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.