It's official. I have now spent over 100 days in Indonesia. I guess it's fair to say that I've done quite a bit in those 100 days. I wish I could say that this post was an original idea, but I'm actually borrowing an idea used by two YES Abroad alumnae, Hannah (Malaysia) and Carly (Indonesia).
10 Differences Between Indonesia and the United States
- Weather, of course! Even when Indonesians think it's cold, I still think the weather is nice.
- So. Many. Motorcycles.
- There seem to be cats everywhere in Indonesia!
- Rice all day every day (Sometimes instead of asking if I have eaten yet, my host family asks if I have eaten rice yet.)
- Light switches go down when the light is on and up when the light is off
- There isn't usually any toilet paper
- Squat toilets are pretty common in public places
- Instead of a cafeteria at school, there is a kantin that serves food that actually tastes good
- Almost all the cars here are white, silver, or black
- Language (I feel almost like I'm cheating with this one, but it's amazing how many different languages are spoken in Indonesia!)
10 Things I've Learned So Far
- Understanding Indonesian and understanding school are two totally different things
- The words exchange student and tired go hand in hand
- It's not possible to eat too many mangos
- Learning a language through immersion is somehow both harder and easier than I thought
- I actually like bread and pizza
- It's not weird to have someone ask where you live like two seconds after you meet (there will be a blog post about this and other very un-American questions at some point)
- Try (almost) everything when it comes to food. Some of the stuff I was a little afraid to try in the beginning has ended up as some of my favorite food!
- Talking to another exchange student can make any day brighter
- Never underestimate the traffic (or the rain..) in Indonesia
- Finding ways to amuse yourself is important on exchange
10 Things I Want to Do Before I Leave
- Become fluent in Indonesian
- Have a few conversations using only Sundanese
- Learn the Minangkabau language
- Visit Bali
- See a few volcanoes (Since this post is so late, I can now say that I've officially done this. However, I am definitely up for seeing more!)
- Visit an island other than Jawa or Bali (I know, very specific)
- Visit my host dad's village (He showed me pictures, and it's in the middle of the forest. Pretty cool!)
- Learn how to cook some of my favorite Indonesian foods
- Prepare an entire American meal for my host family (I have made a few things, but not a whole meal yet)
- Learn some traditional dance
10 Favorite Foods/Drinks (There are actually way too many good ones to name...)
- Martabak manis
- Ayam bakar
- Salak (snake fruit)
- Rendang - I don't even eat beef in the US, but rendang is actually really good!
- Mpek-mpek
- Es teh manis
- Nasi goreng
- Ayam penyet
- Mangga (I'm forever eating one of these)
- Keju aroma
10 Things I Miss (For some reason I had the hardest time coming up with ten things)
- Soft pretzels from my favorite place
- Lox and bagels
- Sophie, the cat, even though she's mean and scratched up my entire leg a day or two before I left
- Cold weather and snow
- Feeling challenged at school (Okay, okay I still don't understand everything, but still)
- Being able to have a conversation about pretty much anything (I'm definitely still somewhat lacking in the area of vocabulary)
- Not having to convert measurements in my head (This hardly happens now, but this is sometimes when my American really shows)
- Thinking in English (right now my brain is stuck somewhere between Indonesian and English, which gets somewhat confusing)
- Waking up for school later than 5
- Family and friends
10 Things I've Thought Were Weird But Am Now Used To
- Eating with hand (Now I usually feel weird using a sendok and garpu for things that I usually eat with my hands. Let's not even get started on what will be like to regularly use a knife again in the US...)
- My host family has servants and a driver
- The amount of free time we have at school
- A lot of tings on tv are in English with Indonesian subtitles
- Corn bread has a totally different meaning here. (Think of a danish with corn in the middle...kinda)
- Seeing an entire family (4 or 5 people) on one motorcycle
- Oven heated by an actual fire
- Hearing Christmas music and seeing Christmas decorations at stores
- Pretty much everything except for rice just sits out on the table and is eaten at room temperature
- Indonesian money (This probably sounds weird, so I'll explain. In the beginning it took me forever to pay for stuff because I didn't remember which color meant which amount yet, but now I only occasionally mess up by doing stuff like trying to use a 100 rupiah coin when I mean to use a 1000 rupiah coin...)
- It took me what seemed like forever to learn how to open the front gate because it opens the opposite way I thought it did
- For some reason, I am terrible at unlocking the doors at my host family's house...I better not get locked out anytime soon!
- When people want to have full in person conversations in Indonesian with me after seeing that I kinda know what I'm saying via SMS
- Whenever people try to guess where I'm from (Papua is the most popular)
- On like my second day in Bandung, someone I had never met asked "dari mana?" and I thought they were asking where I was from instead of where I just came from because it can be used for both things
- One day I forgot to turn my alarm on, so the next morning one of the helpers came to ask me if I was going to school. I said yes (I think...). However, when I got ready and went downstairs, my host brother and driver were already gone. My host dad said the helper though I said I wasn't going to school, which may very well have happened because my Indonesian is especially bad when I'm groggy. Anyway, my host mom took me to school on the way to work instead, but I was almost late...oops! Moral of the story: always set your alarm for school.
- My host family thought I couldn't speak Indonesian for quite a while, but actually aku bisa tapi masih sedikit malu
- When I tried to use the oven for the first time and my croissants got too dark
- One day I was on the treadmill and all the helpers ended up watching me...
- One time I translated and almost completed an entire chemistry midterm because the teacher thought I was from Papua and totally understood Indonesian
10 Things I Hope to Never Forget
- The excitement I felt about coming here
- The Indonesian language
- The amazing feeling that is hujan in Indonesia
- Walking out of the airport in Jakarta and immediately feeling the heat...even though it was well after midnight
- The things that I continue to learn throughout my exchange
- My host family
- The amazingness that is martabak manis (oops had to say it)
- This quote from a friend: "But all you can do is hold on tight and count on the fact that if you don't let the hard times break you, this experience will only build you up and make you stronger than ever before"
- Those occasional times when I think "oh my goodness I'm over 10,000 miles away from 'home' but it doesn't even feel like it"
- The fact that dreams do come true (I know that sounds super cliche, but I'm actually living what was only a dream earlier this year)
10 Things I'm Thankful For
- Other exchange students
- Parents for letting me come here
- My host family for willingly opening up their home to let this crazy American girl live with them for almost a year
- The KL-YES Abroad scholarship. Because so few people come here on exchange, I think it's pretty safe to say that there is absolutely no way that I would be in Indonesia right now without it.
- Skype. From college interviews to talking with other exchange students, Skype has pretty much been a lifesaver.
- My Indonesian friends for being patient when I don't understand something
- Classical music
- Pizza and ice cream, which may as well be the official foods of exchange students
- The fact that I can pretty much be on a gap year without it actually being a gap year
- Successfully living in Indonesia for over 100 days!
10 Reasons Everyone Should Come to Indonesia
- Good food
- It really is unlike any other country
- So many different cultures
- In general, Indonesian people are very welcoming
- There are tons of islands to visit
- It's so different yet somehow so similar to what you're probably used to
- You're missing out on visiting a pretty awesome country
- The mix of modern and traditional is actually pretty cool to see
- You can stop taking my word for it and see things for yourself
- Good food (yes, I am aware that this is on the list twice)
