October 28 & 29th, 2012

10/28/2012 Question

Q. Thanks animal-slaughter day for the new blogs! :) Also, you said thanks for the good question at the end of that last one like the rest of our questions aren't good ones. My question asking if you tell people there that I am your favorite family member was very well thought out and intelligent. I'm offended. :) That's cool that you got to watch some of the debate. How interested is Indonesia in our election? We love you! 

A.I have actually been able to watch the last 2 debates courtesy of YouTube. It took forever to load and it wasn't very rewarding but I can proudly say that I watched them. Most people seem to be more concerned with American Pop Culture than they are with American Politics. Politics in general are not a very popular topic with kids my age. My friends in America have flooded my Facebook news feed with comments on Politics and the debates while, my friends in Indonesia post about their twitter's 3rd birthday and what music they are listening to. Maybe adults care more, but I have not gotten that impression. If you asked people about the Presidential election they would be able to tell you that President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are both contenders for the Presidency. They would also tell you that they want Obama to win because he lived in Jakarta for several years and that he misses Bakso (meatball soup- famous to Indonesia) and nasi goreng (fried rice). I love you too!!!!

10/28/2012

Sunday morning. Woke up, straightened my hair, got dressed, put make-up on, ate breakfast and had my driver take me to church. Normally, I have plans on Sunday, or my family is out of town and the drivers are gone so I can't get to the meeting. This is first time in two months that I have been able to go to church. My driver and I got lost on the way there but we found it and I was still on time. I love church! All of the meetings are taught in Bahasa Indonesian (Bahasa in Indonesian means language- sometimes Indonesian is called Bahasa but this is not really correct). I did not understand anything but, it was still great to be there. The little branch has a real building - I was expecting someone's house. Four Elder missionaries are assigned to the building and there were about 25 people there. During Sacrament meeting (they hold this meeting 3rd hour instead of the typical 1st hour) I was asked to introduce myself and bear my testimony. I was able to do a really good introduction in Indonesian by myself. My testimony was translated by one of the members because I don't know any gospel terms in Indonesian. Three of the missionaries are from Indonesia and there is one from Utah. According to the Indonesian government the Mormon church is a legitimate church but the missionaries are not allowed to knock on doors and talk to people. They have to wait for someone to ask what they were doing here in Bandung or they had to bring up religion before they could talk about the church. Two of the missionaries live about an hour and a half away from the building and they have to drive to the church every Sunday and for every activity. It is kind of weird to be in a branch, not a huge ward. (For those of you who are not Mormon- each individual church is called a ward, but if it is very small it is called a branch). After the meeting I had to wait for my driver to pick me up, I felt really bad for making some of the members wait with me. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and just hanging out.

10/28/2012 Highlight

Going to church and meeting new friends. I was also able to communicate in my Indonesian than I have ever been able to do before.

10/29/2012

Monday morning. I woke up at 6:02 am (my school starts at 6:30). I had to throw my clothes on, pack my backpack, shovel down breakfast and get in the car as fast as I could to get to school on time. Ceremony this morning was long... just like every Monday. It was extra- special because of some holiday (not Eid al-Adha) and it lasted an hour and ten minutes. Next time you get the chance, go stand in the middle of a courtyard surrounded by people wearing a long skirt, socks, tennis shoes, a button up shirt and a hat. The just stand there for an hour and a half, randomly salute, recite Muslim phrases and then go back to standing in attention. It is not fun or safe. Today, I saw a boy completely collapse in front of me. He was caught and then team-lifted to the back because he couldn't stand on him own. It is not healthy or safe. After we were finally released I had Digital Drawing. I was still very tired because I didn't sleep well. The teacher wasn't there and we sit on the floor anyway so I used my backpack for a pillow and got comfortable. I woke up three hours later. Someone had the good sense not to wake me up. I would never be able to take a three hour nap in American school (only 45 minute ones). When I woke up it was time to change classes so I walked to Manual Drawing class. I realized that in my rush to get ready this morning I had forgotten my drawing book and my ruler. Which, meant that I couldn't do anything. I wrote down the measurements for the assignment that we were given and then I doodled in one of my notebooks. Soon enough school was over so I started walking home. I stopped at two stores on the way home, one was a small store where I bought two markers and a drawing book (I only had a couple of pages of drawing paper that I had been using as my book). Then I went to Indomart (basically Walgreens) to buy snacks and a water bottle. I went home, did seminary, did the drawing I should have done in class watched the Hunger Games and now I am writing my blog.

10/29/2012

I used to be scared to go to stores by myself. Today, I went to two different stores by myself. Everyday my Indonesian skills are getting better. It was a good day!

October 23-27

Culture day with the Said's October 23rd

I woke up at the Said's house (they are my 4th host family). The night before we talked a lot and I got to know my mom and dad a little better. When I went downstairs, my mom was making breakfast. Unlike most wealthy Indonesians my 4th host mom enjoys cooking and makes most of the meals herself. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, with homemade salsa, cheese,  lettuce and ground beef all rolled up in a tortilla. Best thing ever. I ate so much, it reminded me of my favorite breakfast in America.  When I finished breakfast we went to the college the college that is only 3 minutes from my house. The campus was beautiful. I was at the college because there was some international culture day. There were performances from several countries (mostly Asian). Each presentation was uniquely different and all showed their individual country's traditions. After most of the presentations were over they had a "talk show". They called up lots of students who were from different countries and asked us questions. I ended up representing the United States. The first question was "What is your country's tradition of cueing?" As in how does your country stand in lines. I was sitting next to a Polish woman and both of us were trying not to laugh at the question. A couple of the other people who were being interviewed answered the question and I did not have to explain the Americans are always in line. I can honestly say that I have never gotten that question before, I guess there really is a first for everything. After the talk show (it was very short and I only had to answer one question and introduce myself) I went to get a snack. A student came up to me and said "I'm going to ask you to introduce yourself, where you are from and then say this". She explained more to my mom in Indonesian, but I didn't understand. Then she held out her phone to record me. I found out later that she was from the school radio and that my voice will be on the air, nice. After the snack we went home and my mom started making Pizza for lunch. I helped her chop some of the veggies up and then I watched part of the 3rd Presidential debate on TV. After Lunch I went swimming. There is a hotel that is very close to my house and I walked there with my new family. I was the only one that wanted to swim so they left me there and said that they would be back in an hour and a half. I went into the locker room to get dressed. All of the showers were Asian height, meaning the 'door' provided very little privacy. When I was done I went out to the pool. I put on my cap and my goggles and jumped in the pool. I hadn't really done laps for months and it was great to get back in the pool again. Any swimmer knows that after you take a long break from swimming the first few laps fell great, you feel like you are flying across the water, you feel super strong and unstoppable and then lap number 5 hits. All of a sudden you fell sluggish and terrible. I had been in the water for about ten minutes when I stopped to fix my cap and I ripped a chunk off. I adjusted my cap so I could still use it and I kept swimming. Five minutes later my cap was falling off and I was forced to readjust it. As soon as I touched my cap it ripped in half. I was left with no cap only 15 minutes into practice.  I swam for just under an hour and a half and then I walked home with my host dad. On the way there everything was downhill, now it was uphill all the way. Dinner was veggies and Sate. My host mom's cooking is so good. I am glad she cooks lots of vegetables otherwise I would gain tons of weight at her house. When dinner was over we just talked about the day, I really enjoyed the family dinner. At about 8pm my host parents took me back to my first host family. Goodnight!

10/24/2012

First day back at school after a long vacation. I love waking up early, I love waking up early (maybe if I repeat that enough I will actually believe it). To start my day I had a four hour English class. My teacher started the lesson by asking what the most popular sport in the world it.. my classmates answered "Football". I hate Soccer, I love American Football. Here everyone likes 'Football' and they know nothing about really Football (American!). We split into groups and then spent a long time coming up with English words that had to do international football. Normally, I am the best person to have in your group but, for this exercise I was almost worthless. I could have come up with a thousand words to do with American football but I could only come up with really basic things like: grass, jersey, field, ball (not super in-depth). When we were done writing the lists my teacher wanted to analyze the words. This was really boring mostly because I already know English but also because I do not like soccer. To deal with this boredom I took a nap (this is normally how I solve my school boredom). When I woke up there was a chart on the board  that said "good behavior of fans/ bad behavior of fans". Under the 'bad behavior' section there were two bullet points. The two things that my class wrote down were racism and anarchy. From what I know about soccer games anarchy made since but racism did not at all. So I asked my English teacher

 "What does racism have to do with soccer?"

"You are failure to soccer, we only know football"-- [they are the same thing]

"Ok, what does racism have to do with football?"

"Yes."

"What - does - racism- have- to - do - with- football?" [I repeated it slower and louder to make my point]

"Yes." [Remember this is my ENGLISH TEACHER I am speaking to]

"Fine." [I just gave up accepted it and moved on- which is how lots of my conversations end]

I should have gone to Math class but I didn't really feel like going and I had a headache so I said that I was sick and I needed to go home. I got home and started typing- I had lots to write and I still have more.

10/25/2012

My family lives very close to their grandparents and some mornings Diandra and I pick them up on our way to school so the driver can take them to run errands. Today, we went to go pick them up. My host grandfather had one of his eyes taped up. I don't know how he hurt it but it was defiantly serious and he couldn't see out of it. He walked around the car to get in the front seat. When everyone got in the car he asked "Di mama bole?" Which in English is almost the same as "Where is that Gringo?" or "Hey, where is that white person." I was sitting right behind him. The entire car erupted in laughter as my family quickly explained that I was sitting in the back. Other than that it was a pretty regular day. I had Photo/Video class and English class. In Photo/Video I actually learned something and after someone showed me how to do it I could follow along perfectly. For English my teacher showed her typical pattern of laziness and just gave us workbook pages during Photo/Video and then left. I had to wait an extra long time for Angklung practice. I felt like I could actually follow along during the lesson. I only play one Angklung while some of my friends can play five but, I am happy. It was a pretty good day.

10/26/2012

Today is Eid al-Adha. For those of you who don't know what that is (I didn't either) I will go into a little history according to my host sister Diandra. Eid al-Adha celebrates the story of Abraham and Isaac (Islam also believes in many stories from the old testament). God told Abraham that he need to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Abraham was a true follower of God and even though he didn't want to, he prepared to sacrifice Isaac. Just before he was about to kill him an Angel came down, told Abraham to stop and kill a goat instead. To celebrate this story Muslims kill thousands of sheep, goats and cows in the streets for three days. They keep about 1/3 of the meat for themselves and give the rest to the poor. At 6pm yesterday night the prayer calls started and they did not end until after the group prayer at 6am. We have 5 prayer calls a day, and I am now used to hearing the siren-like wailing but, I was glad that I do not have a room close to the street so that I could get some sleep.  My family and I left the house at 6am to go pray. Thousands of people lines the streets to pray. I sat and watched as they all prayed together in unison. After the prayer one of the priests (I'm not really sure if that is what they are officially called) talked and sung to the people. When it was over we walked bake home. I had a headache and I felt really sick so I went back to sleep. At about 10am Diandra came into my room and asked told me that they were going to kill a cow at her Dad's work and asked me if I wanted to come. I said that I didn't want to come and I stayed home. I stayed at home all day to avoid the mass slaughter that was happening outside. For the last week goats have been tied up on the streets. Everyday there were more goats outside and I did not want to see them all die. At night I went to the mall with my family, we shopped and ate dinner but I was not super excited. There is nothing like animal sacrifice to make you depressed. I got to Skype my mom (my real mom) before I went to bed. I love my family!

10/27/2012

Even though it Eid al-Adha is a three day holiday I had school again today. When I got to school there were goats tied up in the courtyard. I asked one of my friends how many goats there were and she told me that there were eleven goats tied up. We had our ceremony, although it was louder than normal because of the goat's bleating. The ceremony finished and we went to our classroom- which looks onto the courtyard. For the next hour and a half the goats were untied from their posts while one of the teachers sung the prayer. I might be ok with this sacrifice (except for the fact that it is gross, unsanitary, and went out with Moses) but when the boys went to get the next goat they were cruel to it. They pulled on its horns and teased it- instead of just killing the poor animal they tortured it first too. I think these practices are completely inhumane and ridiculous. Imagine a city the size of Phoenix, Arizona  killing thousands of animals in the streets. If I wasn't here I couldn't believe it either. During the ceremony the kids in my school would all gather around to see the kill- I stayed in the classroom so I never saw them actually kill one. One person from every class was also selected to cut up the goat afterward. Right now one of the boys in my class is gone to cut up the goat. Several hours ago I asked one of my friends if we had class or if I could go home. He said we didn't have class and that we were 'free' an hour later I went to leave school and he asked why and told me that we did have class. Now, I know we don't have class but it is one of the boys birthdays so we have cake. I don't know if we ever will eat it and I am planning on going home in about ten minutes regardless of what my friends want. While I have been sitting in the class I have been able to catch up on my blog, so you can all thank animal-slaughter day for the new blogs. I love you all, thanks for reading (and being patient with me)! Oh, and guess what was for lunch and dinner.... goat. Yum!

Question: Wow! I love the zoo photo's. That stinks that you had to pay for your dinner. I would of been the one with no money on me. Especially when they invite you out. Oh well, it was a learning experience. Be ready for anything and make your own fun are the lessons I think I got that. Also that water everywhere and wiping with water from a hose. I don't think I could do that. Your braver then me. 

Answer: Everything here is paid with cash, people rarely use credit cards and only the biggest stores accept them-  so you always have to have cash. I love you too Aunt Sarah!

Question: From my mom's spinning class: Because you live on the equator at night is it still a little light outside?

Answer: Yes, at night it gets dark but it is always a dark shade of gray not really black. It is really weird and it could have to do with pollution and city lights but it might also be the horizon light. Thanks for the good question.

Inbound Orientation October 18-22

I woke up, got packed and relaxed. Because I would be traveling I could not go to school. I rode with Lae and her host mom to the 'travel' station. Travel is a van that takes several people to a predetermined destination (there are travel cars that go from Bandung to Jakarta every day). Leti, Lae and I took a van to Jakarta for inbound orientation at about 2:30 pm. The drive was pleasant, after experiencing very bad roads the new highway system was amazing. I was able to stretch out and relax and the trip only cost 7 dollars. When we got to Jakarta, we were met by a Rotarian. We would spend the night at her house and then go to orientation in the morning. Her house was very nice and the three of had a goodnight. The only hiccup was a distinct cultural moment. In Indonesia- wet is clean; because of this philosophy bathroom floors are often soaked (and in houses you cannot wear shoes so it is sometimes very gross) and people 'wipe' with little hoses attached to the toilet. Leti took a shower first, it took her longer than normal, almost 20 minutes. When she finally came out I asked what took her so long, she said that the shower was malfunctioning and wished me luck. I showered last. When I got in the bathroom- everything was already soaked. I got into the shower (no curtain) I turned on the water. I immediately knew what the problem was. The water shot off in every direction, soaking the walls, the hard wood floor and everything else in between. I just took a shower fast, knowing that nothing I did would stop the water from going everywhere. I would feel bad that we destroyed the bathroom but, wet is clean and Indonesians do not seem to care when everything is wet. We woke up in the morning, had breakfast and got ready to go. We left an hour and a half before we had to meet everyone for orientation - traffic in Jakarta is even worse than the traffic in Bandung. I slept most of the way. We arrived at an old government building made by the Dutch. We were some of the last people to arrive. This year there are 29 inbounds in Indonesia they live all over Indonesia and come from countries all over the world (USA, Brazil, France, Belgium, Japan, Colombia, Germany and Canada). Everyone started talking. I had not met anyone yet and it was really nice to get to know people. Rotary decided that we should have a tour so they paid for tour guides to walk us around the building and teach us about a boring building in Indonesian. No one paid attention. I feel bad for the guides but, talking to people was much more interesting than looking at a building. We took several pictures, loaded up our stuff onto a bus and headed off to another destination. We went to the National Museum. Again, we had people talking us through the exhibits and it was very hard to listen to them. We took more pictures at the museum and them drove the national monument in Jakarta. I had already been here but, it didn't matter much. We got off the bus lined up took pictures and then got back on the bus. We couldn't even really look at the monument because it was behind us in the pictures. We got back on the bus and drove to Bogor- a city about an hour and a half away. Then we went to a walking museum where there are life size models of traditional Indonesian ethnic groups. It was actually fun to look at the houses but, the fun was broken up with more photos and more talking by the guides (who also talked during most of the bus ride). The last stop on our tour was the 'Golden Snail' it is a yellow building that is a 3D movie theater. We did not actually see a movie there but we did take a picture. Eighty years from now I am going to look at those pictures and think that I actually when to those places.. nope I just took a hundred pictures there. With our photo tour concluded we went to the hotel for dinner, or that is where we thought we were going. The "hotel" was really a bunch of small houses set in hills with an outdoor dining area. After our dinner, and settling into our rooms we had free time. It was about 9 but we decided to go swimming. It was so much fun! There was a slide that was shut down (it was after hours) so we took turns running up the slide and then going down it. It was much better than going on an open slide and using a ladder. There were some pretty funny wipeouts too. The next morning we had to wake up early for sports. "Sports" was run by us (because Indonesian people never work out) and it turned into stretch and then go for a leisurely walk. After our rigorous morning workout we had time to eat, shower and get ready for the morning meetings. These meeting made me appreciate the Rotary program in Florida. We had the typical 'be aware of sexual abuse' lecture. The lady told us to follow our instincts and that if we feel uncomfortable we should tell someone. Then to make the message very clear a man got up and told us "you cannot always trust your instincts". He told us about cultural differences and how it is ok for people to rub our legs or push our butts. I was getting lost of mixed messages (and I speak English- I have no idea what the kids where thinking if English was their second Language). Then the lady kept talking about cultural differences and said I quote "Indonesia is not as free as Brazil, we do not drink and have sex all the time here." Jaws dropped. There was silence as we all looked at each other, one of the boys from Brazil quickly corrected the lady and the meeting went on. But, Rotary youth exchange is a program whose purpose is to bring about cultural  education. It is completely unacceptable for Rotary leaders to be throwing out stereotypes. We talked about many other things including school and host families. Many kids talked about problems they were facing and Rotary said nothing. They just said "well Ok we will think about it but, we need to move on so no more talking about it" or "you need to try harder" (this advice was given were it had nothing to do leadership, no clear direction and I left feeling like I could not count on Rotarians to help me with my problems (including possible serious ones that require immediate action). I left the meeting frustrated and angry. We went outside, to find that we had another activity planed. We were taken by some random people to a little soccer field. They had us form a circle and then led us through a series of activities that can be described as childish, ridiculous, pointless, and a total waste of time. We were all starting to feel the effects of staying up all night. Many of my friends had already had several cups of coffee. Everyone just wanted to stop and do anything else. It felt like forever but it was at least an hour and a half of stupid exercises. When we were finally done we all ran away from the field before the 'activity leaders' could call us back. I met lots of people throughout the weekend. Everyone when on exchange for different reasons and we are all individuals but we have all been through similar experiences. After lunch we had more meeting and a speech contest. No one told us that what we should say or that it should be at least two minutes long. And guess who had to go first- me. Sweet. I had something prepared but it wasn't very good and I just read it. I don't really care though, some people did much better than me others did much worse. It didn't really matter. We had dinner and then the talent show. Everyone should perform in two presentations (one with the other people in your host city and one with the people from your home country). The girls from Bandung and Cirebon played the Angklung. We messed up a lot, which sucks because we actually practiced and then the Americans did the YMCA and sung our national anthem. The talent show was confusing and unorganized but that is the Indonesian way and I am starting to get used to it. We stayed up late talking again.  In the morning we left at 8 am to go to a drive through zoo (called a Safari). The safari was very cool. The only thing that bothered me a little was the big cats section. There were at least a dozen lions of tigers and they were free to move around. There wasn't any railing or distance separating the wild cats and us, only a sign that said "do not open your car door." After the driving tour, we had time to walk around a different area of the zoo. I touched an elephant for the first time and latter I paid about two dollars to hold a monkey. While I was standing in line to hold the monkey the monkey dropped out of the lady's arms and ran to the Zoo Worker. The worker picked up the monkey, walked to the bushes, the monkey went pee and then the worker washed the monkey's butt in the sink that is for guests to wash their hands and dried the monkey's butt on a janitor's rag. By far, the safari was the best thing we did all weekend. Some people had to take a plane home but for those of us that would be staying the night in Jakarta we went to dinner. The dinner was very good but it was unclear who was paying until the bill came. Apparently, the Rotarians wanted us to pay for our dinners (even though they invited us to dinner and most of the time when we go out with people they pay for us). It would have been nice if they had warned us. I didn't have a problem because I always have money but some people had to go to the ATM. It was all very confusing which was followed with deciding where everyone was spending the night. We ended up staying at a Brazilian boy's house with his host family. They were very nice, and they even let us sleep in the next morning. After a late lunch we barely made it to the travel on time to get home. The trip was uneventful and I was picked up by my fourth host family at the travel station in Bandung. I went to my host club Rotary meeting with my host family and then went to their house. They are so nice and I was very excited to spend the next day with them.

I do want to say that I love Rotary and that most times I love the activities and the get-togethers. I just think that this event was sub-par. It was no one's fault and I still want to get to know the Indonesian Rotary better.

October 11-19th

10/24/2012

I have not written in forever, I would like to blame this on how busy I have been but it really comes down to laziness. So, here goes the last 13 days of my life that I have failed to record.

I showed up to school, it started like any other normal day. Then I saw something very unexpected - a tall, white boy in the morning assembly. My readers need to remind themselves that seeing a white person here is 100 times more rare than seeing a black person at Ponte Vedra High School (my old high school- we have a 98% white population and most of the 2% consists of our Spanish teachers) Anyway, seeing a white person is very rare. So, I was very confused when I saw a white boy at my school. The boy saw me and came to talk to me after the ceremony, we only said a couple of words. "Hi, my name is Jason, do you want to talk at lunch?" "Hi, My name is Alaina, sorry I can't I don't have classes in the afternoon, so I will just go home." "Ok we can talk later, bye" "Bye" I recorded the entire conversation to emphasize how ridiculous what happened next was. For the next several hours my friends teased me saying "You are in love with Jason!!" I tried to explain to them that I do not love Jason, I had only met him a couple of minutes ago. They failed to understand what I was trying to explain. How could I not love the only other white person in the school? I have now endured endless teasing from every direction (It is not making me like Jason anymore). I went home and decided that I should find out a little more about my soul mate. Apparently, his parents got divorced when he was 2 and he moved to Indonesia with his mom. He has been living in Indonesia since. His English is as good as the rest of my classmates, and he will be going to my school for 3 months for training for Trans Studio (Mall- Theme Park- Hotel by my house). A couple of days later, I was sitting alone and he asked to talk to me for a minute. His English was very bad (but I was also talking faster because I kept forgetting that he couldn't speak English), he seemed very nice but, he also sounded like he was going to take full advantage of the fact that both of us are white and 'soul mates'. I will not be dating anyone here- regardless of skin color. I haven't seen Jason in about a week because I went out of town and I am really hoping all of the drama will die down (it won't).

People in Indonesia are always on Facebook. I have probably had more than 100 friend requests in the last month. When I go on Facebook, I go for about 2 minutes. I make sure there is no one trying to contact me and that nothing terrible has happened and then I log off. Unfortunately, my Indonesian Facebook friends insist on chatting with me while I am on Facebook. I do not like talking to people on Facebook; I never have, I never will. It is for this reason that I turn my chat off on Facebook. Despite my efforts to avoid people, someone always breaks through. So, one person got through and started talking to me. I didn't really think anything of it. We talked about Jason and what I was doing that weekend and a ton of other things that I do not remember. I had at least three different conversations with this same person. Then at school, I was waiting for Angklung practice and a couple of girls called me over to talk to them. I went over to the small group and everyone introduced themselves (I do not remember a single one of their names). Then, one boy shook my hand and refused to let go, he asked "Do you remember me?"(When people say this to my face they want me to tell them what their name is) I calmly responded "No, I am very sorry I meet lots of people every day" He finally let go of my hand and looked disappointed. I soon found out that he was the boy that I had been talking with on Facebook. When I chat with people on Facebook, I don't go to their home page, I don't even look at their profile picture or read their name; unless I know who they are, I don't really care about them and their Facebook. He told me that I always looked lonely and that I should socialize more. He went on to tell me that I will adjust better if I talk to people, and he accused me for looking confused when I am in a large group and everyone is talking in Indonesian. He has no idea what he is talking about. Any exchange student can tell you that having to talk to one person at a time is hard enough. If you add the fact that no one talks to me here one-on-one and that they wait to surround me with a group of at least five people, you would understand why I look confused. I try, and when people who do not have any idea what I am going through tell me to try harder I want to kill them (many people I know do know what they are talking about and I welcome their advice). He then asked me to teach him perfect English, borrowed my dictionary and didn't talk to me until I asked for my dictionary back 20 minutes later. The next day I was on Facebook and I got a message from the same boy: The following is our conversation that I copied directly from Facebook: 

Boy: can I talk to you tomorrow?

I really need you

Me: I will not be at school I am traveling to Jakarta

why do you need me?

Boy: really?

Me: yes

Boy: I need your explanation!

Me: on what?

Boy: I remember yesterday you've been asking me "am I having a plan to visit America?"

and I've been telling you I have a plan to extension my education in German.... right?

but I was think twice... and I decide to comparing your question with my plan...

Me: oh, so now you want to go to America instead of Germany

Boy: and I have on conclusion that America will be my optional chosen if I cannot continuing my education(college) in German....

so can you explain about "how is education in America?"

please help Alaina! I am just the last grade in SMK4, no!

Me: when students finish high school they have the option of going to college. To get into a college you need to apply to the colleges you want to go. The application includes a lot of paperwork, essays and test scores (we have national tests called the ACT and the SAT)

Boy: and I very-very need your explanation!

Me: the college can then choose to except you, if it does not you cannot go to that school

college is very expensive in America and good schools are difficult to get into

what kind of school do you want to go to?

Boy: you know that I'm taking AUDIO-VIDEO program in SMK4 and I've learn too much about "electrical engineering"... so I'm so interesting to Technology

then I've been hearing "America is the good country" for learning technology

*I have been browsing on internet!

Me: ok, so are you looking at MIT ?

Boy: MIT? what is that mean?

Me: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). United States

it is a really good school

Boy: oooh Alaina I don't feel good to talking this thing on facebook

I prefer to talking with you in the school!

ME: I will not be back until Tuesday

Boy: just you and me! *face to face

what? :-o

so you will be back to school at October 24th?

Me: yes

Boy: :-( I'm just disappointed! but it is ok

Me: well, I'm sorry that I have greatly disappointed you

Boy: I don't wanna be a person who annoying U!

Me: you are not annoying me but, I will not be back until Tuesday... it has nothing to do with you

Boy: I WILL BE WAITING for U!

:-)

and I suggest you to prioritize your important business (exactly the "RYE" )

Me: I am doing that.

Boy: but I'm not sure that you are remember me! aren't you?

Me: what?

I'm sorry but you are less important than Rotary; I must go to the rotary meeting

I remember you

Boy: really? we are just having many conversation on facebook! but when we were in school we were just like the two person who they are not knowing themselves each other!

:-P

Me: yes, because we do not know each other in real life; I cannot remember everyone's names... I have met hundreds of people in the last 2 months. I do not remember all of their names

We will talk at school

Boy: promise?

Me: you come up and talk to me and I promise that we will talk about your future and college

Boy: I hope we can be a good friends! and that is my expectation!

I remember this morning you looks so cavalier...

I believe that you were looking at me! but you were just not "to say hi!"

Me:

I will see you on Tuesday. goodbye

Boy: bye

Conclusion: I hate needy boys.

"Mystery of the Lost Peanut Butter" - a short story: I was having a hard day and I wanted to celebrate with a little Peanut Butter. I had not opened my jar of peanut butter yet and I was really looking forward to it. When opened the jar I found that the quality seal was gone as was about 1/3 of the bottle (only a small bottle). I quickly emailed Mrs. Crocker, the sender of the PB. I asked her if she had scooped some of the peanut butter out to reduce the weight of the package. She didn't and it defiantly had a safety seal when she mailed it. This year I have eaten a lot of 'exotic' food. I am no longer of germs so I still had some Peanut butter- it still tasted good.

"Never Trust what is in a soup". My maid knocked on my door and spoke to me in Indonesian. What I understood was that my host mom wanted me and that I should bring the chili sauce. I mistranslate things all the time, but I trusted what I heard and I went downstairs to talk to my mom and get her the chili sauce. Turns out my mom did want the chili sauce. She had a visitor and she wanted me to eat lunch with them. Lunch was a mysterious looking soup. My mom told me that I needed to try some and then she would tell me later what I ate. I couldn't say no because, my mom's friend was sitting there and I didn't want to make a scene so I took a couple of spoonfuls of soup. The soup had some veggies in it but it was clear that what my mom wanted me to try were the two meat-ish looking items in the bowl. One was a 1-inch by 1-inch little square that looked like leather. I tried this first. I put it in my mouth, tried not to gag and started chewing. I chewed for what felt like forever- it tasted like rubber and it was almost impossible to chew. I finally swallowed the piece with a little pride- one down, one to go. It turns out the second 'meat' item was the greater of two evils. It looked like a ball of goop it was about 1-inch in diameter. I tried to cut it in half with my spoon but I couldn't so I put it all in my mouth (huge mistake). I chewed and tried not to gag and chewed some more. No matter how much I chomped down the thing would not dissolve, so I used my teeth to rip it into small parts and then swallow it piece by piece. It tasted like pure nastiness or concentrated boogers; I can now eat anything. When I finished I told my host mom that I did not like it and that I could not eat any more. She laughed and said that this was her friend's favorite- no way anyone could like this. I asked her what it was and she said it was........ Cow Hoof. Yes, that is right I ate the inside of a cow hoof and I would not suggest it to my worst enemy. Moral of the story: Do not trust soup.

Cultural- My friends like to comment on my pictures on Facebook and tell me not to eat all the food or I will get fatter. Nice. I love being called fat! I just wish they would comment something nice like, wow cute picture. Or better yet if they have nothing nice to say, I wish they would say nothing at all.

I am writing more now, I promise I will get up to speed :)

October 8,9,10 & 11 2012

10/8/2012

Waking up on Monday is even harder when you decide to take a whole week off from school. I had Indo Mie for breakfast (Indonesian Ramen) it is really good and it is nice to have noodles not rice for breakfast. I got to school only to remember that morning ceremonies would start again (we had a two week break from them). I lined up with my friends and I was already bored when the ceremony started. It lasted FOREVER. My friends were all messing around because they were bored to. Every time a teacher stopped talking another one stood up to speak. As we were standing there in the middle of the courtyard, the sun was beating down on us and at least 5 people fainted and had to be carried to the back of the courtyard. It really is not safe to wear so much clothes (most of my Muslim friends all wear long sleeves, long skirts and head-dresses) and stand outside in attention for so long. Finally, one hour later we were released to go to class. One whole hour we stood listening to teachers blabber on in the heat. I went to Digital drawing with my classmates and messed around on Photoshop for the majority of the class. I was on my computer when one of my friends came up and asked me what the Kindle Reading App Icon was on my computer. I told him that I use it to read books on my computer. He asked to see, so I opened the program. One of the books that I have downloaded is Beauty and the Beast (free classic on Amazon.com) he wanted to see that book so I opened it up. Then he asked where the pictures were. When I informed him that there were in fact, no pictures in this book he seemed really surprised and then walked away. I think that most kids in Indonesia read comics, this might be because not many books are written in Indonesian. Indonesian is a lingua franca partly created by the Dutch to help unite the many islands of Indonesia, so it is a relatively new language. The rest of my class was spend with some pretty funny dialogue: (I have translated parts and corrected my friends' English in other parts)

Friends: "Who was the guest on ABC for Christmas 2010?"

Me: " I have no idea"

Friends: "Why don't you know?"

Me: " During Christmas I just watch the movies not TV programs" (or maybe I have better things to remember)

Friends: "What is your favorite Christmas movie?"

Me: "The Grinch who stole Christmas."

Friends: "What, we have never seen that one."

Me: "Really, It is very old and very popular."

Friends: "In Indonesia our favorite Christmas is Home Alone 1,2,3 and 4"

Me: "I have only seem the first one, I didn't like it very much"

Friends: *In shock (who could not like Home Alone) "What is the song that every American family listens to on Christmas"

Me: "There are lots of Christmas songs."

Friends: "Like Mariah Carrey and Jingle Bells?"

Me: "Yes, but we also listen to traditional Christmas music... it is a Christian holiday... we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ"

Friends "Ohhh.." (How sad is it that I have to explain that Christmas is not just about presents to my friends because of what they see on TV"

Friends " Well what is your favorite Christmas Song?"

Me: "Carol of the Bells"

Friends: "We have never hear that, can you sing it?"

Me: "No, I can't sing"

Friends: "Why not?"

Me: "My voice is very bad"

Friend "I know your voice is very bad, you can still sing to us."

Me: "Wow thanks." Then I refused to sing the song.

----

Friends: "Alaina, you couldn't be a model because you are too big."

If they had not been calling me beautiful for almost 2 months, my self esteem would have been severely damaged.

---

Friends: "Alaina, we want to be your family."

Me: "You are my friends, not my family"

Friend: "You are Alaina Root Robert, I am Jessica Root Robert, He is Alicia Root Robert and she is Arial Root Robert"

Me: "It is RobertSSS, with an 'S', RobertSS and RUTH, not Root. RUTH.

Friends "Robert" "Root"

Me: "Fine, but you are not my family."

Friends: "But we want to be"

Me: "Why are all of your middle names all the same as mine?"

Friends: "Ohh.." Then they quickly changed their middle to very random names.

They kept calling themselves those names for the rest of the class, and I refused to call them that.

----

After Digital drawing I headed off to Manual Drawing. I fell like Manual Drawing it "how to use a ruler 101" this class was spent doing another tedious activity. Some of the students in my class are very talented but all we do are mindless patterns. I hope that we start actually drawing things soon. At the end of class I found out from my classmates that I was in a play in my culture class the next day. They gave me the script and had me read through it several times until I could almost read it fluently. Then they told me that I had to memorize it- I told them that I could not memorize it because it was too hard and I had too many lines (in a 5 page script I had about 15 lines, I am sure no one had less lines than I did). Then I walked home with my friends. My Indonesian class was canceled so I started downloading General Conference (huge, worldwide broadcast made by my church twice a year) I downloaded all night but it still wouldn't work. Internet connection is very bad here. I talked to my Mom on Skype and then I went to bed.

10/8/2012 Highlight

I loved my friends honesty today. I haven't been insulted like that since last year's Calculus class and I was getting tired of people saying I was so beautiful and asking me to sing. And now I don't have to go on American Idol to hear that I can't sing, they already told me that.

10/9/2012 Comment

From Uncle David

I misspelled typoes because I live in California (near Phoenix) and everyone speaks Spanish to me. I am trying to learn so I get confused with my English. 

See what a cool excuse that is?

Also, Alaina, when I said you would go away and become a nature girl and get dreadlocks and stuff, hairy legs and pits were implied there too. My fears are coming to pass. Soon you will stop bathing and avoid shampoo. Can't wait to see you when you get back. 

Love you! 

Answer:

I always thought you lived about 6 hours from Phoenix, which would put you right next to New York City. I know that excuse is great but, you are only righting a couple of sentences I have written more than 50 pages for this blog, lots of room for error. And I would like inform you that I brought a razor with me from America and it has been hard at work keeping my pits hair free- thank you very much! No one shaves their legs and I am always wearing pants or long skirts anyway so there is no reason to shave my legs. I also shower every day and I promise to shave when I get home. Can wait to see you too! Tell Aunt Katie, Kennedi and Mallory that I love them. Oh, I guess I love you too.

10/9/2012

For breakfast this morning my host mom tried to feed me a ton of this brown bread goo thingy. I only took a little bit because it looked really gross. It turned out to be some type of bread pudding (I still don't know what's in it) and it was actually really good. I guess you can judge a food by its color or by the fact that it looks like baby food. We had the morning assembly again.. boring.. but, at least it wasn't too long. Then I had Culture class. I knew I would be performing the drama that I was less than prepared for and I wasn't looking forward to it. I got to class and realized that one of the girls in my group wasn't there. I asked my friends where she was and they said she was sick, which meant that I would probably not have to perform today. Our teacher decided to show up to class an hour and ten minutes late, which left only twenty minutes in class. The other groups performed easy songs and clapping games (not sure what that has to do with culture) and I realized that I pulled the short straw by getting the drama. The other groups barely had to talk, we have five pages of material. All of the other groups finished and then our teacher called my group up, we had to explain how we couldn't perform because one of our group members was sick. Luckily, our teacher was feeling very generous and she let us sit down again. Then I went to Indonesian class. Today we learned how to perform interviews and form proper questions. I was actually really good at this and with only a little help I was able to successfully right 15 different question (they were simple but gimme a break). Then I had to ask my partner the questions and write down her answers. My partner also wrote 15 questions that she asked me. I was able to understand and answer almost all of the questions. I only needed help on two of the questions! It was nice to feel like I had made some progress in Indonesian. When we finished my teacher had us ask the questions in front of the class. You should note that not a single other group had to present their question in front of the class but, it is OK I am used to that kind of treatment now. We did a good job performing and them we sat down again. My final class of the day was digital drawing. Again I messed around on my computer, and waited for the class to end. It ended early, which is a shame because I still had to wait until school was over because I had Angklung practice. As I waited I talked with some new friends. They wanted to practice their English and I was more than happy to oblige. While I was talking, I got asked some of the same basic questions but then we had this conversation:

Friend: "Do you play the Violin?"

Me: "No"

Friend: "Do you play the Piano?"

Me: "No, I don't know how to play any musical instrument but, I am learning how to play the Angklung"

Friends: "Do you sing?"

Me: "No I cannot sing"

Friend: "Why?"

Me: "My voice is not good" - I feel like I should wear a shirt with this written on it but, I really doubt that would help.

Friend: "Can you draw?"

Me: "Not very well"

Friend: "Well then what do you do?"

Me: "??"

People here barely have to learn any intellectual material so, devoting your time to learning from books seems very strange to them. In America all I did was study and I barely spent any time at all on trivial things like drawing or playing music. My classmates tend to think that because I come from America I must be super talented, I must be able to do some type of art better than them. The only thing I would say that I am more talented than most people in is test taking but, that is not very fun (and I can't tell them that because I am not good at test taking in another language). Another thing they assume about Americans is that I have hear every song ever made and I remember who sung it. So  to change the topic from how disappointing I am as a person someone else decided to ask me if I knew what song he was playing. I had no idea what the song was but I thought I might have heard it one before so I told him that I knew that song. Then he asked me who sung it, how am I supposed to know that? Really! I calmly listened to the music, hoping to hear some clue, I leaned into his computer so I could hear it better and then it came to me "Mariah Carrey". The boy was so excited, "Yes, it is Mariah Carrey!". I didn't want to tell him that the name of the artist was in the top right corner of his computer and I just read it. Soon afterward my Angklung practice started and I was told that we would be having a performance tomorrow of two new songs that I didn't know yet and that practice would be three hours long. When practice started I was already exhausted and I was having a very hard time following the music. After two hours we took a break and in less than a minute I was asleep. I woke up about 10 minutes later to find no one had started practice again, so I told everyone I was going home. I walked home. I had a long and uneventful evening and then went to bed.

10/9/2012 Highlight

While I was walking home, I stopped at a convenience store by myself and bought toothpaste. It was nice to feel more independent and know that I can do some things on my own. I was also able to answer the cashier's questions about what school I go to and where I am from. I love practicing talking to people and actually being able to communicate.

10/10/2012

Woke up tired again, no matter how much I sleep I am always exhausted. My first class was English and the teacher didn't show so I took an hour long nap. Then I had my Angklung performance. We practiced most of the morning so that we could greet visitors to our school. Because, I didn't know how to play the songs I was put next to one boy who told me when to play for one song and in the second song the conductor pointed at me every time I had to play. I felt completely useless. I love playing the Angklung and I am glad that people in the club were willing to help me but, I wish I could do it by myself. The guests finally came at about 11am and we performed. The entire time during the performance I had cameras pointed at me. Sometimes the cameras would move to the conductor or to some of the other students but most people just kept shamelessly taking pictures of me like a animal in a zoo. I guess you don't ask the Polar Bear in the zoo if you can take a picture with it. When we finished playing people took more pictures of me and some even stood next to me and took pictures with me. I don't know how many pictures were taken of me but, not a single one of them asked they just assumed and most did not even say thank you. I just stood there and smiled like a good little exchange student but, sometimes I wish those people could experience how aggravating it is to have people stare at you all day, every day. I wish everyone knew what it was like to be different to have people stare at you, being a celebrity is defiantly not easy (but at least you get lots of money). After the pictures my Angklung teacher took me to the English teacher so she could talk to me about practice. I had missed a couple of practices and she thought I didn't like Angklung. I told her several times that I do like Angklung and that I still wanted to play. She then told me that I would not have practice tomorrow and that we would have a performance on the next Tuesday and that we would have practice every day. I get these kind of conflicting- lost in translation- kind of messages all the time. I had to clarify that I really do have practice tomorrow. At this point it was about 11:45 and I had no more classes for the rest of the day but, they wanted me to stay for practice which was from 2 to 4. They poured on the guilt gravy but, I refused to go. I had plans with Diandra and I just did not want to stay at school that long. When I got home I ate lunch and then Diandra and I went to the movies. We saw Taken 2, it was ok but I wouldn't recommend going to the movies to see it. What I thought was more interesting was the fact that it took place in Istanbul, which has a high Muslim population. There were several clips of the Hagia Sophia (always the Art history student) and you could even hear the prayer calls throughout the movie. During one conversation a man greeted another man with a traditional Muslim greeting, I probably would have missed it if I hadn't heard that greeting every day for the last two months. Maybe when I get home I can rent the movie and watch it with my friends to point out the more interesting parts of the movie. We walked home from the mall, which is good because now I know how to get to the mall (my Dad might consider that bad news haha). I was finally able to start listening to General Conference (huge church meeting)  - the downloading finally finished. I talked to a couple of friends  and then went to bed.

10/10/2012 Highlight

Being able to listen to conference was really great. I miss going to church here and even though I have been doing self-study it was still good to be taught more. I took about 4 pages of notes while listening - a personal record and the two hour session seemed too short. I can't wait to listen to the other sessions.

10/11/2012

Every day I become more tired. Today I could barely function. I don't know why I am always tired, I guess it is just an exchange student thing. In Photo/Video class our teacher taught everyone how to edit pictures, which I have always really wanted to know how to do. But, I was unable to follow the lesson or make any progress at all in making my picture look better. I spent the majority of class writing my blogs for the last few days and playing solitaire on my computer. Afterwards I had English class. Out of all my classes this might be the one that is the hardest to sit through. The teacher was taught from books and while her English is very good, it is just not natural. And in Indonesia the language learning programs are all British. Today we did a listening activity that had to do with telephone calls. Many of the conversations didn't make any sense and included things that would never be said. At the end of every listening conversation there is a Beatles song that is played and the students have to fill in the missing words. After we checked our answers the teacher replayed the song and my classmates screamed the lyrics at the top of their lungs. I did not sing because I already had a huge headache and the unnecessary yelling was not making me any happier. At the end of the song my English teacher came up to me and asked me why I didn't sing. I told her that I couldn't sing. She said "Ok, well next time you can just sing with everyone else ok?" Does no one listen to me? I can say it in English and I can say it in Indonesian "I CANNOT SING." I do not want to sing, I do not like singing and I might just start crying the next time someone asks me to sing.  When the listening activity was over we had to make a phone conversation with our partner. I tried to help my partner but quickly gave up and just did the project by myself. At least three other groups asked me to write their dialogues. I refused to do it, I was tired and I wasn't going to spend time writing stupid conversations. Side note- some of the boys in my class just have those faces that make you angry and you just want to use them as punching bags, also add the fact that they constantly tease me and say mean things. You can now understand why I have little patience with some of the people in my class. One of these punching-bag-boys walked up to one of my friends and started cussing at him in English. I will not repeat what he said, all you need to know is that it was vile an highly inappropriate. So, I yelled at the boy "Do you even know what that means? You are completely retarded!" The boy just kept walking but other people in my class started calling him stupid and yelling at him to. I just have no patience with people who cuss, especially when it is in a language that they cannot even speak. Boys in Indonesia think it is cool that they know American cuss words, that they will impress me with their knowledge. Well guess what, I hate it. I hate when people cuss for absolutely no reason. I do not feel sorry at all for yelling at the boy or having the class tease him, I am glad that I was able to control myself enough to not rip his head off. I waited after school for Angklung practice. Turns out it was only for senior members and I am anything but advanced. I having been playing the Angklung for only a couple of weeks and I just can't follow along. I fell bad that my friends have to try to help me all the time. I pretended to play for about an hour and then I called it quits. I told my friend  that it was too hard and that I would join the easier Angklung club and then I walked home. After eating lunch I fell asleep from about 3:30 to 8:00. I really was tired. I woke up ate dinner, did Seminary, wrote this entry and I am now about to go to bed. Goodnight Indonesia, I hope for your sake and mine that I am in a better mood tomorrow.

10/11/2012 Highlight

During English class my friends were trying to get me to say a funny rhyme in Indonesian. I didn't know what it meant and I didn't want to say it so I quickly responded by asking "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" I am very good at this tongue twister and I can say it over and over without making any mistakes. This little rhyme kept my class occupied for about twenty minutes. They would try to say it and then have me say it and then they would try again. None of them did it successfully but, it sure was funny to watch.