9/27, 9/28, 9/29, 9/30/2012

9/27/2012

Good morning! I woke up bright and early, got ready for school and headed off. I had Digital Drawing from 7:00- 10:30am. My teacher showed up for a little bit, talked to the class a little bit and then left. I talked to my friends, played spider solitaire (the only game on my computer- by the time I get home I might be as good as my Dad) and waited for the class to be over. While I was minding my own business, one of my class mates attached his computer to the projector and put on a movie. The entire class gathered around to watch the movie and I guess I just have to accept that my school days will be reduced to idle chatter and doing nothing. I was asked by one of my friends a couple of days ago, if my school in America harder than SMK 4 (vocational school #4 - my school). I told her that my school was not a vocational school, so it was very different but, that my school was more strict, competitive and we rarely have free time. Indonesia is great for a lot of things but, the lifestyle is completely different than what I am used to. Which, is not a bad thing, in fact I went on exchange to experience a different way of life. People here rarely have any since of urgency or rush, life is good and there are "no problems".   I know that this is a great lesson for me and I wish I could relax more. Class here is nice, I get to talk to my friends but I actually long for a lesson that makes my brain hurt after it. I learn more of the language everyday  but, I want some new stuff. I think I will join more clubs at my school to keep me busy and learning more fun stuff. During the class my friends saw that I was studying a picture of the human body with all of the Indonesian names written on the picture. They promptly took the sheet from me and started quizzing me. I really like it when my friends help me remember the language, everyday they teach me tons of new words. They added more and more to my picture and demanded that I remember everything. When class was over we moved to our English class. I told my classmates that I wanted to buy the workbook for the class (because I did not want to write the sentences out for the work). They took me to go buy the book and told me how much it cost. I handed them how much I thought they said it was and they just looked at me, quickly repeated the figure and told me that I needed more. No one would slowly say the number and I still and not completely sure how much the book cost so, finally one of my friends finally just grabbed a bill out of my wallet and paid the teacher. We went to class and one of the students wrote page numbers and activities that we should finish in the workbook. The teacher decided to show up about an hour after classes started (she had other duties to attend to) and said that after we turn in our work we can go home. I was already finished, and I helped my friends finish. While I was helping them my friends needed to erase mistakes so they would hold out their hand and say "eraser" (they found out that I have an eraser). It was English class so I don't feel bad out what I said next. After being told "eraser" several times I said "No you need to ask ' May I please borrow your eraser'". My classmates seemed shocked that I would not let them borrow my stuff without asking politely. In Indonesia people share everything, at least at my school no one seems to have and qualms about letting people use their stuff all of the time. Of course after they asked nicely I let them use my eraser and we got back to going boring English workbooks. My friends and I finished working at noon, a whole two hours before class should have been over. The only problem about getting out early was that I had Angklung practice after school and it didn't start until 2pm. That meant that I had 2 hours to burn a t school just waiting for practice. All of my friends left and I just sat in our English classroom by myself playing on my computer. My English classroom is very close to the 'cafeteria' (our school has street vendors that come into the school and sell food in their carts, there are no lunch tables or anything it is just a corner of the school where the vendors gather). After sitting in the room for about 40 minutes a school janitor can in and asked me what I was doing. I was watching Community Anthropology 101 and apparently watching Betty White attack someone with a huge combo weapon thing is funny in every language. After watching for a minute he started talking to me, I turned off the show and started talking to him too. We talked for a long time and all in Indonesian. I was really proud of myself for being able to introduce myself and answer almost all of his questions in Indonesian (I officially know more Indonesian than I ever knew Chinese). Two more men joined us and they also asked me some questions. I showed them my family pictures and they seemed happy to see them. They were really nice to me and I was really excited to talk to them. It was almost time to go to my Angklung class so the janitor walked me to the Angklung room and told me that I need to communicate with others. There were only three other girls in the room and they quickly left after I arrived (some people get really nervous around me). That left me in the room by myself again and I didn't want the janitor to come back just to see me in the room alone again so I moved to the courtyard. One of my friends stopped to talk to me and asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was waiting for my Angklung class to start and he kindly informed me that Angklung class had been canceled for the day. Of course at this point it was 1:45 and I had been sitting around for an hour and a forty-five minutes. I was really disappointed that class was canceled and that no one bothered to tell me earlier. So I walked home. I am pretty sure that my maid thinks that I skip school, I tried to explain to her that my Angklung class was canceled and that is why I can home from school early. I ate and then went upstairs to take a shower. After my shower, I watched 'Abducted' with Taylor Lautner. I am going to be honest I originally picked out the movie because I think Taylor Lautner is really good looking but, the movie was actually good. When the movie was finished I started to straighten my hair. I knew that I would be spending the night at Leti's house (I keep spelling her name wrong so this is the girl from Brazil's nickname) and I was thinking that I would staighten my hair then pack and then go to her house. I was halfway done with my hair when Diandra came in my room and told me that I need to leave now. I told her I needed 10 minutes and quickly threw stuff in my duffel bag, finished my hair and ran out the door. I got to the hotel where I was meeting Leti and I found out that we were just waiting for a meeting that wouldn't be over for another hour. Which means I rushed for absolutely no reason. We left the hotel with Leti's host mom and we went to the mall. Leti had said earlier that she needed some stuff because she was getting bored of her wardrobe. It was about 7pm and I hadn't eaten dinner yet (and my lunch was really small) so I was already starving. We finally ate at about 9:30pm. We went home and went to bed.

9/27/2012 Highlight

I had a huge boost to my confidence when I was able to talk to the janitor and the vendors in Indonesian. I think I am finally starting to get good at the language.

9/28/2012

We woke up early to get ready to leave for Cirebon (port town where Bridget from Wisconsin lives), we were going to visit for the weekend. Aunt Melly picked Leti and me up with another man in the car. I found out during the trip that the man is another Rotarian and he is a pack a day smoker. We met up with Lae (girl from Belgium) and her host mom (another Rotarian). I got the back seat with Leti. Cars in Indonesia are small and I had no leg room but I wasn't too bad. I felt very sick the entire time, which was not helped by the bumpy roads and the crazy driving. Oh, and the radio doesn't work outside of the city so we had to buy a CD to listen to and the only one Leti and Aunt Melly was a CD that was really bad and just talked about smoking weed. Every time we stopped the man smoked a cigarette. I really hate smoking. It is a disgusting, nasty habit and people do it every where here. When we finally got to Cirebon no one knew what we should have been doing. There was lots of indecision and confusion which caused a lot of frustration. I did not really care what we did but, I wish that someone would make up their mind and tell me what to do. We ended up at a restaurant that took about 45 minutes to drive to (we hadn't been in the car long enough). I took pictures of the fish, and I didn't feel bad about no eating the fish because non e of the other girls would touch the fish either. The restaurant was outside and each 'table' was really a gazebo like thing with a low table in the center that was over a huge coy pond. After I finished eating I realized that I could climb down out of the gazebo and onto some rocks in the coy pond. So I climbed down, much to everyone's shock and I quickly got the other exchange students to join me on the rocks. Another thing about Indonesia, EVERYTHING needs to be documented on everyone's camera. We took about a thousand different pictures on a thousand different cameras until we begged not to take any more. We finished with lunch and we got back in the car. We went to a Batik store. Batik is a type of traditional clothing that Cirebon is famous for. It is just very patterned clothes. I bought some little trinkets and then we went sightseeing. We drove to the base of a mountain took a lot more pictures (someone dropped my camera- it is fine but that did not make me any happier), and then went to a very nice lady's house in the foothills of the mountain. The house was so pretty, she even had a pool and a trampoline.  After a confusing hour we ended up at a Rotary meeting. We got there a little late to find two men smoking. No one else was there yet (time is not important)  people finally started showing up and it was nice meeting everyone. We ate dinner and then said goodnight to everyone. We went to bed after a very tiring day.

9/28/2012

While we were at the Lady's house we ate cheese and crackers. WOW, crackers are really good, and she even had Ritz and Saltine crackers. It was really nice to relax and eat some of my favorite snacks for a little bit.

9/29/2012

We went to Bridget's school in the morning. She goes to a high school (not vocational school), that is also private and Christian. It is considered the best school in her area. She had really classes, nice desks, her teachers show up,  her classmates treat her like a normal person, and she even has Western toilets at her school.  I am a little jealous. We introduced ourselves at a parent meeting to tell the parents about Rotary exchange. We took more pictures, answers tons of questions and talked to her friends. When school was over her friends took us to eat a type of traditional food for Cirebon. The food was really good. When we were done we headed to the mall. We played one of those arcade dancing games. Bridget's friends are really good at the game and I am really bad but it was still lots of fun. Then we went to lunch at a Pizza place that is owned by one of the Rotarians. While the adults were still talking we (Bridget, Lati, Lae and I) went with a driver to go see the ocean. They don't have a beach, it is just a port with lots of ships but it was still nice. After our little joy-ride we went back to the restaurant, said goodbye and got back in the car to go to Bandung. I really hate driving in Indonesia. The 'four' hour drive turned into a seven hour drive threw rain, traffic and bad driving. Everyone in the car was really bored so they asked me to tell a funny story. We mainly talk in English because everyone can understand it and speak it. I am the only native speaker in the car so they wanted me to tell the story because while they can understand very well, they have a hard time telling their own stories. I tried to think of what funny stories I had that wouldn't make me sad and that would be easy to explain. Stories about Andrew and my Calculus class won out. I told funny stories for a while (I have a lot). We dropped  Lae and her mom at their house and then we went to Leti's house. When we finally got there I was thrilled to just get out of the stupid car. We both took showers and then we watched "Crazy, Stupid Love". It was really funny but it meant that we were up until 2am.

9/29/2012 Highlight

Going to Bridget's school and playing with her friends was tons of fun. We will be going back next weekend to help with a Rotary service project and I can't wait to talk to everyone again.

9/30/2012

I woke up in Lati's house at about 8:30 which is really sleeping in here. From the moment I woke up I just did not feel good. Aunt Melly picked us up and we went to buy me a cell phone. I have finally given up and decide that I actually need one here. I was in a daze the entire time and just could not understand what Aunt Melly was trying to say. My Dad should be proud, I hate shopping. I don't like spending money on things that I don't want and I just don't find joy in shopping (Congrats Dad). When I went up to the checkout counter I went to pay for my phone I found out that when foreigners pay with a credit card they have to show their passport or Kitas. I did not have either of them on me because I was told to keep them safe and that I would not need them. So Aunt Melly had to pay for the cell phone and I have to pay her back in cash. I felt bad but, how was I supposed to know that I needed my Passport to buy something with a credit card. Afterward we went to lunch with Aunt Melly and their high school friends (they still get together all the time). Some of her high school friends include my first host mom and my Indonesian language teacher. I was exhausted. I dropped food on my pants and I could barely understand any Indonesian. I went home with my host Mom. When I got into my room I got a great surprise. A package from my Mom!!!! I opened it and found Oreos, Cheese Its, Gummy Bears, Tissue, Itch Cream, Measuring cups, Uno cards and a nice letter from my family. They I collapsed, and slept for almost 5 hours. I woke up watched "Mona Lisa's Smile" and " The Princess and the Frog" and then I got to talk to my best friend. This is only the second time I have been able to talk to Avery since I left on Exchange and I took full advantage of it. We talked for two hours about everything that had happened in the last month and a half. When we were done I went to bed.

9/30/2012 Highlight

Today is a tie between getting a package from my family and being able to talk to Avery. It is nice to get things from home and to talk to people. I also want to say that just in this month I have written 38 pages (in fount 11) and 28,655 words. Thank you everyone for reading my blogs. I know that sometimes they are not very exciting and that my English is getting really bad but, I am glad that many people follow my blog. Thank you everyone for your support and remember that you can email me at AlainaRRoberts@gmail.com or Message me on Facebook (I check all the time so you should get a response quickly- unless I am out of town).

I also want to say that this post would have been up yesterday but, my internet has been out for the last 36 hours. I posted this as soon as the internet was working again. Have a great day everyone!