Sibuk

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I cannot believe how fast time is going by for me right now. I checked my calendar this morning and I literally could not believe that I was left with only 8 weeks left in Indonesia, which also prompted me to put together an itinerary of everything I have left to do with the time while I'm here. A really good friend of mine, Sam, invited me to join him and his family around Bali while his parents are visiting all the way from Wisconsin, so I'm crazy excited about getting to do that soon. And even though the feeling of going home soon is a little overwhelming, I have a feeling that somehow it won't be goodbye forever once I get on the plane and head back to Chicago in June. 

But! I'm still really enjoying my classes at the art/fashion school of Surabaya and I've managed to make a lot of friends there already, which makes my days there of sewing traditional Indonesian ceremonial clothing , going through the boxes of material for new dresses and gossiping about boys make it feel more like a summer camp than a school. But I really do love it. I think that going to that kind of school has really helped me to explore and learn more about Indonesian culture in a way that I wouldn't have been able to had I been sent to go to just a regular old high school. 

One thing I've been meaning to mention is how difficult it is to say the word 'you' in Indonesian. In English, we use the word 'you' when speaking to everyone, from babies to our grandparents. In Indonesian, however, there are so many things to think about while you're using the word 'you' because how you say it will imply the level of respect that you are giving to that individual, and respect is a huge part of Indonesian (and pretty much Asian in general) culture. When I first got here, I pulled out my little Indonesian phrasebook and was presented with only two forms of the word 'you', kamu and anda. Anda, I thought, was for adults and kamu was for close friends and children. I've been using just these two forms, and getting along just fine, but it wasn't until about a week ago that a friend told me that I'd in fact been making a huge mistake with my Indonesian for the past 8 months in using just these two forms. She supposed that no one had bothered to correct me because they still understood me, but because I'm a bule (white foreigner) they didn't want to embarrass me and tell me I'd said the wrong thing so they probably waved it off and went along with it. But seriously! I've been here 8 months! She said not to worry about being disrespectful, but was kind enough to tell me of the other forms of 'you', and how they should all be used. I now know that there are about 8, but if I was in a place like Bali or I was speaking Javanese, that there would be even more depending on the caste systems that those areas have in place. Its helped me immensely, but I still feel a little embarrassed at how I've been addressing people since I've gotten here. Sigh. I guess that's what I get for never actually taking a class of Bahasa Indonesia here or in the U.S., instead just kind of picking it up as I go along. Luckily right now I do feel really fluent, and I can't wait to see what another 2 months will do. 

I'll be crazy busy this month, especially with my Rotary district (3420) conference coming up in a couple weeks in Solo, Indonesia, but I'll be sure to post a lot more pictures soon. Oh! And I officially accepted a teaching position in Panama for this summer. I know I won't get to be home in Chicago for as long as I would've liked, but I am completely thrilled at this opportunity. Now to find where I've left my Spanish dictionary... 

The picture I have up is of a sunset near a beach about a two hours' drive from Surabaya that I joined my host mom on this past weekend while we were attending a wedding. 

"Not until we are lost do we begin to find ourselves." -Henry David Theroux