9/15/2012

9/15/2012

 

I had another very long animation class today, but I was with a group of kids that I knew better. Some of my friends say that I had Skype on my computer and they wanted to know if we could Skype my family. So, I emailed my family to warn them and I was about to Skype them when our teacher walked in and gave an hour long lesson. If only my teacher would choose any other day to teach. So my family waited while I was taught some basic animation. One of my friends asked why it was a big deal if we Skyped my Mom later and I had to explain to him that even though it was 9am in Indonesia it was 10pm in Florida. He seemed to have a difficulty understanding this concept - or maybe I did a really bad job explaining it. I Skyped my family and my whole class gathered around my computer. I was expecting them to go crazy. To all start asking questions and screaming... instead most of them ducked behind desks and tried to see without being seen or heard. We talked a little but the internet connection was really bad and we had a hard time hearing them. I told Jesse to stand up because when I show family pictures, Indonesians always seem in awe of Jesse. He stood up and my entire class started screaming. "He looks like Justin Beiber!!!" " Ahhhh!!!" "He is soo tall (in Indonesian)".  Everyone was so amazed and then the internet cut out. I tried to call back but the internet refused to work. I was kind of fun to Skype my family in the middle of school, even though it didn't last very long. For the rest of class, I discovered that I am OK at drawing. I looked at 'how to draw Disney characters' and just practiced drawing in my notebook. With the drawing and Skyping my family it was one of the best days at school yet. It was fun just to sit in class and talk to my friends. When I got home I ate dinner with my Mom and I found out that she was going to Jakarta with my host Dad to a concert and her high school reunion.  Then, did Seminary, relaxed for a little bit and then when to go pick Diandra up at school. After, the driver and I picked up Diandra we went to Laticia's house again (she was going to spend the night at our house). After we had finally picked up everyone we went to the mall. I got an alarm clock. Finally after one month I have an alarm (I still don't have batteries for the Alarm clock but one thing at a time). Then we went to Giggle Box for dinner. I ordered a cheese burger and fries. It was delicious, a little taste of home. Diandra ordered a 'super' burger that came with a fried egg on it. I asked her why there would be an egg on the hamburger and she just looked at me.. because it is good. "Well," I said "I have never hear of that and I am not ruining a perfect burger with an egg." Indonesians eat everything with their hands, that is except hamburgers. I laughed at Diandra for using a fork and knife to eat her burger, and picked mine up and ate it like a real American. When we were done with dinner we ordered dessert and got the check. For three meals, two desserts and three waters our entire meal cost about 16 US Dollars. I wish non-fast food restaurants were this cheap in America. While we were waiting for the driver to pick us up we talked. In Indonesia a long time ago there was a bike group that turned into a gang and started killed and stealing. Because of this the Indonesian government has outlawed all exclusive groups. At school, kids are not allowed to make small groups or hang out with only a couple of people. This would explain why almost everyone in my school classes seem to talk to each other. Diandra asked if in America we really have small groups and people only talked to certain people. I told her that we do and that there are the popular people, the jocks, and all of the stereotypical groups. I also explained that in High school we do not often fight with the other groups, we just talk to certain people and that it is way worse in Middle School than in High School. It is really hard to explain your way of life to someone else without making it seem really harsh or stereotypical. She asked me why groups where aloud because, they make people feel excluded and other people feel like they are better than others. I told her that outlawing groups in America would be like outlawing illegal movies in Indonesia.. it just wouldn't work. I also told her that Americans are more competitive and that good programs would not be good if everyone could get into them. Maybe I made some sense but, to Indonesians excluding people is a completely foreign thing. Everyone is invited and the over friendliness is normal. If people were this curious and nice in America they would be considered really weird. We drove to the illegal movie store, bought 6 movies for 3 dollars and then went home. We all took showers and did a face mask. Diandra admitted that she is afraid of sleeping in the dark. And then we watched Dark Shadows with John Depp and directed by Tim Burton. I love Tim Burton films but, it was not as funny as we thought it would be. When we finally got to bed it was midnight.

 

9/15/2012 Highlight

 

I taught my class "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes " in English. It was really fun to try to teach them how to pronounce words that I grew up with. Then they tried to teach me it in Indonesian by all trying to scream it at me at the same time. I had to stop them and ask one person to help me. When I finally was good enough one of my friends tried to teach me it in Sudanese. Sudanese is the local language here, and it is very complicated. It you want to talk to a girl, a boy, a old woman, an old man, a young woman or a young man there are different words. I want to learn Indonesian first and then work on Sudanese so I plugged my ears and screamed "I'm not listening" until they stopped. It is good to be a kid again!