March 6th 2013 - April 2nd 2013

3/6/2013 - 3/10/2013

My friends at school continued to have tests all week long and so I sat in the library, "absorbing culture". I talked to everyone who chose to sit next to me (who wasn't with a huge group the was obviously trying to get something done) but, I stayed very isolated all week. I spent minimal time at school and then went home and did nothing. For future exchange students this is the absolute worst thing you can do. Sitting at home is a killer. I love my family and me house is very nice but talking and interacting with people is where joy comes from while on exchange. One day in particular I was laying on my bed, staring at my ceiling with nothing to do and no future prospects. I don't know when exactly it happened but, I was hit by an idea that told me to get my butt out of bed and to start traveling. I took a calendar and marked it up with plans and everything that I wanted to do before I left Indonesia and then I did something about it. I decided that I wanted to go to Yogya. I talked to the other exchange students there and then I talked to my host parents and my councilor. It took a couple of days but I figured everything out and I was eventually given the green light to go to Yogya. For those who wonder why I didn't do this earlier I will explain a little about Rotary.

1.      Student wants to go somewhere

2.      Student must OK with school

3.      Student must OK with Host Family

4.      Student must OK with club/ councilor

5.      Councilor must OK it with my district councilor

6.      My district councilor must OK it with the other district councilor (the one in charge of the place I want to go)

7.      Then someone needs to find somewhere I can stay, phone numbers need to be exchanged and everyone in the whole process must be informed of the actual plans.

I skipped a couple of these steps because I am now sure that Rotary Indonesia has almost no idea what it is doing and I knew that if I was forced to go to school and sit at home for another week I would be miserable. Basically, I have gotten to the point in my exchange where "Bite Me" is an acceptable response to Rotary's tyranny. Days like this are a perfect example that not every day on exchange consists of rainbows and butterflies.

3/11/2013

Yesterday, my host mom went to the train station and bought my tickets to Yogya. I woke up grabbed my bags, packed a lunch, ate breakfast and headed off. Aunt Melly met my mom and me at the train station. Technically, I shouldn't be traveling alone (although I think this is fairly ridiculous, I am sitting on a train for 8 hours- how much trouble could I possible get into? ). So, we decided that everyone on the train was Aunt Melly's family and I was traveling with them. Aunt Melly still wanted someone to tell me when to get off the train (not that hard to figure out) so she tapped the shoulder of a random lady in the train station who looked like she was getting on the same train. Out of sheer luck, she was going to Solo (the next stop after Yogya while taking the train and the city where Sid lives). The lady said that she knew Sid, an exchange student from the USA and that she would be happy to watch out for me. Aunt Melly and my Mom seemed much more relieved knowing that someone was watching me. The Train came and I boarded with my new babysitter in tow. I found my seat and stowed my stuff and then waited, it was going to be a long ride. Because I was leaving early on a Monday morning the train was only half full and I got a row (2 seats) all to myself. It was pretty comfortable and the journey wasn't too bad. The cabin was very cold and I had to bundle up in the jacket that I brought. Maybe it is because I have lived without Air Conditioning since early December but the cold was making me feel queasy. The bathrooms on the train are super fun they are a squat potty with a hole where you can clearly see the track underneath. Trains are not the smoothest mode of travel and traveling to use a squat potty while the train was swaying and moving is not the easiest thing I have ever done. I would like other exchange students in other countries to ask themselves if they think they could do it and then stop complaining about seeing a squat potty once and being disgusted. The train ride was uneventful and I eventually arrived in Yogya. Just like it was planned Daisy picked me up from the train station. Daisy is an exchange student from the suburbs of Chicago. I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to Daisy very much but I was looking forward to making some new friends. We went to her house, I dropped off my stuff, quickly met her family and then we were out the door again. We went to the mall to eat dinner. We had Pizza Hut, which is an actual restaurant in Indonesia and serves lots of Pizza and Pasta dishes along with a few other things. We talked about our experiences and how our exchanges where going. After dinner we went upstairs to see if there were any good movies. We settled on Jack the Giant Slayer bought our tickets and then headed downstairs again because we had time to kill. On the way we met Cheyenne, an exchange student from Canada who also lives in Yogya. We went back upstairs and bought another ticket for Cheyenne and then we went to Bread Talk. The kids from Yogya spend a lot of money at the small bread store, we bought snacks for the movie and then waited until we were allowed into the theater. We found our seats (when you buy a ticket you buy it for a specific seat) and we caused a little bit of confusion because we wanted to sit  together. The movie was excellent, I really liked it. After the movie we headed back to Daisy's home and Cheyenne went back to her house. Everything went well today, I can't believe it all worked out.

3/12/2013

Daisy and I slept in. It was nice after a long day the day before on the train. I had told Sid, exchange student in Solo, that I was going to be in Yogya and I would love for her to come for a couple of days. Sid can take a train for 1 dollar to Yogya and it only takes about an hour. She makes the trip regularly so it wasn't a problem. Daisy and I had the driver takes us to Malioboro, a street in Yogya that is famous because of the large market that lines the road. The goods are cheap and many people go there to get some good stuff. We went to the small mall on the street and waited for Sid to arrive. Daisy and I went to the bottom floor of the Mall to the grocery store and we bought some snacks to hold us over until Sid came. I bought Yellow watermelon, I didn't even know that existed. It was really good and had a slightly different taste than the traditional red watermelon. When Sid finally did arrive she was much latter than expected. She explained that the train was being very "sketchy" and was having such a hard time that the passengers were forced to move to another train. It took almost 3 hours for her to make the 1 hour journey. We walked down Malioboro and into one of the larger Air Conditioned buildings. I spent a lot of time wandering in the store and buying souvenirs. After we were done we went to the roof of the store to eat a restaurant. It was a holiday ( Hindu day of silence) and while the holiday should have shut the town down it was even more busy because  most people had the day off work and they are not Hindu (more Hindu people live in Bali). I ordered spicy fried rice, I have been adding more spice to my diet lately although I still cannot eat as much as Indonesian people. The food was really good. After lunch we spent the rest of the day at Daisy's house.

3/13/2013

When we woke up we were in no hurry. No one knew what we should do so we spent some time brainstorming and then getting Daisy's driver to pick us up and take us to Cheyenne's house. We went swimming and spent a lot of time taking pictures. Daisy wasn't feeling well so she stayed outside of the pool and took the majority of the pictures. It was fun hanging out with the other exchange students especially because I didn't know then that well and I had a lot to learn. We swam for a couple of hours and then took showers at Cheyenne's house and sat around. Cheyenne's family was busy and they weren't planning on making dinner for us (or having the maids make dinner for us) so we needed to go out for dinner. We decided on a Mexican restaurant around the corner, I have been craving Mexican for about 2 weeks now. "Around the corner" turned out to be much farther and my ill-fitting shoes made my feet bleed. When we made it to the restaurant they told us that it didn't open for another hour. We had nothing important to do so we waited. The longer we sat at the restaurant the more doubt we had in the cooking but we were determined. I ordered a Chicken Fajita. When it finally came it had mayo, pineapple and 2 tiny pieces of chicken - defiantly not Mexican food. Paying the bill was harder than normal because with 4 exchange students who don't have change it is hard to get everyone to pay the right amount. We walked home, mad at ourselves that we didn't just eat at the Indonesian restaurant but glad that we didn't have to wonder about that Mexican restaurant anymore. Shortly afterward Daisy, Sid and I returned to Daisy's house. We spent the night planning what we wanted to do the next day. I wanted to go to Prambanan, a famous landmark in Indonesia. We decided that the best time to go would be for sunrise. Daisy's host Mom came in the room and she asked us when we needed the driver to be there in the morning. We decide on 3am. Prambanan is about an hour and a half away and the sun rises at about 5 everyday. Daisy's mom agreed and then left the room. Daisy said she had to go to the bathroom but we could hear her talking to her host mom. Daisy told her mom that the driver did not need to come until 4 am.  Sid and I were confused we had decided on leaving at 3 am. This lead to a long uncomfortable night of bickering. We discovered that the actual park did not open until 6 am and that if we wanted to do a sunrise tour it would cost 35 dollars, we are all too cheap for that. Eventually, Daisy broke and exclaimed that she did not want to go because she had already been too many times and that it was miserable and ridiculous and then she grudgingly told us that she texted her driver to pick us up at 3 am. We all went to bed feeling a little awkward.

3/14/2013

My alarm went off at 2:50am. Sid and I were up and dressed in 5 minutes and brought all of our stuff down stairs (after we went to Prambanan we were moving into Cheyenne's house and had packed our stuff up the night before). Daisy got out of her bed after we were completely ready and took her time getting ready. Sid and I sat downstairs waiting for the driver. He did not come until 4. We loaded the car and we were off. At this point we were all to awake to fall asleep again. Because it was so early there was almost no one on the road and we made great time getting to the temple just after 5am. We walked onto the property and looked for a way in. The gates were all locked and we settled on finding a great spot to watch the sunrise behind the mountains. It was gorgeous. We watched for an hour until the pack opened then we bought our tickets and went in. At Prambanan and many other Indonesian places tourist (BOLE) are forced to pay more money for tickets. We each have a Kitas , which is a pass saying that we are allowed to live in Indonesia for a year and it gives us the right to Indonesian prices. When we were admitted into the park we headed straight for the temples. It had started raining and we saw a man renting umbrellas. There was a bole couple getting an umbrella when we went up to him. He told us that each umbrella was 20,000 Rupiah (2 dollars) we responded in Indonesian saying that we would pay 10,000 Rupiah (1 dollar). The man said that all the umbrellas were the same price and he would not except our offer. We went to walk away, deciding that we would just spend the morning in the rain. Then the bole couple walked out of ear shot and the man called us back saying that he would take our offer. There is something very funny about knowing that someone else paid twice as much as they should have. We each bought an umbrella and continued on the path. Words cannot really do the sight justice (or at least not my words, I am sure some poet somewhere could). It was magnificent. The sun was still coming up behind the mountains and there was almost no one at the temple yet. Most of the people there were other white people and we were spared from the annoying Indonesian people always asking for pictures. I took a ton of pictures and posted them all on Facebook (my name is Alaina Roberts friend me if you want to look at the photos). Amazing. Amazing, everything I hoped it would be and much more. Even Daisy seemed content with the scene. We stayed and walked around the temple until we believed that we had seen everything that we could. We then walked out of the park just as 5 buses of school children arrived. We hurried out, glad that we weren't stopped by the annoying children. We drove to Cheyenne's house and Sid and I said goodbye to Daisy. Sid and I took a long nap after settling into Cheyenne's house. We were woken up by Eric, the exchange student from Germany who also lived in Yogya. We spent the rest of the day resting and watching movies. For dinner we ate Indomie, an exchange student favorite. Eric went home and then Cheyenne, Sid and I walked to the Indomart to pick up some snacks. I couldn't stop thinking about sunrise at Prambanan and how it was one of the most amazing things I have seen in Indonesia so far. We went to bed latter that night.

3/15/2013

We woke up and I finished getting ready. I was taking a train home and it was leaving at noon. It was Cheyenne's birthday and she was planning a big party. I wish I could stay but I had already bought my ticket. We relaxed all morning and then the driver took Sid,  Cheyenne and me to the train station. I said goodbye to everyone and went to catch my train. They went to lunch with Eric to celebrate Cheyenne's birthday. It was much easier than I thought it would be to find the station that my train where my train would arrive. I was hungry and I had an hour before the train  came so I bought lunch at a local place. It was good and I finished 15 minutes before the train was scheduled to arrive. When it did I quickly found my seat and got comfortable. I took a nicer train home, it only took six  and a half hours and it had movies playing on a large TV at the front of the cabin. I was lucky again and I got two seats to myself. The movies playing did not have any audio and they were subtitled in Indonesian but, I enjoyed watching them. Especially, because they were playing the Mummy 1 and then the Mummy 2. I slept, watched the movies enjoyed my ride home. I got to Bandung and I had to wait for my driver. When we did arrive at the house I went upstairs unpacked my stuff and enjoyed the feeling of being home.

3/16/2013

I slept in a little and then wandered around the house wondering what I should do all day. I had just finished eating lunch when I got a message from Bridget, who was planning on being in Bandung for the next few days and sleeping at my house. She was with Leti and Herly, Aunt Melly's son who went to Florida a couple years ago on exchange. They picked me up and we went to the mall. Together we watched "the Great and Powerful Oz" in the movie theater. It was in 3D and I did not like the glasses. Parts of the image wouldn't focus and it was hard to enjoy. The movie was good I just wish it hadn't been in 3D. After the movie we wandered around for a while and then went to dinner where we were apparently meeting Mas Indra ( Rotary official from Jakarta). Mas Indra was late and I had finished my meal before he arrived. When he did get to the restaurant he brought a surprise with him, SAM, the exchange student from a city just outside of Jakarta. Sam is a super cool guy and we all enjoyed eating dinner together. After dinner Herly took everyone home. I eventually went to sleep.

3/17/2013

As you might expect, given the number of visitors, there was a large Rotary conference in Bandung. It was for the future outbound student (kids going from Indonesia to another country) and their parents. I went with my host dad, because he was also required to attend. I was late, and I was in a foul mood. A couple of hours before I got a call from Aunt Melly saying that she already gave me the information about the conference. I told her that she hadn't and that I had no idea what I was required to do or what the conference was about, or where it was  or any information that might be a little helpful. She said that she had and I told her again that I had no idea what was going on. Throughout the conversation she was getting more angry and finally she snapped called me stupid and then hung up the phone. So much for being a councilor and trying to help me live in this country. So, understandably I was quite upset and I was not in the mood for Rotary or it's stupid meeting. I sat in the meeting and watched as Sam and Bridget conducted the meeting. I sat in the back trying to regain my cool. After the opening session Aunt Melly came to the back of the room to me, she shoved her phone in my face and told me that she had sent to message to my host family. I calmly replied that they never told me anything and she stormed away. All of the exchange students (Sam, Bridget, Leti, Lae and myself) along with some of the Rotexs (ex-exchange students) went outside of the main building. We talked for hours and no one told us that we had any other responsibilities. We just sat and talked. Talking to exchange students never gets boring we talk politics, religion and personal philosophies along with any other random topics that happen to come up. The meetings finally broke and we were forced to take pictures. I did not have my Rotary blazer which resulted in another wave of displeasure from Aunt Melly. After the pictures we ate lunch. I talked to Aunt Melly and she said that we had no more responsibilities at the meeting and were free to go home. My dad could also go home so I gathered the exchange students. Bridget got her stuff from Herly's car (she spent the night at Aunt Melly's house). Leti checked with her family and was allowed to come to my house too. We asked Lae but she couldn't come. Sam wanted to come so he asked Mas Indra. The only problem was that Sam also wanted to accompany Bridget, Leti and I to Cirebon the day after tomorrow. Mas Indra was furious. He was mad at us for even suggesting that we were allowed to travel. I pointed out that the last 2 months of our exchange we were supposedly allowed to travel "freely". He snapped at me and told us we had to fill out mass amounts of paperwork if we wanted to go. My host dad had been waiting a long time when we finally headed home. Sam was allowed to come with us and Mas said he would pick him up latter. We crammed into my host family's small jeep and went home. We talked in the living room until Mas came to take Sam home to Jakarta. Leti's sister picked her up soon afterward and Bridget and I enjoyed the rest of the evening together.

2/18/2013

Bridget, Leti and I decided that we would be going to Cirebon on the 19th. So, we had a day before we had to leave. Bridget and I went shopping. We went to an outlet store then to a mall then to another mall, all in the search for a bathing suit. We were unsuccessful in buying suits but Bridget was able to buy some clothes and I bought a really cute sweater. We went home felling exhausted from the shopping. We watched the "Perks of Being a Wallflower" and Bridget finalized the travel arraignments.

2/19/2013

We planned on leaving at 1pm to Cirebon. The driver was going to pick us up at my house so Leti came over at about noon. We ate and watched TV while waiting for the car to show up. After a series of frustrating and confusing text messages we realized that the man who should have been picking us up was in a small city outside of Bandung and did not know where we were. It was 2pm before the man finally showed up. He had been told that we were in a small city near Bandung and not in Bandung which was confusing because we texted the directions so it should not have been a misinterpretation of what we said on the phone. There was traffic on the way to Cirebon so the driver took us on small back roads. We arrived in Cirebon around 7pm and I realized that I didn't have any cash. It was super embarrassing, normally I have enough money on me but I totally forgot to fill up my wallet before I left. Bridget spotted me the money and the next day we went to an ATM and I paid her back. Bridget's host family owns two hotels and a SMA/SMK (High school / vocational school) that taught hotel skills, cooking and automotive repair. They cooked a wonderful dinner that included Salmon and a salad. It was delicious. We talked and then went to bed latter.

3/20/2013

We woke up and after breakfast we went with Bridget's host brother Kiki to the school. We did a quick tour and looked at the school. It is a private school and my school is public. There is a huge difference, everything in Bridget's school is nicer than at my school. After going to the school we went to the hotel that was very close to the house and ate again. After socializing with Bridget's family we went back to the house. Bridget and I decided that we wanted to make a meal for Bridger's family. Bridget is not a confident chef but I am (not even close to perfect but, I know my way around a kitchen and I know how to follow directions) and her family has almost everything that was possibly available in Indonesia. We talked about the meal all day looking on one of Bridget's favorite websites http://foodgawker.com/  It has tons of pictures of food and gives links to the recipes. It is a terrible site if you don't have any way to make the food but, we had a way and we searched for an American meal that we could do. Latter in the afternoon we got dressed in our bathing suits and went to the pool at the other hotel. Kiki took us and after little resistance I pulled him into the pool (I did give him a chance to remove any non-waterproof items). We swam and talked. That night we watched Rush Hour 2 (Kiki's request) and then went to bed.

3/21/2013

The night before Bridget and I finalized our list of ingredients. This morning we went to the grocery store with Kiki and bought everything that we didn't have already. We finished quickly because we really didn't have too many ingredients. We purposely picked recipes that were simple and required only a few basic ingredients.  When we were done shopping we went home and rested for a while. In the afternoon we walked to the hotel and piled into a large van. We picked up a couple of people and then we headed to a small village named Cibuntu at the edge of Cirebon. The village is famous for having more goats than people living there. Kiki, Bridget's older host brother had recently done a huge festival there as part of his work on his doctorate. We hiked in the mountains surrounding the village for a while. There was a very nice path that had been marked (part of the huge project) and we followed that. Bridget had already been to Cibuntu several times and she lead us on our hike. It was beautiful and I was glad that Bridget told me to bring tennis shoes before we left Bandung. Leti and Kiki split off halfway through the walk and returned to the village (Leti was wearing flip flops and she is terrified of spiders so walking through the wood was hard on her). When we returned we found Leti and Kiki waiting by the car which they had moved the end of the hiking trail while they were waiting for us to finish. We talked and admired the view. Rice fields and mountains, simple but pretty. Such an ordinary sight in Indonesia that I will miss when I come home. We watched the sun set and then ate local sweet potatoes, other food that Kiki had paid locals to make for us and then Kiki cooked sausages on an small burner. It was very nice. We sang songs while Kiki played his guitar  and we joked with locals. Everything was perfect in a very, "I am really in Indonesia" sort of way. Sometimes exchange doesn't feel real, much like an out of body experience. It is like you are watching someone else do things and that you are just dreaming but then there are moments of absolute clarity, those are the best moments on exchange. We hung around for a long time talking and eating. We went home and Kiki used the empty, dark mountain roads as a rollercoaster as he speeded home. On the way we were trying to make a turn when the car in front of us ran out of gas. The gas station was right across the street so without thinking Kiki, Kiki's friend and I jumped out of our car and started pushing the other car. We made it to the gas station and then ran back to our car. Only then did I realize that there was a woman sitting in the front seat. It made me mad that they did not thank us and that the woman did not get out and push the car. When we did get home everyone was exhausted and we took turns taking showers. While Leti and I were waiting for Bridget and then for Kiki she Skyped her dad in Brazil. She has been teaching me some Portuguese (thank you, bless you and I love you) and she wanted me to talk to her dad. Then she had me repeat what she was saying to her dad. She made me say that I hated the USA and her dad got upset at her. Afterwards she told me what she made me say and I only laughed. All exchange students and their countries are free game especially the USA. I wasn't offended at all but her dad was not impressed. We talked and watched a movie and then went to bed.

3/22/2013

We woke up early and headed to the school. We were planning on doing all of the baking at the school because they had a better oven and then finishing everything at the house and finishing all of that in time for a 1 o'clock lunch. I don't think Bridget would hate me if I said that she is not a very experienced chief. She woke up really early and was unable to go back to sleep so she watched various YouTube videos showing how to make the dishes. It was kind of funny to watch her being super OCD and nervous in the kitchen. The menu we were making consisted of the fallowing items: Mashed potatoes, white gravy, biscuits, deviled eggs and Apple Pie (we also asked Kiki to make fried chicken since Indonesians now how to do that really well and none of us were comfortable cooking the meat.).  We started with the pie crust. I have never made a homemade pie crust before and this was the part that I was the most nervous about. Bridget's YouTube videos came in handy by telling us that we had to use really cold butter or the recipe wouldn't work. We mixed the ingredients and then put it in the fridge to thicken. Then we skinned the Granny Smith apples, cut them, mixed them with tons of sugar and then put them in the fridge too. Then we moved to the biscuits. It was a simple drop biscuit recipe and I knew that we would be able to make them without a problem. The problem turned out to be in the oven with was a huge oven (probably for pizzas) and it had an upper and lower flame temperature setting, which was in Celsius. We guessed and then put the biscuits in the oven. Bridget checked them every few seconds and we were able to get them the perfect light-golden-brown color. The pie crust had been in the fridge for an hour so  we pulled it out. I spread flour on the table and the rolling pin and then I rolled the crust out. When it was the right size Bridget helped me get it into the pan and we patched up the holes. I convinced Bridget to bake the crust for a few minutes before we put the filling in so that it could set and she agreed (somewhat reluctantly). After five minutes in the oven we pulled it out and we shocked to see that it had shrunk in the oven and left the edges of the pie pan uncovered. We patched up the holes and then poured in the filling. We then rolled out the other half of the dough for the crust and made a top for the pie. I was given the honor of cutting the little slices in the top of the pie. We improvised a tin-foil edge cover then put it in the oven and hoped for the best. After  25 minutes we took the tin-foil off and put the pie back in. While the pie was in the oven we realized that we needed to do the other food items at the school too if we wanted everything to be done at the same time. Kiki and Leti ran home picked up the other ingredients we needed and then we got back to work. Bridget and I made the white gravy. I have made gravy with my dad before and I know that it really isn't too hard. The recipe warned that we shouldn't use whole milk, unfortunately Indonesia only sells whole milk so we used what we had and hoped for the best. My arm hurt after stirring the gravy until it was ready. When it was done we put it to the side. We then skinned the potatoes and cut them into cubes and then put them in the boiling water. The eggs got boiled in a separate pan. As we watched some of the eggs leaked into the water, we poured a little vinegar into the pot (which apparently helps keep the eggs from leaking). I never know when eggs are done and there was a lot of guessing involved. We took them out of the water and let them sit in a 5 minute ice bath. The eggs we perfect and we quickly pealed them and cut them in half. There was a little scare half way through when Bridget picked up an eggs that had a small black think poking out of the top of the egg, it looked like a beak and the egg was heavier than the others. Bridget and Leti wanted nothing to do with the egg so I cut it open. It was completely normal, there was no baby chicken inside. I put the yoke in a bowl and mixed them with mayo, mustard, salt and pepper and then spooned the mix back into the eggs. The potatoes we done so we mashed them and added milk, butter, salt and pepper. The Pie was done. We ran over to the oven an opened it. It was perfect. A 50's housewife would be proud to but that on her windowsill. Then we carefully took everything to the car and got all the food safely home. By the time we got home the gravy looked terrible.  It had congealed and looked like boogers. Bridget and I put it on the stove heated it up again and added more milk, we saved it and it turned out perfect. When the chicken had been fried and placed on the table we all dug in. It took a lot to explain what the gravy was for but after people got the hang of it they loved it. Even Bridget, Mrs. Vegetarian, who had never tried gravy before, liked it. Everything was a success but nothing stood out like the perfect Apple Pie. I served it to everyone and no one waited to dig in. Things taste better when they are homemade. Immediately everyone was asking when we would be making another pie, even though the one we had just made wasn't gone yet. Nothing feels as good as accomplishing something.

3/23/2013

Bridget's host family was planning on having a family reunion in the next couple of weeks and her other brother and his wife came into town. We talked to them for a while and then spent the day relaxing and eating food. At some point we went to a Batik store and I bought my first real Batik shirt. Batik is a type of fabric that is famous in Indonesia it is made in a long complex process that involves using hot wax to draw designs on the fabric and then dying the fabric several times so it is the perfect color. When it is dry the fabric is then boiled and the wax leaves the surface of the fabric and it is replaced by spaces of original fabric. Every pattern is different and you are not really Indonesian until you own a nice Batik shirt. Now I have one. Ya! After we went to the movie store and Bridget bought some movies. We watched one of them latter and played lots of Uno.

3/24/2013

Uno is an intense game. We were all raised using different rules so while we were playing we incorporated all of the rules into one game. Leti said that she played where you could block a Draw 2 (or Draw 4) card by playing another Draw card and the person who could not block the Draw card had to pick up all of the cards For example:

Player 1: Plays a Draw 2 Yellow

Player 2: Plays a Draw 2 Green

Player 3: Plays a Draw 4 card

Player 1: Is unable to block and is forced to pick up 8 card

(This rule often means picking up a crazy amount of cards and having your own evilness backfire)

Bridget's rule was much simpler. She said that if you didn't have a card to play you had to keep drawing until you did have a card to play. We all at some point ended up holding half the deck wondering where all the Blues were.

Using these new rules we played possibly the longest game in Uno history. It took almost 2 hours of intense battling to finish the game. Leti eventually won and then Bridget beat me in the battle for 2nd place. I challenge other people to try the new rules and see how much fun it is.

After the longest Uno game and several other shorter games we decided we wanted to make rice crispy. Bridget's family already had marshmallows (which are somewhat difficult to get in Indonesia) and all we had to do was buy the cereal. We went to the closest mall but they didn't have it so we drove to the fancier mall and they also didn't have the cereal so we bought corn flakes instead as a substitute. Bridget's family was already at the mall drinking at a fancy coffee shop so we joined them. After the drinks and food we went home and made the corn flake crispy. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, although I felt sick all afternoon. The treats turned out well and I ate lots of them. Leti, who had never heard of Rice Crispy before really thought they were something special and was amazed at how easy they are to make.

3/25/2013

I was woken up at 4 am by Kiki singing loudly in the shower. We had to go home today and because Kiki was already planning on going to Bandung he offered to take up home so that we didn't have to pay for travel. I felt sick all morning and I hoped that I would be ok for the journey home. We left at 5 and I fell asleep in the car. When I woke up my jaw was locked up. For those of you who do not know I have minor TMJ, which means that my jaw can lock up and I am not able to open it. The first time this happened I woke up in the morning and I was not able to open my mouth, naturally I panicked. In order to get my jaw open I have to calm down and then slide my jaw back into place. This morning my jaw was already too swollen and I couldn't slide it back in so I just had to wait for the swelling to go down and try not to make it worse by fighting against it. Eventually, my jaw decided to start working again. I got home and thanked Kiki. Leti didn't know if she could give proper directions to her house in Bandung so she crashed at my place for a while. We ate breakfast and then I went to work. I cleaned my room, checked my email and my facebook and then finally submitted the forms that Mas Indra had wanted a while before. When Leti's sister picked her up, I took a shower and then finished squaring everything away. It is hard to live without a computer for a week when people expect you to be replying and submitting things.

3/26/2013 -  3/28/2013

Stayed at home finishing things that I needed to do, not writing my blog of course.

3/29/2013

The morning was fairly regular except my family decided that they wanted to go to Jakarta for the weekend. I had to wait for the maid to wash my clothes. Because I went to Yogya and then almost straight to Cirebon I had no clothes left.  When the maid was done I packed up my stuff and then waited. We left the house at about 4:30pm because my host mom still had to go to the hospital before we left. The trip was uneventful, I have now made the trip to Jakarta many times and it is standard procedure. We arrived in Jakarta picked up my dad (who had been traveling with work and was in Jakarta for a conference). We ate dinner and then returned to the apartment that my family owns.

3/30/2013

We woke up and got ready for the day. My Mom, Sister and I drove to Bogor. Bogor is a large city about an hour and a half away from Jakarta. We went to Kebun Raya, a palace for the local official that doubled as a large botanical garden. The area was beautiful. My Mom paid for a private guide and we went around the large park in our car. My favorite plant was one that the guide says blooms for 4 years and then hibernates in its roots and large seed for 2-4 years and then it blooms again. Being able to understand most of what the guide was saying is also a large testament to how much my Indonesian has improved in the last 7 months. When we left the park we went to eat lunch. This was more difficult that I had expected. The streets we twisting and confusing and it took us lot of circling to reach our destination. It was a pizza place and it was packed. We had to jump on a table as soon as another group left and then hail a waiter. I waived my arm in the air for several minutes before anyone took notice. When we were eventually served the drinks and the food arrived quickly. I ordered a chicken BBQ pizza, my sister got a seafood pizza and Zuppa Zuppa soup (soup with bread cooked over it), my mom went with a plate of noodles. We all shared and everything was very good. We were hungry and ate most of the food. When we finished it started to rain and we were forced to run to the car with umbrellas. I got soaking wet trying to get in the door of the car and closing the umbrella at the same time. After a futile attempt to dry ourselves with tissues we headed home. Of course as soon as we were in the car the rain stopped. I slept the whole way back to Jakarta. When we got to the hotel I mentioned that I wanted to go swimming. My host mom responded by asking if I wanted to swim at the apartment or at the Ritz Carlton, which I thought was a totally bizarre question. Later somebody finally explained that Kara and I would be spending the night at the Ritz because my host Dad was at a conference there and they had given him a room even though they already had the apartment. So Kara and I moved into the nicest hotel I have ever been in. A couple of years ago there were a series of bombings in Jakarta one in the Ritz and one in a Hilton (both American companies) . Because of the bombings we had to go through several layers of security (much stricter than anything in Indonesian airports).  We went swimming but the water was cold and I was no longer in the mood so I got out without even putting my head all the way under the water. I have become so lazy in pools. I don't want to swim laps with people playing and no lane lines and no cap and no goggles. Basically, I am a princess in the pool. We went to McDonald's for dinner and my family teased me for not knowing any old songs. They thought I was crazy when I heard YMCA playing and I perfectly mouthed all of the words in the first verse and then I told them that it was an old song and I knew it. I really like my family. I have learned so much from living with different people it has been a great experience.

3/31/2013

I woke up early and Kara and I headed down for breakfast. If anyone had the chance to eat breakfast at a Ritz take advantage of it. It was full buffet style, except the food was actually good. A waitress brought me a whole pot of hot chocolate and I looked at my options. They had everything. Indonesian breakfast, Korean Breakfast, American breakfast, fruit, bread even Sushi. I ate fruit, oatmeal (with brown sugar and granola), bread, hash browns, and several other things before I declared myself full. I had a conversation with one of the busboys who was surprised that I could speak Indonesian. After breakfast I went back up to the room and finished packing up my stuff. Then my host family picked me up and I went to church, English speaking church. It was the best Easter that I could ask for. Everyone was friendly and helpful and the lessons were amazing (especially because I could understand them). It was perfect and I am very thankful that I was able to go to church on Easter. My family ate lunch at the mall and then we went back to the apartment. My parents had to go to some meeting so they left Kara and me at the apartment. When they came home we packed up and went back to Bandung. We ate at Burger King on the way home.

4/1/2013

Happy April! I spent the day working on my blog. It is amazing how fast that builds up and how much work I am left with when I don't do my blog for a whole month.

4/2/2013

Working on my blog along with finishing everything else I need to do before I leave to go to Bali tomorrow. I also just found out that Rotary Florida wants a journal by April 12th with means that I need to turn it in before I leave for Bali. It is going to be a long night.

 Thank you for reading! I would have given up on this blog months ago without everyone's support. I hope you enjoyed this month's stories and that you will continue reading.