I've been really, really busy these past couple of weeks and realized that I should probably let everyone know what I've been up to! I finally got a chance to go into the mountains with my host family. On a clear day from Makassar, you can see the faint outlines of the vast emerald jungle looming in the distance, and it was really cool to finally get a chance to go there and explore a little. We stayed at a friend's house who has 3 Jeeps that are perfect for off-roading (is it still off-roading if there are no actual roads?) up and down the mountains. When I was just walking on my own, I looked down and saw a long, faint line in the dirt that left a trail from the dirt road and into the jungle. When I told my host dad he gasped and said, "Ular! Snake!" Apparently, there are a lot of huge (6-10 feet) snakes that kinda lurk around everywhere. Times like this I realize that I'm defiantly not in Chicago, when the biggest threat to my life becomes giant snakes instead of getting hit by a car or something.
At nighttime in the mountains, I couldn't see an inch of sky not filled with twinkling stars in the distance. I love that feeling. It helps me to put a lot of stuff in my life into perspective. I crawled up on to the top of the roof with a cup of tea and I could hear the monkeys howling in the distance, the rustling of leaves as they swung from tree to tree.
Also, I got a new hobby here! Journalism. The local newspaper, Fajar, invited me to become one of their correspondents for the teen section of the newspaper. I'll be writing my columns first in indonesian and then in english. I don't think there could've been a better possible opportunity for me to practice my indonesian!
After living here for nearly two months now, I'm beginning to really feel like a local. Yeah, people still stop and watch me when I'm just walking down the street and people still ask to take pictures with me, but I'm beginning to find so much comfort in my daily walk to the corner of the street where they sell kelapas, coconuts, with a big twisty straw for fifty cents each and catching up on soccer games with my host dad at night.
I know there's been a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world lately, and there have been demonstrations and protests around Indonesia and even in my city. But don't worry- I'm totally safe! I hope that my presence and interest in learning more about both Indonesian and muslim culture will help to give Indonesians a better opinion of the US.
I promise that there will be lots of pictures in my next post, I've been lazy about charging my camera battery!
At nighttime in the mountains, I couldn't see an inch of sky not filled with twinkling stars in the distance. I love that feeling. It helps me to put a lot of stuff in my life into perspective. I crawled up on to the top of the roof with a cup of tea and I could hear the monkeys howling in the distance, the rustling of leaves as they swung from tree to tree.
Also, I got a new hobby here! Journalism. The local newspaper, Fajar, invited me to become one of their correspondents for the teen section of the newspaper. I'll be writing my columns first in indonesian and then in english. I don't think there could've been a better possible opportunity for me to practice my indonesian!
After living here for nearly two months now, I'm beginning to really feel like a local. Yeah, people still stop and watch me when I'm just walking down the street and people still ask to take pictures with me, but I'm beginning to find so much comfort in my daily walk to the corner of the street where they sell kelapas, coconuts, with a big twisty straw for fifty cents each and catching up on soccer games with my host dad at night.
I know there's been a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world lately, and there have been demonstrations and protests around Indonesia and even in my city. But don't worry- I'm totally safe! I hope that my presence and interest in learning more about both Indonesian and muslim culture will help to give Indonesians a better opinion of the US.
I promise that there will be lots of pictures in my next post, I've been lazy about charging my camera battery!
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