Being Inept in Jakarta

So when was this - some saturday after I started school. Nathan (American you remember) and I decided to go hang out with two former Indonesian exchange students to America, Arya and Nadia. We went to Plaza Indonesia, a very cool mall. Seriously the malls here are pretty much better than most indoor malls I go to in America. The people are dressed better. There are better brands. The bathrooms are places you wouldn't mind spending more than 5-10 minutes in (and in Indonesia that's like the highest compliment I could give. That's saying something.)
    So we met at Starbucks. Then because this was my first time being there we decide to ride TransJakarta which I guess could be compared to  a subway-ish but it's really just a bus with a raised platform that has it's own lane sometimes. But it's reminisce of a subway I guess. We ride that for like 10 minutes. I'm a pro obviously. I grab onto the little handle thing and sway with it's stops. I don't get trampled by the crowds of people who are actually going somewhere. I was made to take that thing. Then we get off and actually go to dinner.
    The thing about meeting with other exchange students is it's always really fun to compare the two places you've lived and you get what it's like to be living in a whole new environment with a new family. You can share stories about what's not cool in your school or your house. You can say what you miss and then it doesn't go anywhere because they're not suppose to fix the problem like your contact person is.

Us (Nadia, Nathan, me) in front of the fountain next to the restaurant. It does this cool light,water show to Boroadway music every hour. 

    We ate dinner at Swiss Maret which is buffet-ish. You get a card and go around to whatever food stations you want and swipe. There was salad, pizza, meaty things, a very large selection. I had a salad (So good. They do not do raw vegetables and lettuce here. It's always fried or in some sauce. I miss just regular plain salad.) bread (also bread in my house is just  a slice of white with the crusts cut off. There's not like types or well somewhere maybe not in my house) and a crepe. So then we go up to pay and guess who lost their swipey card with all their food information on it. Yea I did. I was convinced I had put it on my tray and the lady had taken it away. There was some explaining. I felt so bad. What is it with me and Jakarta and doing these awkward things. I never lose things at home, (or lose games, or confuse die with remember). I don't function normally here. Haha eventually they just asked me what I had eaten and added it up manually. No biggie.
    H.Papa came to pick me up and drive me home. I had to explain why we were so late. I seriously can't do anything but laugh at how inept I am in Jakarta. So I look even weirder. Which is better than having nervous breakdowns all over the place. But guess what happened when I emptied out all my stuff out of my bag. I found the stupid swipey card. Apparently if you lose a card you have to pay 100 US$ (which I did not have). I got off easily. Maybe because I'm American I don't know. But I have hidden the card. I don't even know what to do with it. If I ever go again (which I kind of doubt) I'll bring it and drop it like on the floor or something.

(I really hope nobody from that restaurant ever reads this.)

YES Abroad Program Applications - Now

Guess what??

Applications for the Kennedy -Lugar YES Abroad program 2012-2013 are out. It's a scholarship program sponsered by the US State Department to live and study in 1 of 11 country choices that have large Muslim populations including:

• Bosnia & Herzegovina - It's new and sounds pretty awesome. I've never heard of any exchange program there.
• Turkey
• Ghana
• Mali
• Oman
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• India
• Morocco
• Egypt
• and the favorite country of yours truly - INDONESIA!!

All the scholarships are year long except for Mali which is a semester. As long as you're a US high school student between 15-18 you can apply. 

If you want to have a great time and live it up in an awesome country then def apply. I applied this time a year ago and now I'm actually here in Indonesia living life. Crazy.  I kind of still freak out about it. Like wow I'm 16 and I live here with a great family and it's just like being at home in America except I'm in Indonesia and I only understand 50% of everything and everyone comes from a totally different culture than me. Trippy. 

But even weirder are the moments when I forget and am just living it.

So that's my plug. Check out other exchange blogs for info on what it's like in other countries. And here is the official website. Linked it up for you. How generous, right?

Bike Riding in Taman Mini

Remember Taman Mini? The place where I had my orientation. Well, my house is actually super close. So close that we can walk there for exercise. On Sunday (9/18) my h.mom, Nu (maid who's about my age I think), and I walked to Taman Mini. Believe it or not this was the first time I had ever walked down my street. I've only ever been driven. We (us and the rest of the family that met us there by car) rented bikes and went for a little bike adventure.
    Taman Mini is more of a cultural center than whatever I said to describe it before. It's a mini replica of Indonesia. So there are traditional houses from the different cultures from the different provinces in Indonesia. Within the houses you can take traditional dance lessons ... and probably do a lot more. So Caca, h.Papa, and Rizky (family friend/schoolmate/ Caca's bf) rode ahead while Nu, h.Mama, and I would ride along and then every so often stop to take pictures.
    I almost enjoyed the exercise more than the photo taking. I needed it too. Sadly I can't remember where exactly each house comes from - which is kind of the important part. I'll go again for sure though so until then I guess.

Me and h.Mama. Not in a house but a garden

Little me. But my legs look nice and brown right?

One of my favorites. Maybe I think.

I was feeling the nice wind and going along on my rented bike. People would pass and point and stare. I even heard one motorcycle couple say 'rambut lucu' which is funny/cute hair. Weirdly I don't mind because, is it really that different in America? People stare at me in America too. Only usually for my hair and not my skin/height/not Indonesian-ness though.But yeah it's a bit different, little kids don't laugh and point and I can understand what people are saying about me but it's still being stared at, no matter the place. I almost enjoy it now. When I come back to America you'll have to deal with my enlarged ego.

Doors to a Riau room/house.

Staircase within the Riau section

Super long boat within the Riau section of the park. Like 100 people (give or take) are made to fit in there.

Anyway the trip came to an abrupt end when we got a call from h.Papa saying Caca had fallen and wanted to go home now. So we rode back to the car where she was all scraped up and bleeding. Insteadof going immediately home we rode to a section where there was an outdoor market. (Taman Mini is huuge) We ate some bread soup combo - the soup was in a bowl and a peice of bread was baked onto the top of the bowl. Then home. Then we actually ended up going to the mall. But yes this was Bike Riding in Taman Mini.

Love.

School : First Days

    So enough of the past let's talk about now*. I've started school. I started on Monday the 12th in SMA 62 in Jakarta - the same school my h. sister Caca (Oh, her name is pronounced Chacha. I totally forgot to mention that. Kind of important) goes to. I'm in 11th grade. Caca's in 12th. I wear a uniform (no getting out of that). You can see by my pictures (to come) what I have to wear on different days. Everyone knows how to tie a tie here. I'm going to come back skilled in tie-ness. But the first day.

First day of school. Friends!

    I felt like a celebrity. I met about a million people and got stared at by like a million more. (There's only 600 people in my school but that doesn't matter.) I was getting introduced to people left and right. Their favorite first day(s) questions after what's your name? where are you from? are:

• What's your religion? A difficult question I am finding because each answer has it's consequences.
• Do you have a boyfriend? Then I was asked if I had an ex-boyfriend because I guess they weren't satisfied with the answer.
• What music do you like? They looooove singing here and playing instruments. Nobody seems shy to burst out singing whenever even if they tell me they have a bad voice.
• And the number one question is: Who do you think is handsome? Or do you think so-and-so is handsome? I am asked this everyday. It'll often be about a basketball player. How typical is that - the basketball players are really popular along with the musicians and the funny jokesters. 

More later on what I do (or will do once I've got the language down pat) Love, love.

And hello and thank you to my commenters (Sis. Nicole & Shauna). I love comments and messages and business. 

*Ok still the past but only like 2 or 3 weeks ago.

My First (Only) Lebaran

The reason why we went to Bandung  was to celebrate the end of the fasting month (Ramadan) which was the whole of august this year. Fasting from sunup to sundown wowowow. So my day started awkwardly late. Everyone else went to the mosque very early so by the time they had returned I was still asleep. I had to get up and go take a shower, put on clothes ect. while the whole family THE WHOLE FAMILY was starting the celebration in the living room. My bad. Then I had one of my 'what to wear crises' because I didn't think my oui monsieur shirt was the most appropriate choice and neither was the all black sleeveless thing while they were wearing all white and were very much sleeved. I ended up borrowing clothes yay. Then I went out and ate yay. Can't even tell you what it was. However the party was going on.
    As I was eating each teen/child was getting an envelope of money from their parents I guess and they would count it out loud while everyone would ooooh and aaah. Then they started  every not-parent would stand in a line in front of an adult and they'd hand out money. And this was a big family too. So the adult would have a stack of rupiah and would hand out a 50.000 rp bill to each of the maybe 13 or so kids. This was all done loudly with many jokes. Sometimes other adults would steal the stack of money or get in line and beg. I expected just to watch because I thought how greedy would it be if the "rich American" went and stood in line to get money for a holiday she doesn't even celebrate. But noo they'd call my name and pull me into line and I found myself very nicely included. By the end of this every kid had maybe a million rp. I had about 600.000 O_O.
    Then the photographer arrived and had set up his background and business. Apparently each year they take pictures on lebaran of each family unit, the kids, adults, everyone together. So all the girls went and did their makeup and the guys did the rumple hair,shake, make pointy business. There be like 7 people in front of the mirror at the time. Then we took pictures for like 3-4 hours with pictures even being taken behind the photographer. I joined in for my family's, then the girls then outside for the young people's. Note the guys here don't smile either. The serious face is popular here too except for one picture where they pretended to throw a cousin in the pool.

Fam. I'm not wearing shoes but you can't tell in the for real photo.

    After this everyone started to leave and was I thinking oh it's over. But no we too got in the car and drove to another family member's house. I think this is the chance to forgive all the past offenses and make a fresh start. You visit the oldest family members house but as we stayed in their grandmas house we went to visit the rest of the family. We'd eat and sit and talk then move on. After the first house I couldn't eat anymore but I guess if you've been fasting during daylight for a month it's refreshing to eat all you want during the day. The 3rd and last house we visited was maybe my favorite part of the day. It's the house of my father's family where I had my bamboo leaf traditional meal. It was my favorite because I got to just hang with cousins my own age and the cutesy young cousins too. We practiced/ switched our English/Bahasa Indonesia skills. The most relaxing funny part of the day though the whole day was a once in a lifetime you're in Indonesia during lebaran experience wow day. I feel like after going home my fathers family came to visit us there but honestly who knows it was a full day. Fireworks too maybe. But there were fireworks like everyday. But still fireworks.
        

Partying in Bandung

I had no idea that'd I'd be going on a trip so soon after I got here. Spent what? two nights in my room and then left for Bandung on a 10 day family visit. Cool but surprising. In Bandung we stayed at my mother's family's house. At the house lived her mother, her sister. and two nephews. I roomed with Nanda. The house was incredible because it had the greatest view ever. During the day you could look out over the whole city with the mountains framing it and at night wow all the lights would come on and the fireworks would start and I'd want to stay outside forever. But I couldn't so instead I'd sit right across from the glass door and watch. Also bandung is considerably cooler than jakarta temperature wise.
  We went to Bandung to celebrate the end of Ramadan and idul fitri but I'll talk about that later. I had a lot of first experiences there. The day we arrived I went to my first Indonesian mall. Very much like an American mall but the shops are tinnier and there's aisle like walking space in between. I got a notebook for all my new Bahasa words.
The third day (I think) I went to a traditional Market. We were there to buy glasses for caca and my mother ended up buying that and a mirror and new sheets. The glasses place seemed so random in the street. But you give them your number, choose your frame from the case and then voila! new glasses.
    Another day I ate a traditional meal with my father's family that is also from Bandung. Going down the entire legnth of a room were bamboo leaves. Brown rice was atop along with the rest of the food. Food was just sprinkled everywhere. You'd sit on the floor and eat with your hands and it was very cool looking. I tried pete there too. It's this huge bean that has a really strong smell. And guess what. It also has a strong taste. Like at first it doesn't taste like anything but the end is bittery and sharp and will live in your mouth (and memory) for-ever. Not my favorite. Actually probably my least favorite food. I have to tell you about food. Really I do.

Pete. Not a normal vegetable. Looks are deceiving.

Movie watching time. Piracy is big in Indonesia which I'm low-key liking (Sorry film people). I got to see Xmen and sadly sat through the Japanese version of Paranormal activity 3. They come out pretty quickly here and are really good quality too.
Trip to the bakery. This was my first experience with Jakarta-like heat and crowds. This was actually one of my last days there and it was crazy hot. I was actually wearing my pajamas because the day had just started out as a quick walk to a cousins house for breakfast. As I had already eaten I decided to go with the cousin to the bakery instead. It was soo packed. The line was out the door and you couldn't move without touching someone. We were probably in the store like an hour and a half with the hour being the time we stood in line. This how I learned the lesson that maybe when going out in the very hot crowded city you should maybe eat something more than French fries and an apple.

The best parts were probably the time I spent chilling with my family. Them making fun of my Bahasa Indonesia (ngantuk and banget are really hard to say), Me teaching them random english (digging in your noise always gets a laugh, and drag queen. That was another new experience. Another time Another time.) And Lebaran well of course that gets its own post. Love

View from blacony. Me with my host mom. Ooo

*Really late. A month late. Don't blame me. Blame laziness.

Last day of LOCamp

The next day was our wrap up and party day. We had our last session 'safe and enjoyable year' aka rules. Then we got on a bus to travel to the Kekun cafe where our welcoming party was being held. Very cool place. It had hip music inside, hip because it was all american and you know a place is hip when it plays foreign music. Also it was like Nas and Erykah baduh, so yea pretty hip. We ate and then had hours of practice on the stage and the surrounding areas. Practice for what? Our talent show of course. But that part comes later.
    One of the guys from the ambassador's house came to talk to us, a Frank J Whitaker, cultural attache.  He talked with us about what embassies do and a brief history of Indonesia and how he got his job and that we should contact him if there's ever a problem.  Interesting stuff. A bit later we broke fast with another really good dinner and I had my first Indonesian coke and fanta. I didn't drink the whole thing of either.  They were both incredibly sweet because of the real sugar. I don't think I'll be drinking a lot of soda here.
    Then I got a special treat. Because my family lives in Jakarta they were able attend the party. So my sisters and one of their friends showed up. We talked for a little while. I said exactly one sentence in Indonesian 'sorry I don't speak indonesian'. Then it was time for the festivities to begin. It started with little games. The guest had to guess who's piece of  face was shown on the screen (sammy the german's) who like to salsa (Andrew fellow American yes abroader). Then for us we had count how much money was on the screen and say it in Bahasa (yay Simon german wellworts one). To finish of this part was a slideshow of our days in the LOCamp. It was little weird and sad because we'd only spent a couple of days there but it was so fun. Time for the performances though.
    The theme of the whole day was and the journey begins so we wearing white and the performances began with a little play where an exchanger from each country was on a plane saying what they would miss from their country. That was the segue way into that countries talent. So the Americans were up first. And what would we miss but all the styles of dance America has and has had. We started with a square dance (thanks Allen I guess the knowledge did come in handy). Next swing, then 60s to the Austin powers theme song. Standing alive was our 70s, then Michael Jackson thriller of course. For the 90s we split up and the boys did something to bye bye bye while us girls did a cutesy thing to oops I did it again by Britney speares. The other gender was the paparazzi when it was their turn. To finish it all off we did the Cupid shuffle off the stage. I don't know how it looked really but we had fun which was probably the most important part. Japan did like a play with magic and outfits and a samurai fight. Wellworts did an imagination type ballet dance to that very famous song. Regular Germany did a play with the superhero ger man saving an old lady with brut worst and money and loving the environment. Belgium acted out how a town got it's name. It involved a king and cutting off like thumbs or something. To finish off the night the kakak kakak did a dance too. It was to an Indonesian pop song by cherry belle look it up. It was awesome. I don't know when they had to time to practice because it involved everyone. Indonesians are good dancers.
    Another fun night. The fun good nights here definitely outnumber the blah ones. we even saw some of the exchange students who had just been in America. I love meeting up with all exchange students between here and home. Picture time of course!!

    Back at home nobody wanted to sleep because we were leaving the next day. Some left at like 5 in the morning others at 7 then the Jakarta and surrounding areas would leave at 11 by bus. So we just hung out on the deck. And ate pizza hut. How funny is that. It wasn't bad but I don't know how good it was either. It probably tasted good because it was a fun night and it was such a first moment. The first time having American food in Indonesia. And that was the last night of LOCamp.