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