18 June 2006

Let the summer begin

You know that summer's begun when you've had your first picnic, first barbeque or first pool party of the year. I've had the blissful pleasure of all of these this weekend and it's finally hit me that the summer holidays are here.

There's no better place to experience summer than England. The long summer days together with hot-but-not-too-hot temperatures, gorgeous green countryside and blue skies make it a great country to be in during this part of the year. I love it. Despite that, and for reasons I can't really understand, I don't fully feel like I'm on holiday until I go back to Indonesia. No matter where I am in the world and how happy I am there, I'm never fully relaxed until I'm at home.

It must be the Indonesian blood coming to the surface. The Indonesians, like the Chinese, Indians or Australians for example, are great travellers. Indonesians always enjoy exploring what else there is in the world. However, unlike the Chinese, Indians and Australians, we're not the best of settlers. While other peoples can go to a new place and make a new life there, Indonesians always always return home. I don't know why this is. It could be because Indonesia is simply a beautiful country but my bet is that generally Indonesians are a family-oriented people and we can't be away from our loved ones for too long (or maybe that's just why I like going home).

I realised today that I'm heading back in three weeks and it took me to a whole new level of being relaxed! There's a lot of stuff I want to do and people I want to see before I go back (anyone up for going to Wimbledon?) but I'm really looking forward to it. I miss Jakarta a lot (except the traffic). I would say I miss the sun but I can't complain that I'm not getting enough of that at the moment. I am looking forward to the food though. Perhaps most of all I'm looking forward to hearing and speaking Indonesian again. The downside is that I am seriously rusty so need a bit of practice before I go back.

No better place to start re-learning and get in to Indo mood than YouTube. Here is Sheila on 7's Tunggu aku di Jakarta (Wait for me in Jakarta). What's more is that it's in proper Indo karaoke style:

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