Mountain Talk

One effective way to wake you up in the morning is by making a conversation about a subject that you are interested in. So this is what we talked about this morning:

Me: Wake up, honey, the sun is already up. Do you know that the sun is actually a very big fireball? You should never see the sun directly or your eyes will get hurt
You: And I will be wearing glasses?
Me: Yes. It’s actually very bright, and it’s very, very hot there. Next to the sun is planet Venus. Because of its proximity to the sun, Venus is also very hot and it’s red, just like a charcoal. Next to Venus is Mars, and then our planet Earth
You: What about our planet, Mama? Is there fire in our planet?
Me: Not exactly. The fire is inside the earth. We can only see it when there is a mountain erupted
You: Is there any mountain erupted?
Me: Yes, recently, Mount Merapi, nearby Jogja.
You: But I didn’t see it…..
Me: Yes, because it’s far from here
You: Where?
Me: Well it is located between Bandung and Bali (the two places outside Jakarta you have been to).
You: How far?
Me: It takes you around six hours by car
You: How long does it take by plane?
Me: About an hour
You: But I didn’t see any fire when I was there (you must have confused it with Tangkuban Perahu)
Me: That’s a different mountain that we went to, honey. That one is Tangkuban Perahu, near Bandung, and it’s an in-active mountain. So there’s no fire in Tangkuban Perahu (I later found out that Tangkuban Perahu is actually an active mountain! Mild eruption occured in 1969)
You: So what’s in Tangkuban Perahu?
Me: Well, there’s still some hot stuff there, I’m not really sure. There is a lot of sulphur, which is quite smelly, remember? We call Merapi an active mountain, because sometimes it still erupted, while Tangkuban Perahu is called in-active mountain because it doesn’t erupted anymore
You: But has it erupted before?
Me: Yes, it did
You: Were there people then?
Me: Must be, I don’t really know, it’s a long time ago
You: Before I was born?
Me: Yes before you were born
You: Before you were even born?
Me: Yes, honey

With that last words, you started getting ready for school.