8/13/12
Four days ago I
got on a plane in JAX. From JAX I arrived in JFK New York. JFK was huge and
dirty. The service was terrible and I was forced to stand in a line for almost
two hours to get my boarding pass. While I was waiting though, I made some new
friends... a mother with her two younger daughters was traveling to Frankfurt
and another lady was going to get married in Jakarta, Indonesia. When my six
hour layover ended I boarded the plane. After eight hours we stopped in Frankfurt
for one hour and then we got on the plan again to continue to Singapore. That
leg of the flight was twelve hours long. I got the window seat, which sounded
good but we quickly had to shut all our windows and I had to ask two people to
stand up every time I wanted to go to the bathroom. Everyone who knows me knows
that I can sleep anywhere, whether that place be in the middle of Chemistry or
Physics or English or any number of classes/movies/activities that I have slept
through over the years. Well it might come as a surprise to you that I did not
sleep a wink. Instead I watched four in flight movies (The Lucky One, Mirror
Mirror, Battleship and The Hunger Games). I think I did sleep a whole hour
towards the end of the flight but then I was woken up for breakfast service. We landed in Singapore at 6:30 and my
connecting flight did not leave until 2:55. Which meant that I had a lot of
down time. ... and more time.....and more. When I finally got on my flight to
Bandung I was so tired that I fell asleep almost instantly. The plane landed
and I went to go through Customs and to get my luggage. When I walked out of
the airport there were so many people waiting for me. It was so nice for
everyone to come and say hi to me. I went home unpacked and promptly fell asleep
for several hours (I guess not sleeping for 2 days does that to you). My host
family is so nice, they are helping me learn Indonesian quickly. Yesterday we
went to a traditional dance and music show. They were amazing! There were tons
of little kids all playing instruments and dancing around, I wish I was that
talented. The main instrument that is famous for Indonesia is called the Angklung.
It is made of bamboo, and at one point in the performance we all got to play
the instrument but we only have one Angklung, most of the musicians had fifteen (or more) of
them in different sizes to make different pitches. When the show was over we
went to a restaurant where I sat on the floor and eat with my hands. The food was
very good, including the tofu and the orange and coconut drink I had. After doing and learning so much I
again collapsed into my bed. Today I woke up, watched TV with Diandra my host
sister and then we went to Immigration. The entire process was very confusing
and involved making copies, taking pictures, signing mysterious documents,
making more copies, handing tons of people my Passport and waiting. So after
all of that I will hopefully get my Kitas Visa (which allows me to get a one
year Visa). After all of that I went with Diandra to my school where they where
happy to see me but, had no idea why I was there. Apparently the headmaster had
been changed and the old one had failed to tell the new one about my arrival.
All of the teachers were very nice and open and promised to get everything
worked out. When we finally got home we walked to my host family's grandparents
house where I meet more family. Two of Diandra's cousins walked us home and we
played some traditional Indonesian games-- none of which I was very good at.
The games were all very fun and I guess they only take years of practice. Again
after an exhausting day I collapsed into my welcoming bed.
8/14/12
Today I woke up
and we went straight to my school. Aunt Melly had worked everything out and the
school printed me a schedule. Actually I have four schedules.... one for each
grade in the school. If I have a class that I don't want to take in one grade,
say Chemistry for example I can switch to another grade to take another class
say Manual Drawing. I will be taking a lot of animation classes here and I have
to bring my laptop to school everyday. I do have a school uniform which will do
little to hid the fact that I am a foot taller than most people here, I speak
very little Indonesian, and I am white. The school had to search for a uniform
big enough for me because I am so large in comparison to the average
Indonesian, some of my things they had to order because they didn't have my
size. HAHA. I took a tour around the campus and while I was walking around I
passed a class that didn't have a teacher and was comprised mainly of teenage
boys. All of them stood up and started shouting as I passed. I waved to them
and they really went crazy all shouting questions at me in both English and
Indonesian. As I moved on some of the teachers actually walked out of their classrooms
to ask me if I would be in their class. It is good to be loved :) After I was
done touring and talking to the administration I got in Aunt Melly's car. I
thought she was taking me home but an hour latter I found that we were driving
up the mountain, the opposite direction of our house. We ended up at one of
Aunt Melly's friends house. The parents were Indonesian but the children were
all raised in Seattle. We had a very nice lunch together. I had chicken satay
and sorry mom but theirs was even better than yours. Then we drove back down
the mountain with the family. Then we went to the Rotex meeting where we helped
put boxes of food together for poor people. After that we went to dinner with
the family we meet today. We got home, slept a couple of hours and then woke up
at 1:00 to give the boxes of food we had made away. Because it is Ramadan, most
people in Indonesia (all the Muslims) do not eat while the sun in up. The poor
people suffer during this time because it is hard to get food, which is why we
went around in our cars passing out boxes of food to people that were working.
I found it hard to believe that anyone would be working that early in the
morning, but they were. It was a great experience, all of the people were so
thankful to get any food at all and they were all more destitute than the poor
in America. I felt so bad for them, and I wanted to hand out more but we ran
out. Together the Rotex passed out nearly 400 boxes of food form 1:30 to
4:00am. I was so glad that I woke up so that I could take part in something so
great. This is what Rotary is all about, helping those who are trying their
hardest to survive by giving them the basic necessities of life. Thank you
Rotary for letting me come on this great adventure.
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