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 :)