Elisa's IBM Corporate Service Corps Adventure in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Kota Gede & Pakualaman Palace

Today officially marks 3 weeks since I left North Carolina, which is the longest I've ever been away from home! Time here is just flying by. Aside from my regular 2-week vacations, my longest time away from home thusfar was in 2012 when I went to Prague, Czech Republic for a little bit less than 3 weeks. That was also quite an adventure but a very different one. This time I am on quite a marathon trip as I have 3 1/2 weeks left to go - 1 1/2 weeks left on my CSC project and then 2 weeks of vacation. I woke up today not knowing the date. I just know "it's Tuesday." That's quite a nice change for me. Someday when I retire I am hoping to not even know what day it is :-)

We continue to make good progress with our project. Monday & Tuesday most of our client offices were still closed due to the volcanic ash cleanup so we worked at the hotel to start preparing our final presentation. My team has been doing a mixture of meeting up in the hotel common areas to work and then going back to our individual hotel rooms to finish up. There is a lot of music and general commotion in some of the common areas so the peace and quiet of our hotel rooms is sometimes easier to think. Our final project is taking 3 different forms. First, we will be holding a social media workshop for some of the employees at the Tourism Authority. We were supposed to do that last Friday but plans changed with the volcano situation. Second, we are preparing some overview slides of our recommendations - a detailed presentation will be given at our client offices next Monday and then a summary presentation will be given to some government officials next Thursday. Lastly, we are preparing a detailed document outlining each of our recommendations. We will be leaving this document with our clients so they can refer back to it over the coming months. Thanks to everyone who filled out our travel survey. We've compiled the results and will be including that in our final report.

Lats night after work, Claudia, Shannon & I decided to do a quick sightseeing trip to a nearby suburb of Yogyakarta called Kota Gede. The area is known for its silversmiths who create fine silver filigree jewelry and other decorations. We got a late start since it was a last-minute idea, but still enjoyed walking around the town. Most of the shops closed at 5pm and we didn't arrive in town until 6pm but a few places were still open to explore. There were no other tourists in the area (& no cabs for that matter) so we once again decided to keep our cab and just have the meter keep ticking as we walked through town. Our taxi driver was good at keeping up with us as every time we turned to look around our taxi was following close behind. I bought a pretty silver filgree pendant for only $28. I would have bought the chain as well but I forgot to put more money in my wallet before I left. Money is so deceiving here. The largest bills we have been carrying are in 100,000 denominations which is the equivalent of $8.50. If you put a few 100,000 bills in your wallet you have more than enough money for a few days unless you do some souvenir shopping. A few of us are hoping to go back later in our trip to another silver shop that was recommended by some of the locals.

Claudia walking down the main street in Kota Gede

The silver filigree pendant that I bought

A vendor making drinks from local fruit at the Kota Gede market

Today my team decided to work on our individual pieces of our project and we will be consolidating the pieces later this week. With our offices still closed, this gave us a little more flexibility to get our work done at different times. After breakfast, Yuan Yuan, Alberto, Claudia and I decided to take a quick walk down the street from the hotel to visit the Pakualaman Palace. This palace used to be used for the Prince of Yogyakarta but is now home to the Vice-Governor. He only stays there when guests are in town, usually dignitaries and other government visitors. Diane, our local contact, came with us as well and it was nice to have her translating some of the materials for us.

The entrance to the palace grounds

Water garden in the palace courtyard

Gamelan instruments in the central pavillion

There was a small museum onsite that held the Pakualaman family inheritance. It was really sad to see the after-effects of the volcano here. Ash covered EVERYTHING and the museum was not completely closed to the outside due to slatted windows near the ceiling. The curators spent a lot of time cleaning the palace grounds earlier in the week but have a lot more work to do to salvage the exhibits in the museum. They had lots of pictures of dignitaries who had visited, old swords and clothing, and an exhibit of carriages used many years ago to transport the royal families.

After visiting the palace we took a nice leisurely walk back to the hotel. The heat and humidity were particularly oppressive today and with our N95 masks we were dripping wet by the time we got back. Since coming to Indonesia, I have a new appreciation for bottled water. I decided to put some electrolyte powder into my water this afternoon to try to keep everything in balance. Usually I am really affected by the heat so I am doing my best to keep hydrated. Showers are also my best friend, especially to clean off the grime I feel after walking around outside. It's noon, and I've already taken 2 showers. Now it's time to work for a bit and relax. Later this afternoon my teammate Nicole is going to host a beginner yoga class for a few of us in one of the conference rooms downstairs. It should be a fun time. I'll now be making use of some of those clothes I packed but have not yet worn.