Falling Out, Falling Out...

As Tara has duly noted, my grammar has been a bit off lately. Don't worry, I am trying to rectify this situation. I think teaching English in a country where I hear horrible English every day has started to take a toll on my brain...I've even started thinking that things like "My name Tori" actually sound correct...

So because my grammar has been a bit off, I decided to go with the Indonesian technique of just repeating things when you want to make them plural. Take a look at the title of this blog. I wasn't sure if it should be "Fallings Out" or "Falling Outs," and I'm still not entirely sure, although I think it might be the former...

So this will just be a quick update, and I do apologize for not having written in a while. I just had to take some mid-term tests at uni, so it's been kind of crazy these past two weeks...

Robe and I are now fine, as far as our injuries are concerned. Everything except for my knee is all healed up. Robe's foot is even fine, and the burn has gone away (miraculously!).

Tara, what I was talking about with my student telling me his sister died was this. In Indonesia, people don't seem to take death too seriously. Literally, the day after his sister died, he was in my class smiling and having a good time. His sister died suddenly and unexpectedly, might I add, so it should have been even that more shocking and upsetting to him, but he was totally fine. And the other students in the class were joking about it like it was nothing. I was just shocked and rather appalled at this attitude about death, but I guess that's just the culture.

Okay, so about these "falling out, falling out" things. The other day, we had a big dinner with my former host family and some friends. All in all there were 13 of us. We all had a great time during dinner, laughing and enjoying ourselves. At the end of the dinner, my host family paid for the meal as usual. Well, after getting home and getting ready for bed about an hour and a half after dinner, I got a VERY angry text message from my host brother, Octa. He scolded me for not having paid for dinner, telling me that I was impolite and disrespectful. I really didn't understand what he was angry about, considering we had gone out to dinner a million times before that and the family had always paid. Then it turned out he expected me to pay not only for my meal, but for everyone else's meal...and I didn't even know half of those people were coming with us until we got to the restaurant! I tried to explain myself and justify my behavior to him, but it was to no avail. I also texted my host sister, Amellia, and two of my Indonesian friends who were at dinner with us. They all said that it was okay, but that then they said, "But don't do it again!"

Shocked and confused, I continued to sms Octa, but he was having none of my explanation. Then he let out that he and his family didn't really like Robe or Robe's family. I asked why, considering that they had never in their entire lives given a good reason to dislike them. Turns out, my host family doesn't like Robe's family because at one of my engagement parties there was a Muslim prayer for me and Robe. WHAT?! That's seriously the reason why they don't like Robe's family!! So I texted him back, letting him know what I thought of biggots and told him that I did not associate with people like him. He texted back that he was very disappointed in me as a Christian and that the biggest mistake he's ever made in his life is calling me his "sister." And that was the last of our correspondence.

Crazy, right?! I was completely blown away by the whole thing. I guess I now know the true character of my host family. I couldn't believe what I was reading. I didn't even bother explaining to him that at that engagement party the majority of people were Muslim (Robe's neighbors), and they asked us if it would be okay for them to pray for us. Of course it's okay! And of course the only way they know how to pray is the Muslim way. I couldn't have told them, "I'm sorry, could you please pray to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior?" Ridiculous. Frankly ridiculous.

And weird, too. I'm not really sure where all of this came from. There is some underlying reason for his explosion that I'm obviously unaware of, but I guess the one good thing that has come of this is that I now know who my host family truly is.

Another falling out came about a week ago with an English teacher here, Bu Francien. She has been such a huge help to me ever since I came to Indonesia, but she blew up at me the other day and I haven't heard from her since. Here's what happened. I was helping her out, teaching a group of 12 adults who are getting ready to pursue their Ph.Ds abroad. Our class had to start very early in the morning, though, because I had to go to my own classes in the late morning. So we had class starting from 7:30 to 9:00am every day. One day she told me she would open the door to my classroom. Well, 7:30 came and went and she wasn't there, so I decided to find my own classroom. At 8:00, she called me yelling at me, asking why I left and why did I make her come down to campus for nothing. I politely reminded her that my class started at 7:30, which means that I start talking at 7:30, not 7:45 and not 7:50. She got totally pissed off and started yelling in Indonesian, so I just hung up the phone. I was in the middle of class, after all!

So anyway. Indonesians are weird people who get angry for weird things, like wanting to start class on time or like not paying for two big families' meals. Very, very strange. I'm kind of glad I'm coming home in a few weeks. I've pretty much had all I can take of this!

Okay here's some news - I will get in to Dayton, Ohio, on Wednesday May 28th at 5:50pm. I'm very excited about this and cannot wait to see all of you!!!!

Alrighty well that's about all. I'm hungry now, so I'm going to go get me some chicken satay...man, I'm going to miss that food!! :)