Friends and Family

Firstly, sorry that it's been a month since our last post! Clearly, we've been having too much fun.

Since our last update, uni has officially finished for Ali. Despite a hectic last couple of weeks getting assignments (both for uts and here) done and sitting exams, she can finally enjoy her newfound freedom. That coincided with our visit from Jeremy, Kirsty, Stuart and Elise. We organised motorbikes from our friends and shortly after meeting them at the aiport and getting some lunch, we began the 2 hour journey to the beach.

The boys did very well navigating the ordered chaos on the roads and I believe the girls were very co-operative passengers. Despite being a little sore, we arrived at the beach and had a great weekend swimming, relaxing, surfing (for Ben and Jeremy), reading, eating, taking pictures and playing cards.

We drove back to Jogja in the late arvo and arrived at the lookout to admire the scenery - Jogja glowing in the dark. We spent some time at our place and went for a walk up kaliurang. Then, we farewelled our Singapore dwellers and spent a few more days with Stuart and Elise. We had some lovely evenings playing cards and drinking fine wine, with a massive 500 win for the girls.

Since their depature, Ben has continued in running english conversation classes and Ali has been preparing for some NGO activities. We have also spent some time saying goodbye to other Aussi students going home and Ali braved the Elo river with some of the girls for white water rafting. We have been watching some dvds, and then preparing for our next bout of guests - Rach and then Julia.

As I am writing this, it is Rach's last night with us. We've had a blast together. We showed Rach my uni, favourite places to eat and the flashy new cinema! We also headed down to Krakal again for a few nights (a nice break from the Sydney winter)! Ben braved the waves at Wediombo and Rachael comforted Ali in her distress. We ate some great fresh fish and relaxed by reading, swimming, sleeping and playing cards.

Yesterday, we climbed part of mount Merapi with 2 of our Aussi friends (the same climb Ben did with our other guests while I was at uni.) It was very very steep and exhausting but we were blesesd with a beautiful clear day and it was a great achievement. Now, we are about to pick up Julia from the airport and hope that we can fit her gigantic bag on one of our two bikes (along with 4 people). Should be interesting, to say the least!

THat's all for now,
cya!