First Week

My host dad asked me yesterday, "So, is Chicago very different than Makassar?" and I responded, "Hah, yeah, a little bit". 

The people. 

It's kind of fun to be a minority for the first time in my life. When I see children and wave to them, they'll either become super excited because they've probably never seen a white person before or they'll start crying. Also, about a dozen times everyday people will come up to me asking to take a picture with me. Afterwards they thank me and tell me that none of their friends will believe that they saw me unless they take pictures. It was a bit of a shock to see someone wearing TOMS shoes, and I was going to point to him so that he could notice that I was wearing TOMS, too, but then I realized that he was one of the people that received the pair of shoes. It was just a bit of a realization for me of how different this place is from where I come from. But in all honesty I've never met people in my entire life who are this friendly. It is the middle of Ramadan here, and there are many traditions that follow certain days of Ramadan. So yesterday, my host sister told me that we were going to go to her aunt's house 'to break fasting'. So I went with her, and when we got to the house I was suddenly greeted with about 50 Indonesians smiling at me and greeting me by saying salamalaikoom (greetings be to you from God) and having all sorts of deliciously spicy food handed to me. They all asked me where I was from (they LOVE Americans), welcomed me to Makassar and told me that I could stay at their homes whenever I wanted. I wish that people in America gave this sort of welcome to outsiders. 

The food. 

It's a good thing that I didn't inherit my Scandinavian tastebuds and instead have a huge craving for all things spicy. The food here is amazing. I thought that when coming to a place like Indonesia, I'd get super fit and the food would make me all skinny, but that is not going to be the case. I can't stop eating foods like these fried little dumpling things that you dip in an array of sauces that range from hot to hottest, banana pudding with papaya sauce, sweet jasmine tea... and I've only been here a week. 

Sense of time.

In America, the Chicagoland area especially, I've always felt that I was on a schedule. At 7:15 in the morning school, at certain times I go to certain classes, swimming practice is from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon, 5:00 at night I have a dentist appointment... etc. But here, it's completely different. For instance, yesterday I went with my sister to the doctor. She is going to a different island where malaria is present (Papua- it looks amazing) and wanted to get the pills. She had an appointment, but when we got to the office the doctor wasn't there. She just said, "Oh, we will try again in a little while" and then took me out for ice cream. Maybe it has something to do with living on the ocean, but everyone here seems way more relaxed than at home. 

School.

My school is on vacation for the month of Ramadan, so I won't start until August 23rd. While in Indonesia, I will be attending a vocational art school instead of regular school mostly because the exchange students before me really struggled with the normal Indonesian schools because for the first few months they couldn't understand much of what was going on. I'll be studying traditional Indonesian dance, music and theater but with a focus in dancing. I had a meeting with my headmaster and he said that, in very broken english, that he is thrilled to have an American at the school. I told him that I'd like to join the Red Cross club and the hiking club, and that I was really excited to start class. He also told me, and at the same time kind of signed me up, to be in a dance competition in Yogyakarta (a city on an island that is about a 3 hour plane ride away). I'll probably dedicate an entire post about what that was like. 

Rotary told me to expect to feel like I'm in a 'honeymoon' stage for the first month or so, and then I might hit a bit of a rut. But even if that's true, I'm going to soak up the honeymoon stage for as long as possible. So far, so good. :)