Week in Review - Yogya

I’ve been in Yogya for a little over a week now and have had a fantastic time. Learning has gone very well. My level of vocabulary has increased, but a lot of improvement has been on speaking-feeling more confident-as well as getting a good grasp on grammar. It’s always funny to find out just how little I know about English grammar and grammar in general. What the hell is the different between a transitive verb versus an intransitive verb?!? I will be grammar queen by the time I leave here.

Aside from school, I’ve definitely been making up for lost times-bowling, dining out, shopping, playing tourist. It’s been great.It was a pretty action packed weekend. Friday evening, I went to the ancient Prambana Hindu temple for the Ramayana ballet, depiction of a traditional Indonesian/Hindu story. The entire ballet is separated into 4 episodes and each being about 2 hours. The ballet was held at an open air theater with the silhouette of the ancient temple in the background. Very nice.

Saturday morning, I met a few other students at 7am to go to Borobudur temple. The temple is the largest Buddhist temple in the world and was built in the 700s in the middle of the jungle. It was rediscovered by a Dutch in the early 1900s and since then have been taken apart block by block and rebuilt. It’s a pretty amazing piece of architecture. After touring the temple, we ventured to Hotel Amanjiwo in the hills above the temple. Amanjiwo has 35 individual suites. Some suites have its own swimming pool and most have a gorgeous view of the temple. Prices start at $600/night. We had a nice lunch there and then got the staff to give us a tour of one of the suites. Very nice indeed. We found out that some posh American is renting out the entire hotel for Saturday night. All 35 rooms.

Saturday night was spent dining with fellow students from Australia and England. We debated whether men’s & women’s underwear should be referred to as ‘knickers’, ‘pants’, ‘underpants’, ‘panties’, or by some other name. Then had an intellectual discussion about the proper definition of ‘oatmeal’, ‘porridge’, and ‘muesli’.

Sunday was spent at the Kraton – the home of the Sultan of Yogyakarta. The Sultan is still the mayor of Yogyakarta. He’s the 10^th Sultan. They’re having a little tiff because this Sultan only has 1 wife (the previous one had 5 wives and 41 children) and Sultan-10 only has only daughters. Who will be the next Sultan? Will Yogya have a Sultanese? Not sure if they’re that progressive yet.

Then we walked through the traditional bird market. I wondered if I should stop breathing.