“A Day on the Mountains”
It is finally the weekend! Today we decided to sleep in because for consecutive days, we woke up around 4:30-5:00 a.m. to prepare for school. Today marks the day where we sit back and relax so we can fully enjoy the day. In the morning my roommates and I woke up around 9 to 10 a.m. to catch up on sleep. During breakfast, we talked about how it was just once in a lifetime that we get to come to Indonesia and we do not know when we can come back again. So we decided to search for wonderful sights that we can see here and contact our buddies so they can show us the way.
We planned to go to The Village here in Purwokerto but we really wanted to see Baturraden because of how beautiful it was in the photos. We settled for the village because it was a nearer place and if we take GoJek or Grab ride, we can save more money. Somehow, fate answered our prayers because the International Office of UMP had some guests over for a seminar. After the seminar they planned to take them sightseeing and guess where they were going. Baturraden!
They told us that we could tag along the tour and experience it in real life. The drive was about an hour and the weather was very dreary because of the rain but it did not stop us from having fun with our buddies, Taiwanese friends and of course the other co-teachers. There we got to see enormous waterfalls, majestic mountains, green scenery and beautiful traditional music. There were also children who would swim down the falls if you throw coins from the top of a bridge. It is similar to those in the Philippines, where Badjao children as young as 5 would jump off their raft when people from ships toss coins to them at sea. It was an experience that was spectacular and I do not think that I am doing it justice through my writing and my photos.
After an exhausting day of fun, we went back to the Mess and decided to work hard for our lesson preparation. Our friend Sita accompanied us when we made the lesson plan. We took breaks and went to buy coffee to prepare us for a long night ahead. The night was bustling and full of excitement in Purwokerto and we took advantage of it by looking at the stalls in front of the university and trying out some of the local street food. It was fun and our buddy was very friendly. We took advantage of the energy that coffee gave us and went to sleep at about 1 a.m. the next day.
