Mosquitoes

I forgot that I was back in mosquitoes infested area until I saw fresh wound on Tamara's ankle.
and then I began noticing that almost everyone had insect repellant and even o they have been bitten. poor things.
I think the mosquitoes know I am almost local (read : they will be dead if I caught them partying on my blood)
anyway people, black attracts mosquitoes so wear light coloured clothes and yes, please apply insect repellant. and if you still got bitten, do not scratch. I know from experience that it itches (stm like hell) but if you start, you cant stop and scars arent exactly the thing you want especially when you are a girl/woman.

Fruit

Part of my childhood was filled with waiting with cousins under the mangosteen tree for my older cousins to drop the mangosteen (or the empty shells) down, or eating young mangoes dipped into the super hot dip, or slurping fresh young coconuts on the beach or chomping down rambutan. oh yeah and feasted on durian with my family. That's the most tropical we can get on Penang island.

But Jogjakarta is wonderful. wonderful I tell you.
they sell salak (english name is snakefruit) by the roadside. and them people bought the fruit so we all get to taste it. yums!

err, excuse her, u dont eat salak with its skin. hihi. credit : organizer

and they have free flow guava juice anddddddd soursop juice. soursop. this one fruit is very hard to grow from where I come from.

soursop. credit : Mr Google

and whenever I drop by the supermarket when I was in Jogja, I wish I could spend more time ogling the produce section and the juice section. Jakun mannnnn.
Who wouldn't be when the fresh produce sells melons, papaya, guavas, machang or whatever it name is (it's the sibling of mangoes) and maaaany moore tropical fruits at a fraction of the price that I can get in Europe or in Penang even.
I am in heaven I tell you. in heaven, until I realise I have no chopping board nor knife.
so I proceed to sway away in front of the chilled racks. rows and rows and rows of fruit juice - pink guava, white guava, mangoes, litchi, soursop... and yes, nata de coco. since I cant eat much during farewell dinner due to the kebaya (never wearing that to dinner again!) and everyone is busy taking photos and dancing, I went to fish almost all the nata de coco in the fruit cocktail bowl and savoured it in.

Imagine eating nata de coco and watching flamenco. in warm Indonesian evening someomore. credit : Vini Chumaira

nata de coco, tu me manques!

Food

It was Ramadhan during the programme and food was awesome (ps : I am Asian so I may be biased)
Breakfast and sahur is on the house.
Sahur were always full Indonesian meal. and I mean rice everyday. with 3-4 dishes and soup of the day and cuts of tropical fruits. and yes, the krupuk was always there. The only thing you have to do is go down before Subuh. and subuh was at 430am. way later than subuh in Czech republic (half past 2am).

Breakfast was Western (well, I could not be sure about this because I have only been to breakfast once). one selection of bread - loaf, superwhite and crustless. sobs. and if I remember correctly there was a little bit of Indonesian food at well. perk of breakfast is that you can order your egg anyway you like it (again, I couldnt be sure about this. but you can try your luck and ask for egg benedict *wink*)

Before lunch, we were given mid morning snack. I call it my happybox/treasure box. My tummy was always giddy at the prospect of having them for iftar. there are 2-3 savoury and sweet Indonesian snacks inside These snacks are delicious but a hassle to make yourself. plenty of them by the road in SEA but is too exotic for European market (read : not sold in the Europe)
and since lectures are sleeping pills, there were always sealed cups of water (you drink it through the tiny straw that u stab through the plastic cover) and freeflow coffee (I so know just the very person who will be happy to have free flow coffee)

Lunch was always boxed.

Lunch. and look at how beautiful is their faculty.

the thing I noticed when I was in Jogja is that they tend to put every single thing into every single package. I find it inconvenient but they saved my happy box contents when I dropped my happy box, so I was happy.
Well, one thing you must be reminded is that 90% of the time you are in the programme, you will be eating rice. unless you are a true blue Asian, you will definitely miss the bread/potato/pasta. I had no problem because
1. I am an Asian dunked into European
2. I always share my lunchbox with the ants. it seemed that they always get there first before I do (I had lunchbox for moreh.hihi)

apart from rice (obviously), the lunchbox contains 2 dishes, 1 vege dish, krupuk (krupuk is everywhere), a piece of fruit. once or twice we had sth else ie spaghetti

dinner is the only meal we have to pay and you can opt out of it.
almost all of us always go to dinner
and almost all dinners were at posh places (it was not fine dining so you dont have to worry about dressing up for dinner)
I would say that the average price every evening was 40k-50k rupiah. that is 3-4 euro. which is dirt cheap by European standard and since I am Asian, I had to sell mukerna to repair the hole in my pocket

predinner ritual. translating the menu. I needed help myself sometimes. Indonesia is so diverse.

happy tummy after dinner. p/s : Pecel Solo is number 1 restaurant. I super like their decoration.