life in a month

This post is very long overdue and I have a lot to catch up on, but yesterday marked my one month anniversary of landing in Indonesia. It's a pretty crazy feeling knowing that I have been here for a month, in ways its felt both so much longer and so much shorter than a month. This has been the craziest and most incredible month of my life. Every day is really just another new adventure in this country that I am slowly learning more and more about. I thought I would do a quick summary of what I have been doing with myself this month. Enjoy!

During the past 30 days in Indonesia I have...

• survived 95 degree weather wearing jeans
• ridden on the back of a motorcycle to school everyday
• not had starbucks, or bagels, or used hot water, or taken a bath (bucket showers all the way)
• listened to the call to prayer
• ate food so spicy I want to cry
• Ate enough nasi goreng (fried rice) to feed a family of four for a good year
• worn a school uniform (3 actually)
• eaten plenty of Indomie (ramen)
• gone to the American embassy
• performed the cupid shuffle/macarena/hoedown throwdown in front of the American ambassador
• met AFSers from Japan, Belgium, Finland, Panama, Argentina, Mexico, France, Thailand, Switzerland, and the Netherlands (probably more)
• spoken Javanese, Sundanese, Indonesian, Spanish, and some Finnish
• survived 26 hours of flying
• sat eight rows ahead of Bon Jovi on a plane to Canada
• listened to plenty of American music (Macklemore)
• become a school celebrity
• gained 60 twitter followers in a week
• eaten plenty of tropical fruit
• taken selfies in class with my friends
• gained a new nickname (Sarahbule)
• posed in pictures with complete strangers
• been interviewed twice
• watched plenty of "friends" with Indonesian subtitles

...and so much more. Hopefully this gave some insight into what the past 30 days in Indonesia have been like without me going on for too long. Indonesia has truly changed my life in ways I had never expected. Everyday I learn more about my own capabilities and this incredible country. Little everyday accomplishments become big scale victories when added up. Like being able to speak Indonesian to my friends at school, and understanding when they respond. And being able to order food in public places in Indonesian, surprising both the food vendor and myself in what I can say in a foreign language, a language most of my friends back home don't know exists. 

The one month mark is an interesting one to hit. One month is a long time to spend in a foreign country when you're 16. A long time. I'm spending ten months here, which still blows my mind everyday. Throughout this month Indonesia has slowly become my home. My neighborhood is beginning to feel familiar and my school is beginning to feel familiar as well. Everyday when I leave school, I really feel like I am coming home, not just to the house I'm living in. Of course one month is not enough to completely adapt to a new environment, and I continue to adapt everyday, but it's enough time to slowly begin to piece your new life together. 

So here is one more list, this time of my favorite things in Indonesia:

• the taste of freshly cooked nasi (rice)
• the palm trees everywhere
• the fact that food costs maybe 50 cents
• mango and other tropical fruit
• taking an ojek (motorcycle taxi) to school
• nasi goreng 
• my school and amazing classmates
• the heat (it's a love/hate relationship)
• cicaks everywhere (geckoes)
• bucket showers
• listening to the call to prayer
• the city of Jakarta

 More pictures to come soon!

school and other tidbits

So today is Wednesday, September 5 and its currently 6pm at my house in Indonesia, but I know many of my friends back home are just waking up and getting ready for school back at West, which honestly feels like a million miles away right now. Everything remotely familiar feels like a million miles away right now. But it's not a bad thing really, because Indonesia is slowly becoming my home. Day by day I fall in love more with this crazy country and its millions of quirks and fascinating cultural tidbits that so extremely differentiate it from any place I have ever been in my life. Every aspect of life here is so unique, from bathing to school to transportation everything is different from America. All in its own Indonesian way, and although it takes getting used to (and the first adjustment phase is HARD, let me tell you) I am falling more in love with this country everyday.

Everyday I learn something new about this incredible archipelago nation, and everyday I find another reason I love it here. Whether it be riding an ojek (motorcycle taxi) through a village to school everyday or the call to prayer radiating over the island five times a day, I find something new and beautiful to love here every single day.

But I should probably update on what I have been doing here for the last week instead. I started school at SMAN 5 Bekasi on Monday, and I love it. Apparently I am the first exchange student to go there (at least from what I've gathered) so everyone is very surprised to see me, that blonde, white bule wandering the hall in the Indonesian school uniform. 

my school's outdoor courtyard

A word about Indonesian school uniforms: it is impossible to get on the back of a motorcycle when wearing one, and I'm not quite sure how my Indonesian friends do it so swiftly and easily when I'm over here just trying not to fall off and looking even more like the helplessly lost bule that I am. Bule means foreigner/white person over here, so that would be me. 

There are three school uniforms here: batik (traditional Indonesian pattern, every school has a unique batik and they're beautifull), pramuka (I think that translates to "scout" in English, and it looks a lot like a girls scout uniform. Brings me back to those 5th grade brownies days), and the standard white top and blue skirt. 

typical white and blue uniform

Overall I really like the uniform because I can blend in a tinyyyy bit more. But there's no way to blend in here when you're blonde, caucasian, and tall (tall being 5'4"). You'll forever be a bule, but I'm embracing it everyday as much as I embrace every other part of this country.

So onto school. Everyday I ride on ojek (motorcycle taxi) to school which takes about 15 minutes. It is honestly the highlight of my day. I have my own little moped back home, so I am very used to riding mopeds and motorcycles everywhere. We ride through a little village type area down a dirt road to and from school. Definitely one of those "only in Indonesia" moments, riding a motorcycle down a dirt road through a village on your morning commute to school.


Indonesian school is really a lot of fun. There are 2 tracks here that students are put in, science and social. I am in science and I really like everyone in my class. I am taking physics, chemistry, trigonometry, japanese, PE, Indonesian language, English, and probably a few more that i can't remember. It's really funny that I'm learning trig and physics for the first time ever in Indonesian, so it's safe to say I don't understand much. But it's still fun. English and japanese are probably my 2 favorite classes. I love learning new languages, so learning Japanese from Indonesian is really fun. And English is fun because the teacher has me help teach. And I am pretty sure I gave my entire class a Wisconsin accent so thats fun.

first day of school

my amazing class, can you spot the bule in the middle?

School is definitely a lot of fun and I really love my class, 11 IPA 2. My school is great and everyone smiles and says hi to me in the hallway, I guess I'm sorta the school celebrity because I am the only exchange student here and I am the first they've ever had.

So that was this week in a nutshell, so far I can tell this is going to be a great year :)