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 :)