Selamat datang

Hi there. Welcome to my blog of my time in the Peace Corps in Indonesia!

Nearly seven years ago I had my first blog as a post-high school exchange student in Slovakia, and boy, did I write a lot there. My blog content focused on all the nitty-gritty, minuscule nuances of the daily happenings of my Slovak life. I was glad to write out everything (much in the way that I do when transcribing a dream--in that case, whatever I omit will later be forgotten forever; in both cases, the writing style is very Blakeian à la "to see a world in a grain of sand"), particularly because I had no communication with my family and friends for most of my time away. If I didn't type and post, they would have no idea if I was alive, and --more importantly--, no idea what my life was like!

Everything about Slovakia was new and surprising and interesting to me, so I (correctly or incorrectly) figured it must be doubly so for them to read about and experience secondhand. I've also always loved writing, so to have an excuse--and even a duty! (/sarcasm)--to write for an audience was a true pleasure. I have yet to learn the art of concision, however, so right from the start blogging, even when it was enjoyable, was an ordeal. Nothing eluded the net of my record, but weaving that net could take anywhere from three to eight hours at a time. It was exhausting, and finally when my life had slowed down to such a point that few things felt new enough to work up the motivation to write up in a peppy, excitable, unwaveringly-fastidious way, I stopped blogging entirely.

Since that experience, my relationship with the medium has evolved. I kept a quality blog about my study abroad semester in Spain, but notably felt much less of a crushing guilt when I would do something significant and then never write about it. As a grantee in Argentina I didn't care to spend five hours typing up the definitive review and rating of my daily empanadas consumed. (That is, however, what I spent most of my time thinking about. #notjoking) Getting older, and with a lot more solo travel under my belt and several lives lived far from family, probably had a lot to do with this shift. Neither my slow-paced daily Argentine life nor the jolts of excitement that punctuated it (some stand-out weekends; my travels most of all) inspired me all that often to the diligence a true chronicle requires. I wrote occasionally, but found most of the topics I composed essays about in my head couldn't ever actually see the light of day--so much of Argentine culture is political, and my #1 priority in blogging always is to be uncontroversial.

This is blog #4, and there will probably be no blow-by-blow detailing of the day-by-day, and definitely nothing ~remotely~ polemic--so what's left? When I was writing about Slovakia, I wanted my family to know what my life was like, which really meant I wanted them to know what Slovakia was like (at least as seen through my eyes). I hadn't known what to expect, and everything surprised me; I wrote as if writing to my past selves who had yet to experience what I had. I've done so much research on Indonesia over the last year, and still have no idea what to expect. I really would love to pass on whatever I learn to all my American friends and family, and I'm sure there's a way to do it that isn't characterized by an underlying desperation to pull a Hanuman and just pick up the whole mountain/country to show it to you guys. (300,000 words later--"Now you get it!") The intention there of cultural sharing is actually the "Third Goal" of Peace Corps, to (-paraphrasing-) teach Americans more about the rest of the world, or, specifically in my case, Indonesia. Blogging, no matter in what form this current site might take, is a wonderful way to do this. So, I really want to make this work, and I'm hoping I can find enough time for writing; that maybe the muse of brevity will finally visit me (or else work it out with the god of Time to give me some more, whichever works); and that I'll find ways to evoke without having to rely on the saturation method. I'm so excited for this next great adventure, and happy to have you reading along with me. Ayo!