Monday Haiku #37 – 19.05.08

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

The conference I went to was good. The big names in the business were there and I dutifully went to all the plenary sessions despite the throes of gut wrenching spasms. Yes, I got sick. It didn’t really hit until the last day. After Salatiga was one night in Semarang, where it was all I could do to hang out at the hotel bar until 10p. I needed sleep.

Then there were 24 hours in Jakarta aka the big durian. I didn’t go out and try to find trouble this time. I had dinner with my colleagues from UIN who were also going to Medan the next day on a separate flight. We had some Japanese food and they dropped me off at my hotel for another early night in. Rest.

The two hour flight to Medan wasn’t too bad. The Fellow contingent arrived and made it to the two-star hotel in one piece. Medan is the third largest city in the country and the largest on Sumatra. It clearly has a metropolitan feel with the traffic choked streets and its own branch of Starbucks. Medan is the connection point in all those going to Banda Aceh, the area the tsumani struck. Two solid days of colloquium related meetings later, we all scrambled into cars and went sightseeing. We were first taken to the famous food store which sells Medan delicacies. I sat by while the others packed their boxes full of oleh-oleh. Next, we went to the Maimoon Palace built by the sultan of Deli. After that, the Grand Mosque of the city and back to our hotels. A working vacation.

After all that, I made it back in two flights and late at night. I’m battling sleepiness now and can’t wait to succumb to it. I’m behind on emails and I promise I’ll get to y’all by this weekend at the latest. Photos from the trips are in the Dec 06 area.

I ran errands earlier today after hitting the gym. I wanted to ship a couple posters and some carved wood that I purchased in Tana Toraja. So, off to DHL I went; this was futile as they wanted over USD120 to ship these things that weighed less than two pounds. They won’t fit in either of my suitcases, so I’m carrying them on with my mandolin and carry-on baggage. This brings me to the checked baggage annoyance for Garuda Indonesia. I’m flying Garuda from Makassar to Jakarta to Tokyo. It turns out the checked baggage allowance for domestic flights in 30kg; the checked baggage allowance for international flights is 20kg. I put on my nicest smile and asked the counter attendant again if this was the case. She affirmed that it was but said she would ask someone else. The other two people agreed. Furthermore, she said that 20kg was the total weight between two pieces of luggage! I hope this is completely wrong…

The pictures of my culinary excursion are now posted. Check out the June 2006 photos.

The ones I did get:

And the cityscape:

As for next year, I received a confirming email that the funding is available and I’ll be returning to Manado.

Last Friday afternoon, I was sitting at home nursing a seemingly irregular but annoying fever and headache when the overlord called. He said that “we probably got the funding� for Manado. I’m guessing the RELO office has got most of it and will busting their ass until August to complete it with grants from several sources. Just like last year. Anyhow, I was told that I could have the choice of Manado or Samarinda.

This whole conversation happened in 48 seconds. No longer. Overlord told me to think it over before answering. Many of you know I’d love to stay here another year, but I held off and told him I’d email him my decision Monday morning. I’ll say, Yes, to Manado. This is all contingent on funding and I could easily be plucked from here just the same and shuffled to Samarinda.

Exciting Saturday plans: 1) grocery shopping 2) lunch 3) buy one more set of ‘gorgeous green’ contacts 4) afternoon nap. After that, I’m unplanned and on the loose!