Winter Break part 2: December 19th 2012 - January 8th 2013

12-19-2012

Woke up to my niece laughing (one of the toddler laughs that sounds more like screeching). I played with her for a little bit, Izzati and I wanted to do something but, we had to wait for my host mom to get back from Solo (works there sometimes). I felt a little sick but it was not unusual, my stomach hurt pretty often. We decided that we wanted to go see a movie. My host mom got home and we took her taxi to Trans Studio. We bought tickets for the Hobbit and then we ate lunch. I had beef and rice, the restaurant gave us chips that we very good and when we ran out I asked if they would refill our bowl. Another bonus of being a white person in Indonesia, when you speak Indonesian and ask for something people typically give it to you because they are super impressed. We walked around the mall and when it was about time we headed to the movie theater. My stomach was hurting worse now but I still wasn't too concerned. When I started feeling cold I knew something was wrong, I never feel cold. We watched the movie and I had a hard time concentrating. I was in a lot of pain, my temperature shot up and my stomach hurt but I refused to leave the movie. I assumed the movie was only going to be an hour and a half but it wouldn't end. They put extra things into the movie that weren't in the book and even though it had SEVERAL opportunities to end it didn't. When it did end and we left the theater I could barely walk I was so dizzy. I drank a bottle of water and we sat down on a bench and waited for my host mom to pick us up. At first I just wanted to go home but, I wasn't getting any better so I consented to go to the hospital. The mall security wheeled me out of the mall and I laid down in the back seat of my Mom's car. Traffic is the worse, I have no idea how long I was in the car but I was miserable. My family tried to cool me down with wet tissues but it was really useless. When we finally did get to the hospital I was but on a bed and rolled into a curtained off room. The nurses took my temperature and asked questions in fast Indonesian (I had told my family the answers to all important questions while in the car and my family's English is very good). They put an IV in me and I was very good about it even though I am normally not good with needles and nurses. They started pumping water into me at an alarming rate and soon I had to go to the bathroom. The nurse wheeled me to the bathroom and suggested that she come in with me and I told her that was not necessary. I went to the bathroom and went back to bed. They waited for my blood tests to come back before they moved me into a more permanent room. I had barely sat down in my new room when they moved me into another room. Time became very fuzzy. I had to go to the bathroom more times than I car to count because of the IV and no one had told me how to hold my hand with the IV in it so my IV filled with blood. The nurse had to get the blood out because it was affecting the IV. Aunt Melly wined the whole time while they were working on the needle in my hand, I am more used to adults being calm in such situations. The nurse tried and failed many different ways to clean the IV and eventually she just replaced the tube. Afterward she told me that I was not allowed to go to the bathroom by myself, I told Melly, who probably translated this into something nicer "I will go to the bathroom with someone when Hell freezes over, I am not a dying old man that has to pee in a pan." I fell into a fitful sleep woken up every couple of hours with bathroom visits and nurses taking tests.

12- 20-2012

I woke up in the hospital for the first time in my memory. I am a very stubborn person especially when it comes to going to the doctor. I haven't been forced to go to the hospital since I was a little kid. Aunt Melly was sleeping in the chair next to me, she had spent the night. I was ready to get out. A nurse shot antibiotics into my IV, she did it really fast. At this point I had to feeds into my IV (1 water and 1 bottle of antibiotics) and the stupid nurse shot the liquid at full blast from the syringe. I screamed, she joking commented "Pelan, pelan" or "Slowly, slowly". I was very close to slapping her in the face. My hand never stopped hurting. I expressed discomfort and said that I would like the IV out, the nurses told me that I should wait until the antibiotics finished... it was a new bottle and I knew it would take hours. I put up with the pain for a while and then I told them to take it out. They protested and said that they would have to put the IV in the other hand and that I needed it, I told them that I would not let them put another IV in me and that I could take the medicine. Finally they agreed to take it out. The doctor visited and told me that I would have to stay another night. I told my family that I wanted to check out of the hospital but they wouldn't let me. Sometime in the last couple of hours I got an email to my mom to try to prevent her from hearing that I was in the hospital via Facebook. I was not happy. People kept telling me to eat and drink and no one would let me get out of bed for anything except for going to the bathroom. I discovered blood on the floor, I hope it was mine (not sure) and it stayed there until the next day. Total boredom. I officially hate hospitals. I threatened to call 911 and the US Embassy and report abuse. I have never wanted to come home more than I did while I was in the hospital. I kept thinking that in America I would be given pills, a water bottle and sent on my way, I cannot forgive Indonesia for making me stay in the hospital. None of my visitors brought games for me to play and most barely talked to me. They only wanted to know if I still had diarrhea and they wanted to play doctor. My Said proudly told me that his Australian brother-in-law was in town and he had Diarrhea too, but he didn't have to go to the hospital because Mr. Said was able to treat him. I tried to explain that I deal with diarrhea all the time and it was the severe dehydration that was the problem because it made my temperature get very high (I don't know how high it got). I ate a very good lunch with Aunt Melly downstairs, another universal truth is that hospital food sucks (I was able to get potatoes, not rice for my daily meals in the hospital). Much to my dismay I had to sleep in the hospital again, this time I told everyone that I would be fine alone and no one stayed with me. At about midnight I got a huge craving for Pringles. I grabbed my wallet and went downstairs before someone could stop me. The store was closed, I never did get my Pringles.

12-21-2012

Woke up at 5 in a hospital all alone. The nurses went through all of their tests and I was able to speak Indonesian to them. I waited and waited. The doctor came in and asked me a few questions, then he said that I was free to leave. By 8 I had all the paperwork I needed to leave but I didn't have a family to come and get me. Izzati was getting her grades at school and my host family was occupied doing that. I was not able to actually leave the hospital until 2:30. The final bill for 2 nights in the hospital and lots of medicine I could take at home if I needed it turned out to be 110 dollars. Insurance paid for everything. The way home took forever... traffic at its worse. We stopped at a mall near out house because some of the roads were closed and Izzati and I walked home in the rain. When we got home we opened the door to find three inches of water everywhere in the house. The rest of the afternoon was spent de-flooding the house. I feel bad for other people in Bandung that were even more flooded than we were. We had pizza to celebrate our hard work and I fell asleep almost instantly.

12-22-2012

It was a weekend so my host Dad was home, I had not really talked to him before this. He is very nice and I wish he was at home more. I spent the morning resting, I had just gotten out of the hospital and my family wanted to make sure I acted the part. There was not one hour that went by when my faithful Mom wouldn't tell me to drink more water and to eat more food. For lunch the whole family went to a sushi restaurant. I was still feeling queasy and did not want to challenge my stomach with raw fish and the food was very expensive and I would have felt bad if I ordered something and was unable to finish it. I ended up letting my mom order Japanese pasta and beef for me. I ate almost all of it. Just in case you are wondering I am still going to the bathroom every thirty minutes, which makes traffic fairly miserable. The rest of the day I just relaxed and putted off writing my journal.

12-23-2012

Today I got an email from my mom that said she had exciting college news. When I Skyped her she said that not only did I get into the University of South Carolina they decided to give me a scholarship. The university awarded me in-state tuition. Out-of-state tuition is about 26,000 dollars a year; Instate is 10,000 and they will give me at least 2,000 dollars extra every year meaning that I will only pay 8,000 dollars a year (pretty good for a great American school).  I have been accepted into University of South Carolina, University of North Florida and Auburn. I am still waiting on Brigham Young University (Utah) and Florida State University. My application for BYU has a hiccup, they do not have my high school transcript even though I have already sent it, I fear that I will not be accepted because of this.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and watching movies.

12-24-2012

Christmas Eve!

Nothing like what I would have done in America. I went to lunch with Izzati and her friends. we went to Sushi and this time I actually ate it. We ate tons of Sushi including: tuna rolls, salmon rolls, salmon belly, a crispy roll (crab meat) and a baby octopus. It was really good, I didn't eat as much as everyone else but, I liked it. There were four of us and we at 40 dollars worth of sushi. I wouldn't be surprised if the meal would cost over a hundred dollars in America, maybe more. I probably won't eat sushi all the time but, it might be nice every once and a while. The most disappointing thing about today was the fact that I did not get any Christmas Pajamas. Living half-way across the world really makes you realize that the most important part of Christmas is family.

12-25-2012

CHRISTMAS DAY!!!

I slept in, and spent the morning in a kind of daze. It wasn't really Christmas. I went over to the Said's house because Mr. Said is Christian and every year they have a family get together. I was there very early and I spent the time eating and taking to relatives. One of my uncles is Australian and I talked a lot to him about why I was here and his job. He is a cleaner for a coal mining company in Australia and he explained to me how that worked. Talking to new people is fun especially if they have an amazing accent. At 6, I was able to Skype my family and watch them open presents for Christmas morning. I miss them and I love them. For the party tons of family came over and I don't think that they are all Christian. We prayed, read the first six verses of Luke (not exactly the Christmas story, just says that Caesar taxed everyone) then we ate. There was so much food. I ate rice, cheesy potatoes, sate, pasta and many other things. According to Indonesian manners the guests should eat first, everyone still thinks of me as a guest and I hate going first all the time. This time my Australian Uncle went first and I went second. For dessert we had 'fruit juice' which was more like fruit soup with chunks of Jell-O and fruit in it and cheesecake. We sang two Christmas songs and then we sang random pop songs. It was very nice of the Said family to invite me over. Lae from Belgium was also there and we talked for a long time in our own mix of English and Indonesian. Lae and I spent the night. We woke up late and ate breakfast. I went back to bed after breakfast because I was still tired. Lae woke me up to say goodbye and she left. I ate lunch and Mr. Said took me home in the afternoon. It was good to be home again.

12-27-2012

Relaxation! Don't ask me why I didn't write my blog, I just didn't want to.

12-28-2012

Today I took an Angkot with Izzati. We went to a mall that I have never been to before to see a movie. We bought the tickets and then went to lunch. We looked around and decided on Wendy's but when we went inside the prices were very expensive and we wanted a lot of food. So instead we went to the Kiosk, an Indonesian restaurant that features several different stations and cooks and you can order from one spot. This Kiosk also had Clemens, which is an American food chain. The food was less expensive than Wendy's and it was much better. I ate crispy chicken, which was fried chicken with cornflakes on it. It was delicious and I ate everything on my plate. After lunch we met up with one of Izzati's friends and we went to the movie. It was my first Indonesian movie!!! Habibie & Ainun, it was about one of the Presidents of Indonesia and his wife who had cancer. There were no English subtitles, in case you were wondering but I understood most of the movie. The President was famous for building planes in Indonesia so, of course I didn't catch all of that terminology but I got the idea. I felt like this was a major accomplishment, being able to understand a movie that was in a completely new language. I know most exchange students have already gotten to this point but Indonesians don't dub movies and so it is hard to find a movie with Indonesian being spoken (that is worth watching). YAAA!!!

12-29-2012

My host Dad was back in town. Izzati wanted to hang out with her friends so I got to spend some quality time with my host parents in the car. We compared animal sounds and laughed at each other. I insisted that a lion does indeed say "ROAR" not whatever weird noise they gave it. And they insisted that a gun says "dor dor" not "bang". Culture is a funny thing. There was a lot of traffic because of the holiday. People from Jakarta love coming to Bandung on vacation, which means on holidays Bandung is flooded with extra people. I have found that a great way to make friends in Bandung is by saying "Jakarta is the worst, I love Bandung. People from Jakarta always come to Bandung during the holiday and we have lots of traffic!" Anyway, we finally got to our destination which was had a bookstore, better than a bookstore, an English bookstore! I was going to buy the Life of Pi and a Nicholas Sparks book because they said they were 50% off. When I went to pay I found out that they weren't on sale so I just bought The Life of Pi. Afterward we went to an international supermarket. Apparently it is a shopping center that is popular with expatriates. We bought lots of food and my host mom insisted that I pick out stuff. We ate a lunch that consisted of Sate, fried noodles, some spicy vegetable thing that was really good and rice. Yum! The food was so good and I ate lots. After lunch we went to PVJ (mall) to meet Izzati. The traffic wasn't too bad getting there but I swear we spent an hour stuck in the parking lot looking for a spot. Uhg.. traffic. I walked around the mall with Izzati and her friend and they ate at a Indonesian restaurant. I wasn't too hungry so I just ordered a small thing of Tofu that was cooked in a special sauce. Getting out of the parking lot at the end of the night was even worse. We got home very late and I went to bed.

12-30-2012

All of my family was home for the day including; Izzati, my two older sister, and one of my sister's husband and daughter. The house it pretty small but, it was fun to have a super close knit family. One of my older sisters wanted to go see a movie so Izzati and I took an Angkot to meet her at the theater. When we got there all the seats were taken except for the very first row. So we met up and drove to another mall, we barely got there in time. I missed the first couple of minutes. It was 5 cm, an Indonesian movie about 6 friends who climb a mountain. I was really tired and they were talking fast and using slang. Needless to say I didn't understand all of it and most of the time I just made up my own words. The pictures of the mountain were very pretty and I was able to get something from the film. I have decided that I want to climb that mountain. It is the highest mountain in Java and it is also an active volcano (only puffs smoke). If the point of exchange is to do crazy things that you have never done before and probably will never do again, then this is my chance.

12-31-2012

NEW YEAR'S EVE!!

Pretty normal day, I watched movies with the family, played with Misha (niece) and just hung around the house. My family didn't stay up or celebrate but I think it is something to be able to end the year in a completely new country with a new family, speaking a new language and it feels normal. I would not change anything this year! I am so glad that I was able to graduate high school come to Indonesia and be where I am right now. Last December 31st I had no idea what I was getting into and I had no idea where I would be in one year. Time sure does fly.

And, I found out recently that there will be a girl from Florida coming to Indonesia next year. Good Luck!

January Journal

1/1/2013

Selamat Baru Tahun!

Happy New Year!!!!

1/2/2013  and 1/3/2013

Relaxed! I wrote my New Year resolutions and tried to get sleep. I also started reading The Life Of Pi . I also succeded in not writing a journal. On the 3rd I packed for my trip to Solo.

1/4/2013

I woke up at 4:30. I took a shower, got dressed and finished getting ready for our trip to Solo. My Mom is working on a house in Solo and she goes there occasionally. I have a friend that lives there and I wanted to visit her, Solo is also very close to Yogyakarta (known at Jogja). Jogja has tons of ancient temples and if you live in Indonesia you have to go there. My family planned a trip and today we were leaving for Solo. We left the house at 6:30 and got on the train at 8. The train ride is nine hours long. I slept a little and I was able to read a lot of my book (The Life Of Pi). About three hours in I was bored and I decided to take a walk to the bathroom. I found out that the toilet is really just a squat potty with a hole in the bottom, where you can see the train tracks below. The bathroom also had a handlebar to help people squat on the moving train. I didn't have to go to the bathroom bad enough to go so I just waited the appropriate amount of time so that people outside wouldn't laugh at me. People think that I can't use squat potties, but I can! I might put that on my résumé "Can use a squat potty like a champ", it shows real determination and flexibility. Anyway, the ride wasn't that bad. I never did go to the bathroom. When we did get to Solo it was raining and rickshaw  (different name in Indonesian) drivers were crowding me trying to get me to get their cart. We pushed threw them and were able to find a taxi, which drove us to the hotel. There was some confusion about meeting Sidney (my exchange student friend in Solo- same Sidney that went on the trip to Belitung) but we finally met up. We went to dinner together and talked. Then we took Sidney home and went back to the hotel. After watching TV for a little while we went to bed.

1/5/2013

Man, Indonesian people wake up early! Normally I can sleep in a little because I have my own room but this morning I was sharing with my sister and mom so, no such luck. My mom left super early and Izzati and I were dressed and downstairs for breakfast at 6. The breakfast was poor and the toaster ate my toast. I called Sidney to tell her that we were coming and that she should get ready. My dad had taken a train from Jakarta to Solo during the night and he arrived early this morning. My dad also rented a driver for the day that would take us to Jogja. We headed off. The drive was only one and a half hours long and the drive wasn't too bad. When we got to Jogja we visited Prambanan  temple. In one word magnificent. The temples were huge and made completely out of stone. We took tons of pictures (including with curious Indonesians). We walked around the temples for a while. It was so hot outside but it was worth it. There was a lot of damage to the temples from an earthquake that hit several years before hand, I hope that people are able to preserve the temples so that there is no further damage. After Prambanan, we went to one of my mom's friend's hotels and batik factory. If I haven't made this clear yet, Batik is a type of traditional art that is done on fabric. It can either be made into clothes or it can be hung on the wall for decoration. The place made batik clothes and they were beautiful but they were also very expensive because they are made using the extremely long traditional process. I choose not to buy anything because I knew we were going shopping later and I didn't want to spend all of my money. When we were done socializing we went to lunch at a famous restaurant that is owned by a Banci (transvestite). I ordered Fried Rice and it was really good. Then, we went to a palace and took a tour the tour included a Batik air gallery. The guide explained the basic steps of making batik. First the artist uses pencil on a piece of wax paper, they then use the paper sketch to trace the pattern on the fabric, next the trace the pattern in wax. They paint the rest of the picture and dye the fabric. When they are done they boil the material to get the wax off and the parts are left white. It is beautiful and defiantly an art form. I bought one of the paintings. The man selling them gave use the "Indonesian" price because my sister and dad were with us and we talked in Indonesian. He did show us the "tourist" prices which were more than double. He also gave us a discount on the good prices and we left feeling like we weren't  ripped off. Malioboro, was the next place we went to. It is a very famous street that sells tons of souvenirs and it is known for being very cheap. I bought lots of gifts and we looked around some of the stores before returning to the car. The driver took us to a little park that has two trees in it. Legend says that if you can walk in-between the two trees your love life will improve. I was able to get through the trees on my second try (you get 3 tries). So congrats to me! Then we rented a cart that we could peddle around the park. The steering wheel was in the back but, we didn't hit anything. After the park we started the drive home. We stopped at Sidney's house to pick up her things,  we bought pizza and went to the hotel. We watched movie and talked all night.

1/6/2013

We woke up tired because apparently we didn't go to bed until 2 am. At least we were allowed to sleep in a little. When we did get up we ate breakfast and waited to be told what to do. Sidney's host mom sent their driver to come pick us up then we went to their house and talked for a little while. Sidney's host Mom decided that she wanted to show us around Solo so we all got into the car. I don't really remember where we went I just know that we were in the car for an absurd amount of time. First we went to a museum that taught us about the Java man and evolution. then we drove two hours to get chicken soup and rice. After lunch we went to the mountain. We drove for a very long time. Sidney and I talked most of the time and at one point we were laughing so hard we were crying because we didn't know why we were still in the car. When we finally got to Solo again we dropped off Sidney and I said goodbye. Then we went to KFC to pick up dinner and then to the train station. The train left the station at 8:30 and we rode the train all night long.

1/6/2013 Highlight

Talking to other exchange students is very enjoyable.

1/7/2013

The train finally arrived at 6am, an hour behind schedule. I slept a little on the train but it was restless. It should have been my first day of school but, when we got home my mom decided that I didn't have to go to school because I was so tired. I slept from 10 to 1 pm, awesome nap. I also caught up on email, Facebook and I finished The Life Of Pi, it was an awesome book by the way.

1/8/2013

First day of school. I had to wake up early and put on my school uniform for the first time in almost a month. I had the morning ceremony, culture class and then Indonesian class, which was canceled so I went to the library. I sat down in the library and I started typing. I have now been typing all day. Stupid Journal! Or maybe Stupid Me for putting off 1 month of journals! Whatever, I briefly paused to move rooms to my Digital drawing class room, then back to the library, then I had Angklung practice and then back to the library again. When I got home I took a short break. I don't even want to know how many pages I typed today.

1/8/2013 Highlight

Journals finally up to date! I hope all of you are happy :)