Brief Explanation and What I've Been Up To! (Pictures included)

I know what you're all thinking. Where are these fantastic posts that I should've been posting throughout my time here? I'm getting ready to complete my third month and I haven't posted ONCE since being in Indonesia.

It's true, I don't have Wi-Fi that I can use whenever I please, but that's no excuse.

True, there was a period of three weeks where I was sick and didn't even want to get out of bed, but still, no excuse.

And also, there was a point in time where I wasn't sure if I wanted to be here anymore. And when I tried to start a blog post, I felt like I was either posting just the good parts or too much of the bad parts, and not enough in between.

So that's my explanation, and it's not a very good one, but I'll give you guys highlights of what I've been up to since arriving in Indonesia (in chronological order!)

August:

-Myself and the six YES Abroad students boarded our flight to Indonesia out of JFK in New York City.

-We arrived in Tokyo after an extremely grueling flight, ready to board another plane for 6-7 more hours, where we'd land in Jakarta!

-When we landed it was a little after midnight and my first view of Jakarta was rather dark and quiet. The Americans were the last ones to arrive, and when we finally got to the orientation site all of the other exchange students from the different countries had already arrived. There were 31 of us, and we weren't able to meet any of them until the morning!

My first Indonesian meal! Eggs, rice, and noodles!

Our beautiful orientation site!

My awesome Amazing Race team! The man in the middle was a stranger who we had to ask questions to in our limited Indonesian!

-After a few days of orientation (which included learning a traditional Indonesian dance, playing Amazing Race across an Indonesian theme park, going to the US Embassy, and meeting cool people from all over the world!) we had a welcome party, where some of us got to meet our host families! I met mine!

-The day after my host mother picked me up, she took me with her to 'work', to a mountain range where they have a little dairy farm. I got up close and personal with a cow.  

 

I never caught his/her name but I mean...this picture's priceless.

September:

-I started school. I don't have any pictures from starting school because...well, I was in school, but I do have some pictures of my uniform, which is coming later. But I do have a picture of the school!

It was a Saturday, so no one was wearing uniforms.

-I got homesick. Very, very homesick. But I was holding on!

-I saw Barack Obama's elementary school!

See! He's even got a plaque!

Here's a statue of Obama as a boy!

-I went to Monas, the national monument (the top is all made of gold), and the largest mosque in South East Asia!

Here I am in front of Monas with my host sister and host mom (ibu)!

This was a pic of me in front of the church across the street from the mosque!

The mosque's entrance!

-I hung out with the other Jakarta exchange students! Always a fun time when we're together.

Anna and I visited a few museums, and this was my favorite picture of the day!

We went to Grand Indonesia! From left to right: Ezrah, me!, Anna, Gita (Helene's contact person), Yusuke, and Helene (actually from Bekasi, which is so close to me that she came anyways!)

The Jakarta Kids at our post arrival orientation! Aren't we cute? Left to right: Ezrah (Belgium), me!, Anna(Spain), and Yusuke(Japan)!

-I somehow ended up on an Indonesian TV show? Three times, actually, but this was the first time (I'm wearing my Thursday uniform, which is batik and our white skirts).

These are some of my schoolmates and I after we had just won the big academic competition!

October:

-I 'celebrated' Eid Al-Adha with my family. And by celebrated, I mean I just took a whole bunch of pictures. Warning, these pictures are mildly graphic, so skip on ahead to November if you don't want to see!
  Now some people may take this wrong, but it isn't just some random holiday in which they slaughter animals for no reason. No, in fact it is to represent the story of sacrifice in which Abraham trusted god and was going to sacrifice his son for him. They sacrifice these animals in a quick and easy fashion (after praying), then immediately chop up the meat to give bags of to the poor. It's actually a wonderful tradition--just not for those with a light stomach.

Lots of animal skins left over once they took out the meat.

This was before I left, and when I returned there were about 10 or so more cow heads.

They were cutting up the bones, I believe.

 -For the rest of this month I was sick in bed. About three weeks of doing nothing. It wasn't a really fun time and I didn't take any pictures since they would've only been of me doing nothing. Hahaha.

November:

-I turned 17 and received my Indonesian name: Novitasari!

-I spent time with the Jakarta kids and Helene and Victoria at Plaza Indonesia, where we enjoyed a little dinner.

-I got to see Disney LIVE! in Jakarta--a play done all in English! It may have been for kids, but it was definitely worth seeing. 

I didn't take any pictures this month (as of yet) because I was just getting over my sickness and trying to get over homesickness, and I've been trying to live through my eyes and not through my camera lens.



So that's what I've been up to! I hope that somewhat makes up for the lack of posting, and I hope everyone gets a feel for what I've been doing my last few months. For friends and family, check my facebook to see a ton more pictures (it takes forever to upload them onto my blog)!

Sampai jumpa lagi,
(See you soon!)

-Baillie