Good Bye

I have neither words nor time to describe how I feel.
I'll miss you hard Indonesia. Selamat Tinggal dan sampai jumpa lagi.

Moverz and Shakerz

Last night I went to the Simpang Lima Saturday Night Market, which goes all night and in turn becomes the Sunday morning market as well. I found some new Indonesian business/leisure niches such as cigarette ringtoss, a guy playing two games of chess at the same time , and Islam-themed commemorative baby posters for unborn children complete with Arabic script and birth (death?) date (See photo for clarification). I'm not sure why you would want a picture of a random baby with your own child's name on it, but to each their own I suppose.

New Song

I have a new song called 'The Fall of Rome'. Get it ->HERE

Questions

I've realized that i'm going to miss Semarang. Yes, my house is hot and full of insects, the roof over my driveway has been known to fly off, and things often get wet when it rains, but when am I ever going to find a frog behind my refrigerator again? When it rains in Vermont, will I feel like I live inside of a car wash ? Will all of my neighbors ask me where i'm going everyday in San Francisco or Philadelphia? Will I ever hear 25 calls to prayer buzzing through the air again at the same time? Will my neighbors invite me to watch a puppet show and feed me Durian Ice Cream? How Will I know its 6:00 AM if a man doesn't yell "'BUR AYAM!" outside my window? When will I eat in a tent on the side of the road again? Will people in Cincinnati apologize for their cars not being delicious?Will I be asked my opinion on 'free sex'? Will 12 year old girls sing Josh Groban to me? Will people yell Obama at me when they want potato chips? Will people still stare and laugh at me hysterically in public places? Will my 30 minute taxi ride ever be $2.50? Will I ever be a tall person again? Will people still 'love me full' ?

God, I hope so.

Things

Not too much to say. Only 11 more days of teaching, and three more weeks of Indonesia. This is too weird.

Monkey Attack

I took these pictures while visiting the Sacred Monkey Forest temple in Ubud, Bali. The monkeys here have grown quite use to tourists, and as I learned the hard way, can be quite aggressive.

The story goes as follows. I had been in the park no more than 10 minutes when I spotted a Japanese girl being accosted by 5 or 6 monkeys. In a stupid moment of altruism and goodwill, I thought it would be good idea to help her. I peeled 3 or so of the monkeys off the girl and tossed them to the ground. Before a thank-you even left the girl's lips, I heard several loud squawks and noticed a large number of other of seemingly angry monkeys headed in my direction. The three I had already peeled off, line up in V formation, showing their sharp teeth and lunging like dogs on a chain, and after a few seconds I count 7, 8,9 monkeys. I backtracked slowly, but the further I move, the closer they get. I ran, They chased. I screamed, they howled. I escaped, they found a new victim.

After 10 minutes, I cooly walked back into the park, avoiding eye contact with anything living, passing my monkey attackers and entering the temple where I took most of the following pictures.













If you look closely, you can see this Monkey is holding a frog. With many spectators on hand, this monkey took the frog into the tree, peed on it, and ate it. Who woulda thunk?

Mangosteens: Best Fruit, hands down

Javanese wedding wigs.

Jenny Zhang, "Solo is the best city in Indonesia!".


Sunrise from my balcony in Ubud, Bali

My friend Fajar at his studio/gallery in Ubud.