Letter to Past Self

Dear Marisa,

I know you're confused about what's going to happen. You've spent the last week recovering from a cold that you caught on the plane home from Ecuador and letting Mom cook for you, and not thinking about important things, like packing or learning more Indonesian words than susu and selamat datang. Well, Marisa, I have a few things to tell you.

Don't bring shampoo from home. The shampoo here is made for Asian hair and it will make you look really pretty even though you don't have a hair dryer. I' don't want to be vain, I'm just saying, it's nice shampoo.

While we're talking about packing, don't bring those linen pants. I know that you think you'll look like a cool hippie, but the girls here are really fashionable and you'll hate wearing them. Also, there's a reason that the 70-year old cashier at Kohl's complimented that weirdly patterned shirt when you bought it. Think carefully. You're going to be in a lot (like seriously, a lot) of photos.

I know you're nervous about keeping up with the other people in the program. What if you're not as smart as them?! They come from all over the country and they study stuff that sounds like it belongs in a TV drama like Bones or whatever. Don't be ridiculous. You know how to study a language, and it's your favorite thing to do. Why would the state department let you come if you couldn't do it? Also, the other students are really nice. You're going to be really good friends with some of them.

Learn your way home the first week. Don't be dumb. It's not that hard and if you don't, the meatball guy will make fun of you for getting lost every day for the next two months.

Why do you think you will actually use a gym membership? Hahahahahaha

The mogu mogu drinks and the magnum black bar are the best snacks at Indomaret. Phoebe might tell you that corn flavored cheetos are delicious, but you will believe otherwise. Also, tell your Ibu the first day that you hate papaya or else you'll eat it after dinner most days. You might even start to secretly like it.

Singing class will feel like public humiliation class the first day, but it will become one of the best parts of your week.

In an attempt to be frugal, you will buy a bus ticket to Bali during Idul Fitri, the busiest time for traveling of the year. You will also agree to be one of four girls sleeping in a hostel room meant for two. Now I have to endure a one million hour bus ride. Maybe just pay for a plane ticket instead, if you have a chance.

Indonesian people want to be your friend. Don't wait til the last week to let it happen.

You'll get over the jet lag, you'll be sad sometimes, school will be hard but worth it. You'll be really happy a lot of the time. You'll be able to speak Indonesian, I promise. I know you feel like a sickly alien, but you're not. You're just a college lady who got a cool scholarship and who really likes pandan cake.

Love and good luck,
Semangat,
Marisa

Confused

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Moments

More than ceremonious adventures and self-discoveries (although there have been just a few of those), small but significant moments have defined my experience in Indonesia. Not a day has passed here without at least a few minutes of side-splitting laughter and passing thoughts of total gratitude for all of the love and thoughtfulness that I have been shown. Below is a list of a few such moments that make my heart happy.

1) Karaoke with my class
Other classes may believe otherwise, but I would argue that Kelas Musi is the closest group of students and teachers. Toward the beginning of the program, we all went to karaoke, and I saw a new side of our gurus. I'll never forget watching Mbak Nissa execute the rap from Nicki Minaj's Superbass flawlessy, seeing sweet Mbak Ayu knowing every word to a Sum 41 song, dancing with the girls while Mbak Niken sang Clarity, and cheering on a beautiful duet between Mariam and Mas Nanang. It seemed surreal, 4 pm in a dark room with a disco ball, french fries, and a seemingly exhaustive song selection.



2) Riding the angkot to school
My friend Phoebe lives across the street from me. Our host families are related, and basically everyone who lives on our street is related to each other. I ride the angkot (think of the tiniest city bus you can imagine. A bus for leprechauns) with Phoebe everyday and I've been so appreciative our conversations and her company. I also appreciate that she is always as enthusiastic as I am to stop at Indomaret for snacks before class. One of my favorite moments while walking to school was when a massive iguana was perched on a low-hanging branch right in front of our faces and it terrified us.



3) Alone at music class
Each week, we attend elective cultural classes. A lot of people only attend one, but I attend two, singing class and gamelan class. Once, I was the only one who went to singing class. I sang the same three songs over and over again for about an hour. Mas Rizal, one of the communication and design students who takes lots photos of us to send to the state department, came to class to take photos of us (read: only me) and I got him to sing with me. I really enjoyed that moment because I know he didn't want to, but he did anyway. He also showed me cooler Indonesian music after that.

4) Lame high five
Mbak Mariam and I have created this really lame high five where your hand goes all floppy when it meets the other hand, and we've been teaching it to all of our Indonesian friends



5) Gossiping with my tutors
It's one of our favorite activities, after studying and eating, of course.
P.S. Mbak Tyas dan Mbak Ririn.. kalian tutor paling baik dan paling cantik di antara dunia!

A tutorial session at a cool museum :)

6) Breaking fast at Pak Gatut's house
This was a beautiful night, with all of the teachers and students eating together at Pak Gatut's, the resident director's,  home. I played with a cat, did trust falls with my fellow former RA  and dear friend Mariam, and taught the game Concentration to Indonesian friends. For a moment, I felt like I was hanging out with my friends in Columbus. Another special moment that night was when Pak Gatut gave me a Thai-Indonesian dictionary that he bought for me while he visited Bangkok the week before. It was one of the most thoughtful things someone has done for me.

The party!

7) Being Margarethe's roommate
We've been hotel roommates twice, and because we both grew up as only children, we understand each other that way. We always sleep soundly and joke about how selfish we are (we once were the only people sitting on a couch in a room of 30 people sitting on the floor). We also hear our wacky friends in the next room not sleeping soundly and yelling about bugs or free sarongs.

Margarethe and I!

8) Singing 
I've had to sing A LOT here, despite that fact that I really don't know how. The night before we climbed Mt. Bromo, some of the Indonesian guys were playing guitar and singing, and invited us to sing along. Because we were in a village, the stars were really clear, and for the first time, we were all bundled up in sweaters. We sang some Bob Marley songs, which made me miss my dad. "Is This Love" is one of my favorites and we sang it together that night.

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A Weekend in Yogyakarta

During our only free weekend here in Indonesia aside from our first weekend, which I chose to use for jetlag recovery, my friends and I booked a trip to the cultural center of Java, Yogyakarta. Although we enjoy life in the education city of Malang, we were certainly excited to see a new city. Little did I know (because I let my friends do all of the research and planning – thanks Mariam, I know you’re the only one who reads this), Yogyakarta is a super neat city with two of the most beautiful temples in the world, signs written in Javanese script that we can’t understand, and lots and lots of reasonably priced oleh-oleh (e.g. batik!)

After a very long car ride (10 hours) and a comfortable sleep in a hotel, my six friends and I (yes, I have six friends! Six!!) went to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen with my eyes, Borobudor. Borobudor is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, and many of the Buddhists in Yogyakarta go to Borobudor for celebrations, such as “Buddha’s Birthday” in May.

From what I understand from Wikipedia, Borobudor is shaped as a mandala and is meant to be walked through in a certain manner because of the Buddhist tradition to meditate using a mandala and also because the carvings in the walls tell the story of the Buddha. There were Buddha statues seemingly everywhere, many of which no longer had heads, and every stone seemed to be so meticulously placed. My favorite photos I’ve taken during my time here come from Borobudor.

Two of many headless Buddhas

Cool Friends

Stone Carvings that tell a story

I had a conversation with my mom about the temple that night, and I mentioned to her how grand it was and how I thought that it was probably made by slaves. In May, I was at Incapirca, the beautiful Incan ruin in Ecuador, and I remembered that our tour guide Ami, a rare vegetarian naturalist Ecuadorian woman, spoke about how ironic is was that something so beautiful could be made on the backs of miserable slaves; as we all know, many or most of the world’s man-made wonders were made this way. However, my mom replied that Buddhist temples and other places of worship were always made by Buddhists who believed that building the structure would help them in their next life. It made the experience even more beautiful for me.

Incapirca

Borobudor

Later that day, we ate lunch on top of a large koi pond (Thanks for the lunch Matt and Mike!) and then we made an underwhelming stop at the sultan’s palace Kraton. The most delightful part of the day was when Mariam walked through two trees which she believed to be these two trees that make all your dreams come true if you can walk through them blindfolded. They were the wrong ones.

We ended the day at Jalan Malioboro, a street filled with shopping (e.g. batik) and becaks (a little too small for our Western hip widths). I got some gifts for my friends and family at Mirota, a beautiful three-story batik store. Jalan Malioboro was well lit and really lively at night, a sort of street that doesn’t really exist in Malang. It reminded me of an Indonesian version of Kao San Road in Thailand: lively, saturated with Australian tourists, but with more conservative clothing and without all of the alcohol. We stayed out until 8:30 p.m., planned on “going out” (read: going to a convenience store and buying juice), but we got too tired and immediately fell asleep. My friends make jokes about it, but it’s not too far off from my college life, and I’m enjoying it.

At the Kraton. I love this picture because we look diverse and Margarethe had a great face.

Koi Pond restaurant

Mariam walking with her eyes closed through the wrong trees

We ended our time in Yogyakarta the next day at Candi Prambanan, a beautiful Hindu temple complex. Although Borobudor was obviously my favorite, as it was one of my favorite places ever, Prambanan was also incredible. We also ran into a bunch of Thai tourists, one of which who spoke English to me in a thick Thai accent, and it made me miss my mom. While we were there, we were interviewed by some students for their English class, and they were really surprised that we spoke Bahasa Indonesia. I really enjoy being able to surprise people by speaking their language, even though I am certainly still getting the hang of it. It was a fun exchange, and we snapped a photo at the end.

Pretty ladies in Prambanan

Prambanan

This weekend was our first chance to explore more of this complex country, where even a city nearby on the same island is completely different.

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Bahasa Indonesia

Halo teman saya!

Terima kasih untuk membaca blog saya.

Although I've been able to see many beautiful sights in Malang, I spend most of my time (Monday-Friday, 8-1 and elective class or tutor session until 4) in class in order to learn Bahasa Indonesia. I'm going to share a homework assignment that I did recently to show how much improvement I've made (read: I knew nothing when I got here)!

Malang, 10 Juli 2014

Kepada Yth. 

Walikota Malang

Di tempat 

Salam hormat untuk bapak walikota 

Salam kenal sebelumnya, Pak. Saya Marisa Lally.

Dalam surat ini, saya menulis tentang masalah yang di kota Malang yaitu pengemis. Saya sering melihat pengemis dekat alun-alun dan lampu merah. Saya berpikir bawah pemerintah sebaiknya memberikan pelatihan kepada pengemis agar mereka bisa bekerja, daripada mengemis. Lebih baik kalau tidak ada banyak pengemis di tempat umum karena semua pengunjung menjadi terganggu.

Terima kasih karena sudah membaca surat ini. Semoga pengemis di kota Malang tidak semakin banyak.

Marisa

This assignment was to write a letter to the mayor of Malang about a problem Malang. I wrote about the beggar situation, in which many homeless people ask for money in public places, like at parks and stoplights My suggested solution was to create jobs for the pengemis in order to keep them from populating public spaces. Unfortunately, it's a much more complex issue than that, as it is in the U.S. For example, many beggars make a lot of money per day and would not be willing to take a government job, and many of them are children who are not attending school and are sent to beg by their parents. In any case, I am happy that I'm able to learn and discuss topics like these in Indonesian after only five weeks of study. Although there are always challenges, which are expected when learning a new language, discussions and assignments like these feel like accomplishments.

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My favorite weekend / Akhir Minggu Favorit Saya

When I reflect on this weekend, I realize (again) how fortunate I am to be in Indonesia. Although I've experienced my fair share of homesickness, a little physical sickness, and certainly a sickness of studying, the past few days will ensure that I look back on my time here positively.

On Friday, after a tenuous week of class, we celebrated one of my favorite holidays, America's Independence Day (a close third after Christmas and Thanksgiving, in that order)! While I have always enjoyed learning about American history and I am rather patriotic for a person with two nations, I enjoy the 4th because it brings back specific memories. I've spent most of my years on this date at the Marion county fair, watching fireworks and eating sno cones with my parents and fellow carnies (I miss and love you all!).

This year, however, was a little different. Instead of class, we enjoyed a series of relay races in the morning and a super fun performance in the evening.  Each class prepared something; my class performed a rap battle between the students, who complained that there is too much homework,  and the gurus,  who claim that we need to do homework to improve. It was a blast. One of my favorite moments of the evening, though, was when the CLS students sang the Indonesian national anthem and the tutors and teachers sang the U.S. national anthem. During our orientation, a professor explained to us that we are "citizen ambassadors," and that moment I felt especially so.

My teachers at our final rehearsal before our rap performance!

These are my awesome tutors! The sign says "Happy 238th birthday America's Independence!"

Saturday, all of the students went on an outing to Batu, a city near Malang. We spent the morning in a guava and orange orchard, where we enjoyed picking fruits and wearing large hats. We also encountered goats that looked like aliens. I loved every minute of it. Then, we went to the house of a successful Indonesian artist who lived on the property  of the orchard. His house was beautiful and open,  and he displayed his art on the brick walls. We had the opportunity to paint a small canvas and it was very relaxing. I painted a flowering tree. After lunch, we went to a gorgeous waterfall,  where we felt cold for the first time since we arrived. It was exhilarating.  There were also monkeys swinging from nearby trees. That night, I enjoyed some "American" food (e.g. pizza with ketchup for sauce) and good conversations as always with my friends from class Mariam and Margarethe. 

Alien goat!

 

Nongkrong at the Kabun Jeruk

A painting in the artist's house

Art!

My class at the waterfall!

Sunday, we had a free day (!!!). We went to our favourite coffee shop (My Kopi-O: Everything is favourite!) to study for our big midterm (e.g. enjoy wifi and skype family and friends). I also got a little adventurous and got a haircut! When she asked me what I wanted done to it (I think), I said "Terserah yang bagus" which I believe to means "whatever's good," but I'm still unsure if that's grammatically correct. I didn't speak for the rest if the process. At first I was worried because she was cutting A LOT of hair from the front, but it feels great and I am really happy with the result! When berbuka puasa, or breaking fast, rolled around,  I enjoyed a lovely meal at a restoran ayam goreng with my Ibu kos and her son's family.

It's been a great weekend and I am feeling really grateful.

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