Untitled Blog Post #5

 6/2/14

I feel like a brand new person. I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll be recognizable when I return home in 17 months. I don’t drink the way I used to, I can’t stand most of the music I used to listen to, and I enjoy the pleasures of luxury. Well….sometimes anyway. I’m really not sure who I’m becoming, but I hope I like her. She’s happy for now, so all is well.

8/2/14

Living in a place temporarily changes your mindset. You start realizing that everyone you meet in your life will say goodbye sooner or later. This took me a long time to wrap my mind around, and scared me immensely. Now, I have this person who may just be in my life permanently and it is scaring the hell out of me. It is also an intensely reassuring feeling at the same time. My mind is very confused and I’m not sure if I like the juxtaposition of the two sensations. Frightened and comforted.

22/2/14

Today I skyped with my dad for a bit, which was something new. We didn’t talk about weather or car. Well maybe, but we talked about more, and it was really nice. He got me to thinking that in about a year I’m going to have to make some really big decisions to make about my future. Time to start having fun and living for a little while.

6/2/14

I may have just decided that I don’t want to be a teacher. Funny thing is today was a great day of teaching. Maybe one of my best days ever. I loved, and enjoyed my job today. But I don’t think I want to do it for the rest of my life. I’m exhausted. My 18 students with a partner teacher is exhausting. I cannot imagine 30 students without any help.

Today is one of those days where I’m really frustrated with my journey. I feel completely lost about who I am. I feel worthless. I feel helpless. I feel scared shitless.

Today is one of those days where I want to be settled somewhere comfortable. Somewhere with a garden outside, and a park to walk to nearby, and a place where no matter what the time of day I can call someone who really cares about me because they are in the same time zone. I want roots.

Today is one of those days that was bound to end in tears.

My friend posted this and it is beautiful- “Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted.”
― Sylvia Plath

I have taken so much for granted.

9/3/14

Some days go by just as normal. Others days you look outside and notice that there is a palm tree in the middle of the road. How did that get there? I want some evergreens.

Some days go by just as normal. Other days you go to leave the house and consider putting on a coat. Why do I sweat in March? I want to wear boots.

Some days go by as normal. Other days you go to the store and get frustrated with the price of berries and apples. You search for your comfort foods. I want Reeses. I want frozen yogurt. I want an IPA.

I want things, but I also love those days when I look at the world around me and notice the things I am taking for granted. Palm trees, not having to change wardrobes every 3 months, the delicious $1 comfort pineapple. I have life so good.

19/3/14

What is your passion? Mine is traveling to new places and trying new things. My greatest fear is that I will waste my life away doing things I don’t enjoy and living in a box. Get me outside of this boxed life. I need a vacation. Less than 2 weeks.

24/3/14

Two years ago I was just getting ready for an interview with Albania. I had no idea what my future held. It has been two years of living out my ever-changing dreams. The most important thing I have learned in these last 2 years is that nothing is ever perfect, and nothing goes according to plan. This weekend led to some pretty heavy things from my past coming up. I am so grateful that 2 years ago I was able to put it all behind me and start living this life to it’s full potential.

Jakarta Java Jazz Fest

So happy :)

This weekend I was lucky to finally get to experience some excellent live music in Jakarta. My research about the live music scene led me straight to a page about the Annual Java Jazz Festival. I figured that if they had a huge festival that brought in bands from around the world the live Jazz scene would be excellent. I also added the music festival to my bucket list.

Check it off the list!

I tried (very minimally) to find good Jazz music when I got here, but most of the places I was told to try out were far away, and I hate traffic. More importantly while I enjoy Jazz, it is not my favorite genre.

A few week ago we realized that Java Jazz fest was coming up and I grew super excited about the possibility of going. Luckily I have a boyfriend who says yes to everything, and his friends are also very interested in good live music. We ended up buying passes for Saturday and decided to make a day of it.

We love Jazz music. and mustaches apparently....

We began the afternoon with a lunch of burgers and coffee and took the very short cab ride to the festival. The first few hours were spent exploring the expo, looking at interesting musical instruments, getting our nails done for free and tasting wine. We ended up buying a few bottles of wine to share and went to listen to music. I was pleasantly surprised to hear some excellent jazz with even the earlier bands.

The first band we saw (Indro Hardjodikoro-The Fingers) had a wonderful trumpet player, and the bass player was among the best of all the bassists I've seen in my life. We enjoyed the show sitting down sipping on our first two bottles of wine. Then we headed to get a quick coffee before enjoying some dancing and randomly running into some new friends of ours at the Bella Kalolo show. This band had some kick as chords. The lead singers voice was similar to Adele's but by far my favorite part was watching the keyboardist play. He couldn't stand still while he played, which made me very happy.

By this point we were out of wine, so we ran and got a bottle and then headed back. Along the way we happened to hear some fiddles playing some music quite similar to bluegrass. We finished off bottle of wine number 3 while watching a band called Drew play. At this point in the evening I would say the music was getting generally less Jazzy. I still quite enjoyed this band and watching the crowd start to get very into the music.

We headed across the expo to see a different stage, and randomly came across the fiddlers again. This time I couldn't help myself and I grabbed Matt and started dancing. Some Indonesians absolutely have pictures of us dancing on their phone.

Bluegrass? Well the closest I can get.....

After this event the music seemed to go downhill. First we went to heard a band called Art of Tree, which was so bad I wanted to shoot myself in the head. When did rap become jazz? We opted to head to an indoor venue and got to hear the very end (last minute) of a very decent sounding band. They had a full on orchestra! Once back outside it began to rain so we went to another indoor concert. The band was decent and the lead dude has some excellent trumpet skills but kept deciding to put his trumpet down to rap. We did not understand why all the sudden the Jazz festival had become a rap festival, so we opted to leave.

Lessons learned:
1. There is good music in Jakarta if you scope it out.
2. Wine from Bali is excellent and reasonably priced.
3. Next year I buy a weekend pass, and do it in January so it is half price.