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 :)