Landing in style

After 48 hours of traveling--lots of time in the air and lots of layovers--we stepped out of the Aceh airport to be greeted in style with a banner and crowd of faculty and students from our host institution Syiah Kuala University including an old friend Zulkifli Aziz who had spent a semester at Oberlin as a visiting Shansi scholar in 2008. It was a delightful way to be greeted.

We settled into the hotel, overcome with exhaustion but thankfully not heat while we read news of the polar vortex hitting back home. Some of us ventured out to explore a little, buying tropical fruits including mangoes, rambutan (hairy things), and salak (snake fruit). Then we all had dinner of Acehnese satay at the restaurant across the street.

Today we are off to Sabang, an island paradise.