9/10/2012

9/10/2012

 

Today is Monday which means that the usually long and boring morning assembly is even longer and more boring. I want to remind everyone that Bandung  is one of the cooler cities in Indonesia with an average daily temperature of 85 degrees and because almost everyone is Muslim they insist on wearing about 10 times more clothes than necessary. Well, it was Monday morning the sun was shining and in my uniform I felt like it must have been 100 degrees. I don't even know how my teachers were wearing jackets, pants, and head scarves. So I was standing there in the center of the courtyard trying to be patient and wait for the ceremony to end. I really have no idea how long I was standing there when I started having problems breathing. Now I know what you are going to say, and yes I ate breakfast, I got almost 8 hours of sleep and I was hydrated. Regardless of the reason I was having problems breathing, I lost track of time and all I remember is that my ears were ringing so I grabbed my head (I should have been holding still in attention). Then I started staggering and my vision started going black. Luckily one of my friends, Yoga, was standing behind me. He grabbed me from behind to hold me still and asked me if I was OK. I don't even remember responding, but the obvious answer was no, so he walked me to the back of the courtyard where he sat me down on a bench. Apparently, I was not the first to feel the effects of the heat which would explain why there were four students and two teachers standing in the back waiting to help. The offered me tea - tea fixes everything here and I had to explain that I don't drink tea and that I would really like a water instead. One of the students hurried off to get me a water and I sat with the three other kids who didn't feel well. Maybe I was a little disappointed, in America I would have been rushed to the nurse's office and they would have called my home. But, Indonesia only had a little sympathy for me and allowed me to stay sitting for the last 15minutes of the ceremony. After my little episode (which ranks on the scariest things that have ever happened to me) I went to first period. I still have no idea what classes I should be in everyday, the classrooms change randomly, and so I just ask people where my next class is. By using this system I had already skipped a couple of classes because the students wanted me to come to their class-- I didn't know it wasn't where I should be until the next day. Today, I guess I was just too tired to argue so I just showed Yoga my schedule and he told me that I was in his class. So I can in and sat down on the floor. The teacher actually taught us how to do something, I now know how to make words that are filled in with a picture and some basic animation on words. I was really excited to have a lesson and learn something. The teacher still didn't lecture the entire class so we had a lot of time to talk. Everyone in my class was so nice to me. When class ended we had to move rooms, according to my schedule I should have been going to manual drawing (a class that I had been looking forward to for a while now). Instead my class took me to an Indonesian language class. To say that I was very confused at this point would be accurate. I had no idea where I should be so I just stayed with the class. After Indonesian we had a break and a teacher walked by. She asked me where my next class was so I handed her my schedule. She studied it for a while, more than is necessary to determine where my next class is. Then in a surprise twist she looked at me and said "Today you should be taking classes with the first grade and they are not at school today." She decided that both of us should go to the office to work out this minor problem. My guide was there and he explained that the first grade was on some sort of field trip so all of my classes with first grade were canceled. Which meant of course that I didn't even need to come to school today. Really, I found out at noon that I did not have to be at school. I would say that I hate my friends for making me come to their class but at least they wanted to spend time with me- so I can't hate them too much. The teachers told me that I could go home right then if I wanted too or I could stay at school and go to Social studies. I would have walked home but I was starting to have stomach pains and I was still feeling a little dizzy so I decided that walking home alone would be a very bad idea. I knew that my driver was coming at two for me so I waited. My social studies class was boring, and I just sat there doodling until it was finally over. When school ended I was so glad that my driver was waiting. When I finally got home I did seminary, and watched TV. I couldn't go to sleep because I had a Rotary meeting at 5 that I had to go to. The meeting was not too bad, I just had to introduce myself to the club in Indonesian and some Rotexs (people that have already been on exchange) talked about their exchange. I got home, ate tons of food, took a shower and finally relaxed after the day's craziness. I made it threw in one piece so all in all it was a successful day.

 

9/10/2012 Highlight

 

Today after lunch I got out a tissue so I could clean my hands, one of my friends saw it and freaked out. He said "are those from America??" and when I told him that they were he begged me for one. I quickly agreed to give several people tissues from America. It was a little strange but it was also really funny, I never thought  'American' tissues would be a big deal. When I got home from the rotary meeting I also got to talk to my host mom and sister for a while. We talked about so many things and it was nice to get to know them better.