11/19/2012 and everything else I missed

11/19/2012

 There is so much that I cannot write in these blogs. Some stories are only funny in Indonesian (or broken Indonesian) and sometimes I just have too much to write. So I am sorry, this Journal is coming far too late. I would also like to tell my friends in Indonesia I am not writing it for you, I am writing it for my family back home. You can still read my blog if you want to but, you see me every day. You can communicate with me face to face. Please talk to me, my Indonesian is getting better and I want to be able to talk to you. I guess you could describe these last few weeks as a slump, that time when all exchange students stop trying to communicate and end up isolating themselves for a while. I have not gotten serious homesickness yet but I have had "here- sickness" I don't want to be home I just don't want to be here.

I am still working on college applications and as of yesterday I was excepted into Auburn University! Three applications down and two to go (BYU and FSU). College applications are a serious depressant and I was starting to consider a padded room for life instead when my Mom got a call from Southern Virginia University. The University called and said that I was eligible for tons of scholarship money if I went to the school. My Mom helped them fill out some of my information  on the application and they gave her a application fee waiver. She emailed me and I Googled the school. Apparently it is a school that is mainly filled with Latter-Day Saint Church (Mormons) members. This is not I am applying to BYU but I quickly realized why I had never hear about this school before. The average ACT score is a 23.4 and only like 60% of the students took the ACT, the SAT score is equally dreadful and the average GPA is a 2.8. In the "important information" section of the application it asked me what my t-shirt size is. So, not a great school. When I got to the essay section I decided I was going to have a little fun.  This is the real College essay that I submitted. (There were also 2 optional essays but I just didn't want to do them)

Prompt: What do you hope to gain, experience or accomplish by attending Southern Virginia University? (one paragraph)

My Answer: I want to receive a education. I also want to live in a LDS environment were I can grow spiritually and prepare me to become a faithful wife and mother . But, most importantly I want to find my eternal companion so that we can ride off into the sunset together and live happily ever after. This school is the next step for me to accomplish my dreams.

Unfortunately, I won't get in because afterward I realized that I have to have a letter of recommendation from someone in my church which is just too much work. I hope that someone has a good laugh when they read my application essay. I hope they see my 31 ACT score and my GPA that is nearly double what the average is and then look at my essay and laugh their head off. So you are welcome World, this was my service project for the day- at least there will be a couple more smiles in the world today.

I have told you before to NEVER TRUST A SOUP. Soups are filled with things that no one would want to eat if they were actually looking at it outside of the soup. I have developed serious soup skepticism. I went down to dinner one day and there was a soup on the table. It looked like a good vegetable soup but I knew better. I started digging in the soup and you will never guess what I found. (Here is where you guess before I just tell you what was in the soup... really guess) It was Chicken claws. Half a dozen chicken claws were just chilling out in the soup. Not cool. I did not eat the soup and stayed with more safe alternatives like tofu and soybeans with rice. I am thankful that I have learned to never trust a soup.

One of my favorite parts of school in Angklung club. Even though it mean I have to stay at school an extra long time, at least we do something that I can follow. For the last few weeks we have been learning a very complex national song called "Mars Bamboo Rucing". The song is very fast and up to six instruments play at once. YouTube probably has a clip that you can watch just to see how hard it is. I play two Angklungs in the song. This is very impressive for me- I have only been playing for a little while and other kids still play one instrument. I have a hard time playing two but I have friends in the club who play five or six. If they weren't so nice I would be mad that they are so much better than me (and they have been playing for many years and that makes me feel better too). Anyway the song is very difficult and we have to memorize it which is even harder. I found out that we would be playing the song for a morning ceremony two days before we would actually perform. I showed up to school on Saturday- the day of the performance- and went to the music room to get my instruments. Together all of the Angklung players walked out to the ceremony. From what I could understand from the ceremony it was the anniversary of the opening of my school. Normally on Saturdays the ceremonies are short and sweet, today it was more than a hour long. It was very ceremonial and was similar to the nightmarish Monday ceremonies. The players stood off to the side and waited for our turn to play. After the speeches, after the choir sang, after the flag raising and national anthem and many other useless traditions (I am not the only one who hates these ceremonies with passion- and I think it is OK because Jesus never said "Thou must love standing outside for several hours to participate in a stupid ceremony" so I reserve my right to hate the ceremony.) Finally it was our turn to play, we all lined up and played our song. The song is about five minutes long and I think that we did it almost perfectly. I never got very lost and if I was playing at the wrong times at least I looked confident. The ceremony was almost over and we waited to be dismissed. All of the students were dismissed and the Angklung club and the Color guard (not the official name but they are the people who raise the flag) were called to take pictures. The principal took pictures with us. I tried to stand off to the side but I was quickly found  and I had to stand in the center next to the Principle. When all the pictures were taken the Principle thanked us for our performance and dismissed up. The color guard was waiting for their pictures with the Principle but when they saw me that asked to take some pictures with me. I took tons of pictures with then in their snazzy uniforms (they are on Facebook).  Even after being at the school for more than two months I am still a celebrity. Now in Angklung club we are learning how to play Justin Beiber's "Baby". It is so much easier to play a song that I know and I am now playing four instruments. If only I was learning Indonesian as fast as I am learning Angklung. It sounds exactly like the real song when we play it and I will defiantly have to have someone record us playing it when we finish learning the song.

My readers will know that here in Indonesia teachers rarely come and teach a lesson or come to class at all. For several days I did not have any teachers and I was tired of it. 

On Saturday the 10th I had had enough. I went to school and it was raining so we didn't have the ceremony (awesome start to a day). I sat in class talking to my friends and playing on my computer, listening to music and doodling.  Hours went by and we did not even pretend to have a lesson. At one point a teacher came in and stayed for about five minutes and then left again. Many of the teachers sit in the teacher's lounge smoking or they are in other 'meetings' that are scheduled during class time.  So it was Saturday, I didn't want to be at school and I had no teacher to make me stay. At 10 (3.5 hours of doing nothing- I think I have overcome boredom) I was done and I no longer wanted to be at school. The following conversation was completely in Indonesian.

Me: I want to go home.

Friends: Why? You cannot school is not over.

Me: I want to go home, we do not have a teacher.

Friends: We do have a teacher.

Me: I want to learn but the teacher does not want to teach. I will go home now.

Friends: OK, bye see you later.

I totally won that argument! Yes! And no English is a good feeling, I like being able to argue in two languages.

I was able to go to Church on Sunday, I always love being able to go to church. It was a good meeting and now that I have been going for a couple of weeks I am starting to remember people's names and be able to understand some of the lessons.

11/12/2012

It is something about Monday that just say "Why are you going to school? Stay at home, warm in your bed, school is for losers - you are a winner, please stay home."  And Mondays also come with a serious lack of will power. I ended up playing the sick card and sleeping in. I normally have art class on Mondays so I did some art in my free time when I decided to actually get out of bed. I worked on College Apps and Seminary too. I was feeling pretty good about myself when I went down for dinner. My family was already there (we do not normally eat together) and I sat down to eat with them. My Host Dad asked me why I was sick and I told him that I was really tired- he then laughed in my face and my super awesome day went down the drain. Whatever, it is not a big deal. I didn't want to go to school so I didn't and no one at my school will punish me for not going.

Other days:??

I have become the official editor for all of my English classes. I re-write tons of English essays and presentations to help my classmates pass English. One day my English teacher decided not to come again (Out of all my teachers Mrs. Dewy comes the least). She says she is busy but I don't think she would think it would be acceptable if I said I was too busy to go to her class. I don't know how much they pay her but she never comes to class so she shouldn't be paid at all. She gave an assignment that required everyone to write a 200 word paper telling about a memorable experience. I wrote about winning my fourth grade speech contest and I was finished in about five minutes. My friends took slightly longer. After our first class ended we were forced to relocate to the library. Before now I didn't even know we had a library. I spent the next several hours editing my friend's papers. It is very exhausting to try to edit so many papers and explain to my friends why it is wrong and then guessing what they were trying to say when the sentences do not make any since at all.  The library had a globe, so I was able to show my friends where Florida is and how I flew to Indonesia and everything else I could show them on a map. The Library was very shocking other than a few marriage magazines, some comics and an assortment of old out-of-date textbook the library was nearly empty. There were no classic novels or novels or anything that a teenager should be able to find at a library. If my friends ever came to the library we have at Ponte Vedra High School I think they would faint from shock. The library also had something that I had never seen before and that is a - card catalog. I only see the card catalog in really old movies and hear about it when my teachers talk about how things were in the old days. I actually started laughing when I say the card catalog, it was just so funny.

I found out on Tuesday the 13th that I would have a holiday on the 15th because it was Muslim New Year. Tuesday night I got a text from Mr. Said (my 4th host father) saying that my family was going on vacation and that I was welcome to stay at their house if I needed somewhere to stay. This was the first time I had hear anything about my family going on vacation so I went to ask my family. They confirmed that they were going out of town and that I could either stay at the house alone or go to the Said's house. I told Mr. Said that I would love to go to his house for the weekend. The next day I had my driver take me to the Said's house. The traffic was very bad because of the holiday and it took forever to get there. When I finally arrived I ate dinner with the family and moved to my room.

I was in Culture class, trying to stay awake when my teacher called me up to the front of the class. She showed me a set of traditional Indonesian drum and then a pattern on the drums and then she asked if I could follow it. I did it perfectly. Which is not saying a lot because there were only 5 drums that I had to hit, the pattern was very slow and it was a short thing that repeated several time. I am pretty sure that anyone in the class could have done it and it doesn't hurt that I am completely obsessed with those games where the computer shows you a pattern and you have to copy it. After my teacher taught me how to play the drums she taught other people patterns on other instruments and then had us all play together. We repeated the sequence a couple of times and then class ended, I didn't think too much about playing the drums until I got to Angklung practice latter in the day. When I arrived another class was playing on the assorted instruments. I had the following conversation with one of the boys that helps me in Angklung Club.

Me (proudly):  "I can play those" -Pointing at the drums

Friend: "That is because they are very easy"

Me: *Instant hurt puppy dog face

Friend: "Ahh! I am so sorry!"

Me (Smiling): "No problem, you are right they are very easy. I can't play those because they are too hard (pointing at a different instrument that is somewhat like a xylophone)

Friend (Obvious relief): Oh, good. Haha

My friends here miss my sarcasm most of the time which leads to a lot of fun (for me). They have even told me that I should be an actress.

Said's House:

Mrs. Said is the best cook ever. Her food is so good and I love eating it. Here in Indonesia people eat so much and they think that because I am bigger than them I should eat even more. I do not go hungry. I am always full but, to Indonesian people I barely eat at all.  The first day at their house I got to sleep in eat a great breakfast and then just talk and watch TV. At noon we went to a baby shower, but Indonesian style. When a pregnant woman is seven months pregnant people always have a celebration. My family spent most of the morning explaining some of the traditions that go along with this ceremony. One of the things that they almost always go is take water with flowers in it and pour it threw a strainer that has lots of things in it (Gold, spices, other things) the water then is used to bathe the pregnant Mother. It should help bless the baby. They also have many traditions to guess the gender of the baby. Rujaks is a traditional dish that is made by shredding 7 or 8 different types of fruit and adding chilies, sugar, salt, and a couple of other ingredients. It believed that if the Rujak is too salty and spicy the baby will be a boy and if it is too sweet it will be a girl. Guests at the party also make coins by taking broken roof tiles made out of clay and them reforming them into coins. We arrived early to the baby shower and we helped the family plate cookies and other yummy treats. I am a foreigner and everyone knows that I haven't tried every single Indonesian snack so I am required to try EVERYTHING, all of the cookies and everything else that is edible.  More people started coming including a group of about 25 women who were all dressed in matching white uniforms and pink headdresses. They were a prayer group that had come to sing prayers to bless the baby. The hallway was lined with prayer mats and we all sat down for the prayer. The women passed out books filled with prayers. I thought we were only going to sing some of the songs but to my surprise the prayer group led everyone in an entire hour of singing. After about 20 minutes people started shifting uncomfortably and by the time the singing ended it did not look like I was the only one who was relieved. During the prayers I hear my name, Alaina is part of a prayer that means "God please forgive us when we sin, we know not what we do." (or something like that, translated from Arabic to Indonesian to English so the wording might be a little off).  After the praying was more eating. Then we talked to the relatives and waited while the parents talked tons (just like America). Some of the younger cousins liked playing with me and calling me their aunt. Aunt in Sudanese is very close to the word breast in Sudanese, so my host sister warned me to be careful when I was telling people I am their aunt or breasts. Just to be clear, I did not make that mistake and I avoid talking in Sudanese anyway. The parents talked in a mix of Sudanese and Indonesian which made understanding them nearly impossible and I just sat and waited. The rest of the day was spent talking to my family and watching TV. The next morning I was up early with my host family. My Mom, Dad and I went on a walk. At the very beginning of the walk we were climbing downhill and it was very muddy because it had rained the day before. I slipped going down the hill and landed on my butt. Other than my pride nothing was hurt, I was just covered in mud and my host parents were very concerned.  We continued on our walk and we found a facet so that I could wash off a little. We walked for an hour and a half (mostly uphill) and I enjoyed talking to my family. On our way we passed some huge houses, mansions would be a better name for them,  and my host dad told me that the only cost about 200,000 USD. Everything here is so cheap! We started talking about prices and I found out that an average driver make 100 USD a month and a Maid makes between 50 ND 70 USD a month. I guess things would be more expensive to you if you only made 100 USD  a month.  Every day I spend here I realize how blessed I am to be an American. After the long walk I ate breakfast, showered and took a nap. I woke up in time for TV and Lunch. It is a pretty nice life , to just hang out with my host family and sleep and watch TV. I learned a lot this weekend about my host family and Indonesian culture.  I also want everyone to know that I watched all three Lord of the Ring movies this weekend (perfect weekend complete).  My school is also officially crazy, Thursday through Sunday is a national holiday but my school decided that it would have class on Friday and Saturday. I didn't go, spending time with my host family is more important than sitting in a room with no teachers.

11/19/2012

Today was another Monday, up early and go to school.  This morning we should have had a ceremony but it was cancelled and the Monday started looking much more welcoming. I spent all of Digital Drawing typing and talking to my friends and now I am in Manual drawing- still typing. At least my typing is getting better and faster. I just made plans to go with my class to see Breaking Dawn part 2. I should go to Angklung tomorrow but the song is not very hard and I want to spend fun time with my friends. I also went to get my drawing graded by my teacher and he said that they were not good. I have now failed "How to use a ruler 101" class. This  is mainly because they wait for me to finish to correct me and the teacher doesn't show us how to do the activity and I have to ask my friends. He accepted some of my drawings but said that I will have to redo the others, I would rather just take the C. It is not like my grades count but I have time to burn so I might redo the assignments, if I feel up to it. I might be going to a Rotary meeting tonight, I am not sure yet. If I do I will tell you about it tomorrow. Thanks everyone for reading!

PS. I just wrote about 8 pages, I hope you are happy!