Two weeks ago my host family and I went to the village of Kuningan in West Java for Eid al-Adha. In short, it was a time for me to meet my extended host family, eat plenty of great food, learn more about Islam and Islamic holidays, and experience village life. To say that I enjoyed my time in the village would be an understatement. This village was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, surrounded by sawahs (rice fields) for miles and nestled along side the 3rd tallest volcano (yep volcano) in Java, it was paradise in my eyes. I spent a quality morning in the village wandering through a sawah and taking pictures while trying not to lose my balance. Since rice fields are terraced, if you fall the next terrace is about four feet down in the mud. So you really don't want to lose your balance; not that you'll be hurt or anything, just take my word for it you don't really want to fall in that mud.
We also ventured up to a waterfall on the side of the volcano in the village. We couldn't swim or anything since the water was only about mid-calf deep, but still standing under a waterfall in the middle of the jungle on the side of a volcano is pretty sweet if you ask me.
After we returned home to Jakarta I packed my bags and set off for another mini trip, this time to Bandung to visit my friend and fellow exchange student Mallory. Bandung is a city in West Java, about two hours from Jakarta with about 2.5 million people. I spent five days with Mallory staying with her host family, exploring Bandung and navigating our way via public transportation (hollowed out buses) and going to school. We got to reconnect with other exchange students that I hadn't seen in two months which was great too. Being able to journey around Bandung by ourselves was an incredible feeling, I was slowly starting to feel less like a helpless bule, which I have felt like a lot in the past few months. Having entire conversations with shop owners and street vendors alike in Indonesian is a pretty cool thing and it feels good to have that capability.
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| Ben from Belgium, me and Mallory |
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So now I have been in Indonesia for two months and six days which still blows my mind. It feels like both a week and six months ago that I landed in Jakarta with my group and our journey began. Time works in crazy way when you're an exchange student, there's no doubting that. But I've had some of the most fun I've had here in my whole life and I wouldn't trade these last two months for anything.
2 down, 9 to go!
