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.