Getting There

Hey look, it's me, posting a new blog finally! I could have updated before this but I've been kind of laaaazy. Maaf!

Anyway, yes I am safely inbound and even somewhat settled down here in Indonesia. The past couple of weeks have been krazy with a capital K. I'll start at the beginning...

Packing. The dreaded time in every exchange student's life. This was a Herculean task because I had so much stuff and only one suitcase, one carry-on and one personal item. My entire family got in on the process and I finally got everything down to a small suitcase, my big suitcase, and my backpack. But even with all of our efforts to lighten my load, it was still super heavy when I had to lug it through airports and hotels.

This was taken when I thought I was done, but in fact I had another two hours of re-packing left. 

Saying goodbye to my family, when the time came, was harder than I thought. I told myself I wouldn't cry but of course I did anyway. Even though there's Skype and email and Facebook, when you realize you won't hug or eat dinner or just sit around with your family for a whole year, it's pretty tough. But, we all got through it okay. I think. I hope?

On the morning of September 21st I woke up at the ripe hour of 3:30 AM (again, also coincidentally just one hour before I have to wake up for school here in Surabaya) to go to the airport with my family. The flights to NYC were super short, it felt like, and I practiced making conversation with complete strangers on them. Albeit in English... but I still count it.

When I finally landed in JFK it was time for gateway orientation! It was a laid-back night at a New York City hotel with just the Indonesia outbounds, our flight chaperones and Allen Evans, the director of YES Abroad who gave us our orientation. A returnee from Indonesia 09-10 was also there to give us last-minute advice and answer our questions. For this orientation, mostly we just sat in a conference room and went over tips on making our year successful but we also discussed things like our expectations and the different stages of culture shock and adjustment.

It was probably the most fun orientation that I've been to, because all of us over-excited Indonesia outbounds got to know each other better and it didn't drag on for what felt like forever.

Morgan and I at JFK. JFK is not the funnest airport to drag 100  combined pounds of luggage through. I can now say that from experience. 

Then came the big day... the one where we would board our 14-hour flight to Hong Kong and officially begin our international journey! We were all slightly nervous about the flight (with Cathay Pacific which is an amazing airline) but still raring to go. When I got to my seat in coach and looked around I was very, very happy to find that my seat had a power outlet and a TV with an extremely long list of movies, games, and TV shows to play. That, and the food that they seemed to serve every few minutes, kept me occupied the whole time. I barely slept.

Which caught up with me in the Hong Kong airport. I promptly crashed from my energy high on the airplane and felt groggy and cranky the entire five hours we were in China. To fill the time we (David and I) Skyped Hannah who is in Malaysia. We also played cards, ate legit Chinese food, and walked around the surprisingly not-crowded airport. I wanted to get some Hong Kong money because it is so pretty but when I bought water, I got American dollars back in change... I'm just a little disappointed. Good thing Indonesian money is just as pretty.

Right over the North Pole!

David, me, and Hamza in-flight

Coming in over Hong Kong

In the HK airport waiting for our food

I slept the entire flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta, so when we landed in Indonesia I was ready to go. AFS greeted us and we piled in to a bus to head to the site of our arrival orientation, Taman Mini Indonesia. Taman Mini is like an Indonesia theme park where you can see traditional houses, museums, and gardens. Unfortunately we only got to see the area around our hostel, and not the rest of the park, but we were so busy that it didn't really matter. Also the hostel area was really, really beautiful.

Sangat indah, ya?

When we got to Taman Mini, we unloaded the bus and made ourselves at home in our hostel. Which was made up of one room for boys, and one for girls. There were bunk beds and traditional Indonesian bathrooms and everything! It was quite an experience. I think I will always remember my first encounter with a squat toilet. It was terrifying at the time but now it's no big deal.

The girl's room!

The next morning we got up and had breakfast, which was only our second taste of real Indonesian food. Then we got to know our fellow AFS Indonesia 2012-2013 inbounds, who were all Europeans except for two Japanese girls. We had orientation workshops in which we discussed Indonesian lifestyle and culture, our expectations for the year, and of course the language. There was an activity where we had to use our very limited Indonesian and ask the various natives also staying at the hostel/hotel about their lives, and if they knew anything about our host cities. It was intimidating, to say the least, and definitely made me wish I'd been more diligent when studying Indonesian at home.

And as a surprise to us, we also put on a talent show! There was a welcome party for AFS in Jakarta so we split up by country and came up with mini acts to represent our cultures for everyone who attended the party. The Belgian girls did a folk dance, the Japanese girls did a tea ceremony, and the Americans... we did the Cotton-Eye Joe. And the macarena. And of course, the Cha-Cha Slide. It was lots of fun even if we kind of fell apart at the end because we couldn't hear the music.

The European boys Bjorn, Fabian and Simon looking fabulous after the party

The last day of orientation (and my first night in Surabaya), we packed up our bags, loaded up a big bus and drove for an hour into Jakarta to have our last workshop at the AFS office. When the workshop was over we left the people who were staying in Jakarta and Bandung behind. So David, Morgan, and Hamza went off to their host families while the rest of us drove for an hour more the the airport. We all stared out the bus windows the entire drive, fascinated by the Jakarta landscape passing us by. We only drove on the freeway so we had no idea of what the real Indonesia looks like, but it was still shockingly different. Here's a couple of my own shots:

And then finally we got to the airport, where we would all go our separate ways, to places like Yogyakarta and Kalimantan and Surabaya, to be picked up at the airport by AFS and our host families. I'll make a separate post about that because this one is getting long and boring enough.

Sorry again for the long wait. I wrote this because I'm bored in school and I don't really have anything else to distract me. :) Until next time guys!

Idaho Requiem

Out here, we don't talk about culture,
we think we are. We nurtured Ezra Pound
who ran from us like hell
and never came back. You
never came at all. You
will never know how clever
we never are out here.
You never drank red beer.
You never popped a grouse
under a blue spruce just because it was there.

Tell us about Schopenhauer and your friends
and fine old family. We left ours
at the Mississippi, have no names left
to drop. We spend our time
avoiding Californians and waiting
for the sage to bloom, and when it does
we miss the damn things half the time.
When a stranger comes in we smile
and say, "Tell us about yourself."
Then we listen real close.

But you would say, "I've said what I have to say."
Too subtle, perhaps, for a can of beer,
too Augustan for the Snake River breaks.
But how do you know this wasn't just
the place to die? Why not have those
kinfolk ship your bones out here, just
for irony's sake? We keep things plain
and clear because of the mountains.
Our mythology comes down to a logger
stirring his coffee with his thumb.

— Ron McFarland

(Because I love poetry, and I love Idaho, and this is a good combination of the two.) 

The Western Idaho Fair: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Acquire friends.

Hopefully they will be as classy as the friends I've got here.

Step 2: Drive an ungodly distance to the fairgrounds. Have mini-adventures in the car.

Step 3: Check out the copious amounts of food available. Have an enormously difficult time deciding what to get.

No, I don't know what a tater pig is either.

End up getting loaded fries and lemonade, among other things.

Step 4: Check out vendors and a show of photography/art inside. 

Step 5: Check out some cool animals.

Tis a pigeon

Step 6: Become a potato.

Step 7: Fulfill your ultimate purpose and eat disgustingly bad-for-you junk food. Go home and sleep in sugared-out bliss.

Fried cookie dough

Cotton candy - basically spun sugar. 

Mini doughnuts... these are the highlight of my existence.

Basically I made this wonderful guide to show you guys what fairs are like up here in Boise. For those not familiar with this awesome American tradition, a fair is basically like a week-long event where usually scary, empty lots in the middle of nowhere are set up with food stands, agriculture/livestock shows, vendor areas, contests with local artists, and of course a big carnival with lots of rides.

It's a summer tradition to have one every year and I'm pretty sure they're common all around the USA. Personally, going to the fair was the highlight of my summer and allowed me to spend some time with my friends before they went off to school.

Now, I'm just waiting around at home all day, preparing to leave for Indonesia. Although my departure is only two short weeks away, there's a lot to get done. I still haven't applied for my visa, so hopefully it'll come on time - we're still waiting for a letter from AFS so I can send my packet off to San Francisco. I also need to pack, do some last-minute shopping, see everyone, learn more Indonesian, decide where I want to go for my last dinner with my family... It's crazy! But at the same time it feels like there's nothing for me to do.

I'll keep you guys updated. Until next time!

1561 views.... whaaaaat?!

That's right, my humble little blog has reached 1500+ views. Although I'm pretty sure each hit counts rather than each individual viewer, that's insane and I'm so happy!! I really hope to have a blog that grows to be popular and successful so I can share Indonesia and YES Abroad with as many people as possible.

Unfortunately this will not be an epic or thoughtful or athlete-filled post, because all my thoughts are jumbled and I have too many vague ideas for posts, and not enough solid ones. I do have a list of posts I plan on making, and they include:

• The joys of American high school
• Cabin Fever: The Saga (possibly in pictures and/or doodles)
• More information on my host city/family!!
• The evolving face of American families and how they can be sorta messed up but end up pretty cool anyway
• My going away party/what I've been up to as summer ends
• More information about Indonesia
• Sara's Storytime in Bahasa Indonesia 
• The books I'll be packing, and what they mean to me
• I Think Studying World Religions Is Pretty Cool, And This Is Why You Should Too
• America's love affair with fairs 

And that's all. I think I just came up with half of those right now. So we'll see if they ever actually come to fruition. They probably will, because I have way too much time on my hands. 

To tide my lovely readers over in the meantime, here's a couple pictures of my one-year-old brother, AKA the coolest guy I have ever met.