February 13th-25th 2013

2/13/2013

I went to school today. Nothing very exciting happened. I still don't always know where my classes are and I don't really care anymore. School is so boring.

2/14/2013

Normal day of school, except it didn't start until 1pm and ended at 5pm. Right after school my driver took me to a hotel for the Rotex meeting (People that have already been on exchange). I have to wait about an hour and a half for the meeting to start because I was very early. I was the entertainment. I knew that they wanted me to give a presentation and I was ready. I was also very tired so I didn't really care if they liked my presentation or not. I talked for about 30 minutes. Most of it was in Indonesian and I only had to say some things in English. I went through pictures of America, pictures of me in Indonesia and answered questions. I am super good at giving presentations now. It was easy and everyone seemed to enjoy it. After my presentation Herly, my councilor's son who also went to Florida two years ago, said that I should be a stand-up comedian.

2/14/2013 Highlight

My presentation went well and I like going to Rotex meetings.

2/15/2013

School. Boring. Uhg.

2/16/2013

I didn't have school today... YAAA!!! I slept in and watched TV for a little bit and wasted my time. Just after lunch, someone knocked on the door. I was the only one downstairs so I had to greet everyone into the house (my maid was there and I knew that they weren't random people). I had no idea what to do but, I introduced myself and welcomed them until my Mom came downstairs. Then they started talking about me. Sometimes I wonder if people know that they are being very obnoxious when they talk about me as if I can't understand them. One of my cousins pointed at me and asked my Mom if I could speak Indonesian. I interrupted and said that I could. They talked about my school and then the same cousin asked me a question. I could not understand her voice. She had one of those high pitch voices that doesn't sound like words. I asked her to repeat it and she said it again, even faster. I had no idea, so I guessed what the question was. I was wrong. The whole family gave me a look similar to the reaction to a dog peeing on the floor. I excused myself and went upstairs. When I woke up, they were all still there. We went to dinner at a mall together and then watched a movie. By the end of the night I could barely understand my two cousins so, I just kept talking and asking them questions.  My favorite part of the evening was being able to walk around alone for a while at the mall. We did not get home until 11:30.

2/17/2013

I woke up early this morning because I was planning on helping with a Rotex project. Herly was going to pick me up at 7 but, I got a text saying that he couldn't. The morning was a big mess of confusion. What ended up happening was this: I didn't go to help feed the orphans with Rotex because I had no information and I didn't have a ride, I went to church and my Dad drove me. Church was great, I still can't understand the whole meeting but I enjoy going. After church my Mom and Dad picked me up and we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. I met my sister's boyfriend and we all ate tons of food. I ate too much and I felt sick afterward. I spent the rest of the day relaxing.

2/18/2013

School again. I sat in the library and talk to new people. We talked for a long time, I showed them pictures and went through the whole "exchange student" routine. I did find my class about an hour before I had to go home. I joined their class but I had to leave early because my driver arrived. I am currently working on a project (I can't say what it is ) and I needed to buy more supplies. I asked my driver to take me to Setibuddi because I thought that was e name of the store I wanted to go to. Apparently that is the name of the street and we wondered for a while until he told me that he didn't know where I wanted to go. I had to call my 2nd host mom to ask her the name of the store I was looking for. She helped a lot and was able to instruct my driver. When we did get to the store it only took me 10 minutes to buy everything I needed. It took 2 hours from the time we left school to get home. I ate lunch (it was now 3 pm and I was starving) and then changed out of my school clothes. Just when I was starting to get comfortable, Aunt Melly called. She convinced me that I needed to go to my Rotary meeting to support Leti, who was giving a presentation. Just like always my Rotary drives me crazy. They didn't listen to Leti and the food was bad. After the disappointing meeting, Aunt Melly kidnapped Leti and me. We went somewhere to help her mom set up something for some random presentation the next day. I don't know what was going on and it took forever. Leti and I talked for a long time and tried to be patient. The most annoying thing is when people always say "just a minute" and then it takes more than an hour. Efficiency is not something that has been mastered in Indonesia yet. Herly took me home and we talked about how my Rotary club only complains about problems and never does any projects. Now, I am planning on helping to come up with projects with Rotex because apparently in Indonesia Rotary is worthless. I was up late because I still had to do my Seminary class before I went to bed and then I talked to Callie, my friend in Austria. Exchange student problems, we all live in different countries but we all have the same problems on exchange. I love talking to other exchange students!

2/19/2013

I did not wake up until 11 and I felt sick. I was going to go to school but, my ride kept changing and it was confusing and I was tired and sick so, I stayed home. I didn't accomplish much but, I didn't really care. Exchange is like a rollercoaster. Some days are the best and other days are the loneliest and hardest days to get through. I am glad it is over.

2/20/2013

I decided I wanted to go to school in the morning. The traffic was bad and it took an hour to get to school this morning. I still feel very sick. I have been in the library, idling away my time. There are several boy here that think it is funny to play the "penis" game with my name. For those of you who do not have the terrible misfortune to be surrounded by adolescent boys and do not know what the penis game is, it is when boys take turns saying the word penis. Every time they repeat it, it gets louder, until a teacher or some other responsible person tells them to behave. My name is yelled at me all the time and today was no different. The boys kept repeating my name. I let it go on for 10 minutes before I snapped. I yelled at them in English (the best way to intimidate people). They giggled and finally left me alone. Sometimes people are the best part of exchange, other times I just try to restrain myself. At least my self control has gotten much better over the last couple of months. When school was finally over and I was almost home I saw a ice cream vendor in my neighborhood. I rarely get to eat ice cream (maybe 8 times since I got here). I changed out of my uniform really fast and I ran downstairs to meet the vendor. Apparently he didn't want to go down my street and I had missed him. Normally, I don't crave ice cream but after getting false hope I wanted some. I knew that there was an Indomart nearby so I walked a mile to buy ice cream and other snacks. I waited to eat my ice cream until after dinner, I was being a very good girl.  My Mom got home right before dinner and she brought presents... ice cream. So, now I had more ice cream than I knew what to do with, which is not the worst thing in the world. My host family is awesome!

2/21/2013

Today, I went to school which was normal. Nothing worth writing about. After school I went home and got changed. My host sister had an art exhibit today and the whole family was planning on going. I had a while to relax because my driver was going to pick me up at 6:30. The traffic was so bad that my driver was an hour late. I went with the driver to pick up my parents at their clinic and then we went to Kara's art exhibit. It was in Braga which is a very old section of the town that was designed by the colonists many years ago (The Netherlands controlled Indonesia for many years and Indonesia only became an independent county on August 17, 1945). The show was very cool. While I was looking at one of the displays I got separated from my host parents and I ended up finding Kara instead. I walked through most of the exhibit with Kara. She is very talented. Her piece that was in the show was a wooden "Chutes and Ladders" game. She explained to me that now with technology an artist can design something on Corel Draw and then they send it to a factory where a laser can make their design in wood. When we finished looking at everything we found my parents and looked at some of the pieces again. The power went off a couple of times (only for a minute each time). Kara had to stay but my parents and I went to dinner at a nearby restaurant. The food was really good but, it was late and I was very tired.

2/22/2013

School again. Except this morning I got a call from a lady who wanted to have lunch with me. As an Exchange student I trust everyone and do not think it is weird when someone I don't know calls me and wants to meet up with me. I went to school and we did not have a teacher. I hung out with my class and talked to them. I even had a 20 minute long chat on my computer with one of my friends. I don't know why he didn't just want to talk but the wanted to "IM" on a word document. It is easier to understand him this way anyway so, I didn't complain. When we got bored of talking we took pictures on my computer. I don't know why Indonesian love taking pictures, but they do. I took picture with them for 10 minutes before I got bored and they took my computer to take more pictures. When they started shaking the desk because they were so excited I took my computer back because I was afraid for its safety. When I had finished serving my time for the day I met the woman outside of my school. We went to lunch together. She wanted to talk about creating a blog called "My Bule friend said" (For those of you who don't remember 'Bule' is Gringo in Indonesian). She wants more people to join Rotary in Indonesia and she thinks the blog will make Rotary more popular in Indonesia because having white people in Indonesia is like having celebrities in America. We talked for a very long time, most of the time I spoke in English because she wanted lots of stories and I am much better telling stories in English. The food was good and she was very nice. I hope she gets help from other exchange students to make to website. My driver picked me up at the restaurant and took me to a movie store so I could get some entertainment for the weekend (My parents are going to Jakarta). The rest of the day was pretty relaxed.

2/23/2013

I slept in a little today because I didn't have school. My Mom and Dad were both gone and Kara left to hang out with her friends and she told me she wouldn't be home until very late at night. So, today I made plans with Jiwon Kim.

Back story: When I was in middle school in America I met a girl from Korea whose name is Jiwon. When she arrived in America her English was very good but she didn't know the texting terms that were very popular in Middle school. I helped teacher her things. She was also on my swim team and we became very good friends. She only stayed in America for a year and then she moved to Singapore. She lived in Singapore for 3 years and then she moved to Bandung to go to school about 1 month before I arrived in Bandung. We hadn't been able to get together yet and I was looking forward to seeing her for the first time in years. It is a small world after all. 

So, Jiwon and her family picked me up at my house and we went to lunch. It was fun talking to Jiwon. It really doesn't feel like we have been apart for so many years. After lunch, I went back home. I watched TV, movies and enjoyed my day off. My family didn't come home until after I went to bed.

2/24/2013

I woke up and my family took me to church. I was running 35 minutes late which turns out to be a good thing because when I got there everyone was locked out because someone forgot to bring the key. We got into the church a couple of minutes latter (being late for the win! ). All the meetings started one hour late. I love going to church. Today during Sunday school I was surprised. I didn't understand the lesson so I was reading my scriptures and when I took a break from reading this happened.

Random man : "....The girl from America"

Me: "What?" (Obviously I missed the question)

Other man (Indonesian) : Why do you go to church without your family?

Me: What? (not understanding why the question was asked)

Missionary (in partial English) : Why do you go to church without your family?

Me: Because I like church? And I love God... (basically all I know how to say about church in Indonesian)

I then put my head down and keep reading. I still don't know why the question was asked and I hate these moments when people call me out in front of tons of people and make me answer a random question. Getting caught off guard in a different language is the worst. And very often, I understand the question and I am thinking about the answer but people think I don't understand Indonesian so they keep talking, which does not help me answer faster.

There was some confusion after church with my family and they apparently waited for me outside for 30 minutes because they didn't text me or call me or respond to my messages so I didn't think they had arrived yet. Then we went to lunch (funny enough it was the same restaurant that I went to yesterday with Jiwon, except in a different location). The food was very good. Then we dropped my dad off at his clinic because he wanted to practice his kayak skills in their pool. After leaving my dad, my mom, Kara and I went to the grocery story. When we finally got home I changed out of my church clothes and got ready for dinner. We stayed at home for about an hour and then we picked up my dad at the clinic, a cousin at her house and my grandma at her house (at least 1 hour of driving) before we went to dinner at a Sushi restaurant. The food was very good. Before I came to Indonesia I had never tried Sushi but now, I am glad that I tried it because I like it. I am trying not to get used to eating it because Sushi is too expensive for a broke college student in America. It took another hour to get home. On the ride home I played a game with Kara.

2/25/2013

I am back at school.  I spent most of the morning working on things that I have been putting off for the last couple of weeks (my blog etc.) About 20 minutes before my driver was going to pick me up, some of my friends came in and asked to use my computer. They had a project due for Digital Drawing and they had waited until the very last minute to do it. I would like to remind everyone that I am super lazy here and I almost never do assignments - I had already done this project. I finished it 2 weeks ago when we had out last class and it took me less than 10 minutes. My friends were amazed that I had already finished but to me they were just being lazier that they can afford to be with their education. I had to leave and only one of them finished their project. I do hope that the rest of them were able to finish. I went home. I have been sniffling and sneezing all day. My maid told me that we will be having Kentucky fried Chicken for dinner. So, it was a pretty good day, I just wish I wasn't always sick.

February 1st - 12th, 2013

2/1/2013

I still didn't have school today so I got together with Leti. We met at the movie store, bought lots of movies. Then went to Indomart and bought snacks. When we got back to my house we watched Hotel Transylvania. I loved it, the movie was so cute and I really enjoyed watching it. After the movie we made brownies, I had an instant Brownie mix sent to me from Mrs. Crocker and I hadn't used it yet. The brownies we super good. We watched Pitch Perfect and ate brownies and watched TV until Leti had to go home. It was fun to spend the day baking and relaxing with another exchange student.

2/2/2013

Today, I woke up and ate breakfast. The other day my dad told me that we were going Kayaking so, I put my bathing suit on and I got ready. When I finished, I told my maid that I was ready. She looked at me and then told me that we weren't swimming today we were hiking. So close - and yet so far away. I changed and got ready for the activity we were actually doing, not the one I made up in my head. My sister, my dad and I drove for about an hour and then we went hiking. It was raining a little when we got there but we decided to hike regardless. For those of you who do not know, I am from Florida and Florida is flat. Completely flat. We don't have hills or mountains, when we go over a bridge we always say that we just went over the highest point in Florida. Anyway, we went hiking in mountains. I was dying. I think the whole thing was under a mile and a half but it was torture. The first leg was down stairs and the worst part was knowing that we would have to turn around and climb up to finish. It was very pretty but, I felt like Gimli from the Lord of the Rings "Just keep  breathing that's the key - breath." At the bottom of the path were a bunch of hot springs cause by a collapsed volcano. The water is so hot  that you can boil an egg in the water, which is exactly what we did. My family brought 3 eggs from home and we all tried our best. The hardest part was trying to weave grass baskets for the eggs so that we could get them out of the water. While we were waiting for the eggs to cook I met two foreigners, one from Australia and one from Germany. We talked for a while, it is funny how being the only 3 white people in 20 miles united us. When we thought our eggs we done we ate them. They were extra salty from the water but they were good. I think mine was cooked the best but, there was no skill involved just guessing. The walk up was terrible. I am defiantly out of shape. My family kept stopping and resting but, I would just stop long enough to catch my breath and then start off again. I knew that if I sat down I would never ever get back up. When we finally got back to the car, I felt like I had actually accomplished something... yaaa. We stopped at a traditional Sudanese restaurant and we ate lots of food to celebrate burning a couple of calories.

2/2/2013 Highlight

I loved spending time with my host family. Even though it was hard, I really enjoyed the work out.

2/3/2013

When I woke up, I didn't think we were doing anything today. As it turns out we were going Kayaking. So, I did NOT completely make up a kayaking trip, I just got the day wrong. I have very little experience Kayaking.

Once my Mom (in Florida, my real mom) decided that it would be a really good idea to go on a kayaking tour of a National Park near our house in Florida. I was in a two person kayak with Jesse, who had broken his finger and could barely paddle and my kayak had a broken rudder so it was very hard to steer. The guide kept pointing out Alligators and other Florida animals and I kept getting more frustrated. After she pointed out what felt like the hundredth Alligator, I snapped "We live in Florida there are Alligators everywhere! Who cares!" She responded by telling me that we were in the "real wild" and that we had to be careful. Because, I obviously was not responsible enough she tied me to the back of her Kayak, putting me in "time-out" for the first time since I was a toddler. The same lady later dropped my Mom's camera in the water.

Anyway, I have not had a good experience with kayaks but I was willing to try again. One of my Dad's friends came to our house with his wife and their 14 month old son. We all had to wait for a while until my sister came home from a friend's house  and we left around 10. It took 2 hours to get there. When we were almost there we stopped at a dam. It was pretty cool and I even saw a big lizard. My family claims that it is "exactly like an Alligator" but, this thing was only about 3 feet long, which is a very tiny Alligator. We got to the lake at about noon and unloaded the kayaks. It was really hot outside and I was wondering why we weren't getting in the water. My dad said that we were waiting for the sun. This only caused more questions, why would we wait for the sun? My dad said that we were waiting for it to be cooler. Whatever. We finally did get in the water. The wife of my dad's friend was complaining about the heat while wearing a jacket because she didn't want her skin to be black and she was very nervous about going out on the lake. This caused the baby (who was also wearing way too much clothes) to cry and cry. The other family ended up sitting out and not being able to get on the water because the baby wouldn't calm down. I could not paddle straight. It was nearly impossible. We ate lunch on some rocks on the other side of the lake. The tuna sandwiches were really good. On the way back, I was already tired of trying to control the stupid boat. And I was literally spinning in circles. This wouldn't be super embarrassing if it was just in front of my family but all the locals were also watching me. When I go to small towns many people have never seen a white person before and they all look and stare and yell at me even more that what happens at school and in the city. We were in a small fishing village and I know that even the youngest could steer a little boat and they were probably laughing at the 'white girl who can't do anything'. When we finally got back, I never wanted to try kayaking again. The ride home was long and wet because I could not change my clothes. I took a well deserved shower and relaxed for the rest of the day.

2/3/2013 Highlight

Eating lunch on a rock on the edge of a huge rice field in a small town somewhere in Indonesia and thinking - never in a thousand years would I think that I would be doing this.

2/4/2013

I had to finally give in and go back to school today, since I hadn't been in quite a while.  Luckily, last night my Dad suggested that I text one of my friends to see what time school started. Surprise.... Class didn't start until 1pm and it ended at 2:30. I spent more time in the car trying to get to school (I now live 45 minutes away from my school) than I actually spent in school. The driver had to wait for me because it would be completely impractical to drive back and forth. When I did get to school, I said hi to my friends and played on my computer. I never thought an hour and a half class would feel short.. but I guess when that is also the entire school day it isn't that bad. When class was over I had to run to the car because it was raining really hard. My driver then drove me to Trans Studio Mall so that I could shop a little while we tried to wait for the rain to stop. The roads here are not very good and they are even worse in the rain and it causes really bad traffic. I bought a really good dictionary, I have been working out of a tiny one and I feel like I finally know enough words to need a larger dictionary. I also want to read an Indonesian book before I leave and I hope the bigger dictionary will help me more.

2/4/2013

It was a nice relaxing day :)

2/5/2013 - 2/7/2013

School again. Nothing too exciting, after the semester break at the end of December all my classes seem to have changed and moved and I never know where my classes are or what time I should go to school. It is now habit to ask a friend what time I should come to school the next day.

2/8/2013

So, a couple days back my Dad asked me if I wanted to go to a kayak camp for three days. I decide to do the 'good exchange student' thing and say yes. Last night I went to a meeting for the camp and realized that the other participants include 10 men and one other girl. They are all working or seniors in College which means that they are at least 5 years older than me and I would most likely never see them again. The meeting lasted forever. When the speaker stared comparing every single type of kayak, I zoned out and wanted to go home. So, I woke up this morning  very scarred of what I had committed to. The driver picked me up early in the morning and we picked up the other lady, who needed a ride to the camp. It took about two and a half  hours to get there, which wasn't a big deal because I slept the whole way. When we arrived at the 'camp' I discovered that we were in a tiny town outside of Bandung and that we would be sleeping in a gutted out house that was really old and not very clean. Because there were only two girls we got a mattress and a separate room - not that the mattress was much better than the floor. People were already gathering behind the councilors' house (which was much nicer than ours) so I changed and went to meet everyone. Turn out we were learning how to roll a kayak and we were practicing in the pool behind the house. Because we were learning how to be serious kayakers we had to wear a rubber skirt (cover that keeps the water out) a helmet and a life jacket. I start having a hard time breathing with just a life jacket on so, wearing all of the equipment was not fun. Then I had help adjusting a kayak so I could sit in it. After I was all comfortable (not) I got in the pool with all of my gear. We had to learn to hip check the boat into an upright position while being trapped in the boat underwater, as super fun as that sounds. I am very comfortable underwater but it took me a couple times to not panic underwater because I felt like I was trapped in the boat. After I learned how to successfully wet exit (pull off the skirt and slip out of the boat while underwater) I felt much more comfortable. We took an afternoon break because it was Friday and the men needed to go to the Mosque. After lunch and break time we got back in the water. I did much better than I had done in the morning and I was able to hip check the boat up correctly without a paddle. Then they added the darn paddle. I could not get it. The coaches kept telling me random body parts that I wasn't moving correctly and couldn't figure it out. The best part was that hip checking a carbon fiber kayak repeatedly eventually leads to bruises. Everyone took turns practicing (1/2 in the pool at a time) for about 2 hours. Rolling is not as easy as it sounds. I did feel better because no one else was doing much better than I was but, I was really tired when we called it a night. We relaxed and ate dinner, which was not very good. All of the men smoked a lot and I isolated myself trying to stay away from the smoke. Before we went to bed we had a meeting where we looked at pictures and discussed what we were doing wrong. I don't know why everyone had so many questions. Most of the instruction in the pool was given to me in Indonesian and I still knew what to do (in theory) . I was in a snarky (fun word right) mood and so I asked "Why do we need to learn how to roll?" Everyone just stared at me, maybe they didn't know I could speak Indonesian that well and apparently the question was absurd. I just wanted to learn how to row a kayak straight but, they wanted me to be able to recover after capsizing while on a river. The meeting was really long and it was late and I was tired so I completely zoned out of the discussion and tried to look not miserable.

2/8/2013 Highlight

I had no expectations. None. Point one Alaina, you cannot possibly disappoint me.

2/9/2013

I woke up in the middle of the night to my roommate really close to me. Apparently she rolls in her sleep and she had me on the edge. Then one of the boys in the next room started snoring (or sawing wood, not quite sure which) and then the roster decided to be another annoying thing and last of all my roommate's alarm went off at the loudest volume possible and she took forever to wake up and turn it off.  The only thing I don't think I woke up for was the pray calls at least I was used to that. When we finally did get out of bed, I was exhausted. We ate breakfast which was ok but I wasn't hungry because of all the cigarette smoke. We got back in the water again and I let the other person sharing my kayak to go first. When his turn was done it was my turn. I was panicky all over again and I was really hurting from the bruises that I got from the day before. My hip kept falling out of position, meaning that I could not keep my body in the frame of the kayak. I practiced for a little while until I realized that there was a frog in the bottom of my kayak. The frog was my ticket out. I had to exit the kayak to retrieve the frog and then I showed him to everyone. Indonesians are not very fond of frogs and other little critters. After that I napped and refused to get back in the water. I was tired and sore and I didn't really want to learn how to roll a kayak so, I just relaxed. Sometime in the afternoon I was sleeping in our room and my dad woke me up. I knew that he was planning on joining the camp that day but, he caught me off-guard. I do not remember all of the conversation we had but I am sure that I was not completely awake. I think I told him (in slurred Indonesian) that I do not like kayaking at all and that I wasn't having any fun, which is a little more honest than I would have been if I was actually awake. When I did wake up, I found my dad in the practice pool. He tried to find a kayak that I fit into but my body is just not meant to squeeze into a kayak. After a while my dad gave up and went back to practicing. Dinner was fine but not great and I left the night meeting after an hour and a half of idle chatter.

2/9/2013 Highlight

I got into a 30 minute conversation with the head instructor. I really like it when I can communicate with people especially in Indonesian.

2/10/2013

I woke up, ate breakfast, changed and put on a thick layer of sunscreen. Today we were going to an actual river. I helped my dad tie out kayaks to the roof and together we rode to the river. We got to the location and untied the boats. We had to walk a while because there were rapids that were defiantly passable but none of us had experience. So I helped Kaca (the other girl) carry a kayak. It was really hard because we were walking on a dirt mount that marked the edge of a rice field and it was only about 7 inches wide. I was at the back and because I couldn't see where we were going, I fell off several times (just fell about a foot into mud - not a big deal). We had to get around trees and other obstacles. When we got to the water everyone took turns. We had to go through a tiny rapid and then we were in mostly flat water. I was one of the last people to go because I could only use one of the boats. I got threw the current with no problem and practiced for a while. My dad wanted me to learn how to eddy which is when you paddle upstream using eddies as resting points. I tried several times unsuccessfully but, I was determined. I was aiming for the nearest eddy and I got over eager with my paddling and I hit a current so I capsized. I did not even try to roll the boat back up, I just wet exited. My helmet fell off, I lost my paddle and I did not grab my boat. The guides had a lot of things to retrieve, at least I was able to swim back by myself. I let the other person who was sharing my boat have a turn and I waited. While I was waiting I saw a foot long worm crawling around. Naturally, I leaned down and picked it up. The Indonesian were disgusted, and asked me why I was playing with it. It was a cute worm and worms don't bite or sting or do anything dangerous except eat and poop dirt. After a while I put the worm on Kaca's arm to see what she would do, she screamed and panicked and the worm ended up into the water. When it was my turn again I was having much more fun. I eddied with my dad almost to our starting point up the river but the last big current flipped me and I had to wet exit. This time my helmet stayed on (which was good because I was very close to big boulders) and I caught my paddle and my boat. We got back to the beach downstream we were using as a base and I got back in the boat. I got all the way up the river much faster this time but I flipped again at the same point and had to swim back to the start. After that we walked upstream a little, we had a pep talk that I ignored and then some people walked further upstream to go down bigger rapids (still small). I was tired and I was considering sitting it out but my dad made me go on the grounds that I would need to send a picture home to America. I trudged upstream, dragging my boat behind me. When it was my turn to go down the rapids I had to listen to my Indonesian instructions. I wasn't sure that I was catching everything so I just asked "Is this easy or hard?" the guide said it was easy so I let go of the rock and paddled out into the rapid. I made it successfully downstream and I am sure the picture was very funny (not that I will ever get it because it was on so random person's camera). Our time was up and we all had to go home so we had to cross the river. I got a ride on one of the guide's rafts and smiled and waved to everyone who had to paddle across the current. It took a while to get everyone on the right side of the river and get all of the kayaks out of the water. I ended up having to carry a kayak by myself. I followed the instructions I was given and carried it on my head using the back brace of the kayak. I made it the whole way alone and I had to pose for a picture at the end with the kayak still on my head. We ate lunch and said goodbye and then we drove home. There was no traffic until we got into Bandung so, we got home faster than we thought we would. We dropped Kaca off and then went home. I helped unload the kayaks and then I took a hot shower. My legs were already black and blue from the kayaks and my muscles were sore but I felt like I learned how to do something.

2/10/2013 Highlight

For the first time, I enjoyed kayaking. Maybe kayaking is an acquired taste that you have to work for. In the beginning of the day, while I was trying and failing to get to the first eddy my dad told me that there were two things I had to learn: using eddies to go upstream and eddy turning.  I congratulated myself on correctly eddy turning several times (My boat kept turning before I got the eddy). My dad said that I should be doing it on purpose and I said that I was just one step ahead. I had fun with my dad and the camp, even though the first two days were not fun.

2/11/2013

I had to go to school today. I got to school around 9 and I planned on staying until noon. I knew I didn't have class so I headed straight to the library. Before I got there I was stopped by a bunch of friends. We talked for over an hour before they had to go to class. After school I went home and relaxed. Aunt Melly picked me up at 3 so that we could pick up Leti and then go to the Rotary meeting. Leti isn't in my club but she was asked to give a presentation and then my Rotary cancelled on her but, she still wanted to come. The meeting started at 5 and we had two hours dedicated to traffic because Leti lives on the other side of the city. We did not pick up Leti until 5 and we got to the meeting at 5:30. The meeting should have been an hour long but it didn't finish until 6:30. I told Aunt Melly earlier that I was trying to buy something so after the meeting we went to a store and I was able to find what I needed. I was also able to order a gift that I had been trying to find for a while. I can't tell you what I bought because I want it to be a surprise for the people back home. Leti was feeling sick so I had to cut my shopping spree short and we took her home. After we took her home we went to dinner with my Rotary club because it was the president's birthday and she wanted to treat us all to dinner. I was so hungry and eat everything on my plate very fast. I also talked to the Said family (my 4th host family). Their son wanted to go on exchange next year and he just found out that Rotary wanted him to go to Poland, which was not on his top six. He declined and decided that he didn't want to go. I talked a lot, to everyone. After dinner, Aunt Melly took me home. I then gave my presentation to my host family. They seemed to like it and had many questions for me. I love my new host family!

2/11/2013 Highlight

Holding a conversation for 30 minutes is like having your brain run a mile. I talked for about 9 hours today. So my brain ran about 18 miles. I have been training for 6 months now and this is the longest I have ever spent talking to people. My Indonesian is finally good. I am not completely fluent, but I am doing really well. YA! Progress! It was a highly successful day.

2/12/2013

Today, I skipped school and played hooky with Aunt Melly. She picked me up at 11 and we went to her Mom's work. I met Aunt Melly's mom for the first time today. We had to take her to the bank and then she joined us for lunch. She is really funny and reminds me of my GG (Great Grandma), she gets what she want. Aunt Melly and her Mom made me eat so much for lunch. I had an ear infection from the kayaking camp and I was in pain for most of the afternoon. We had a lot of fun but we were all tired from staying out the night before so after lunch, Aunt Melly took me home. I caught up on a lot of things and relaxed at home. I ate dinner with my mom and we talked a lot. Later, I remember writing my blog on my computer and I stopped for one minute. I woke up to the prayer calls. I thought "Oh, good it is 7 and it is time for dinner.... no, I already ate... I fell asleep at 10 and the next prayer call isn't until.. 4:30... nice it is 4:30" So good morning, I guess.

2/12/2013 Highlight

I liked getting to know Aunt Melly's Mom and hanging out with Aunt Melly.

January 17th-31st 2013

1/17/2013 and 1/18/2013

Honestly don't remember what I did... probably nothing important.

I do remember packing and unpacking

1/19/2013

Moving to house # 3

I woke up in the morning and ate breakfast. I finished packing. My stomach hurt a I was not feeling well. I had never met my 3rd host family and I was hours away from moving into their house and my nerves were not helping my stomach. My awesome 2nd host mom set me up in my room with two hot water bottles and some hot milk. My family was running late so I took Advil and fell asleep. I woke up to the arrival of my 3rd host family. They were very nice and we talked for a while before I put all of my stuff in their car and said goodbye to my 2nd host family. By late afternoon I was completely unpacked and settled into my new home. A little info about my new family: Mom and Dad are both doctors at a hospital and they also run a clinic for children with learning disabilities and a daycare. They have two daughters one is 21 and she lives at home while going to college and the other is my age , 17, and she is on exchange in New York (not NYC a small town outside of Albany). My family served as missionaries ( medical - not preaching a religion) in Papua New Guinea where they lived for 3 years. They moved to Papua when their oldest was 3 months old. My host dad loves the outdoors and especially loves hiking and water sports.  I was still feeling sick but, I was trying to act like everything was ok. We went to dinner at Pepper Lunch. It is this cool restaurant where they give you food and a hot plate and you have to cook you own food. The food is always really good. To cook it you have to stir everything up - For those of you who do not know my Dad teases me because I eat one type of food at a time and refuse to mix my meals together (All of the veggies first, then the pasta then the meat etc.) Well Dad, I am a changed person. I now eat all of my food mixed up or at least Indonesian food. No Mom, this change does not mean that I will eat meatloaf... meatloaf is gross. I got home and went to bed, it was already really late.

1/19/2013 Highlight

I had the best 2nd host family ever. I am so sad that I was not able to live there longer. I loved talking to my sister Izzati. I will miss seeing my other sisters and Misha. My host Mom really treated me like her daughter, making sure that I ate and that I pushed myself. I know that I have become a better person after living with them for a month. My Indonesian is much better and I am learning to love this country even more. Thank you for everything that you have done and I hope that you know that I will always remember what you have done for me.

1/20/2013

I went to church today. I always love being able to go to church even if I cannot understand everything that they are saying. When I got home from church and then I got really sick. Let us just leave it at that. It was not pleasant and I don't want to revisit it. I ended up staying in my room for the rest of the day.

1/20/2013 Highlight

Both my parents are doctors so I didn't have to go to the hospital they just got me medicine. They also have very good English. Even though I try to speak in Indonesian, I panic when I get sick and all attempts to use Indonesian go out the window.

1/21/2013

Stayed home sick... skipping school is not as nice when you can't really do anything

1/22/2013

Another sick day

1/23/2013

When back to school. It was the first time in my 3rd house. I had to leave the house at 5:45 to get to school on time because it is 40 minutes away. School getting farther away is not making me want to go more but, I was a good girl and I went to school. Nothing to exciting.

1/24/2013

I had to take a shower this morning, at 4:30, with freezing cold water. I went to school today. On Wednesdays I have an English class that I have not been able to find since winter vacation. Normally, I wait it out in the library. Today the library was closed so I found a group of my friends and I followed them. We had class, there was actually a teacher. I have no idea what I should have been doing but at least I was with a class. I found out that my Math class was cancelled so I texted my driver to pick me up ( about 10 am). The library was open so I went there to wait, the driver did not come until 1pm. He wasn't expecting to take me home that early and he had to get the car and the traffic was really bad. Traffic is the #1 thing that I will not miss from Indonesia.

1/24/2013 Highlight

I was bored of waiting so I packed up my stuff and went to wait at the front of the school. Some of my friends were playing American football in the courtyard. I stopped to talk to them. They wanted me to play but, I was in my uniform (long skirt that is impossible to run in) so I just watched. The following is the translated version of a conversation I had with my friends :

Me: Hello!

Friend : Hey Alaina, How are you?

Me: I'm good.

Friends: You look (obviously cannot think of the word in English and they don't want to say it in Indonesian - Waved their arms in a 'skinny' way)

Me: Skinny?

Friends: No not skinny... less fat

Me: I am sexy and I know it

Friends: No not sexy

Me: Well, thank you...

Friends: By the end of the year you will be skinny and look like Taylor Swift and you will be able to go home and get a boyfriend and live happily ever after.

Me: OK, sure

Friends: *Smiling at their super sincere compliment*

Me: *a little confused

I love my friends, the best part is that they don't understand that they would be considered rude in America. Maybe we need more honest people in America. I feel super great when I receive super rude comments from random strangers (or friends).

• ·         You have a terrible singing voice
• ·         You could never be a model, you are too big
• ·         You must be heartbroken because you don't have a boyfriend
• ·         Being called "Mr." all the time (translation error I hope)
• ·         Calling me really boring
• ·         etc.

1/25/2013

Today, went on an optional Rotary trip to Pangandaran. All of the exchange students who were going met in Bandung at a house that is really close to mine. We waited until everyone arrived (never on time) and then we got on a bus. For those of you who don't remember, I have already been to Pangandaran. I went with my first host family right after I arrived in Indonesia for Lebrun (Muslim holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan). It was a very long drive and I was really hoping that we were not going to drive for this trip. We got onto the bus and drove to the train station - Again still holding out hope that we will not be driving. We waited at the train station for at least an hour because Meredith was arriving by train and it had run late. I found out later that she had to take a 15 hour train from the south of Java to Bandung and he Rotary club booked it so that she did not have a night to rest in Bandung before she got on a bus for a 7 hour trip. We set off, finally. By the time we got out of Bandung we were all a little depressed. We had already been in the bus for 2 hours and we were not even close. I spent hours talking to everyone on the bus. Most of the time I talked to Sam, Luke and Oguzhan. I miss talking to real boys. The boys at my school are more interested in playing with my hair and Justin Beiber than I think is normal. My stomach was really hurting because of my bladder infection and I couldn't sit comfortably. So, I stood most of the trip. As you will quickly learn, this trip became a collection of Near Death experiences (or Serious injury). At some point on the trip we stopped at a gas station and some people bought Pop Mie (Instant noodles in a cup). When the finished they didn't want to drink all of broth and there was no way to prevent it from spilling so they asked me to dump the broth out of the window. I was standing in front of a door and I opened the little window above it to pour out the soup. I poured out one girl's and then I went for the second girl's. I don't know why I did it, possibly because I hadn't slept well and I had been standing for about 5 hours but, I did it. I poured out the broth and then put my head out of the window to wave to the car behind us. The lock on the door was broken and the door opened with my head still inside the window. Luckily my feet didn't move and I was able to swing the door shut. I sat down after that. After hours and hours of driving on terrible Indonesian roads through the mountains we finally saw the ocean. We checked into the hotel got changed and then rode on the back of some men's motorcycles to a pier. We found out that we were going to be doing water sports. They passed out lifejackets but I didn't take one. I didn't want one, I hate lifejackets and there were no waves so I was pretty confident that I would be OK. We took turns riding a banana boat a 5 person tube and a 3 person tube (all towed behind a boat). After the first couple rides other people started taking their lifejackets off to.. I started a trend. I went on the 5 person one and sat in the back with Sam and Luke. We e decided that it was a good idea to hold on to the handles and let our bodies drag behind the boat to see who could hold on the longest. We all got into position and hung on. It was so much fun. I was doing pretty good until we 'raised the stakes' by moving our stomach off the tube. I was still holding on until we hit a bump and I jumped up and when I fell down there was an air tube that jabbed me in my stomach.  I was surprised and let do out of shock. The boat went a little bit farther before Luke also let go and then the boat stopped. Apparently Luke's shorts were falling down so he was forced to go one handed until he fell off. I wasn't hurt at all and it was really fun. Then I went on the 3 person. I got the seat with only one handle and I had to really hold on. At the end of the ride I could barely move my fingers. We went back to the hotel via motorcycle (no helmets, thanks Rotary), and jumped into the pool. We talked for even longer. The Rotarians finally called us to dinner, we got dressed and walked to the restaurant. Our guide had no idea where he was going. We walked for a really long time for Indonesia. But, it didn't bother any of the exchange students, most of us like walking. We got most of the way there until we stopped and asked for directions. Then the Rotarians paid two random men to take us by motorcycle the rest of the way because they didn't want to walk. We ate dinner. I decided that I wanted to eat some fish and I choked on a bone. It wasn't that big but it wouldn't go down and it wouldn't come up and I was left gagging. There was only tea on the table so I had to call for water. They took their time getting my water. When I finally did get the bone out I couldn't eat any more. I waited for everyone to finish eating. The Rotarians didn't want to walk back so we went by Bacak (Rickshaw). I rode with Meredith. Everyone was so tired we just went to our rooms. I watched most of a movie that was on TV and then went to bed.

1/25/2013 Highlight

I love talking to the other exchange students. We are already such good friends.

1/26/2013

We ate breakfast at the hotel and then got on the bus. We were told that we going to drive 20 minutes up the river and go "body rafting" in Green Canyon. I have never heard of body rafting before and I assumed that it meant we were floating down the river. This exchange has given me 5 months of  anecdotal evidence that if you have expectations you will be wrong or disappointed. We were on the bus for more than an hour and we got to a building with supplies to go body rafting. We put on lifejackets, boots, shin guards and helmets. I thought this was a tad bit excessive for floating down a river but I went with it. We took smiling pictures in all our gear and then we got 'instruction'. They told us that we were going to ride in the backs of trucks for about an hour before we would get to the location and then we prayed. Praying is not unusual in Indonesia and we thought it was like praying at school - tradition. What we didn't know was that they were being serious. We got in the trucks in all of our gear. It was not comfortable and it was really hot but it only took about 40 minutes. We had to walk down a steep area to get to the river. The boots were not very good and it hurt to walk because the bottoms were as thin as socks. I also don't enjoy hiking, I like walking on flat surfaces. We got to the water and I was already tired. I was looking forward to calmly floating down the river. I was one of the first people to start down the river. One of the guides was in front of me and he kept telling me to go to the left, under the trees and stuff. I have always been taught to stay in the middle, snakes and dangerous animals live on the sides and the trees are dangerous if you get stuck in them. I followed the guide but I was not happy about it. We had been in the water for a grand total of 1 minute when I was about to go under a branch and one of the guides behind me told me there was a snake on the tree. I panicked it was not graceful and I am not proud of it but I didn't understand why I was under the trees in the first place. Shortly after the snake incident the guides told us to stop and I went to stand by the edge. I went to stand up but there was water in my boots. When I stepped on the rock the water in my boot moved and bubbled and it felt like I had just tried to stand up on an Alligator.  In Florida, you never, never ever swim in rivers or lakes or marshes because there are huge alligators that will eat you. I screamed. One of the guides had to stop me farther down the river. We got out of the river and had to walk on the very steep bank (we crossed the river so now we were on the opposite side from where we started). I could barely walk I was shaking so bad. My legs and arms and everything was shaking. I was so mad and I was still recovering from the snake and the fake alligator. I shall only give you some of the highlights of our 4 hour death march.

• ·         We stopped and crossed the river countless times
• ·         The green water that Green Canyon is famous for was brown because it had rained the day before
• ·         At some points the rapids were so bad the guides had ropes that we had to hang on to (remember that my arms and hands were already tired from the day before)
• ·         I let go of a rope and had to *pardon my language* haul ass to get to the guide.
• ·         We climbed around a class 5 rapid (might have been impassible)
• ·         If we fell into the water at some points we would have died and there would be nothing anyone could do but watch.
• ·         We jumped off a 3 meter rock into the raging river below
• ·         I got out of jumping off another 2 meter rock by going through the rapids.
• ·         We were forced to dive into the water from the side several time
• ·         We were constantly being beaten with rocks
• ·         The 'extra protection' just weighted us down, made it harder to swim and harder to climb
• ·         We had to climb up and down a cliff face (straight up a wall) with no ropes, only Indonesian guides.
• ·         We had to climb backwards down the cliff face and had to trust the guide to place our feet (I hugged my guide when I got down safely)
• ·         Climb slippery rocks while we were soaking wet with no grip on our shoes.
• ·         Several people came close to being lost
• ·         The guides learned several choice swear words in at least 5 different languages
• ·         We took smiling pictures and pretended nothing was wrong
• ·         The view was beautiful
• ·         I was in fear of my life the entire time- Not in a "If I fail this test my mom is going to kill me" in a " There is no chance of survival if I fall"
• ·         I would never ever in a thousand years do that again
• ·         No one died and no one was seriously injured. We all had cuts and bruises but we were alive.

I consider this a miracle. We got on the bus and drove to lunch. Meredith and I did not leave the bus. We just rested and tried to recover. After lunch we went to another beach where we watched the Sun set. It was so beautiful. We took pictures and watched the sea. After the sun set we went back to the hotel, I took a shower and got dressed in dry clothes. We ate dinner really late on the beach. We had more fish and I talked to everyone. After an hour of talking, I wasn't making any since and I went to bed. 

1/26/2013 Highlight

At no point did I sign or see a waiver. I am defiantly not in America anymore.

1/27/2013

I woke up at 4:30 and went to see the sun rise with a couple of other people. I have always wanted to watch the sunrise and set in the same 24 hours. There were too many clouds but it was still very peaceful. We just sat in silence, all taking in the sunrise and thinking. Aunt Melly was with us and she spent the time on her phone ( Indonesians love their phones more than anything and they spend a huge amount of time on them). After we went back to the hotel and I was able to get another hour of sleep before the day's activities started. Today, we got an a boat and toured around the national park. We didn't land we just looked at the shore from the boat. We also went to the beach in the national park to go snorkiling. I was really tired and I didn't want to get sunburn go I didn't join and I sat in the shade with Aunt Melly and Mas Indra (also a Rotarian). I talked to the adults and helped watch our stuff. We had a tough job guarding out stuff from the monkeys. We got back on the boat and headed back to our beach. We were leaving so I packed up all my stuff. We had 2 hours of down time so I went shopping with Meredith. We bought stuff from little stands on the street. We had to bargain for our prices and Meredith didn't want to so I got to argue. It was so much fun. I bought two pairs of Batik pants for 4 dollars each and Meredith bought a dress and two pairs of pants for 4 dollars each. I might not have been very good at arguing price but it was still fun and 4 dollars is really cheap in America so I was happy with the price. We also bought key chains for 50 cents. We returned to the hotel triumphant. Everyone was ready and we got on the bus and headed off. We stopped at lunch and ate more fish and rice. Yum (not really). I asked how far we were driving today. None of us really knew where we were going and I wanted to know how long we were going to be on the bus. The answer 7 hours. We were going to hot springs just outside of Bandung. Aunt Melly was handing out pills that she said would make us sleep and I was not about to stay away for another 7 hours so I took one. Luke was feeling sick and I told him to take one of the pills too. Within five minutes both of us were asleep and we slept for about 5 hours. The best part was that when we did wake up because we hit a huge bump in the road we would be asleep again in seconds. So good call Alaina, for taking some mystery pill, I don't know what it was and I don't really care; it was magic. We were in the bus FOREVER. We were all hungry so we stopped for Sate. there were 16 of us on the trip and we ate 140 sticks of sate. When exchange students get together... we go crazy. We ended up on the bus for 10 hours before we got to the hotel. All of the girls were in one house and the boys were in another. Girls are smart, when we realized that we would have to sleep 3 to a Queen bed we started complaining. We complained enough to get extra beds sent to our room. Everyone changed into bathing suits and we went to a hot spring. It was so nice. We spent a while at the hot spring before we went back to the houses. The boys then realized that they would have to sleep 3 to a bed but it was too late to get extra beds (about 1 am).

1/27/2013 Highlight

The hot springs were like a natural hot tube that smelled of sulfur. So much fun and defiantly worth staying up really late.

1/28/2013

We had breakfast at the hotel and it was delicious. I love staying at international resorts because the breakfasts are really good. They have lots of bread and eggs and fruit and Indonesian food... yum. After breakfast we got in off-roading vehicles and headed off to the tea plantations. I enjoyed riding around on the mountain. The tea is planted in spiral rows which make it look like something out of a Doctor Seuss book. It is also nice and cool on the mountain. After touring the plantation we went to a tea factory to see how they make tea. Even though I don't drink tea I thought it was pretty cool. After the tour we went back to the hotel and ate lunch. Chicken, rice and tofu. I got a piece of chicken with barely any meat on it but the other food was good. After lunch it started raining. Amazingly in Indonesia, everything shuts down when it rains. We have a rainy season it rains almost every day for about 5 months. Indonesians believe that if rain hits your head you will get dizzy (also believe that you get a stomach ache when wind enters your stomach). We sat in the restaurant for a while waiting for it to stop raining. While we were waiting Rotarians made us put on traditional Sudanese clothing so that we could take a picture. I do not like wearing the traditional clothes, they are not comfortable or attractive and most of my wardrobe is at least one or the other. Anyway, we took the picture and then got tired of waiting so we walked to our house, which was really close by. When we got to the house we realized that aunt Melly had locked the door and taken the key and she refused to walk in the rain so we were stuck standing outside of the house until she got there. Aunt Melly thought it was really funny that she didn't give us the key and we had to wait outside. We were told that we could play paintball but then they told us that because it was raining we couldn't play and we would have to wait until the next day. Meanwhile we waited in our new larger houses (we were able to move so that we had more room). I was watching a very poorly made movie on TV when the Brazilian girls walked in the house with several cans of condensed milk. I got really excited. There is only one thing I know that uses that much condensed milk and it is Brazilian Brigadeiros. The Brazilian girls were super surprised that I knew what they were going to make and they said we were going to have a party later. We then headed to another hot spring at the resort and talked. It was still raining and a couple Indonesian people had shower caps on their heads to keep the rain off. We talk about the most fun things, we never run out of things to talk about. After our swim we changed and went to dinner. When we got to dinner they told us that we were going to sing Karaoke. I have already sung too much Karaoke, I like doing it with friends but I don't like it when I have to stand in front of tons of people and sing. Meredith, Luke, Oguzhan and I did not want to sing (pretty sure no one else wanted to sing either). We ate our food as fast as we could and then Luke volunteered to find Sam and Tommy (Brazil) who had not shown up to dinner yet. He stood up to leave and Oguzhan said "Everyone, this is what being thrown under a bus feels like". Aunt Melly told Oguzhan that he should sing next and he said that he was waiting to do a duet with Luke. Aunt Melly was going to ask Meredith and me next so we quickly ran off to the bathroom. I caught up with Luke and we found Sam and Tommy together. The boys were still playing chess and had lost track of time. We then went to the boys room because we didn't want to sing. We talked, they drank tea and we otherwise occupied ourselves. After a while we got a call from Aunt Melly asking where we were. We said that we had just found the boy and that Sam was still in the shower... not really. We sat and talked more until I told everyone that Sam had now been "taking" a 20 minute shower so we better get going. We walked to the restaurant to find everyone else leaving (perfect timing no Karaoke) The boys were still hungry because they had just skipped dinner so we bought some Pop Mie and went back to my room for the Brigadeiro party. Normally, Brigadeiros are rolled into balls but we just wanted to eat them. There was a whole bowl of Brigadeiros for the Americans and the one Canadian. There were 6 of us and we had 1 real fork and to plastic forks from the Pop Mie. When we finished the bowl (not long after being given the bowl) we had all used the real spoon. Hygiene just isn't as important as eating dessert.

1/28/2013 Highlight

While we were talking at the party I found out that Oguzhan did not know how to braid (not even rope) so I took it upon myself to teach him. We didn't have rope so he used a little bit of my hair. It was really funny watching him and he was able to figure it out pretty fast. After teaching him I asked Luke if he knew how to braid. Luke told me to sit down. I want everyone to know that I did not ask him to braid my hair, I asked him if he could. Luke gave a valiant effort but he couldn't do it. Luke, self confessed playboy, also told me that trying to braid my hair was the "weirdest thing [he] had ever done with a girl". Kind of fun to watch boys struggle with something that every girl knows how to do.

1/29/2013

We were allowed to wake up late (8 am) and we ate breakfast at the hotel again. Today was filled with fun activities. We started off with paintball. Every person only had 20 bullets and we split into two teams (teams somewhat resembled WWII). The game started with tons of confusion, the rules were unclear and we all just did our best. I was still hiding out after we had been playing for a while and the monitor said that my team won. I stood up took off my mask and got several yards before the man said that there was still one person left on their team. I ran back under cover and started shooting at them. I got really close to their head but, I couldn't get a clear shot. So, I waved to Leti (only person left alive with me and told her to go around the side) I kept shooting and distracting him and she went around and shot him in the side. I won paintball. I never hit anyone and I didn't get hit but I out lasted the other team. I wish the game was more intense and I defiantly want to play when I go back to America.  After paintball we went to "Flying Fox", the Indonesian term for Zip-lining. It was really short and it didn't go nearly fast enough but it was OK. After Flying Fox we rented paddle boats and paddled around a little lake. You would think that paddle boats are pretty chill but, some of the boys jumped from boat to boat and tried to splash people. Amazingly, no one fell in the water. Then we went rode ATVs. There were too many of us so we went in two rounds. I was in the second round and Meredith shared an ATV with me. I was ready to go and I made the mistake of pulling to the front of the group. Within the first 5 minutes I had gone off the path twice. My steering kept locking up and the guide kept stopping in front of me at the bottom of hills. The steering was crazy, I might not be the best driver but, I am not retarded. At one point I was stuck going up a hill and Luke, who was behind me, had to get out and pick up the front of the ATV to get me back on the road. The whole ride was stressful and not very fun. I wish the steering was better. When I got back the boy who had used my ATV before me confirmed with me that the steering was broken.  We went back to our rooms, packed up and got ready to go back to Bandung. Before we left we took a drive to this campground for no reason. When we finally left we realized that our big bus had been swapped for a little one. The ride home was much more cramped but at least it was less than 2 hours. During the trip we sang songs and Luke bought raspberries for everyone to eat. We finished out trip at a Hotel in Bandung, where we all waited for our rides. I will miss all of my new friends and I can't wait to see everyone again. I got home took a shower and went to bed.

1/29/2013 Highlight

Exchange students are the most interesting people in the world. We are all a little crazy and we all are very different. And no judging, we are all going through the same stuff and appreciate a little humor.

1/30/2013

Just before I left for Pangandaran my friends told me the whole school was going to Jogja and that they would be leaving on the 29th. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be home in time to go with them. This also meant that no one would be at school for the next couple of days. So, I got to sleep in and recover from my crazy vacation. I just watched movies and TV.

1/31/2013

No school again! I did have a Rotexs meeting (Rotary for youth that have already been on exchange) so I talked to my host family and got the driver to take me to a fashion outlet close to the meeting. I shopped for several hours and bought dinner before I went to the meeting. In the meeting, Leti gave a presentation about her exchange and we talked a little about upcoming projects. I went home with Herly (Aunt Melly's son who went on exchange to Florida a couple of years ago).

1/31/2013 Highlight

I bought a pair of coral jeggings (Jean leggings) that are super cute and different. I don't own anything like it and because I bought it at a factory outlet it was cheap.