its weird but i like it

ok well im here! yogya is perhaps not as idylic and peaceful as i expected... its loud and polluted and everything is 'under construction' but its very vibrant and theres always soemthing to see. its probably bigger than i thought it'd be too. mostly uni students as expected because the biggest uni in indo is here, gagah mada.
my delayed flight from melb to KL meant that i arrived in kl at about 4am instead of 9pm the night before... soo the LUXURY hotel room i payed for was wasted as i slept on a couch, along with about 11 others. but that was alright. it was only for a few hours, as my flight to yogya was at 9.20am. so all went smoothly after that.
i was bombarded at yogya airport by heat and papers. i finally got through customs and the indo internships team were there to meet me. wawan, trusty, didik and jeje were all friendly in my flustered state.
we got in their 4wd and raced to Yogya tv. i wasnt realy sure what was happening - all i could focus on was the lack of road rules. didik just beeped when he wanted the trafic to let him in and i think ive worked out that who ever has the biggest vehicle gets the right of way..theres heaps and heaps of motobikes and i had my first experience on one of them last night..
anyways so we got to yogya tv and we were seated in this big VIP room with leather couches and sort of mafia looking guards. they began speaking indo so fast and i couldnt pick up anything in my dazed state. it was like so serious- like they were bargaining on the conditions of my work. i was then showed th studios, marketting team, news center, and other areas of this huge palacial indonesian style builing with marble floors, gold everywhere.. its insane. anyways they said i can do my own english program whoop but ive got to figure out what it should be on.. any ideas?
i was then taken to my room. its in a dorm style house, the family live below and theres about 12 rooms. the room is nice - got my own bathroom and locker and all the neccessities. EXCEPT the fridge is broken and until remeber the indonesian word for fridge i fear it will stay that way. hardly anyone speaks much english - even the girls in the kos. i was actually worried it was a brothel haha because theres always peole turning up at weird times in the night. but i havent had any strange visitors so i think its cool.
ive been eating every meal with the indo team. they are very funny and speak english well but urge me to speak more indo. i always knew i was pretty crap but god its so hard trying to figure out what they say. i can get the first and last parts of some sentences but everything inbetween is lost to me. they want me to come to "the club" with them. it should be funny. i keep thinking "erm arent you guys muslim?" but its probably too rude to ask. they'tre just young and pretty rich by indo standards and i cant help but notice so many similarities between them and australians. but then so many differences. trusty was telling me how she lost her house and evertyhing she owned in an earthquake in 2004 but said it like it was so normal.

yesterday (saturday) i was taken to the sultans palace. i was quite fastinated but most of what the guide said was lost to me as i tried to convert it from bahasa to english. the grand achitecture and lush surroundings were in such start contrast to the rest of the city. the guide spoke of how the sultan employs 3000 locals to do gardening, maintenance etc and how the people love him even though he no longer rules java. i got some photos ill try to upload but my camera died pretty quickly.
javanese people are different to balinese in the way they treat westerners as they dont rely on them so much for an income. im still enjoying a celebrity status, although wawan assures me many westerners live here. im yet to see many though.
i bought some batik yesterday for like $5!! and i bought a clothesline, phone and some other stuff.
the food is amazing and costs less than a dollar. im yet to be sick touch wood.
ermm i cant really think of much else... i want to go and explore to the city today but its sort of scary.
theres a few museums whcih look good. anyways. hope to hear from you all soon.

sorry its not very eloquent ive completely lost my mind in this heat...
my phone number is - 087839151442 so msg me. its just as expensive as a normal text/
ps erin and sarah report to me immediatley.

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