Spring Break So Far (In pictures)

(the end of quarter 3 – potluck lunch. you ain’t never had a potluck til you’ve had an international potluck. this is 1 of 3 tables!)

(one of the guards found a walking stick! or, as he called it in indonesian, a wooden grasshopper that is alive!”)

(boyfriend graduated! here’s the whole family, minus one brother-in-law. i fit right in, right?)

(my favorite indonesian drink, es jeruk. you squeeze 2 not-quite-ripe oranges in the bottom of a glass, add lots of ice, and fill it to the top with water. then add a ton of sugar. there is more than a cm of sugar in the bottom of this one! i’m going to get diabetes from drinking these one day.)

(tempe with green sambal (hot sauce) on top. mmm... a favorite!)

(we spent 12 hours in semarang on monday buying toiletries, school supplies, and books for the 31 children in the sponsor a child program, then packaging and delivering them. for just over $200, we were able to get SOOOO much stuff! it was fun shopping!)

(making individual bags for each child)

(bags for 31 kids, tagged and ready to be delivered)

(my breakfast this morning – toasted brown sugar cinnamon poptarts with REAL butter (not lard dyed yellow) melted on top, fruit loops with FRESH milk (not milk from a cardboard box), and a glass of orange juice with pulp!! i am so spoiled sometimes...)

(some sights still amaze me after 3 years. yes, horse and buggy is still a popular way to get around. in fact, it’s one of the main modes of public transportation!)

(we drove to grabag today, a town about an hour away over the mountain. the remainder of these pictures were taken from the back of a motorbike. this is the new toll road. i love it because hardly anybody uses it, and it is WAY faster than darting for your life through the other roads riddled with hell-bent bus drivers, horses and buggies, rickshaws, potholes big enough to swallow a small child, and elleventy jillion other motorbikes.)

(i’m so glad the government is paying so much money for this new road. people really are making the most of it. i mean, before, this guy would have had to walk on a jungle path to get this grass to his cow.)

(i love the mountain roads! so much fresh air to be found out of town, away from the hustle and bustle that is southern asia.)

(this might actually be the cutest little village mosque i’ve ever seen!)

(i did not edit the color of this photo. indonesia REALLY is that green.)

(looking toward merapi)

(again, no edit on the color. today was making me really happy. i haven’t seen so much sun and blue sky for so long!)

(the little corner station where we stopped to fill up. and i can’t fail to mention the pink banner in the background advertising something called “special iced cowboy”. i am soooo curious about that one.)

(please. if you’re not jealous of my life right now, raise your hand. nobody? thought so. hehe....)

(i thought we might run into some rain coming back over the mountain (on the way home), but thankfully we never did.)

(either they were expecting rain as well or they were trying to stay out of the sun. usually village ladies aren’t so given to luxury...)

(the biggest one always rides on the back and holds on to the smaller ones in the middle. unspoken rules of the road.)

(beware of pedestrians doing the robot.)

(one of my all time favorite street signs. morbidly obese hunchback crossing ahead. ironic given where i live...)

(on the way home, i see that people are still using the toll road wisely.)

(elections are coming!)

(apparently, thieves are coming too. they’ve been hanging banners like this all over my neighborhood. this particular one closest to my house says, “warning, thieves are getting desperate. don’t let a person you don’t know with whatever reason enter your home.”)

so there’s the first 4 days of spring break. tomorrow, i’m off to bandung by train with the junior class – factory outlet capitol of indonesia. american eagle jeans for $7? yes, please!

No worries

To my friends and family in America waking up and hearing about the earthquake/tsunami in Japan: Yes, the tsunami is headed my way. No, I am not in any danger. Pleasepleaseplease pray for those who are. This quake was a magnitude 8.9. The one in 2004 that killed thousands was 9.0. Reports that I've heard so far say the wave is 12 meters (40 feet) high. It was expected to hit Papua and Sulawesi within this hour. Since I don't have TV, I haven't yet heard reports on that. Just keep us in your prayers... Thanks!

one of those days...

so there's this one 10th grader that i meet with twice a week after school (assuming he shows up) for geometry help. the funny thing is that his mom (verrrrry asian) always asks other people to ask me to help her son. about once a week the school registar asks me if i can meet with the kid. earlier today, i happened to run into one of the indonesian ladies who works in the payroll office, and right there in the bathroom, SHE asked me if i'd tutor the kid. does his mother not understand that I ALREADY TUTOR HIM?!? siiiigh. i can't tutor him more than twice a week, partly because my life is insanely busy and also partly because if i tutored him more than twice a week i'd go crazy. i kept track of our conversation during our tutoring session today. it goes as follows.

(preface - this student comes to these tutoring sessions with the expectation that i will bend over backwards for him and give him the answers to everything because his parents pay a lot of money for him to go to this school. so i basically do my best to NOT do that. not that i won't help him, but i'm not going to spoon feed him the answers to his homework. if he asks a question, i help him work through it. i don't just give him the answer. this tends to aggravate him. so with that intro to my mindset, read on...)

*long silence as he stares at the book*
me: what problem are you working on?
student: i'm kind of stuck.
me: which number?
student: 16.
me: ok. what do the instructions say?
student: i don't have enough information.
me: what does the problem say?
student: the altitude is 9.
me: the altitude of what?
student: the triangle.
me: and what else?
student: that's all i'm given.
me: well, what are you asked to do?
student: uhmmmm…… oh, find the area of the triangle.
me: so what other information are you given?
student: none!
me: bring me your book.
*student brings book - we are sitting in different places in my classroom*
problem says: the altitude of an equilateral triangle is 9. find the area of the triangle.
me: ok, so you know it's an equilateral triangle.
student: i guess.
me: what's special about an equilateral triangle?
student: i don't know.
me: better look it up then.
*student rolls eyes, gives a deep sigh, and takes his book back to his desk. another long pause*
me: so did you find it?
student: opposite angles are congruent.
me: it's a triangle… it doesn't have any opposite angles.
student: fine.
me: what do you know about its sides?
student: it has three.
me: right… and what's special about the sides of an EQUAL-lateral triangle?
student: they're equal?
me: right! and every equilateral triangle is an isosceles triangle too, right?
student: i guess.
me: ok, and what is special about the altitude of an isosceles triangle. (i know he knows this because i've beaten it into his head.)
student: it bisects the base perpendicularly.
me: right! so if every equilateral triangle is an isosceles triangle, and the altitude of an isosceles triangle bisects the base, what do you know about the altitude of THIS triangle?
student: it's 9.
me: ok, but what else do you know about it?
student: nothing. i don't know.
me: what is every equilateral triangle?
student: i forget.
me: isosceles.
student: oh.
me: and what is true about the altitude of an isosceles triangle?
student: it bisects the base.
me: so what do you know about this triangle and its altitude?
student: i don't know.
me: ok. keep trying. (starting to get exasperated, and turning back to my work.)
student: (thinks for a second) it bisects the base.
me: mmhmm. ok, so let the length of each side be x since you don't know how long they are, but you DO know that they're all the same.
student: ok. (draws a picture to represent it)
me: and since you have that altitude drawn right down the middle, now you have 2 smaller right triangles. so let's just think of one of those triangles first. the hypotenuse is one of the sides of the equilateral triangle, so it's how long?
student: x.
me: and how long is the base of that right triangle?
student: x.
me: no, remember we're only looking at half of the big triangle.
student: 2x?
me: no… what is half of x?
student: i don't know. what's x?
me: you don't know x. that's why you're using a variable. how would you write half of x?
student: 1/2x.
me: ok. so now use the pythagorean theorem to find x. then you'll have the length of all the sides!
student: ok.
*goes back to desk. 10 minutes later comes back*
student: i don’t know what to do next.
me: which number are you on?
student: 16 still.
me: ok… where are you stuck at?
student: the pythagorean theorem.
me: well, what do you have?
student: 81 plus half of x squared equals x squared.
me: right.
student: what do i do next?
me: solve for x.
student: oh. right.
*goes back to desk. several minutes later….*
student: how do i solve for x?
me: just like any equation, get x on one side and everything else on the other side.
student: how do i get x on one side?
me: what do you have?
student: same as before.
me: well, square the half x first.
student: so it's just x.
me: uhm… no… what is one-half x squared? remember the one-half x is in parentheses.
student: yeah, i know. it's x.
me: no… i think you're taking one-half x times two. remember that squared means you multiply it by itself. so one-half x times one-half x.
student: so it's x?
me: no. still no. what is one-half times one-half?
*student doodles on paper for a minute or two*
student: one-fourth.
me: ok. and x times x?
student: 2x.
me: nope.
student: x squared.
me: yes. so one-half x squared is…
student: x squared.
me: don't forget about the one-fourth.
student: one-fourth x squared.
me: ok. now subtract that from both sides.
student: how?
me: how do you subtract?
student: i don't know.
me: write out your equation.
student: (writes) ok. now what?
me: subtract one-fourth x squared from both sides. write it.
student: ok. so i have 81 equals x squared minus one-fourth x squared. now what?
me: simplify. what is x squared minus one-fourth x squared?
student: i don't know.
me: what is one x squared minus one-fourth x squared?
student: hold on.
*student works for awhile*
me: ok, so what do you have now? what did you get for x?
student: root 108.
me: great! so now you can use that to find the area of the triangle.
student: how?
me: well, that tells you each side of the equilateral triangle since you let one side be x before and you just solved for x.
student: oh.
me: so what is the length of the base?
student: half of root 108.
me: noooo… what is x?
student: root 108.
me: so what is the length of the base?
student: half of root 108.
me: still no. look at your drawing. the base is x. you just solved for x. what is x?
student: root 108.
me: right. so how long is the base?
student: root 108.
me: good. and what is the height?
student: the altitude. 9.
me: good. and how do you find the area of a triangle?
student: half base times height.
me: right. so do it.
*student grabs calculator*
me: don't forget that your answer needs to be in square root form…
student: i know.
*continues punching values into his calculator, thus getting a bunch of messy decimals*
me: you can't use your calculator to get square root form…
student: i said i know. i heard you the first time.
*continues with the calculator. i am speechless. why am i doing this again?*

ps - it took us 45 minutes to get through one problem in this fashion. maybe that's why his mom keeps asking other people to ask me to help him.

compilation

sometimes i go for stretches where i snap a few pictures randomly here and there then forget about them in the dark recesses of my memory card. then i stick it into my computer and get to relive all those random moments. so here they are...

i got a BIG bag of doritos in the mail a couple weeks ago. i can say with 100% sureness that this is my most missed american food. this whole bag was gone in like 2 days. i stink at rationing things.

i found this one ant hauling a dead beetle around outside my classroom door one day. the ants here always remind me why King Solomon wrote about them.

boy cat is so cute that i sometimes let him sleep in my $15 chair.

see all the scarves i’ve knitted but haven’t given away yet? i’m running out of friends to give them to.

gotta love it when students leave me artwork.

ok, so these next several pictures were taken a week ago while driving through muntilan, one of the refugee areas while merapi was erupting. the ash is pretty much gone, but now they’re having trouble with mudslides coming down from the mountain.

the palm trees all still look sad and broken from the weight of the ash.

the mudslide was powerful enough to knock out the back walls of most buildings, and the mud, rocks, and debris just rushed right through them and out the front. this road was just recently reopened. i’m amazed it’s still there in some places...

i saw LOTS of rocks the size of cars or bigger. they’ve been using plows to scrape off the roads, and dump trucks are hauling stuff away.

this whole area was covered in that much mud a few weeks ago. these pictures don’t even do justice.

this area was near the edge of the mudslide area. it’s looking pretty cleared. it started pouring down rain right after we passed through, and i heard the next day that another mudslide went through not long after we did.

this many more days til spring break!!!

i have been so busy and stressed lately that i haven’t even taken time to cut my nails. they are driving me crazy. i don’t think they’ve ever been this long in my life. no joke.

oh, thank goodness my toothpaste is halal... because i like to eat it?

and speaking of toothpaste, a shout out to ibu sharon who read on my blog about my toothpaste plight and brought me a WHOLE tube of crest last night!! she saves the day. memang istri yang baik.  : )

i found out recently that aswan has NEVER seen any of the indiana jones movies before. needless to say, i was mortified. so i found two of the three (i don’t really count the  new one. i think it’s obvious why) in semarang at the movie store and bought them. we watched temple of doom last night and he LOVED it. that’s good, because this could have been a deal breaker. ; )

we’ve spent about 3 weeks on visa stuff, and it’s just starting to get REALLY discouraging and stressful. we FINALLY finished the application, but now we have a whole list of other things we have to do. time is running out and it feels insurmountable. i know it’s in God’s hands, but trying to get all the required things done is just overwhelming. we would DEFINITELY appreciate prayers!

here’s 2 more pictures to leave you with. screenshots of the actual visa application we had to fill out. ironically, these were the 2 easiest pages of the whole thing!

oh, and i got 100% in my first session of TESOL. score!  : )

dreams come true. almost.

saturday night i was having bizarre dreams about import stores and going crazy buying stuff in them. then there was also the part where the owner of one store invited me to eat dinner with her. she was indonesian, but she cooked jambalaya (i think i can safely thank em for this element of my dream) and i sat at her dining room table and ate it with josiah seigel. just the two of us.

so sunday comes, and after church aswan and i had an awesome grilled chicken lunch in a rice field with aldi and sally (second double date: success) and we headed to semarang. i wanted to go to hypermart, which is like indonesian wal-mart, kind of, to get some colgate, because i am about to die of indonesian toothpaste. so i found a small tube for a lot of money and was about to head out the door when something unusual caught my eye - a display case of half gallon cartons of juice. IMPORTED juice. BLUEBERRY juice. CRANBERRY juice. STRAWBERRY juice. i bought one of each. no sugar added. in this country where they put sugar in their ramen. NO SUGAR ADDED. bliss.

then we went to the korean imports store and bought 2 cans of peaches. now that i know about that place, i WILL eat peaches in indonesia. hallelujah.

catching up

You make beautiful things,
You make beautiful things out of the dust,
You make beautiful things,
You make beautiful things out of us.
- Favorite song of the week

Last night was my first ever successful Indonesian double date! In fact, it was my first ever Indonesian double date, period. I'm thankful it was successful, because I was kind of nervous. Our date was with a younger married couple at our church, Aldi and Sally. They've been married for 2 years now and have a beautiful 5 month old daughter, Amadea. We met at a restaurant famous for their cheese cappucino. Siiiiiick. Lucky for me, I AM sick, so when they insisted I try it, I really couldn't taste much. Seriously, a cappucino with a scoop of ice cream and cheese grated over the top. And by cheese, I mean Kraft cheese, because that is the only cheese Indonesians know. Anyways, I never knew Aldi and Sally besides quick greetings at church, but they are absolutely great. Turns out Aldi has a degree in English, which put me a lot more at ease knowing that if I ran out of Indonesian and had to revert to my native language, I would still be understood. But I didn't run out, and I was able to keep up with the conversation for the entire 2 hours we were together! (A big WAHOO!!) We chatted a lot, and they shared with us a lot of their joys and struggles in being married. I think my favorite part was when Aldi confessed that the morning after their wedding, he woke up and started screaming, because he couldn't figure out why someone else was in his bed - in his half awake state, he had actually forgotten that he'd gotten married the day before. Poor Sally said she was so confused about why her new husband was screaming at her! They were very open and honest, which was refreshing. Indonesians have a tendency to keep up appearances and show the good, hide the bad. They made themselves available to us for basically whatever we need. They wanna help us out and support us as we negotiate this whole cross cultural relationship thing. We for sure have plans to double date again soon!

Third thing on the mental list of what to write about - the amazingness of the Body of Christ. Last semester, I led a service trip of about 15 students to a local village (within Salatiga). I don't think I ever wrote about it, and I don't really know why. A lot of the people from this village go to my church, so I have ties there. I'd been there a few times before the trip, and being there just breaks my heart. It's only about 5 minutes from school, but it's hidden down in a ravine, so most people wouldn't know it's there. The land is rented to the people who live there for $15/year with the agreement that they can't build permament structures. So most of them throw up some woven grass mats for walls and a leaky tarp for a roof. Some of the houses are falling down, and of the 31 kids in this village, only a few can afford to buy shoes or go to school. There are 11 "households" there, most of whom would be homeless if they didn't live here, and of those 11, 7 are Christian and 4 are Muslim. Something I really tried to instill in the kids I took on the trip was that no matter how poor or rich we think we are, we have so much more than them. They are our brothers and sisters, regardless of religion, and it is our responsibility to help when we are able to help. If we don't, who will?

We had a very successful day. We hauled 25 big black garbage bags of trash out of that village. Those kids got down and dirty and the village kids chipped in. We cut grass and made the village pretty. We raised money to distribute toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, school supplies, books, and secondhand clothing to each household. We made crafts and played soccer with the kids. And I saw my students' hearts break as they connected with the people in this village.

Fast forward 2 months to November. Four students, three of whom went on the trip to the village, decided they wanted to start a sponsor a child program to help the kids in that village. They didn't want to serve for only a day and leave it at that. They had a deep desire to make sure that those kids were provided for. After about a month of talking and planning, we nailed some things down. The students recruited sponsors for rp50.000/month (about $5). The money comes to me, and Aswan and I do the shopping for the kids. Whatever we buy for them goes through my church and is distributed to each child and their family.

We set it up this way because we want to remain anonymous. We don't want the people in the village to know that white people are behind this. We don't want them to get in the mindset of seeing white people as an easy handout. We got a guy from my church who is really involved in leading Bible studies and other ministies in the village (Pak Marno) on board. He and his wife are sworn to secrecy but will be doing the distributing.

Unfortunately, no records were kept initially about who was sponsoring what child so there was some confusion when only about half the people paid for January. And we were originally told that 26 kids lived in the village. But then we found out that 3 of those kids DON'T live in the village, but oh - here's 8 more who do. Yes, sometimes working with Indonesians is frustrating. Organization is not their strong suit. It took us awhile to get it all sorted out and to have a valid working system for money coming in and records being kept, but we FINALLY have it all up and running.

First order of business was to buy a proper pair of shoes for each child. We found a store in town willing to work with us. We explained our dilemma to the owner - we need to buy shoes for 31 school children, but we don't know what style they like or what size they wear. Also, we can't give any money to their families because we know they won't manage it well, and they can't know where the money came from. The lady who owns the store got really into helping us plan this. As it turns out, she's a Christian and when she realized what we were doing, she also decided to give all 31 kids a substantial discount - enough to buy a NICE pair of shoes! We made up vouchers for each child with their name on it and we gave a list of all the names to the store owner so she knows who to expect (and so she can match the name on the voucher to the name on the list). Vouchers were distributed in the village at a Bible study last night, and families have until Monday to go to this store and buy their shoes.

Through this all, it has been AMAZING to see everyone come together on this. I am so impressed by the students who decided to head this up. And the response and the willingness from our school community - Americans, Koreans, Indonesians, Chinese, Germans, and Indians - has been huge. Our Indonesian church is SO excited to be able to do their part in the process. They've also done a huge amount in helping us organize everything and get numbers nailed down. But then when I saw the excitement in the store owner as she thought of ways she could help, it really hit me - this IS the Body of Christ. And this is beautiful.

don't you just hate it when...

... you go to blow your nose and you put the tissue over your face, give a good blow, and snot immediately fills up the ENTIRE tissue and comes flying out the bottom of the issue all over your chin and down your neck before you even realize what is happening?

while you're at work.

but luckily you don't think it's polite to blow your nose in public, so at least you went to the bathroom to do it.

and at least after you wash yourself off in the girl's bathroom sink, you actually feel kinda refreshed having gotten that half a gallon of snot out of your head.

on another good note, i was too busy on tuesday to go buy the heavy antibiotics the nurse prescribed or schedule a chest x-ray, so i just didn't. and i woke up wednesday feeling MUCH better. still a tiny bit rattly in the lungs, but minimally so. minimally enough that i decided to ignore all medical advice and just wait and see. this morning i woke up with no chest rattle at all, which is amazing given that every breath for the last 5 days sounded like a bulldozer stuck in the mud. thanks for prayers!

the indonesian medical system: successfully avoided, once again.

these are the days

TO DO

1. Be ready for each new day of the next 2 weeks of teaching. 3 tests to write, numerous worksheets, daily grading, plus everyday lessons for 4 classes. But then we have spring break!

2. Pull off a charity concert Saturday. Practice went so-so today. And that was our ONLY practice. I have 14 acts, all requiring different setups, a stage/sound/lights crew, plus a group of moms who are donating baked goods to sell to manage. We’ve got a good team though. We’re getting there.

3. Six TESOL activities + online discussions. And three final projects all due this week. But then I get a month break before the next 6 week session starts.

4. Buy shoes for 31 kids for the Sponsor-A-Child program that Aswan and I are heading up. Find sponsors for 6 more kids.

5. Finish applying for Aswan’s visa and pray we get an interview at the embassy during my spring break so we can go together.

6. Buy train tickets to Surabaya and Bandung.

7. Go get antibiotics and possibly a chest x-ray because the school nurse thinks I’m getting pneumonia.

no good

whatever is in my lungs has decided to make itself at home... and so today was just one of those days where you feel incredibly gross and don’t want to do anything but lay on the couch and alternately sleep and watch movies. except for every time you try to sleep, you are woken up by coughing or not being able to breathe. and eventually you develop a headache. then you take 1200 mg of mucinex and you get really dizzy and your eyes won’t focus on anything, but you’re trying to finish the last 3 tasks of the week for your online class. and you never get hungry, but you force yourself to eat some rice at about 3 o’clock just because you know you should eat. and then your next door neighbor hosts a dinner party with about q09825w7t698q065t people attending and they are really noisy. and then you get cranky and realize that everything hurts. your neck, your ankles, your lower back, your left knee, your entire face, and your pancreas.

did you ever have one of those days?

i hope tomorrow is NOT one of those days. i have to lead worship for white people church at 10... and we have no school on monday. and i would like to enjoy it. first day off since christmas and last day off until spring break. also, last time we had a random day off like this, i got food poisoning.

life isn’t fair, right, mom?

things you don't want to hear...

it is never a good thing when you go to the school nurse and ask her to listen to your lungs, and upon sticking the stethoscope to your back and telling you to inhale and exhale, the first words out of her mouth are, "oh, my gosh..." followed by, "oh, that sounds really bad".

basically, i have gunk in my lungs, and if i don't get it out (and quick) i will be stuck with pneumonia. unfortunately, i have coughed my throat raw and nothing is coming out. but i make awesome sounds when i breathe!

but there's an upside (no, making awesome sounds when i breathe was NOT the upside). one of the many homeless people (aka backpackers, visitors from abroad, and a variety of other friends) who stayed in my house near the end of last year just "happened" to leave some Mucinex expectorant in my medicine cabinet. score. so i have 4 of those horse pills to ration out as i pray that it's enough to get out whatever it is i have in my lungs!

I apparently need to get more fat

my FAVORITE black v-neck shirt has been missing for about a week and a half now. can you say disaster? since we share a helper who does laundry for all 3 of us, i checked with my 2 neighbors to see if my shirt somehow got mixed in with their laundry. they both searched their lemaris (wardrobes) and found only things belonging to them. except for martha found a pair of black spandex leggings that we have no clue who they belong to... odd.

in this process, i noticed that both my neighbors had unmade beds. and i asked them both, "doesn't ibu sri make your bed?" they both replied in the negative and asked me, "does she make YOURS?!" yup. every day. crisp and tidy with the comforter turned down. obviously, i am her favorite. (just kidding. but now this is a mystery. how come she makes my bed but not theirs??)

since the shirt never turned up, i left a note this morning asking ibu sri if maybe she had seen it, complete with a sketch. when she delivered our lunch to school, she stopped by my classroom to chat. translated, our conversation went something like this.

ibu: excuse me?
me: oh, ibu! please, come in!
ibu: thank you!
me: how are you?
ibu: stressed!
me: oh, no! why?
ibu: i've been trying to find your shirt!
me: oh, i'm sorry, ibu! if you don't know where it is, don't stress out about it.
ibu: oh, it's ok. i already found it.
me: really?? where?
ibu: in martha's lemari.
me: haha... that's funny.
ibu: why?
me: because yesterday martha looked through her whole lemari and didn't find it.
ibu: well, that's probably why it was so messy then. and your shirt is little. like a sock. it was hard to find.

bahaha... ibu always comments on my weight and how i'm smaller than both my neighbors. this one really cracked me up though! "your shirt is little. like a sock."

oh...

and the snake has a new permanent home in a giant cage in the back yard of the girls dorm. the tape came off its eyes without incident. and it will spend the next week or two digesting 2 very fuzzy rabbits, much to the dismay of some. we are also sending around a petition to change our school from the mountainview eagles to the mountainview pythons.

toothpaste

it's a bad morning when you finally realize the reason your toothpaste makes you gag every day is because it reminds you of the smell of goat afterbirth.

on a completely unrelated note, i HATE indonesian toothpaste with a fiery passion.

ular update

so here's the story. one of the guards was patrolling by the soccer field next to my house in the wee hours of the morning. he found the giant snake and radioed for backup. pak kur and pak sariman came. with a broom. pak kur got bit. but it didn't leave too big of a mark. after they caught it, they wrapped electrical tape around its snout to keep it from biting anything else.

school decided to keep the beast. all 10 feet, 20 pounds of it. in the dorm. the GIRLS dorm of all places. they're building a cage for it.

but last i heard, the tape around its snout had somehow slid up and over its eyes, so now there's concern that if they remove the tape, it could blind the snake.

stay tuned for updates.

this reminds me of one time when i was in my early teens... i was mowing the lawn and ran over a garter snake. i really like snakes. and i felt pretty bad about it, because i basically took off the upper third of the snake's head. i left it there, thinking it would die soon. that night, when i went out to feed the goats, i found the same snake curled up in the barn. it was a pretty chilly night, and i was so guilt-ridden that i picked up the snake and stuck him down the front of my shirt with his head poking out my collar until he died. i had a very odd childhood.

words to live by. and etc.

indonesians are pretty famous for pimpin out their vehicles. especially public transportation and cargo vehicles. if there’s not a half-naked representation of catwoman airbrushed on the side, there’s probably some kind of quote or ridiculous decal. one popular one that i’ve seen on trucks says, “cintaku tak sebesar muatanmu”. it means (roughly translated), “my love is not as heavy as the load you carry”. sometimes there’s just curse words in English spray painted all over the sides because they think it’s cool.

but i saw my all time favorite one outside town last week. it was a small cargo truck hauling a load of dirt. handpainted on the tailgate was, “jadi berkat. hidupmu bahagia di mata Tuhan.” it means, “become a blessing. your life is a joy in the eyes of the Lord.”

speaking of joy, i discovered one of life’s small ones yesterday after church. soto (chicken and rice soup) made with santan (coconut milk). ohmyyyyyyygosh. sogood. new favorite breakfast. aswan has been telling me about this tiny hole in the wall place (it has 2 rickety tables and smells like sewage) for awhile now, and we finally made it over there yesterday. we had 2 bowls of soup, he drank iced tea and i had orange juice. we also had potatoes, eggs, and tempe on the side. grand total? $1.50. we will definitely be eating there again.

oh! one more thing! i got to work this morning and people started asking me, “did you see the snake??” so i tracked down this alleged snake, figuring it was some big fish story. it was not. the guards caught it at 4:30 this morning outside my house while i slept soundly. they had thrown it in a big barrel and set it right inside the front gates so they could show it off to everyone as they came to school this morning.

it’s a python, which is nonvenemous. thank goodness, because it bit pak kur (one of my favorite guards) when he caught it. what is even more frightening than the fact that they caught this one is the fact that these things tend to travel in pairs. i made a comment to someone earlier that i can just imagine this guy’s twin chillin on my couch, snacking on my cats, maybe catchin up on some gilmore girls... *shudder*

is this a sign from God?

i live in a building that has 3 apartments all on the same level. two years ago, a student gave us a wonderful surprise by planting flowers all along our front sidewalk. unfortunately, many of them have since died and other plants have sprung up in their place. the other day, i was walking down our sidewalk, and i noticed something unusual. take a look.

1. this is what my neighbor martha has growing outside her apartment. what remains of the flowers.

2. this is outside my neighbor hannah’s place. some really cool potted plants that she has accumulated over the years.

3. this is what is growing outside my apartment. an onion. and i have noooooo idea where it came from.

am i upset by this? no. in fact, i am rather happy. i would prefer to have something useful growing in my front yard anyways.

a new take on an old idiom

so i found out why my pastor is gone so much. there are two churches in a nearby town that don’t have a pastor, so 2 weeks each month, we send someone from our church to preach in those churches. anyways, that’s beside the point. right now, pastor sam is in australia, so yesterday, pak filemon was sharing from daniel. he was giving some background info about how daniel and his 3 friends were captured by the babylonians and how they were brainwashed. he was being pretty brave and trying to use english. it came out as “they were wash brain!” i thought THAT was pretty funny (once i realized what he was trying to say). but it got even better.

just for kicks (or perhaps for some more serious reason), he decided to read some of the verses from daniel 1 in english. particularly, verse 8. i have no idea what version he was reading from, but it came out as “but daniel made up his mind not to defile himself with the king’s food and wine...” to really drive his point home, pak filemon gave the following explanation (in indonesian).

“now, when i read this verse, i was wondering what ‘made up his mind’ meant. and i did some research. and the phrase ‘made up’ comes from the phrase ‘make up’. and do you all know what makeup is? (and most people did because while there is a word for makeup in indonesian, a lot of people – especially young people – just call it by the american word, makeup) so what is makeup for? well, if you want to look sexy, you might put on a little lipstick (and he acted it out. puckered lips and all). or if your eyes are too narrow and slanty, you might put on some eyeliner to make them look bigger. and if your nose is too flat, there’s even makeup to make it look pointier!! so you see, to makeup your mind is to menyelaraskan (to make something suitable) your mind! and daniel made up his mind.”

yesssss..... that is EXACTLY what that means.... i speedy quick wrote a note to explain to aswan (sitting next to me) that to make up your mind is an idiomatic phrase that really has nothing to do with makeup. it means to decide. i just needed someone to chuckle with. it worked. so then we were both sitting there trying not to laugh out loud while pak filemon dissected the english language. good times...

no, thanks

*11th grade student raises his hand in trig class*
me: yes, jihyun?
jihyun: could you turn around please....
me: uh...
jihyun: ....and hold really still.....
me: uhhh....
jihyun: ....and it might hurt....
me: WHAT?
jihyun: ....a lot.
me: no. i will not.
jihyun: why not?!?


gee, i wonder.

well, that doesn't add up...

aswan and i were visiting a family from our church the other day, and in typical javanese fashion, we were seated in the ruang tamu (guest room - the first room you walk into when you enter a javanese house. usually the most furnished room in the house) and served tea and deep fried snacks. typically, the snacks are like chips or fried fruit. this was a first - fried mushrooms! though they were insanely greasy, they were delicious! especially since it was going on 8 and we hadn't had dinner yet. the wife made them herself and would like to start a small business selling them but doesn't really have the right equipment to do it. before we left, she brought us a whole bag of the deep fried mushrooms to take home with us since we liked them so much.

wife: here, take these with you! i have so many!
aswan: oh, no, you really don't have to...
wife: no, i want to! and besides, she likes them. i can tell.
me: yes, ma'am! these are delicious!
wife: oh, thank you!
aswan: how big is this bag??
husband: a quarter of a kilo.
aswan: so if you went into business and sold these, how much would this bag cost?
wife: 15,000 rupiah (about $1.50)
husband: but in bali, they are WAY more expensive!
me: oh yeah? how much?
husband: 60,000 a kilo.
me: ooooooh.....?
aswan: *gives me the "drop it" look* well, maybe you should sell them in bali then!
husband and wife: *grinning broadly* yeaaaaaah.... maybe someday!

my boyfriend, ever the diplomat.

walking

when you own a motorbike, it's easy to forget the joys of walking everywhere. to get in touch with that long forgotten aspect of days gone by (and also because i was a little stir crazy and needed some exercise) i went for a nice long walk last night out through some villages and back home again. i realized that i've been taking my new form of transportation for granted. i do enjoy walking, but i had forgotten about the leering men with their scooter gangs parked on street corners saying things like, "what is your name?" and "i love you, meester!" and creepy men trying to sell me "meatball" soup (i use the term "meat" incredibly loosely) and little children hiding in trees screaming racial slurs at me in javanese. they don't really mean it as a racial slur, it's just the only word they know for a white person.

the good news is that back when i used to walk everywhere, i didn't know any racial slurs to yell back at them, especially not in javanese.

but now i do.

so the trees yelled at me.
i yelled back at the trees.
the trees went deathly silent.
i stopped.
i started to get worried.
did i really offend them?
then the trees erupted in laughter.
and i kept walking.

lost in translation

aswan: *pokes me in the armpit* MOUSTACHE!!
me: WHAT?! moustache? i just shaved!
aswan: oh. i think i meant ARMPIT!

aaaaaants

apparently, indonesian ants are very health conscious. i learned this on my walk to school this morning when i found a discarded and spilled vitamin supplement drink being swarmed by ants.

no wonder they stay so industrious! those ants, always looking out for their health.

of course, it probably doesn’t hurt that the supplement is honey flavored...

well, this seems a little ridiculous

Today's consular warden message [with added commentary].

Warden Message: POSSIBLE VIOLENT DEMONSTRATIONS DURING TERRORISM TRIAL IN SOUTH JAKARTA

February 11, 2011

The terrorism trial of Abu Bakar [seriously? his middle name means "grilled"?] Ba’asyir is scheduled to begin on February 14 [just in time for valentine's day] at the South Jakarta District Court on Jl. Ampera Raya, No. 133, South Jakarta (just south of Kemang). A heavy police presence is in place [you're missing a comma] but large, possibly violent demonstrations and major traffic disruptions are expected [wait. this sounds like jakarta every day]. Court proceedings are expected to occur 1 or 2 days per week for about 3 months [is this normal? why don't they just get it over with? possible violent demonstrations for THREE MONTHS?]. U.S. citizens should keep informed of trial dates by monitoring the news media. Wide-screen monitors will be set up outside the courtroom to accommodate spectators, who are likely to include supporters of Abu Bakar [i feel like this is LARGELY contributing to the problem. oh, i know, let's give the terrorists a front row seat to the trial. flash of genius!]. During past trials, there has been violence at South Jakarta District Court. During the September 2010 murder trial of two criminal gang members, three persons were hacked to death [hacked?!? WHAT?!] and three policemen were shot in a clash outside the court. All U.S. citizens are urged to avoid the area of the court by taking alternate routes. [no plans to travel to jakarta in the next three months, thank goodness.]

[way to go, judicial system of indonesia. sounds like you've really thought this one through.]

sometimes you just know.

you know it's gonna be a hot day...
when you wake up sweating at 6 am.

and you know it's gonna be a long night...
when the jaga (guard) is already so bored that he's whistling celine dion songs to himself somewhere alone in the dark outside your house before 8 pm.

gee, i HOPE that was the jaga...

he's learning!

the first time i ever ate a meal alone with aswan was the time we were supposed to take a motorbike trip to jogja with some friends, but every single one of them backed out at the last minute. it was before i really knew him too well, but we both had some things we needed to get there, so we decided to go anyways. we stopped for lunch at a soto (chicken and rice soup) place in boyolali.

in indonesian culture, you don't talk while you eat. you eat. to talk would be to distract someone from eating, and that's just rude.

so as we ate our very first meal together, we did so in silence. i've actually gotten pretty used to this aspect of indonesian culture. i don't like to be interrupted when i'm eating these days. i mostly just scarf my food down. but having come from the boisterous family dinner time culture that i did, it was really rather awkward to sit across the table from a guy i didn't know too well but was kinda sorta starting to like and eat in total silence. really rather QUITE awkward. can't imagine why...

later on, in some conversation or another (still before we started dating), that meal came up, and i told him how awkward i had felt. and to do that, i gave him the background of my culture by telling him that one time my family was laughing so hard together at the dinner table that dad fell out of his chair and mom got mad at him.

there are some things that we are decidedly indonesian about in our relationship. but in this one area, aswan has decided that he wants to be more american. whenever we eat together, if we eat out or if we cook at home, everything else gets set aside at dinner time and we have a conversation with our meal.

for me, it hasn't really been a conscious thing. i haven't had to make a concerted effort to talk at dinner. it's my culture. aswan doesn't sit there and pump himself up every evening with some sort of "ok. i can do this. i can talk AND eat" pep talk. it just.... happens. we talk. about anything. about everything.

i didn't really realize how serious his commitment to this new way of life was until monday evening. sunday, while we were in semarang, i bought the dvd of the tourist. i really wanted to watch it, and where i come from, watching a movie during dinner is a special treat (mostly because i think mom was afraid we'd dump platefulls of food all over the living room carpet. the dining room table with its plastic cover was obviously a much safer meal location for children). so i asked him, "hey! do you wanna watch the movie while we eat?"

without missing a beat, his answer was, "baaaaaabe. of COURSE not. we have to talk!"

life's a process

step 1: get hungry before bed.
step 2: what to eat?
step 3: BROWN SUGAR CINNAMON POPTARTS THAT MOM SENT FOR CHRISTMAS!
step 4: sadly take the last pack out of the box in the cupboard.
step 5: open the package.
step 6: marvel at all the tiny ants that are swarming inside the package all over MY poptarts.
step 7: sigh dejectedly.
step 8: notice that large chunks of MY poptart are missing.
step 9: ask the ants, "how long have you been in there?!"
step 10: bite off a corner of the poptart to check for rottenness or extreme staleness.
step 11: decide it's not too bad.
step 12: pull the toaster out.
step 13: scare a gecko hiding behind the toaster.
step 14: ask the gecko, "where were you while all this was happening?! why are you not doing YOUR JOB, gecko?!?"
step 15: sigh again and shake the poptarts.
step 16: proceed as usual.

oh, dear

email from our school superintendent today:

"We have heard today that there was religious violence in the area of Temanggung today. The reports we have so far say that some cars/motorcycles and churches were burned and/or damaged and a few people were injured. We are researching the situation to make sure we monitor what transpires and will keep you informed if there are changes that impact our situation here. The location is in the area of Magelang."

i've been hearing about this from friends throughout the day as well. from what they say it was police cars/motorcycles that were burned/damaged as well as the courthouse, and 3 christian and catholic churches have been burned or otherwise destroyed and the pastors beaten. the group doing this is known as fpi (islamic defender front), a radical group of muslims.

it's an hour and a half from my house. please pray for this situation.

hey.

guess what?

the sun shone ALL DAY TODAY!
and it was WARM.
and i ate a can of PEACHES for dinner!

and only just now is it starting to rain a little.
just in time for bed.
there is no sweeter lullaby.

new years of china

we didn’t get chinese new year off here at the international school, even though it’s a red letter day in indonesia. there are a LOT of indonesians of chinese descent, so the chinese new year is pretty huge here. there were lots of parades and dragons and good luck rituals and foods to ring in this, the year of the rabbit. i did catch some glimpses of the festivities (which went on for days). a dragon parade went through a mall i happened to be at in semarang two days ago. and i also found this in the mall -

“found” might be a bit of an exaggeration though, because really, who could miss it? it’s a 2 story tall rabbit! oh, and the banner he is holding says, “fortune rabbit”.

a lot of the elders of my church are chinese indonesian, so they thought it would be great if we all wore red to church yesterday. indonesians are really into dress codes for special events. red makes my skin look green, but i pulled out my one red shirt for the occasion. after church, we all ate traditional chinese party foods. i actually hadn’t tried these before. they were kind of.... surprising...

they came wrapped up in banana leaves, and the first one i opened looked and felt like a giant wad of snot. i am not even kidding. it was nasty.

i quickly opted not to eat with my fingers for fear i’d never get it OFF my fingers, so i grabbed a spoon instead. on my first go with the spoon, i effectively got it completely STUCK. but once i managed to nail the technique and get over the texture (mind over matter), it was quite tasty. really sweet.

when i opened my second banana leaf, i was pleasantly surprised to find something slightly less.... congealed. i ate this one with my fingers, and it had meat inside! what kind of meat? i don’t know, and sometimes it’s better not to ask. it tasted quite good.

the accompanying drink was the one part i wasn’t able to make it through. i drank about half before realizing that it had what appeared to be either chunks of beef or mushrooms floating in it. oddly enough, that wasn’t what deterred me. the problem was that it was really really overly sweet. too sweet for even me. two thumbs up for the snacks! one thumb down for the drink that could have used 1/10 as much sugar.

HALLELUJAH!

THERE IS SUN!!!

actually, there was some hazy sun yesterday when i woke up for church at 7, but in the 10 minutes it took me to shower, it disappeared completely. and yes, mom and dad, i can now shower in 10 minutes or less. amazing, huh?

but this morning, there are BLUE SKIES and SUNSHINE! i can feel my gloominess burning off... we'll see how long it lasts. but seriously? - first sun spotting in a week. i'll take it!

hopefully this means it'll be a little bit warmer today too. my weather-weakling-self has been wearing long pants and long sleeved shirts layered with sweatshirts to school lately, and my home attire has been knee socks, flannel pants, a hoodie, and a fleece blanket on the couch. basically at any given time in the last week, i had a minimum of three shirts on.

yeah. i live on a tropical island. just south of the equator.

gotta love this country

today aswan and i rode the motorbike to semarang (an hour and a half away) just because we needed to get out of town. i love salatiga, but sometimes, a girl's just gotta get away. aswan too. he's not a girl.

anyways, we left after church and spent basically the whole day there. we spent 4 hours total on a motorbike, rain and all, and the day was still SO refreshing. i'm really glad we got a chance to spend some time together and to get out of town for a bit. because salatiga is like warsaw. (my college friends will understand) if you like bowling, you're set. or here, it's if you like playing ddr in public, you're set. but if you want a mall or a decent movie theater, you gotta drive an hour to get there.

after we got home, i was thinking over my day and realized i spent hardly any money. here's the rundown of the day's expenses.

1. roxy hoodie
2. busana (muslim) shirt that is fancy enough to wear to weddings (which is why i bought it)
3. one ticket to see the green hornet
4. a new headband
5. a dvd case that holds 80 discs
6. photoshop cs2
7. two new dvds (the tourist and life as we know it)
8. two packages of korean noodles
9. a can of imported peaches
10. two rolls of toilet paper
11. lunch at pizza hut (first time since JUNE!)
12. parking and gas

the grand total? care to take a guess?

just under $40. in america, just that first item would have cost that much. aaah, i love this country.

random part of our day - we visited aswan's family on the way home. they live just off the semarang - salatiga road. i get more and more comfortable with them every time we visit. but right as we were about to leave, it started to pour down rain. that's not the random part. that's pretty normal, in fact. what was really random was that we decided to wait out the rain, and while we were waiting, aswan's uncle showed up - they haven't seen or heard from him in SIX years. aswan's mom thought her own brother was dead all this time. she said he comes to visit at least once every two years, but not these past six, so she just assumed the worst. he lives about a 5 hour drive away in cirebon. so that was super random. he just happened to be in town. so now i'm meeting the extended family!

oh, and aswan's mom keeps asking questions about what american weddings are like. question of the night was how many people get invited. i didn't really know, so she told me to guess. i threw out 250. she said aswan's sister invited 200 but 400 showed up. so she decided we better plan for 500. haha... love this lady.

my favorite conversation with an indonesian. ever.

*note* this took place over a year ago, but it just came to mind now and i had to record it.

it happened one morning while i was walking to school. i passed one of the national workers who is also a friend of mine. btw, indonesians are blunt. especially ones who can speak english.

him: why is your face red like crap?
me: what? red?
him: have you been crying?
me: no. i just took a hot shower though, so that's probably why my face is red.
him: oh.
me: what do you mean red like crap??
him: your face. it's red. like crap.
me: what?! whose crap is red???
him: ummm.... everyone's..... duh.
me: wow. learning a lot about you today. like number one, you're a jerk.
him: why does that make me a jerk?
me: you seriously don't understand how telling me my face is red like crap first thing in the morning makes you a jerk?
him: uhmmmmm.... no?

i dropped the conversation at the time, but picked it up again later that night when both of us were over at the home of 2 single white girls.

me: do you know what he said to me earlier today? he said my face looked like crap!
girls: NOOOO!
him: NO! i said your face was red LIKE crap. different.
me: fine. but still...
girl 1: why would you even say that to a girl?
girl 2: yeah, and crap isn't normally red.
him: YES! crap is RED! ALL crap is red!
me: what do you even EAT?!
him: same things as you, but crap is still red!
us: HOW?!
him: AFTER YOU COOK IT!
*a moment of silence as we 3 girls just stare at each other and wonder how we ever could have not known this about indonesians*
girl 1: so.... you eat it?
him: sometimes. don't you?
us: NO! that is SICK!
him: what? no! crap tastes so good.
girl 2: waitwaitwait.... are you talking about CRAB??
him: YES! that's what i've been saying this whole time! CRAP!
us: CRAAAAAAB!
him: YES! CRAAAAAAP!