Wednesday, 26July06
Highlights: today was one of those days that felt like there were no highlights…
We had a quiz in class today, followed by food tasting (= nice consolation prize! Ha ha.
Had an interesting conversation with 4 tutors today about going to school here in general; since UGM (Universitas Gadjah Mada) is considered the top school in Indonesia.
It’s the biggest with 30,000 students; the oldest (established 19Dec1949); and most prestigious (top 5 in Southeast Asia).
It’s still a public school, so they get some subsidies from the government, but it’s expensive for Indonesian students: +/- 5million Rupiah for the 1st year ($500), 2million Rupiah or so every year after that. I have to remind myself of average incomes here in Indonesia to appreciate how expensive that is for most families. It’s probably similar to American families trying to send their kids to Harvard. $40,000 a year doesn’t come easy to most.
It’s very hard to get accepted, and even harder to get into the faculty you’re interested in. Sinta, for example, is studying English literature because she didn’t get into the school of Political Science. Merrie is studying Japanese literature for similar reasons. There are 7 languages taught here; Spanish and Dutch are not among them. Funny.
Pak Djoko mentioned in class that women have been dominating the higher echelons of the grade scale fairly consistently for several years, but the inequality in job opportunities and pay for women are still significant here.
While waiting for cooking class (and beating back boredom with a stick..) I watched a neighborhood league soccer game for an hour. It was entertaining to see the looks on people’s faces to see this alien, western face among them in their neighborhood,,, like that had never happened before. I smiled & said hello in bahasa Indonesia & everyone laughed and asked where I was from. People here are equal parts curious & friendly.
A mere 2 hours later, we were cooking & eating Nasi merah (red rice), Soto ayam (chicken soup), Sambal goreng tempe (a stew of tempe, potatoes, cowpeas & garlic boiled in coconut milk), Bok Choy Tahu (tofu), Ayam kecap (fried chicken with soy sauce), Perut Ayam (a fried banana-flour-egg-vanilla pastry… mmmm!), and Rujak serut (spicy shredded fruit salad).
Highlights: today was one of those days that felt like there were no highlights…
We had a quiz in class today, followed by food tasting (= nice consolation prize! Ha ha.
Had an interesting conversation with 4 tutors today about going to school here in general; since UGM (Universitas Gadjah Mada) is considered the top school in Indonesia.
It’s the biggest with 30,000 students; the oldest (established 19Dec1949); and most prestigious (top 5 in Southeast Asia).
It’s still a public school, so they get some subsidies from the government, but it’s expensive for Indonesian students: +/- 5million Rupiah for the 1st year ($500), 2million Rupiah or so every year after that. I have to remind myself of average incomes here in Indonesia to appreciate how expensive that is for most families. It’s probably similar to American families trying to send their kids to Harvard. $40,000 a year doesn’t come easy to most.
It’s very hard to get accepted, and even harder to get into the faculty you’re interested in. Sinta, for example, is studying English literature because she didn’t get into the school of Political Science. Merrie is studying Japanese literature for similar reasons. There are 7 languages taught here; Spanish and Dutch are not among them. Funny.
Pak Djoko mentioned in class that women have been dominating the higher echelons of the grade scale fairly consistently for several years, but the inequality in job opportunities and pay for women are still significant here.
While waiting for cooking class (and beating back boredom with a stick..) I watched a neighborhood league soccer game for an hour. It was entertaining to see the looks on people’s faces to see this alien, western face among them in their neighborhood,,, like that had never happened before. I smiled & said hello in bahasa Indonesia & everyone laughed and asked where I was from. People here are equal parts curious & friendly.
A mere 2 hours later, we were cooking & eating Nasi merah (red rice), Soto ayam (chicken soup), Sambal goreng tempe (a stew of tempe, potatoes, cowpeas & garlic boiled in coconut milk), Bok Choy Tahu (tofu), Ayam kecap (fried chicken with soy sauce), Perut Ayam (a fried banana-flour-egg-vanilla pastry… mmmm!), and Rujak serut (spicy shredded fruit salad).
posted by jonathan adventures at 2:05 AM
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