Christmas Songs (and a flood) in October and Determination

Okay, okay. I know this is the second "late" post, but life happens, right? Maybe sporadic posting is the new thing! Anyway, as you can tell from the title, this post is going to be about a few rather random events. The first is pretty much self explanatory. I made the huge mistake (okay that's an exaggeration) of listening to Christmas music already. Surprisingly it hasn't made me homesick though. When I say "huge mistake" you might be thinking that I'm simply referring to the fact that I started listening to it so early, but that isn't really the problem (I mean, I guess it is a slight issue...). The main "problem" is that I'm currently living in the country with the largest Muslim-majority population in the world, so Christmas isn't exactly the biggest thing here, meaning that it will be almost nothing like what I'm used to. PLUS, it's also worth noting that I am currently residing just below the equator, so it never gets cold like I'm used to. (A huge thank you to whoever decided to place me in Bandung though. I think I would have melted anywhere else!)

And now for the part you've been waiting for...okay maybe not really, but here's the flood explanation. This actually just happened a few days ago. It was gloomy for the two days or so preceding the whole "flood" thing, and so I obviously knew that it was going to rain sooner or later. Well let me tell you something...boy did it rain. (Sorry for the bad grammar. Other than college applications, I haven't really used formal English in a while.) In fact, it rained so hard that at least half of my classroom's floor was covered in water and part of the ceiling fell down. Once that part of the ceiling came down, everyone started excitedly saying "Besok libur?!" So yeah that was interesting. (And no, I didn't have the next day off.)

As for the determination, it all has to do with the language. At this point, I really want to know so much more than I do, but that's nothing some hard work can't fix!The main problem is that I'm not speaking Indonesian enough right now, but I'm determined to fix that. I even talked to some of the other exchange students about using as much Indonesian as possible and telling each other all of the funny stories that result from it. And trust me, there WILL be a lot of entertaining stories! That's just part of the learning process though. I'll keep you updated on how that's turning out! In addition, on Wednesday I decided to try something new while I was at school. The first class I had is one that I don't really ever understand anything in, so I decided to translate a book. After my reading practice, I decided to use sport and history to work on improving my listening skills. From there I had English class, which is pretty much a brain break. I'm hoping that dividing the day up like that will be helpful, but I guess only time will tell!

In other news, I've recently decided that I really miss some of the foods that I'm used to eating, so I made pizza and croissants with my host sister. For anyone who knows me well enough, that probably sounds weird considering the fact that I always complain about pizza, and I'm not a big fan of bread. Nonetheless, it's true. I have pictures to prove it! The oven I used has an actual fire in it, so it was a little different to figure out at first. All I had to do was watch the food and tell one of the helpers when it was done, but somehow I still managed to slightly burn my first batch of croissants...oops!

Here are some random pictures:

Salak...enak!

Garpu dan pisau...di mana?
(I've been here for almost two months,
but I haven't completely mastered eating with my hand yet...)

Yummy food from Bali

Croissants!

Perfectly round pizza

And becuase all of my other pictures of are of food...
Here's a random library selfie!

Indonesian Word of the Day: Bingung - Confused (I wouldn't be surprised if this became one of my most used words...)

Jessie Ware - Say You Love Me

It's Been Quite a Week

I wrote this post on Sunday and forgot to post it. Sorry! I'm also super tired, so please forgive me if it doesn't all make sense.

This week has been an interesting one, and I'm honestly not even sure where to begin. I usually have an idea of what I'm going to write about (and a title) before I start writing, but today I have no clue. I guess the easiest way to is pick up where I left off.

If you read last week's post, you'll see that I went to an Indonesian church service for the first time. It was slightly more traditional than I have become accustomed to, but I definitely plan on going as often possible. This is probably going to sound strange, but I had the weirdest feeling that something bad happened while I was there. Nonetheless, I came back home and ate dinner without really thinking anything of that feeling. It wasn't until a little bit later that I was made aware of what had actually happened. My dad called me, but once again I didn't really think too much of it. I knew something was wrong the second I heard him speak though. It all made sense when he told me that there had been a death in the family. To make a long story short, my parents and I decided that it would probably be best for me to do my best to attend the funeral. Within a few days we had (almost) everything ready for me to go. We had approval from AFS USA and Bina Antarbudaya, and we had plane tickets booked. The only thing left to do was get exit and re-entry permits. That's where our planning stopped though. We wouldn't have been able to get a permit until the day after the funeral, so don't worry. I'm still sitting in my room in Indonesia!

If our plans would have gone through, I would be in the United States right now, which would have been so weird. I honestly can't even imagine what it would feel like (aka how odd it would feel) to be back so soon. As I said to one of my friends, I was more reluctant to leave Indonesia for a week than I was to leave the US for 11 months. That probably sounds like an exaggeration, but it's completely true.  I guess that just goes to show how easy it can be for some people (aka me) to adapt to a new place!

Until next time!

Indonesian Word of the Day: Pinjam - to borrow

Sundanese Word of the Day: Hiji - One (I feel like I'm cheating with such easy words, but I really don't know that many...)

OneRepublic - I Lived

I seriously love this song so much. I remember sitting at OneRepublic's concert the day after PDO and immediately thinking of my upcoming exchange when they played this song. Needless to say, this song will forever be one my exchange songs. Also, huge shout out to whoever came up with the video idea!