sun rain sun

It is hard not to get spoiled with the weather here. Yes, I'm talking about weather. Theoretically, rainy season kicked in almost two months ago, and a solid week of rain had me nervous that the season would be difficult. With a motorbike-culture, the arrival of rain throws all plans and schedules into chaos since no one wants to be zipping around, getting sloshed in the face with sheets of rain. Fortunately, that solid week ended, and it has been pretty much sunshine every single day since. Until yesterday... Following my usual workout, I headed up to the lap pool with some friends. I got in my usual laps, and as we were laying by the side of the pool, drying off slower than usual because of the cloudy sky, drops started to fall. This turned into a solid 3 hour rain storm. But it is these three hours that remind me how lucky I am to be in Indonesia during an El Nino-dry winter.

Even today, after running to the Indonesian Visual Art Archives to return some books, gather more, and then vietnamese spring rolls for lunch at Ben's (an American who is on his way home after 18 months in Yogya), I squeezed in an hour at the pool. It makes me nervous how dependent I've become on the gym and pool for a sense of continuity and stability.

The sun, warmth, fruit, vegetables, exercise and independence have created an ideal situation for me here, and I feel almost obnoxious, continually gushing about how much I love it here. The city is just amazing. As for my activities, there are stresses here and there, and every now and then my anxiety kicks in about the progress of my research. But then I look outside, and think, 'yay. it is amazing here.'