Home

I made it home safely yesterday! I pretty much only took pictures of the ferry ride from Java to Bali, the sunrise on Thursday, Peco's wedding, and not much else. Pretty boring, if you ask me. And with my DSLR I shot almost only in black and white. So we'll see how those turned out. I haven't even looked at them yet, I've been so busy!

I don't think I got much of a tan, but besides that, I'd say it was a very successful and relaxing trip. And did I mention that PECO GOT MARRIED?! That's still a little hard to wrap my mind around. But I am so so so happy for him and Eva and excited to see their life together unfold. I'm thankful that I got to be there for their wedding day and their first kiss and their first dance and even for part of their honeymoon (but not any awkward part of it, don't worry).

Now to wait and see how their babies turn out and how my pictures look.

Out of the Office

A long time ago, I went on a photo-adventuring drive with my friend, Liz. We got lost for hours with the express purpose of taking lovely pictures. And we got some lovely pictures of some of my favorite not-often-photographed things – graveyards and bamboo. We also got lots of pictures of rice fields. However, I have forgotten to post the pictures for approximately pi months now. But I am remembering today. So enjoy these shots for the next week or so while I am in Bali. Hopefully I come home with some more lovely shots for you to see!

           

Break

This week is the first official week of summer break! School is done, graduation is out of the way, meetings are over. And yet, I still seem as busy as ever. The difference now is that I get to fill my days with all kinds of random busy-ness of my own choosing!

Yesterday I woke up early and drove to the next town to go to the animal market there. It happens every fifth day (because it follows the Javanese calendar which has a 5 day week) and it’s FULL of livestock and random jungle animals that people catch and sell. I posted about the animal market HERE once before. I’m still thinking of getting a turkey and raising it for Thanksgiving. So yesterday I basically just wanted to see what there is to see and get some prices on stuff. My good buddy, Hotjaga, was valiant enough to accompany me, and he even took me out for soto for breakfast too! I like going to the animal market with him. Creepy men don’t call me sweetheart that way. He calls himself my bodyguard.

After I finished there, I raced the rain home (and won), showered, changed, and headed to my first ever modeling job. So um… yeah. That happened. I counted not having time for lunch as part of the modeling experience.

A guy from my church is apparently a very well known fashion photographer. He’s worked in Australia and even America! He talked to me several weeks ago and asked if I’d model for him, and I said sure. It sounded like a fun learning experience. But I told him we had to wait until after school was finished. So yesterday was the day. He asked me to bring some of my clothes, and he brought some clothes too. It was kind of awkward for about 2 minutes, because we did the shoot at a construction site next to my church. So we used the church to do makeup, hair, and change clothes. More specifically, we used the church secretary’s office. While he was in there working. The church is also a school, and I kept running back and forth to the bathroom to change clothes, much to the confusion of many small children and the church janitor. I think the most awkward part though was being out at the construction site with all the men watching. I mean, working. This is the same construction site where I saw one man mixing cement while wearing only his underwear about two weeks ago.

Getting made up was like a 2 hour facial massage. The girl who did it was really sweet and gentle and patient, even when I kept blinking while she was trying to put mascara on me, thus splattering mascara on my cheeks, which she then had to go back and fix. She also attempted to straighten my hair, which was a short lived venture. It ended up being longer and frizzier, but still curly. At no point during this adventure did I see a mirror, so I really had no clue what I looked like. Ko Andy, the photographer, showed me the pictures on his camera, and other than “smoky eyes”, I thought I looked pretty natural. I didn’t realize until I got home that the 2 hours of makeup had made me look like an oompa loompa, sans green hair. That was fun to wash off. And thank goodness Hotjaga was on shift at the back gate. Any other jaga would have had some serious concerns if I came home looking like that.

So yes. Ko Andy was pretty great. I liked working with him a lot. He even bought me hot tea afterwards (because it started raining)! He sent me a few of the pictures last night. I feel weird looking at them because I really had no clue what I was doing and so they seem awkward to me. But as far as photographic evidence of my adventures goes, these will suffice.

 

PS – The hardest part of the whole thing was not laughing. Also, untangling my hair from that weird fur coat.

And An Extra One For the Neighbor

Indonesian: How many children are you planning to have?
Me: Uhm. I don't know...
Indonesian: But how many would you like to have?
Me: Maybe like 4?
Indonesian: So 5 then...
Me: No, I said....
Indonesian: I heard.
Me: ...four.
Indonesian: One is for me.

Elections

Elections for the governor of Central Java were yesterday. I had a few funny conversations with people about this.

Conversation 1.
Me: Did you vote today?
Hotjaga: Yup. (Shows me his pinkie finger)
Me: Did you vote for the winner?
Hotjaga: Nooo.
Me: Oh, sorry.
Hotjaga: I did it on purpose. When I went to vote, I saw that the other candidates had a lot of votes and I knew one of them would win, so I voted for someone who didn't have many votes. I felt bad for him.

Conversation 2.
Me: Did you vote yesterday?
Ibu Sri: Yes. (Shows me her pinkie finger)
Me: Who did you vote for?
Ibu Sri: All of them.
Me: What?
Ibu Sri: I voted for all the candidates. I didn't feel right picking just one.
Me: Okaaaaay.
Ibu Sri: My daughter voted for the first time! (Her daughter is mentally handicapped)
Me: Oh yeah?
Ibu Sri: She was really nervous. She didn't know who to vote for, so my husband told her to vote for candidate number 3. So she went in to vote, but when she came out, we asked who she picked, and she said she picked number 1 because he looked nicer.

Conversation 3.
Me: Did you vote?
Atik: Yes. (Shows me her pinkie finger)
Me: Did the person you picked win?
Atik: Well, I voted for all of them.
Me: You too?! You realize that's the same as not voting at all, right?
Atik: Yes, but it's my duty to vote.

About the pinkie finger thing, when you vote in Indonesia, they dip your pinkie finger in permanent purple ink so that you can't come back and vote again. It's kind of like a, "Kiss me, I donated blood today" sticker. That takes days to wash out from under your fingernail.

GRADUATION!

The last two years, graduation has been SO emotional. And when other people are emotional, I become a hot mess. I brought so many tissues to graduation with me today. And as it turns out, I didn’t cry a single time! Neither did anyone else. Except Jose, but he’s Latino, so I think that’s as good an excuse as any. Today wasn’t sad. It was one big party. I love my extended family in this community, and I am going to miss those who are leaving SOOOOO much. But I was so excited to have a FUN celebration with them all today that didn’t involve blubbering or swollen eyed photos.

This class was in 8th grade when I came. Some of them have been here since kindergarten! That’s a BIG DEAL in a community this transient. I first taught them in 9th grade, and some of them I taught for all four years of high school! In this group of 19 seniors, there is only one that I haven’t taught, and that’s only because he just transferred to our school this year and didn’t take a senior math class.

There are 8 different nationalities represented in this class, and SO many different talents and gifts! They announced today that the total amount of scholarship money offered to these 19 students is $980,000. That’s almost a MILLION dollars! For these 19 kids. Because they are THAT talented and amazing! They have worked so hard, and it shows.

I don’t normally take pictures of people, much less of myself WITH people, but I forced myself to today. So here is possibly the largest number of photos of myself that I have ever taken or posted of myself EVER. Oh, and a few of graduation too. XD

First thing I noticed about the seniors in their cute little gowns – these boys have no clue how to sit with them on. I was cracking up…

We only had 2 valedictorians this year (half as many as we had last year). They both gave such simple, yet such profound speeches. Speeches that I will actually remember. I love both of these girls, and I couldn’t be prouder of them.

That verse on the wall is part of their class verse. Every senior class has a retreat at the beginning of the school year where they set their goals for the year and pick what verse they want to guide their year. I think that is an awesome tradition. Because the school didn’t pick it for them. They chose it together.

In the middle of the ceremony, they showed a slideshow of the senior class. Unbeknownst to everyone in the audience (except me) the seniors sneakily inserted a video clip in the middle of the slideshow of them doing the Harlem Shake dressed in RIDICULOUS costumes. I knew about it. Because they made me do it with them! Can you spot me busting a white girl move?

The audience about died! It was hilarious and embarrassing all at once. After that, our departing assistant superintendent gave the graduation address (or whatever you call that).

The class of 2013.

All of our administration is 100% bald. It’s kind of funny, really.

Finished. Tassels are turned. BERHASIL!

And now for the after party photos. We all hung around chatting and snacking and hugging and taking pictures and saying goodbyes and OK – even crying a little bit – together for hours. Like I said, I LOVE this community!

                   

And this last one cracks me up and I don’t even know why.

Happy graduation, everyone!!