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!
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...)
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!
I have heard countless people say that the United States and Southeast Asia are pretty much opposites. To be completely honest, I have no idea if this is true or not. As weird as it probably sounds, I had never been out of the country until I hopped on that plane to Japan last month. (Does that make me extra crazy for wanting to go on exchange??) Because of that, I really have nothing with which I can compare the United States to other than Indonesia. I mean, if we're getting technical here, I was in Japan too, but I was just in the airport for like 2 hours.
Anyway, the point of this post isn't actually my lack of experience in international travel. However, it is quite interesting that my first time abroad happens to include being over 10,000 miles away from my home in the US for almost 11 months, right? Okay so now that that's established, I'll start the actual post...
One of the questions I have been asked the most is this: What are the differences between the United States and Indonesia? I get this question from people in Indonesia and from people in the US. It seems simple enough, but sometimes I honestly don't know how to answer it. When I think about it, there are two ways to answer the question. The first way is the simpler of the two and the way that I usually choose. It typically involves me saying something about motorcycles, school, food, and the weather. However, there is a second way to answer the question. It's an answer that most people probably would not expect and almost certainly would not be satisfied to hear. You see, the truth is that Indonesia really is not as different as most people seem to think. The streets may look different and often lack sidewalks. There really are far too many motorcycles to count. The languages that roll off of people's tongues sometimes do still sound foreign. Despite all of that though, there is an almost indescribable sense that so many things are the same. (I literally sat at my desk for 15 minutes trying to come up with a better way to explain that). What many people seem to fail to realize is that people are people. I am not joking when I say that sometimes I wake up and completely forget that I'm not in the US. (That could also be because of the fact that I'm so tired...) It's actually really funny because my classmates remind me so much of some of my American friends, and my host family is like my family in so many ways. I guess what I'm trying to say is something that we have all heard before. We're not so different after all.
After what seems like the longest paragraph ever, I guess I should also give a mini update. This is going to be super short because I didn't do very much this week. I ended up getting sick and staying in bed for what felt like forever (it was only like 2 days though). I probably should have stayed home for three days, but I tried to be super Tori and went to school on Wednesday. (Note to future self: remember the 6th grade pneumonia incident? That never works out well...). I'm also (finally) going to church today, so that should be interesting!
Until next time!
Indonesian Word of the Day: Batuk - Cough
Ben Howard - The Fear
I think this will always be one of my favorite songs. Please give it a listen!
P.S. I know that my past few posts have been lacking pictures. I think I'll make up for it by making a post with a lot of pictures soon!
That's right. I've been in Indonesia for a month. I can't believe it! Time seems to be flying by. I'm going to bed, so I'm not going to make this very long. I just want to say that I finally made another vlog! This one is kinda like a Skype call haha I'll have a more structured one next time!
Attractive thumbnail, right? (YouTube has something against me...)
Sorry for the bad quality. I also don't know why I left that cough in the video...
