My room

My room is on the second floor. Like most rooms here, or at least the rooms of those who make a living in the sense that we make a living, the ceiling is very high.


The fan is on the dresser table next to the bed. Tiny, with little power, but it creates an ambient hum that helps filter out other sounds.

After work, I usually lie down and enter my iPod world, particularly if I've been on campus all day. Only on a couple of occasions have I had the energy to read. Earlier this week I bought a copy of the Indonesian version of Rolling Stone, which is completely in bahasa. The major articles are lifted straight from the US/global edition (Wilco, Pink, Ginger Baker - why on earth would Indonesians want to read about Ginger Baker?), but these are complemented by large articles that focus on Indonesian musicians and the music biz here. So I've been tucking into that, keeping up my old habit of reading a music magazine and listing potential purchases!

On one side of the room I've got a TV and a study area. Most nights I use the latter and avoid the former. Indonesia has a very generous ad to content ratio, some sometimes I seem to spend all my time watching skin, teeth, cigarette, hair and chemist commercials. If I somehow avoid the commercials, then I get my fill of Indonesian soap opera or, more likely, some vaudeville type performance. Slapstick is huge here, if going by what's on TV.

My desk is tiny, always cluttered. At night I revise new words that I've learnt, either from conversations earlier in the day or through reading the newspaper (surat kabar).

In the morning, I've got my picture on the wall.