Jun 18, 2013

Sampai Jumpa, Indonesia

So I've been home from Indonesia for more than a week now. Honestly it's really weird. Everyone is white, everything here is khaki-colored, the supermarkets are all overwhelming. I've enjoyed seeing my friends and family a lot, but I just miss the smell of the ocean and the smiles of the people who greeted me at every street corner, trying to sell me fried bananas and spicy rice. I'm sure things will seem more normal to me the longer I'm back home, but right now I just feel like a fish out of water. 
I still dream in Indonesian. 
I know I will go back to Indonesia one day soon, but first I want to be able to learn and have something viable that I can give back to the country that has been nothing but accepting and hospitable of me. 


"I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell." -Walt Whitman 

Last Days

Last sunset at Losari Beach, Makassar 


My friend Vino and this little kid jammed for at least an hour on ukuleles


The other exchange students and I on the last night 

My little host brother and I together



May 31, 2013

Selamat Tinggal, Surabaya

My bags are all packed and in one hour I'll be leaving for the airport to go to Makassar, where I'll be right up until I go home on Tuesday. While I'm excited to see my old friends in Makassar, it will be really hard to give my final goodbyes to my host family here in Surabaya. I know that I will be back to Indonesia, that this isn't goodbye forever, but I know I'm still going to cry. I've been able to give them little things from back in the States, like Cubs t-shirts, magazines and photographs of Chicago, but how do I show my gratitude for the selfless compassion they showed me for inviting me to live with them for nearly four months? Ever since graduation last year, I've been giving a lot of goodbyes, and each time it never gets any easier. 
But, being in Makassar for my last couple days in Indonesia will be a lot of fun, especially since the other exchange students there are also leaving June 4th like me. I think I can make it through three days without sleep...  

Sampai jumpa, Surabaya! Inshallah


This statue/fountain stands in the central part of the city of Surabaya, which represents the legend as to how the city of Surabaya was created through an ancient battle between a shark and a crocodile. 

May 29, 2013

From Surfboards to Sunrise









I just returned from my nearly month-long trip to the "Island of Gods"- Bali. I was blessed enough to see rice paddies that seemed to roll endlessly along the mountains of Ubud, sit on the edge a boat that was being followed by a pod of over 20 dolphins, climb a volcano to see the sunrise and even catch a few waves in between. My trip started out by meeting up with my friend Sam and the Neubauer family at the airport in Denpasar. Sam and I went to Conserve School together when we were in high school back in the States, an environmentally-minded semester-long boarding school in Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin. As luck would have it, Sam also is doing a Rotary exchange and living in Jakarta this year, and it was incredible to finally be able to see him and catch up. His family was visiting from Racine, WI and we were both there waiting for them at the airport after they had finally arrived in Bali. Together we went to Ubud for a few days and were totally in luck when the cremation ceremony for a member of the royal family in Ubud was to be held just a few blocks down from our hotel. It was a beautiful ceremony that involved having all members of the extended royal family present and dressed to the nines, leading a procession of a black cow that was to be set aflame. The whole ceremony involved traditional dances and music preformed by the people of Ubud and the whole city had come out to share in the event. 
Sam's mom had also planned for us to visit a traditional medicine-man during one of our drives around the neighboring towns of Ubud, which everyone got a kick out of but afterwards we all agreed that it had worked! He felt our shoulders and rubbed his hands along our feet, feeling for bad spirits that could be causing aches and pains. 
A couple days later, I got up with Sam's family at 2 in the morning to do a sunrise climb up Gunung Batur, a active volcano about an hour outside of Ubud. Though I wasn't exactly feeling up for a 3 hour hike when I was attempting to sip some coffee during the drive out to the base of the volcano, it was an experience that I will never forget. The sight of seeing the clouds beneath me literally took my breath away. Even though we were high up, there was still a family of monkeys hanging around the mountain and following the other climbers around the mountain. 
During the rest of my time with the Neubauers, we went snorkelling around Menjangan Island, went art shopping around the streets of Ubud and ate our way through a considerable amount of Kringle cakes that Sam's mom had brought from Racine. I am so grateful to them for letting me join on their adventure and being able to get to know them better. 
After I said goodbye to Sam and his family, I met up with my Balinese friend Bika and went with her to Lovina to look for dolphins. Lovina is on the Northern point of Bali and is famous for all of the dolphins that gather there during sunrise to look for fishes in the shallower waters. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw literally dozens of dolphins leaping around me, their graceful fins diving in-and-out of the waves alongside our little boat. Afterwards we went back to her house in Denpasar and I got to spend a few days surfing around Kuta and Padang Padang. I'm a little sunburned and bruised up, but ther feeling of gliding alongside the shape of a wave is one I'm just hooked to. 
I've still got one week left in Indonesia, and I'll be spending a couple more days in Surabaya with my host family, and then my last few back in Makassar with friends before going back to Chicago! I'll post again before I go home, though. 

I don't know what else to say other than indeed this truly has felt like a life in a year. 

May 28, 2013

To Bali and Back

Photos from my month around Bali... 
Looking down from the cliffside at Uluwatu

The rocks during low-tide at Padang-Padang

A flower from my friend's garden in Denpasar 

Some surfboards available to rent at Kuta Beach 

The rice fields around Ubud 

A monkey at the top of Gunung Batur 

Sunrise on Gunung Batur 

Sunset at Lovina Beach

Sunrise at Lovina, the last fishing boat coming in with the day's catch

The wall of a temple in Ubud 

Above the clouds at Gunung Batur

This is me just after I made it to the top of Gunung Batur

The body of a member of the royal family of Ubud being cremated within a casket representing a cow 

A temple in Ubud 

My friend Sam and I visiting the temples around Ubud 

The door frame of a temple 

A family temple 

The daughter of the family I stayed with while on a home-stay visit in rural Bali 

The best lunch I've ever had- bali guling (suckling pig) at Ibu Oka's in Ubud. It's pretty much the only thing on the menu, and it's a big portion of rice served on banana leaves with spices and sweet sauce with pieces of pork on the side. 

A picture of one of the decorations for the funeral/cremation ceremony in Ubud

Walking along the streets of Denpasar 

My friend Sam and I, getting together after 7 months! 




Apr 30, 2013

Rotary District 3420 Conference in Solo

I've just gotten back from a trip to the middle of Java, in a city called Solo, for the Rotary district conference. There were over 300 Rotarians mostly all from Eastern Indonesia, from places like Lombok and Bali to Sulawesi. It was a neat opportunity for me to get to talk to Rotarians from places that I'd visited and to tell them about what it was like being a Rotary Youth Exchange student. The best part was that the rest of the Rotary exchange kids from my district were there as well, so we all got a chance to hang out and catch up together. I hadn't seen most of them since our orientation in October! I was also a little surprised at how some of my friends hadn't really learned Indonesian yet, but I think that a lot of that has to do with their host families already being able to speak English so it's just more comfortable for them that way. I'm so glad that I had a chance to be fully-immersed with Indonesian right when I arrived early last August because I really think that that's the reason I've been doing so well with the language. I also was lucky enough to participate in the opening ceremony for the orientation dressed up as a Javanese princess! The governor of Jakarta also showed up which was a big surprise, but no one pointed him out to me until after the dance was over which is probably a good thing or I would've been much more nervous! 
But I've also been keeping really busy lately getting ready to go to college! I've finally decided on which school I'll be going to- Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina! I'm so excited to be going there in the fall. And plus they've got great study-abroad programs as well... ;) 
So yeah! That's pretty much what I've been up to. This weekend for my host mom is taking me to Bali and we're staying at their apartment on Nusa Dua so hopefully I can work on my tan a little before I've got to go back to Chicago. I also just found out that my departure date is on June 4th! So. Soon. But I know that these next couple weeks are going to be crazy busy visiting friends around Indonesia and spending time with my host family, so I'm not freaking out too much. 
I'll post pictures of Bali when I get back after this weekend! 
Salam.