9/11/2012
This morning I go to sleep in for once. Because some of my classes were
canceled, I only had to go to school from 8:40- 10:00 for Indonesian class. I
did my time and listened to the class. I really wish I could understand but,
for the moment I only get the bits that my teacher translates or gestures. We
had a test in class (we seem to have a lot of tests in my classes). I still
don't know what the point of the test was. The teacher had us write four
hobbies then write how many times we had done those hobbies in July and August.
Then we made a graph showing the previous data, wrote some conclusions and did
a couple of other things that I failed to grasp. When class was over I went
outside to wait for my driver. I wasn't really sure if he was coming or if I
should walk so I waited for ten minutes and then headed home. By now I have
walked home from school several times and I was able to do the trip in no time
at all. It takes me less time to walk home than it takes to wait for my driver
to pick me up. Maybe I am just impatient- yes, that is probably it- but I also
don't see the point of making the driver come pick me up when I am perfectly
capable of walking home (unless it is raining in which case I would love a
ride). I got home and went into my room, per my usual routine . After about
twenty minutes my maid came knocking on my door asking if I was there- when I
said that I was there was some hurried speaking in Indonesian on the other side
of the door. Apparently, my driver was fixing Diandra's light in her room and
lost track of time, when he realized what time it was he drove to the school
but, I had already left. I understand why he wasn't there- and I wasn't even
upset a little but everyone else seemed really worked up about it. When Diandra
finally got home we started making the cake. WOW, it is no wonder at all why
baking is not popular here and that my 'talent' in the kitchen is held in some
kind of awe. We started measuring and mixing using the converted amounts and
everything was going really well until we got to the cocoa powder (the third ingredient).
We were weighing out the powder but a whole box did not weigh as much as the
conversion said it should. Luckily, because I have a little practice in the
kitchen I knew that we did not need at least two cups of cocoa powder in the
cake mix. So we got a tea cup and I guesstimated (my computer recognized that
as a real word ) the right amount. When we got to ingredients that required to
be measured in teaspoons, Diandra handed me a spoon. I had to again explain to
her that a teaspoon is a form of measurement and that you cannot just take a
random spoon measure out something and it will magically work. So I
guesstimated again... and again... and again. When we got to the vanilla
extract Diandra handed me a little bag. I asked what it was and she said
"one gram of vanilla extract" to which I replied "vanilla
extract is a liquid...not a powder" she was surprised again. At this point
I was making this cake with hope and faith, so I just threw two of the little
packets into the mix. With all the dry ingredients finally measured out we moved
on to the wet ingredients. To start we added the margarine. Not in a stick like
I am used to but, straight out of the bucket.. meant to be used on a table not
in a cake. We added the other stuff and I started stirring. I stirred for a
while but the margarine wouldn't mix so Diandra asked if I wanted to use their hand
mixer. "Well, that would be nice" I replied "The recipe called
for a hand mixer but I didn't bother asking for one because I didn't think you
had one." "Of course we have one" (Says the girl who's family
does not own a real oven). We got the mixer out and started mixing but the margarine
wouldn't blend and the whole thing looked like throw up. We decided that we had
to heat the margarine, so we strained the nasty mixture and put the butter on
the stove. We melted all of it and then poured it back into the mix. We added
the dry ingredients and everything started looking like it was going to work. I
poured the batter into a pan and put the pan into the 'oven'. The oven doesn't
have temperature control so I had to guess once more and keep checking the
cake. One side of the oven cooked faster so I also had to turn the cake. While
we were waiting for the cake to bake we started on the frosting. A lot of
stirring latter we ended up with something that looked and tasted like real
frosting yaaa!!! Just then my host Dad came home and he brought Satay just for
me.. satay is one of my absolute favorite Indonesian foods. It was so good, I
ate so much. After dinner I pulled out the cake, let it cool and poured the
frosting over it. The left over frosting we dipped oranges in like fondue. Well,
at least the frosting was good. We didn't try the cake because my host mom's
birthday was the next day so we decided to wait. After all the excitement of
the day I fell asleep very quickly.
9/11/2012
I was really glad that I only had to go to school for an hour and a
half and it was really nice sleeping in. Jet lag is long gone but I still
always feel exhausted, like everything takes ten times more effort than it does
usually. I was also really thankful for my host Dad, because he brought home
really good food.
PS. I am trying to upload pictures but my comouter won't let me... sorry
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