I Ate Me Some Pumpkin Pie !

On the 28th, there was a Thanksgiving Dinner Party at the American Ambassador's house: that was awesome because there was decent pumpkin and pecan pie there--something I'm really missing but don't have the guts to try making here--yet.

Among many other events, I had my first real fight with my family...
I live in Karawang, where there's another YES scholar, so he invited me over to his house to cook Thanksgiving food with him. When he invited me he said that a bunch of his friends were planning to come over and help us make the food... Buuut....
Just a few days before I'd prepared a cut up apple (a normal food to eat in Indonesia) and sprinkled some cinnamon (another extremely common thing in Indonesia) on the apple. This is a snack that I eat like everyday in America; my family members kept asking me what I was eating, so I offered them some. By their responses and facial expressions it was easy to tell that my family found what I was eating less than appetizing, but I was eager to have them try something "American" (except not really because both ingredients are very common in Indonesia) since I'd been trying all kinds of Indonesian food for three months straight (I wanted to get some exchange going on!)... Thus I kind of insisted until finally my older cousin tried it; to my utter disappointment and slight offense, my cousin disliked the apple so much that he spit it out and denounced it as tasting like soap. :(
Thus, after such an experience with my family, it would not have been a logical line of thinking to believe they'd want me cooking all kinds of strange Western food in their kitchen that they'd be extremely reluctant to try. So I explained the concept of thanksgiving to my family and then asked my mom if I could go over to Andrew's to make some thanksgiving food. She acquiesced and I felt bad about not doing something with them. The next morning I was getting ready to go over to Andrew's when the thought occurred to me that I should invite my little sister to at least hang out.... Very long, long story (filled with cultural nuances such as offering a plate already filled with food instead of a clean one to insist that newly arrived guests eat even though they are late and everyone else has eaten) made light-speed short: since Andrew's friends were missing in action, I had a day-of idea to make the feast a host family-exchange student banquet; Andrew had representatives from his family there to try and appreciate our hard work and only my older cousin and little sister could make it--very very late to the dinner party...and they'd already eaten and.... Cultural miscommunications and misunderstandings...blah blah blah blah... they felt uncomfortable and we went home in silence, my feelings exceedingly hurt and feeling what I hope was the peak of my homesickness because they had refused to try any of the food I'd spent literally all day making for them...
Its all forgiven and understood now, so no harm done, but now I definitely feel like I have a clearer perception of my family members' personalities and comfort zone...which forms a pattern with other comfort zones I've seen among my friends and family to suggest to me this conclusion/observation: Indonesians that I've interacted with so far are extremely family-oriented...to the point that hanging out with other families is very awkward unless they know them really well. Whereas in the States I'd have no trouble going over to a classmate's house and hanging out with them...talking with their parents, blah blah, people seem very uncomfortable with the casualness of such a situation if they don't already know a person's family really well.
It's my perception so far that Indonesians are very concerned with other people's opinions of them.
December first was a momentous day because I had my first necessary encounter with the school bathroom. Unless you've used a "normal" bathroom in Haiti or another country with equivalent WC conditions, you cannot imagine an accurately uncomfortable situation. Let's just say I'm glad I didn't fall in. Haha
I have this great little iTouch App now which allows me to compose a blog post without Wi-fi--in format and everything--and then it automatically posts it whenever I have Wi-Fi! So I can type up things easily And post later...this might provide for a confusing timeline though.

On a more somber note, I'm definitely feeling the typical three month mark homesickness kicking in. :( I'm tired of being such a visible outsider all of the time. And I feel endlessly stupid for not knowing how to say everything in Indonesian....