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.
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| My teachers at our final rehearsal before our rap performance! |
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| 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.
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| Alien goat! |
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| Nongkrong at the Kabun Jeruk |
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| A painting in the artist's house |
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| Art! |
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| 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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