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!!!! :) :) :)
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
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!!!
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!!!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
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!!
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!!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
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!!
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!!
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