A Day of Mountains, Horses and Motorcycles

We've spent the last two days in Rashi's town having a blast.

Saturday we went to the school where she teaches and got the warmest reception of our lives from the students and faculty there. It was kind of like traveling with a C-list celebrity. Mark gave them a laminated poster of Barack Obama that he carted over from the states and they were over the moon about receiving it. Everytime we said Barack Obama, everyone would cheer and shout, "Obama!" They were also pretty tickled by Mark's attempts at Bahasa Indonesia. While I prefer to bow a lot and speak slowly in an Indian accent, Mark jumps right in with a language book and it's pretty impressive how quickly he picks up the local jargon.

We spent the evening at Rashi's house, having dinner with her host family and it was kind of nice to just kick back, relax and eat around a dinner table for one night.

This morning she took us to Gedong Songo, a mountain town in Central Java about an hour away where nine Hindu temples and sulfur springs sit on a hill. The temples have long been destroyed by invaders to the area so the setting was kind of sad -- a lot of piles of rocks and broken deities -- but you also took in a certain history of the region while you were there.

We rode horses to the top (I think every person on mountain knew how ridiculous it was that I'd mounted a horse because every time we approached a different temple the gathered crowd would snicker in a way that I knew they were laughing at me) and I only fell off once on a dismount, though I managed to do it in front of a 50-person family reunion.

When we left, we approached the parking attendant at the motorcycle taxi stand to arrange for motorcyles to the back to the bus stop. Dude walks away and comes back on a bike, abandoning his post at the parking lot to drive us to the bottom.

Rashi and I were on one bike and Mark was on another. Another ridiculous story but one better told in pictures on our return.

Mark and I are also suprised that our trendy interracialness phases no one here. I was expecting a lot of stares (not because we're trendy and interracial, of course) but because we definitely don't look like the locals, but no one really notices. Truth be told, I felt more like an "outsider" in Minneapolis. And when they do stare here, they're more curious than anything else. It's partly because there's no real traditional Indonesian "look" (you see Indonesians with Asian, Indian and Dominican flair) and our traveling trio sort of covers the range. A brave stranger sometimes engages Mark in a conversation about Obama, which I take as an acknowledgement of where we're from, but that's always just more cute than anything else.

Selamet Siang!

We've been here for three days and traveled halfway across Java with my sister.

I've only had one instance of near meltdown (after we crusied through immigration and customs not having to wait for luggage!) and walked through the arrivals gate with anticipation written all over our faces unable to find her because she was waiting for us at another gate.

But, we've reunited and are having a great time.

My sister moves around this country like a local, haggling for good fares, jumping on and off trains and making small talk with the Indonesians.

She has a whole week planned for us and we're having a lot of fun just catching up!

22 Hours in SoKo

Mark and I are attempting to make the most of our 22 hour layover in South Korea, en route to Land of Java.

The flight from Washington, DC to Seoul is a west-bound 14-hour flight that pretty much bops you over the Arctic Circle to Asia. As a result, you're flying in a constant state of sunrise and somewhere over the North American tundra Mark and I raised the ire of our section of the plane when we opened the window to take in the beautiful sceneries. It was worth it though: we saw the most beautiful sun, sitting pink and orange on the edge of the horizon, while huge glaciers floated below us, cracks and all.

The time on the plane itself wasn't all that bad. Before we left, Mark and I made a big intellectual show, insisting on purchasing books and journals for the trip. Once we sat down on the plane and took in the almost endless On Demand movie options, our faux elitism was out the door as we fully embraced the likes of Hancock, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Babylon AD, and House, among many, many others (about 14 hours worth).

The trip has also highlighted the different travel sensibilities between myself and my would-be groom. In preparation for our time in Seoul, I called the Korean Tourism Board and had them send a guidebook and wrote down the phone numbers of the US Embassy in Korea; Mark, on the other hand, taught himself how to say "thank you" and "how much for that bucket of eels?", alongside dabbling in Korean cinema (with English subtitles) on the plane ride over. He was quite moved by the cinematic performances in "The Divine Weapon".

The joke was ultimately on me though. I made fun of his Korean linguistic skills for most of the plane ride over and when we were greeted by the hotel manager at the airport, Mark said thank you ("gamsa hamida") and the gentleman told him he had perfect intonation.

When you fly Korean Air, they take hospitality to the next level during an extended layover such as ours -- arranging accommodations, meals and transportation for you while you wait out the transit time.

Incheon International Airport is about an hour away from Seoul and we were afraid to venture into the city in the event of an unexpected attack of jet lag. We got in Wednesday evening around 6pm, checked in to our hotel and hopped on the local subway to Bupyeong which was an experience and a half, as we sort of wandered from restaurant to restaurant pantomiming "vegetarian" (reasons I'm glad we aren't the camcorder sort) and ending up with a hot, spicy bowl of shellfish (reasons I'm glad we aren't professional mimes). After much negotiation, Mark was also able to order a small bowl of white rice.

Here's to hoping everything we ate yesterday follows it's proper gastrointestinal path.

-N

Counting Down...

In short days, I'll be reunited with my sister.

I'm mostly excited and strangely nervous.

Indonesia is the first thing she's done without us bossing over her -- and even then, we attempt to lord over her from afar. It will be a unique experience for me to spend ten days with her in the drivers' seat speaking another language, knowing something so well that has nothing to do with any of us.

I'm also slightly afraid that she does crazy things there. And that the mini-Mom in me is going to freakout when I see her driving a motorcycle. In a skirt. Without a helmet.

And also to be filed under unique experiences: Mark and I are attempting this international excursion without checking luggage. The Indian part of me, used to busting zippers and weight maximums to stuff suitcases with mini-candy bars, socks with traction grips and multivitamins, is still in slight disbelief that we were able to accomplish this. And I guess the final proof will be when we end up on the flight with our two bags each without being forced to check anything.

For now, it's all about backpacks, rolled t-shirts and TSA-approved toiletries; a sneaker and a sandal each; and, of course, about 40 granola bars for my sister along with the 2009 Filofax filler papers she asked our mother to send with me. (Along with her Internet access, I'll be investigating exactly what she needs an organizer for, given that she knows about 10 people south of the Equator.)

-N

Going Rogue

I'm in the mood for some coffee and so I'm staging an e-coup d'etat, temporarily taking command of 'A Cup of Java'.

Many of you, like me, were excited to follow the triumphs and travails of our favorite ex-pat when she left the Land of Liberty for an equatorial archipelago on the other side of the globe.

We were nervous but we were supportive, looking forward to regular glimpses online of my sister's new life as she negotiated language barriers, new customs and new friends so far away from her native Pittsburgh.

But it appears that there's been a flat tire of sorts on the Information Superhighway.

It's been sad for some of us (Padma Aunty, CindyK); rage-inducing for others (Mom) -- coming to work, making a hot cup of java, if you will, and then looking for more...only to be greeted by "Mohon Maaf Lahir dan Bantin" dated October 20 for weeks on end.

In my sister's defense, I suspect it is hard to post. And we want her in Indonesia having actual experiences. Not having experiences looking for Internet cafes from which to blog.

But we miss her. And while it may be hard, I'm curious as to how hard. And so, on behalf of her loyal readership, I'm going to Indonesia to find out.

-N

Mohon Maaf Lahir dan Bantin....

My apologies for not blogging for some time. Last I talked to you all, I had just gotten into my groove of teaching. However, we then had some off for Idul Fitri so there was a slight disturbance in my weekly schedule...Needless to say, I still think I am still in vacation mode. In any case, I returned back to school last week and I definitely missed all of my students and teachers!

A quick story from before break. My school had a parent teacher conference right before the Idul Fitri holiday. Now in Indonesia, the parent teacher conferences are a bit different than what you think. Instead of sitting in a classroom with your child's teacher, you sit in an auditorium and listen to the headmaster/principal and school administrators talk. And if you are me, you sat through this same speech three times -- once for the tenth grade parents, once for the eleventh grade parents, and once for the twelfth grade classes. Most of the teachers only had to sit on stage until they were introduced and then they were able to leave (this was about 15 minutes). However, being a native English Speaker from America, Rashi got a front row seat on stage, sitting right next to the headmaster himself. For the first speech, the headmaster went through a pretty long introduction for me, which was kind of unexpected. All of a sudden, I notice that a bunch of the people in the audience are all whispering and pointing at me. Unsure of what is happening, I ask a fellow English Teacher what is going on.

Apparently, my headmaster had introduced me to the room as the great granddaughter of Gandhi.

I then had to explain to the room that I was actually born and raised in American although my parents were from India. I didn't know how to break it to them that I wasn't related to Gandhi (and we didn't really learn how to say that in our three week crash course in Bahasa Indonesian), so I guess there are some people who still think I'm related to him. There are worse things I suppose.

Over the break, I was able to visit Gunung Lawu, a huge mountain in Central Java. Getting to the mountain was a bit difficult, but luckily I was with a few friends so it didn't seem too bad. First I took a bus to Solo. Then I took a bus to Tawangmanggu. Then I took another bus to Sarangan. Then we took a van to a hotel near the actual starting point of the hike.

We began climbing the mountain at 9pm with hopes of reaching the summit by sunrise. The hike up was absolutely amazing. The route we took was literally up the side of the mountain so you could see the most beautiful views. I don't think I have ever seen that many stars in my life and the views of the Solo and Madiun below us were equally beautiful. The mountain is 3,339M high so when we reached the top, we were literally above the clouds and had a great view of the sunrise. I have included a picture below:


By the time I returned back to Salatiga, it was time for Hilal Bi Hilal functions. These ceremonies are for people to get together and apologize to each other for any mistakes they made in the past year. All of the teachers and administrators at my school had one. Generally, you greet each other saying, "Mohon Maaf Lahir dan Bantin" or "Selamet Riyadi." Then you sit for awhile and listen to a bunch of speeches made by school administrators and imams. And then you have to shake everyone else's hand and apologize for your mistakes or bad thoughts from the year. They also had music and food, so there was a lot of stuff going on.

Since returning, my teaching schedule has more or less included preparing students for their mid semester tests which are this week.

I will try to blog again soon!

First Week of Teaching

So I have finally completed my first week of teaching. To put things in perspective, I teach eight 10th grade classes, each with close to 40 students. Essentially I teach 1-2 classes a day, with each class lasting about an hour and a half. Since I'm only a teaching assistant, I am always in the room with a teacher (excepting for today when teacher called in a sick day).

I still haven't quite adjusted to being a teacher yet. I guess after 16 years of being a student and sitting in class its hard to adjust to suddenly being in the teacher's position. Even after just one week, I already have a great respect for every teacher I've ever had. What I never realized before this week was that teaching is essentially like putting on a performance. But its more like improv than a performance. You stand up in front of an audience (in my case, 40 teenagers) and then perform for an hour and a half. Do you have things you want to do? Of course, but you have to be ready to get sidetracked.

My situation here is of course a little bit different. For one, not many of the teachers I work with understand English. Even the other English teachers and I have had problems with communication, so you can imagine what its like with the other history, science, or language teachers. Ironically, I have befriended the Mandarin teacher and have hung out with her a lot outside of school. The language barrier essentially means that I do a lot of acting out of what I'm saying. All I will say here is that it can get really embarassing really fast (today I acted out an airplane) and makes you develop a fairly thick skin early on.

For the most part, the students are eager to learn English. Like students anywhere, they chat to each other during class and tease each other. However, I don't feel like popularity plays as big of a role in their classrooms as it did in high school. Perhaps this will change as I learn more about my classes though.

There are parts of my town that I love, and parts that I wish were different. For one, I love that its small. Its size makes me feel like I am having more of an authentic experience. Small towns allow you to establish a network with other people. However, with small towns also comes a lack of nightlife or comprehensive transportation system. And when I say nightlife, I'm not talking clubs or bars -- I simply mean life at night. The main street in my city more or less shuts down at about 7pm (the sun sets around 6-630). For awhile I thought that I was mistaken and just didn't know where everyone was going. After talking to some locals though, I've realized that there just isn't really all that much to do at night. And since I don't live in City center, getting around once its dark is a little more tricky, even though my town is really safe. However, as I meet people, hopefully this situation will get better.

The one great thing about my town is that there is a pretty big university here. I finally started hanging out with some people in their 20s this week and that was really refreshing. For awhile I was just socializing with the teachers or students at my school -- I was in desperate need of someone my own age to talk to. The Mandarin teacher at my school actually owns a trendy little coffeeshop right near the university (I'm actually reporting from their town). It is your quintissential college coffeeshop, complete with angst-ridden chain smokers, independents musicians, and people with a lot of feelings. Its completely outdoors and best of all, it has great Indonesia coffee! I love my host mom and all, but the woman only has NesCafe. I don't generally consider myself a coffeesnob, but its hard to be on Java and drink instant coffee every morning. So far, my favorite coffee drink is this coffee they brew with ginger. It sounds kind of gross but its delicious. Beware though, they leave the coffee grinds in the coffee, so if you are going to drink it, bring floss!

I also recently found a warung that I love. Warungs are food stalls that line the streets at night. Because its fasting month, I have tried fasting in an attempt to understand my students. All I can say is that it is really hard and can definitely make you appreciate a solid afternoon nap. I'm letting myself drink stuff during the day, mainly because I don't want to get dehydrated. I guess I can't really say I'm fasting because I also let myself have either juice or a piece of fruit in the afternoon. When you have to act out every conversation you have, you find yourself in despearate need of sugar and caffeine all the time. Once night falls though, I usually head to my local warung. The one on my street actually specializes in tofu and tempe, so I'm pretty much in heaven. They also have rolladu which are casava leaves (tastes kind of like spinach, but a little more substantial). I usually order 1-2 pieces of each and take it home to each with some nasi putih (plain white rice). Sometimes I splurge and buy some nasi goreng also (fried rice), but that usually ends up making my meal pretty greasy. The total cost of this meal (2 pieces tofu with vegetables, 2 pieces rolladu, 1 piece temple, fried rice)? Sixty cents! I'm definitely going to miss the cheap food in Indonesia. For those of you that eat meat, they have a lot of chicken, beef, lamb, goat, fish, options as well.

That's pretty much daily life for me so far in Central Java. I already know there will be good stories to come.

Ramadan Weekend

So sorry I sort of disappeared for a bit. Last Wednesday I found out I actually had to be in Jakarta to fil out some last minute paperwork so I immediately packed my bags and then one bus and taxi later, I was on a plane to Indonesia's capital city. It was really nice to meet up with other people in the program and talk to each other everyone's experiences. It seems like everyone has had their own little mountain to climb, complete with funny story or anecdote.

Jakarta was a really cool city. In my head, I imagined it to be really busy and feel like New York or London with regards to its landscape. Instead the city is spread out over a large area, with no one point acting as city center. At least, that was my perspective. Some friends and I did some touristy things (visited the Monas monument, went to a museum, etc), and it was a lot of fun. We also went to a soccer game! Indonesia versus Libya! At the game, I was mistaken for a Libyan -- this can be added to the list of ethnicities I am constantly mistaken for (Ethiopian, African American, Native American, etc.) -- but it was a lot of fun to go there. The game itslef was a bit confusing. At half time, Libya was up, 1-0, but then they forfeited the game because of a fight between coaches and a little bit of rioting. All things considered, the other ETAs and I decided that we should probably make a quick exit and we left before the trophy was "awarded" to Indonesia. ETAs and I went out a bit while in Jakarta, mainly bc none of us really have that option in our own cities, but it was fun to meet up and talk to everyone about their experiences in their respective towns.

After spending a couple of days in Jakarta, a bunch of us relocated to Semarang for a few days. While there, we explored the city and went on a boat ride around the Marina. The boat didn't really travel along the city, but it was relaxing to just go out to sea and zone out for a few hours. All in all, Ramadan weekend was really busy, but a lot of fun!

Arrived!

I finally arrived at my site! Technically I arrived a couple of days ago, but my Internet situation is still a little up in the air, therefore I am reporting live from an Internet cafe! Today was my first day of really walking around the city by myself and getting a chance to take in the city. I really really like it! The city itself is on the smaller side which I really like because it keeps me from being overwhelmed with being somewhere new. It has been very surreal to go from Bandung where I was surrounded by 30 other ETAs and where we were constantly traveling in groups to a situation where you are totally by yourself and don't know anyone or the language they speak (NOTE: during orientation, we all learned Bahasa Indonesian, the official language of the country. However, each region of the country speaks its own language that differs slightly, making communicating a little extra hard). It's really fun though and all of the other teachers at my school have been so friendly and nice to me as I get adjusted. They make sure I keep busy and it has really helped me feel at home. I have also received a few "Oh dear, you have to meet my son....I think you'd make a cute couple!" which makes for an awkward exchange in Indonesian :)

The house I am staying at is also very beautiful and my host has been very nice. I have a beautiful view of the house's garden and also of the two volcanoes that border our town. No worries, I have been told that only one is active and that our city is protected :)

One thing I have had to do a lot of is singing. Those of you who know me well, know that I can't carry a tune, however singing is really popular here so I've had to sing a couple times. Haven't gone solo yet, but I can feel it is only a matter of time. It is kind of funny because our program is supposed to promote understanding of American and Indonesian customs and culture, but at times you find yourself doing completely ridiculous things, forcing you to have one of those "How did I get here moments?." For example, I went and observed my school's debate team yesterday and one of the students asked me how accents varied in the United States. 5 minutes later, I was in front of the class demonstrating several different accents including but not limited to Southern, New York, Pittsburghese, etc.

I should probably get going because I need to go get some lunch. Hope everyone back home is doing well!

Indonesian Independence Day!

Some of the other ETAs and I celebrated Indonesian independence day yesterday!

There were lots different events going on all over the city, but earlier in the week a few of us met the principal of a local school for the blind and so we went there. It was truly an amazing experience to see the facility and celebrate with some local Bandungians (I call them this out of respect for Rohit).

The people at the school were so friendly and nice. I talked to one lady for a really long time and gave her a small compliment on her ring. She then proceeded to give me the ring, telling me that she really wanted me to have something from Bandung to take back to America with me. The generosity of some of the people here is astounding and coming from America, it can almost confuse you.

Everyone we meet usually wants to take pictures with us or talk to us about why we are in Indonesia and what we like about it. It's interesting to contrast this with some Americans who constantly complain about tourists and how much they hate them.

This is the lady who gave me her ring. She is holding her son.

Orientation Etc.

Its been a few days since I last blog and I apologize to my loyal readers...(mom or Nitya, i think that's you). My last few days have been pretty packed with orientations everyday starting at 630am and going until about 5pm or so. They really try to cram in as much as possible, so each day we have two Bahasa Indonesian Classes and two classes on Teaching English. Therefore, by the end of the day, we are all pretty beat. However, in what little free time we do have, I have been able to check out some really cool stuff. One is a warang. These are basically the street or stall food that you find all over Bandung (and Indonesia). Some of these stalls are also notorious for getting people sick. However one of the ETAs discovered a good one, and I have to say, I think its my favorite food here so far. I usually get the tahu bakar and tempe bakar (Baked tofu and baked tempe). This warong also serves plain steamed rice. Every other place we have eaten generally soaks all of their food in oil or fries everything, so it is nice to go somewhere and enjoy non greasy food.
Our local warong!



One thing that we did get to do that was really cool was visit this volcano in Bandung, Tangkuban Parahu. It was about an hour away (with a lot of traffic) and was at a really high elevation, so the temperature was really cool. Around about 25% of the volcano were these little stores and shops, selling everything from food and traditional handicrafts, to argyle sweaters and Kanye West shades. Here is a pic of the
Anyway, me and a couple of friends decided we were adventurous and were going to hike around the entire volcano. It took us about 30-45 minutes to get halfway around and thought we could do the rest, no problem. And so began a close to 3 hour hike around the other half of the volcano, complete with mountain climbing, walking through some jungles, avoiding wild dogs, and trying to scale a wall. the pictures below may help to detail our exact path. Now keep in mind that what is shown is maybe 15% of the amount that we actually hiked. All I can say is that we were pretty sore the next day.



Well, that's all for now. Yay to the stilllers for beating the eagles!

The Paris and Hollywood of Java

Bandung is a really interesting city and I am loving it so far. In my Lonely Planet Indonesia Guide Book, Bandung is referred to as the "Paris of Java." Some people have also said that it is like the Hollywood of Indonesia. Not sure how accurate those comparisons are, but the city is awesome. My free day yesterday was filled with a lot of adventures yesterday, mainly because I was trying really hard not to nap at all during the day in an attempt to get over the time difference.

Adventure 1:
A bunch of us did a morning walk around the city in the open market area. While at an ATM, we started talking to a friendly couple who wanted us to teach them English! There was another moment of recognition when I said the name of my city so that made me feel better too. We talked to them a lot about where exactly we should go in Bandung and they then offered to give us a ride in their car to one of the malls. However upon realizing we were rolling in a group of about eight, they quickly retracted their offer but they did give us directions on how to get to the markets.
View from hotel room:
Adventure 2:
A couple of ETAs and I decided we wanted to step away from the shopping district and try to find something else to do. However, Bandung is a huge textile city where people vacation to go shopping so this was slightly difficult. We ended up choosing the Governor's Mansion. The people working at the Hotel were like, "It is so far, you should take a cab, it will save you so much time!" Since we had the day off, the three of us decided to rough it and walk. A short 15 minutes later we arrived at our destination on foot, and we will now forever questions the estimating done by our hotel staff. The mansion was alright, though not a tourist spot at all -- we were quickly told that we couldn't take any pictures of it or go inside. We decided to take a different route back to the hotel and we ended up going through this complex of little houses and were followed by a gang of very cute little kids playing soccer. The alley kept getting narrower and narrower but we eventually made it out to the main road again.
These three were part of the group that followed us:

We then decided to walk towards this giant bookstore in the shopping district. The mall we went to was amazing and was complete with Body Shop, Adidas, and Gap. At the intersection of the mall there was a point where you could stand and see a KFC, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut all at the same time (global capitalism at its best). The mall was so crowded and was kind of a sight to see:


The journey home from the mall was a little bit crazy, mainly because we tried to follow the route that our bus had taken the day earlier. All I can say is that you should never try to walk the same path that a huge bus took. We ended up lost and walking around Bandung for another hour and a half. However, I think the experience was a positive one because it gave us all a chance to learn some Indonesian (kiri is left, karan is right, rouse is straight). We also learned how to ask a lot of questions in Indonesian but realized quickly that when you ask questions in Indonesian it can seem as if you will be able to understand what the person's answer will be. However we eventually made it back to the hotel and had dinner.

Adventure 3:
Although we were pretty tired when we came back, we decided to check out this lounge called Embassy because we thought the other ETAs were going to be there. The hotel staff seemed so excited when we mentioned it (at least a lot more excited than when we asked how to get to the Governor's mansion), so we hopped in a cab and went down there. The cover for the lounge included admittance and 1 drink. What were your options? A soft drink, beer, or shot of tequila. I have to admit, I kind of loved the "go big or go home" mentality of the place. When we got inside, we quickly realized we were the only people in the entire lounge and that there was a band playing tonight. What kind of band? An Indonesian Beatles cover band. There is no way I can explain the ridiculousness of sitting in a lounge in the middle of Indonesia, drinking an Indonesian beer, and listening to beatles music. The only word that comes to mind is surreal. By 11 o'clock people were starting to come in, however we quickly realized that no other ETAs were going to come, so after talking to some locals, we decided to call it a night.

So that was more or less my first day traveling Indonesia. I must say, everyone we have met has been so friendly! It's not uncommon to hear people shout "Selamat Jalan!" (Have a safe journey) to you as your walking on the sidewalks. I'm hoping I will receive this same treatment once I am on my own without any white people :)


Update:: a Popeye's has also been spotted.

Finally Arrived!

Hello all!

I am reporting live to you all from my hotel room in Bandung, West Java, my temporary home for the next three weeks. The journey was very, very long. To be honest, this is because all Fulbrighters are required to travel only on US airlines. And since no American airline flies straight from the US to Indonesia, it takes a little bit longer to get here. Therefore, for any other normal person who wanted to travel here, they could probably take a direct flight from LA or even Chicago to Jakarta, much more desirable then the Pittsburgh --> Chicago --> HongKong --> Singapore --> Jakarta route.

So a piece of my luggage was missing (how it became missing is another story in itself). There are about 5 of us that all have this same problem (some people are missing both pieces though). FYI, to get into the lost and found area of Singapore Airport once you have left the airport requires you to go to the Singapore Airport Police Station, lol.

Once we arrived in Jakarta, the AMINEF people met us as soon as we deboarded the plane and they pretty much walked us through every step of the operation. It was definitely nice not to have to wait in any lines for immigration and customs -- the AMINEF people just gave all of our stuff to the airport security people while we waited for luggage (Note: it can be very scary when people just take your passport and claim they'll take care of the paperwork for you....many of us were like "um, you think we'll get those back right?").

So the lost and found people in jakarta's airport were much more helpful than those in singapore's. Granted, this is probably because they had all of the AMINEF people demanding that they find everything fast, but they were still really nice. I think I had my first exciting moment in Indonesia with good old Deca from Lost and Found. While making copies of my baggage tags he was asking what we were all doing in Indonesia and where we'd be (I mean, we're a group of 30 Americans in there twentysomethings just being rushed through immigration and customs, I'd ask too). When I told him the name of the city I would be living in, I finally found the response of recognition and familiarity I had been looking for! Most people, even those that have been to Indonesia before, have no idea where my town is; it was nice to finally talk to people who had heard of it! According to Deca, its a great place, lol!

So after we left the Airport, we got on a bus that took us from Jakarta to Bandung. Most of us passed out for the majority of this trip, but it was about 5-6 hours long, making my entire trip close to 50 hours long. I will admit, it wasn't as bad as I though it would be. But it was kind of strange to arrive in our hotel yesterday and think, "oh my god, I don't have to leave this place tmr to travel somewhere else."

The good people at AMINEF gave us the rest of today off so we can just kind of take it easy before we get thrown into everything tmr. They also gave us our orientation schedules. Most of our days start with breakfast at around 6am (ouch) but they usually end pretty early and we have the nights to ourselves.

Now I am off to get some breakfast. Hope everyone back home is doing well!

At the airport...

The 40 hour journey has officially begun!!! I am blogging to you from the Pittsburgh Airport (which has free wireless if you use Internet Explorer, btw). Both suitcases are on their way and I am currently praying that they don't charge me later on because one suitcase weighed 54lbs and the other weighed 58lbs (only supposed to be 50lbs each). They didn't charge me in Pittsburgh, but the lady said I may get charged at some point because they are heavier. Does anyone know if they actualy do this?

Anyway, I have a lot of books and a lot of magazines (thanks Nitya!) so I will have a lot to do on the plane. Next time I blog I'll be abroad!!

One Day Left!

In exactly 24 hours my long journey to Indonesia begins! To clarify, I will be spending a whopping 23 hours aboard an aircraft carrier with an additional 20 hours in layovers***. My dad said that Singapore Airport has free WiFi (actually he pronounced it WeeFee) so I will probably be blogging from there during my long layovers. AMINEF arranged our flights in such a way that most of the ETAs meet up in Chicago or LA before boarding our 15 hour flight to Hong Kong (hopefully we all get along because that is a really long time!).

I finally finished packing my suitcases yesterday. Took a lot of rearranging to get them each under 50 pounds, but after a lot of repacking I was able to do it.

The rest of today will probably be spent eating a lot of my mom's food and watching a lot of trashy American television that I won't have abroad :(

T minus 24 hours!!!

***Update: My father promptly told me that an "Aircraft carrier is a HUGE SHIP that carries aircrafts." Furthermore, he warned me that if I don't fix the error soon my, "friends will laught at [me] if [I] write that [I'll] reach singapore in an aircraft carrier in 24 hours. It would take at least 24 days!!"
thanks dad.

Only 1 week left!

When I last blogged, there was still a pretty long laundry list of things that I needed to do and buy. Since then, the list has been dramatically shortened. Granted, I still need to get a lot (namely a year's supply of bug spray, lol) but all of the important things have been purchased (Note: I also got my visa...yay!).

Packing for a year in Indonesia is really difficult and can leave you feeling completely unprepared. Whereas typical relocations involve securing an apartment, signing a lease, buying coffeemakers and toasters, etc. this whole Indonesian move requires very little of me. For the most part, Fulbright and AMINEF are taking care of all of the details -- the flight, our accomodations in Indonesia, etc. This decision is definitely for the best, but believe me, it can leave you feeling like you have not adequately prepared for living abroad. However, we do have a pretty long orienation in Jakarta (3 weeks!), so I am hoping that by the end of that, I'll feel more prepared.

I leave for Jakarta in exactly a week. In fact, at this exact time next week I will be on the plane to Chicago!

Welcome!

Hey there everybody~

As this is my first foray into the world of blogging, please accept my apologies for the mistakes I am bound to make!

As most of you know, I will be living in Indonesia next year as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. Since I am still unsure about what kind of Internet connection I will have, I thought a blog would be the easiest way to keep everyone up to date on my shenanigans abroad....

To update everyone on what's happening right now, I just got my ticket from AMINEF (organization that handles all of our paperwork/itinerary/orientation/etc.) via e-mail and I will be leaving on July 31! I got from Pgh --> Chicago --> Hong Kong --> Singapore --> Jakarta. My orientation is in Jakarta where we brush up on our Indonesia (God help me), meet the other ETAs, and go over all of the information we will need to know.

Now I am off to DC to get my Indonesian visa (hoping there are no problems) and celebrate with Nitya and Mark!