Life Lately.

1) Have you heard about the new app/game, Heads Up?! I only learnt of it yesterday, but it is my new favourite thing to do! Basically, it’s an electronic version of charades or articulate – you play in teams and have a minute to act/describe as many ‘things’ as you can to your teammates (you hold your phone up to your forehead so everyone can see the item but you). ‘Things’ include songs, animals, famous people, random nouns. And to top it all off, while your team mates are yelling away at you, your phone records everything! Hilarious! I can’t wait to play it with my students next week!

2) Talking of fun things in class – we watched some of The Lego Movie this morning. It’s amazing how much emotion they can convey on the face of a little plastic man!

3) I just successfully had my hair cut! The language barrier makes this whole situation hilarious. I am the girl that has only been to the same hairdresser every 8 weeks for the last 8 years of her life because she is so bad at explaining what she wants done. Now I just have to take a picture and hope for the best!

4) I can hardly ever remember my dreams, but this week I did 2 nights in a row. On Thursday I dreamt that one of my teeth fell out. According to the dream dictionary (and a website – teethfallingoutdream.org haha), apparently it’s an anxiety related dream and is a call to look at your support system more carefully. The other dream was that both my mother and I were pregnant at the same time! (Interpret away people!)

5) I’m off to Jakarta Blues Festival this afternoon. It’s pouring with rain (I don’t know much about it but hopefully it’s inside!) 🙂

Happy Saturday everyone!

5 New Year’s Resolutions (Sort Of…)

I mean resolutions for my next year in Indonesia… For the past few weeks my mind has been full of things I want to accomplish over the next few months – as if I’m magically going to have more free time this time round!

So here goes….

1) Project 365 – I read an interesting article a few months ago about how completing various 30 day challenges will help you recall that time period in years to come, as the challenge will make the time stand out as different. I’m hoping this will be a yearlong version of that!

2) Improve my Indonesian language skills – There is nothing that I want more than to be able to talk to people in the street and be able to understand everything going on around me!

3) Be better at keeping in touch – emailing friends from home… texting my Jakarta friends to make plans more often… not being so forgetful and rubbish about skype dates!

4) Even more travel! – So little holiday time,still so many places to see… Seriously, open this link and watch the video – so so beautiful!!

5)  Go to the market more often and buy more vegetables – I need to shift this cheese belly somehow!

Back To The Concrete Jungle.

The few days since I arrived back in Jakarta have been a blur of jetlag. The flight was okay (LOVE Emirates!), just long and boring.

I’ve spent the past few days sleeping until 3pm (oops!) and catching up with a few people. It’s so lovely how pleased everyone is to see me!

On Saturday night I went to a friend’s wedding in the city. Indonesian weddings never stop surprising me – they are just so different to in England. Alcohol free for starters, over by 9pm and literally the most elaborate thing you’ve ever seen!

My favourite part, however, is checking out everyone’s fancy batik!

And the photobooth is always good for a laugh…!

Yesterday was the last day of my holiday, and it was an extremely lazy one – trying to kick this sleepiness once and for all! I spent the afternoon lounging next to the pool, and although we’d planned a trip to the cinema in the evening I just didn’t make it (mostly out of laziness, if I’m honest!)

Back to school with a week of new classes today…. It’s funny, I’ve only had 6weeks off school but this is the longest break since I started teaching and I feel so out of practice!

Happy Monday everyone! Let’s do this 🙂

Introducing Project 365.

There’s a project floating around online that I’ve wanted to complete for a while called Project 365. It involves taking a photo a day, every day, for a year. I have tried (and failed, obviously) a few times before, but I think it’d be a really fun way to celebrate my 2nd year in Indonesia.

So here goes, I’m trying to make myself more accountable. Let’s go!

So Over Saying Goodbye.

Okay, I’m going to be honest with you. I’m miserable – saying goodbye sucks. I can’t believe I’ve been at home for a month already! Why is it that time really does fly when you’re having fun?! You can be sure that time really will pass as slowly as humanly possible when I step on to that plane later on today (Can you tell I’m psyched about spending 18 hours on a plane?! Yeah, I thought so!)

I don’t know how to sum up my feelings today, but when in doubt refer to Pinterest and find a cartoon quote! Cheers Pooh Bear! 3

(Source)

Weekend Recap.

I’ve spent my weekend  trying to tick every remaining item off my ‘to do at home’ list. It’s been pretty successful – I still haven’t managed to see some people that I desperately wanted to, or spend enough time with others but hey…there’s always next year!

I started the weekend by having brunch with my friend Alice (you can read her great blog here 🙂 ) at a new place in Plymouth called The Dock. Excellent pancakes, delicious peppermint tea and great company – what’s not to like? Alice was even kind enough to donate some books to me and my friends in Indonesia – I feel under so much pressure to choose books that everyone may want to read! She wrote little messages inside them all – imagine if one day in 20 years time the book makes its way back to her?! The world is a very small place, after all!

Sunday was much busier. One of my favourite things to do at the weekends at home is to go for a walk on the beach. I can’t believe I hadn’t made it to the coast yet, but was determined to squeeze it in on my last Sunday (weather permitting!) Unfortunately the tide was in and there was no beach left, but we had a nice stroll along the coastal path and took some silly photos (complete with whole family car selfies….an excellent photo bomb from Maisie I think you’ll agree!)

Yay for family time! ❤

The afternoon was lazy but fun-filled – pasties for lunch, an early in the year but still amazing viewing of The Holiday (our family tradition at Christmas) and roast lamb (so delicious!) and vienetta for dinner. I woke up at about 3am on Sunday morning dreaming about Vienetta – I probably haven’t eaten one for at least 10 years – how random is that?!

Now for the last few days – I have so much to do! I haven’t started packing or shopping for Western supplies yet, and am completely unmotivated to do so! For me, it’s all about the family time and jaffa cakes!

Devon’s Finest.

When I left Jakarta, the one thing that my friend’s kept saying was ‘take lots of pictures – I want to see everything!’…so here goes!

Just a little peek in to what has been a wonderful few weeks… 🙂 ❤

Bon Voyage Celebrations.

On Sunday we had a little party at home – a Bon Voyage before my second year in Indonesia and my little brother heads off to Australia.

I can’t believe it’s already been a whole year since the last goodbye gathering. I was so anxious about what lay ahead of me – all the well wishes were actually very daunting and all I wanted was to walk around holding my Mum’s hand for 2 weeks! (I still kinda do want that..!)

It was lovely to have so many of my favourite people in the same room. It’s funny how much of a small place Plymouth is – put 20 of my friends in a room together and leave them to their own devices, and people will always find someone that they know!

It was a perfect Sunday afternoon – full of friends and chit chat (and dogs and prosecco and A LOT of cheese!!)

(I put my culinary skills to good use- woohoo!!)

 

A Holiday On Holiday!

I’ve been trying to make the most of my time at home – so at the weekend I jetted off to The Netherlands to visit an old school friend.

It was wonderful! I know I sound typically British here, but we got SO lucky with with weather!

Romin is based in Utrecht, so we spent Saturday exploring. The best part was all the cheese!!

Part of me is honestly worried about returning to Indonesia and leaving the cheddar-y goodness!

Everywhere was so picturesque and traditionally European – I loved just walking around the city and soaking it all in.

On Saturday night we sampled some local beer and stayed up far too late discussing everything that we’d missed over the past few months – I love being reunited with old friends!

Despite all the beer that needed to be drunk, cheese that needed to be eaten and gossip that needed to be shared, we still managed to squeeze 2 day trips in…

Day #1 – The Hague.

The Hague is the old political part of the country – I didn’t really know what to expect but we packed the bikes on to the train, and it was beautiful.

There was so many places that I saw and thought ‘wow, I really want to live here for a little while!’

We even made it to the beach! 🙂 🙂

It was so much fun to explore other parts of the country.

Day #2 – Amsterdam, and the Rijks museum.

The most interesting part of the museum was all about the Dutch invasion of Indonesia. Check out the batik and gamelan!

There was also a great exhibition that reminded me of Humans of New York, by a photographer that was interested in how varied the Dutch population was, so he started taking pictures and recording the subjects’ date of birth and professions.

I also had a picture taken outside the museum, to match one that I took when I visited Amsterdam 5 years ago!

Left: Boiling in 2009. Right: Shivering in 2014!!

And there you have it – just a little snapshot of a wonderful trip 🙂