While I spend my weekdays in Surabaya, my weekends are happily spent visiting those I love in Mojokerto and Jombang. Here are a few things I've been up to:
The Mojokerto Independence Day Parade
When Vallen invited me to a "carnival" 2 weeks ago, I said sure, I'd go. A few weeks ago, we'd gone to a carnival with a little haunted house, bumper cars, ferris wheel, etc, so I figured that one more in his city would do no harm.
About 2 days before my arrival, Vallen clarified that I was going to be in the carnival, right? I said asked what he meant, since you can't really be "in" a carnival. He clarified: in the parade. Wow, buddy, that was not what I signed up for! As if the attention from walking down the street by myself is not enough, did I really want to relive this?
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| Ponorogo parade of 2013 |
Well, actually, yes, I would relive the makeup and dress up part, but the parade part? With over 2 hours of people screaming "Bule!" and "Picture Mister!" and staring at me? No way. At least I had those three for moral support, not to mention we were 10 feet off the ground on a dragon. The Mojokerto parade 2015 would have been me, alone, walking amongst the wild onlookers. No. Thank. You.
So it was decided that I'd stay at my friend's house while Vallen was at the parade for 3 hours or so, and then we'd hang out together.
Upon arriving in Mojokerto, Vallen took me to "meet some friends" at his gym. The 5 friends I envisioned meeting involved, in reality, me walking through a small house filled with about 20 men in matching black beaters with with words, "Pakde's Gym: There are no friends here. We are family" splayed across the chest. You can imagine my surprise to find myself walking through the midst of all of these guys, smoking, chatting, and so excited to be in this parade.
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| Vallen is the modest one in the black t-shirt, to the right of the red t shirt guy. |
Vallen told me his niece and parents would be going to watch the parade, so I decided to put in some time with the fam and hang out with them while Vallen was in the parade. He left at 12 noon. While I envisioned him home again around 4 or 5 at the latest, the reality was that this parade took forever. He walked from about 2 or 3 PM until about 6 PM, then finally got home about 7 PM! Good thing I am an expert chatter!
The good news is, I got to hang out with his family, and even managed to take a nap in the non-air conditioned home! His family is really welcoming, and I find his brother (24) and sister (21) great people to talk to.
Here are some parade shots:
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| Mayra, Vallen's niece, knows who I am, but she's still a little shy around me. After all, we've only met in real life twice, but we have been sending each other voice messages for over a month now! |
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| No parade is complete without the drumband! Mayra freaked out when they started playing and basically didn't stop crying for the next 20 minutes. |
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| Javanese extravaganza! This float is from Vallen's university. |
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| This is what I can only assume was a representation of each of Indonesia's 6 religions...Here you can see the pope, a priest, and a Buddhist monk. There was also a bishop with the bright pink hat! |
The Return to the Village
I've also had time to catch up with friends! The weekend prior to this parade, I went back to my village for the first time in about 14 months.
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| The weekend started off with Bu Lilik, my counterpart from Peace Corps, picking me up and going out to eat the most sugar I've ever consumed all at once! Chocolate milkshakes and waffles with vanilla ice cream at A&W, because there was a coupon. |
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| Then my crazy friend Rois picked me up and we visited his house. |
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| Steven, an old friend and PC volunteer, was there, too! This is Rois' wife and my good friend, Linda. Steven doesn't always walk around with balloons...it was "healthy walk" day with the village! |
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| Turnin' up for the healthy walk (which was a "grueling" 1/2 mile walk that over half of the Indonesian participants did not finish). Here's a great shot of the height difference surrounding Steven! |
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| Bu Yastri, a counterpart with other PC volunteers, stopped by to say hi, too! |
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| Azam, Rois' son, is the youngest baby I've ever held, at 2 days old. Now he's 3! |
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| After that, I went to Murukan. This is my host sister-in-law's baby. |
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| One of my best friends, Lilik, got bunnies a few weeks ago. Sam and Forrest, you have competition for cute bunnies! |
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| I visited Teguh, my cultural facilitator from PC training in 2012, in the Peace Corps office, where he just became full time staff. Hooray! |
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| Rachmad, the technical trainer of PC, just moved on to another job, but I snatched a moment to hang with him right before he left for Jakarta. |
No weekend is complete without a visit from this guy!
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| It has not been hard at all to introduce Vallen to American food. Here's a Pizza Hut shot! |
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| Some questionable cheesy bread at Pizza Hut |
Party all week long!
Since party weekends are not enough, I go out during the week, too! Hahaha. This was the first time, actually. Some new Surabaya friends and I went out to eat and watch Mission Impossible 4 last night.
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| Miss Nensy, a Bahasa Indonesia and German teacher |
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Mr. Frans (physics) and Mr. Yan (Geography)
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