Sort-of Recent Photos

OK, tons of pictures headed your way! The first few go back about a month, so bear with me.

I was asked to give a speech for about 80 incoming freshman in the English Letters department of my university. They had a kind of "camp" for the weekend, and I came up for Saturday morning. I spoke about my experience as a freshman in the U.S. (you can see my PowerPoint of a typical dorm room up on the wall). I think they understood...some of it.

Rapt students. Yes, I AM that riveting.

After the presentation, we drove to a hot springs area (sadly, I don't remember the name of it!) and walked up a really steep hill. You can see Bu Wahju in the background on the right, Pak Milal on the right, and a student who was catching a ride with us, Ovi, in the foreground.

Posing in NATURE (said in Robert Goulet's voice).

I stopped on the way back to buy roasted corn from these ladies.

Flash forward to the following weekend.We met Steve (a Fulbright Researcher) and his wife Sakti for dinner. Very nice people. Sorry I don't have a picture of them yet. But they took us to this cool park, Taman Bungkun (I think?), where everybody hangs on Friday night.

Saturday night: dinner at Mango Terrace for Nina's (the girl on the left in the center) birthday! This was a gathering of Fellows and ETAs. Really nice to catch up a little.

After the birthday dinner, Jen and I went to see a traditional East Javanese music and dance performance, in which Steve was playing. These are some of the musicians. 

These ladies danced and sang. And had gorgeous clothing (which you can't really see here, unfortunately). 

Sakti, Jen, and me enjoying the show.

We took a free bus tour on Sunday, and saw these girls practicing traditional dance at one of the cultural centers in Surabaya. 

On Monday night, Steve and Sakti invited me out again (they're so nice!) to see a Ludruk, or traditional performance, similar to the one we saw on Saturday. Except this one was a live performance for the radio station RRI (Radio Republik Indonesia). It was really cool to just sit in the back and quietly watch the performers.

Then I got "kidnapped" to come to this pesantren (Muslim boarding school)! This is a cute calf I saw walking around the premises in the morning. 

Cute students at the pesantren. 

Then we went to the zoo on Sunday! Despite the fact that the Surabaya Zoo was apparently written up as the worst zoo in the world, where apparently the animals die at an alarming rate. But it's the biggest zoo in Indonesia! So a couple of exchange students and I went. It wasn't quite as bad as I expected. Although the chained-down elephants made me cry. I did not photograph those. 

Apparently there is a fish whose Indonesian name is Grace Kelly? I was really confused by that. But at least it's a classy-looking fish.

Cotton candy (purchased for 50 cents and tasting pretty different from American CC) and Komodo dragons! Could there be any better ending to the day? 

When did I suddenly get so busy?

Disclaimer: This post is REALLY long. Prepare yourself. Or just give up now. Also--I have not posted photos yet of the events described herein. But I will. I promise. 
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It seems like the first two weeks of teaching at IAIN Sunan Ampel were quiet. I taught my classes, lesson-planned a lot (I tried to make up a schedule for the whole semester for each of  my four classes), and came home and watched bootleg DVDs until 10pm.

But then last week, another Fellow, Jen, came to visit. We did a LOT. On Friday, we met the Public Affairs Officer and the director of the Information Resource Center at the Consulate. Then, from there, we met with the regional director of the Peace Corps. Then, we went to TP (Tunjungan Plaza, the biggest and oldest mall in Surabaya) to grab some quick sushi before rushing to an actual dinner with a Fulbright researcher (who is studying East Javanese traditional music! So cool!) from Michigan and his wife. More networking possibilities!

Saturday was a little less crazy. We had planned to visit the American Corner (an American cultural center) at a local university, but found out it was closed for repairs. So we went to TP and shopped some more before meeting up with a colleague of Jen's to shop some MORE at a different mall and then look at potential motorcycles to buy for her small town of Kamal. As a side note: I would never, ever, get a motorcycle in Surabaya because the traffic is crazy. Then, that night, we met up with the Fulbright researcher, Steve, and his wife, Sakti, again. Steve was playing gamelan in a performance in the village, and there were dancers and singers and comedians and even kind of a beauty pageant! It was really great to finally get to see something "cultural," but it went on pretty much all night, so we couldn't stay for the whole thing. We stayed from 10pm until about 12:30am, and by then, I could barely keep my eyes open.

On Sunday, we (gasp!) went back to TP and got lunch. Sushi, to be precise. Then we went to House of Sampoerna (a cultural center that is actually an old cigarette factory, which still functions today) to take the free bus tour of the city. The tour was OK--despite the guide speaking in English half the time, we didn't really catch what he said. And the bus didn't slow down at all for historical sites, such as the hotel where an Indonesian climbed the flagpole and ripped the bottom stripe off of the Dutch flag, thus declaring independence from the Dutch and creating the Indonesian flag. Pretty cool story right?

So anyway, the tour was short and fairly forgettable. But it was free, so we got our money's worth! Maybe I can find another tour sometime that discusses things in greater depth. Or if all else fails, just read a history book.

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So that was the weekend. This past week has suddenly gotten crazy too. Monday night, I went to a ludruk performance with Steve and Sakti. Ludruk is a type of traditional East Javanese musical performance with includes singers, dancers, and musicians. Because this was a live radio broadcast, there was of course no dancing, but the singers and some comedians performed between musical numbers. It was a lot of fun to just sit back and get a kind of private performance. Wednesday night, I attempted to live-stream a teacher-training webinar that steams out of Washington, D.C. About 30 future English teachers and current English teachers showed up. No luck streaming the video. After attempting to connect to the live stream for about 2 hours, my fears that the school's internet was just too slow were confirmed. But I had a backup plan, thankfully, which did not require internet. I used a CD of teacher training videos we'd received at orientation to guide the meeting. It was a little haphazard, since I hadn't really known how much to plan for, but I think it went OK. I asked the attendees if they'd like to make this a regular event for the next five weeks, and they seemed into the idea. So I'll be hosting another one next Wednesday.

Then Thursday, I had a meeting with the Sastra Inggris (English Letters) department, in which they asked all of the teachers, including me, to re-write the curriculum for our classes. They handed me a sample curriculum description, and it was approximately 20 pages long. For one course!! All in Bahasa Indonesia, too, by the way! I asked whether my curriculum description had to be that long, and they said no. Phew. The director of the program also asked me to review their next edition of the department's journal publication. Sure, why not? And then they asked me if I would publish an article in it, and submit the article by the end of the month. Sure, why not?

Then, the dean of the department stopped by and asked if I would be willing to come visit his pesantren (Muslim boarding school) that he owns sometime. I said, sure, why not? And tried to schedule a date when I would be free, sometime later in October. He seemed to agree with the date, but then a few minutes later, my counterpart came over and said, "He wants you to come today. Can you leave in two hours? And come back on Saturday?" It was Thursday. I was not too excited about the prospect of giving up half of my weekend visiting a school and essentially working, so I managed to get him to agree to just stay overnight Thursday. So I rushed back to my room, packed my bags, and took the 3-hour trip out to Nganjuk with another female English teacher from my department, Mbak Meria (Miss Meria). She came along as a translator and kind of intermediary, and I'm really glad she came, because I would have been really confused without her, and she was really kind and spoke a lot of English with me the whole trip.

When we reached the school at about 6pm (we'd stopped for dinner on the way), I met with just the girls from the school, and attempted to get them to talk to me. They were really shy (ages 11-14), but I did eventually get them to sing me an arabic song, in exchange for singing "My Heart Will Go On" for them. Yes! Titanic! A success, this time!

Then we met with all of the students (about 50 or more) at the mosque, which was kind of odd, because I sat at the front, facing the girls and boys, who were separated from each other by a curtain. Because the meeting was held in a mosque, the girls and boys couldn't look at each other. Then I was asked to speak about Muslims in America. I didn't have a whole lot to say about this--I spent about 5 minutes max explaining what I knew, and then we invited the students to ask questions. They were all very shy, again, so there were a lot of long silences. But I did get a few good questions about the American school system and how it differs from the Indonesian school system. I then tried to ask them questions about their school. Then we kind of ran out of things to talk about...so the dean asked me to just "tell a love story." Haha. He said he just wanted me to speak so that the students could hear a native speaker. So I told them the story of how Ari and I met. Which I think went over OK. Indonesian students in general seem to be really excited to hear I have a boyfriend, so they generally are really interested in that kind of story. I'm not sure if the explanation of how we met on a cruise ship really translated clearly, but...they got the gist.

So after that talk, Meria and I went to sleep, sharing a bed in one of the rooms of the Dean's house. We then woke up at 6 to eat breakfast, bathe (my first authentic Indonesian bath!), and walk around the premises a little. Nganjuk is a really tiny town, so it was quite rustic. The people living nearby seemed to be farmers, with lots of cows (I couldn't resist pictures of the cows!) and ducks and chickens and goats. Then I met with the teachers of the school (about 8 of them, not of all of whom were English teachers), and gave a short talk about "The newest teaching methodology in America." I chose to focus on Communicative Language Teaching (for any teachers who care who are reading my blog). I think it went over fairly well, although the teachers took some convincing (did I actually convince anyone?) that this type of methodology could work in their classrooms. Then we jumped in the car and took the 3-hour trip home. Phew! Again!

That was yesterday. Today, I had another busy day recording my voice for a TOEFL-like listening test that another school is putting together. Well, originally the plan had been to record my voice. Then they decided the day before that they wanted to FILM me too. So I had to look presentable! (Although they didn't give me any guidelines about how to dress.) I chose to wear a batik--can't go wrong with batik--and hair pulled back. Oh yes, and that morning I went jogging, got really sweaty and red in the face, and came home to find that the water and electricity had been turned off, for who knew how long. So I was unable to shower between jogging and being filmed for this project! Just a little deodorant and scented lotion to cover it up....

So I got picked up at 9am, and the first stop we made was to buy me fruit! I told them they weren't allowed to pay me (part of the Fellowship agreement), so they offered to buy me lots of fruit instead, since I mentioned that I was really into all the cool new fruits in Indonesia. I picked out durian (yes, durian), guava, soursop, starfruit, mango, and a couple other fruits I don't even know the name of. Then we went to the school and recorded me standing in front of a blue screen pretending to give lectures on all sorts of random topics, including: Linux, types of lighting in photography, managerial accounting, the island of Bukanon (? Can't remember the actual name), and how steel is made. As you may be able to tell, the content skewed towards the...technical. I definitely guessed on the pronunciation of a few words.

We managed to finish all of the lectures in one day (there were 10 of them! Each one about 3 - 4 minutes long), and as another gift to me, the director offered to buy me a batik shirt for me to wear for the next recording session (I have one more to do, with dialogues this time). So they drove me to this awesome batik store that I hadn't discovered yet, and I got to enjoy the pleasure of shopping for a batik with two Indonesian men hovering nearby politely waiting for you to pick something. I managed to narrow it down fairly quickly, though, and picked out an elegant olive green one.

Then they brought me home, where I was pleased to discover that my power and my water were back on. Hooray!

Which catches me up to today. Yikes, that was a long post. And now I'm late to go see Wayang Kulit, a shadow puppet show! Thankfully, those shows also continue until the sun comes up, so if I get there a little after it's started, I don't think it's a big deal. And I won't be staying for the whole performance--I get to actually sleep in tomorrow!

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her first leaf's a flower,
But only so an hour.
So leaf subsides to leaf,
And Eden sank to grief.
So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.

*This poem may have some minor errors, as I'm posting it from memory. After hearing it 12 times this past week, however, I think I've gotten the gist.

Aauughhhh

First frustration-themed (and extremely whiny) post from Indonesia. Hopefully not first of many.

This post is inspired by my efforts to buy two whole things:

1. a MacBook connector thingy to hook my computer up to a projector, 
2. and a mattress/bedding so that my Fellow friend Jen can crash in my room this weekend. 

It is SO DIFFICULT to get these things! Whereas in the States I wouldn't have strained a muscle accomplishing these two tasks, here they require careful planning (and lots of stressing out, in my case).  And a slightly pulled muscle. 

I really want a projector connector ASAP because I am making endless photocopies for my huge classes, and if I just had a projector hookup, I could save myself a lot of paper and time by projecting worksheets on the wall. However, there are no Apple stores near my house. I have to take a taxi to one of the two malls in Surabaya that has an Apple store, which will require at least a couple hours, which means that I probably won't have time to make the trip during the week, because I have lesson planning to do until 3 or 4pm every day, and it gets dark at 6pm, so it's just riskier in general to take a taxi at that time. Plus I'm tired from working all day. So task #1 has yet to be accomplished. 

As for the mattress, I wanted to borrow my friend Alissa's folding mat, since she doesn't need it and she lives about 20 minutes walk from me. But it's too big to carry! So I need a taxi to pick it up. But I lack the language skills to guide a taxi to her house, wait for me while I pick up the mattress, and then take me back. And no one is free to take me to her house this week. So, I had to walk to the "hypermarket" (read: Wal-Mart-style store) that is about 10 minutes away and buy my own foldable mat. I then had to lug the mat and bedding back to my room. Hence the slightly pulled muscle. 

Throughout all of this, I must also endure countless "Hello Mr!"s,  "What's your name?"s, and  "I love you!"s along the way. I know most of these people mean well, but if only they could realize that they are not the only ones who choose to yell something at me! Usually I am pretty zen about the mild harassment, but when I'm trying to lug stuff home in the dark, it just adds to my stress. 

In conclusion, I've been a little frustrated by my inability to ACCOMPLISH STUFF in Surabaya. But I think I will get over it. Actually, I think I'll have to get over it. It's just a matter of time. And settling in. 

Photos: The first three weeks

Finally! The post you've been waiting for. It took me approximately three hours to upload, but I have finally gotten most of my favorite pics from the past four weeks up here. 

So let's start with my second night in Indonesia, when I was still at my site in Surabaya, and Bu Wahju, my counterpart, invited me to dinner at her house with a lot of her family: 

Bu Wahju is sitting to the right of me. Her parents are on either side of us, and her brother and her adorable daughter, Dinda, are on the far left. There were actually about 10 other family members in attendance that night, all in town at the tail end of the celebration of Idul Fitri. 

This is a picture of the main hall on campus, and the opening remarks by the rector of my school. All of the staff was gathered here as a post-Idul Fitri gathering, kind of a "welcome back" luncheon. I was also asked to sing in front everyone at this event. I chose to sing "California, Here I Come" (the old song, not the O.C. theme), which went over... all right. No one knew it. They all wanted me to sing some other California song that I didn't know. I later found out that singing Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" gets 'em every time. Now I know.

My first time drinking avocado juice (a standard juice here)! It's mixed with chocolate syrup and milk and lots and lots of sugar. Pretty good. But I think I still prefer it in guacamole. 

Onto Bandung, for the in-country orientation. I've already posted a picture of my amazing room, so I am just posting this view from my window. 

Our first meal together in Bandung. Traditional Sundanese food. We ordered two of a lot of stuff and had more food than we could possibly consume. It all came to $5 each--as I've previously noted. Sorry, can't get over how affordable food was there.

My first time riding in an angkot (tiny bus, standard mode of public transportation all over Indonesia). We chartered this one to take all of us to a tea house 30 minutes away. 

Some more angkot people. 

On our way to Kawah Putih (the white crater), I couldn't get over the horse-drawn...buggies? mixed in among the motor bikes and cars and buses. 

Me at Kawah Putih! It was pretty cool. I think the color of the water is my favorite part. And I kind of like the sulfur smell. 

More traditional Sundanese food! We stopped here on the way back from the crater. You can see some kind of greens (I forgot what), a quail egg, tempe, tofu, some fish (yes, broke my vegetarianism [again] for the fish), and rice. 

We also stopped to pick strawberries. Apparently Bandung is known for its strawberry fields (cue Beatles song). 

For Tabitha's 30th birthday, we had dinner at this bar overlooking the city. 

After dinner, we got martabak. I had been looking forward to this ever since arriving in Indonesia. It's a Dutch dessert (as you can probably guess from its name) that's essentially a huge pancake with a crapload of butter smeared in the middle and bananas and chocolate and whatever else you desire to put  in the middle. It's SO greasy. I could only eat one quarter piece without feeling like I was gonna puke. 

We did some outreach in the local schools. Adam, Jackie, and I got assigned to a middle school in Bandung, where we got to introduce ourselves to several classes and have the students ask us questions. We also did a presentation for the teachers on project-based learning, but those pictures aren't as cool. 

Adorable 7th-graders. 

That's our RELO (our boss, essentially) singing California Dreamin' at a local bar. The bar had a couple paid singers, but they let us sing a couple songs, probably since we were essentially the only ones in the bar. Hilariously, however, they always turned the microphones WAY down whenever we came up to do a song! 

JAKARTA! Corny shot of me looking out the window of my hotel room. I had to do it to show how awesome it was--floor to ceiling windows on two whole walls, on the 45th floor! 

Another view of the sunset from my room. 

Expensive-yet-worth-it American food at a local mall in Jakarta (everything is in a mall in that city). And as usual, the difficulties of counting out the cash at the end of the meal. So many thousand-, ten-thousand-, and hundred-thousand-dollar bills! 

My room at night. I slept with the curtains open every night. SO AWESOME. 

A group of us decided to take public transit (what a hot, sweaty adventure) to Kota Tua, or literally, "old city." This was the colonial area of Jakarta. We got drinks to cool off at Cafe Batavia. 

Another shot from the Wayang (puppet) museum, where there were lots of cool life-size (or larger) puppets.

We tried to find the harbor, only to get really, really, lost in winding alleys of streets. But hey, at least we saw the less-touristy side of Jakarta, right? It was actually a lot of fun just wandering around. 

Last day in Jakarta: we graduated from our language classes! Woo hoo! My beginning- level teacher, Mbak Niken, is on the far left. She was super sweet and patient with us. 

Illegal DVDs purchased on my last morning in Jakarta--mixed in with some that past Fellows just gave me--here's looking at you, Fame.  Yeah, I feel semi-guilty for purchasing these. (Sorry, Dad!) But they will help me survive all that alone time in the coming months. 

I still have a couple photos to post, but they are from this weekend, so I wanted to separate them a bit. This past week was without photos, because, you guessed it--I actually started my job! Taught and lesson-planned like crazy Monday through Friday. I diligently took photos of each of the 230+ students, so I can try to study them and learn their names, at least by the time of the midterm. I hope. Wish me luck in the coming weeks! 

Back in the Baya

So I still fail at being able to upload pictures from the two weeks of orientation, because I don't have internet in my room (yet! Still hopeful!!). However, I do have several pictures I took on my phone that I was able to upload.

Our second-to-last Bahasa Indonesia lesson with Mbak Niken (Miss Niken). It was held in these crazy "pods" in the hotel we were staying at. Seemed like a cool place to have class at first, but then it was just kind of a pain. 

We went to the Wayang Museum in the Colonial area of Jakarta, called Kota Tua ("old town"). Pretty cool. And only 20 cents for admission! Also, sorry for not figuring out how to rotate the pics. 

So, funny story. On the way back from Jakarta to get to our sites, Jen and I missed our flight. Despite getting there 1 hour early and waiting in the waiting area way ahead of time. We kept checking the monitor and didn't notice any kind of "boarding" notice, and not many people seemed to be getting up. However, just to be safe, we asked a security guard if we should be boarding. He told us no, and took us to another waiting area. We sat there for about 20 minutes, frustrated at the delay. Suddenly he came rushing over to us again, telling us "take off, take off." So we somehow missed the flight. It was ridiculous. Thankfully, the coordinators at the RELO office were able to get us on a last-minute flight a couple hours later. And the security guard more than made up for his mistake by helping us to make sure we got to our other flight on time! 

A couple plus-sides to missing the first flight:

1. Having time to buy Krispy Kreme donuts (the only place in Indonesia where you can get 'em).

Getting to fly executive class! Wooooo! Sadly, the flight was only 1 1/2 hours, but we still enjoyed it..

And now I am happy to be back in Surabaya, moved into my new place (hooray! I finally got to unpack!), and teaching. Which is, after all, why I came here in the first place! I actually had my first class today--Cross-Cultural Understanding--and I think it went well. I have to say, I think my time spent teaching might be the most comfortable I've felt in all of my time in Surabaya so far. I'm still figuring out the syllabus/course schedule, and it's gonna be a lot of work, I think. But hey, I don't have much else to do right now! (There will be sightseeing, though, never fear. Just not in the first couple weeks, probably.) 

OK. Hope to post more pics soon. 

Stuck in a macet with Jackie

That's Bahasa Indonesian for traffic jam.

A few recent pictures stolen from FB

One of the Fellows in our program has a really good camera, and he has posted some nice shots from our orientation so far. Below are a few of the ones I liked.

 We had a talent show before the ETAs left. Captured in this moment is an interpretive modern dance to an acoustic version of R. Kelly's Ignition. 

EVERYONE (18 people) playing the "adult" version of Apples to Apples, called Cards Against Humanity. Quite disturbing and politically incorrect, but hilarious, of course. 

 Creepy machete-cutting performance. See previous post for explanation. 

Everyone at a bar overlooking the city. We went there to celebrate Tabitha's 30th birthday (she's the one in the tiara). 

Me and Bryan enjoying the view. Notice the batik print on his shirt--all the Fellows are obsessed with batik (although the print takes a lot of different forms; this is just one style). Expect to see me in lots of batik. 

Adventures in Fakebook

I was prompted to write this post after viewing my false "Fakebook" account again (first time since the 48 friend requests! Now down to only 14 today!). All of the posts from my future students refer to me as "Mom." I don't know how they got it into their head that they should be calling me that.

"Mom" pronounced with an Indonesian accent doesn't even sound like Ma'am. I'm so happy I already can correct their English without even having met them yet! The wonders of social networking.

Currently, I am still in Bandung until Thursday. Things remain pretty great here. We had the day off on Sunday, so the husband of one of the fellows (who has free time to walk around the city while we're all at meetings) chartered a bus for 12 hours to drive us three hours to a white crater lake near the peak of a mountain called Kawah Putih (White Crater). It was really cool--people commented that it felt like you were either on the set of Star Wars or some land from Lord of the Rings. Greenish-white sand everywhere, and this boiling, white, sulfurous lake in the middle of it all. It actually reminded me a little of Blue Lagoon in Iceland for anyone who's been there. Although I'd never go in that boiling water because 1. it's too hot and 2. apparently you're recommended to spend only15 minutes at the lake, as breathing in the sulfurous steam is bad for your lungs.

After we'd gone to see the crater, we went to a delicious lunch (sitting on the floor, of course, with a really low table) where we got way too much food and nevertheless spent about $5.50 each (I'm getting so used to this! Dangerous!). Then we picked more than a kilo of strawberries--apparently Bandung is famous for strawberries--and headed back to the hotel. We had actually hoped to visit a tea plantation on the way home, but our driver (whom, again, we were paying for 12 hours of driving, and who had only been driving for about 6 hours at that point!) was insistent that there was too much traffic and it would take too long. While we were discussing whether or not we wanted to go to go to the plantation, the driver took it upon himself to turn the bus around and start driving back towards the hotel. So we gave up and accepted the decision, apparently made for us, not to go to the tea plantation.

Still, it was a fun trip, and it was wonderful to get out of the city. I'd post photos from all the stuff I've been doing recently, but I didn't bring the cord to upload pictures from my camera. So I'll post them as soon as I can, once I get back to Surabaya in mid-September.

One other semi-crazy experience for a group of us happened a couple nights ago. We rented an angkot (cheap, tiny bus) to drive 10 of us to this beautiful restaurant, Dago Teahouse, located at the top of a hill overlooking the city. We had another amazing dinner sitting outside in the quiet (Yes! Finally peace from the roaring motorcycles) and relaxing. After the dinner, we were told there was some kind of traditional show going on, potentially involving machetes and people being put in trance-like states. Tabitha, who is a renewing Fellow and therefore has some experience with Indonesia already, was a little unsure; she said that those things can be kind of creepy. The people who practice that stuff are sometimes into doing self-mutilation (to show how they don't feel any pain while they're meditation or things like that).
In any case, we decided to give it a look. On the stage, there were about 10 men sitting in the back, chanting and drumming. A couple other men were kind of wandering around on the stage, not really doing much. One of the guys sat down and started meditating, and after about a minute, he got up and was given a machete, which he started rubbing vigorously on his bare shins and arms. He didn't draw any blood, but it was still kind of disturbing. Then he was given a green coconut, and he started ripping it apart with his teeth, and then after he had eaten most of it, he started drinking huge amounts of water (apparently when you are filled with the "spirit," one of the effects is you get really really thirsty). While this was happening, a woman in the audience started freaking out, because she apparently had also become possessed by the spirit. People jumped up and carried her (kicking and screaming) away to a room inside the building.
By that point, I was pretty much finished with the whole experience, as were a couple other people. Too weird and creepy for me! So we hitched a ride back in a taxi, as Jess (another renewing person) told us that the people we'd seen were comparable in a way to Java's Amish people--the performers are part of a sect that totally cuts themselves off from the rest of society, and refuses to use modern technology. They also practice animism, the oldest "religion" of Indonesia. In conclusion, I'm glad I got to see a performance by locals, but I hope that in the future, I can avoid the more disturbing sides of traditional practices and beliefs. Perhaps a traditional ballet in Yogyakarta?

Bandung'in it up

And the first week of sort-of settling into Surabaya is complete! I am now in Bandung for the next week for the in-country Fellow orientation, and to meet the Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) whom we'll be collaborating with on projects. Bandung is kind of a tourist destination for Indonesians; the weather is cooler than a majority of Java, and apparently it's a popular place to go outlet shopping (have yet to do that myself).

Anyway, we are staying at a hotel called the Papandayan, and man, it is basically designed to give us worse culture shock when we go back to our sites. Check out the website! Fancy, huh? Here's a pic of me in my room, taken with the grainy Macbook camera:

You can't see that much, but you can see the window on the left, which is actually a window into the bathroom, which has a big bathtub and a "rainfall" shower head. Is that what's it called? You know what I'm talking about, though, right? It's fancy. Did I mention I like this hotel? 

For dinner last night, about nine of the ELFs went to a local-style restaurant walking distance from the hotel. It was amazing. We didn't really know what a lot of it was, so we just ordered two of about 6 things. It was a FEAST! Delicious, and no one got sick (yet). And the bill came out to about 5 dollars a person. 

After dinner, ALL of the Americans (the 20 other Fellows and 50 ETAs) virtually took over a nearby bar which had a pretty good live band, and served these ridiculous 5+ person pitchers for 3 dollars. The scene was a little crazy, but after not seeing any Bules (foreigners) for a week, I honestly felt pretty thankful to meet a lot of cool people and reconnect with others that I'd met at the pre-departure orientation in Washington, D.C. I know I'm gonna have to get used to being kind of isolated when I back to Surabaya, but I'm enjoying the compatriot company while I can. 

I managed to drag myself out of bed at 5:30 this morning to FINALLY get some exercise since coming to Indonesia--I jogged about 20 minutes with some other girls who are training for a triathlon. (Needless to say, they jogged a little farther than me.) It was nice to have the streets sort of to ourselves, despite the ubiquitous roadside bonfires that cause smoke to blow in your face. Then we got back at 6am just in time for the start of breakfast, which was awesome. We could get either American style or Japanese, Chinese, or Indonesian style breakfast. I went for the American, because my hotel in Surabaya only served traditional Indonesian breakfast. I've missed my sugary pancakes, yogurt, chocolate croissants, and fresh fruit for breakfast. (Hey, I was in withdrawal mode, OK?)

Then we had the beginning of our Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) classes, which seem like they'll be a lot of fun--eleven of us are at level 0, so it's fun to just start with phrases like, "My name is..." Other than that, we've just had meeting after meeting after meeting. It was all pretty long. Except for the part where we got to break off into groups based on region; this was the chance for me to meet the five other people who will be relatively near me (and one Fulbright ETA who will actually be in Surabaya!) and brainstorm collaborations we could do in the next nine months. I'm excited because a couple of the other girls are into art/poetry/literature, so we're thinking of doing an art contest/poetry contest/writing workshop thing, which could be really awesome if it comes to any kind of fruition. But all of us are kind of just waiting right now to see how things go when we really start working at our sites, and see what kind of extra time/resources we'll have. 

Other than that--we had a talent show tonight. The ETAs are almost done, so they put on a bunch of pretty good performances (largely involving re-writing words to pop songs to make them about Indonesia), and the ELFs even put together a last-minute coordinated-dance performance to the music of "Call Me Maybe." In our defense, we didn't know there was gonna be a talent show until the day before. 

And now it's 10pm and I am wiped out. I'm going to bed, and I'm looking forward to sleeping in until 6:30 tomorrow. Selamat malam! (Good night!)

---------------

On an unrelated note: I created a fake Facebook page for Indonesia, because I heard that was recommended due to the large amount of students who want to friend you. Fer realz. After informing my counterpart, Wahju, about my account, she recommended a few friends for me, and before I knew it, I logged in today and had 48 friend requests! After one week here!! I just confirmed them all. I think I recognized about four of them.

Surabaya!

*Note: sorry for the lack of photos. I have a weak internet connection, so that's my excuse for now.*

My official first post from within the borders of Indonesia! Or Surabaya, to be more precise. I have now been in this city (the second-largest in Indonesia) for four whole days, and so far, things have been pretty good. I will now attempt to number what I have done since arriving. Bear with me.

1. After a 22+ hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong to Jakarta to Surabaya, I arrived at 8pm local time with another Fellow who will be posted an hour away (nice to have a friend sort of nearby), and both of us were able to successfully meet up with our counterparts in the arrival area. I met Wahju for the first time--she is a fellow English teacher at the university where I'll be working, she has five kids and has lived in Surabaya all her life. And she is extremely friendly, talkative, and open. I don't think I could have asked for a better counterpart.

2. On the first night, Wahju took me to the hotel where I'll be staying for the first week, until we figure out where I'll be staying permanently. It's called the Istana Permata hotel, it's right around the corner from Wahju's house, and it's pretty nice. There's air conditioning! No big bugs! I have seen one gecko/lizard in my room so far, but lizards are cute and I have no problem with them. 

3. I think I know where I'll be staying for the next ten months (once I move out of the hotel)--in the guest lecturer quarters on campus at IAIN Sunan Ampel (the university I'll be teaching at--IAIN stands for Institut Agama Islam Negeri, which means State Institute of Islamic Studies). 

• The pros of this living arrangement: New stuff (they recently bought a new bed and furniture in anticipation of my arrival), being literally on campus all the time. 
• Cons: I am the ONLY person living in the building, except for the groundskeeper. Which could make for some creepy/lonely/paranoid nights. Also, there isn't a kitchen. But Wahju said they could get me a refrigerator and a microwave and a rice cooker. :)

but the only other choices for me apparently are: 

1. Live in the second floor of an all-girls orphanage, which apparently is not the best idea because it's a Muslim orphanage, so I might not be that welcome living above them, because I'm not Muslim. 
2. Live 30 minutes away in a BEAUTIFUL mansion, but be totally dependent on people to pick me up and take me to classes every day (and pretty much dependent on people to take me anywhere, since it's so far outside of town).

So I think I'm gonna go with the guest lecturer room. Wahju said I don't have to stick with it if I don't like it--it can just be for a kind of trial period. 

4. Wow, I just wrote a lot about housing. Probably no one cares about that topic except me. But oh well. In the days since arriving and today, I have mostly been driving around the city to go to police stations to get myself registered in the city (so much freaking bureaucracy) and to the immigration center (so much more freaking bureaucracy). I have also met many of Wahju's family members (three of which are English teachers!), gone to buy traditional, Muslim-school appropriate clothing (I packed light on clothes), and gone to see The Expendables 2 at the nearby 21-screen multiplex. Why yes, how did you know that wasn't my first choice of film? 

5. Today me, Wahju, her husband, and her two youngest children Didi and Iqbal went on a 5-hour drive (one way) to the city of Malang (normally it's 2 hours, but because it's after Idol Fitri, the Muslim equivalent of Christmas, the streets are super crowded), to attend an engagement ceremony for one of her nephews. 50+ members of Wahju's family bussed in for the occasion (yes, they actually chartered a bus), where there were some speeches given (all in Indonesian, I didn't understand anything really), and then we ate lunch. And then we drove 5 hours back. We stayed at the ceremony for a total of one hour. Le sigh. At least I got to see some of the countryside of Indonesia, albeit through the car's windows. 

OK, that pretty much sums up what has happened in my life from arrival in Indonesia till now. Don't expect such lengthy details in future. This is way too much work. 

Other stray observations:

• I will NEVER NEVER NEVER be able to drive a car or a motorcycle around this city (the two favored modes of transportation). I will die within 15 minutes tops. Which means I will have to figure out the bus system or something, because everything is too spread out to walk for the most part. How will get to see the Expendables 3 (when it inevitably comes to theaters)?? 

• The stray cats here are really mangy looking. :( And so far I have seen absolutely zero dogs. Double sad face. 

• I actually quite enjoy dressing ultra-conservatively so far! Long skirts and long sleeve shirts with high necklines? No problem! 

• I haven't been treated like  crazy/weirdo foreigner very much (yet). I'd been warned that people would kind of act like I was a monster of some sort, but everyone generally treats me pretty normally so far, other than the few obvious stares everywhere I go. 

• Bahasa Indonesia (The Indonesian language)! GAAAahhh I need to start studying it for reals. I can't even say the days of the week or colors yet. I am below the level of a kindergartner. Thankfully, there will be some language training at the orientation in Bandung next week. That'll be something to start with. 

That is all! Signing off the for the night before I get too punchy! (It's 9pm here, which has become my new bedtime--I've been getting up at 5:30am every morning!)

It's 95 degrees out.

And this is the kind of sprawling that happens when it gets that hot.

P.S. I leave for Washington, D.C. tomorrow for my pre-departure orientation. And then back to Monrovia for two days, before flying out at 1:30am on Tuesday the 21st. Yikes!

I just spent $100 on the most boring stuff imaginable.

Including, but not limited to:

-Pepto-Bismol
-Deet bugspray
-Women's multivitamins
-First aid kit
-Benadryl
-Advil
-Anti-itch gel
-Sunscreen

Yaaaaay Indonesia! If I forgot anything that I shouldn't have...please don't tell me.

*Yes, I realize this is an extremely boring post. But I was kind of amazed at how much money I had spent on things that are absolutely NO FUN to buy. And I wanted to remember this moment.