This past weekend I flew to Jakarta for the District 3400 Inbound Orientation! There are 25 other exchange students spread out across 4 different islands (Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Bali) and we all met in Jakarta for a little sightseeing, then stayed at an inn in Puncak for next two and a half days. It was interesting to hear the different experiences people are having based on where they are staying and who their host families are. Jakarta sounds like an intimidating place to exchange- a very large city with horrible traffic all the time. One girl told me it takes her two hours to get home from school every day- she said she'll fall asleep on the bus, wake back up and see that traffic hasn't moved an inch. How frustrating! Another inbound living in Medan (northern Sumatra) has a host family that owns the high school he attends, so he actually lives in the school. The school mosque is right outside his bedroom window, too, so he can never sleep through the call to prayer at night. The students staying in Bali seem to really like it- though they say learning Balinese is very hard. It's a challenge for me to learn words in Indonesian and Javanese at the same time, but at least there are some similarities between the languages. I asked one of the exchange students to speak in Balinese, and he said a simple greeting, but it sounded entirely different from bahasa Indonesia. Again, I'm glad I'm staying in Yogya :)
Hearing about some of the public schools made me even more grateful that I go to SMKI (I think I really lucked out on that one) especially since I'm taking a gap year. I'm glad I have the motivation to participate and learn new things in school, or the weekdays would definitely get monotonous. Most of the students I talked to said that everyone generally sleeps through classes or goes on Facebook or Twitter, and that teachers often don't show up to class. (Very different from high school in the US) One other exchange student, Brenda from Canada, is really enjoying her school, though (like me). She is staying in Lampung (in southern Sumatra- she's the only Rotary inbound in her city) and attends a small private school where there are only 13 kids in her class, but they go on all these amazing trips like to Bali, camping, and staying in a traditional village. So all of our Indonesian exchange years are already different in many ways, but perhaps that's what it's like in every country.
As for the orientation part, after everyone introduced themselves in Jakarta we went on a short tour of the city to see a few museums and Monas, a monument. It was so hot! Everyone was dripping sweat and we started to loathe big group pictures because it would take so long to get through everyone's cameras. That afternoon we all packed into two coach buses and started the trek to Puncak, which is a few hours outside of Jakarta. I had been told that Puncak was cold, so I made sure to bring a jacket. Surprisingly enough, I barely took my jacket off once I got there, and even layered leggings underneath my jeans the last two days of Orientation. It was freezing. Probably not by Minnesota standards (I should say definitely), but it felt very uncomfortable to be cold after two sticky, sweaty months in Yogya.
Group picture! I'm pretending to be from Belgium, with Pauline.
Monas, in Jakarta
At one of the museums we visited there were a bunch of kids on a field trip that were very excited to see a big group of foreigners- so just as we were about to leave they started asking us for autographs. This is Julia (Brazil), who is a Yogya inbound, too.
We also stopped at a park outside of Jakarta where there were traditional houses from Makassar on display.
Once in Puncak, we spent the next two days hanging around the hotel, meeting the 2010-2011 D3400 Rotex as well as several members of the District Youth Exchange Committee, going over rules and emergency procedures, team building activities, and an inbound talent show. There were two parts to the talent show, which took place on the last night of orientation. The first part was a regional performance, where the inbounds from each city dressed in the traditional costume of their region and usually sung a song, except for the two girls from Makassar who did a traditional dance. The Yogya kids and I sang a Javanese children's song, and the lyrics go like this:
Yo prokonco dolanan ning njobo
Padang mbulan, padange koyo reno
Rembulanene sing awe-awe
Ngelingake ojo podo turu sore
The song is about children who play at night by the light of the moon. Mbulan is moon- in Indonesian it's bulan (the same word for month), so that's easy to remember. I think the title is Padang Mbulan, but I'm not sure.
For the other talent- the one from your country of origin- the other Americans and I (there are five of us) recited the Pledge of Allegiance, for lack of any better ideas. Each one of us had to go through it and make sure we remembered all the words because no one had recited it since gradeschool. So it was a good refresher for us, despite being a boring performance. The talent from Canada took the grand prize, in my opinion- they had no idea what to do for their talent either but they ended up showcasing some Canadian wildlife charades-style and it was quite hilarious. I should go to Canada more often- the people from there are a lot of fun :)
Speaking of wildlife- right as I opened the door to the room I was sharing with Yessi, from Mexico, we found a praying mantis waiting in front of the bathroom. Those things are big. Much bigger than I thought, and much more frightening. From all the pictures I've seen, and maybe just from the name, I thought praying mantises were peaceful insects, but I could barely take a step into the room. Whenever I moved closer to it, it would circle its front legs (arms?) like a boxer getting ready to strike. I was worried that it would jump on me (just thinking of those long poky legs gives me the shivers) but it flies, too! I was surprised by my own scream. The centipedes in my basement in Minnesota won't seem half as bad now. Eventually we got another inbound to take it outside. She just walked up to it and covered it with a trash bin- no fight necessary. I felt a little childish after that.
Overall, Orientation was a nice, relaxing weekend. Despite the cold, it was great to escape city life for awhile. Everyone was reluctant to leave, of course. On the drive back to the Jakarta airport on the third day we stopped at a zoo for one last group activity. There were almost no fences for the animals, only large areas partitioned off which you drove through in your car (or in our case, a big bus). The animals could walk up to your window, and families in cars could buy carrots and things to feed them with.
Here are a few photos:
Sunbears- unique to Indonesia, and almost extinct.
There were all these signs outside of the wild cats area saying that you shouldn't
get out of your car, complete with a picture of a lion attacking the back of a car.
None of the cats seemed interested at all in approaching the cars, though. I bet they make
sure to feed them really well.
An example of my photography skills- there was a man riding an elephant past our bus window.
Just like home :) It made me hungry for a bison burger.
Following my long weekend in Puncak, I saw my first student dance performance at Pendopo, the pavillion at SMKI. It was great. And did I mention that I got to perform three karawitan songs? I played with 1T3, the lower class that I have lessons with, so we actually performed before the real show started (which meant there were only about three parents in the audience). But I was still nervous and excited! I played the sarong (the xylophone one- I've learned one name so far), and I messed up a few times but hopefully it wasn't too noticeable. Mistakes or not, it felt good to show off what I've learned so far. After, I stayed to watch about an hour and a half of the dance and theatre performances. I so wish I could have stayed for the whole thing- the theatre performance was unlike anything I've seen before. It was performed by the highest class at SMKI and it was like a combination of everything that is taught here. All the movements were dance numbers, but the characters would sing their lines in Javanese while dancing and illustrating the story. There was a prince and princess, maidens, a few different warriors, and goblins, from what I saw. I couldn't tell what exactly was going on, except for the fight scenes. I enjoyed seeing the extravagant costumes and makeup; it must be so hot to perform with all those layers and accessories.
This is where I played karawitan! I was sitting right behind the big wooden pole on the right. From the front of the stage, I was just about in the center of the gamelan set up.
The first dance of the night- tari putri.
Second dance performance- tari gagah (correct spelling this time).
The beginning of the theatre performance. This is the prince I believe, in the middle of dancing and reciting Javanese. I wish I knew who he was in real life- he had a great, jolly voice. Fun to watch.
Here the goblins, or some sort of scary-looking creatures, are attacking the prince. The princess is the one sitting to the side.
A close up. My favorite part was the dreadlock wigs, I think. It had a nice scary effect when they
would shake their heads and act menacing.
The maidens, as I'm going to call them, getting ready to dance. I forgot to mention that there was live gamelan being played throughout the whole performance (as you can see in the back). There were a few teachers from SMKI playing, but mostly students from the upper class.
Tari putri number, with a masked character sneaking around in the background. He may have kidnapped one of the women? I'm not really sure- but one of the dancers did follow the masked guy offstage. Then later there was a fight scene between him and the prince, all within a dance of course.
I'm supposed to know how to wrap the kain (the skirt part) like this, but I don't know the details of how everything goes yet. This is a good picture of how you leave extra fabric hanging down on one side though. I wear a kain like this for my tari putri tests in school (put on with the help of my friends).
The masked guy is back. This was probably before the fight scene with the prince, who entered on the other side of the stage.
Whew, that's the most pictures I've ever posted I think. Perhaps I'm just getting new-culture-happy, but I'm excited to share a little bit of the performance at Pendopo. It's much better in person, but at least you can get to see the different costumes. I'm so glad I go to SMKI :) (And I hope you're not sick of my saying that yet). I never thought I'd have a particularly unique exchange- yes, I am the first one from my Rotary district to exchange with Indonesia- but I never imagined I'd be able to attend a well known arts school. After talking with the other inbounds I know that I am very lucky to be able to learn and see so much of the traditional Javanese culture. And it's all because I mentioned learning traditional dance was a goal for my exchange year in my first email to my host family. (Perhaps a good tip for any prospective exchange students :) Good luck.) So, up until now in my exchange, I've performed my first gamelan song, survived my first illness away from home, and now all I have to do is have my first dream in bahasa Indonesia and I think the initiation process will be pretty much complete. I've been waiting on that last one for awhile now... Semoga datang seturusnya. I hope it comes soon. Until then, sweet dreams everyone! Mimpi indah!
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