Well first off I'd like to acknowledge the fact that I have been in Indonesia for over 3 months! (I actually wrote a tiga bulan post in Indonesian, tapi saya sedikit malu...aka I didn't post it.) However, this (super short) post is going to be about my Thanksgiving in Indonesia. I guess the title of this post is actually a little bit misleading though. I didn't really do anything traditional for Thanksgiving. Instead, I spent my last day in the class I was visiting and decided to Skype a couple of the other YES Abroad students. In order to get our minds off of Thanksgiving, what did we do? We listened to Christmas music, of course! Well that we obviously talked too. It's always great to talk to the other Americans (and all the other exchange students) because even though each of our experiences is unique, there are so many commonalities! Plus sometimes it's just nice to talk to some of the few people who are also getting a little homesick on a holiday that none of the other exchange students celebrate.
Anyway after that, I had a very traditional dinner of chicken and rice (okay so not traditional but delicious). Then I actually decided to talk to my family in the US. It's always so weird to think about the fact that we have a 12 hour time difference. While I was sitting in bed half asleep, they were watching the Thanksgiving parade and cooking some of the dishes for the day. As bad as it probably sounds, I think I realized that the food was really the thing that I was missing the most that day. It's not that I don't miss my family. I just feel like Indonesia is the place where I belong until July!
And that's my very interesting post about what I did on Thanksgiving. I'm sorry that this post is very, very short, but I plan on posting again in the very near future karena saya sudah tinggal seratus hari di Indonesia!
I may or may not have written this when I didn't understand what was going on in physics...
So today has been an interesting day so far. I mean, it's not even 10 o'clock (I obviously wrote this earlier..), and I've already done what feels like enough thinking and soul searching for a lifetime. Exchange is just funny that way though. One second you're wondering why you're here and what you're actually doing with the limited time that you have been blessed enough to be given in your host country and the next you are hit with realization after realization. I'm writing this because I had had one of those realization moments.
You see, lately I have been trying to figure out what it is that I have actually been doing with my time here. As much as I don't want to admit it, the answer is not very much. The second thing that I have been asking myself is this: how much am I really enjoying my exchange? And the answer is this: not as much as I would like. The third and final question that I have asked myself is about how I can change the answers to the two preceding questions. The answer is actually pretty simple. I just need to try new things. That's a large part of the reason I came here, right? New language(s), new people, new food, new everything! Obviously getting used to all of that at once is not quite as easy as it sounds, but it is completely doable and enjoyable once the ball gets rolling.
So the reason that I'm writing this post is that I want this to serve as a reminder to myself and to other exchange students. There are many things that we have no control over when it comes to exchange (and in life in general), but the things I talked about are not usually on that "no control" list. We do have the ability to control (most of) what we do with our free time, and we will ultimately regret it if we don't put real effort into communicating (yes, there goes mention of language again) and doing the things that we really want to do. Even though this might end up sounding like a Nike ad, I just have one thing to say to myself and to my fellow exchange students: just do it! (Within reason of course..don't drive yourself crazy)
Here's a short list of some of the things that I plan on doing to get myself out of the rut that I feel like I'm stuck in:
Satu - Bahasa, bahasa, bahasa: By the end of 2014, I plan on pretty much forgetting about English (unless it's for teaching or learning in a class) until July ( I think it's already working because I almost typed sampai Juli...). For now though, I'll admit this: I still rely on good ol' bahasa Ingriss too much. In order to avoid the continuation of that, I will be removing as much unnecessary English from my life as possible and trying my best to add a minimum of 5 new Indonesian words to my vocabulary each day.
Dua - Tari: One thing that I have been planning on doing for a while is traditional dance. Although I have not taken a dance class in years, I would love to start again while I'm here. Who knows..maybe I'll take some classes in college too. Dancing is definitely something that I enjoy, so I think it has the ability to make my exchange more enjoyable. Plus it will be a great way for me to bring back a little bit of Indonesian culture to the US!
Tiga - Relawan: Something that I have been really missing is volunteering. It is one of my favorite things to do, and I'm excited to start it up again on this side of the world. Although I will probably end up helping out at organization or two, I am also thinking about starting up a little something of my own. And before you say anything..I know, I know I already have an organization in the US. However my idea isn't really for an actual organization, so it's all good!
Oh and one more thing. Remember that this is your exchange, so please try to make the best of every moment!
Thanks for reading!
Indonesian Word of the Day: Semangat - spirit (Used as encouragement)
I wrote this last week when it was actually two months, so sorry that I'm not posting it until now!
How has it already been two months since it was my first day here? I honestly can't believe it. As I said to one of my fellow exchange students the other day, it seems like we were talking about it being one month just yesterday. Time really does fly...it's kinda crazy! That same friend of mine and I also talked about the fact that we can't imagine how it will feel to leave. Even though our exchange is nowhere near being over, we can only imagine how hard it would be to leave right this minute. Add on another few months, and I'm sure that feeling will increase tenfold.
In other news, I found out that I got accepted to a college today (aka last week Thursday..)! It's probably not the school that I will end up attending, but it's great to know that someone was crazy enough to accept me. Plus it's the first notification that I have received..good or bad! It honestly does feel like finding out about studying abroad all over again. I still have a few more applications to finish, but I feel like I'm getting somewhere. Yay for progress! It is weird to be thinking about the next chapter of my life when this one is really just getting started though. I will admit that it is a little hard to balance enjoying the present and worrying about the ever nearing future, but I'm figuring it out!
Sorry for the rather randomly written post, but here's a little story that shows one of the biggest differences that I have found between Indonesia and the United States. So today (aka last week Thursday again) I was at school and only had about two hours of class. There are seven hours of school! Just in case you didn't know, substitute teachers don't exactly exist in Indonesia. That means that if a teacher is not there or has something else school related to do, then the class is given more free time. That's so unlike American school! In the US, students aren't usually left in classrooms without a teacher, and we would NEVER have five hours of free time during the school day.
I think my next post will be one about another difference between the US and Indonesia!
