A Love Affair with Adventure: The Summer From Middle to End

Note that I wrote this over the course of weeks starting with July 30, 2016 and ending the day it was published. It's largely unedited.

Now as I leave Indonesia I realize I haven't written a blog post in weeks. I've been so busy that I haven't found the time, and so distant that I haven't really found the words. After my last post I've been mostly busy with work in Jakarta, but I did manage to visit the national museum one day.

The national museum wasn't the best museum I've been to, but they had some cool china, models of traditional homes across Indonesia, and a giant map of Indonesia that I got a picture in front of. Ega and I went to the museum with her friend Stephanie and Stephanie's family who are all from Oklahoma but live in Jakarta. Stephanie and her husband Anthony are missionaries who run a church for Afghan and Iranian refugees in Jakarta. They also helped work with the people who established the school for refugees that I visited a while back. It was really wonderful to meet them and their family.

After another week MIA exploring Berlin and Budapest and then working in OK I am finally writing this giant combination blog post. Time to fit the world onto a page; wish me luck.

After spending almost two months in Jakarta, with a brief trip to Singapore, Ega and I escaped to Bali where we worked/played for a week before flying to Lombok where we would take a boat trip from Lombok to Labuan Bajo over four days stopping to hike and snorkel along the way. We booked our trip through the company Wanua Adventures and initially got scammed by one of their websites since they have two and one of them is being used by former employees-turned criminals. So, if you're booking a boat trip in Indonesia don't use this site: wanuaadventure.com (although it looks like the site was finally taken down so maybe they've fixed it).

The boat trip was rough sometimes, but really pretty great. We slept on this small upper deck, but it wasn't too crowded since there were only about twenty of us. The company on the boat trip was pretty amazing since there were people from all over the world, well mostly Europe. It was fun to sit on the boat and hear people speaking Bahasa, French, Spanish, and Dutch all at the same time. Of course all of us spoke English too which made it fun to get to know each other. So many of the people on the boat with me were crazy world travelers who had been to the most interesting places. They had stories I wasn't sure I'd want to experience, but was interested to hear about traveling all over south Asia and getting themselves into rough spots. I'm not sure after a year of traveling to more places than I ever thought I'd go in a whole lifetime (one year, ten countries) that I still want to be a crazy world traveler, but I also dream of all the places I want to go and think that maybe I'll never stop.

Overall my favorite part of that boat trip was certainly getting to meet so many new and delightful people. I had a great time learning about where they were from and hearing their stories. My only regret is being the only American on that boat since I had to explain our gross political issues to everyone. Luckily they understood that Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the number of shootings in the US weren't my fault.

Another really neat part of the trip was getting to see the Komodo national park and a few Komodo dragons. They were a little scary to me, but I enjoyed getting to see them. I also enjoyed just being out in the middle of the ocean and seeing more stars that I imagined even existed.

After we landed in Labuan Bajo we took much-needed showers, and then found our way to the local fish market for dinner. At the market Ega and her friend Vera talked with a woman who ran one of the little stalls there about the fish and then picked a couple of them out. We also got a fried squid. It was honestly the best fish I've had in my life. We ate it with our hands and made a great big mess and I loved it. Writing this now that I've left Indonesia makes me miss the delicious food I tried there. Ega says there's an Indonesian food festival in Boston, so I think I'm going to have to attend.

Being in Indonesia wasn't always the easiest experience for me, but it was life-changing and unforgettable at every moment. I wasn't so sure I'd make it that far east again, but thinking about how Padang food tastes may just help me buy another plane ticket...

After I left Indonesia I headed to Berlin. It was a long trip with one 8 hour flight to Abu Dhabi and another 6 hour flight to Berlin. In Abu Dhabi I ate pizza for breakfast and tried to adjust myself to a new timezone. Then I had security in Berlin and a crowded baggage check to survive before finding my Hungarian friend Balázs waiting for me at the gate exit. We headed together to find bus tickets and then to begin our adventure for the next few days around the city.

On our first day we took things a little easy and just explored our neighborhood eating dinner, drinking wine in a park while the sun set and then finding ourselves in an "American" diner where these Canadians posed as southerners playing old country songs. I joked with the Canadians, and laughed at the decor realizing the place looked just like Ada's Blue Moon Cafe with a less good jukebox. It was quite a night.

On Sunday we woke up early and made our way to the city's museum island to start our adventure of seeing roughly 15 museums in one week. Berlin was exhausting and amazing and beautiful and rainy. When I left I realized that I just had to go back again soon. There's too much to see in that great big city

The adventure continued with our flight to Budapest. We went to the opera (Billy Elliott is so good in a foreign language that I'm gonna have to see the English version), picnicked at Margít Sziget, went to our favorite bars and clubs, and stayed in an adorable flat. It was such a great week and a wonderful way to make my way home.

Home is a place I go so rarely these days, but it's always my center point. It's like I leave America and go all these places that shock, challenge, and intimidate me and then I just fly back to where I can cut the g's off my gerunds and drink the best sweet tea in the whole wide world. Oklahoma calls it's self the heartland of America but it's really the heartland of my heart too. My center of the universe and I'm always so thankful to stop in for some ice cream, a good burger, and a bunch of naps every now and then.

This post was long overdue, and now I'm back at Wellesley. Trying to keep myself from being "too busy" for everything. And decidedly making an effort to keep blogging through my senior year. Here's to the end and an adventure in nostalgia, job searches, and many many lessons.

Underground:
I'm too tired to really really write this right now, but I wanted to confirm that yes this "Hungarian friend" is actually my dear dear boyfriend. Also, he's the same Hungarian friend/boyfriend I've been dating since Budapest. We never really parted our ways, I realized relationships of convenience are a way of lying to yourself about being afraid to let love be love, and I dove in. Call my life a romantic comedy, make a movie about me (looking @ you Christine), or just ask me about it some time. Long distance is an interesting life experience, and love is an indescribably good one.