A friend of mine is staring over my shoulder. Its funny, I'm typing so fast in English it amazes him. I'm not sure he understands. But I think he does because everyone just laughed.
This is computer class. Maybe we'll learn how to log on to the school website but mostly we just mess around on Facebook and the like. But its kinda hot and these Batik uniforms we where dont really help. Somehow they seem so thick and heavy. Mine is a little oversized making it baggy and loose but its still slightly unpleasant. No matter. Class will be over in a few.
There was a demonstration yesterday. Not so much a demonstration, just a huge crowd of angry students surrounding a single teacher in a circle. I'm not sure what it was about but friends told me it had something to do with them protesting the ridiculous amount of rules YPHB has. I also heard that it could have been because the teacher broke the Futsal ball.
Maaf maaf the bell already rang. I will try to finish.
Maaf lagi. haha
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Adventures of Maxie
I was walking. Just gotten off the bus. And it was raining. Really raining. I waited under the bus shelter for a while with the other people for a little while, wondering if the rain would ever stop. It didn't. It was getting dark. Time to go home. I cross the street. I'm soaked already. But I don't mind too much. The Indonesian's never want to get wet it seems. They say you will get sick if you leave your head uncovered in the rain. I could see something like that happening. But it hasn't happened yet, so for now I am perfectly comfortable with leting the water run down my face.
But now it is raining harder. And it's cold. Actually cold in Indonesia. I regret not bringing a jacket or sweater. Shucks.
I pass by the vendors by the mini-mart, their wares protected by the overhang. One of them calls out to me, to come over, to get out of the rain. I agree and they offer me a seat. It's the girls, one of them is the small quiet one who I alwasy buy DVDs from. The other two sell cell phone minutes from a glass case. Not too sure how it works.
They ask me my name. I tell them. They ask me more questions assuming that I know at least a little Bahasa. I reply and give them a confused smile when I don't understand. Laughs all around. They get a kick out of talking with me, trying to speak English and trying to make me understand what they are trying to say. It's fun. One of them asks me how the previous DVD I bought was. I told her it was good. I would have said more but I'm not sure I could with what I know of Bahasa. She tries to pronounce the name. Mon-gool she says, kinda slowly and with an accent. She laughs at herself and everyone laughs with her. I decide to buy another DVD. I chose one and handed over the money. 60 cents for a dvd. Ridiculous in America. A tad bit over-priced here. Raka says you can get ones for cheaper over in Jakarta. I have yet to find a cheaper price in Bogor.
The rain lays off a bit. I'm pretty cold, my wet shirt sticking to me. I say goodbye and step onto the puddle riddled street. I'm off. Back to home. I'm content. Made some new friends. But I forgot their names. Gaa I am a bad person. But I guess it's okay. One of the security guards who I pass by everyday thought my name was Maxie which me and my friend thought was pretty funny. Maxie. It's not even close to Josh. I wonder where he got it from?
But now it is raining harder. And it's cold. Actually cold in Indonesia. I regret not bringing a jacket or sweater. Shucks.
I pass by the vendors by the mini-mart, their wares protected by the overhang. One of them calls out to me, to come over, to get out of the rain. I agree and they offer me a seat. It's the girls, one of them is the small quiet one who I alwasy buy DVDs from. The other two sell cell phone minutes from a glass case. Not too sure how it works.
They ask me my name. I tell them. They ask me more questions assuming that I know at least a little Bahasa. I reply and give them a confused smile when I don't understand. Laughs all around. They get a kick out of talking with me, trying to speak English and trying to make me understand what they are trying to say. It's fun. One of them asks me how the previous DVD I bought was. I told her it was good. I would have said more but I'm not sure I could with what I know of Bahasa. She tries to pronounce the name. Mon-gool she says, kinda slowly and with an accent. She laughs at herself and everyone laughs with her. I decide to buy another DVD. I chose one and handed over the money. 60 cents for a dvd. Ridiculous in America. A tad bit over-priced here. Raka says you can get ones for cheaper over in Jakarta. I have yet to find a cheaper price in Bogor.
The rain lays off a bit. I'm pretty cold, my wet shirt sticking to me. I say goodbye and step onto the puddle riddled street. I'm off. Back to home. I'm content. Made some new friends. But I forgot their names. Gaa I am a bad person. But I guess it's okay. One of the security guards who I pass by everyday thought my name was Maxie which me and my friend thought was pretty funny. Maxie. It's not even close to Josh. I wonder where he got it from?
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Bad Internet
I dont know what happens. It will last for a couple weeks and then something will happen. Something screwing up the connection. My host brother said it was something to do with the tower. I guess I'll just have to wait. But internet isnt the only important thing. In fact I dont need it. I've gotten used to not needing it. It's a shame though when I cant share some photos that I really liked or something comes to mind that I really want to put somewhere. I could write it down, but I am a lazy person who doesn't have the patience for writing as sad as that sounds. Though I do like to write. I meant the physical thing. Plus if I start writing in my journal again i will have left out almost two months worth of experiances. Hmm.
Routine.
Wake up, by host mom or maybe the maid but she doesn't do a very good job of waking me and Dimas up. She doesnt turn the light on. But that's no her fault. She shouldn't really have that responsibility. Anyways, get up, grab my clothes and stumble into the shower. The rancid taste of first waking up is still in my mouth. Shower, get dressed, maybe take a look in the mirror and realize how half-asleep I still look. Grab my bag, proper books and all that stuff. Downstairs, breakfast, fast breakfast, sometimes just a few bites. Depends how fast I am. In my host brothers car. Tie my shoes (I dont usually have time to do that at the house), pick up Habib on the way to school. School! study, sleep in class, attempt to learn from teachers who know a few words in English, eat lunch, have laughs with friends, go to the library and do this! lunch, study, study, school is out! what should I do? Well today after school I think I am gonna hang out and watch the futsal game. class vs class. These are the final games, the championships. Sadly my class already got beaten out of the league. Hmm. Maybe after that go home, hang out with some friends or go home, grab a movie or food beforehand. Shower, dinner, then study, watch a nice pirated dvd or just fall asleep on my bed. This is the usual routine for a Monday Tuesday or Thursday. My school gets out at 4 so there isn't a whole lot of time for anything after school. You are too tired anyways.
Indonesia is surprising. Nothing like I imagined. Expections get abolished. Sometimes I am confused. Why am I here? What am I doing? But then I remember that I wanted to be here, and I still want to no matter the crazy in the moment emotions that I am feeling. The days have been good and bad, up and down. I have had some of the best days of my life here and some of the hardest. The language is frustrating and delightful, the heat terriable and wonderful. And now I need to eat stuff with Sambal (like spicey sauce). It adds something to everything.
I'm not sure where I am going with this. I dont have much time to write this. Anyways. Hope the internet works again so I can add to this blog more. There aren't a whole lot of actual experiances in this segement. Maybe some other time. But for now, da-da (cya, sorta. In Indonesia)
Routine.
Wake up, by host mom or maybe the maid but she doesn't do a very good job of waking me and Dimas up. She doesnt turn the light on. But that's no her fault. She shouldn't really have that responsibility. Anyways, get up, grab my clothes and stumble into the shower. The rancid taste of first waking up is still in my mouth. Shower, get dressed, maybe take a look in the mirror and realize how half-asleep I still look. Grab my bag, proper books and all that stuff. Downstairs, breakfast, fast breakfast, sometimes just a few bites. Depends how fast I am. In my host brothers car. Tie my shoes (I dont usually have time to do that at the house), pick up Habib on the way to school. School! study, sleep in class, attempt to learn from teachers who know a few words in English, eat lunch, have laughs with friends, go to the library and do this! lunch, study, study, school is out! what should I do? Well today after school I think I am gonna hang out and watch the futsal game. class vs class. These are the final games, the championships. Sadly my class already got beaten out of the league. Hmm. Maybe after that go home, hang out with some friends or go home, grab a movie or food beforehand. Shower, dinner, then study, watch a nice pirated dvd or just fall asleep on my bed. This is the usual routine for a Monday Tuesday or Thursday. My school gets out at 4 so there isn't a whole lot of time for anything after school. You are too tired anyways.
Indonesia is surprising. Nothing like I imagined. Expections get abolished. Sometimes I am confused. Why am I here? What am I doing? But then I remember that I wanted to be here, and I still want to no matter the crazy in the moment emotions that I am feeling. The days have been good and bad, up and down. I have had some of the best days of my life here and some of the hardest. The language is frustrating and delightful, the heat terriable and wonderful. And now I need to eat stuff with Sambal (like spicey sauce). It adds something to everything.
I'm not sure where I am going with this. I dont have much time to write this. Anyways. Hope the internet works again so I can add to this blog more. There aren't a whole lot of actual experiances in this segement. Maybe some other time. But for now, da-da (cya, sorta. In Indonesia)
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Speeding motorcycle Futsal thugs
I haven't written in forever. A few weeks I think. Or maybe it was a few days. Time flys here. I feel like I've been here for a few weeks but its been two months or so.
I went to the first Futsal practice yesterday. It's an extra-cirricular type thing after school on whensdays. Not much really, just a bunch of students getting togeather and kicking a ball around. I think there is a coach but he wasn't there today so it took forever to find a decent ball seeing as he had the key to the sports equpment room. Some of the kids even have uniforms with their names on the back and everything. The colors are wierd though. YPHB colors are yellow and green but for some reason they decided to make the uniforms the odd combo of blue and yellow. Didn't like them too much. Neither did my friend Husna. But what are we gonna do. They still look official and nice with YPHB Bogor within a large Y on the front of the jersey. It wasn't an actual game that day so only a few kids had em. Most were in T-shirts and shorts. All of them were really good. Totally makes one feel dwarfed when playing with these guys. It was all godd fun though. We played, I tried goalie and decided to never try it again and then it was over. The team captain told me that there was a futsal competetion of sorts within YPHB on thursday. Im not sure if I can play yet. I was also told that instead of Dimas coming to the school to pick me up he would meet me and Husna at Heru's house. Excitment! Yes, riding on a moped again. Sometimes riding in cars can get boring. Husna gave another kid a ride as well making it a total of 3 kids on the machine. I probably wasn't built to handle that much weight. We had to help it up the slope of the driveway from YPHB.
Bam, traffic, weeving in and out of cars and over-burdened trucks. I smell exhaust and food from street vendors. I feel a rain drop. It starts to rain. We keep on going making our way towards our destination, slowing down to barely a crawl for jaggedly protruding speedbumps. Those things are everywhere and get a little annoying. They aren't made to have a good transition from concrete to the thing it self. Just a small ridge in the middle of the road. Makes for quite the bump.
Lunchtime. I'll finish it later ya?
Cheers
I went to the first Futsal practice yesterday. It's an extra-cirricular type thing after school on whensdays. Not much really, just a bunch of students getting togeather and kicking a ball around. I think there is a coach but he wasn't there today so it took forever to find a decent ball seeing as he had the key to the sports equpment room. Some of the kids even have uniforms with their names on the back and everything. The colors are wierd though. YPHB colors are yellow and green but for some reason they decided to make the uniforms the odd combo of blue and yellow. Didn't like them too much. Neither did my friend Husna. But what are we gonna do. They still look official and nice with YPHB Bogor within a large Y on the front of the jersey. It wasn't an actual game that day so only a few kids had em. Most were in T-shirts and shorts. All of them were really good. Totally makes one feel dwarfed when playing with these guys. It was all godd fun though. We played, I tried goalie and decided to never try it again and then it was over. The team captain told me that there was a futsal competetion of sorts within YPHB on thursday. Im not sure if I can play yet. I was also told that instead of Dimas coming to the school to pick me up he would meet me and Husna at Heru's house. Excitment! Yes, riding on a moped again. Sometimes riding in cars can get boring. Husna gave another kid a ride as well making it a total of 3 kids on the machine. I probably wasn't built to handle that much weight. We had to help it up the slope of the driveway from YPHB.
Bam, traffic, weeving in and out of cars and over-burdened trucks. I smell exhaust and food from street vendors. I feel a rain drop. It starts to rain. We keep on going making our way towards our destination, slowing down to barely a crawl for jaggedly protruding speedbumps. Those things are everywhere and get a little annoying. They aren't made to have a good transition from concrete to the thing it self. Just a small ridge in the middle of the road. Makes for quite the bump.
Lunchtime. I'll finish it later ya?
Cheers
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Back again
First off I apologize for the lack of updates. My host brother's internet isnt working all too well lately. I'm using a school computer right now. Mostly everyone is in the Mosque. Prayer will be over soon though and school will be out for the day. This will probably be short.
I have alot of catching up. There was Lebaran, then the first few days of school.
Lebaran. Breaking the fast. The after Ramadhan celebration. Everyone goes home or "pulang" (go home/back). Everyone is on the road with their families trying to get places. And when that happens hundreds of people die in traffic accidents. They do. a tally is recorded every year. I forgot the final amount but its at least 300. I suppose its a good time not to be on the road. Which I wasn't. I stayed in Bogor. My family is from Bogor, well at least my host mom. All her family is here. My host dad's family is from Sumatra but I guess we will visit them some other time. We did go to Jakarta for a couple days and meet up with Dini my host sister who goes to school in Solo central Java. It was awkward at first. But then jokes, funny incidents like Dimas accidentally breaking the handle of Dini's suitcase broke the ice. It was fun having a new face around. Only around for three days though. She flew home the day me Dimas and his uncle's family went camping up on some mountain (I forget the name). I guess it is a park but not a typical park you would find in the U.S. People are everywhere, along with trash. Not really the get in touch with nature kind of deal. Though the roads are pretty rugged. Imagine one of those cartoons of a car putting down a road bouncing along. Well it was like that, the car actually bounced, two wheels off the ground as us and the machine drove over yet another protruding rock. Quite the adventure. Quite the get togeather. There was a whole new set of faces waiting for us up at the campsite. I had never seen any of them before and I am still now not sure what their relationship was to Dimas's uncle. Probably family and family friends. I wasn't sure. It was fun. But more on that later. I have to go. School is out.
I have alot of catching up. There was Lebaran, then the first few days of school.
Lebaran. Breaking the fast. The after Ramadhan celebration. Everyone goes home or "pulang" (go home/back). Everyone is on the road with their families trying to get places. And when that happens hundreds of people die in traffic accidents. They do. a tally is recorded every year. I forgot the final amount but its at least 300. I suppose its a good time not to be on the road. Which I wasn't. I stayed in Bogor. My family is from Bogor, well at least my host mom. All her family is here. My host dad's family is from Sumatra but I guess we will visit them some other time. We did go to Jakarta for a couple days and meet up with Dini my host sister who goes to school in Solo central Java. It was awkward at first. But then jokes, funny incidents like Dimas accidentally breaking the handle of Dini's suitcase broke the ice. It was fun having a new face around. Only around for three days though. She flew home the day me Dimas and his uncle's family went camping up on some mountain (I forget the name). I guess it is a park but not a typical park you would find in the U.S. People are everywhere, along with trash. Not really the get in touch with nature kind of deal. Though the roads are pretty rugged. Imagine one of those cartoons of a car putting down a road bouncing along. Well it was like that, the car actually bounced, two wheels off the ground as us and the machine drove over yet another protruding rock. Quite the adventure. Quite the get togeather. There was a whole new set of faces waiting for us up at the campsite. I had never seen any of them before and I am still now not sure what their relationship was to Dimas's uncle. Probably family and family friends. I wasn't sure. It was fun. But more on that later. I have to go. School is out.
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