Sekolah Aku

Yesterday morning, I went with Vania to visit my school SMK Kasihan. We got a short tour from the teacher who knew the most English, and I was able to watch a few classes. The dancers were so good! I hope I will learn fast. There were about 12 people in each dance class; one was all girls and the other was co-ed. The movements were so exact, it was mesmerizing. There were different positions for the fingers, and moves where they only tilted their heads in a certain way. The first thing I think I'll have to work on is bending my fingers back- I tried to curve my fingers like they do but they don't go very far... I hope a lot of stretching will do the trick. I also saw a few gamelan classes. The type of gamelan that I will be learning is called karawitan, and it looked even more difficult to do than the dancing. Gamelan is different from any type of music I've ever heard, and I couldn't pick up any sort of rhythm to it. So that will certainly be a challenge to learn. After the tour, we went back to the office and I got my schedule. As of now, I am taking three different dance classes, Javanese, Javanese singing, Indonesian, and karawitan. The singing, Indonesian, and Javanese classes will only be once a week, and so three days a week I will be dancing all day. Wish me luck :) I am set to start on Sept. 8, when all the students get back from break.

Before leaving, I got a bag of cloth to make my uniform with. I will have two long sleeve, collared white shirts, two grey skirts, a batik short sleeve collared shirt, and a black skirt to match. The batik uniform is for Friday and Saturday. I'm so glad I have to wear a uniform! Then maybe I can look more like everyone else- I feel really tall and American wherever I go these days. My host mother said she will call a tailor to the house to take measurements soon.

This morning, I had my first Indonesian lesson from my host mother, with the occasional help from Vania. My pronunciation is awful. Bahasa Indonesia may use the same alphabet as English, but the sounds are not similar at all. Sometimes we will repeat words back and forth until I say it somewhat right, but most of the time they just laugh at my attempts. I'm sure I sound really odd. But we will continue lessons every morning, Ibu said, which is great. I only have two weeks to prepare before I have to go to school. Setiap pagi, saya mempelajari bahasa. Every morning I practice the language. Dan setiap hari, and every day, I will get better.