Rumahku

Now that I'm settling into a routine here, I think it would be good to post about my home and everyday life. I get out of bed every school morning around 5:30 am (6:00 am on Sundays) and get ready. Somehow I've gotten into the habit of waking up around 4:00 am, just before the call to prayer starts, and then I fall back asleep for another hour or so once it's over. Usually I'm the first of my host siblings to shower, except on Saturdays, when everyone gets up a half hour earlier. So I have to wait for bathroom time on Saturday mornings. Surprisingly, this is never a big issue even though there are five kids using one bathroom.

For breakfast there is always a glass of warm powdered milk made for the kids, but this is the only time during the day that we drink milk. There aren't any specific breakfast foods here- often the maid prepares yellow or fried rice with sausage bits, but fried tempe or tahu (tofu), duck eggs, tofu "omelets", or bubur (rice porridge) is also common. On Saturdays I go out to breakfast with Vania (host sister) and my host parents Helena and Handono. So far I've had soto or bubur each time (always spicy) but Vania ordered fried chicken the other morning- so anything goes for breakfast.

Every day except for Saturday I get a ride to and from school with the family driver. Everyone at SMKI either walks or takes a motorcycle to school, so I always feel odd (and spoiled) getting dropped off and picked up at the front office. Some students ask me how I get to school and with whom, and when I say the driver takes me in a car they sort of raise their eyebrows and say "Aku ikutlah?" Can I come? I hate to look like the pampered American girl, but I definitely can't complain about my method of transportation as long as it gets me to SMKI six days a week.

I get home from school around 3:00 pm most days, but 11:30 on Fridays and 2:00 on Saturdays. It is typical for people to take two showers a day here- once in the morning and once in the afternoon/evening- so if I've had a lot of dance classes or it was just a really hot day, I'll take a shower after I get home from school. I'm still working on getting into an extracurricular program at my school, but I do have a few after-school activities so far. Thursdays are busy because my bahasa Indonesia tutor comes right after school, and once we get done I head out to the Rotary meeting. On Saturday night I went to a tai bo class that goes on weekly at a health club close to my house. It was fabulous. Tai bo is a mix of self defense and aerobics, so there is lots of punching and kicking, but fast techno music (and a very energetic, enthusiastic instructor). He would often go Woooo hooo! and Ayyyyyy! during the workout and I couldn't help but smile. He's a big reason why I loved the class so much. Besides being a great time it was also a hard workout, so I hope we can make this a regular activity. Pauline, the inbound from Belgium, is taking tai chi classes every Tuesday night, too, which I plan on joining. As for the extracurricular program at my school, there is a batik and metalworking class that I have my eye on. Hopefully I can add that to my list soon; we are meeting with the SMKI headmaster Pak Sunardi to talk about it on Monday.

Dinner is usually around 7:00 or 7:30 pm at my house. There is a wide variety of food we eat for dinner, but it is always served with white rice, sambal, and kecap manis. Sambal is a chili paste that can be homeade by crushing small red chillies in a mortar and pestle, but we also use the bright red, bottled kind that you can find in Asian restaurants in the U.S. I have just recently discovered the wonders of sambal- I put it on everything. Kecap manis is an Indonesian staple, and looks like soy sauce but is thick and sweet like molasses. Kecap manis is always store bought; I've been looking for a recipe but my host mom says that it is very difficult to make. It would be an old, traditional recipe, and sounds like it would be hard to find. People usually add both sambal and kecap manis to everything, even soup. I have to say, the syrupy sweetness makes a really nice combo with the super hot chillies. I like a majority of meals here, but a few of my favorites are botok (finely shredded fish and coconut wrapped and cooked in a banana leaf, very spicy), pepes tahu (tofu and coconut wrapped, cooked in banana leaf), fried tempe, bubur, soto, and dim sum (Chinese dumplings). Fried tempe can easily be boring, but the maid has a way of cooking it so it tastes sort of caramelized, but it's still spicy. SO good. I asked Vania how she does it- you coat the tempe in some sort of spice mix and then fry it. I'll be getting that recipe for sure, once I can speak Indonesian. I do know the maid's name, by the way, I'm just afraid to write it down because I don't know how to spell it.

A quick note about the maid- it was odd at first, but I've gotten used to it. I still have to tidy my room and help with dishes and some cleaning every Sunday here, so it's not too different from life in Minnesota. The maid comes at 5:30 am every weekday, mixes our milk and fixes us breakfast. She packs lunches sometimes too, and cooks for us on Fridays when we come home from school in the afternoon. Laundry is done every day, but I don't know where she does it- I don't think there's a washing machine in the house. She might take it to the laundry place down the street but I'm not sure. She leaves around 4 or 4:30 pm, ,and so dinner is always cooked by my host mom.

Evenings are generally quiet at home. Everyone does homework in their rooms, or watches TV. I go to bed around 8 or 8:30 pm- and I get a lot of crap for it. But I'm always so tired by then, it just feels like the time to go to sleep. One of Vania's friends Felix stopped by my house on the 8th to wish me happy birthday, but he had to turn around and go back home because I was already asleep (it was 9 o' clock). In my defense, night life here is nothing compared to U.S. standards (and other places around the world, from what I've read in other outbounds' blogs). Since a majority of the population wakes up early (4:30 or 5:00 am for prayer), most of the city shuts down by 11 pm. This lifestyle fits me well; I've never been good at staying up late. While we're talking about going to bed, I'll mention that they don't use sheets here, just a fitted sheet over the mattress and a blanket. This is certainly appropriate for the climate- but it seemed odd at first, when my winter Minnesota bed has sheets, two/three blankets, and a quilt.

This is the front of my house, from an odd angle. I couldn't get a good picture with the gate closed.

Everyone's shoes outside the front door.

This is the living room and eating area. All the bedrooms are connected to this room- mine is on the left wall.

This is my bedroom, and the typical way of making your bed here.

The kitchen. The dog kennels are just outside the door.

Here are two of my host family's dogs. I don't know their names- they always bark at me so I don't hang around them much.

This is Angel (a very fitting name- she's so sweet) and her seven puppies. My family is planning on selling the puppies, but I've heard rumors we might keep one... fingers crossed.

This is the backyard. There's a pomegranate tree in the right corner (by trellis)- so far there are several pomegranates growing, but they're small and green. There isn't grass here- just short, round, leafy plants. Difficult to describe.

More pictures of SMKI.

The cement courtyard and mango tree. The karawitan rooms are in the building straight ahead.

These are pictures of the karawitan set in the vocal room- so there aren't any xylophones like I mentioned before. (They're not xylophones- I keep forgetting to ask the real name.) But this will give the general idea.

There is another, larger karawitan set in the room next door that is used for actual karawitan lessons. There's always a class in there, so I haven't gotten a chance to take a picture of it yet. There is also another karawitan set in one of the large dance rooms. It's never been used during one of my lessons, but I got the chance to peak in on a theater lesson after school one day when there were students reciting lines and dancing to live gamelan music. Cool. There are also two gamelan sets (I think Javanese gamelan sets), and a Balinese gamelan set which I have never seen (the door is always closed) at SMKI. The Javanese gamelan rooms are used for puppet performances, from what I've seen, which are so fun to watch. A few students play different instruments while one student sits cross legged at the front of the room and does the puppet motions in front of a white screen. The puppet student holds a metal something between the first two toes of his right foot, and hits it on a bell (but it makes a very metallic sound, like a cow bell) at different tempos to help narrate the story. Very cool.

I know this isn't supposed to be a post about school- but this seemed like the appropriate time to throw that out there. There is so much talent at SMKI.

And that's all for now! I tried durian fruit for the first time last night, so there will be a post about food coming your way soon.