Less than one month. That's how long I have left at home. In about one month I will be on a plane to New York for my gateway orientation. I get on another plane the very next day, but this time I'll be headed for Tokyo. After that, I finally get on my flight to Jakarta! Even though I still have a month to go, I'm beyond excited to get this next year started. Until then, I'll be finishing up my last few days of school, starting (and hopefully finishing) some college applications, and deciding what to pack for the next year.
Now for the first thing that the title says this post is about. I am so excited right now. AFS emailed me about my host family yesterday, and it looks like I'll be living in Bandung! My host family is made up of a mom, a dad, 2 brothers, and 2 sisters. My youngest host brother is actually the same age as my little brother, so that's pretty cool. Knowing who my host family is and where I will be living makes everything seem so much more real, but this whole thing still seems somewhat surreal. I sent an email to my host mom, so I'm pretty excited to hear back from her!
Here are a couple pictures of Bandung:
Mount Tangkuban Perahu (north of Bandung)
Pretty cool looking city, right?
(Shouout to Wikipedia for some pretty awesome Creative Commons pictures!)
Indonesian Word of the Day: Bahagia - Happy I like to refer to this as the "CSI music video." With that said, if you're grossed out by the idea of (fake) blood and the deceased, then you may not want to watch the first video below. It's a great song though!
Bastille - Of the Night
I can't even tell you how much I love this mashup!
And because I'm indecisive, I'm going to post the live version too. It's sooooo good!
P.S. I just realized that the Indonesian word of the day and the video for this post's song don't really seem go together...
Two posts in one day! Crazy, right? This will just be a quick (and very short) update because I actually have a bit more information. Just in case you're wondering, it's not a host family...yet. I did just get my flight information though, so now I know when I'm leaving! I have to be in NYC for my gateway orientation on August 20th. That's exactly six weeks from today! I leave for Jakarta on the 21st and get there on the 22nd. For the sake of routine, I almost want to still volunteer at the hospital on the my last Monday here, but I don't think that would do anyone any good. I'm sure that I'll be freaking out, so pushing people in wheelchairs and carrying specimens probably isn't the best idea...Who am I kidding. I'll probably still be packing anyway! As much as I like the idea of having everything packed early, I know that it never happens. For instance, I'm leaving in the morning to go visit some colleges for the weekend, but I haven't packed anything yet. I think that's my cue to go pack and to make a mental reminder that I should have my bags packed way ahead of time for Indonesia.
Until next time,
Victoria
P.S. I hope you don't think this post is over yet. I still have to tell you the Indonesian word of the day and give you a song to listen to! Here they are:
Indonesian word of the day: Samudra - Ocean
5 Seconds of Summer - Voodoo Doll
This song has randomly been stuck in my head for the past 2 days...
(Just in case you can't tell, I really like acoustic and live music!)
Warning: I jump around to different topics a lot in this blog post. I'm sorry if it's a little confusing, but that's just how my brain works sometimes. I'm also sorry for any grammatical errors in any of my posts. I don't usually look over writing before posting it (that would make me want to rewrite the whole thing...), so the mistakes are pretty much inevitable.
Even though I am leaving for Indonesia next month and have a ton of things to do before then, I honestly am not too worried about anything (yet). I finally have all of my SAT subject test, ACT, and AP scores back, so at least I don't have those hanging over my head. I somehow did better than, worse than, and the same as I was expecting. With that being said, I definitely wish that I would have been able to focus on each test a lot more. I guess there is nothing I can do now though. I'm just happy to be done! Once I finish up my classes at the end of this month, I'm going to try my best to get my college applications done. I've only started one so far, so it's probably going to be really hard to get all of them done before I leave. I'll just have to wait and see what happens!
As for exchange, some of the exchange students from other countries have started to find out their host schools in Indonesia. Hopefully I'll find out about mine soon! I finally got all of my shots a few weeks ago, so that's one less thing to do! I also got malaria pills and pills for diarrhea (how lovely). On a far less disgusting note, I know I promised to do vlogs once school finished, so I should probably get on that. I actually filmed a video in April, but I never posted it because YouTube was being weird. I shouldn't be making excuses though. In the words of my little brother: Excuses, excuses, excuses...they all stink! Anyway, I'll try to have a video up within the next two weeks.
Also, congratulations to the girls in the Philippines and India for making it to their homes for the year. I hope that you are all having an amazing time so far! Shout-out to the Malaysia group as well because they are leaving next week. Safe travels! Before I know it, I'll be heading off to New York for my gateway orientation!
As I said before, I'm really looking forward to finding out about my host family. I think that will make this whole thing seem a little bit more real. PLUS, I'll actually be able to tell people where I'm going when they ask. Considering the fact that the only thing many people know about Indonesia is Bali (if they even realize that it's part of Indonesia...), telling them that I'll be living on Java doesn't really mean much. Maybe I'll know where I will be living by the time I post again!
I should probably go do some calculus now...
Selamat tinggal!
McFly - No Worries
How could you not love them?!
P.S. Indonesia's presidential election was today. The quick count says that Jokowi won, but nothing will be official until the KPU announces the official count later this month! I'll probably make an actual post once the winner is officially announced.
I'm sorry if this post is a bit boring. It's just a little rundown of PDO. Hopefully future YES Abroad applicants will find it helpful/interesting!
I just came home from the YES Abroad PDO (pre-departure orientation) in Washington DC, and all I can say is that I'm really tired. Oh and I didn't really take any pictures...oops. Sometimes I just feel like it's better to live in the moment than to bring a camera into the picture. With that said, any pictures I use will be taken from other people, so thank you to anyone whose pictures I put in this post.
Tuesday, June 24th (My Birthday!)
I was supposed to leave at about 1 PM, but I ended up leaving a little later because my train kept being delayed. I was with Helene (a fellow Indonesia YESer) though, so we got a chance to get to know each other! When I finally got to DC, I met up with Union Station was super busy. The cab line was kinda annoyingly long, but it went much faster than we thought it would. Once we arrived at the 4-H Center, we put our bags in our rooms and went to dinner. The welcome session was after that, and we got to sit our country tables for the first time. It was great to meet all my fellow Indonesia goers. I'm so excited for August!
First Indonesia group picture!
(L-R; Top row: Sara - our awesome group leader, Aiden, Baillie, Helene, Madison
Bottom row: Victoria (me!) and Lindsay)
Wednesday, June 25th
Wednesday was FULL of workshops. Starting right after breakfast and ending quite a while after dinner, the workshops seriously did last all day. There was a lot of information given to us at once, but we all survived and will hopefully remember the things that we need!
Thursday, June 26th
Thursday was the day that some country groups went to their embassies (not including Indonesia),and we all went to the U.S. Department of State. We were a bit disappointed that we didn't get the chance to visit the Indonesian embassy, but we went to see some Asian art at a museum instead. Even though there wasn't really any Indonesian art at the museum, there were some pretty interesting pieces of art. Once we left the museum, we took a few pictures with our country groups and headed over to the State Department. Since we were early, we sat down and talked for a little while. At the State Department, we heard a few people and got to ask some country or region specific questions. I wasn't feeling very well while we were there, so it honestly wasn't the the most fun experience. I was really out of it. I think I was just really tired and a bit dehydrated though. After the State Department, we went to the Lincoln Memorial and took some picture. Once we were done there, we went back to the 4-H Center for dinner and another session.
YES Abroad 2014-2015
Friday, June 27th
Today went by pretty fast. We ate breakfast, had a closing session, and said goodbye to friends. I'm sad to know that I may not ever see some of them again, but I'm very excited for each and every one of my fellow YES Abroad participants. I think it's pretty cool that we'll be on three different continents for a year, and I cannot wait to hear about everyone's experience!
That's all for now. As I said before, I'm super tired. I have some school stuff to do and a concert to go to tomorrow, so I better get some sleep!
Selamat tinggal!
Bahasa Indonesia word of the day: hari Jumat - Friday
P.S. Now that PDO is over, I have a new countdown on the side of the blog. I only have about 51 days left out home! As weird as it probably sounds, this whole thing somehow still doesn't feel real!
Also, shout out to Sarah (IPSE roomie!), Katie, and Kennedy who are leaving for the Philippines on Sunday. Have a safe trip! I wish you all the best, and I hope (and know) that you will have an AMAZING year!
This post's song is Afire Love by Ed Sheeran
(I've decided to make the songs an official thing because I can't seem to stay away from posting them!)
Sometimes I feel like I live a triple life. For most of the day, I am a student, but even that's weird now. Even though I just finished up my junior year, I am stuck somewhere between my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college. The college courses I'm taking now probably won't end up counting for credit at my actual college, but I'm still taking more college classes than high school classes at the moment. I'm sorry if that got slightly confusing (it probably did...), and that's only the student side of me!
The second "life" that I live is the one in which I am the co-founder of a nonprofit. By the way, we just got our papers saying that Think Before You Type is officially a 501(c)(3) organization! Anyway, I know that receiving requests to speak at events, writing blog posts for other websites, and interviewing people on other continents may not be what the average 16 year old does. However, it's what I do, and I've grown to love it.
The third and final life that I live is the one that is typically shown on this blog. I'm preparing to live the life of an exchange student. I haven't left the United States yet, but I feel like I'm already learning a lot, especially when it comes to how American culture affects my life. It's not something that I usually think about, but YES Abroad has gotten me to think about it since day one.
I know that this isn't my typical type of post, and I may have written this at 5am (I'm not even joking..I woke up at 4, so I'm clearly an insomniac). I just wanted to write some thing a little bit different, but I promise that my next post will be about studying abroad.
Please give this song a listen. It's one of my favorites! I'm going to see them (American Authors), OneRepublic, and the Script the day after PDO ends. I'm pretty excited!
P.S. I just realized that it's been exactly 2 months since I found out that I got the YES Abroad scholarship to study in Indonesia. Time seriously flies, doesn't it?
I would like to preface this post by saying that I am not even close to being an expert in Indonesian politics. All of the information that is in this post has come from research that I have done on the internet. If anything that I have written is incorrect, please kindly notify me, and I will change it.
I've been reading up on all things Indonesia, and I've learned that my first few months there are sure to be interesting when it comes to politics. This year is a presidential election year, and the legislative elections took place in April. Due to the fact that the current president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (also known as SBY), has served for two terms, he cannot constitutionally run for office again. Since Indonesian presidential terms last for five years, this will be the first time that Indonesia will have had a new president since 2004. As far as I know, voters will be choosing between two candidates, Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto.
(I had a picture of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here, but it seems as if it has disappeared! As long as I remember, I will replace it.)
Joko Widodo
Prabowo Subianto
After doing some research, I found out that election day is July 9th, but there may be another round of elections in September if it's necessary. The voting age in Indonesia is actually 17, one year younger than that of the United States, but one can also have the right to vote by marriage.
The next president's inauguration will be held on October 20th, so I'll be able to see what that's like while I'm in the country. I'm pretty excited to see how the election turns out, and I'll probably end up making a post about the winner.
PDO is getting pretty close, so my next post may not be until after that.
Selamat tinggal!
P.S. This is completely off topic, but my application was just accepted by AFS-Indonesia yesterday. That means that they can start looking for my host family!
Tomorrow is my last real day of high school. The seniors have been gone for days. All the other juniors are excited about being seniors, but I can't really share in their excitement. I mean, I'm excited too, but I'm excited for my year in Indonesia!
Jakarta skyline
I'm not really sure if I should be really excited or sad. As of right now, I'm definitely happy to be almost done. I don't think it will really hit me that I'm not going back until I step on the plane in August. This summer is definitely going to be different too. Instead of doing tons and tons of summer work for AP and honors classes, I'm going to be taking one high school class and two college classes in order to graduate on time. To top it all up, I'll be keeping up with my organization and preparing to live on the other side of the world for a year. I definitely have a lot on my plate for this summer, but I'm confident that I can do it and (hopefully) do it well.
I'm sorry that this is another short post. I already have the next one written though, so it will be up soon!
Selamat tinggal!
P.S. Here's the Les Miserables song that I named this post after!
