Highlights: IM conference with mbak Dewi & ladies group, arranged travel

This morning, one of my language teachers from DC (mbak Dewi) organized a little conference call on Yahoo IM. Apparently there’s a ladies group of Indonesian moms that meet on-line every week to talk about stuff. They were interested in hearing from an American who speaks Indonesian, and ask about my experiences & impressions of Indonesia. It was a touch overwhelming having multiple questions fired off,,, while doing my best to give thoughtful answers to each… but overall it was fun. We chatted almost 3 hours. Spanning 13 time zones, it was past midnight for those in DC and the Indonesian community in Philadelphia. Dewi explained that some were itching to ask about Nina, and how it’s been for me, dating an Indonesia girl. They were polite though and danced around the subject gracefully. Ha ha.

I’ve been adjusting & changing around my final travel plans. It’s tough trying to maximize my limited time remaining. Right now, greater Southeast Asia is on the docket: Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, as well as several interesting places within Indonesia I haven’t gotten to yet like Kalimantan, Toraja, Batam…

Nina’s birthday is in 2 weeks. I was hoping to be traveling by then- but I can push my plans back a little, and take advantage of the meantime a bit.
I’ve yet to visit a few places on Java: Semarang & Cirebon, and it won’t take much time or money to get there, so I arranged travel today.