Community Service in Krebet
The Community Service (KKN) is a 2 weeks program at which any student of a Double-Degree program has to participate. Indonesian students have to do it even for 2 months. However, it is really annoying that we lost one month due to the 2 weeks service where we could have been travelling around. It turned out to be pretty useless. Most of the time we were lying around and did nothing but watching series. It became more interesting when we joined another KKN group from the Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. Those guys did an excellent job and taught the children of the village in English, Mathematics and helped preparing events of the village. This education program is called Sanggar Baca. Especially the girls of the village were eager to learn English.
Our actual task was to update the homepage of the local artists in order to make this place more interesting for tourists. I still don’t understand why we had to do this because there was no internet in this village and we had to discuss it with our supervisor who allowed us then to return earlier to Jogja in order to upload the pictures. From my point of view this task is imprudent. Krebet is consisting of 3 little villages that are not special at all and can be found anywhere in Indonesia (in addition this city is not appropriate for tourists: the villagers barely speak English and you get lost easily). For me it makes more sense to make it attractive for intermediaries that can sell the crafts in Yogyakarta.
In the end we were happy to participate at the education program of the other university voluntarily and help to teach English rather than spending our time in our room watching series. We celebrated our last evening while eating pisang selimut (banana rolled in a toast and fried in oil) and playing Uno. Reunion in Jogja!
Karimunjawa – the secret paradise islands
22. – 27. June 2013
Karimunjawa is a group of 27 islands located in the north of Java. Many people call it the secret paradise of Indonesia and I have to admit that it’s true. From Jogja (close to Tugu statue) we took a public shuttle bus to Jepara where the ferry to the main island departs. If you book early you can get a ticket for the fast boat which takes only 2 hours. When we arrived we knew that the long drive of 6 hours in the bus and the 6 hours on the ferry was worth coming here. We rented 2 scooters and started to examine the island. It doesn’t matter where you drive because there are beautiful hidden beaches everywhere. The highlights were definitely the boat trips (100 000 Rp each). On the first trip we went to some snorkeling spots and smaller islands. The water is as clear as tab water and they serve fresh grilled fish!
The next boat trip also took us to some snorkeling spots BUT also to a shark and turtle reservation and YES you can swim with them. The sharks are up to 1.5 m long and at first I was a bit scared. When I went into the pool something bit me in my leg. I wondered if it was a shark but it appeared to be a small fish that 
defended the stairs as it was its territory. The sharks were lapping in the pool watching anyone with curiosity. The biggest of them was approaching me from the front, swimming straight towards me. I stretched out my hand and I could strike along his whole body. The skin feels like velvet and once I watched them, I wasn’t afraid of them anymore. I even started to like them.
Then we wanted to have a look to the turtles but it turned out that it was just one which all the tourist were holding up to make a picture. There was also a blowfish which was frequently caught out of the water so it was blowing up and down all the time. How cruel is that! It would have been pretty cool to swim with the turtles and the blowfish, too! In the evening someone told my friend that a girl was bitten in her leg by a shark one week ago. They put some bloody fishes into the pool to make the sharks swim actively (I think that’s pretty stupid) and she panicked. You can also see a mangrove forest. It’s pretty small for a forest but very nice though! I think Karimunjawa is the perfect place to stay for a couple of days!
Indonesia study trip 