I had a slow, sullen day - allow me to return to a moment to my common refrain of how social media and my addiction to the internet is destroying everything that's good in this world. In this case, I woke up this morning and made the mistake of checking twitter...and then spent two hours reading inauguration coverage, which was exactly the opposite of what I was supposed to do today.
I did, at least, get out of the hotel - I repeated last Saturday's mission, actually, since I went to Elephant Cafe and the grocery store. However, last time I walked along the road, which is steep in places and has no sidewalks in places and is generally mildly unpleasant. I later learned that there's a footpath through the fields/houses between here and the grocery store, so I decided to give that a try. When I heard 'footpath' I assumed it was dirt, like a cow path; this was developed/paved the whole way, sometimes running down a channel between the walls of two different compounds. More frightening, sometimes it was an open path with a drainage ditch full of running water on one side and a ravine (with a river at the bottom) on the other, and no guard rails on either side. That was only a small portion of the walk, and it was still lovely, but my intense fear of heights did not enjoy the knowledge of the ravine on one side. But maybe this is exactly the aversion therapy I need to get better about heights - or maybe I'll just quietly never have to get groceries again the rest of the time I'm here.
My heights issue aside, though, the path was really cool - except for when I walked back in the afternoon, when it was blazing hot in the places where the path was cut between two walls and the sun beat down into the trench like a broiler. And I had a lovely breakfast, and I got the stuff I wanted at the grocery store. But when I got back, I was way overheated and super sweaty, so I crawled onto my bed with the A/C on and tried to cool down.
I did spend an hour or two writing this afternoon - not enough to feel great, but enough that I wasn't a total waste. Also, tonight I was supposed to go to a women's party at Hubud (a now-famous coworking space in Ubud that is frequently mentioned as one of the best co-working spaces in the world) - Sue, the girl I met on Monday, was going, as were a couple of women from Roam. However, while I had been interested (they had gotten an interesting lineup of speakers, both for the political events in the US and for Indonesian women's issues), I realized that the last thing I wanted to do tonight was socialize with a bunch of strangers.
Luckily, the women I was going to go with (Sara and Dillon) also decided to bail, and so we hung out in the kitchen with Nadia and Xavier while Nadia made dinner. This turned into quite the serendipitous, lowkey evening - we talked a lot about nothing, and then talk eventually moved into politics. It turned out to be an interesting discussion; Nadia is Swedish, with African descent, and she perhaps has some sort of policy background because her views on what's happening with the Indonesian economy were pretty nuanced.
sssanyway. We ended up on the roof to watch 'Tank Girl', which is a cult film based on a graphic novel, and it's one of Dillon's favorite movies. I enjoyed it, although the pacing was slightly off - it was postapocalyptic, but also kind of humor, which worked as a whole even though a couple of scenes dragged.
And now I need to sleep, and block the internet from trying to take over my life tomorrow - goodnight!
I did, at least, get out of the hotel - I repeated last Saturday's mission, actually, since I went to Elephant Cafe and the grocery store. However, last time I walked along the road, which is steep in places and has no sidewalks in places and is generally mildly unpleasant. I later learned that there's a footpath through the fields/houses between here and the grocery store, so I decided to give that a try. When I heard 'footpath' I assumed it was dirt, like a cow path; this was developed/paved the whole way, sometimes running down a channel between the walls of two different compounds. More frightening, sometimes it was an open path with a drainage ditch full of running water on one side and a ravine (with a river at the bottom) on the other, and no guard rails on either side. That was only a small portion of the walk, and it was still lovely, but my intense fear of heights did not enjoy the knowledge of the ravine on one side. But maybe this is exactly the aversion therapy I need to get better about heights - or maybe I'll just quietly never have to get groceries again the rest of the time I'm here.
My heights issue aside, though, the path was really cool - except for when I walked back in the afternoon, when it was blazing hot in the places where the path was cut between two walls and the sun beat down into the trench like a broiler. And I had a lovely breakfast, and I got the stuff I wanted at the grocery store. But when I got back, I was way overheated and super sweaty, so I crawled onto my bed with the A/C on and tried to cool down.
I did spend an hour or two writing this afternoon - not enough to feel great, but enough that I wasn't a total waste. Also, tonight I was supposed to go to a women's party at Hubud (a now-famous coworking space in Ubud that is frequently mentioned as one of the best co-working spaces in the world) - Sue, the girl I met on Monday, was going, as were a couple of women from Roam. However, while I had been interested (they had gotten an interesting lineup of speakers, both for the political events in the US and for Indonesian women's issues), I realized that the last thing I wanted to do tonight was socialize with a bunch of strangers.
Luckily, the women I was going to go with (Sara and Dillon) also decided to bail, and so we hung out in the kitchen with Nadia and Xavier while Nadia made dinner. This turned into quite the serendipitous, lowkey evening - we talked a lot about nothing, and then talk eventually moved into politics. It turned out to be an interesting discussion; Nadia is Swedish, with African descent, and she perhaps has some sort of policy background because her views on what's happening with the Indonesian economy were pretty nuanced.
sssanyway. We ended up on the roof to watch 'Tank Girl', which is a cult film based on a graphic novel, and it's one of Dillon's favorite movies. I enjoyed it, although the pacing was slightly off - it was postapocalyptic, but also kind of humor, which worked as a whole even though a couple of scenes dragged.
And now I need to sleep, and block the internet from trying to take over my life tomorrow - goodnight!
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