Ria Gym

This is where I work out.  Its nothing fancy, but it has everything I need.  I wish they had more cardio equipment, but this is mostly a small body-building gym.  I has two things going for it.  One, it is a short walk from my house.  In fact, how close it was to the house was part of the reason I chose that house.  Second, it is very cheap.  It cost about $3.50 to join and costs about 35 cents each time I use it.   Other gyms (supposedly, I haven’t found any others) cost as much as $30 a month.  If I use Ria every day, it would be nor more than @10 a month.  But given how heavy the traffic can get in Medan, the fact that I can walk is the best feature.  It also means I can walk home and shower there.

 

Hindu Influences in Muslim Indonesia

When I was in Yogyakarta, Central Java I had the opportunity to a Ramayana Ballet.  The Ramayana is a classic Hindu tale that has many many parts, but the central story, at least as it is told is Southeast Asia is about Rama’s marriage to Sita and her kidnapping by Ravana.  Here is a link to a trailer for the English language version of an Indian cartoon of the story.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwVZeCLEWrE

 

She gets rescued by with the aid of Hanuman, a monkey general.  He is our favorite character.  In some performance he is played for laughs.  In this version, he was funny but not as  funny as I have seen in Thailand.

The Fasting Month

Right now we are in the fasting month.  Actually a few days left to go.   During daylight hours (approximately 4:30am – 6:30pm here in Sumatra), Muslim do not eat nor drink.  Children as young as 5 or years old start practicing the fast.  They will wake with their parents to eat the pre-dawn meal of sahur and then not eat or drink again until noon – and then they will fast again until dusk.  My friend’s 7 year old son fasts the whole day.  When it is  time to break the fast breaking, he is very hungry and eats quite a lot. His older brother and sister comment on this, not quite tease him, but almost.

What is impressive is that older children (13+) and adults do not gorge themselves after a day of not eating.  They eat a small amount, they break with sweet tea, fruit, cakes, and “eggrolls”  then it is time for the dusk prayer.  After the dusk prayer, they eat  a full meal, and some people will eat a lot of food this time. 

The fast breaking is a important occasion for friends to gather.  Sometimes they will gather at someone’s house.  Sometimes, at a place of business.  For example, the gym I go to had  a fast breaking.  And sometimes they go to a restaurant.  The picture above is from a fast breaking I attended at a friend’s house.

 

 

 

Foods you May or May not Recognize 2

This is a “Greek Salad” as imagined in Medan, Indonesia.  One leaf of lettuce, cucumbers, tomato, tuna, and cheese cubes.  Did you see the cocktail cherries?  It comes with Thousand Island Dressing, but I had them put in on the side.  They thought I was nuts for not wanting it all mixed in.

 

What's That in the Sky?

An interesting thing happened in the sky in Medan yesterday.  It is called a Sun Dog.  A rainbow formed around the sun.  For more information, go here

http://www.medanku.com/rainbow-halo-sun/

 

 

 

My House in Medan

A short video showing the place where I live.

 

Housing

I  just heard that I am going to be allowed to use the Guesthouse at the Foundation for Indonesian American Friendship.  They are asking for rent/utility payments of RP 500, 000 a month or about 55 bucks.  I will have pay that much for using the guesthouse an University of Medan for 4 days.  Since my original budget was for $300/month this is a good good thing.  My friend, Fuad think it is too.  I have not seen the apartment – I have been in the grounds of the foundation and it is very very nice.  I figure that for that price I will make it work – I strongly suspect that it is air conditions since it has been used by Americans – and I am hoping for hot water for showers, but if there is not hot water for showers, I can always boil it myself.  There is a kitchen, with a fridge, or so they told me, so it means being able to do at least some of my own meals.  And there are restaurants near by and not and street stalls.  Street stalls frighten me – my former professor is living in Central Java and just got over a bad case of hepatitis from eating a street stall.  I will eat at them when I don’t have a choice, but I prefer to create a situation where I have a choice to eat elsewhere. 

 

And there appears to be a gym across the street – I think it is going to small, body building gym, but that will do just fine.  Actually, it might even turn out to a small bit of research and turn into an article --  gym rats in Medan.

 

 

 

 

Here is a short Indonesia lesson.  It presents more than what is required for one of the things you can do for two Girl Scouts Juniors badges -- Communication and World Neighbors.

Indonesia Language Lesson

Hey all, I made this short video with my Indonesian language tutor, Bu (Mrs.) Ria.  It covers all the requirements (and more) for two of the Girls Scouts Juniors badges -- Communications, and World Neighbors, or something like that.

Enjoy.

Foods you may or may not recognize 1

Ok kids, I am going to start a regular series on food.  Some of the foods you may not recognize at all and some may be very familiar.  And some, will look familiar as first, but then may turn out to be not what you expect.  Look at the first picture.  What do you see?  Pizza Hut!  Yeah!  But take a look at the pizza they are promoting.  This is no Meat Lovers pizza but a curry flavored pizza. In addition to curried chicken it had potatoes and raisons on it.  It was yummy but not what you would normally expect at Pizza Hut.  Of course, you can get a pepperoni pizza too, but with beef pepperoni, since Muslims do not eat pork.

 

  

an interesting plant

Walking down from hilltop holy site at Imo Giri, my friend Oni picked up a bit of the kapok plant.  Before cotton was widely available, the fluffy part of the kapok was used to make beds and pillows.  Oni was thinking of ways to fashion the  kapok into handicrafts. He runs a business which makes “flowers” out of other dried plants and arranges them as bouquets.  His wife, Ria, suggested that the seeds of the plant might make good animal feed.

Imo Giri

On Sunday, I finally had the opportunity to go to Imo Giri and visit the graves of the kings of Yogya. Indonesians, especially the ethnic Javanese, like to make these visits into order to obtain blessings. Of all the major cultural sites in and around Yogya this was the one I had never seen before. Usually, I am only in Yogya for a day or two and the site is only open for a few hours each day. In fact, by the time we got there, the main grave, that of Sultan Agung of Mataram was closed.

Besides his grave there are the graves of the kings of both the Yogyakarta dn the Surakarta courts because the Mataram court had been split into two counts by the Dutch. I did have the opportunity to visit the grave of Humenkobuwomo IX, who was alive in the later half of the 20^th century. The grave building had the graves of HB VII, VIII, and IX and those of their wives (up to 4 each).

In order to be allowed to visit, we had to change into court attire.

We bought a small packet of flowers to place on the graves.