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.