My sister asked me on my facebook wall what I do on weekends, if I spend them with my family or if I go to parties. I'm going to share the answer with everyone!
So, the explanation needs a context:
In Indonesia, most students go to school from Monday to Saturday...usually. At my school, I go to school Monday to Saturday from 7:00am until 1:30, except on Fridays when we get out earlier because that's prayer day, so all the Muslim students stay at school for prayer and religion class and the few other kids go to their various religion classes off school grounds (my school has two mosque/prayer rooms in the compound).
Thus, I only have Saturday night and Sunday for my weekend plans. Lately my family goes to Jakarta pretty much every weekend because two of my sisters live there: one will graduate in the next two weeks and the other one is only in her first semester...but both of them are at Trisakti). This past weekend we went up for Sunday and went shopping for kebaya and batik! Since my older sister is graduating sebentar, we had to buy the appropriate formal attire..which for women in Indonesia is a kebaya and batik skirt and for men is a batik shirt and dress pants. I bought my first kebaya-batik ensemble! Yay! I feel so assimilated :)
Anyways, the weekends are really chill so far, but after my sister graduates my family has plans to take a weekend vacation to Pulau Seribu ("A Thousand Islands" but there aren't actually a thousand; located off the coast of Jakarta) and I'M SO EXCITED!
My parents are really hard workers, so when they are at home, they are tired and hang out in their air-conditioned room or they relax in front of the TV. Although in the evening they like to come and hang out in Devi's room....I join in and so do my cousins sometimes and it's quite the little bonding time.
I LOVE MY FAMILY. They are pretty dang sweet. I can share anything with my sisters, and my parents are the same (except there's still a language barrier between us because they can't speak any English at all). My younger sister is the one I hang out with most and she is just as silly and joking as I am...except she has a lot more homework than I do so she has to focus and be serious more often....my family likes to jokingly mock each other about appearances. Especially me, my older cousin, and Devi all like to play around and call each other ugly and crazy in various languages ("gila"=crazy in Bahasa Indonesia; "goreng"=ugly in Bahasa Sunda; etc)....of course it's the most light-hearted of light-hearted joking...mostly I think it's just a good icebreaker for when the language barrier prevents more meaningful conversation.
Since it's so extremely hot here all the time, Indonesians shower at least twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon between three and five...since I can't think of anything else to share I'm now going to go engage in the culturally mandated hygienic practice...
Feel free to email or facebook me if you have any specific questions to which you want answers and I'll respond in a blog post.
Love from Indo,
Amy
So, the explanation needs a context:
In Indonesia, most students go to school from Monday to Saturday...usually. At my school, I go to school Monday to Saturday from 7:00am until 1:30, except on Fridays when we get out earlier because that's prayer day, so all the Muslim students stay at school for prayer and religion class and the few other kids go to their various religion classes off school grounds (my school has two mosque/prayer rooms in the compound).
Thus, I only have Saturday night and Sunday for my weekend plans. Lately my family goes to Jakarta pretty much every weekend because two of my sisters live there: one will graduate in the next two weeks and the other one is only in her first semester...but both of them are at Trisakti). This past weekend we went up for Sunday and went shopping for kebaya and batik! Since my older sister is graduating sebentar, we had to buy the appropriate formal attire..which for women in Indonesia is a kebaya and batik skirt and for men is a batik shirt and dress pants. I bought my first kebaya-batik ensemble! Yay! I feel so assimilated :)
Anyways, the weekends are really chill so far, but after my sister graduates my family has plans to take a weekend vacation to Pulau Seribu ("A Thousand Islands" but there aren't actually a thousand; located off the coast of Jakarta) and I'M SO EXCITED!
I wear a uniform to school: Monday and Tuesday I wear a white-collared short-sleeved shirt, a blue tie, and a long blue skirt; Wednesday and Thursday I wear a long-sleeved, blue batik shirt with my blue skirt; Friday I wear the white shirt and tie again (because I'm Protestant, Muslim students wear baju Muslim: beautifully embroidered white linen long-sleeved shirts); Saturday I wear premuka: Scout uniform, brown quarter-length sleeves shirt and a brown skirt. Everyday all students must wear black shoes and tall, white socks, but I always wear my ankle-length socks because I don't have long socks and I'm the bule, so no one really holds me to the dress code rules, hahaha. When I get home from school, I wash my face because there is so much pollution in the air all the time! The water is actually polluted too, so it's nonpotable...sometimes it smells bad...this is the same water that I use to bathe.... :( But it's all good in the hood!!!! Then I change into house clothes (what I normally wear as pajamas) and unless I go out somewhere to eat or hang out, I don't wear what, in the States, would be considered "real clothes" (i.e. not formal at all). When I get home I pretty much just hang out, it's really chill...I like to read my little Lonely Planet book about Indonesia; study; bother my sister when she gets home from her school (which is a different, more expensive high school than mine, so they get out of school around 4 pm); watch TV that I don't really understand quite yet--although I've totally got the cheesy commercial jingle lyrics down....because they're only like three words ahaha--though I do understand more and more everyday...oh! I've come to love Shaun the Sheep, so funny without an words at all!!!
If my sister isn't home yet, or she's doing her homework, then I like to bother my older cousin with discussions about cultural differences, or just stupid questions like did he already eat and what did he eat...these days I announce even the most trivial things...such as what I ate for the last meal, or if I'm about to go brush my teeth...anything to practice my Indonesian! He is really good about teaching me new words and being patient with my language difficulties.My parents are really hard workers, so when they are at home, they are tired and hang out in their air-conditioned room or they relax in front of the TV. Although in the evening they like to come and hang out in Devi's room....I join in and so do my cousins sometimes and it's quite the little bonding time.
I LOVE MY FAMILY. They are pretty dang sweet. I can share anything with my sisters, and my parents are the same (except there's still a language barrier between us because they can't speak any English at all). My younger sister is the one I hang out with most and she is just as silly and joking as I am...except she has a lot more homework than I do so she has to focus and be serious more often....my family likes to jokingly mock each other about appearances. Especially me, my older cousin, and Devi all like to play around and call each other ugly and crazy in various languages ("gila"=crazy in Bahasa Indonesia; "goreng"=ugly in Bahasa Sunda; etc)....of course it's the most light-hearted of light-hearted joking...mostly I think it's just a good icebreaker for when the language barrier prevents more meaningful conversation.
Since it's so extremely hot here all the time, Indonesians shower at least twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon between three and five...since I can't think of anything else to share I'm now going to go engage in the culturally mandated hygienic practice...
Feel free to email or facebook me if you have any specific questions to which you want answers and I'll respond in a blog post.
Love from Indo,
Amy
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