On my first morning in Timor Leste, I got up early, full of enthusiasm for my first Tetum language classes. However, when I got out of my shipping container room and down to the shower block at the hotel where we are staying, I discovered the water wasn’t working. We had a few blackouts the night before because of a big storm (it is the wet season), so unperturbed, I decided to see if there was another shower block elsewhere with running water.
I climbed up a staircase beside the pool, but having no luck on the bathroom search, I turned back… only to be tripped by a wobbly board on the staircase sending me plunging face-and-boob-first down the stairs.
It was OK… I only got a few bruises, scratches all over my foot and one of my calves, a bleeding knee, two gashes in my ankle, and a dose of humiliation in front of one of the cleaning ladies. I didn’t expect to have to pull out the medical kit in the first 12 hours here… but that’s why you should always be prepared!
But since the fall, everything has been pretty good! Maybe I needed to literally come crashing to the ground to humble me right from the start of my experience here. I’m just taking language classes at the moment and doing errands/administrative things and meeting some people around town before starting my position, but things seem to be coming together. I can see that while living here will be a challenge, there is also a significant amount of stuff to occupy me socially, recreationally and professionally.
There is also a surprising number of fusion restaurants! More on that in another post down the track I’m sure….
Yeesh, it’s been a while blog, sorry.
But I’ve been busy! I finished my Masters! Yay! I went to Adelaide to train ahead of my move to Timor Leste. And I did some other boring stuff like the groceries etc etc.
Something I did today was to go back and read some of the posts I wrote on this blog when I had just moved to Jakarta. They are pretty funny. They also reminded me how gobsmacked I was in those early days, how neurotic I was at 23 (umm, yeah cos I’m way less neurotic now), how much I am always pushing myself and how many stomach bugs and colds I had in the first six months there!
It’s a good reminder as I get ready to move to Dili. Reading them, I remembered how amazing, baffling, exciting and confusing Indonesia was for the first six months or so. I’m kinda hoping Dili is the same (minus the stomach bugs) — I hope I haven’t been jaded by already spending 21 months in Indonesia. At the moment, I’m feeling excited, but a bit daunted about packing and getting organised. I think it will be very different to my Jakarta existence, that’s for sure. For a starters, Dili is tiny compared to Jakarta. It doesn’t have all those blinging shopping malls or swanky hotels. There’s so many other differences too. Plus there are new languages to learn, a new culture to understand and new adventures to go on.
I really hope I can get decent internet access though, so I can update my blog with photos and writing.
I love you blog.
Anyway, if you have any pointers for my pre-departure Timor research, please share them in the comments. Links to Timor English bloggers would be great too, I will create a new blogroll on the side!
I’m around 90 percent sure that I’m moving to Timor Leste/ East Timor next year to work with an international NGO (I should have that final 10 percent of confirmation soon).
It’s rather exciting… I’m spending a lot of time doing research. The world’s second newest country is small, but packs a whole lot of history in there, and multiple languages for me to learn as well!
The Lonely Planet guide is very thin though…
Have you ever just wanted to look at so many flowers that your brain might explode? Have you ever wanted those colourful displays of flowers to be arranged in themed garden beds?
Well, you need to get yo’self to Floriade, dawg! It’s Australia’s celebration of Spring! And one of Canberra’s most popular events of the year!
Flowers! And rides for the kids for when they get bored of looking at HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS OF FLOWERS.
OK, so I had never been to Floriade before and I was expecting it to be pretty lame because it is kind of one of those Canberra jokes like “roundabouts” “Skyfire” and “Summernats!”. But I was actually pretty impressed. Maybe it is because I share the same interests as many of Canberra’s retirees? Maybe it is because I like colourful things? Maybe because admission was free? Maybe it is because I’ve already lived in Canberra since February , so I’ve acclimatised? I dunno. But I was impressed.
PRETTY!
More photos of flowers after the jump…
I bought these tacky magnets when I was in Las Vegas. Las Vegas as a whole was just incredibly tacky, so I thought I needed to honor that by buying tacky souvenirs. Never forget.
These magnets now adorn my fridge in Canberra.
But the man one is my favourite. He seems to have made all sorts of bad tattooing decisions while in Vegas (not to mention crimes against fashion). Either he is a successful stripper whose g-string is so overburdened with dollar bills they are dropping out everywhere as he gyrates, or he is crapping out money. An apt euphemism for gambling, no? The poor guy can’t even afford shoes.
Somebody has been sticking these little pieces of masking tape in the girls bathrooms at the ANU, with little messages on them like this one. It is a rather sweet idea.
I took this photo the other morning on my way over to work. Since March, I’ve been starting work at 5.30am, which means a very early wake up well before dawn (especially hard over the cold Canberra winter). It has been difficult to balance with uni… especially since all of my classes are in the evening. Such long days. I’m really pleased I was offered some other work so that now I don’t have to get up so early… I could have lived with the seven-days-a week early starts for longer if I wasn’t trying to balance full time uni as well. Six weeks left until I am a Master… and then, it looks like I am moving to Timor Leste? Should make the blog more interesting, for sure!
A few weeks back I was lucky enough to go to my friend Mel’s wedding to the lovely Martin up the NSW North Coast. We stayed in Byron Bay, but the wedding was held in the Bexhil Open Air Cathedral, which was stunning, and the reception was at Mel’s parents house in the newly landscaped yard (as in… the bride had bruises on her from doing the landscaping the day before the wedding!). It was all gorgeous! It is such a beautiful part of the country up there… an area I hadn’t visited since I was a child.
And what a gorgeous couple as well. (Check out their engagement shoot… the photos are just perfect.)
The wedding was wonderful and so much fun… but it was also super super fun to stay in an apartment in Byron by the beach with my ladies! We had such a great time hanging out in Byron, drinking mimosas and getting glammed up for the big day.
It was a great escape… a way to recharge the batteries, catch up with friends and celebrate the lovely love of Mel and Martin.
When I left DC before finishing my Masters, one of the professors there wrote in an email to me that it was unfortunate that I was leaving, for a number of reasons… one of them being that I would be missing DC at its best, during the spring when the cherry blossoms come out down at the Tidal Basin.
I hope I still get to see the cherry blossoms in DC one day, because I did love that city… but Canberra offered up a little consolation prize right on my own street last month, which was rather nice.
