This is it!!

Hello there!
I thought I'd better make an entry to this interweb thingy before I leave for
---Indonesia--- (am I really going?) it doesn't feel like it.
I'll give you some background on what i'm going to do. I've been planning this trip for quite a while - I think I first heard about ACICIS (the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies) in 2006, and I've wanted to go on an exchange with them ever since. I sent off the huge application form in May 2008 to the ACICIS office in Perth. This involved lots of self-evaluations, teacher evaluations, medical checks, passport photos, academic transcripts, passport photocopies etc etc etc.

A few weeks later I found out that I'd been accepted into the program for the second semester of 2008 (which is actually the 1st semester of the Indonesian uni year). Yay! so this set the cogs turning for actually getting myself there. In between then and now (July 2008) I've been very busy... while applying for jobs at the same time to keep Centrelink happy. I got my international flights booked on Garuda a few months ago, and have sent off my passport to the Indonesian embassy in Perth to get my visa. I've had almost all of my vaccinations, just recently bought my travel insurance, and booked a flight from Hobart to Sydney so I can spend a few days there with friends and relatives.

3 weeks ago i finally got a job! Guess where... centrelink! hahaha, i didn't see that one coming. In fact, i didn't even apply for it! I've applied for over 100 in the last few months, and I get this one with no effort on my behalf. Anyway, i've been working 6 hours a day, and I'm actually able to save up money for when I go. It's pretty good, I move boxes from the bottom floor of the wharehouse to the second. It's only about 10 degrees there, but we warm up pretty quickly. And it gives me an excuse to try and do beep tests in the aisles which hold thousands and thousands of centrelink files.

Things to do before I go: buy presents for my friends in Indonesia; get my Indonesian friend (who studies at Utas, but is on holiday in Jakarta, hi Lilis!) to buy me a ticket from Bali to Jogja because it's really expensive to book domestic flights from here; get Microsoft Office for my pretty new laptop; continue arranging my going away party! i first booked it for the 8th of August, but found out a few days ago that two of my Indonesian friends who live here are getting married on the same day, same time (congratulations Monica and Dhaniel!), so I've changed it to the 9th of August, now I have to call everyone up and make sure they know... argh! I'm sure it'll get done. Then I have to pack!!!! how do you pack a bag or two for a year??? that's going to be a challenge.

then on the 13th i actually leave for sydney! I have four nights there, then it's off to Bali, aka the island in the centre of the cosmos which sits on the back of a turtle, with intertwined serpents. Sound like Terry Pratchett? No, thats just Balinese Hinduism for you.

And then I go to Jogjakarta, central java. I went there in 2006 for a month to study at a language school. It's such an exciting, fun city. That's where I'll spend the first semester, studying at Gadjah Mada University... only one of about 100 universities in the city. Amazing! how can there be so many students?? But, apparently there are LOTS, cos 55,000 of them just go to this one. If you wanna have a look from the air, go to http://wikimapia.org/#lat=-7.7692925&lon=110.3753042&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=2, or for city photos, see http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/pb/125995/.


I'm having trouble believing that there's actually somewhere warmer in the world than infront of the heater in my living room. But according to popular belief or myth, Indonesia's in that place kinda near the equator. Hmm, I'm going to have trouble convincing myself not to take thermals and fleecy jackets.

Ok, thats enough for me, I'm hungry now. Stay warm people!!