Banjarmasin

in the first week of june we had another afs trip, this time to banjarmasin on the island of kalimantan (borneo to you english speakers) i know this was a bit ago but i'm way behind on posting so here you go

we all met at the airport again. this time omar was running really late and traffic was the same as ever so by the time he got there they had already done the final call to board our plane so we ran through the airport, just like in movies.  banjarmasin was the way i always imagined indonesia to be. it is a city but its small and so jungly and green. the atmosphere is more slow paced and relaxed and everything's a lot smaller, its nothing like jakarta. the other afs kids were at the airport waiting for us and we got into cars to start the adventure when someone noticed we left bjorn and sielke behind because they'd gone off to get their baggage. we drove to martapure, called the diamond city because they mine tons of diamonds there and we did some oleh-oleh (souvenir) shopping. one of the afs leaders bough this fruit called sawo and it was weird but tasty. then we went to the banjarmasin post newspaper because they wanted to get pictures of us and talk to some people about afs and studying in indonesia. we got to wander around and look at the big press where they make the newspapers while people took paparazzi pictures of us. they told us that starting the next day there was gonna be a film crew following us around and documenting our activities for tv! me and jillian and katrin were staying with a guy who was one of the first afs kids from indonesia to go to america. he lives in this beautiful white house that's at the head of this complex of beautiful colorful houses, like a king watching over the village. nele's host dad is the vice governor and that night we were all invited to dinner at his house for a welcome party.  their house was giant. it was insane. aside from that, just being excited about such a fancy house, the party wasn't too eventful, we just ate dinner and then the kids all sat on the floor and watched tv and played with the cats. before we left me and shion had to do formal thank you's to the governor which was embarrassing. after that we all went to a club, again the afs people were so chill and took us there and partied with us. the place we were in was kind of dead but upstairs there was a disco where the only light source was the lazers and it was jammed full of people who were smoking and dancing like zombies to insanely loud house music. it was a pretty wild night.

the next day we all met up and spent most of the day driving in this sweaty van that definitely wasn't meant to carry as many people as we had in there. at some point we stopped at a police station. we got to get out and play around with their big bulletproof shields and then got in the car with open sides that they said they use to transport criminals. we went out driving and so many people stared and laughed at all the bules in the police car. it was a lot of fun. then we drove to seriously the middle of nowhere, out in the jungle, hoping to see some of the dayak people. the dayak people are a tribe in kalimantan, formerly notorious headhunters. it got dark too fast though so we had to turn around and go find our hotel, which is also in the middle of the jungle. it was pretty good though. there was a hot spring pool and a regular cold pool so we all swam for hours, switching back and forth between the pools and shoving each other into the black water of the cold pool and doing chicken fights. back in our room we cleaned off and suddenly jillian started screaming because she heard someone say hello and looked around to see that a part of the white paint on the window had been scraped off and she saw someone's eye watching her. it was so unsettling to think that someone took the time to go all the way to the back of our house and watched her shower.

no one slept very well that night. also by morning everyone knew about the peeping tom so i think it was mutually decided not to shower. to wake everyone up one of the afs leaders opened all the doors in his car and blasted club music. it sounded like there was a live band outside it was so loud. our adventure that day started out driving to a village to climb a mountain to play in a waterfall. the hiking was fun and so beautiful but it was disgustingly hot. and so far to go. i made the brilliant decision to wear new converse without socks so less than halfway through i had blisters all over my feet and went barefoot for a while. it was fun to feel the earth underneath my feet but there were a ton of rocky parts which were difficult. when it started getting really uphill and rocky cippy gave me her flip flops and i gave her my shoes. it was a pretty brutal trek. we stopped at the top to put swim clothes on and had to peel the sweaty clothes off. the waterfall was breathtaking. we swam around in the icy pool a bit and climbed around on the rocks and logs that were slick with moss. it was so fun. it started sprinkling rain when we gout out and kept raining the whole time we walked a shorter way back to ride ojek back to the bus. me, jillian, omar, shion, and a couple afs people, including the man in the yellow shirt, who we decided was the peeping tom, get there last and the sprinkling rain turned into a torrent. i think that was one of the coolest things i've ever done, speeding through the jungle in a rainstorm on a motorcycle. i felt so alive. it was raining so hard a few times my eyes got rained shut. all the bang ojek in the village laughed at how wet we got. we went to a cafe to drink warm tea and then went bamboo rafting. the sun came back out so it was perfect. there was a small bench kind of thing in the middle of the raft but we ended up just sitting on the floor because we wanted to dip our hands and feet in the water. on both sides of us was jungle, spilling out into the water. it looked untouched. its amazing to me that no one i know has ever seen such a thing. i was so happy, peacefully floating along the river, with intense green jungle on both sides of me and a perfect blue sky above me. at one point a ton of the guys who were rowing the rafts took their bamboo sticks and used them to pole vault into the water and then we all jumped in and swam. it was almost impossible to go anywhere because of the currant though. we got back on our rafts after a while and kept going. some kids from houses on the riverbank swam out to us and climbed aboard for a while. what a life that would be. for dinner that night we stopped at an open air restaurant in a park and watched south africa vs mexico on a projector. it was intense. we drove back to banjarmasin that night. it was a magical day.

we woke up at 4:45 in the morning to the scariest and most disorienting azan ever. we met up with everyone at a harbor and rode a little boat along the river for the longest time. we got to watch the sun rise and it was so beautiful. katrin, me, jillian, omar, bjorn, and lea laid on the floor inside the boat and slept for a while like hobos. we were trying to go to the floating market but even though we got up so early we were still too late so the only people we saw there were selling some fruits and vegetables. we got a ton of oranges and soto banjar from a passing boat. after boating around for a few hours we went to a little monkey place, full of trees that grew right out of the water. sometimes the monkeys would jump out of the trees into the water and swim. it was so scary. after walking through the park we boated back to the harbor and went to a school to talk to the principal because there's going to be an exchange student going to school there next year.  this was our last night in banjarmasin so we were going to have a farewell party at the white house where me jillian and katrin were staying. a ton of people came. when the ones we didn't really know left we went to the same club we went to on the first night and watched the england vs america soccer game. we were the only ones there rooting for america haha. we got kicked out around 3 because the club was closing. it was kind of a sad night, for some of us it was the last time we'd see each other, because everyone had to go to the airport at different times the next day.

katrin and a few others left really early in the morning so me and jillian spent the day together watching soap operas. at 5 omar came over to go to the airport. we found rahel there and ate dunkin donuts while we waited. on the plane we were supposed to be row 33 or something but we got mixed up and ended up in row 34. before takeoff, a flight attendant came and told us we needed to move and to follow here. don't know if it was because we were in the wrong seats or because we're bules or what but there were empty places in first class so that's where they put us. it made the flight so much more fun. me and jillian got a ride into the city with omar so we wouldn't have to go through the troubles of finding a taxi like we did last time. that next week was full of preparations for the afs farewell party/talent show. i went to my last day of school and cried. i didn't think i was going to but i guess i didn't really realize how much i liked my classmates and teachers. almost every day after that we met up at omar's house or the afs office to practice. the final show went well. it was us performing alongside the yes students from jakarta who are going to america in a few months. we did a traditional dance called saman, sang an indonesian song, did crazy lip syncs, and then sang the national anthem, indonesia raya. it was a sad night again though.  the last time we'd see many of the afs friends who helped make this year everything it was. i miss them all so much.

The last couple weeks and vacation

with each new day i just get lazier and lazier when it comes to blogging. i'm sure i've mentioned it before, but for the holiday after ramadan my host family had plans to go to central java, and have some fun in the cities around there, including yogyakarta (pronounced jogjakarta, its old spelling). so, i think i'll start there.
on monday, we got up really early and i threw the last of my stuff together and we had breakfast, which today was bread. it was weird not to have rice for breakfast though, i've gotten more used to it than i thought. then we went to dennie's parent's house and chatted with people there for a little while. his mom gave me this weird cooked banana which didn't taste as sweet as i thought it was going to but it was really good. she also gave me this stuff, i wish i knew the name, that was like kind of firm ovals of green jelly in a kind of green sugar water soup. when she was getting it she put some brown stuff from a little bottle that made me think of vanilla extract which she said was for flavor. flavor indeed. it was good, but it kind of tasted like chemicals..then we left. we were on the road by 7. it was one of the most amazing drives of my life! i was totally entertained the whole time, just looking out the window. it was amazing. indonesia is so beautiful!! the world outside jakarta is majorly different. there were rice paddies and corn fields everywhere. after maybe 4 hours we stopped at a big rest stop to eat. it was a cool place, really open, just a huge room with a bunch of tables and waitresses running back and forth, trying to keep everyone happy. the only problem with it being open was that there were a bunch of flies everywhere..we sat down and started looking over the menu. as it happened, there was nothing on the menu that was vegetarian, but luckily dewi had packed some stuff from home. i ate rendang potatoes, which are so amazing. they are little potato balls with this delicious..sauce? its coconutty and a little bit spicy and so good. i also ate rice and mie goreng (fried noodles) it was one of the best eating experiences of my life because i finally tried eating with my hands! i love it. it really makes the meal more..personal somehow. its the coolest thing. after we ate we continued onward, stopping after a while to eat again. we stopped because everyone wanted to eat crab, so i had some really good traditional javanese tea while they ate. everything is so cool here, even the tea was cool! there was a little ceramic teapot and in my cup there were giant sugar crystals, which made the tea so sweet and delicious. just as i was about to pour some tea i noticed a couple ants crawling around in my cup...but there was nothing i could think of to do to get rid of them so i just poured the tea in and was very careful not to sip up a shriveled ant body. i also had some cucumber chips that were dipped in really spicy sambal, which was amazing. before the food came all the kids went to one end of the table and we played uno, which was a lot of fun. i'm so in love with indonesia right now. i know i've been saying stuff like that a lot lately but i'm so happy to be here. just sitting in the car and looking out my window at the 'real' indonesia was so incredible. i can't believe i'm in such a beautiful, magical land. what better way is there to spend a year of your life? in the car after that i slept on and off and watched zoolander on my ipod. i felt like i had to watch zoolander because my friend tyler, who's on YES in malaysia, had something on his facebook status a couple days ago that said something about how zoolander was the only permanently banned movie in malaysia. i can't believe how hilarious that is. so in honor of that, i watched it until we got to our hotel, hotel nirwana. we schlepped all our crap into our rooms and then me, dennie, and dieva went swimming. the water was perfect. so warm and amazing! it felt really good to exercise too, after a day of sitting in the car. after i showered in our room, me and diandra watched mr. bean and ordered room service because she told me we were going somewhere tonight where everyone was going to be eating black escargots..she got some spaghetti type pasta and i got nasi goreng. it was really good but there were some eggs with it that were rather rubbery and odd..when i was heading to the car i saw something flapping around by a lamp and at first i thought it was a bird but after staring at it a bit longer i realized it was a bat. it was so cool, i've never seen a wild bat before and i swear i could hear its sound, its sonar, ever so faintly. we drove to where the party was, at an outdoor place that to me looked kind of like a gas station, where there were a couple food tables and a ton of chairs set up all over. i ate some tempeh goreng and then had a seat with diandra and a bunch of the cousins. a couple people got up and made speeches, during which i just let my mind wander, and then we left. pretty much i passed out as soon as we got to our room.
tuesday: all the food was full of meat at breakfast so i had a blueberry muffin we got at bread talk a couple days before we left and 2 pieces of toast with pineapple jam that was a radioactive yellow. we packed everything up and drove off to a relative's house. by the time we got there it was lunchtime, so we ate. everyone else ate crab again, but i ate rice and this weird vegetable soup and sambal and krupuk and tempeh goreng. it was kind of horrible though, i was sitting on the floor with all the little cousins who couldn't figure out how to open up their crabs and one of the uncles came and just snapped them open. it made me feel sick, to watch everyone breaking and pulling the little animals apart. i know i shouldn't be so sensitive, but it was really kind of shocking. then we set out to drive to semarang. the drive was incredible, as it had been the whole time. semarang is such an amazing city, its so beautiful! i'm really jealous of all the AFS kids who get to live in this area. we drove around for a little bit and then parked our car and walked around, looking for a vendor who would sell us vegetarian lumpia, or spring rolls. finally we found someone. it was really fun to watch him cook them. i think that's one of the best things about getting street food, watching it be made right before your eyes. there were people selling stuff all around us. two old ladies were selling baskets of flowers. an old man was selling slide whistles that sound like birds and tops with a slit that make them sound like a train. and all around there were food vendors, selling everything imaginable. the lumpia were delicious. when you eat them, they give you some green onions and you hold one against the lumpia and take a bite. its amazing. hmm i wonder how many times i've said that in this post..anyways, after we ate we kept on driving. in the area we drove through there was constantly a ditch on one side of the road or the other that had a small incline and was full of water. i saw women doing laundry, goats and sheep drinking, and little kids swimming. what an amazing life that would be. i mean think about it, you always have just your little place where you grew up swimming with your friends and pets (assuming that the goats and sheep are pets). i would love to have grown up like that. alas, i did not. ok, so i was really fascinated by that and i continued my endless staring out the windows until we got to the hotel. as soon as our stuff was in our rooms me and dieva went swimming. the pool was really cool, there was a kind of roof cover thing over the center and along one end there were statues on big cement blocks that had a fountain of water shooting out of them. we met up with a couple cousins and all practiced doing handstands and front flips and back flips. it was a lot of fun but the pool was super crowded, surprisingly since it was like 5:30. i was swimming some laps and trying to go all the way across the pool in one breath and i smashed into an old man. immediately i said sorry, and then remembered that i'm in indonesia. he asked me where i was from and it was painfully embarrassing. i saw some more bats flying around and heard some little kids yell bule at me when we got out. i watched fashion tv in our room while diandra did twitter. i got room service again, because diandra told me we were going somewhere where there probably would only be meat food. this time i got mie goreng. being very adventurous food wise, i know. she got off the computer to take a shower so i got on and checked my facebook. as it turned out, they were going to their grandma's tonight to eat but my food just came when they were about to leave so i stayed behind, watching runway shows on fashion tv and chatting with sage and coco. i had a fun night. when diandra got back it was pretty late so we watched tv and went to sleep.
wednesday: we had to get up at 7:30 to eat, it was rough. i had rice and vegetables and this little thing that i thought was tofu but it was actually chicken. i also had porridge! i've been dying to try porridge for weeks, so i was really excited. basically its like plain oatmeal, but with rice instead of oats. it isn't sweet. i put some small peanuts and kecap, sweet, thick soy sauce on it, and i ate it with krupuk. oh my goodness. it was amazing. really so delicious, i love it. we had to dress nice today, and i had brought a dress with me but diandra said i should have long pants on, so skinny jeans it was. we drove to this place which i was later informed was a kindergarten that someone in the family started. an uncle got up and talked for a while, followed by dennie's dad. as soon as we were in our seats a lady came around and gave us little boxes of treats. they all had meat except for klepok, which are these little balls of i think rice flour that have brown sugar in the middle and coconut shavings all around them. those were all i could eat, which was fine with me because i love them. a bunch of little girls got up and started singing karaoke, and it was the cutest thing i've ever seen. a couple were dancing to the music, and all of them were amazing singers. everyone here is. i haven't met one person who doesn't love to sing and is amazing at it. makes me feel bad that i'm not much of a singer myself..after they were done it was lunch time. almost everyone stormed the little house next door where the food was, but me, diandra, dewi, and a couple others hung back until the crowd cleared. one of the uncles told me that he was an AFS student to germany a long time ago and that there were about 3 other AFS alumni there. small world. finally we went to get food. there were tables set up all around that had already prepared plates of food on them. i got pecal, which is similar to gado-gado. for those of you who don't know either, basically its a bunch of different vegetables over rice and covered with peanut sauce. sometimes there's tofu with it too, like there was today. it was so spicy! but really delicious. dennie let me use his iphone and i got on facebook again for a little bit. then all the adults lined the place and we went around clasping or kissing hands to show forgiveness/apology. then some aunts and uncles started singing karaoke and one aunt kept trying to get me to go but i had to explain to her that i don't sing. maybe someday i will, but for now i choose to spare their ears from that. after that we left. we went to this place by the ocean which was lined with shops selling everything imaginable. food, clothes, shoes, toys, sunglasses, everything. it was crazy! we got on one of the little bus things that were going all over it and rode around for a while. we got off by some food stands and bought 3 coconuts, which a little lady then hacked the tops off of and they put some sweet syrup in two of them and gave us a straw and a spoon and we ate them. it was so fun. i've never eaten a coconut like that, let alone a fresh coconut, so that was fun. it was so sweet and delicious, i love it! i was holding maybe a 6 pound coconut in my hand, so by the time i was done my wrist and arm were pretty sore. on our way out, i saw a stand swarming with people that was selling rabbits and hampsters. they were so cute, and i really wanted to stop and look at them but we didn't have time to. me and dieva went swimming again. she was playing with some cousins so i swam some laps. i love all this exercise! it feels incredible. after i got cleaned up we hung out in the room for a bit and then went out for dinner. the restaurant we went to, papa ron's pizza, was inside a huge department store that reminded me of a goodwill..it was really good food though, the pizza i got was super garlicky. that was the first time i tried pizza with sambal, which i was kind of questioning at first but it was really good. then we went to this little factory outlet/pool/restaurant and looked around there for a bit and then went into the courtyard and got dessert. i got avocado juice and chocolate pancakes. the pancakes were tiny and perfectly round, served like a sandwich with the chocolate between the two of them. they were really good. the avocado juice was too, surprisingly. i actually really like it. some of the cousins came and we hung out for a bit and then left for the hotel. and that was the end of that.
thursday: we got up at 6:30 to eat breakfast. they had porridge again! we packed all of our stuff and then watched a lot of fashion tv until it was time to go. our first stop was museum kereta api, or the train museum. its a really cool old place from the colonial times. we took a lot of pictures on and in the trains and of some old phones and stuff they used to use here. it was really fun. then we left. i had a little nap and then looked out the windows. we stopped to eat at this restaurant that had ig spaces where windows should be but there was no glass so we just had an amazing view. i ate rice, spinach, sambal, and bean sprouts. it was really good. after that we left. it took a really, really, really long time but finally we got to yogyakarta!! dennie didn't know how to get to borobudur (a huge and totally amazing ancient buddhist temple) so he asked a guy on the street, who hopped on his motorcycle and took us there. we bought our tickets and then walked through the park until we got to the temple. me and dewi were standing around waiting for the rest of the group to catch up and these people asked me if they could take a picture with me. i don't know why but i thought it was hilarious. i'm not used to being a novelty, much less to strangers wanting to take pictures with me. everyone came and we started the climb up the big stairs to the top of the temple. it was so beautiful i couldn't believe it. there was a little girl, maybe 10 years old, walking behind me and she bumped into me, then touched my arm and started giggling wildly. i guess it was a dream come true to touch a bule. the view from the top was so amazing, words cannot describe how beautiful and magical the whole thing was. all the cousins climbed around one of the smaller towers and we took a bunch of group pictures, and then i took more with strangers. after a while the aunts and uncles started yelling out "sepuluh ribu!" and "lima ribu!" it actually would be a really great way to make money though, just get dropped of at borobudur everyday and sit at the top and take pictures, charging as much as i want per photo, and then leaving when the park closes. i'd be richer than kings. hmm...haha. a lot of the time people would ask to take a picture, but it happened a lot that i'd just see a phone or camera coming out of nowhere or suddenly someone would stand right up close to me and i'd have a second to locate the camera and smile before the picture was taken. once, a small group gathered, and the last person was a homeless-looking fellow with long and dirty dreads who was standing REALLY close to me. i took a bunch with really ugly guys, really hot guys, and a middle aged man with a beer belly whose shirt was only buttoned half way. we were trying to leave and 2 boys stopped us and told us "just one more, she has time for one more" so i took one more. just before we left i saw a huge group of bule so i snuck one last picture. it was so much fun! i really want to come back here sometime, get more (hopefully better quality) pictures and just see the beautiful temple again. we drove to a relative's house for dinner, which took a while. we all joked about people taking pictures with the bule and ate good food. i had rice, really good tofu, green beans, some strange soupy stuff with leaves in it, and gudeg, traditional yogya food made of jackfruit that is cooked with mahogany tree leaves i think so its brown and really sweet. we left after a while and got to our new hotel which was so cool! all the rooms were decorated either to be traditional javanese or chinese. the room me and diandra shared was chinese, and it was so cool we both went around and took pictures of everything in it.
friday: we got ready for the day and set off. our first stop, after about a 3 hour drive, was jejamuran. jamur in bahasa means mushroom, and jejamuran is a restaurant where everything they serve is mushrooms that i think they grow themselves. oh man. it was so heavenly! we had mushroom sate, spicy mushrooms, and these incredible deep fried mushrooms with a sweet sauce on them and pineapples and they tasted so good together! we walked around and looked at where they sell some of the mushrooms, and they were so cool. there were these big ones that were almost purple, it was amazing. i was so full after that, it was great. i was really happy. our next stop was at a place that made me feel like i was on top of the world. we were on a hill, surrounded by mountains, some of which i later found out were volcanoes. in the valley all around us there were rice paddies as far as the eye could see. we were at the ketep volcano center, where there were such beautiful views i was speechless. we were taking group photos and guess what happened? someone asked to take a picture with me :) dennie's mom gave me some corn on the cob, which was so sweet and delicious. we went into a small, dark theater to watch a movie about merapi volcano. it was really cool. it made me want to watch a volcano erupt, even though i know that's super dangerous, and i also want to climb a volcano. i'm going to someday. it was so nice in this place. the air was so clean and cool and it seems like it would be such an amazing place to live, despite the fact that it was all at the foot of an active volcano. after that we drove to borobudur again, and i thought we were going to go in the park again but we just went to all the touristy, cheap shops around it. it was really fun. they were selling the coolest stuff! dewi let me get some bracelets that i think i'm going to use as presents in america and also i got a really cool bag made of a patchwork quilt of different batik fabrics, it reminds me of the one my cousin sarah gave my mom. i also got a rice paddy worker hat!! that's what i call it. its one of those hats that is round with a point in the center and its made of straw..its so cool, i adore it. after we were done we drove to a restaurant to have dinner. we ate indonesian style, with a big pot of rice and a bunch of sides. i had mie goreng jawa, spinach, fried tofu, kecap and sambal with my rice. back at the hotel diandra watched tv and i tried to make my train tops make noise, but i couldn't. i think i just fail, which is sad, because they're just tops..oh well. after a while dieva came and got us and we set out to the ramayana ballet, a traditional javanese dance performance. we were sitting in an outside stage, it was so cool. there was a really cool view of an old hindu temple, and the dancers were incredible. i can't wait till i can move like that. i know its going to be different because i'm learning balinese dance and this was javanese, but its still kind of similar. at one point all the power shut off, so you could faintly see the dancers moving and you could hear them too, which by its self was so awesome. i watched some bats fly around in the sky for a little bit and then the lights came back. in the last act before the break, a bunch of dancers came out with torches and lit these stacks of wood on fire and also lit these thatch things, i thought they were houses but i guess not, and it was SO COOL. we left at the intermission and dennie took some pictures of me sitting by some musicians. we went to a house where dennie's parents were staying and i watched a really weird anime with some of the little cousins and ate a strawberry, and then we left for the hotel.
saturday: after breakfast i checked my email. i don't know what happened by for some reason facebook has stopped sending me emails so for maybe the first time since i got to indonesia i only had 1 email, from my mom. i wrote her back and then she called me. it was fun to talk to her! i miss home, but thank goodness i'm not homesick anymore, and i haven't been for a few weeks. you just miss the familiarity of everything, you know? you miss understanding what people are saying all the time and you miss your comfortable life. life here is good though, i'm enjoying it. that day the first place we went was the sultan's palace. let me just say, the fact that i live in a country where there are sultans makes me so happy i could die. the palace was amazing. we got a tour of the grounds and i took a lot of pictures. it was weird though, there were some big cages that i would have thought would hold large, exotic birds but there was a large chicken or rooster in each one. actually on of them had a turkey in it, not a chicken. we saw all this stuff that belonged to the sultans and the tour guide told us about them and it was really interesting. i love learning about the history of indonesia, it fascinates me. we were taking a little break in the shade drinking water and one of the aunts and her kids came up to us. i got confused about my hands and ended up emptying about half my water on the ground by diandra's foot. oops. after we were done we took bacak, which is this public transportation where there's a kind of cart thing with a little bench with a bike behind it, which the person rides, so we had an amazing view again of the city. we went to a little shop with touristy souvenir type stuff at the front and batik in the back. i got some more little things to use as presents and then we got back in the becak and went to a kind of cracker shop. there was no door we went through, we just walked in. the walls were lined with all kinds of crackers and treats, it was so cool. then we were in the becak again and went to lunch. the restaurant we went to was really neat, there were a bunch of low tables and we sat on the floor on straw mats. i got gudeg and rice with tofu, peanut sauce, and an egg. it was really good. after we were done eating we went to prambanan, which is the hindu temple i saw the other night. there was a big earthquake a couple years ago and most of the towers stayed up but there were some that got knocked down, and the pieces were spread out all over the grass, one gigantic jigsaw puzzle, waiting to be put back together again. you couldn't pay me enough to do that job. one of the temples had red scaffolding all over it, and it was kind of an interesting sight, the modern scaffolding over the ancient temple. we went into the shiva temple and took pictures by the cow inside that represents shiva, and then we walked around and talked. the temples were so gorgeous, i can't believe i am surrounded by such amazing things. we walked under some mahogany trees and they smelled really good. there was another market here, just like the one at borobudur, which we walked around in for a while. there was a place where you could get a temporary tattoo and the sign by it said that they lasted 1 week to 1 month. it all depends on how much you shower haha. for dinner we went to this really cool restaurant called gadjah wong, named after a river that its right by. there were elephant statues everywhere in it, they were amazing. we sat on a patio next to an open room where a jazzy band was playing music. the night was perfect, cool and beautiful. i saw stars for the first time. the food was amazing too. i was in the mood for something familiar so i got pasta with a cheesy mushroom sauce, it was delicious. i saw a lot of bule in the restaurant, and it was funny to listen in on their conversations. after we ate we went to a kind of pavillion, still in the restaurant, and said hi to some people i think they're related to somehow. i shook and kissed the hands of everyone there, and they all laughed when i did. it was a big family, all there with their grandma, who was a living example of the women you only hear stories about who smoke so much they sound like a man. it was both terrifying and hilarious at the same time. she was wearing a ton of makeup and tacky jewelry, which only added to the effect. then we left. at the hotel me and diandra watched the miss usa pageant, which was completely ridiculous, and then we switched to mtv china. we went to bed around 12, which was probably a bad idea because we had to get up at 4:30 the next morning..
sunday: it was definitely a bad idea. waking up has never been harder. i stood under the shower simply to get my hair wet and then we packed up and left. the guy who worked at the hotel and brought our bags out to the car gave us each a box with some breakfast in it. i watched the sun rise for a while and then passed out. i woke up and opened my mystery breakfast box to see what was inside. there were 3 pieces of bread, one of them toasted, and some butter, jam, and a piece of white cheese. my butter was so melted it was all liquid, but i spread a little of it on the toast and then used all the jam over it. it was so good. then i made a little sandwich with the cheese, which made me think of a kraft american single except that it wasn't american cheese, it was the same white stuff i see everywhere here. i wanted to look out the windows but my head felt like a rock, so pretty much my whole day was spent sleeping and waking up every hour or two to see where we were. we stopped in cirebon to eat a late lunch. the place we went to served padang style food. they had all the food made, and they brought it on carts over to us and we told them what we wanted and didn't want. i had vegetable curry and rice and boiled cassava leaves and deep fried mashed potatoes. i ate with my hands again! i got some es teh manis, and it was so sweet i could not taste the tea at all, it felt like i was drinking straight liquid sugar. it was good though, in a weird way. then we drove just a tiny bit further till we got to our hotel. the hotel had free wireless wifi, so i finally got to use my itouch! me, diandra, and dieva all sat in our room, them on laptops and me on my touch, for a few hours. after dieva was done on diandra's laptop i got on and started writing this post and uploading my 200+ pictures. it took a while. after a few more hours me and dieva and dennie went swimming. they left before i was ready to, so i stayed back and swam some laps in the empty pool. i love swimming. it feels so so good to exercise after a day of sitting in the car for 8 hours, i must say. when we were leaving to dinner, my friend florence, who is an afs student from belgium, texted me and asked if i could hang out at plaza senayan (big mall) tomorrow. i asked diandra who asked dewi who said i could! i was so excited. we went to pizza hut, which was the weirdest thing ever. i never eat at pizza hut in america, so i don't know if its like this or not, but here its super fancy. you sit at tables and waitresses bring you stuff and i don't know, its different from how i'd imagine a pizza hut to be. then again kfc is fancy here too, so maybe i shouldn't be so surprised. we all shared some salad and i had some vegetarian pizza, which was really good. back in the hotel i got back into my routine of blogging and uploading. i got a ton done, which made me happy. i also got to chat with sage on facebook for a little while, which was good. and then i went to have a real, good night's rest.
monday: we got up at 5:30, but then slept again until 7 or 7:30 i think. we both showered and then went down to breakfast. continuing on with my all-american eating, i got some pineapple (which is so much better here, way sweeter and not acidic at all), watermelon, and papaya and a little croissant and this pastry that looked interesting but really just tasted like a croissant with sugar on top. i was done eating but then i saw that they had porridge, which i love so much, so i had to get some. we packed everything up, for the last time, and left. in the car i slept a little bit and listened to my ipod. we made a couple short bathroom stops, but that was all, and we were in jakarta by 12:30. i knew we were getting there when i saw bajaj again, which only exist in jakarta. its weird to see (and hear!) them again, after a week i've gotten so used to only seeing becak and ojek. we went to senayan city, the mall i went to with them on my second day here, and got lunch. dieva wanted burger king so while she was getting that me and diandra went to a bookstore for a little bit, then up to the food court to meet everyone else. i had nasi goreng, which was so good. after we were done eating they dropped me off at plaza senayan to meet up with jillian, omar, and florence. we were going to see a movie and they were already there so i had to find the theater all by myself, which made me a little nervous at first because i had no clue where to go. i found it though, without getting lost. in the lobby i called jillian and omar came out to get me. we went back into the room where jillian and florence were, looking at a menu. in plaza senayan, if you pay for the right ticket, you can sit in the premiere theater, which is like first class on an airplane. the seats are huge and comfortable and they lean back so far its like you're laying down. there are blankets too, so if your movie's boring you can lay back and have a nice nap. i guess they also bring you food, if you order it. i ordered a banana split, and after everyone finished ordering they led us to our seats. we saw g-force, which i'd already seen before but it was fun to see again. there were only like 3 other people in there besides us, it was so fun. jillian and omar sang and chair danced to the songs they knew, and it was hilarious. the food was so good. i want to live in this theater! after the movie we all took pictures of each other while the staff waited and watched and i'm sure though we were totally stupid. we walked around in the mall for a bit, and sat down in the food court to talk. omar looked around to see if there were any no smoking signs. there were, we were surrounded by them, but he lit a cigarette anyway and said he'd finish it by the time anyone noticed. he was right. by the time the mall cop came and told him he wasn't allowed to smoke, he was just about to put it out anyway. we walked around in the mall for a while and then sat outside on the stairs and talked and watched the sun sink. jillian had to go so after she met up with her host sister me, omar and florence got in a taxi and went to omar's. his host sister jade was watching december boys, so we watched with her for a while and then omar and florence and dinner but i was too full to eat so i just chatted with them. at 7, florence's "niece", who she's here in jakarta with, texted her and asked if we all wanted to go do shisha. i said i couldn't, plus my host family was coming to get me at 8. she told her niece to come at 8, but she came at 7:30 so for an hour we watched the brave one. then diandra and dewi came and got me. florence has an uncle who lives in south sumatra and on wednesday she is going to go to his house till sunday, and i was invited to go. i asked dewi and diandra, and they said i should ask dennie at home. i did. we argued about it for a little while, and i was really stressed out and he said i couldn't go. i don't want to put the details on here, i don't know who reads this blog, but i think we both said a lot of the stuff that was on our minds, and i don't really know if that made things better or worse. frankly right now it feels like worse because i'm really stressed out and its even more awkward than normal around here right now, but we'll see what happens. today i didn't do much. just finish blogging (finally!) and wrote some emails. florence called me today, just a couple hours ago actually, and said that the trip was cancelled because there was too much traffic. i kind of wish we could have found that out last night, but oh well. she said they are going to go again sometime, and between now and then we want to try and get our families to meet because that was the biggest issue yesterday, the fact that they didn't know the family. so hopefully i'll get a chance to see how life in sumatra is different than life in jakarta. i can already tell that the difference is going to be drastic, but i don't know how exactly. i have balinese dance tonight, i'm excited. its been...2 weeks?..since my last lesson, and i really like the lessons a lot, so that will be fun. i'll try to do another post sometime next weekend. until then. cheers

LOC-language oreintation camp

day 1- i got up around 7 and got myself all ready to head to the camp. when i got there, i met the students and went to sessions, for the first one all the YES kids went with Ketty and asked her any questions we had and told about our first week and it was really great. then they taught us traditional indonesian games, like a mancala type of thing and jacks and this one where two people hold a rope and you have to jump over it and they start at their knees, then go to their waist, then to their chest, then their chin, then their forehead, and then above their head. it was so hard! i couldn't do it once it got to the chest haha. we also did hop scotch and a game where everyone puts both their fists together and you go around in a circle saying a random number and people can either put up 1 thumb, 2 thumbs, or no thumbs, and if they make the number you called out then you can take a hand out and the last person with a hand in loses. it was really fun. everyone wanted to try fasting, even the kids who just got there, so during the times when we were supposed to eat everyone just hung out or had naps. we had an indonesian lesson and it was really funny to listen to the german kids saying their s's like z's and having to roll their r's. the whole day, everyone was staring at the clock, counting down the hours til 6, when we could eat. it felt so good! the first thing i ate was a banana that was in a little pouch of bread stuff and fried. it was incredible. there was a lady who came and gave a presentation to us about indonesian culture and earlier that day the new kids had made lists of their hopes and concerns and put them on the wall so she was looking at that and one person wrote toilets down on concerns and she started talking about how squatting on a toilet is healthier for you than sitting on one and she made some people come up and demonstrate how to squat properly..it was so hilarious! she was really great, i liked her session a lot. everyone was pretty tired that night so we went straight to sleep...
we got woken up at 3 to eat breakfast. for the meat eaters there was vegetables and cow liver that you were supposed to put on your rice, and it looked so gross. i was sitting at a table with josh and a couple of the volunteers and they were saying eating the liver was like fear factor and josh ate all of his even though when he chewed it it looked like he was going to throw up. so i was really full but then vivian started wondering if there were ways for the vegetarians to get more protein so they got us some oatmeal, which was rather flavorless, even after i put milk and 2 packets of sugar in it. then we went back to bed and i got up at like 7 to shower and waited for my roommates to wake up, but they didn't and i didn't know if i should wake them or not and i also didn't know when we were leaving for out field trip that day so i read a book on my bed until one of the volunteers came a-knocking and woke them up because the bus was there..oops. we got onto a bus that was swarming with mosquitoes. every couple seconds you could hear people clapping at them and some of the germans started a competition to see who could kill the most. omar kept smashing them against the window and it was really funny.we drove to taman mini, which is this huge park that has a specific little section for each part of indonesia and it shows what a traditional house is like and there's a small museum with cultural and historical stuff in it. we separated according to where we were going to so me and omar and jillian were in a group together and we went to the jakarta section, which was really cool. the traditional house was amazing! the museum we went to was small and dark and didn't have ac..it was pretty hot in there. there were a bunch of dioramas that showed all the history of the city of jakarta and they were so cool to look at. after we were done in jakarta we walked to the yogyakarta section and met up with about half the people there, then took then bus with everyone else to the bali section. it was so beautiful! we sat in an ampitheater sort of thing and the people who weren't fasting ate lunch and i had a bottle of water because my head was spinning. we all had to go up on the stage and say our names and where we were from and say one thing we hoped for this year and be filmed for a slideshow for the welcoming party. i was one of the last people to go mostly because i didn't want to go so i was trying to sneak by unnoticed but also because i had no idea what to say. i ended up saying that i hoped to learn about indonesian culture...just like everyone else. oh well. after that we went and took a bunch of pictures of our whole group at a small stage kind of thing outside the ampitheater. we didn't do as many as i think they wanted us to because the sun came out from behind the clouds and it got really hot. so we got on the bus and drove to an IMAX theater, still in the park, and watched a movie about indonesia. it was in bahasa, so no one could understand it, but it was still cool to watch. there was some really incredible scenery. i think it was all about the land and culture of indonesia. it was fun. and so cold in the theater! :) after that we went back to the guesthouse and had free time and some people went swimming and i was going to go too but i fell asleep instead. then we had sessions, one about bahasa and one about culture again. this time the guest was a guy and he had this powerpoint that illustrated the main parts of indonesian culture and we had to take the main ideas that are the values to every culture and write down what the values for our culture were that fit into the categories. it was kind of sad because all the american values were basically the total opposite of the indonesian values :( after that we ate dinner and they gave us this really delicious fruit and i think the english name is mangosteen and you smash it open with your hands like passionfruit but the skin is purple so it stains your hands when you open it and the fruit is wihe and wonderfully tart. omar said he felt like he was in the jungle when he ate it. then we had some more free time and me and omar and vivian and jillian went swimming. i didn't want to get in the water but then a volunteer and omar grabbed me and threw me in. it was really fun though. then two belgian girls joined us and that was a lot of fun too. after maybe an hour, we had to get out and get dressed for talent show practice. at first our plan was to do a skit about american independence history and make it really funny but then we decided we were just going to look really stupid if we did that so we were thinking about learning a little bit of the thriller dance but then decided it was too hard so we found a how-to video to learn the soulja boy dance. it was really fun and not hard to learn, which was nice. then we decided also to sing the national anthem and light sparklers. so we looked up the words and wrote them down to learn them. we practiced a couple times and then got bored and quit and went to bed.
again they woke us up at 3 to eat. no liver today though :) i got up at 7 again to shower, and woke my roommates up at 8. we went down for our first session, which was bahasa, where we learned to count, and then all the YES kids left for the US embassy. i was in a car with ketty and josh. we were almost there when ketty realized that she didn't have any id for us..at the entrance to the embassy, which sort of looked like a mideval fortress, we talked to the other students and the only ones who had id on them were jillian and omar, so they got to go in while me and josh and vivian waited around outside while they figured everything out. finally we got to go in. we went through security and got visitor passes and met up with jillain and omar and we were led into this giant official-looking room where we were seated and met the ambassador and the guy in charge of our program and the guy in charge of security and a couple other people. the security guy was so weird, when he was talking he winked at vivian and kept telling us people here like to do 'snatch and grabs' or 'smash and grabs'. i don't know what the difference between the two is. and he told us to always vary our routes, because terrorists and regular creepers watch for foreigners who make the same routes everyday, like going the same way to the gym at 6 o'clock every morning or something like that. it was so scary. he told us all this freaky stuff and then he was like "but i don't mean to freak you out by this, i just want to give you precautions" and we introduced ourselves before he started talking and then he was looking at jillian and told her he knew salt lake had its rough parts because he'd been there and he told me he knew detroit could be dangerous and he was just sort of an idiot. then the guy in charge of our program talked and he said he knew india was an amazing country, then stopped and said he just got back from india so he mixed it up with indonesia. the ambassador did that too. he told us that he first studied abroad in indonesia a long time ago with a lady named anne. at this he stopped talking and looked at us like he expected us to say something. no one knew what to do. he kept saying her name and then got exasperated and said she was the mother of the president of the united states. i don't know why he couldn't have said that before. he never actually met the young barack but he knew his mother and step father. also they told us that obama has said he will come to indonesia in october but no one knows when for sure or if he even will come, but if he does there's a chance that we will get to meet him!! then we could get real pictures with him instead of just with a cardboard cut out of him like we did in dc. after that we drove back to camp, but it took a really long time because everyone was going home from work early so traffic was wretched. we got to camp about halfway through an indonesian lesson about days of the week and months, and then it was dinner time. wahoo! the dinner was always so good, they had fresh fruit and all kinds of treats and candies, it was wonderful. they tried to make it fancy by serving dinner outside but there were so many freaking mosquitoes everyone moved inside. after dinner they had a 'mini-olympics', where we were all in teams and we had to all do a race where we carried a spoon in our mouth with a marble in it and pass it off to our teammates and then we did a sack race and then that thing where there are boards with little straps on them and everyone gets on it and has to walk across the yard and pass it off to the rest of the team and then there was a contest to eat these giant crackers off a string and it was so funny to watch everyone trying to get it in their mouth and bite a piece off. half of the students went first, then after that the other half went. it was so hard to get a hold of the dumb cracker, but it was really fun. then all the boy students and all the boy volunteers did 2 rounds of tug-of-war with this giant rope and the bules (foreigners) won both times and then it was the girls turn, which we also won. it was so hard though! my hands were throbbing for a really long time after that. then they added up points and scores and my team tied for third place and then they gave us goodie bags full of candy and fruit and we all ran and got changed into swimming clothes and jumped or got pushed or thrown into the pool. little by little, all the volunteers and reluctant students were dragged to the water and dropped in. it was so great! omar was leading most of it with two of the german boys and my roommate, a german girl named katrin. some of the volunteers locked themselves in their room inside but were tempted out by martabak (this time with chocolate and peanuts) so we forced our way through the door and into their room and one by one brought them out. when we were bringing the last person, i was holding onto her foot and she was kicking and squriming and we were on wet tile and i fell right on my back. it was pretty funny, but i cut up my elbow. after everyone was in the pool, katrin was trying to throw omar in but she couldn't and they ended up throwing each other in. there was a big crowd of people around this belgian girl named lea and we and jillian and vivian saw them helping her up off the ground and she looked like she was drunk or something but it turns out she got electrocuted on something in the garden and she was really shaky. when we were getting out of the pool katrin asked omar if she could use his towel and he gave it to her and she started to whip him with it. he ran inside and she chased him and he got the towel from her so she was defending herself with a chair and then we ran up into our room and slammed the door but couldn't figure out how to lock it before omar was throwing himself against it, trying to force it open. he got in and they chased each other across the beds in our room and then out into the hall. a couple other people came up and we didn't know where they went until we heard a whip and katrin screaming in the hallway. omar ran out and hid behind a corner and katrin snuck around with a little broom made of twigs that they use to kill bugs and she hit him with it and then a volunteer came out of her room and made them stop. it was so hilarious though! everyone calmed down and went to bed after that though.
got up at 3 again to eat. i had like 4 pieces of bread and jam, i really wanted to be able to fast the whole day. we got up at 7 and got all ready and i packed my bags and all my things. then we got on a mosquito-free bus and went to the ministry of education. we had to wait in a really dark lobby for about 10 minutes, then took the elevator up to a huge business room. there were long tables with big swivel chairs set up so they went around the room like 2 rectangles, one smaller one inside a huge one. every couple of chairs, there was a microphone thing that you could push a button on and it would activate the speaker so the whole room could hear you talk. the people who were supposed to talk to us (don't remember who they were exactly) came and we all went around and used our microphones to introduce ourselves in bahasa. it was pretty fun. they talked to us briefly, then left. it was over a lot quicker than i though it was going to be. we all crowded up to the front of the room and took a bunch of pictures and then left. we drove to this fancy little hotel thing where i think they do a lot of parties like the welcoming party we were there for. on the way there we saw the ritz-carlton hotel. it was weird to see it, i mean there was nothing wrong with it it looked perfect but just thinking about the bombings there and then being there was weird. we got to drive through the huge main central part of jakarta, which was really cool. there are a ton of tall buildings here. its really a beautiful city. so at the hotel, we were taken to a small room with no ac to be our holding room. we sat in there for about an hour, talking to one of the volunteers, ika, about her business as a shoe designer. then me and vivian and jillian decided we should probably practice for the talent show and so we went to find omar and josh. we found them on the main floor, which was heavenly cold, sitting in a sushi restaurant. vivian then decided she was hungry and didn't want to fast anymore so she got some sushi and edamame. omar and me wanted to go across the street to the mcdonalds (which has 24-hour "mcdelivery" here) and play in the play place, but they wouldn't let us. so we sat in the restaurant for a while and then it was time to go practice for the talent show. we had to go first, and it was horribly embarrassing. we had only practiced a couple times on the national anthem and everyone started messing up and laughing so we stopped and went to go practice with ika, who is an amazing singer. finally we got all the words down and she helped us arrange it so it sounded a ton better and then we practiced and practiced and practiced until it was good. then we went over the dance a couple times and went to the full rehearsal again. they had a little story to go along with the talent show, about 3 travelers (3 of the volunteers) who were going to different countries to see how they celebrated their independence day. america was first, and omar and josh stood on either side of me and vivian and jillian holding sparklers and we all held a giant flag and sang and then we draped the flag over vivian's shoulders and put sunglasses on and started doing the soulja boy dance. it was really fun. after us, rahel the swiss girl showed how to make chocolate fondue and then she and the travelers did a traditional swiss dance. then the belgians sang a folk song and did a traditional dance, and shion the japanese boy did judo, and the germans did a really hilarious skit about the berlin wall. one of them had a giant trench coat and a fake rifle and was a russian, and on one side of the wall katrin and stefan were well-off germans eating and drinking water, and on the other side judith was a poor german who didn't have any food. it was so hilarious, they were great. after that it was done and we sat around talking and playing the guitar until it was dinner time. dinner was really good. i had rice and vegetables and watermelon, cantaloupe, and papaya and noodles and sambal and cake. it was amazing. then all the people started coming. we met vivian's host family and josh's host family and omar's host family, and then my family came, so i got to introduce all the students to them. then the talent show started. first they showed the videos of us from taman mini, saying what our hopes were for the year, and then someone gave a speech and then we all did our shows. it was a lot of fun. everything went really well. after each country did their show, they got a microphone and said who they were, where they were from, where they were staying, and something they liked about indonesia. i said i liked food. after all the students went, the volunteers surprised us by going up and singing and dancing. it was so amazing! they are all such good singers and dancers, it was just great. then we all went on the stage and took so many freaking pictures! but it was fun. we said goodbye to the other students and then left. i had an amazing time there though! i really hope i see some of the other students sometimes. it never ceases to surprise me how at every thing i've gone to for foreign exchange how easily you fall into conversation with kids you've never met in your life and how so suddenly you have new friends. its such a great thing. i really hope that we will be able to do a mid-year trip with all the students, so we can reconnect and hear how its been going for everyone. until then, facebook is just going to have to do.