Winter Break Part 1: December 10th 2012 - December 18th 2012

12.10.2012

OK everyone it has been days since I last posted and this time it was actually a good reason. I was busy. So I am warning you now this is going to be a long blog. Really long (Avery you should read this after school or you might be late). I went to school today. When I got there I realized that exams were still going on so I sat in the library for 2 hours and then I walked home. Today I had a Rotary Presentation. I wasn't sure what I should talk about so I put together a short PowerPoint and decided that I could speak enough Indonesian to get me through the presentation. After I finished my PowerPoint I started packing (moving host families tomorrow). I spent the rest of the day hanging out and waiting until I had to leave to give my presentation. I was late to the meeting because there was some confusion with the driver but, when I got there they hadn't even started yet. I don't know if I will ever like "Indonesian standard time" especially because I had dinner plans with my family and I didn't want to be late. When we finally did start the Rotarians did the opening exercises, which includes singing the Indonesian national Anthem and the Rotary theme. Before I went to an Indonesian Rotary meeting I didn't know Rotary had a song but, leave it to Indonesians to sing as often as possible. Lae from Belgium and I are in the same club and we were both going to do our presentations. I had two presentations, one was all about myself and my family that I made in Florida and one was the very quick thing I put together about my time in Indonesia. I went first and I still had no idea what they wanted (not because I didn't ask.. I did ask at least 5 times). So I just went though both presentations. People in Indonesia can be very rude, it is not impolite to talk when others are talking. It only took me 10-15 minutes and throughout my presentation almost no one was listening to me. I would love to put the people in my Host Rotary club in the same position. Someday I will have them present a presentation (they won't know what the subject should be), in a language they have only been learning for 4 months and then talk throughout their entire presentation. I don't think they understand how frustrating it is. I loved my sponsor Rotary club in Florida, the people talked to me, the meetings started (and ended) on time and the people were considerate (unless you want to play a game - then you should run as fast as you can from the Ponte Vedra Sunset Club). I wish I could say that I go to Rotary because I just love the people and I want to be there but I really just go for my allowance. When Lae got up they were even more rude. Lae has a strong French accent and sometimes her Indonesian is hard to understand, this resulted in giggling and laughing throughout her presentation. After Lae finished I wanted to leave because I was going to be late to dinner. I told Aunt Melly but she told me to wait our President than proceeded to talk for 30 minutes. At this point the driver was calling me to tell me that he was already here and wanting to know if I would be done anytime soon. Finally the meeting ended and I go up as fast as I could to leave but I was not quite fast enough. I was snagged for the photo. While we were getting ready for the photo this old man kept calling me Julia Roberts. "Oh.. Julia Roberts.... oh Julia Roberts" The same old man had said the same thing before the meeting and keep teasing me even though I had corrected him. I was done I shouted "MY NAME IS ALAINA ROBERTS. A-L-A-I-N-A ROBERTS! NOT JULIA ROBERTS." Maybe this was a little bit of an overreaction but I had had enough crap for the day. We quickly took a picture and I left without saying goodbye to anyone. When I got downstairs the driver was waiting, he got the car and I got in. He asked me why I was so late and why I didn't answer my phone and I just apologized. I should not have been surprised to find that even though I was 45 minutes later than I said I would be my Mom and Dad were not home yet. Typical. To celebrate my last night in their house, my host family took me to a very nice restaurant up the mountain. The best part of being on the mountain is being able to look down at the city of Bandung in the Valley. We took lots of pictures. It was very, very nice of my host family to take me to the restaurant. My food was excellent and I ate tons. When everyone finished eating we drove home and sung along to the Radio. I went to bed happy with my first Host family and disappointed with my Host Rotary Club.

12.10.2012 Highlight

I have been blessed with the greatest First host family ever! I am so glad that I could spend 4 months in their house. I will never forget them and I cannot thank them enough for everything that they have taught me. I entered their house without knowing almost any Indonesian and I have left confident in the language. Thank you, thank you, Thank you!

12.11.2012

I woke up, to my First Host Mom hugging me. She was in tears and was telling me that I had to Skype her and talk to her all the time. I went back to sleep and when I woke up again I got ready to move host families and then waited. I called my first host family at around 9 AM and they said they would pick me up at 6 PM. So, I watched TV, ate food and I waited. I waited for a long time. I was already packed and I was completely ready so I didn't really have much to do. At 5 PM I was woken up from my nap by Aunt Melly. She said that she was here to pick me up. She was tired after driving so long to get to the my house. I took pictures of the house but for some reason my camera was being very weird and wasn't working very well. We left for my 2nd Host Family and I was excited to be moving. I arrived at my new house after sitting in traffic for 1 and a half hours. My host family was waiting for me and my host sister gave me a quick tour of the house. My host sister Izzati went to Wisconsin last year and her English might be better than mine. The house is small but it has a coziness  to it that I like. My host Mom ordered Pizza for dinner and it was super good. I don't get to eat plain cheese pizza that is still warm very often and I enjoyed every bite. After Pizza, Izzati talked for hours. My host Mom came over and told my sister that we should be speaking Indonesian and I promised that we would start tomorrow. I can't even summarize what we talked about it ranged from a wide variety of topics including Indonesian relationships (2 months of dating before hand holding is appropriate) and how awesome Disney World is. I can tell you that not a single one of the "first night questions" we asked. When we finally decided to call it a night I started unpacking. I successfully unpacked all of my crap and found places for everything. I went to bed tired and happy with my progress in my second host family.

12.11.2012 Highlight

I know that it is a huge deal to open your house up to a complete stranger and I am thankful that my 2nd Host Family was willing to take that chance. I already know that I am going to love my new family.

12.12.2012

I had to wake up early this morning, even though I was up very late. I woke up and packed for my trip to Belitung (Optional Rotary trip) and for Aunt Melly's Birthday. For her birthday Melly invited Leti, Lea and I to play with her all day and then to spend the night at a hotel. Aunt Melly told me that she would pick me up at about 10 AM, so I was ready for 11 (Indonesian time). It turns out that Melly and Leti hit traffic on the way to my house. What I cannot understand is that there is always traffic but people almost never leave time for getting stuck in traffic. When they finally got to my house it was about 12, which means that there was no reason that I should have woken up so early. When Aunt Melly got there I hurried into the car and we drove to Trans Studio. The traffic was bad and it took us a while to get there. At Trans Studio we went to Pizza Hut, which is actually a nice restaurant in Indonesia. We ate tons of cheese and bread and pizza and then we had ice cream for dessert that was covered in cookie crumbles, chocolate chips and Chocolate sauce. Lunch was amazing, the only problem was that Lae was having problems getting to Trans Studio. We headed to the other side of town to the hotel that we would be spending the night at. We checked in and shortly afterward Lae showed up. We took a little break and then we went to another restaurant for a Rotary meeting that Aunt Melly said she had to go to. She told us that we would be there for only 20 minutes tops. 40 minutes latter we were finally leaving. I just love Indonesian time. From the restaurant we dropped a lady off at her house and then went back to trans studio. We were planning on watching a movie but there weren't any good movies so we just went to dinner. Aunt Melly's real son came and we had a cake and sung happy birthday. I saw a CD store next to the restaurant and I was able to buy a Christmas CD there. After dinner we went to the hotel next to the mall so that Aunt Melly could Skype he Brazilian exchange student son. She talked to him for a while. The three of us girls played around and waited for her to finish. When she was finally done we went to BIP, another mall, to see if we could see a movie there. At this point it was pretty late and there were not any more movies. To make up for my disappointment I ran down the up escalator (twice) and I also ran down a elevated walkway with Leti. When I got to the bottom there was a lady who was just staring at us so I hurriedly said "Permisi bu" which means "Excuse me, Ms." It was super fun just to be crazy and run around. In the car Aunt Melly took off her head scarf and I stole it. I put it on and then walked through the hotel with the head dress. We went up the room, ate cake and went crazy. Leti had a ton of Brazilian dance music and she taught us how to dance. We danced for hours until we were so tired that we had to go to bed at about 1am. It was an awesome day!

12.12.2012 Highlight

I have always wanted to learn how to dance and I did awesome tonight. Unfortunately I can only dance to Brazilian music after severe sleep deprivation. SO do not expect me to ever dance again.

12.13.2012

I woke up in the hotel, still tired from dancing all night long. We had breakfast downstairs and it was amazing. They had everything! It really is worth it to stay in an 'international' hotel because they like to pander to 'international clients', which means I didn't eat rice for breakfast. We all ate tons of food then we went upstairs packed up and checked out. First, we dropped Lae off at her house then Aunt Melly and Leti came with me to my house so that I could pick up a couple things that I forgot for my trip to Belitung. It took me less than a minute to collect the things that I wanted and then we were out on the road again. Traffic in Indonesia is the worst. We had already spent most of the morning sitting in a car. I was going to take travel (what Indonesians call a car that you hire to take you to a city that also takes several other people to the same city) and I had to be at the station at 1:30. So before we went to the travel station we stopped at a small mall to eat lunch. After lunch I successfully got on travel and headed off to Jakarta. I was traveling alone and to say goodbye to me Aunt Melly and Leti drove their car next to the travel van and waved to me. I really love Leti and Aunt Melly. I think one thing that I have learned more about in Indonesia is patience. The drive to Jakarta is 3hours long and when I got to Jakarta I waited for my ride (that I didn't know). When my transit host family did come we drove to their house (about 40 minutes). I thanked the family and took my stuff upstairs to the guest room. I wasn't hungry and I really just wanted to sleep. I was about to go to sleep when the power went out, which didn't bother me. But, many people in Indonesia are scared of the dark and they refuse to sleep in the dark. So my transit host parents sent up the maid and their two children to keep me company. The maid brought a candle and the kids wanted to play. I taught them how to play B.S., we played B.S. then we played an Indonesian card game. The youngest son was sad because he kept losing so he said "I wish we has Uno cards" and it just so happened that I had Uno cards in my purse (the normal card we were previously playing with were also mine). I got out the Uno cards and we started playing. I did terrible, they play by a different set of rules and I kept getting really bad hands. By the end of our 2nd game of Uno the lights went back on. Then we played pick-up-sticks, I was the clear winner at this game and each round I had twice as many as my two younger competitors combined. After losing they decided that they need to go to bed because they had school the next day. I said goodnight and I was almost asleep when my transit host family knocked on my door again. It was time to take pictures. We took pictures everywhere they could think of and with several pieces of the Father's toy car collection. The little girl was so embarrassed she kept begging her parents to be done with pictures but they kept pressing on. I am used to smiling for a ridiculous amount of pictures so, I wasn't bothered. But, after flipping through an entire book about North America, I was really tired. I suggested that the girl needed to go to bed because she had school tomorrow and the parents quickly agreed and the family let me go to sleep.

12.13.2012 Highlight

Playing cards with my new friends :)

12.14.2012

I woke up with the prayer calls at 4:30, got ready and headed downstairs. We had to leave at 5 in order to get to the airport on time. It was a very long drive. My 'transit family' was awesome and I can't thank them enough for driving me so far so early in the morning. The driver dropped me off at the airport at 7 and I was alone. I didn't know what gate I should be at or when my flight was leaving, I just knew that I was going with Rotary and they arranged my plane ticket. After waiting alone for about 10 minutes the boy from Germany (Eric) showed up. One of the nice things about being the only two white people at an airport is the ability to find each other easily. Eric didn't have much more information than I did but, at least we weren't alone. We talked and waited until Eric got a call from Alejandro's (Boy from Colombia) host mom and we meet to eat Breakfast. The others didn't come until about 9:30. They explained the reason that I was dropped off so early was that the traffic in Jakarta is so bad that I would be stuck in it for hours if I didn't leave the house at 5. Whatever. I was surprised to find that there were only six students: myself, Sidney (Minnesota), Sam (Around Chicago), Oguzhan (Around Chicago), Eric (Germany), Alejandro (Colombia). We also has Mas Indra, Pa Wasito and Pa Wasito's wife. Instantly we were great friends. When we finally got on the plane we were so excited for the trip. The flight was short, only about one hour. We arrived in Belitung and after taking a thousand photos our trip started. This was the first time that Rotary had taken a trip to Belitung and so they rented a travel company that would drive us everywhere. We checked into the hotel, changed and headed out to the beach. The beach was beautiful and it had large boulders that we spent the next several hours climbing. While we were swimming out to a group of rocks I stepped on something and got a splinter. Sidney and I realized that we were truly the only girls when she shouted out "I have bandages" and I said that I had Neosporin. But, or medical kits were at the hotel and it didn't hurt too bad. When we got to the rocks we climbed all over them. At one point we saw a large lizard and tried to get its attention by pointing at it and taking photos. Later Sidney did research and the lizard is called a water monitor and it is the second largest lizard in the world, it can swim and it is extremely powerful. So in retrospect - teasing the big lizard was probably a bad idea. After exploring everything we could Sam and I set our eyes on a set of rocks in the middle of the ocean. Throughout the trip I became the 'Florida girl that all the stupid mid-westerns ask questions to because they know nothing about the ocean'. Sam asked me if I thought it was a good idea to swim out to the rocks and I said that it would be ok and that they probably weren't that far away. Anyway, I am a fairly competent swimmer and I was sure I wouldn't have a problem. Sam and I talked and swam for a long time. It was defiantly farther than we thought it was and when we got 80 percent of the way there we realized that there weren't any small rock that we could use to climb up and that there was no way on the boulders. We were forced to turn around. Luckily Sam is a strong swimmer, otherwise we would have been in trouble. Eventually we found a sand bar that we could at least stand up on an rest for a minute, which is where I got my second splinter of the day. (Mind you no one else got a splinter). When we made it back to shore we didn't know where everyone went and we estimated that we had been swimming for about 45 minutes. We walked around and saw that the driver was still there so, the group hadn't left us. When we did find everyone they said that they watched us look for them for a while before they came up. We had ice cream and loaded back into the van. We drove to a dock and walked all the way down. It was the perfect place to watch the sunset. I have never seen anything so beautiful. The six of us sat and talked about random things until the sun went down and then we went to dinner. We went to a Chinese restaurant and ate Crabs. It was embarrassing because I had never eaten crabs before and the 'stupid mid-westerns' had to teach me how to eat seafood. Dinner was a battle and there we severe casualties on both sides my crab lost and it ended up ripped to shreds and splattered all over my plate but I ended up with the title "dirtiest hands" and with a still unsatisfied stomach. When we got back to the hotel we decided that we wanted to go for a night swim at the beach that was just across the street. We never told the Rotarians where we were going and they didn't seem to care. We walked to where we thought the beach was but it wasn't there. I know that makes no sense but, it really wasn't there, after walking along the beach for a while we realized that the tide must be very extreme and that is why we couldn't see the water. We tried to salvage the trip by buying Martabak (traditional Indonesian cake) but, when we asked a nearby worker where we could buy it they just kept saying "mengarti" (Understand) , we were speaking Indonesian but apparently the man was in shock and didn't want to talk with us. We returned to the hotel unsuccessful but undeterred. We decided to swim in the pool instead. Eric had a soccer ball and I wouldn't give it back to him. Something that everyone should put on their bucket list is annoying a German. So fun. He tried to fight me for the ball but had the moral issue of hurting a girl, I was just having fun. By the way laughing makes it hard to hold your breath while being dunked underwater. After a long struggle I gave him the ball. We went to bed very late.

12-14-2012 Highlight

Sam's Hippie Commune. We talked a lot throughout the weekend about this hypothetical island that Sam and a couple of other people would live on. We discussed everything including what type of island would be best, what we would be allowed to bring to the island and how we would get food. It is a really fun scenario to talk about and it never gets old. There is always more to talk about.

12-15-2012

Sidney and I woke up to Sam knocking on our hotel door. Apparently everyone was ready and waiting on us. No one told us to wake up and our hotel room didn't have any windows so, we had no idea. Sidney and I were ready and downstairs in 5 minutes, which surprised the boys. We jumped into the van an were on our way. We drove to a beach and got on a small boat that would take us to other small islands. One of the best things about Belitung, that cannot be said about the rest of Indonesia, is that it is empty. Most people are locals and even though there is tourism it is tiny compared to the amount of people that go to Bali. Fewer people and a tourism economy would explain why everything was so clean. One of the major problems in Indonesia is the pollution, people just throw trash everywhere and it was nice to escape from that. The boat ride was about twenty minutes and it was gorgeous. The first island had a lighthouse and when we got there a wedding was going on. Exploring = best thing ever. Together we swam out to a small island close by. There were rocks and crabs and we tried to see everything. At one point Sidney cut herself on a rock and she was panicking that a shark would come. I had to explain that sharks don't like human blood and that she would be ok. When we returned to the original island we ate, while I was eating a cat decided to adopt me and wouldn't leave me alone. After lunch we went back on the boat and snorkeled. We used bread to attract fish. There were thousands of fish and we were in the middle of a huge coral reef. I don't know if any other reef can compare. Beautiful. When the guide called us back to the boat we were reluctant to leave. On the boat we traveled to island number two. This island was much bigger. We walked around part of it and we found a coconut tree. We decided that we should try to get a coconut down, it took a while and a lot of effort but they finally got it. I was being eaten by mosquitoes and so I left before they got the coconut down. I found a sand dollar (which was exciting because my beach in Florida doesn't have them very often and I have never found a whole one). Eric and Alejandro found tiny starfish and we let them crawl all over us. We only stayed at this island for an hour and then we rode to island number three. At this point all of the exchange students we sitting on the roof of the boat because we could and because it was something we would never be allowed to do in America. Island three can really only be called a sandbar. There was a circular patch of sand about ten feet in diameter. We took pictures and then snorkeled around the island. I was floating around when I saw a tiny crab pop up a big crab followed quickly snatched the smaller crab and then disappeared into the sand again. The whole struggle was over in five seconds. I found another sand dollar, but it broke. The other thing on the island was a type of huge starfish and we hunted for them in the water. I was unable to find any but, I did find tons of tiny starfish. We had to leave after thirty minutes because the guides were worried about getting stuck in sand. For dinner we went to a small local place. The food was ok but it didn't matter because we were all so hungry. We stopped to buy snacks on the way home and talked about playing cards but all of us were exhausted. We went to bed.

12-15-2012 Highlight

Translation error:

What we heard "Kita makan ikan" - "We will eat fish"

What the guide actually said "Kita kasih makan ikan" -"We will give food to fish"

We were all excited about eating fresh fish but it turns out feeding the fish was even better.

12-16-2012

We woke up, wandered downstairs and lazily ate breakfast. All of us were sunburned, we were so excited to be in the sun again and be tan that we didn't put sunscreen on- terrible mistake. Breakfast was good. Nobody told Sidney and I that we were checking out of the hotel right now and that we should pack so we had to run upstairs and pack before we could leave. When everyone was ready we climbed into the van (much more difficult with sunburn). We stopped by a small restaurant and had a traditional dish. All of the exchange students had already eaten so we all split one bowl. Our definitions of sanitation and cleanliness have defiantly changed. We all used the same fork and it didn't even bother us, exchange changes people. We drove some more until we got to a small store where we bought oleh-oleh (snacks and souvenirs to give to friends when you come back from vacation -typically traditional foods of the area). Pa Wasito gave us money to buy it (which is reasonable when you know how much we paid for the trip). Back in the car and off to a museum. The highlight of the museum was a baby cat and its protective mother. We also decided to make our own stories up for the displays because they were boring and we couldn't read the explanations. Outside the museum had the crocodiles which brought a whole conversation about how only crazy people live in Florida. We were all in tons of pain. There is a definite shift in the photos from all touching each other and having arms raised in excitement to standing eight inches away from the person next to you and trying not to touch. We had lunch at the same place that we had eaten Crab. It was delicious, all of us ate tons of food. The Rotarians had to keep ordering more food and water to feed us. After lunch we had to go to the airport, it was time to leave paradise. Airport security in Indonesia is nothing compared to America. Our plane was late because it was raining so we turned around one of the benches and we played cards (using our suitcases as a table). When we finally got to board the plane I couldn't find my boarding pass for a minute. Luckily I was able to find it and I was able to get on the plane with my friends. We were in the air for no more than thirty minutes when a lady came on the intercom. I wasn't listening the first time so I didn't catch it (You have to listen to the Indonesian because the 'English" is beyond poor). The second time we all listened and discovered that because of 'bad weather' we couldn't land in Jakarta and we had to land on another island. We landed, waited for at least an hour and then took off again. The next day I found out from my host sister that something went wrong with the Jakarta airport, she thinks the radar stopped working. Whatever it was, planes were unable to communicate with the control tower and all flights were shut down for a while. When we finally did get to Jakarta it was very late. I was planning on taking travel back to Bandung but we arrived too late for this to be practical. I spent the night with Sidney at Alejandro's house. I wanted to take a shower. Taking off my clothes with the sunburn was excruciating and my shoulders hurt so much that I just stood in the cold water. I slept poorly, trying not to move or lay on any part of my sunburn.

12-17-2012

The morning was almost just as painful as the night before. I woke up, tried to get dressed, ate breakfast, said goodbye to Sidney and left. I went with my transit host mom and brother. We dropped him off at school and then my transit mom took me to find travel. The first one we went to was full and didn't have another van leaving until 1pm, so we went to a second station. They had a van leaving right then and I was able to get a seat. I thanked my transit mom for taking me and letting me spend the night at her house and then I went to Bandung. There is nothing like traveling in Indonesia, you just don't go to the bathroom. The van won't stop and I had to go very bad by the time we finally got to Bandung. My host sister Izzati picked me up at the station. My older host sister was also in the car with her daughter. So I meet another sister and my niece for the first time. They were so nice. We went to brunch, when we got to the restaurant I picked up my niece (about 2) and carried her into the restaurant. I love little kids. Afterward my older host sister told me that Misha (niece) doesn't normally let other people pick her up. We talked and ate for a while. When we got home I had to catch up on my email and Facebook it is amazing what you miss in a couple of days.

12-17-2012 Highlight

Being on Vacation is nice but I really enjoy that feeling of being home. I had just moved into this house and I was able to settle in more today.

12-18-2012

Today was just filled with relaxation and healing from my sunburn. I am now peeling profusely. I looked like Rudolf at one point because my nose was so red.