I didn’t think the poem was reallly finished, but there was a deadline. The poem follows–

A Brief Biography through Beer

My old man once said,
“You can covet a man’s wife
but never his beer.”
Or maybe it was the other way around.
This could explain a lot
abt my old man.

My mother told me to stay
away from alcohol;
no, she never approved.
She stood by & clucked her tongue
as I parsed its syntax,
explored its iambs,
& merged Eden’s on my palate.

When my heart was stomped
& broken,
my best friend put a beer
in my hand & said, “Cheers.”
That beer was the best I’d ever had.

“A good woman and a good beer
are of the same cut,” I tell anyone who’ll listen.
–teasing, granite, consistent,
tempting, celebratory, passionate,
headstrong, comforting.

& then, one day, my older brother
handed me a skunked beer
that I had to spit out.
He said, “Don’t ever pass
on a free beer.”

I knew then that my brother
wd always be a jerk,
my mother was wrong,
my father wasn’t wise,
& my best friend was right—

only beer can tell you the truth.

As you can see, it was a big hunk of bread. The cross section shows a very spongy center that isn’t close to be the style I wanted to bake. Nonetheless, it was edible and particularly good at soaking up olive oil. There will certainly be more where this came from in the coming weeks.

My other major fun has been stepping into the waters of car buyer. I’ve always been able to borrow a car for extended periods from family members in the past. This is no longer an option. I’m looking to buy something used and extremely good on gas. I’m not in it for looks and willing to spend around 5k all in. Any ideas out there? It’s tough to spend so much money, but if I’m going to be in the US and not in a big city, I’ll need a car to get from point A to point B. I’m sure to chronicle my folly.

The vacation had its ups and downs. The down of most of it was 20 hours on a plastic stool in the aisle of a bus from Viet Nam to Laos. I’d classify the rest as an up!

Back to my work of searching for work.

Well, I have to take one more walk home and get things settled up completely.

I must say that I shed a few tears when they put gave me a parting gift. I’ve gotten to know these kids over the last two semesters pretty well and it’s going to be hard to leave Aceh.

For now, I’ll be busy grading and packing up. Then a few days in Jakarta before traveling to Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, starting 1 July. After that, back to Jakarta to pick up my bountiful luggage and hitch a ride back to the US. It’s going to be the icing on some really good cake.

Monday Haiku #37 – 19.05.08

Submersed in the night,
naked stars sing the gospel
while holding you fast.

The first semester always seems to start in the beginning of September and goes for 16 weeks. This is really a ‘recommended’ number of weeks as most universities only requires lecturers to meet 12 times for a once-a-week class, or 75% of scheduled class meetings. On top of the that, the nationwide attendance regulations require 75% attendance of those class meetings in order to take the final. So, in order to complete the class, a teacher only has to come to class 12 times (two of which would be midterm and final) and students only need to attend eight of the 12 meetings.

This week I had three students come to me pleading to remain in class. One had dengue fever for the first three weeks and the other two just didn’t come to class. They had upwards of 10 absences over the first 16 meetings. I gave the one with dengue a chewing out and told him not to miss anymore classes. Unfortunately, I had to scratch the other two off the class roster. The Indonesian instructors who listened to my conversations were mildly sympathetic in that they have the same students and the students have the same attendance record. Of course, content classes and language classes are two different things in my book. Yes, you can just show up for the exams in content classes if you know your stuff. Language classes require one to show up to practice the language. It’s never a good feeling to boot someone from class, but they also have to set priorities if they want to study.

Yogyakarta was great. I saw the sights I missed the first time around, ate some good food, drank some beer (but not too much). I also went to a Christian wedding. I wish I would have taken some pictures or The Last Supper mural painted in the church; it had a very Indonesian flavor to it with the apostles sitting on the floor in a traditional Javanese fashion. Below is a picture of the bride and groom in their traditional wedding garb.

The second half of the semester is starting and I’m grading up midterms. It’s disconcerting to see so many papers piled on my desk. And then I’m off to Jakarta and Medan next week for workshops. I’m in the process of tentative planning for a vacation to Laos, Cambodia, Viet Nam and Thailand after my fellowship. So many things going on…