post-exchange life

I left Jakarta exactly 87 days, 1 hour, and 56 minutes ago on July 12th.

I arrived in Madison four days later and saw my family for the first time in a year running on a combined 7 hours of sleep over 4 days.

And now I've been back in school for just over a month.

Time works in crazy ways doesn't it?

A year ago today I was sitting on my balcony in Indonesia, sipping es teh manis and writing in my journal about how it was my half birthday and in six months I would be celebrating my birthday in this country (which still felt quite foreign at this point). 

This time last year I was making the journey across West Java to a village in the mountains to celebrate  Eid Al-Adha with my extended family. This was the first time I had left Jakarta since I arrived and it was the first time I fell in love with the Javanese countryside. Seriously, those roadside views are absolutely incomparable to anything I have ever seen.

I'll always be a Sconnie at heart but I'd take that over a corn field anyday.

Fast forward 365 days and I'm back in the States, navigating the journey commonly referred to as senior year of public high school. I've slipped back into the routine I was so accustomed to freshman and sophomore year: eat, sleep, swim, school, repeat. I've reconnected with friends I haven't talked to since sophomore year and made some new ones, and the number of "how was your trip" questions has gone down. 

In September I was lucky enough to go back to DC (for the 4th time in the past year and a half) for the first YES Abroad Alumni Workshop. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with other alumni from so many different countries and officially establish the YES Abroad alumni network. Not to mention it's always a thrill to be back at the 4H with the free soft serve ice cream machine and donuts at every meal. Really though YES Abroad knows how to pick a venue.

However, I would be lying if I said I didn't miss Indonesia everyday. Everytime I mistake a 1000 rupiah for a quarter in my wallet a part of my heart sinks. And when I see pictures of my school friends wearing Batik on hari nasional batik at SMA 5, and when I hear even a snippet of Bahasa on the street (which actually has happened). 

I knew when I came home that the past 11 months in Indonesia had changed me, but I didn't have enough time to process to fully grasp what last year really meant. I wouldn't necessarily say 87 days is enough to fully comprehend, but I've come a lot farther now than when I first set foot back in Madison.

Readjusting to your old life while trying to hold on to the one you fell in love with is hard, and balancing the two is a delicate art. I still speak Bahasa on a daily basis by taking Indonesian 5 at the University of Wisconsin, and I try to keep in touch with my friends and family despite now being on the opposite end of our infamous 12 hour time difference. I made karedok and sambal for my family the other day, except I made it so spicy even I could barely eat it. 

All in all, America has treated me pretty well post-exchange, and I've gotten great support and interest from my friends and family here in Madison. I'm enjoying my first season change since spring of 2013 and I'm excited to see where this experience will take me in the future. 

P.S. the yes abroad 2015/2016 app is now up so you should apply and please feel free to email me or comment if you have any questions!

Terima kasih!

quick shoutout to fall

so I'm home

Well the title just about says it all.

I'm not in Indonesia anymore.

I left Indonesia a little over a week and a half ago, and I have been in Madison exactly eight days. The past two weeks have been such a whirlwind of emotions, too many to describe in one blog post. I lived in Indonesia for exactly 325 days. After 325 days in a foreign place, that foreign place doesn't feel so foreign anymore. The call to prayer, mopeds zooming down alleys, palm trees and es kelapa muda stands lining the roads, mosques on every street corner; after 325 days this all felt normal. 

And then those 325 days were all used up and I was thrown back into this country known as America. Home of cheese curds and driving on the right side of the road and cheeseburgers and sidewalks and stoplights and a whole lot of people speaking English. Being thrown back into America after 325 days abroad hasn't been easy. I keep letting phrases of Bahasa slip out in conversation (apologies to the people who work at the Chipotle at the LAX airport who didn't understand my mix of 3 languages when I tried to order a burrito). I keep touching my heart after shaking hands with people, and I feel so strange calling everyone you. 

It's been great and difficult and just plain weird at times. Reconnecting with people who haven't seen me in a year and readjusting to the life I used to live has been a challenge but nothing that some time won't solve. 

However, so many people still ask me my most dreaded question:

"So, how was your trip?"

**advice to friends of recent exchange returnees: we try not to call it a "trip"**

So, how was my experience/life/exchange year/325 days in Indonesia?

It was something I can't describe accurately in one conversation, or probably even a hundred conversations. I could describe my experience in Indonesia with hundreds of adjectives but I still have a lingering feeling that whoever is listening still wouldn't quite get it. How can someone understand what it feels like to wake up one morning on the other side of the world, in a country whose language you don't speak and whose culture you do not yet understand if they haven't experienced that before? How can someone understand the immense pride when you have your first meaningful conversation with someone in a language you didn't know existed two years ago, when they have never experienced that either?

I sincerely hope that I can share my experience with my friends and family here in the States in a way that helps people really understand what the past 325 days were like for me. And I am so thankful for those who have already made the effort to find out what it's like to dive headfirst into a new country, language, and culture I knew so little about a few years ago. 

I'm not sure if this will be my last blog post, but if it is I want to say thank you for everyone who read this and supported my journey this past year. From America to Indonesia to France to Singapore and every where else you read this blog from, thank you. Your comments and messages helped me so much, and I hope you enjoyed my blog. 

the best month yet

May has probably been one of the busiest and best months yet in Indonesia. I've spent the last thirty days in three different cities, both reuniting with old friends and making new ones. 

A couple weeks ago I joined in the AFS Java mini exchange, where all the exchange students on Java (maybe 15 or so) switched cities for a week and lived with a new family. I was placed in Bandung, a city in the mountains about two hours from Jakarta. Bandung is actually one of my favorite cities in Indonesia so I was very excited to be placed there. It's mountainous landscape and cool weather is such a welcome and stark contrast from living in Jakarta for the past nine months. 

I got to meet up with some old friends in Bandung as well as explore the city, taking angkot everywhere. Bandung reminded me a lot of Madison in that it had a very "college town" like feel, something that I had really missed about home. 

bule adventures

street food

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my host mom in bandung

A couple weeks after Bandung, my friend Mallory (another YES Abroader from Montana) came to visit me in Jakarta. I got to play tour guide and we roamed around Jakarta from mall to mall, doing what we do best. Somehow we decided it would be a good idea for me to get my hair dyed, which is how this happened:

Through a series of events I now resemble a mix between Iggy Azalea and Queen Elsa from Frozen. I didn't exactly intend for my hair to end up this shade of platinum blonde but hey, you're only seventeen and live in Southeast Asia once. 

After Mallory went home to Bandung I met up with the middle schoolers I had volunteered with a few months ago and we took a field trip to a botanical garden in Bogor. I went with my teacher friend, her mom, and 20 fourteen year old girls so it was a pretty full group. I talked with them in a mix of Indonesian and English so we could both practice each other's languages and I had a great time teaching them about America and high school life. And of course I got the standard questions: 

1) What is your favorite Indonesian food? (Martabak manis)

2) Who is your favorite guy from one direction? (I don't listen to them too much but I guess Niall?)

Afterwards some of us headed back to Annisa's house where we played ping pong (my first time in at least a year) and had es kelapa (coconut water in a plastic bag). Overall it was just a great day with some great people, and I really hope I can keep in touch with them all in the future.

Friday was also my last day of Indonesian high school and junior year, I can't believe how fast this school year has gone but at least I still have about 5 weeks of free time so I can still hang out with my school friends.

Thanks to everyone who continues to read this, only 6 more weeks until I fly home to Madison! Thank you for all the support :)

two months to go

I'd like to make a quick apology for going so long without posting, I only have 65 days left in Indonesia so i am trying to make the most of them and blogging has been hard to fit into my schedule lately.

I'm trying to make these last two months in Indonesia some of my most memorable yet, but I still haven't totally accepted the fact that my experience is almost up. It feels like it was my birthday yesterday, not already a month ago. Bali feels like much less than two months ago, and I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I left Madison eight months ago.

People really aren't lying when they say being an exchange student messes with your concept of time.

I've had a fun last couple of weeks. My definite favorite day was when my host family and Ellen went to Puncak (a national park in West Java) for a day trip. We hiked about an hour through dense, tropical forest until we reached a massive waterfall in the middle of the jungle. Ellen and I were at first under the impression we had hiked all this way to admire the view from a safe (and dry) distance but it most certainly did not end up that way.

We ended up wading in until we were standing under the base of the waterfall, the water cascading over rocks and boulders and drenching us completely. It was freezing but after eight months of bucket showers I didn't seem to notice quite as much. We were in the middle of the jungle in Indonesia standing under a waterfall. It truly doesn't get much better than that.

When friends at school ask me why I chose Indonesia, I often say something about the nature drew me. I mean coming from the Midwest and corn fields stretching to the horizon, something about palm trees and rice terraces and ocean coastline just drew me right in.  While, contrary to popular belief of friends back in the US I do not live in either the jungle or near a beach, Indonesia has treated me very well with its natural beauty. I have lived here over eight months now but riding mopeds under palm trees that line the roads still excites me. 

However, I would be lying if I said my photos from rice terraces and beaches in Bali and jungle trekking in Java are an accurate representation of Indonesia as a whole. Indonesia has jungle, beaches, and rice terraces in addition to big cities and suburbs (where I live). Showing American friends pictures of Balinese beaches and saying "this is Indonesia" would be the same as showing Indonesian friends pictures of Hawaii or Miami and telling them "this is America". America is the metropolis of the east coast, the farms of the midwest, and the Rockies in the West. Indonesia is Jabodetabek (Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi), the Javanese countryside, and the volcanoes and mountains scattered throughout the entire archipelago. The variety of landscapes and cultures are what makes Indonesia click. The official motto of Indonesia is "unity in diversity" which could not describe this country any better. The unity in the diversity of religions, cultures, languages, and landscapes is what makes Indonesia what it is, and I am proud to call this country my second home.

From the rice terraces of Bali

 to the streets of South Jakarta

to the villages on Java

This is all Indonesia.

It all combines together to complete this incredible country that I have called home for the past eight months, and that I only get to call home for 65 days more. Indonesia will forever have a special place in my heart long after I hop on that plane back home, and I can only hope to come back again in the future.

ulang tahun ke-tujuhebelas di Indonesia

here's a quick bahasa lesson:

ulang tahun= birthday

tujuhbelas= seventeen (add ke- to make it seventeenth)

selamat ulang tahun= happy birthday

Hopefully from this very quick and informative lesson you are able to translate the title, which is "seventeenth birthday in indonesia". I turned seventeen a week ago and it was been a whirwind experience involving more cake than I possibly could eat on my own and celebrating with my favorite jumble of multicultural friends I have managed to make here.

On Saturday night I invited a few friends from school over and we had a small party, eating cake and talking and all that fun stuff. 

Sunday was my actual birthday, but since there was a wedding I was attending I had planned on celebrating on Saturday and leaving it at that, which didn't exactly happen. I watched the wedding festivities with my host family. My host dad's secretary (who is also our next door neighbor) was getting married and the ceremonies were in the street right in front of our house. I could hear the music all day from inside my house and the tables of food went right up our driveway. My host sister took me to our neighbor's house and they taught me how to properly wear a jilbab, which is a longer process than I realized. 

After the wedding I went to the AFS chapter Jakarta open house, an event for Indonesian high schoolers who are interested in joining AFS and/or the YES Program. It was really fun to talk to them all and share my experiences here as well as talk to Indonesian YES alumni who had been to the US before. After the open house I went out to dinner with the AFS Indonesia volunteers and had a nice birthday dinner, complete with yet another cake.

at the open house with Indonesian YES returnees

We ended up at a Japanese restaurant because I saw other bule there and felt the need to investigate. I never did talk to them but by overhearing their accents I can definitely confirm they were Australian. I do live in Jakarta so there's a fair amount of bule here but I definitely still get excited when I see them, as most foreigners who come to Indonesia have an interesting story.

When I went to school the next morning, my host dad warned me my classmates might do something big. I then went through the whole day pretty paranoid, completely not sure what to expect. At the end of the day my friends told me I was going to recite Pancasila ( the 5 points of Indonesian ideology which I had just attempted to memorize) in front of my teacher. I am not a fan of reciting things (especially in other languages) so I reluctantly followed them down the stairs towards the teachers lounge. As we were making our way down, a random friend came out of nowhere and put a blindfold me on me. I was so surprised but my friend held my hand and just told me to follow her. 

We made our way to the central volleyball court when I suddenly heard a roar of applause and cheering. My friends took the blind fold off and standing in front of me was the entire eleventh grade, roughly 250 people. My friends were holding a giant banner that read "Selamat ulang tahun Sarahbule!" and all 250 of them had signed it. My immediate reaction was to burst out laughing, it was so unlike anything I could have possibly imagined happening on my birthday but it was perfect.

My friends and I went back inside since it started to rain and we ate cake and watched korean game shows until we all went home. It was a good day.

Birthdays are both the completion of one chapter and the beginning of another. Thinking of where I was at my sixteenth birthday (eating pizza with my friends a mere six days before finding out I was coming to Indonesia) feels like a lifetime ago. Birthdays prove just how much can change in only a year. A year ago I never would have imagined my next birthday would be 9000 miles away, but that's the beauty of life and the unexpected path you may find yourself on. I wouldn't trade this past year for anything in the world, and I hope I can continue to grow and learn from this experience even after I go home. 

P.S. my official return date is July 12, and I will be back in madison as of July 15th. 

six days of sunsets

Two weeks ago I emerged from my plane straight onto the Jakarta tarmac, still sunburnt and smelling of the sea, salt, and sand of the island of Bali. I was still carrying my sarong in my purse as I snacked on pie susu (one of my favorite Balinese treats), trying to hold on to the past week with all my might even after I had arrived home.

Bali is about a two hour flight from Jakarta but in ways it felt like a completely different country. We did not see islamic mosques at every street corner or hear the call to prayer radiate over the archipelago, but instead walked along side Hindu religious offerings on the streets and temples within the pasars (markets). I saw more foreigners and tourists in one week than I had in the past six months in Jakarta, and I wore shorts outside for the first time since I left Madison last August.

these hindu offerings are scattered across the streets of Bali

I went to Bali with a huge group of friends, including six YES Abroaders, one AFSer from Mexico, my two host siblings, my host cousin, and an AFS volunteer from Surabaya. We all stayed in Kuta, a touristy beach town near Denpasar, the largest city in Bali. Although after living in Jakarta (population 10ish million) for the past six months Denpasar felt much more like a kampung than anything. 

After spending our first day lounging at the beach in Kuta, we headed inland to Ubud, an area well known for being the setting of the book and movie Eat, Pray, Love (both of which I have read and seen). In Ubud we made the decision to enter the hutan monyet, or monkey forest, which I must say is not for the light of heart. I'm normally not scared of animals but let's just say after standing in a forest surrounded on all sides by fairly ferocious looking primates I am rethinking exactly how I plan on spending further "relaxing" vacations. Literally holding onto my camera for dear life and whimpering while grabbing onto other people's hands will not be included in future itineraries. That said, the monkeys were really cute and I did get some pictures which make it pretty worth it.

Kuta Beach

Emily R, Carly, Ellen, and I at Kuta Beach

Me, Ellen, Emily R, and Carly at the hutan monyet

While in Ubud, we also went shopping alongside absolutely picturesque rice fields. Rice fields have become my favorite geographical feature of Indonesia, and the rice fields in Bali are unlike any I have ever seen. Because of this I am really just going to let the pictures speak for themselves:

The next day we all piled into a van (six people in the middle row where normally there would be three) and drove north to Tanah Lot, a well known touristy site on the ocean. Tanah Lot is a well known and commonly photographed landmark in bali, and it is also featured on the 50,000 rupiah bill (roughly $5 USD). While we were there we went out on the rocks and watched the sun set over the ocean, one of six ocean sunsets we observed that week.

The rest of the trip was filled with snorkeling outings, shopping at pasars, and lots of relaxing walks on the beach. Being able to speak Indonesian gave us all a boost above other tourists and we were able to bond with the Balinese people and deepen our bond with the island and its unique culture. We made a friend on the beach one night who serenaded us all with his ukelele as the sun went down and we sang "3 Little Birds", "Hey Jude" and other beachy tunes together while other bule simply looked on. 

After only one week in Bali I was hooked, there's no doubt about that. I fell in love with this little island paradise and I hope to return again sometime soon and watch six more sunsets over the ocean. 

Until then, thanks as always for reading and supporting me. 

Sarah

color run & a comedian: january/february highlights

These last few weeks in Indonesia have been some of the busiest of my entire 6 (?!?!) months here. In short, they include a running a 5k, volunteering, playing tour guide for a week, celebrating Chinese New Year, and running into an Indonesian celebrity at dinner. I've made a lot of new friends and been reunited with old ones in the last six weeks, which were some of the most exciting since I've been here.

It all started in January when I went to a middle school in Depok ("suburb" on the southern end of Jakarta) for an afs event and ended up being invited back to help out and teach english. I met up with my friend and english teacher a week later and we went to her mom's house to meet with about five students who I had met the week before. We spent the afternoon making Indonesian desserts and practicing both our English and Indonesian and I had a great time getting to know everyone and show them pictures of my life here and in America. This was my first time volunteering in Indonesia and I am really hoping to be able to continue this. 

The next day I did the Color Run with Ellen, a YES Abroader also from Wisconsin and Atika, an Indonesian YES returnee who goes to my school in Bekasi. For those who might not know, the Color Run is basically a 5 kilometer run where the runners are sprayed with colorful powder throughout the race and come out looking something like a sweaty rainbow (the Indonesia race at least where it was around 85 degrees when we ran this). The Color Run came to Madison in June when I was in DC for the PDO so I was excited to finally see what this was all about. 

midway through

the final product

A few weeks later Izzy, another YES Abroader from Surabaya in East Java, came to visit for a few weeks so Ellen, Emily, and I could play tour guide around Jakarta. Izzy and I went thrift shopping in a hidden gem that is Jalan Surabaya, basically an Indonesian style flea market of antiques that you bargain for. Bargaining still not being a strongsuit of mine, partly due to the fact that I will never look Indonesian, was not as successful as it could have been but still pretty fun.

The next day Emily, Izzy, and I headed to Kota Tua (lit. old town) which is an older, more touristy Dutch area of Jakarta. The buildings in Kota Tua date back to the dutch era of Indonesia which lasted over 300 years and ended in 1945. There are even old cannons and jail cells you can visit there. The three of us ended up touring around for the afternoon and having lunch at a very 1940s feeling dutch cafe. Kota Tua is one of my favorite places to visit in Jakarta because of its quaint and historic nature intertwined with street vendors and performers to remind you that you are in fact still in Indonesia. 

bule food tastes so so good after almost six months of rice

We wrapped up Izzy's last few days in Jakarta by searching for other western food outlets (stumbling upon an amazing French and Turkish restuarant), shopping, and general touring. Sunday night, Ellen, Izzy, and I met up for dinner at a Turkish restaurant only to discover (thanks to Ellen and her Indonesian TV knowledge) that right behind us sat a famous Indonesian comedian/TV personality/author. We got to take a picture with him, and I think he was surprised that the three of us both knew who he was and spoke Indonesian. That night I looked him up to find out he has more than 6 million followers on twitter. So needless to say I'm going to find out who this guy is and watch his show.

Izzy and I with Raditya Dika

And since I did actually go to school as well in the past few weeks here are a few pictures from SMA 5 Bekasi as well :)

Indonesians like to use this tool you put on top of  your Iphone to give the picture this warped effect, in case you're curious


Thank you to everyone who reads this for your continuing support, it truly means so much to me. I am very happy to say Indonesia has been treating me wonderfully lately. Today marks five months until I am home so I am trying to just capture every moment and make the most of the second half of this experience.