier, but I think this one provided the foundation for the memory. On review I realise this isn't so weird. I think I found it creepy when I was little because I thought it was a real little girl and not an adult acting as one (although I knew it was Lily Tomlin, so I don't know what was going on in my head).

Lily Tomlin as Edith Ann making a sandwich:

Sesame Street Mania

Watching that Philip Glass clip on YouTube sent me into a Sesame Street nostalgia spiral.

Searching for one particular clip (to be revealed later) I have found so many other great Sesame Street clips like "Teeny Little Super Guy" and "How Crayons are Made" (Remember the dorky girl looking inquisitively at her crayon?!):




This is way more fun than Facebook, so I encourage everyone to spend their afternoons finding their favourite Sesame Street clips and reporting back in the comments section (just click on the "comments" link at the end of this post and let the magic happen).

Philip Glass on Sesame Street

The Very Short List sent me a link to this clip from 1979 that I am sure everyone will remember. Obviously we didn't know who Philip Glass was back then, but even by the mid-80s when I was watching Sesame Street it was still of very high rotation. Can any current viewers of Sesame Street confirm whether this is showed anymore?

Photo album from Australia

My camera sat at the bottom of my bag for most of the time when I was in Australia, particularly on Christmas day which was the when I saw all the kids. Stupid Aunty Sar. So even though it is incomplete, here is the photo album of my trip to Australia for Christmas, a photo-journal if you will (you won't? I'm not surprised).

Day One:

Lucky for me Lara was only working a half day the day I arrived so after a quick drought-sensitive shower we went out for lunch. Lara is living in Kensington now, right near by this record store/café called White Rabbit. I liked it a lot.

Later that evening Lara and Paul put on one of their fancy dinners. Here they are preparing food while I watch.

Clare came over (she lives right around the corner), and she gave me these extremely cute biscuits for Christmas.

Here are Clare, Lara and Paul after we all had very full and satisfied bellies.

Amanda came over too. Her face is blurry in this photo because she is laughing (almost certainly at one of my very funny jokes), but her excellent new dress is in focus, so that's alright.

Day Two:

Most of this day was spent shopping with MJ, Beck, Siobhan, Jess and the kids. It was a surprisingly tolerable day of shopping so close to Christmas, but I hope you will understand that I didn’t bother to capture the DFO shopping centre in all it's glory.

Later that afternoon I met Marty for a coffee. The photo below is actually of us having tea at Borders, because after sitting in a café for a while we decided we should try to be efficient and do some Christmas shopping. We lasted five minutes before I insisted we needed to take a break. Yes, we are sitting at the Gloria Jeans in the back of Borders, and yes, it is as uninspiring as you might think the Gloria Jeans in the back of Borders would be. But they did have these great Christmas cups.

Later on Elisa and I saw Into the Wild which I wholeheartedly recommend. Don't bother reading reviews or plot summaries, just take my word for it and see it. I think anyone would enjoy it.

Day Three:

First thing on Friday morning I headed over to my house in Fitzroy to visit Greg. First thing on Friday morning we headed into the city to eat Yum Cha. The Ay Tea House that used to be a tea shop with a couple of tables to sit at has relocated further up Little Collins and has turned into a Powerhouse of Yum Cha. We walked in wearing our regular scruffy clothes and was greeted by a maitre'd (what are you thinking Ay Tea House? Maitre'd are weird and 80s) asking if we had a reservation. Umm, it's yum cha dopes, you don't make reservations. But apparently here you do and the place was packed but we were lucky enough to score a table anyway. Here is out feast of the fanciest dim sum Melbourne has to offer (OK, I'm sure it's fancier at Flower Drum, but I'm just talking about places I could actually afford to go to). Delicious!

Day Four:

Lara has the most comfortable bed in the world and her cat Taffy agrees with me. She was pissed off when I woke up early and disturbed her sleep, but it didn’t take long for her to find a new comfortable position.

I have cats in my new house too, but they just wander in off the street.

I had the good fortune of being in Melbourne at the same time as my Indonesian friend Rini and her family. We met when Rini worked on a project with Nicole and I at RMIT. Nicole had the family over for lunch and I got to be the surprise guest. Lunch was incredibly delicious. I ate about a third of the food cumulatively consumed that afternoon. I was very happy.

Later that afternoon I took the train to Shepparton and went to Jess's house. Here is her gingerbread house. Don't ask me how she made something that actually looked like it came from a magazine (but less bland than magazine Christmas).

Day Five:

MJ and I headed back to Rushworth in the morning and got on with preparing for Christmas. To show you MJ stirring the Christmas Pudding I could post this photo:

But I think this photo gives you a better sense of what was going on in the kitchen that day:

Before you comment on MJ leaving it until two days before Christmas to make the Pudding I will tell you that instead of doing it six months in advance like she usually does, she kindly waited until I was available to partake. Nice MJ.

Day Six:

Shopping for groceries on Christmas Eve=bad.

Shopping for groceries on Christmas Eve with a mother who shows no respect for the shopping list I thoughtfully created the day before=hell.

Day Seven:

CHRISTMAS!

Here is Beck at the table for our quiet afternoon lunch before the whole family arrived.

There were five (F-I-V-E) people at the table!? I mean, does that even reach minimum attendance to qualify as Christmas? We even had elbow room! It definitely felt like cheating.

That's all the photos I have from Christmas. I blame the food and the presents. How can I think of anything else when my two favourite things are in such plentiful supply?

Day Eight:

I have been dreaming about Gingerbread houses for years, and suddenly two people I know get Martha Stewart-y and build GB houses like they're working for a tsunami reconstruction project (ooh, nice intersection of blog themes Sarah…)

Meaghan kindly waited until I arrived on Boxing Day for the great destruction of this work of art (it has windows and wood panelling!!). I could show you a series of cute photos of Miles getting stuck into the house, but I think this photo gives you a pretty good idea of how things went.

Obviously by cutting out the middle-man (his hands) Miles could get to the smarties that bit faster.

I left Meaghan's place leaving the smallest possible window to buy new clothes to take back to Indonesia, and in the rush left my camera behind. I was surprised and pleased to see that Ryan took the opportunity to show off his writing skills and excellent taste in godparents.

OK, so he didn’t write the sign, but you can see that he's actually holding it up at the side!

After picking up the camera I ate the most delicious lasagne at Jess's place and fell into a carbs-induced coma.

The next morning at 6am Benj and I headed back to Melbourne where I got on a plane and headed back to Indonesia.

THE END

New year's and my new house

I absolutely love my new house. I am writing this post from the back yard which is large and airy but also enclosed by a fence all the way around so no one can see in. It provides the perfect blend of space to move outdoors and privacy from neighbours. In contrast I think people can see into my bedroom from the street but you can’t win them all.

I started the new year with a bowl of muesli with soy milk and an earl grey tea in a real mug! It has taken three months to collect all of these things so it feels pretty luxurious.

I noticed that there was something strangely familiar about this backyard but couldn't pinpoint anything particular. Then it finally dawned on me, across the road there are about five tall gumtrees making that noise that gumtrees do when the wind swishes around in the leaves (actually, I've possible only ever seen a similar combination of gumtrees and palms in the front yard at Rushworth!).

My bed here is enormous. I think it absolutely must be King size, so if anyone has any sheets (fitted or flat) that are king size, or you see any on sale (who on earth really owns a king size bed?) can you send them over with one of the people coming to visit me over the next three months? It's not urgent or necessary but the sheets here are pretty scratchy (and in some twist of fate my bed in this house has the same bright lime- green sheet set my last bed had).

Hopefully I can keep this house beyond this month because it's perfect for having people stay. If I do keep it I will extend the invitation to come and hang out as long as you please (the invitation has already been extended but previously it was tagged with a "you do know there is nothing to do right?" warning). It would be a nice place to catch up on reading and generally just pottering around. As I write this Kak Ani who lives in the house with us (she was the previous tenant's maid and even though we don't want a maid we also don't want to kick her out) is chopping up the coconuts that have fallen from the tree.

I can’t decide if this is the best thing about my new house yet but it's definitely in the top three: I can walk places! This is a huge development because our last place was far too far from anything to walk. Now I can walk to work, at least three of my friends' houses, the foreigner supermarket and the regular supermarket.

Last night I celebrated New Year's Eve with some friends and American food. The Acehnese guests were not all that impressed by the hamburgers or, well, any of the food at all. One boy decided there must be something wrong with his taste buds, but I assured him that I do not like the Acehnese speciality goat curry all that much (he was shocked that it wasn't everyone's favourite food) and we put it down to culture. Because there were Acehnese guests we didn’t drink any alcohol, and now I am thoroughly enjoying New Years Day without a hangover.

Highlight of the night was going down to Blang Padang, a huge public space that looks like 10 football ovals lined up next to each other, and watching people set off fireworks. We'd been watching them for hours from Jesse's rooftop (there was literally a constant stream of fireworks for about five hours and they were still going when I fell asleep), but when we went down to the street close to midnight it went nuts. This wasn't some orderly local council display, it was people bringing their own fireworks and setting them off randomly. Most of them were pretty standard fireworks, but some of them were seriously huge. All of them were being let off with people crowded around them, maybe taking a step back for a really big one. You might get a fancy display in Melbourne at Southbank, but in Aceh you can get up close and personal.

I should also mention that religious leaders disapprove of celebrating NYE in Aceh, so it's actually a toned down celebration. I can't wait to see what happens at the beginning of the Muslim New Year.

Another interesting thing to consider about this NYE in Aceh. It wasn't all that long ago (before the peace agreement that effectively ended the conflict was signed in 2005) that people were afraid to leave the house after dark, and certainly wouldn't have been out past 11pm. The thought of setting off fireworks was unimaginable. A firework would immediately be mistaken for a bomb or gunfire. So seeing the streets full of people having a blast (poor taste Sarah...), within three short years since the signing of the peace agreement is pretty amazing. Even though there is still a lot of trauma in Aceh relating to both the conflict and the tsunami, it's inspiring that the community at large has embraced some of the new freedoms afforded to them, like staying out late on NYE.