Bali was the starting point of our Flores trip. Our crew made the journey together by bus to Denpasar, where we took a flight out to the island. The late night bus ride through Bali was an adventure of its own—as bus rides in Indonesia often are—where we were granted various opportunities to contemplate what … Continue reading
Ende was the first place we visited in Flores. It was our intention to fly into the East part of the island and slowly make our way to the West side, hitting some interesting tourist destinations along the way. Ende was the cheapest city to fly into, and to me, it was rather unimpressive. Though … Continue reading
Flores is so unlike Java. There is one main road cutting through the entire island. There are hardly any cars on this winding road, barely any motorcycles and only a few tiny villages scattered in between long periods of time. The landscape is gorgeous and untamed, changing in flora as you climb up into the … Continue reading
* for more logistical details about traveling to Flores check out this blog post. Blogging about 15 days in any place would be a difficult task. So my creative approach to this challenge is to retell my experience through 15 little anecdotes, which I will post over the next couple of weeks. The anecdotes will … Continue reading
Teacher Problem: Moderately liking a sugary pop song because your students overplay it…and then the next thing you know, you’re hoarding three entire Taylor Swift albums* and THEN, listening to these for your personal enjoyment and finding a song that actually relates to your life. The sum of my life as a PCV: “We’re happy, … Continue reading
November 15th marked the first day of the Islamic year: Muharram 1, 1434. To celebrate this, all the students and teachers from my school take a motorcycle drive around Bondowoso every year. As a Peace Corps volunteer, I am not allowed to ride a motorcycle (which is the reason why I was feeling left out … Continue reading
The following was written before in-service training in Surabaya. I am standing in front of the mirror in my room, analyzing every curve at every angle. Am I fatter? I think to myself. I don’t look any different. I try different clothes on to check. Nothing looks different, but after one-too-many comments on how I … Continue reading
Indonesia—like most countries—has many folk tales, myths and dubious characters (i.e. ghosts). Javanese in particular are very superstitious people, who will often sleep with the lights on to guard away evil spirits. Today, quite randomly, English club diverted into talking about ghosts—though it does fit in appropriately with Halloween and Dia de los Muertos in … Continue reading
Seven months ago my life was a mess. I was selling furniture, giving away stuff, sorting through papers and clothes, all in preparation to move across the world. I slept in a half furnished room, in a nearly empty apartment. At the time, I was dismantling the life I had built, rolling it up into … Continue reading
A characteristic of my village neighborhood is that it is lined with mango trees. Every house has at least one. Mine has two. I was completely unaware of this until about a month ago, when small budding fruit started to appear on every tree. Now, growing green mangoes hang gloriously on all the trees and … Continue reading
Bali is only a few hours from Java, but culturally, it is a whole world away. The people are primarily Hindu, so small baskets of colorful flower petals and incense—and the occasional cigarette—line streets, sidewalks, steps and cars’ dashboards as offerings to the gods. In Bali, I saw no mosques and heard no call to … Continue reading
As Peace Corps Volunteers we are forbidden to travel away from our sites overnight during our first three months at our permanent site. September 15th marked our group’s three-month mark, so we are finally released from our gilded village cages. To celebrate this, 13 volunteers and I headed to Southern Bali for the first time … Continue reading
in the land of dragons 