Halo from Indonesia!

 The blog is BACK, baby! Beaming to you live from Yogyakarta, Indonesia on day 4 of my 5-week post-grad adventure in Southeast Asia. Local time is 5:36am, because 

a) jet lag

b) Muslim call to prayer at 4:21am sounded like it was piped directly into our room through a loudspeaker (I reminded myself that the point of it is to wake you up), and

c) happy roosters (we're not in Jakarta anymore, Toto!). 

The last few days have been a blur of intense sun, exhaust fumes, a new language, trying hard to stay awake during the day and sleep during the night due to a 11-hour time difference, and battling the tension between a deep eagerness to sample all the street food and a deep fear of food poisoning. 

To break each of those down:

• sun: been wearing sunscreen and a sun hat, no burn yet! I got dehydrated and my brain melted a little when we were walking around on Thursday, but generally I've been drinking a lot of water too. 
• fumes: I wore my covid mask throughout Jakarta because of my desire to not get cancer or damage my lungs from PM2.5 and whatever else comes out of exhaust pipes. The mask did not interact well with the humid 92-degree heat from the sun— you win some, you lose some.
• language: Basically all I've learned is "terima kasih," which means thank you. You can also say "makasih" for short! I also know that tahu means tofu, and I've written down several important phrases such as "Is the ice made with filtered water?," "Do you serve any vegetarian dishes?," and "May I take a photo?"
• jet lag: I have stayed awake until at least 8pm every night! Proud of that especially considering that the sun goes down at 5:30pm. I woke up a lot the first night but slept well the second night. The call to prayer is a new challenge; maybe if I stay up later tonight I will be able to fall back asleep after it tomorrow morning. 
• street food: The street food in Indonesia is prolific and fascinating, some looking very unfamiliar and some looking absolutely delicious (and some both, of course!). However, the lowest point of my entire year last year was getting food poisoning in Chile. So I am being VIGILANT here. Hayley and I are only eating cooked things that we know were cooked recently (ideally immediately preceding our consumption). I'm also looking to make sure the cook isn't touching the cooked food with their bare hands. It sometimes feels silly to be so very careful, but then I remember how awful it felt to be lying on the floor of an Airbnb bathroom, retching my guts out for hours and then unable to eat normally for two full weeks after. So. Caution with the food (and ice). I'm scared to jinx it, but so far so good!

OK, I'mma try to go back to sleep now. We have a 7h train ride tomorrow, so stay tuned for major updates then!