Winter Holiday!

Hey everyone!!

Yay!!! I am on vacation now!! :) We just had our last day of class on Wednesday, and our second semester won't start until FEBRUARY 11th! So I have 1.5 months to sit back and relax...I'm so excited!!

So on our last day of class we had a big meeting with the important ppl at our uni (the Dean, Vice Dean, President, etc...) and they're pretty sure that me and some of the other Darmasiswa students here are good enough at Indonesian that they are going to put us in the regular classes with real Indonesian students next semester...eek!!

Actually a lot has been going on around here. Wednesday night was the last night we were all going to be in the house (ppl are going home and travelling over the holidays), so we decided to have a nice Christmas dinner. It was great - we had Chinese food and traditional Javanese cakes and fruits...okay, so not exactly the Christmas turkey, but that's okay. The important thing was that we were all together and we had a lot of fun. After the dinner we exchanged gifts and it was really a good time.

Yesterday (December 20th) was Idul Adha, a big Muslim holiday where they sacrifice goats and cows and give all the meat to the neighbors. It was really sad for us because for the last two weeks they have been setting up these makeshift stables all over the side of the road where they've been selling goats and cows from. So we have gotten to really enjoy our little goat friends down the street, but on Thursday most of them disappeared and we knew that they had met their death. Sad, sad, sad...

Tomorrow we are heading to Bali on our little tour. It's going to be amazing!! Christmas on a beach in Bali...what could be better? Well, spending time with my friends and family at home would be better, but will be a pretty cool experience!

Okay well there's still lots of preparation I need to do before we leave for Bali tomorrow (like finding good sunblock...hm....). I miss you all and love you all!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!!!! :) :) :)

Is anyone reading this?

I'm just curious - is anyone actually reading my blog? I haven't gotten any comments about it recently and I'm wondering if it is a waste of my time...

So please do me a favor. If you are reading this, please just leave me a comment or send me an email at victoria.blake.martin@gmail.com to let me know that I'm not wasting my time here updating...

Thanks so much!!!

I'm going to Bali!

Hola everyone! Just thought I'd send a quick little update from this side of the world...

Exciting recent events in Tori's life:
1. We now have a stove (and working gas tank after quite an adventure) at our house, which means we can now make our beloved cuisines from our respectful countries (US, Poland, China). I tried once but failed miserably to make spaghetti with veggies. I had just placed the veggies in the pan to steam when poof! Our tiny gas tank ran out...and so after running around the city (at 9:00 at night, mind you) for an hour trying to find another tiny gas tank, we gave up and took our veggies to the little old woman down the street who owns a food stall and we actually asked her if we could use her stove to just at least finish cooking our veggies. We were quite embarrassed, but we didn't want to waste all those good veggies (I mean, we're talking broccoli, cauliflower, baby corn and carrots!). To our surprise, she not only let us use her stove, but she actually cooked the veggies for us while we sat there and chatted with her. She was so cute! And to show our appreciation we gave her Rp.5000 (about $0.50...yea we're big spenders!).

2. I'm going to Bali for Christmas!!! Hindy, Lily, Robe, Jonathan (his 14yr old bro), Vivi (his 26yr old sis) and I decided we did not want to be bored at Christmas this year, so we are headed off to Bali for 4 days!

3. I came home the other day as the Poles were decorating our very own Christmas tree! They bought this 3-foot artificial tree at a supermarket and decorated it with ornaments and garland. The only thing we are currently lacking is an angel or a star, but as you can imagine all of these things are hard to come by in a Muslim country...

4. We bought 5 fish for the pond outside our house, and despite the millions of cats that now hang out in our yard, all the fish are still alive! We thought about getting a cat or a dog, but then we decided this was a bad idea for 7 20-somethings to adopt an animal that actually requires real care...meh!

5. I just found out my Mom and Grandma Nay Nay are coming to visit me in January!!! Oh wow I'm so excited!!! I miss everyone back at home so much and this is going to be so wonderful! Of course, I might be tempted to come home with them, I don't know... :) If anyone else wants to visit me, please please please! It would be so great! You can have free lodging if you don't mind sleeping on the floor...

6. The other day I visited Blitar (a city about 2.5 hours away from Malang) to teach at a high school there. I was really happy because after my class, all of the teachers and the headmaster all told me that I had a great talent for teaching and that I was better than any of the other native speakers they've invited in the past. I was really pleased :) Just thought I'd brag a little bit...

Okay that's about it. I should get going. I have a class in 8 minutes. Busy, busy, busy!!

And we've all had it up to here with Indonesia!

So it must just be because we are all getting fed up with all the nonsense in this country, but last night me, Lily, Hindy and Justyna (the Polish girl who lives with us) all of a sudden started letting out all of our frustrations with everything here.

It seems we are all sick and tired of being overcharged everywhere we go (I mean, we are students here and just because we have lighter skin than the Javanese doesn't mean we are made of money!). We are all so over getting yelled at on the street by uneducated men with funky teeth and dirty little kids. In fact, last night we were walking to get some dinner and some greasy guys squatting on the side of the road doing nothing (because a quarter of this country is unemployed) started yelling at us. We got a few "Hei Mister (because they don't know the difference between Mister and Miss), jalan-jalan?" This is quite an innocent statement if you translate it: Hey sir, going for a walk? However it was the way they kept saying it that just pissed Lily off greatly. She actually turned around and yelled "Shut up!" at them (in English). Then I yelled "kurang ajar!" (which is the equivalent of "what's your problem?") and they were absolutely silent.

The other night, we went to get bread at this really cute bakery around the corner we frequent. I just grabbed a loaf of bread that cost Rp.5000 ($0.50) and when I went to pay, the price suddenly jumped to Rp.5500. Knowing sales tax doesn't exist in Indonesia, I asked the woman why the price was different than the price that was marked on the bread. She told me that it was the old price and that they hadn't changed it yet. Well, I was angry so I decided to argue. I told her if the price was old then that must mean the bread was old, which is clearly against your policy that says everything is made fresh that same day. Then I demanded to get my Rp.500 back because she was cheating me, and I told her I would tell all my friends who often come to the bakery. Okay, so I may have gone a little overboard, but as it turns out, I've been asking my friends to pay attention and everyone gets overcharged there. Let me rephrase: all FOREIGN people get overcharged. They don't dare overcharge Javanese people...argh!!!

And we've also had enough of the Javanese boy who lives with us, who doesn't do his chores on time and is constantly late on the rent. By other countries' standards, the Javanese are lazy, excuse-making, inconsiderate, rude, cheating people and frankly I'm glad I don't have that many Javanese friends.

Quick little note: When I say Javanese, I mean the native Indonesians. There are two main ethnic groups in Java: Javanese and Chinese Indonesians (those whose ancestors came from China but most of them can't even speak two words of Mandarin). The Chinese tend to be the upper-class, more well educated people and the Javanese are more like lower-class, uneducated people. This has a lot to do with history, as the Chinese originally came in as merchants and when the Dutch took over the country they entrusted the Chinese as their business partners while they imprisoned the Javanese. Okay, but the point being that there is a big difference that can be felt still today.

I have made friends mostly with Chinese Indonesians, and I think there is a reason for this. Religion plays a role, I'm sure, as most Javanese are Muslims and most Chinese are Christian or Buddhist. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this entry, but I think I just needed to vent.

Okay other than that everything is going really well! I found out the other day that two of my students (twin girls) live right across the street from me, and so I went and had dinner with them last night. It was really fun, and they invited me back whenever I want.

Alrighty. Later guys!!

Boring week

Hola everyone! I just wanted to send a quick update from across the Pacific...

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving!! And all of you who were lucky enough to eat turkey on that wonderful day, I hate you. Actually I was really bummed that I wasn't going to have a Thanksgiving dinner. But then Robe organized a big Thanksgiving dinner for me with my housemates, and I felt so incredibly blessed. Although it was Chinese food, it still felt special because we all ate together and laughed together. We played games, talked about the Thanksgiving story and we talked about why we were thankful. It was so great, and we didn't even go to sleep until 1:30am, which is unheard of in Indonesia. Granted, this was not the best idea we've ever had, as I had to wake up at 5am the next morning to teach at 6:30. Needless to say I was a little groggy when I walked into the classroom...

Anyway, nothing exciting really happened last week. I FINALLY got my passport back from Jakarta, but actually some of the other Darmasiswa students at my uni still haven't gotten theirs back. Keep in mind we sent in our passports to get our extended stay Visa at the beginning of September, when all the Darmasiswa students first arrived in Indonesia. It has taken Indo Immigration almost 3 months to get my passport back to me. Ridiculous. And some of the kids who don't have theirs back yet are planning on going home for Christmas. Clearly they can't leave the country if they don't have their passports. So we called Jakarta to ask them about this, and do you know what they said? "You will just have to wait until we can finish them. We are sending out about 10 per day and if yours is on the bottom of the pile, well then that's too bad." Then they said they hoped to be finished with all of the passports by mid-January. When we then told them some of us wanted to go home for Christmas, they pretty much said, "Too bad, so sad for you. You'll just have to wait." AH! INDONESIA!!!

Anyway, we found a nice little "warung" (very small restaurant/food stand) near our house that is extremely cheap and good. We can get a full meal - rice, tempe (fried goodness made from soybeans), veggies, and fish for Rp4000, which is about $0.43. Isn't that ridiculously amazing? And the best part is that the woman who owns the place doesn't skimp on portions. Wonderful.

What else? Oh, hanging out with all of these Asians for 5 months is starting to take a toll on me. Before I went out the other day I put on sunblock and when I walked outside, I opened my umbrella to shade myself from the sun. I didn't even realize I was doing it until it started raining and I thought to myself, "Oh, I better get out my umbrella. I don't want to get wet." Yea...I'm now afraid of getting a tan. I must protect my beautiful white skin!! Oh my goodness I'm becoming Asian...When I told this story to Hindy and Lily (the 2 Chinese girls I spend all my time with), they laughed and said I've been using my umbrella for quite some time now. Oi.

Okay I think that's about it. We're all still doing well here, battling the sun and the bugs and the rain. I miss you all!!! Later :)

World War III : Humans vs. Bugs

...and unfortunatly I'm not talking about Bugs Bunny.

I'm not going to lie to you all, my house is quite the battleground. Ever since the rainy season started, bugs of ALL kinds have been invading our house. Every night has become a guessing game as to which bugs will inhabit our humble abode, and we've managed to turn it into a game. Whoever can guess all the different kinds of bugs we will see that day in the house does not have to do his or her household chores the next day! It's great fun. I promise.

We have begun calling the situation in the house "World War III" which is kind of difficult for the 2 Chinese girls to say because they mix up their Rs and Ls sometimes...

So let me tell you about one of the worst nights of this whole thing...it was about 1.5 weeks ago....

It was about 7pm when the rain started. And of course, it wasn't a nice, cool drizzle. No, no, no. It was one of these torrential downpours that lasts an hour. Now, of course houses in Indonesia are not really built all that fabulously, so when it rains hard, you can't hear anything. We were in the middle of watching a movie on Hindy's laptop, and we couldn't turn it up loud enough to hear it. So we abandoned that idea and moved on to quieter activities.

Now, we were keeping the door open because it is so incredibly hot in this country and it's nice when it rains because usually we get a little breeze. Keeping the door open was a huge mistake. I was laying on the couch reading the newspaper, Hindy was listening to her mp3 player in the living room, and Lily and Maksum were working on some Indonesian homework. So there we were, the four of us, all very quietly going about our business when all of a sudden about a thousand of these flying insects swarmed into the house all at once, catching us all off guard.

I actually didn't realize anything was happening, as I was quietly dozing off, but then when I heard Lily's piercing scream, I practically jumped out of my skin. There were so many of these nasty little things that it actually got dark in our house! Not knowing what to do, we all ran into our bedrooms and slammed the doors shut. Of course I got bored in my room after about 10 minutes, so I opened the door and peeked outside into the living room. It was seriously like a scene from some war movie. There were all these dead insects lying dead all over our floor. Upon further investigation, we found that these little guys looked a bit like those helicopter leaves that fall from trees in Autumn. You know, those ones that kids (or Tori) pick up and throw because they fall down to the ground like little helicopters? Anyway, it was absolutely disgusting. Luckily we have tile floors, so we just swept them up with a broom and threw them outside.

About a half an hour later, I went into the kitchen to make a little late-night snack. I reached up into the cabinet to grab a loaf of bread, and as I pulled it down to the counter, a cockroach jumped off of it and landed on my shirt. And I completely lost it. I started jumping around and flailing about as if on fire. The three Polish ppl had come home from the gym at this point, and were all sitting in the living room. Robert thought I was actually on fire, and reached for a bucket. He was about to pour the water on me when he realized I was screaming "kecoak! kecoak!" ('cockroach' in Indonesian). By the time I calmed down, the cockroach was no longer clinging to my shirt and was gone somewhere.

So just a few minutes later, I heard Hindy scream from her room. We all went to investigate, hoping not to find some crazy ax murderer in her bed. What we found was possible worse. There was a ridiculously huge trail of ants leading from her window to the middle of her room, where one of those ugly helicopter bugs lay dead. There might have been a million ants there, and I am not really exaggerating. So, each armed with our own individual economy-size cans of insect repellant, we went after those darned ants. Then we swept them up like the other bugs...

Since that night, there have been more incidents with the helicopter bugs (which apparently are similar to cicadas in that they live underground and come out for a 2-hour lifespan, in which time they must mate and lay eggs. And when they come out, Indonesians rush out after them, to collect them and eat them. I'm not joking. It's disgusting!), we had a frog problem the other day in which there were 3 frogs trapped in our bathroom and we couldn't get them out. And we have a huge, New-York-sized resident rat who comes in and out as he pleases through a hole in the side of our house that the owner says cannot be fixed. Great times!

Okay well I've got to get going now. I have to teach in 30 minutes....

I probably will not get to the Warnet (Internet cafe) before Thursday, so in case I don't, I want to wish all of you Americans a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! And for the Martin family, Happy Thanksmas. I will be thinking of all of you eating your nice, salty turkey and sweet cranberry sauce and deliciously scrumptious pumpkin pie while I am taking a test and teaching 2 classes and doing my radio show. Yea, no rest for Tori on her holiday...So sad!! haha anyway love you all and catch you later!! :)

Rainy Season!

Happy November! It's probably getting quite cold wherever you are reading this, but let me tell you how it is NOT getting cold at all here. In fact, it's getting hotter and hotter each day. From October through March is the hottest time of the year in Malang. Oh joy!!

Anyway, I would like to share with everyone the funny adventures of living in a house with 6 friends. As you all know, it is the rainy season, and that means it rains A LOT every day. The first time it rained a lot, we realized that we have a serious problem. Our new house leaks! We ran around like chickens with their heads cut off when we realized our roof was leaking for the first time. It was quite a spectacle - trying to find enough buckets to collect the dripping rain. Okay, it was less like "dripping" rain and more like "flooding" actually. I don't know how we missed it, but there's actually a huge hole in the roof above our living room. We finally decided that there were 4 major leaks and about 5 or 6 minor ones. Oh my goodness! So we contacted the owner of the house immediately, but of course things in Indonesia move slower than molasses. It's been 2 weeks and we still haven't heard anything from him. We call him about three times a day :) Actually we all laugh about it, and the buckets that we've placed to collect the rain have permanent places in the house, so more than anything we've come to love them and appreciate them :) :)

We also just had an adventure the other day. All of a sudden one night, our water stopped. We thought it was because we forgot to pay the water bill (that actually happened once with the electricity, but we quickly sorted that out! it was NOT my turn to pay the bills, I promise!!). But after realizing that someone had just paid, we tried to figure out what was going on. There are two random nozzles on one of the walls upstairs. It looks like there should be a tap attached to them, but there isn't. Now initially we just thought the people building the house forgot to put the taps in, but then we realized that the nozzles had something to do with the flow of water throughout the house. So when our water stopped, we ran up and down the stairs trying to figure out if any combinations of turning those nozzles made any difference. It didn't really, and finally someone realized that there was this hidden water pump outside that had been turned off. We still don't know who turned it off and why, but we finally have water. Granted, it's freezing cold water, but at least we can bathe!

Okay, that's about all for now from this side of the world! I love you all and miss you all dearly!!!!

Yes, I know, it's been a month...

Contrary to popular belief, I do realize that I haven't updated in a month. I'll skip the apologies, because I'm in Indonesia and Indonesians just don't apologize for anything...When in Rome...

So I'm going to change a few things on the blog. Because I tend to get carried away with recounting every step of my life, I've decided not to tell you every detail or give you a laundry list of my activities.

Much like my friend and former roomie/partner-in-crime Amy (who is currently interning in China, for those of you who don't know) , I have decided to dedicate the rest of this blog to my thoughts on and observations of life in Indonesia. Don't worry, I will throw in lots of amusing anecdotes and plan on including many interesting stories.

For now, I will content myself with the following observations:

1. This country is the EPITOME of disorganization
- I come to teach at SMA5 each morning/afternoon not knowing if that day we actually have class or not. And what's worse is that the other teachers simply accept this, as this is the way it has been done for years and years. A familiar morning greeting among teachers is not "Good morning, how are you?" But "Ada kelas hari ini apa nggak?" (Is there class this morning or not?) And the most common response? "Gak tahu aku. Ayo tanya!" (How am I supposed to know? Let's go ask.) And the students are just as confused. No wonder Indonesian students are not very advanced...

2. Just because you're an English teacher in Indonesia, doesn't mean you can actually speak English.
- I once met a H.S. English teacher who got confused when I asked him "Where do you teach?" His response? "Yes, I am love teach Engrris language." (Inggris = English in Indonesian). Oy!
- There's a 12-grade English teacher here at my school who asks her students what words are in English. Not because she's testing them, but because she truly doesn't know the English translation. She has this ridiculously thick Javanese accent, and her students imitate this because they think it's correct. Oh my goodness...you can't make this stuff up...

3. This country might be obsessed with bathing, but somehow they all still smell!!
- Probably the second most common question in this country (right behind "Sudah makan?" - Have you already eaten?) is "Sudah mandi?" (Have you already taken a shower?). Indos bathe at least twice if not three times a day and yet everywhere you go, it smells like BO! Maybe it has something to do with the lack of deodorant. Or perhaps because by "shower" they mean pouring freezing cold water over your head with a bucket. Or maybe it's because it's freaking HOT in this country...

4. And I do mean HOT!
- In Indo, they have 2 seasons: dry and rainy. The rainy season just started, and it's about 95 degrees on average. By noon it's pushing 100. And let's keep in mind Air Conditioning is practically nonexistent in this (slowly) developing country. So although I might get to go home in the afternoon, it's too hot to actually relax or do anything but sit there, fanning yourself.


For those of you who don't know yet, I have moved houses. I'm living with 6 other students now, in a rented house. There are 3 Polish ppl (2 guys and a girl), 2 Chinese girls, a Javanese boy, and me. It's so crazy, but we love it. I much prefer this setup to my old host family's house - I can come and go as I please, no one is keeping tabs on me, and I feel more like a student now (which means I actually do more studying!). There are always people coming and going, and it reminds me of dorm life, but in a good way! We're all really good friends and we are constantly gabbing about something, watching movies together (on laptops, because it's too expensive to get a TV) and generally just enjoying each other's company. I'm learning a lot about Polish, Chinese and Javanese culture thanks to this experience. All in all, I'm really happy with the move. The only thing that sucks now is that I have to do A LOT of housework. We just recently bought a washing machine, so up until then we were doing our wash by hand. Let me tell you how much that sucks. I never thought it was so difficult to get soap out of clothes! I would wash 4 or 5 garments and it would take me 2 hours...blah! But it's okay because now we have our (semi) automatic washing machine. I'm not sure if we ever had machines like this in the US, but it's got two compartments - one for washing and rinsing, and one for the spin cycle. You have to put the water in yourself (we use a bucket and carry it from the tap), then add the soap. Wait 15 minutes. Then pull the drain out and let the water drain. Then make sure you put the drain pipe back in! Then add more water. Then wait another 15 minutes. Then drain again. Then put the drain back. Then add more water. Then wait another 15 minutes. Then drain again. Then put the drain back. Then remove the clothes and put them into the tiny spinner. Then wait a few seconds. Pull the clothes out. Put them on the clothesline and wait a bit for them to dry. If you're unlucky enough to put the clothes on the line and then have it rain on your almost-dry clothes, you should probably wash them again because the rain here is not clean. It's weird...

Okay. That's all for now. I hope you all forgive me for being such a bad blog updater :) I miss you all and love you!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! (I won't be celebrating this year, because this holiday doesn't exist here...)

Just a few funny notes from Indonesia...

Okay I don't have much time to update (story of my life, right?), but I just wanted to share a few of my funnier moments in my quest to learn Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language).

While helping friends look for a place to stay for the year, I told the landlady that a "kamar kecil" (which literally means small room) would be big enough for each girl. I thought I was talking about small bedrooms, but then I realized that "kamar kecil" actually means bathroom. I forgot the "kamar yang kecil" (lit: room which is small)

I told the Headmaster of the high school I teach in that I was teaching the "Bahasa Asin" class. What I meant was "Bahasa Asing" (Foreign Language). Leaving off the last "g" meant I was teaching the "Salty Language" class.

The Polish kid in my class keeps forgetting that "j" is not pronounced like a "y" and vice versa. So when he says "Ya" it comes out "Ja" and when he says "saja" it comes out "saya". Okay, not too funny. The other day he read a sentence in Indonesian. He read "Dia baru makan saya" and the professor and I started cracking up. I couldn't stop laughing because I knew the sentence was supposed to read "Dia baru makan saja," or "He has just eaten" If you change "saja" to "saya" it becomes "I have just eaten him." I laughed for 10 minutes straight...

Ah, good times in Indonesia. I will update more later. I just wanted to give you all a laugh. Miss you all!!!

Jakarta, Foreigners, Universitas Negeri and much, much more!

Hi everyone! First of all, let me apologize for not having updated sooner. I guess I've just been incredibly busy with all of my craziness...

Thank you Robyn for the message! I am getting quite excited about this whole Vikki wedding thing...ordering dresses!! Haha...Mom, this is for you. So Vikki has picked out her dresses, and I need to order mine soon. However, I don't really feel safe placing an order on a public computer like this, so do you think it would be possible for me to pass along the info to you and have you order it? If my size changes at all over the year, it will change to be smaller, so we can always have it taken in when I get home in May.

Oh heck yes...bargain Tuesdays, baby. Bargain Tuesdays. We're totally hitting that up when I come home (okay, so we have to wait a while for that, but it's cool...). I MISS YOU, TOO!!!

Brickhouse...you make me schmile :)

So what in the world has Tori been up to? Eh bien, mes amis...in the past two weeks I have been all over Java. Saturday the 1st (I think...) I took the train from Malang to Jakarta, which took about 15 hours. It was really painful, too, because I took one look at the toilet on the train and decided that it would definitely be in my best interest to hold it the entire 15 hours. Like I said, painful...

So I finally arrived in Jakarta to attend orientation for this scholarship program I'm really here for. You know, the real reason I decided to come to Indonesia for a year. It turns out there are about 400 other students from all over the world (literally, all over the world) who got the scholarship as well, and we all met and got to know each other over 6 days in Jakarta. I had such a blast hanging out with all my new foreign friends - I got to speak all of my languages over those 6 days, so you know I loved it. I quickly figured out that I really need to review my Russian, but that's neither here nor there...

During orientation they housed us in a youth hostel that had no AC and broken fans. Let me just discuss how Jakarta is pretty much a sauna - 100F every day with 100% humidity. At night, it drops to about 95F and 100% humidity, so sleeping was really comfortable. I think I sweated (is that a word?) more that week than I ever have in my life, no joke! There were 23 other girls in my room, and most of them were from China. There was also one Japanese girl, one Korean girl and one Mexican girl in my room. I got to learn some Chinese, so that was fun! When I arrived, I was talking with some of the Chinese girls and as it turned out, two of them were headed to Malang to the exact same university as me! I was totally excited, and we spent the entire orientation together just hanging out and having fun, which was great. My other orientation buddies were from England, Lithuania, Poland, Greece, Japan, Madagascar, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Slovenia, and of course the US! I did find myself much more comfortable around the Asians, though, as seeing so many white people at once was kind of a shock for me...My new foreign friends as I like to call them are studying all over Indonesia, so we've all planned to travel to each others' cities and meet up over the year. The 2 Chinese girls who are here in Malang with me (Lily and Hindy are their English names, their Chinese names are Tien Ya Li and Wenjun Xu...good luck pronouncing them!) and I have already made plans to go to Bandung, Yogyakarta and Solo during our 2-week break in October to visit friends and cute Polish and Japanese boys.

During orientation we did a lot of fun things, like visit the Pusat Bahasa (National Language Center), Taman Safari (a zoo set up like a safari, much like the one in Malang), a tea garden, and we also had a lot of good information sessions. We also had an amazing opening ceremony with lots of traditional dancing and music from all over Indonesia and the rest of the world and lots of silliness all around. I mean, most of orientation was incredibly disorganized and there was much confusion, but itulah Indonesia (that's Indonesia), and nothing really surprises me here anymore.

So on the last night of orientation, everyone was really sad. It's only been a week since I last saw everyone, and I already miss them! The 30 or so of us coming to Malang (5 different universities in Malang are hosting foreign scholarship recipients) all piled into a bus on Thursday night at 11pm, and we didn't arrive until Friday night at 11pm! Traffic was so awful and we even got stuck in one traffic jam for 4 hours! It was ridiculous, but we finally made it to Malang, physically and mentally exhausted and with some really crabby Polish kids, but we were all safe and sound and that was the important thing!

Upon arriving in Malang, the 7 of us studying together at Universitas Negeri Malang (UM for short) got into a car together and our supervisor (Pak Suyono) took us to McDonald's for some fried chicken and rice which we ate with our hands (so much fun! it's quite funny seeing people who have never been to Indonesia before try to eat rice with their hands!!). Octa picked me up from McD's and we decided that Lily and Hindy should come stay with us for a few days while we tried to find a place for them to stay permanently for the year. The other scholarship recipients - Laszlo from Hungary, Robert from Poland, Shige from Japan and Sydney from South Africa (all boys) - are all currently being housed in the student dorms on campus while they are looking for a place to stay in the city by themselves or with a host family.

So after having the girls in the house one night, my host fam decided that it would be great for them to stay for the entire year. I cannot believe their generosity!! I mean, I have already taken Amelia's room, so when she comes home for the weekend she sleeps with her parents in their room. Now Octa has given up his room to Lily and Hindy, so he either sleeps in the living room or in his parents bedroom every night. This family is crazy nice...I love them! And of course I am ecstatic to have Lily and Hindy staying with me. It's great having them around to talk to. They speak excellent English and they've also already studied Bahasa for 2 years back in China, so that's fun, too. It's funny, though, they know a lot about the grammar and they have a much more extensive vocabulary than me, but sometimes I have to translate for them when Indos speak because they're not quite accustomed to hearing Bahasa fired at them at such a rapid pace. But we're all learning, so that's good!

So we started our classes on Monday. We took a placement test and they divided us into two classes - higher and lower. They placed me in the higher, but I asked to be put with the beginners because I want to learn the grammar from zero. I've never formally studied the language, and that's how I learn best. Our teachers said I can move to the more advanced any time I want, but for now I'm quite content with my class. I mean, it's a bit boring, but I want to have a complete knowledge of the language without any gaps so I am patient!

My teacher's name is Pak Eric, and he is really nice. He's young and he speaks good English, so we all get along with him quite well. There are only 3 of us in my class - me, Robert and Sydney. Now Robert and Sydney have never studied the language at all (as in, can't even say good morning, my name is...), so it's a bit slow but that's okay. We're having a lot of fun!

Let's see...apa lagi (what else)? Oh, today is the first day of Ramadhan. For those of you who don't know, Ramadhan is the month during which all Muslims fast. Meaning from 4am until 6pm they do not eat, drink or smoke (there are other forbidden activities, like chewing gum, but these are the main 3). What does this mean for me? Well, being in the most populous Muslim country in the world means that most restaurants and food shops are closed during the day. Those restos that remain open have curtains, so it feels kind of weird. No one is allowed to eat or drink in public. Okay, well you are allowed, but it's extremely extremely rude and offensive if you do. So even if you are not Muslim, you are kind of on a mini fast yourself. Granted, you can just go inside a house or a room where there are no Muslims and eat and drink, so it's really not that big of a deal. It's kind of a neat cultural experience now, but we'll see how I feel after a month of this!! Tidak apa-apa, though (it's no problem).

Okay I think that is all for now. I miss you all and love you lots and lots!!! Please feel free to send me comments! I love reading them :)

Merdeka!!

For those of you who speak French, no that is not profanity, but in fact it means "Independence!" and that's what Indos say to each other (with much enthusiasm, of course) on August 17th, which happens to be their Independence Day.

A quick history note: Indonesia once belonged to the Dutch (for a really, really long time), and then during WWII the Japanese came in and put all the Dutch people in internment camps and took over the country. On August 17, 1945 Indonesia was able to declare their independence officially from the Dutch, but really it was from the Japanese. So this year Indonesia celebrated their 62nd year as a free country, and I got to take part in the celebration.

I was really excited to finally get to see Indonesian Independence Day, but actually I was quite disappointed. Indos are really into ceremonies, and boy do they do it up wrong for August 17th (Tujuhbelas Agustus, as they say in Bahasa). Each school (public and private) and government institution has a huge ceremony that lasts about 2-3 hours, where everyone stands out in the hot hot sun (saluting the flag for much of the ceremony) and watches the students march around like military officers, raising the flag and just generally engaging in much pomp and circumstance. I took part in my school's ceremony, which I thought was an honor. Not so much. I was hot, sweaty, bored, and my shoulder hurt from saluting.

But anyway, after the ceremony, the students played really weird games together that involved them painting their faces like cats and running around with plastic bottles tied to their hips. I didn't try to understand. And then the teachers went to the teachers room and just ate a lot of really spicy food. I've really grown to like spicy food, but I definitely paid for it later!

Another strange custom around the time of Independence Day is the "Jalan Sehat" (literally translated it means "Healthy Walk"). Tell me this isn't weird - each neighborhood has its own Jalan Sehat where everyone wears red and white (colors of the Indo flag), and walks around together at 6am in the morning on the Sunday after the 17th. Then after that there is an array of activities, and depending on your neighborhood such activities might include a fashion show with many small children, a drawing contest, an jazzercize (how do you spell that?) session, and really bad singing by an awful dangdut singer. Dangdut is this awful fusion of Indian (as in, from India) music and Indonesian music. It's horrendous. And the dancing is so scandalous that you can only watch dangdut on TV after 10pm. So strange...So you know I took part in my neighborhood's Jalan Sehat. It was weird, but fun in a very wrong way...

So that was Independence Day. The only other truly exciting thing that has happened to me was that yesterday was my birthday!! Woohoo!! I'm 22 now...getting so old...Haha but I had an excellent day, relaxing with Amellia (who decided to take off work just to hang out with me!) and Octa. We went and played pool with some of Octa's friends, went bowling, went shopping a bit, and ate some Nasi Pecel (amazing traditional food, probably the most easily found food in Indonesia...it consists of rice and veggies and these little friend peanut crispy cracker-like things that are simply scrumptious...and mucho cheapo!!). Then in the late afternoon, some of my former students surprised me at my house with cake and presents. They were so cute!! THEN I went to sleep for a couple of hours, and in that time my host family totally set up a surprise party for me and when I woke up and came out of my room, a lot of my friends and all my host family was there and it was really cute. Of course, I looked like a zombie, but hey - it's my party and I'll look like a zombie if I want to! I had an excellent birthday...it was perfect!!

So nothing really exciting is happening other than that. On Saturday I leave for Jakarta to go to Orientation for my academic program. My uni starts in the 2nd week of September if I'm not mistaken, so I'm really getting pumped up for that!!

Okay then. I will update later. I miss you all lots and lots and I love you more than life itself!!

TGIF

Oh my goodness I have been waiting for Friday for ages!! I'm kind of surprised I actually made it through this week, to be honest with you...

Every day this week I had at least 2 teaching gigs at at least 2 different places in the city. Each day I woke up at around 4:30am to go walking with a friend, then I would come home and get a shower and run out the door again to go teach at SMA5 for 2.5 hours. After walking to school, walking home, and getting another shower because I was disgusting, I would run out the door and catch a minibus to go to the middle of the city to SMA4 to teach for 2.5 hours. Then I would hop back on the minibus and be home by 3:00 pm, exhausted and feeling gross.

Then on Wednesday I had promised to teach the little neighborhood kids again. What I had forgotten about was that last time there were two of us (Ainsley and myself) to handle about 25 kids. Yea...this time I was alone and there were 32 little kids, all between the ages of 4-9!!!! If I never have to dance the chicken dance again, I will die a happy person!

Needless to say I've been sleeping like a rock this past week...granted, I only sleep like a rock for about 6 hours a night, but that's better than nothing!!

It's been a wild ride this week - trying to memorize my students names and grading papers and making appointments all over the place. At SMA 4 I had 2 classes with 39 students each, and at SMA 5 I've got 4 classes - one with 34, two with 29, and one with 22. Luckily the gig at SMA 4 is over and I can...relax?

Except not. This is actually kind of exciting news - I just got a call from Bu Yudy, a woman I met at Ma Chung University (the uni where Prido goes and where Brandon wants to take classes Spring Semester). She wants to talk to me about teaching there. Professor Tori...haha, sounds like fun to me!! We'll see how it goes, though. We're going to sit down and talk logistics on Sunday, so I'll keep you updated.

I've got exciting news - I don't have to go to Singapore anymore! I met with an Immigration Officer this week, and he's going to extend my Visa for me. Once I get going at uni, I can talk to the Dean and get sponsored for a Student Visa. I'm SO happy! I'll save loads of money, too, so that's good.

I've also finally made it back to church this week for English Fellowship & the weekly radio show. Last week I was MIA from both for different reasons. So when I finally made it back, everyone was really glad to see me. I feel like such a nerd, hanging out at church, but I've made some really good friends there, so I'm happy.

Okay, I think that's about all I've got for you. This is probably how most of my entries will be from now on - fairly boring and uneventful. Now that I'm finally settling down into a good routine without other "bules" (white people) to distract me and get me into trouble, my life is much less hectic. Of course, my schedule is absolutely packed, but that's okay!

I love you all and miss you all lots and lots!! Thanks for the messages, everyone! Oh, Aunt Becki and Uncle Larry, if you read this at all, congratulations on getting an exchange student. That's really exciting!!! If you want to give her my e-mail address, please do. Tell her that I did the same thing as her in high school, so if she needs someone to talk to she can e-mail me! Muchas gracias!! Later gators.

Quick update

Hey everyone!! Just a quick little update. I'm here at Matos with my host family and wanted to check in...

This past weekend has been a blast. On Friday evening I went out to dinner with a former student, Juwita, and her family. They were really fun and she had a little 7-year-old brother named Iwan who was absolutely adorable!! He asked me to come play computer games with him one day. How cute!!!

Then yesterday (Saturday), I went to visit SMA 4 (Public High School #4). One of the host mothers works is an English teacher there and she said she set up a meeting with the headmaster so that I could introduce myself and talk about the possibility of it being an LE school next summer. There was some major miscommunication because when I got there, the headmaster was not there and so I met with 2 English teachers there. Then they asked me when I could start teaching. Say what?! Yea...so I said I could help them out for this week while they are short one English teacher, but after that I won't be able to. Incredible. A miscomunicasi, we called it. I'd say!!

Anyway, after that early morning (7am) meeting, Prido came to pick me up and take me to his house in the village. It was such a great time!! We hung out with his family, I got to meet his uncle and some cousins, and his entire village. They told me I was the very first foreigner to ever come to their village. Isn't that crazy?! His family was really proud to have me there, and they asked me to stay the night!! Unfortunately I couldn't because I had some appointments today, but they said next time I have to sleep there. Funny, funny. So we went around to a lot of places - a few elementary schools (where I met headmasters and teachers who called me beautiful and generous, and tons of students who all one by one took my hand and put it to their cheek as a sign of respect...needless to say I was blown away by how nice these people were!), an old man's house where he teaches gamelan lessons to children (where I got to see how the gamelan drums were made...all hand made, and it takes like a month to make a single drum!!), and all around the village. You should have seen this village - it was seriously the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It's up in the mountains, so there are breathtaking terraced rice fields everywhere and gorgeous green mountains rising up every once in a while. Incredible. I can't wait to go back!!!

When I got back home in the evening, Octa and I went to youth group at church together. It was kind of a cool feeling, because I saw many people I knew and got to talk to them, so I didn't really feel like a foreigner. It felt like home!!

All throughout church our stomachs were growling, so we went to get some grub afterwards and then met up with the rest of the family at their cousin's house. She just had a baby about a week ago, so we had to go see her. She was so small! Oh my goodness they said she weighed about 5 pounds when she was born, and she wasn't even premature! Her name is Mei. So cute!!

So today early this morning I woke up at 5:00 am to go walking with Juwita (my former student) and her sister. We walked for about 1.5 hours and then decided it was too hot to continue. So instead of going to church again, I decided my time would be better spent catching up on my sleep. And I didn't wake up until 11am, which is absolutely unheard of!! Luckily my family was still at church and Octa was still asleep, so I didn't feel bad since no one knew!!

Okay that's about it. Mom, to answer your question - I am going to be teaching at SMA 5 for the year that I am here. I guess I kind of forgot to mention that here, but because I don't update very often I kind of forget what I say and what I don't say...The good thing is that they will be paying me Rp 1.000.000 per month under the table so I don't get in trouble with my Visa, so at least I won't be strapped for cash while I'm here! And tell Tasha congratulations for me! I'm so happy for her. And Landon is an adorable name!!

I hope everyone is healthy and happy and doing well. I miss you all and love you lots and lots!! Later!

It's been a while...

Hello everyone!

First of all, let me apologize for not writing more often. I think it's more realistic for me to update every 1.5 or 2 weeks instead of a few times a week. Time just absolutely flies here and it is not easy to get out to an Internet cafe. I realize this might be disappointing for those of you trying to live vicariously through my awesome life in Indonesia (*cough* *cough*), but what can I say? I just have so many demands on my time... ;-) I hope you realize I'm just kidding!!

So let's see what has been going on in my life. All the volunteers are now gone, and I thought I would feel more lonely than I do, but I have more than enough to keep me busy!! We said goodbye to the last two - Ainsely (my sister!) on Tuesday, and then Brandon last night. I miss Ainsley A LOT. It was weird - you wouldn't think that a 21-year-old world traveller would be afraid of going to sleep alone, but the first night I had to sleep in our bedroom by myself was kind of rough. It took me a while to go to sleep, I'm not going to lie! Oh, well. I've gotten used to it now, but it's still kind of sad. Our room is much cleaner now that only one person is living there, though!!

We've been having some issues with Brandon. His last day teaching he went on a date with one of his students. I'm guessing he did that because technically he wasn't her teacher anymore and technically LE couldn't do anything about it. If he had done that during the session, I could have kicked him out of Indonesia. I mean, I'm nice, so I probably wouldn't have done that, but you know...So anyway he has this new love interest, and he got really serious about her really fast and it kind of alarmed all of us. Especially his host family. You would not believe how he has changed - it's almost like a complete 180. He went from being really polite and attentive to everyone to completely distracted and kind of insensitive and impolite. It's very strange. His host family voiced their concerns to me and I didn't really know what to do. They call him "Mr. Thumb" nowadays because of how he texts her all the time, and he even had the cojones (however you spell that) to ask his host father to drive him and his new girlfriend on their date. If anyone is at all familiar with Asian culture, you know what an insult that was to his host father, a Chinese Indonesian who is a manager for one of the biggest cigarette companies in this country, and who is certainly NOT a common driver. Amy, I'm sure you'll appreciate how he stepped way over the line there.

Anyway, he's gone now. He might be coming back in January to study at Ma Chung University, an International Uni here in Malang where all the classes are taught in English (same uni as Prido). Prido actually took us all on a tour of his school, and he introduced Brandon to some important people and now Brandon is almost all set to study there for a semester! Craziness...Oh, the area near the school is beautiful - there's a spectacular view of the city from there, and it's a well-known spot for teenagers to go parking there at night. Do people even say "parking" anymore? I don't even know...anyway, the other night apparently Brandon and his new gf went there and got in trouble by the security guards. Brandon's host sisters were appalled that they would go there, because in their words, "Good Indonesian girls don't go there!" Yea...good times.

Speaking of my Indonesian lover (just kidding!!!), to answer your question, Amy - no, he has not made a move yet. I got the low-down on proper Indonesian dating rituals from some friends, and let me just say that things are supposed to move really slowly here. Like whoa. I guess only time will tell. His mother and father keep inviting me to their house, so I'm going there tomorrow morning to hang out in their village. Should be lots of fun!!

I finished teaching at Kosayu last week, and it was really sad. My students had a big farewell party for me. It was really cute, though, because they planned all of these really cute activities. So I walked into my class and it was empty, which is rare. The clock struck 12:00 noon and I had no students, which never happens! I waited for about 5 minutes when finally one of my students walked in and said, "We have a game for you. You must find all of your students using my clues. Then when you find them, you must complete the task they have for you." The scavenger hunt for my students was lots of fun, and I completely humiliated myself in the process. Some highlights - I had to sing a song (but not in English, and not in Indonesian...I resorted to Italian), I had to imitate 10 animals (10 animals is a lot to think of! I was reduced to imitating a snake for my 10th animal for lack of a better idea, which of course resulted in my front side getting completely dirty and dusty...it was worth it, though!), I had to play a game of chess (which I lost in promptly 5 minutes. That tends to happen when you don't actually know the rules), and I had to speak 5 full sentences in Indonesian (which of course resulted in my asking my students how to say many words). Overall it was great fun, then when we all went back to the classroom, my remaining students threw balloons and yelled "Surprise!" as I walked through the door. It was adorable. During the party the kids gave me lots of gifts (totally unnecessary, but totally cute!) and we had lots of fun eating Dunkin Donuts and nasi goreng (fried rice - really healthy meal we had, eh?!)

So after a 3-day break (barely enough to catch up on my sleep!), I started teaching at SMA 5 (Public High School Number 5). I teach on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6:30 - 8:00, Fridays from 7:15 - 10:00, then 13:00 - 14:30. I have 4 classes plus I am the English Conversation Club Advisor. I've got two 10th grade classes (SBI - International Relations class), and two 11th grade classes (one mixed class for students with any major, and one Linguistics class). High School students here esentially choose a major - at SMA 5 they have to choose from: Science, Social Studies, Linguistics, or International Relations. My students are absolutely brilliant! And it is going to be such a pleasure teaching them this year. I'm really excited to actually spend a significant amount of time with some students and really help them improve their English speaking skills. It's going to be a good time - a few of my students have already taken a liking to me and keep texting me, which is fine with me. The more practice they get and the more contact they have with me, the better! It's only going to help them.

Okay well I think that's about it. I just had the strangest feeling. I'm sitting here on the Internet, completely immersed in what I'm doing - checking my blog and Facebook and writing a recommendation for someone. All of my business is in English and this cafe is extremely quiet. All of a sudden I just heard someone yell outside in Indonesian and I realized that I had just forgotten that I was in Indonesia for a few moments. Weirdest feeling ever...

Thanks for all the comments, guys! Keep them coming! Kathy, I was so excited to hear from you!!! Don't you miss Matos?! Haha...yea. Oh, and yes. I totally remember that guy from Inggil with the lazy eye. Believe me, Bu Dewi keeps trying to have me call him. Uh huh...

Alrighty I'm going to get out of here. I'm going to dinner with one of my former students and her family tonight. Yay!!!

Oh! By the way...I finally got my hands on a copy of Harry Potter. If anyone tells me anything about it before I finish it, I will kill you in May when I come home!!

Miss you all and love you more than words can express!! Later gators.

Ahhh!!

Hello my lovelies!!

I am so sorry I haven't written in over a week. I know, I know...I really need to work on that!

So let's see...let me start with how much I love getting all those comments! Erica and Brittan, I was SO GLAD to hear from you!!! And yes, Brittan darling, I do miss you. More than life itself...Oh, and Erica. Everything is going BEY-OND amazingly well ;-) Except for that I miss you...

Tara!! OMG you're a published photographer. I just showed everyone here with me at this Internet cafe your picture. They all say you're very talented. Oh my goodness I'm so proud of you!!!

Amy - DON'T say anything about HP7. I haven't even gotten the chance to purchase it yet...Actually I haven't really gotten the chance to do much of anything recently. I'm really jealous that you're already finished with it!!

Here's the highlight reel of my last 10 days in Indonesia...

Teaching has been going great. Except for the part where I finish teaching this Saturday and I'm really upset about that. My kids asked me today how long I was staying in Malang, and when I said until the end of May 2008 they freaked out. They were like, "Oh, we hope you will come to visit us often!" And I just wanted to die they were so cute! I'm really going to miss them.

Saturday we had a big farewell dinner with all the volunteers and 2 host families (mine & Brandon's). It was really great - we ate at this big resto called "Inggil." They've got live music there every night, so of course they asked the Americans to grace them with a (few) song(s). Good times, great country. It was really sad, though, because it was the last time all 6 of us were going to be together :( We had an awesome time just laughing and being together.

On Sunday we went to the big Klenteng parade. It was really cool - lots of Buddhist Gods being paraded around, big Chinese dragons and just a general good time. There was a small incident with an old man exposing himself to one of the volunteers, but we got through it...

After the parade we headed out to Tumpang, a village outside of Malang, where we met an older gentleman who is a professor at one of the best universities in Indonesia. He's got lots of traditional things at his house - old puppets (wayang kulit AND wayang orang...I realize that means nothing to most of you, but you know...), topeng-topeng (masks), videos of traditional music, a FULL gamelan and all kinds of old newspaper clippings and things written in old Javanese. It was awesome! Then he took us to Elizabeth (you remember that American woman who married a Javanese man & stayed in Indo?) Karen's house. She has a huge dance studio & full gamelan there set up for people to come and practice and play. And her house, which is absolutely gorgeous, was attached to it. Unfortunately she and her husband were in Jakarta for a movie shoot (yea, I know) but we did get to meet her two daughters. Her oldest was rehearsing, so we hung out with her youngest. Little Ndaru is 8 years old and boy oh boy is she a pistol! She is the most adorable thing I've ever seen, and everyone in our group was pretty much just smitten with her. She was cheeky and funny and really outgoing. I wanted to keep her. She took a liking to me, though, so I hope I can come back and hang out with them. She speaks perfect English, Indonesian, Javanese, and the Javanese equivalent of Old English. At 8 years old! Amaaaaaazing!

Okay so the only other noteworthy thing in the land of bug bites and boats (thank you, Lauren, for that alluring alliteration) is that last night we (me, Ainsley and Octa) went to the Peterpan concert in Malang. For those of you who know me well, you know my obsession with Peterpan (a popular Indonesian rock band) goes quite far. So needless to say I was SUPER excited about this concert. So we get there at 6:30. It was supposed to start at 7, but naturally everything runs on Indonesian time here, so the concert didn't start until 8. So in the meantime, we talked to these guys standing next to us. Turns out they were from East Timor and we asked them about all the conflict there and everything. For those of you who don't know, you should look up East Timor's contemporary history. There's some crazy stuff going on there. Anyway, the guys were brothers and they said that people get shot every day right outside their house. They said many of their friends have died, and the one guy's girlfriend was recently shot and killed because his father was a big shot in the main political party that just got reelected. Apparently the opposition party was not too happy about that, and started going after members of their family and those close to the family. Pure insanity. Needless to say I was absolutely enthralled with their story, but once the concert started East Timor was the least of my worries. It started getting really out of hand, and I was pretty sure Octa was going to have a heart attack he was so worried. Let me give you a mental picture - two white girls being encircled four Indonesian guys trying to protect them from the crazy surrounding mosh pitting Indonesians. It took quite a feat of strength to escape, but we finally did and made it to the outside of the audience. Good thing, too, because it was much calmer out there. So we stood there and enjoyed our concert going experience. And made 3 good friends in the process. Plus, Peterpan was AWESOME!!! The lead singer is quite a cutie, too!! It was a really fun time!!

Okay well that's all for now. We're here at Matos (Malang Town Square) killing time before the Miss Matos 2007 competition starts. Tara, I bet you're really jealous!!!

Haha anyway I love and miss you all. Later gators.

Pasir Putih and much, much more

Hello my lovelies! I am missing you all lots and lots, but I am ESPECIALLY missing those of you who continue to leave me comments. I really, really love reading the comments...even if it does make me miss you all even more!

Amy - umm yea it totally does sound like something your Uncle Tony would do. Blah. Can you imagine if we had lived with them last year? As for breaking up my stay, I'm not sure if I'll be able to. I have to go to Singapore soon here, so after I get my Visa and after I start classes I'll know more. And I would LOVE to meet up with you! Oh my goodness I miss you so much, even if I don't have "Could I interest you in some Chinese?" post-its in my room. I do, however, have lots of cecak-cecak (house lizards), which is like practically the same thing. It would be cool to meet up in Beijing or Hong Kong, whichever. Do I need a Visa for Hong Kong?

Mom - thanks so much for the comments. I'm already over the whole Ria thing. I've only seen her once since the whole thing went down, so yea. No worries.

On a much happier note, Happy Birthday Tammy!!

Okay, so here we go with a little update on my most recent activities...

This past weekend we all went to Pasir Putih, a lovely little beach about 3 hours away from Malang, in a little town called Situbondo. We left on Saturday afternoon after my class (yes, I teach on Saturdays...and I'm loving it!) and drove up in 2 cars. There were 13 of us sharing a little cottage. It was hilarious - my host sister and I shared a twin bed. And she's a kicker! Oh my goodness is she a violent sleeper. Amy and Alyse, I'm pretty sure she's worse than both of you put together! And boy do I have the bruises to prove it. It was fine, though.

So on Sunday we all woke up bright and early and played on the beach. We went out in a kayak, we did some fishing and went out on a big sailboat. It was lots of fun!! Then for lunch we headed out to Bondowoso, a little village near Pasir Putih where my host family has some extended family. We ate lunch and chatted a bit about the possibility of extending LE Indonesia all the way out to Bondowoso, so that was good. It was lots of fun.

After watching the beautiful sunset over the beach on Sunday evening, we all piled back into the cars and headed back home. The journey was kind of long and by the time we got back home at 10:30pm, I still hadn't planned my lesson for the next day. So I stayed up until a little past midnight lesson planning. It was rough when the alarm went off at 6am the next morning, let me tell you!

So I've just been teaching all this week, enjoying my students and having fun with them. Ainsley has now started teaching with me, so we split up the class into 8th grade and 9th grade. I took the 9th graders and Ainsley took the 8th graders because she's much better with younger students. So now I've only got like 10 students - which is great because the kids will get more one-on-one attention and probably get more out of the class.

(This part is for you specifically, Mom...) So on Monday I went to Klentheng with my short gay dancing crush. Ainsley was really sick with some stomach thing, so just I went with Prido. And I got to meet his Mom, which was so cute. She's adorable - she's probably like 4'10". She invited me to come to their home and go to her class (she's a 2nd grade teacher), so I'm really excited about that! The gamelan was, of course, lots of fun - I played for about an hour and after playing this one song that required a ridiculous amount of concentration I had to bow out. My brain was absolutely fried, so Prido and I walked a bit to go get some "terang bulan" which literally means "bright month," but it's just this really yummy Indonesian pastry. So after that, he took me home and guess what. I figured out that he's NOT gay! Woohoo!! He made a comment about driving his motorcycle slow so that he could look at girls and stargaze. Fabulous! Ah, he's so cute...

Anyway. Tonight we are going to Brandon's host parents 19th wedding anniversary party. All the volunteers are going to be there and all kinds of random Chinese people we don't know, which is of course going to be awesome!

Then this Sunday after church we are going to go meet my idol. Just kidding! There's this American woman who lives in a village near Malang. She's married to an Indonesian guy and she has adorable mixed children. But she is a famous traditional singer here. She speaks fluent Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Java (Javanese), which is too difficult for most Indonesians to speak. And she sings in Javanese...she's incredible! And she's super famous here, but I'm going to get to meet her on Sunday. I'm so excited!!!

Okay I think that's all I've got for you now. I love you all and miss you all like crazy!!! Later!!

Waitwait...one last thing. There is this really sketchy, very large Indonesian man sitting next to me. At first I thought he was a woman, but no no. He smells kind of like a gas station bathroom and he just let out this really loud, really obscene sigh. Perhaps that's my cue to leave...

I'm a celebrity!!!

Yea, and I'm not kidding at all...

I'm pretty sure I forgot to write about my newspaper appearance last week. Remember that Malang Post reporter who came to talk to me at the school last week? Well, our picture and a nice little write up made it to Page 3 of the city newspaper! How cool is that?! I'm in an Indonesian newspaper!

Later in the day on the 4th, my host sister got a text message asking if I could be a guest speaker on a radio show. Random and cryptic, yes. But cool nonetheless. We decided it would be best if we brought three bules (boo-lay = white foreigner, we get called that all the time!) instead of one, so you should have seen it. We were all sitting here in this Internet cafe, and Amelia was texting people and calling people left and right to try and organize everything. She has jokingly started calling herself "bule manager" because of our celebrity in this town. So the next thing we know, we were at this radio station being interviewed about American Independence Day (i.e. what do we do to celebrate, who we gained independence from, etc. etc.). It was a lot of fun, actually.

Then the following evening (last night, Thursday) I went to church and did ANOTHER radio show. This one was at the church, so it was all geared toward the Gospel and whatnot. It was a lot of fun, though - we talked about what it meant to be a Superman or Superwoman, and if that was a good thing or a bad thing. We pretty much came to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a Superman or Superwoman here on Earth; that in fact it's a matter of a Superteam. No one does good work alone, because our strength comes from the Lord. And also it's important and necessary that we recognize that we, as humans, are sinful beings and the only way to become part of a "Superteam" is to admit to our sins and let Jesus into our hearts. I do apologize for getting all Jesus-y on you there, but I thought it was a cool topic. Of course the discussion was all in English, and there were callers who asked questions during the broadcast - all in English! The church offers the weekly show as an opportunity to have fellowship while working on linguistic skills. It's a pretty cool deal and I met some really cool people, so I'll probably go back next week.

Bad news on my Visa. I called Jakarta yesterday, and they told me that they cannot do anything with the Visa I currently have. In other words, I have to leave the country and have a new Visa processed wherever I choose to go. They suggested Singapore, which wouldn't be so bad because it would be inexpensive to get to, and my host brother might go with me...I guess we will see what happens!!

Thanks for all of the comments! Grandma Nay Nay, I'm sorry your post didn't show up. That is so strange...maybe next time. I hope you are having fun on your cruise!!!

Amy, thank you for making fun of me for my crush on the short, gay dancing man. I really do realize the hilarity of it all :) I'm so excited for you learning how to dance! You'll have to teach me one day, because I actually do look like Elaine from Seinfeld. I don't have much time left, but tell Christie that I said CONGRATULATIONS! I am SO HAPPY for her. She deserves this, and I think she really needs it, too. I hope you get to go with her. That would be AMAZING!!

Okay, so the post above this should have been published on July 6th, but as soon as I went to publish it, the power in this internet cafe went out. Luckily Blogger saves the drafts automatically. Phew!

Okay, so now for this weekend's antics...

This past weekend, we went to Mount Bromo, the active volcano near Malang. The entire trip was a disaster right from the start. First of all, nothing was organized. We had a really nice surprise party for Amelia (my host sister) right before we were supposed to leave, but the party and the festivities were completely ruined by the mess of a trip this was. So nothing was organized. Usually if we do a big group trip (volunteers + host families + friends), Amelia and I organize it. However, this time it was organized by another host family, and it was really rough. No one knew where we were leaving from, no one knew what time we were leaving, no one knew anything really. Not even the family organizing the trip could give us a straight answer.

So we ended up leaving 2 hours late, and almost missed the sunrise at the volcano because of it. Luckily there was no traffic or construction that late, so we got there right on time. So after seeing the sunrise (which was beautiful, but completely ruined because of all of this mess), we hopped back in our 3 cars and headed down to actually climb the volcano. Well, the kid driving our car (David, Ria's boyfriend, was our driver. Ria is one of the host sisters - they are two important characters in this saga) got lost because he decided he did not want to follow everyone else. No, no. We took the "faster" way and got lost for two hours, finally ending up not by the volcano, but at the road leading back to Malang. So without consulting us, David just kept driving home and didn't turn back around to go back to the volcano. I mean, it's probably the decision I would have made had I been in his shoes, but he didn't even ask us or tell us. So the other 2 cars got to see the volcano and climb it. We did not. It was fine with me because I had seen it twice, but I felt bad for Ainsley, because she made the trip and didn't get to climb the volcano. She was so looking forward to it. Blah.

So the next part of the story is the most bothersome. The main person organizing the trip, Ria (remember from before?), told Amelia (my host sister) that everyone needed to pay 100,000 rupiahs. That's roughly $12. Now usually this wouldn't sound like a lot of money to pay for food and gas for the trip, but in Indonesia Rp100,000 is spent like $50. So yes, it was a lot of money! But we didn't really think twice about it until after the trip was over. There were 21 of us who went, and if each of us had paid Rp100,000 it would have added up to 2,100,000 rupiahs. That's like $250, which is unheard of in Indonesia.

So I talked to Amelia and Ainsley about it, and we figured out that Ria had made only the bule (the white people) pay. I was LIVID. What gives her the right to make the volunteers pay for everyone? I think not. Oh, I was so incredibly mad. And I only got more upset because Ria's mother (Bu Tina) called Amelia the next day and told her that Rp100,000 isn't a big deal for us, so it's okay that they made us pay that much. Oh. My. God. That's simply taking advantage of us, and that is not okay with me. I mean, it's a delicate situation for many reasons. Firstly, I understand that they give so much to us as host families, and every once in a while we don't mind picking up the dinner tab or something. That's fine. But sneaking around our backs like that? So not cool. Secondly, Ria's family has close ties to my host family - they go to the same church and have the same group of friends and frequent the same places. And this whole situation has made my host family look differently at theirs, which kind of causes problems for them. It's really just one big mess...

Amelia said that this is the last year Ria's family gets a volunteer. I feel bad, but at the same time I am so incredibly upset with them that I can hardly contain myself. I mean - they made money off of us! Blah. I went and talked to the English teacher at church (Bu Francine) about the situation because I needed someone to talk to, and she helped calm me down and realize that I need to let my host family deal with it because they know Indonesian culture and I don't want to cause any more problems for them. That just wouldn't be fair. So I will just pray for Ria's family and hope that they come around.

Okay so on a happier note, yesterday Ainsley and I hung out with Prido and his dad and the whole gamelan/dancing crew. It was SO COOL last night, though, because they actually sat us in their gamelan and taught us how to play! We played for like 2 hours straight with them, and they asked us to be in their performance later this month! Klenteng (the Buddhist temple where they practice) is celebrating its anniversary (I don't know how many years) on July 21st, and it's going to be a huge party. The entire city is invited, and they are serving a free dinner for anyone who shows up. There's going to be Chinese dancing, Javanese gamelan, traditional dancing from all over Indonesia, and all kinds of other things. Oh my goodness...so funny. There was a guy from Quebec who randomly showed up at the practice, so we chatted it up en francais a little bit. It was great fun.

Also - yesterday and today and all this week I am teaching at SMP Kosayu, a private Catholic Junior High School here. Dan, one of the volunteers, was supposed to be teaching there, but there was a huge misunderstanding on many ends which led Dan's parents to book him a flight 3 weeks early without realizing it. So he is gone - he's now in China with his Dad, and I am not pleased. It has really caused a lot of problems for LE, but luckily I'm here without a teaching position, so I am taking over this week. Then next week Ainsley will take over because she will be finished teaching at her current school. Blah - so many problems.

So needless to say I am absolutely exhausted. For the past 3 nights I have not gotten much sleep at all, and I am seriously fading fast. I'm pretty sure I'll be going to bed tonight at like 7pm, no joke. I'm going to pass out as soon as I get home, but right after teaching today I went to some Indo friends' house and we are now in Matos (Malang Town Square - the big shopping mall everyone goes to here), waiting to go watch Transformers in an hour. I may fall asleep in the movie...

I was going to write something else, but I can't remember it. I'm a little bit fried right now. But of course I am still having a blast!! I just need my bed...haha.

Okay well I love you all and I miss you like whoa!!!! I'll catch you on the flip side.

4th of July, Indonesian Style

Happy 4th of July, everyone! Greetings coming from Malang Town Square...

A quick update on my activities in this beautiful city - On Saturday our friend Bayu took all of the volunteers to Taman Safari, which is a little zoo park that is set up like a safari. You drive your car through the zoo, and all the animals can literally come right up to your car, which is insane when you get about 3 feet away from a lion or tiger or bear, oh my! Granted, we're pretty sure the big animals were sedated, but you know. I got to hold a baby orangutan, which was amazing. Her name was Tsunami, and she was adorable! She tried to eat my necklace, though, which really just meant that I ended up with a lot of monkey slobber on my neck. Good times...

On Sunday we went to church bright and early. Service was boring, considering the sermon lasted approximately an hour by itself and I couldn't understand very much of it. Meh...After service I got dragged around by my host mom, meeting more people than I can remember. I got invited to do English Fellowship with a group from the congregation on Monday evenings, and I got invited to teach some English lessons to the choir on Wednesday evenings, and finally I got invited to take part in a radio discussion on Thursday evenings. Sounds like a relaxing vacation, right? ;-)

After church we all (there were 15 of us!) went to eat lunch at Pizza Hut, which felt oddly normal - Pizza Hut in Indonesia. I had seriously been craving pizza for the past two weeks, so it was amazing! After that, we decided to go swimming, which was fun. The pool was beautiful!!

Later on Sunday evening, all of the volunteers and their host families gathered at Brandon's host family's house for a big barbecue. It was really nice - we did sate (satay) with a really good sweet soy sauce kind of deal. No peanut sauce, which made me sad, but it was good nonetheless. It was cool being there with everyone, kind of like a last hoorah before they all started teaching. :)

So the volunteers started teaching on Monday, which means I haven't been seeing as much of them as the last two weeks. Ainsley (the volunteer who lives with me in the same host family) has been really tired recently. I think she's fighting something off, so I hope I don't get it. Thankfully I don't get sick easily. Knock on wood...

On Monday evening my friend Seprido and his father took me and Ainsley to his gamelan practice. Gamelan is the traditional Indonesian orchestra, complete with all kinds of really cool metallic instruments, drums, and gongs. It's really quite neat - Google it if you have the chance!Anyway, Prido's dad showed Ainsley another dance (and I have definitely decided that I am NOT coordinated enough to do any sort of traditional Indonesian dancing! It was quite a sight...). He showed her this "monkey dance" in which the woman dancer plays with a monkey (male dancer). Ainsley played the woman and Prido played the monkey. He and his dad are quite the artists - they both dance and play gamelan. I gotta say, despite the fact that Prido is probably 5'5 and maybe weighs 130, oh and the fact that I'm pretty sure he's gay - I'm quite attracted to him. I know, I know...

Big news! My host family told me the other night that they would like me to stay for the entire year. I am seriously blessed to have them in my life. They are the most amazing people!!

I have visited two volunteers' classes, and it seems that all is going well with the teaching side of this experience for them, so I am quite pleased. I will spend the rest of the week visiting the others. Then this weekend is Amelia's (my host sister) 22nd birthday, and on Saturday night we are driving up to Mt. Bromo (the volcano). To be honest I don't really want to go, but I guess I kind of have to take the volunteers there!

Alright well that is pretty much the extent of my exciting life...Hi everyone who left me comments! I love you and miss you all!!

Oh, and Amy - it's "billiards" with two "i"s. And yes, that is how they say pool here...they got confused when I said "pool," and they wanted to know if I needed to go home and get my swimsuit...I'm sad that I didn't get a book, though :)

Good times, great country...

Hello again! I loved reading all of your comments. Ames, I'm thoroughly enjoying the books you send me :) jkjk I hope everything works out. By direct manager do you mean Halley?

Mom and Aunt Becki and Uncle Larry, you're making me miss home with your comments!! I miss you guys!! Have fun on July 4th...I'll be thinking of you!!

So...this week has been lots of fun, but extremely tiring. I'm finally getting to the point where I feel normal. I thought I was over my jet lag fairly early, but it really does take a toll on you for a good couple of weeks. Getting used to the food and the climate again is kind of a challenge, but at this point I'm good to go!

On Tuesday all the volunteers and I went around to the different schools they'll be teaching in. It was great fun - my host mom, bro and sis showed us around and helped us meet the principals and teachers of each of the schools. We are in 2 junior highs - one private, one public and 2 high schools - one private and one public. It was really great to get to see where they will all be teaching. The public junior high is for poor children, and they were the most excited to have the program there!

On Wednesday, some of the volunteers went to Bu Bambang's house (one of the host fams), and together with a bunch of ladies from their church we prepared over 500 lunches. Then we went around and distributed them to an orphanage, a nursing home and a school for orphans. It was really an eye-opening experience, and I really wanted to stay and help at the orphanage. I'm thinking I might go give some free English lessons there on the weekends.

After the philanthropic adventure, we headed out to Batu (a nearby city) and hung out with some host sisters and their friends at a big waterfall called Coban Rondo. It was amazingly beautiful, even though I'd already been there twice. It was lots of fun, and we got to hang out with cool Indonesians our age, which was nice. Of course, we decided it would be a good idea to get pictures right next to the waterfall, which left us soaked and freezing, but it was worth it!

On Thursday Ainsley and I met up with one of my friends from last year who does traditional dancing at a Museum, and he and his dad showed us some steps. It was too difficult for me, because I am incredibly uncoordinated. But I tried, and that's all that matters!! While we were there, we were accosted (spelling?) by a group of Junior High students on a field trip, and it was insane. I felt like a celebrity trying to dodge the paparazzi!! Rido (my friend) invited us to go to a nearby city on Monday with him and his dad to see traditional music and dancing. It's going to be great because I've never seen an entire gamelan playing together!

Later that evening, lots of Amelia's friends came over to the house and we sat outside and chatted with them. One of them did some magic for us, and it was really amazing. I was thoroughly impressed - Kyle, you should learn some tricks from this kid!!

Then also last night we went out and bought me a hair straightener (desperately needed) and an Indonesian sim card. So now I've got an Indonesian cell phone number! If anyone wants to call me, the number is +6281803898094. Remember that I am 11 hours ahead of you, though! I usually wake up around 7 am and I'm in bed by 10pm.

Okay well I've got to get going. Some friends are picking me up, and we're going to go do some karaoke and billiards. Good times in Indonesia!!

I love and miss you all!!! Muah! :)

Orientasi

Hello from the other side of the world! I apologize for not having updated sooner, but the Internet in Surabaya was impossibly slow...I tried for 25 minutes to access my blog to no avail, so I figured I'd just give up.

Orientation in Surabaya was lots of fun - we stayed in a great hostel, the hostel owner was incredibly helpful, and we met so many great friends. All of the volunteers are wonderful. We've got Liz, Brandon, Lia, Dan, Teresa, and Ainsley. They've all got such different personalities and hobbies, but I think we've managed to assemble a really great group.

Nothing too exciting happened during orientation. There was a French girl, Nora, and a Belgian guy, Uness, who were both staying at our same hostel and I became great friends with them. I felt like for a while I was in a French-speaking country because our hostel was flooded with French speakers (plus two of the volunteers speak French). It was fantastic!

A guy about our age, Antok, lived across the street from the hostel, and we did lots of things with him. He and his dad took us around Surabaya to show us the sights. We went to this beautiful turquoise mosque downtown, and were able to go up into one of the towers to look down upon the entire city. Of course, we could really only see a tiny bit of it because of all the pollution! Some of the volunteers were adventurous enough to head out to this little island near Surabaya, called Palau Madura, where there is a completely different culture than Javanese culture. In fact, they have one of the last remaining matriarchal societies in the entire world. Unfortunately I had to settle for pictures of the island, as I had to stay behind and prepare our trip to Malang.

So that's about all that happened in Surabaya. Yesterday (Sunday) morning we headed to Malang via private car. They call these things "Travels" and basically a driver comes and picks you up at whatever address you give them, and they will drop you off at whatever address you want in whatever city the car is headed for. The only downside is that if you are traveling alone, it could take a while for you to arrive at your destination because they put as many people as seats in these cars, and each person gets picked up and dropped off at a different location. Lucky for us we had 7 people and TONS of luggage, so we filled up an entire minibus!

On our way to Malang, we drove by the horrendous mud flows that are occurring in Sidoarjo, a city right next to Surabaya. It's unbelievable what has happened there - last year in late May-early June, an oil company found oil in Sidoarjo. Well, instead of getting the right people in there to survey the land, and instead of using the proper drills for the terrain, they just started drilling. And lo and behold, they hit something (and it certainly wasn't oil), and all of a sudden there were all these mini geysers all over the place. Think of Old Faithful times a thousand. So it's completely soaked the ground and made everything muddy - and the mud is flowing and flooding whole areas. So far over 10,000 people have been displaced. The train no longer runs from SUB to Malang, the roads are unusable, and experts say it may not stop for another 30 years (and that's being optimistic!). They've tried to stop it, but they just can't seem to. Most people think by the time the mud stops, Surabaya will no longer exist. Apparently this happened in Brazil, and it stopped after 40+ years - that is, after an entire city disappeared. Crazy stuff.

So anyway. Now we are in Malang. Once we all arrived at my host family's house, some of the HFs came and picked up their volunteers, and others of us went to the mall to catch some lunch, and then my HF took the remaining volunteers to their HF houses. The craziest thing happened when we were in the mall - we were walking around the food court trying to figure out what to eat, and we saw 3 foreigners sitting at a table eating - a light-skinned guy, a white guy, and a black guy - just hanging out. I was shocked, and so were they. They stared at us, we stared at them. It was really quite a comical moment. It's like whenever I see foreigners here I'm just automatically drawn to them, and prompted to talk to them (naturally) and find out why in the world they are in Malang, Indonesia. Turns out they were soccer players for Arema (the Malang soccer team - one of the biggest and best in Indonesia). We sat and chatted with them for a bit, and found out Darik is Moroccan, James is Australian, and Rafael was from somewhere in Africa and didn't speak a bit of English. Once again, I found myself speaking French with Darik, which felt really weird...I didn't realize there were so many Francophones in Indonesia!! It was fun, plus Darik and James were quite cute ;p

So now I am with my host family, and it is amazing. I feel like I've just picked up right where I left off with them. I am just so incredibly happy to be here with all of these people. Our program is creating a lot of interest, as well, in the area schools. My host sister (our LE Indo Country Coordinator) worked her bum off this year trying to get the buzz going in the schools. And whoa! Did it ever work! We're in 4 schools - in one school there are 177 students, another 134, another 103, and another 70. There are only 6 volunteers...they are going to be teaching A LOT! But I'm really excited because this means that Amelia (my host sister) and I can work over this summer to expand the program and set things up for next year and perhaps next year we could bring 20 volunteers! That's my dream, at least...

We just met some Mormon missionaries in this Internet cafe, and they invited us to come to their church on Sundays if we wanted. They also said they could help us out with our Bahasa because they all speak it really well. So I might take them up on that offer...it might be nice to be able to have service on Sunday in English! I told you - drawn to foreigners like moths to a flame!

Okay well that's all I'll update today. Please leave me comments!!! I want to know what you are all up to, and since I have limited Internet time I don't have time to wander all over the Internet e-mailing and Facebooking.

Miss you all!!!

Here we go again...

Hello everyone! Just in case you didn't get enough of my crazy Southeast Asian adventures last summer, I'm back for more! I just thought keeping an online record of my experiences would help me stay connected to you all back home in the glorious US of A. Instead of sending me e-mails, please feel free to leave comments on here, and I will respond to them if I have the time! My Warnet time will be limited, precious, and quite costly.

So just in case you were not aware, I'm going to be spending the next 12 months in beautiful Malang, Indonesia!! I take off on June 16th, and during the first six weeks of my stay I will be directing that weird volunteer teaching program you've heard me talk about for the past two years. Then I will have about a month off to just hang with my Indonesians and perhaps go sightseeing around Java just a tad. Then in September I'm off to do the Darmasiswa Scholarship Program, which is offered by the Indonesian government every year to a select number of international students to invite them to come study Bahasa Indonesia (the language of Indonesia), traditional dance, traditional arts, and so on and so forth. It's really neat because not only does this scholarship cover tuition at pretty much any university in Indonesia, but it also gives me a living stipend each month of about $100 (which is one million rupiah...gotta love that exchange rate!).

So basically I will be spending the next year of my life immersed in Indonesian language and culture, and you all know how upset I am about that ;p

Start checking for updates about twice a week starting June 19th (the day after I arrive in Indonesia)...

Love you all!