fall festivities

I love fall. That's one of the things that's been hardest to adjust to - having only two seasons: dry and rainy. While loved ones back home may be enjoying the crisp autumn air; leaves changing into brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red; and corn mazes in the shape of Abraham Lincoln, I'm sweating in the constant 90-degree heat, missing the festive hayrides and cider.

Well, last week, we brought a little bit of America to southeast Asia with a Fall Festival! Complete with homemade scarecrows, caramel popcorn, and pumpkin decorating. We taught them about the four seasons and how fall is associated with the harvest. They learned how to play hot potato with a pumpkin that surprisingly didn't bust when it was dropped and got to take pictures next to our scarecrows (which I somehow managed to not get a single picture of). I did get some pictures of our other festivities, however.

Caramel popcorn! We put the caramel on the side because A: they tend to not like really sweet things,
so B: we didn't want to waste any of the precious caramel sauce.

A group decorating their pumpkin

The finished pumpkins. The front left pumpkin was the winner. Earlier we talked about the seasons, and so this group decorated their pumpkin with scenes from spring, summer, fall, and winter.
If you'll notice the back right pumpkin, you may see a familiar face. It's Angry Birds!

Nothing could have finished the evening better than a little bit of line dancing. That's right: imagine 30+ Asians dancing to the Cotton-Eyed Joe. Highlight of the evening. We had a blast, and it was great to be able to share fond traditions from home with new friends.

wedding karaoke

For your enjoyment. Example of karaoke being for fun, not show of talent.

Language school day 1: "Ah, bay, chay, day..."

Little else is more humbling than having to relearn the alphabet.

Day one of language school is officially over. Even though our lesson was only two hours long, we learned a TON of stuff. Okay, maybe "learn" is not the right word. There are a lot of new words floating around in my brain. Whether or not I've learned them is another issue.

The other part of our schooling is spending two hours out in the community trying to use what we learned. I can see how this is extremely beneficial for language learning. However, for an introvert, this is also very uncomfortable, for lack of better words. I like to have everything perfect before I try it out. So, here I am, carrying around my little cheat sheet, walking through the market that's two blocks down from our house, and all these people are staring at me, and I just want to hide. Morgan, on the other hand, is thrilled to be able to speak to the people, even if we do only know three phrases, and is walking fearlessly up to people right and left. I do a little pep talk to gather enough courage to walk up to an ibu, or older woman, on the side of the street. By the time I stumble through my second phrase, a small crowd has gathered to listen to the buleh, and they're all laughing at me, who knows why exactly.

After a couple attempts, we enter a local department store and walk up to the friendly workers who are hanging around. Talking to people who smile at you and don't gather crowds is a lot easier. After a while, the people whom Morgan has already talked to spot me wandering and run up, stand in front of me, and smile, waiting for me to practice my horrible language skills. Thank you, Morgan, for making the rest of my day a hundred times easier.

Despite being absolutely exhausting and challenging, in more ways than one, today was a very successful day. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel at the end of the week, but I'm just taking it day by day. Perlahan-lahan - Slowly, step by step.

"G-d is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency at all times, you may abound in every good work." 2 Cor. 9:8

Traditional dance at the wedding

 

Weddings

Sunday we had the honor of attending a Muslim wedding. Marriane explained that most of the time, Muslims will have their wedding at the mosque with close friends and family, and then they'll have a big reception usually in a home. This time, however, was a little out of the ordinary and they had their reception at a hotel. It was quite the experience. Very glamorous.

Rather than sending flowers, congratulations are written in fake flowers are written on billboards that line the streets. Billboards are also sent for birthdays and funerals.

Decorations vary depending on what tribes they are from. The couple sits in the middle more or less the entire time, and guests line up to say their congrats and take pictures as they leave. Their parents sit on either side.

They also LOVE karaoke. For them, karaoke is a more private, social event more about having fun than talent. They usually have private rooms for you and your friends, rather than have you sing in front of a bunch of people you don't know. We have yet to actually go out and karaoke, but we have sung in the house of one of the workers here. While usually here you and your friends have a private room where you karaoke rather than in front of a large crowd, at the wedding anyone who wanted to was welcome to come up to the stage and sing... regardless of talent. I didn't get up there, but some of our friends did. It was a lot of fun. Soon I hope to have a video up of one guy singing an English song and also a video of a traditional dance that a group did. :)

"No spicy, no taste"

It's hard to believe that I've already been in this country for four days. Accomplishments this week:

• Got a cell phone.
• Went to the fabric market (see pictures below)
• Rode in both an angkot and a becak (once again, see pictures below)
• Experienced our first power outage here. Makes you really appreciate the fans and AC in our bedroom.
• Got to meet our neighbors when we showered at their house because our water wasn't working while we didn't have power.
• Was told by several natives that I look Asian. Even Asians think I look Asian...
• Bought groceries, including rice, chocolate cereal strongly resembling coco puffs (good to know I'm eating healthy, right? :p), guava juice, and double-stuffed oreos

Things I'm having to get used to:

• The spicy foods.. apparently I'm not as used to even a little bit of spice as I thought.
• Being woken up every morning at 5 am by the call to pr-er... and hearing it four other times throughout the day.
• Using only my right hand for eating, giving, and receiving
• Everyone driving on the left side of the road... actually just the driving in general.
• Hearing everything that goes on around outside our house - currently, there's a man who keeps laughing like "hee heeehehehehe." It's actually quite funny. But when it's loud college students at 2 am, not so much.

And lastly, the pictures I promised:

My house for the next three months

A becak (bay-chuck) - their version of a taxi

They play nerts!

My first meal - Mmmmm...

Fabric market

"Thus says the Lord: 'Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.'" - Jer. 9:23-24

First day = Success

Four flights and 36 hours later, I've made it safe and sound to southeast Asia! I wasn't able to meet up with my language school partner for the flights thanks to Houston weather delaying her flight, but it ended up being good. My layovers weren't longer than two hours each, so by the time I got off the plane and found my way to the gate, I really only had an hour to chill. Note to self: figure out a plan B for getting separated from partner BEFORE you leave. An hour is not long enough to panic, call a billion people, try to change flights, and be okay with the realization that you're flying across the world alone. All in all, it was okay If nothing else, it gave me an empty seat next to me to spread out on. And all my bags made it, minus the luggage straps and one TSA lock (sorry, Dad).

Today was pretty packed as they tried successfully to keep me awake the whole day, as that's the way to battle jet lag. Rode through the city (I've decided Asians all drive in the same terrifying manner - is that presumptuous of me?), ate my first local food (delish), had my first shopping trip (apparently, in the department stores, after you select your items, they write you a bill and you pick up your things at the register), and met a lot of young, eager English students. They were awesome. Do I really get to do this for two years??

Language study starts in a week and a half. First, a local friend is taking us around town to get used to the culture and basically know how to survive later this week. Pictures to come. Right now - glorious sleep!

New chapter begins

Tomorrow's the big day. My flight leaves from Lexington around 2 bound for Houston, connecting to Moscow to Southeast Asia. Monday will more or less not exist as I will be traveling the entire day, arriving Tuesday morning their time (currently there's an 11 hour time difference). Everything I own fits in two trunks, a backpack, and a purse.

 

Be lifting up travel, loved ones, and goodbyes. Thank you, once again, for all of the support and encouragement. You guys are awesome.