Ada Pertanyaan?

So it's been a while since I last wrote. However, now I want to try this blog thing again. Starting now, I want to try to write all my blog posts using both English and Indonesian. It might be a little hard at first, but hopefully it will become easier (and more correct...).

Actually this post is super short because it's really just about a question: Is there anyone who has questions about Indonesia or exchange (or maybe about something else that's relevant)? I think I'm going to make a video (at least one) in order to let people know about exchange, Indonesia, and the US. If you have a question, feel free to send me a message or comment below!

Bahasa Indonesia: (Masih belajar jadi tentu ada kesalahan!)

Ahh sudah lama sejak menulis di blog. Namun sekarang mau coba lagi! Mulai sekarang mau coba nulis semua blog posts pake Bahasa Inggris dan Bahasa Indonesia juga. Awalnya mungkin sedikit susah tapi semoga menjadi lebih mudah (dan lebih benar...). 

Sebenarnya post ini pendek karena hanya tentang pertanyaan: Apakah ada orang yang punya pertanyaan tentang Amerika atau menjadi pertukaran pelajar (atau mungkin tentang hal lain)? Kalau ada, kirim pesan atau komentar di bawah. Mau buat video agar kasih tau orang tentang exchange, Indonesia, dan AS. Terima kasih!

Mungkin ada banyak kesalahan...maaf ya! 

Indonesian Word of the Day: Cari - To look/search for (I honestly chose this because akhirnya I'm almost done reading Looking for Alaska in Indonesian...looks like I need to buy another book to read!)

Song of the Day:

Bastille - Pompeii

I actually chose this song to tell a story. Even though I have been here for almost six months (crazy right?!), my younger host brother and I still don't really talk, which can be just as awkward as it sounds since we're driven to school together every morning. Well this morning I walked out to the car and heard Pompeii playing. Instead of tiredly jamming out to the song, I decided to ask my brother whether or not Bastille has ever played a concert in Indonesia. (Just in case you're wondering, as with many other artists, the answer is sadly no.) That one question led to talking about other concerts, our love for Ed Sheeran, and even college. Not too shabby for before 6 AM, right? Now let's see how I do tomorrow...

Thanks for reading! 

A Different Type of Blog

Hellooo. Apa kabar? I'm sorry I have been gone for a few weeks. However, I have decided to start my vlogs back up. Here's the first one:

I'm sorry the quality is so poor. I was trying to figure out my webcam and forgot to change the quality. This is really just a trial run though, so it's okay! My next one will be on a specific topic, so I (hopefully) won't be rambling as much. I'll probably eventually do at least one video in Indonesian, but we'll see...

Indonesian word of the day: Matahari - Sun (literally eye of the day)

Song of the Day:

Jessie Ware - Tough Love

Lagu ini bagus banget! 

Christmas in Bali

One of the first things that my host family told me when I arrived back in August was that they had planned a trip to Bali over Christmas. They then proceeded to ask if it was okay for me not to be in my new home for Christmas. Of course I said yes! I mean, come on...Bali for Christmas?! Flash forward 4 months and I just got back from the trip. 

I was awakened way too early for my liking on the morning on Christmas Eve (think 3:45 am) and told to get ready. Before I knew it, we were in the car on the way to the airport. After checking our luggage and saying goodbye to the relatives returning to Padang, we boarded the plane to Denpasar. As soon as I sat down, I realized that I was hearing familiar music. It turned out to be Christmas music! Because the flight was so short, I spent most of the time looking out the window at some of the amazing mountains that we flew over. Before long we were over the water and landing in Bali. Even though we were in the domestic terminal, I was almost shocked at the number of foreigners that I saw. Of course, that was only the beginning though. As with cities on Java, Bali's cities also have lots of traffic, so the drive to our villa took a little while. When we finally arrived, my host sister asked if I wanted to go swimming, and it was then that I realized that I had forgotten a swimsuit...it was okay though because we found a solution. After swimming in a pool for a while, we decided to head to the beach to watch the sunset. It was really beautiful! Unfortunately I had the wrong phone with me though, so my pictures aren't the greatest.

Pretty sunset on the beach

The next day was Christmas, which turned out to be a very, very rainy day. I can't really complain though because it is the rainy season after all. That was also the day that the rest of the relatives arrived in Bali. There were about 35 people in all, so I had to try to remember a lot of new names! By the time breakfast was over, it felt like half the world had wished me a merry Christmas, which I really appreciated since I was the only person there who celebrated the holiday. After going out to the store to buy some snacks and stuff, we returned to the villa and had a family event. As is typical of Indonesia, there were plenty of games and some singing. At one point, each group of immediate family members was supposed to go to the front and sing a song together. When my host family was called I wasn't paying attention and didn't hear it, so when they finished, my host mom came over to me and said something along the lines of "Tori, did you forget? We are one family." I honestly thought that was like the sweetest thing ever because she even said it in English, which is not a language that she speaks very well.

It's definitely still the rainy season...

The next morning we were awakened somewhat early and told to get ready. After eating breakfast, we were loaded onto a bus. Both me and pretty much all of my host cousins fell asleep, and all the adults took pictures of us because that meant that the entire back of the bus was sleeping. When I woke up, we were somewhere in the mountains and went to go eat lunch. Apparently we were supposed to go somewhere else too, but we just ended up going to Tanah Lot, which was very pretty. In the end we all ended up getting pretty much soaked because it decided to pour while we were there. While I was with my host siblings and cousins, we took lots of selfies that ended up in lots of screaming and laughing due to the fact that the waves kept coming over our previous path and the rocks we were standing on were so slippery. It was fun and definitely memorable!

Tanah Lot

On Saturday my older host brother and his wife headed up a trip for the young people to do some water sports on the beach. It was lots of fun, and I definitely plan on going again if I end up returning to Bali before I leave. Unfortunately we couldn't really use our cameras, so I don't have any pictures from that right now. When we finished with that, we met up with the parents at a seafood restaurant on the beach.

Yummy seafood on the beach

The next two days were spent shopping and relaxing. I had just enough space to bring back all of the gifts I bought! In all, I think it's safe to say that I enjoyed my time in Bali and would love to go back, especially when it's no longer the rainy season.

We accidentally ordered tons of food because
we didn't realize that we brought our own...so ayam bakar it is! 

Traditional Balinese design

Indonesian Word of the Day: Pantai - Beach

A great song by a great artist 

Sudah Seratus Hari di Indonesia

So basically I was supposed to post this at the beginning of the month...minta maaf!

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

1. Weather, of course! Even when Indonesians think it's cold, I still think the weather is nice.
2. So. Many. Motorcycles.
3. There seem to be cats everywhere in Indonesia!
4. Rice all day every day (Sometimes instead of asking if I have eaten yet, my host family asks if I have eaten rice yet.)
5. Light switches go down when the light is on and up when the light is off
6. There isn't usually any toilet paper 
7. Squat toilets are pretty common in public places
8. Instead of a cafeteria at school, there is a kantin that serves food that actually tastes good
9. Almost all the cars here are white, silver, or black
10. 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

1. Understanding Indonesian and understanding school are two totally different things
2. The words exchange student and tired go hand in hand
3. It's not possible to eat too many mangos
4. Learning a language through immersion is somehow both harder and easier than I thought
5. I actually like bread and pizza 
6. 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)
7. 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!
8. Talking to another exchange student can make any day brighter
9. Never underestimate the traffic (or the rain..) in Indonesia 
10. Finding ways to amuse yourself is important on exchange

10 Things I Want to Do Before I Leave

1. Become fluent in Indonesian
2. Have a few conversations using only Sundanese
3. Learn the Minangkabau language 
4. Visit Bali
5. 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!)
6. Visit an island other than Jawa or Bali (I know, very specific)
7. Visit my host dad's village (He showed me pictures, and it's in the middle of the forest. Pretty cool!)
8. Learn how to cook some of my favorite Indonesian foods
9. Prepare an entire American meal for my host family (I have made a few things, but not a whole meal yet)
10. Learn some traditional dance

10 Favorite Foods/Drinks (There are actually way too many good ones to name...)

1. Martabak manis
2. Ayam bakar
3. Salak (snake fruit)
4. Rendang - I don't even eat beef in the US, but rendang is actually really good!
5. Mpek-mpek
6. Es teh manis
7. Nasi goreng
8. Ayam penyet
9. Mangga (I'm forever eating one of these)
10. Keju aroma

10 Things I Miss (For some reason I had the hardest time coming up with ten things)

1. Soft pretzels from my favorite place
2. Lox and bagels
3. Sophie, the cat, even though she's mean and scratched up my entire leg a day or two before I left
4. Cold weather and snow
5. Feeling challenged at school (Okay, okay I still don't understand everything, but still)
6. Being able to have a conversation about pretty much anything (I'm definitely still somewhat lacking in the area of vocabulary)
7. Not having to convert measurements in my head (This hardly happens now, but this is sometimes when my American really shows)
8. Thinking in English (right now my brain is stuck somewhere between Indonesian and English, which gets somewhat confusing)
9. Waking up for school later than 5 
10. Family and friends

10 Things I've Thought Were Weird But Am Now Used To

1. 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...)
2. My host family has servants and a driver
3. The amount of free time we have at school
4. A lot of tings on tv are in English with Indonesian subtitles 
5. Corn bread has a totally different meaning here. (Think of a danish with corn in the middle...kinda)
6. Seeing an entire family (4 or 5 people) on one motorcycle
7. Oven heated by an actual fire
8. Hearing Christmas music and seeing Christmas decorations at stores
9. Pretty much everything except for rice just sits out on the table and is eaten at room temperature
10. 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...)

10 Embarrassing/Funny Things That Have Happened to Me

1. 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
2. For some reason, I am terrible at unlocking the doors at my host family's house...I better not get locked out anytime soon!
3. 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
4. Whenever people try to guess where I'm from (Papua is the most popular)
5. 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
6. 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.
7. My host family thought I couldn't speak Indonesian for quite a while, but actually aku bisa tapi masih sedikit malu
8. When I tried to use the oven for the first time and my croissants got too dark
9. One day I was on the treadmill and all the helpers ended up watching me...
10. 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

1. The excitement I felt about coming here
2. The Indonesian language
3. The amazing feeling that is hujan in Indonesia
4. Walking out of the airport in Jakarta and immediately feeling the heat...even though it was well after midnight
5. The things that I continue to learn throughout my exchange
6. My host family
7. The amazingness that is martabak manis (oops had to say it)
8. 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"
9. 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"
10. 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 

1. Other exchange students
2. Parents for letting me come here
3. My host family for willingly opening up their home to let this crazy American girl live with them for almost a year
4. 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.
5. Skype. From college interviews to talking with other exchange students, Skype has pretty much been a lifesaver.
6. My Indonesian friends for being patient when I don't understand something
7. Classical music
8. Pizza and ice cream, which may as well be the official foods of exchange students
9. The fact that I can pretty much be on a gap year without it actually being a gap year
10. Successfully living in Indonesia for over 100 days!

10 Reasons Everyone Should Come to Indonesia

1. Good food
2. It really is unlike any other country
3. So many different cultures
4. In general, Indonesian people are very welcoming
5. There are tons of islands to visit
6. It's so different yet somehow so similar to what you're probably used to
7. You're missing out on visiting a pretty awesome country 
8. The mix of modern and traditional is actually pretty cool to see
9. You can stop taking my word for it and see things for yourself
10. Good food (yes, I am aware that this is on the list twice)

Thanksgiving in Indonesia

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!

Indonesian Word of the Day: Bilang - To say

Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song

Realizations

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)

Miley Cyrus - The Climb

This one's for you, Birta!

Two Months??

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!

Until next time,

Victoria

Indonesian Word of the Day: Semoga - Hopefully

Ryan Keen - Reflections in the Water