Week eleven

My adventure reached the age of ten weeks, but there was no room for celebration. Knowing that my internship’s lasted for one more week gave me a reluctant feeling: I had to leave on short term notice, just when all preparations for full enjoyment were made by finally becoming accustomed to the Indonesian way of life. Being aware to experience everything for the last time forced me to enjoy to the fullest and so every opportunity for adventures was seized. One of those was my weekend trip to Bandung.

Yudi, an Indonesian colleague of mine, invited me to spend the weekend with his family and friends in Bandung. Having heard stories about the city’s eminent culture and astonishing nature definitely made me wanting to pay it a visit, being invited gave me the ideal opportunity to do so.

Bandung is the capitol of West-Java and accommodates 2.8 million citizens. The city owes its nickname, ‘The city of flowers’, to the beautiful surroundings; the capitol is situated in the midst of mountains, drenched with tea-plantations and in the immediate neighbourhood of several volcano’s. Therefore, exchanging the crowded city of Jakarta for the nice and quite ‘Paris of Java’ was a good deal.

The weekend mainly existed out of sightseeing and relaxing. This might sound casual, or perhaps even a bit boring, but to me this was great. I had the honor to reside at Yudi’s family house and hang out with his friends. This really exposed me to the true Indonesia, including the cooking, local games and mutual association. Besides that, spending a great deal of time with them was simply fun, just like the whole weekend was. Hereby I would like to thank Yudi, his family and friends, for their hospitality and kindness, it has been amazing!

I began this blog with my reluctance of departing Indonesia, however, over the course of the last week this feeling changed; sadness evolved into contentment. It seemed like I started to accept the fact of leaving Indonesia without experiencing and seeing everything. The past weeks have been incredible, filled with unforgettable adventures and valuable lessons. Therefore, having to miss those others did not care anymore, I was contentedly saturated. Besides that, the prospect of being reunited with my family and friends, living in the Netherlands and returning to my normal life was not bad either.

In order to do so preparations had to be made, once again my belongings needed to become packed and nothing was allowed to be forgotten. It turned out that I have become skilled with packing and the Indonesian way of planning during my stay: All suitcases were filled in one hour, on the day of departure.

But departure does not only concern luggage, more important, it concerns saying goodbye to all friends made. There have been a lot of people helping me with my research and accompanying me in spare time. Without them this internship would probably have taken a completely different course. Thanking them was the least thing I could do and as a sign of I bought everyone a present. These were gratefully accepted and it turned out, to my surprise, that all colleagues and friends also had bought me lots of presents. These signs of good relationships made me very happy and I am going to give them a nice place back home, so they can always remember of the nice people I have become friends with…

Thanks once again for following me at www.nedeco.nl, this was the last blog written in Indonesia. The next and final blog will be written in the Netherlands. By that time I hope to be accustomed again and able to share my retrospective view with you.

Wim