volunteer visit!

so i had better get this all down before i forget everything that happened on my little excursion this past week..

so monday got up at at around 445 because i couldnt sleep anymore because i was pretty excited to start my adventure.. so got up did the normal morning routine and then left for the angkot terminal to meet everyone.. i was the first one there of course and but thankfully i didnt have to stand around that long before some other people showwed up.. and then the confusion began..

so we were told to meet AT the terminal but we werent really sure if that meant at the ternminal or across the street so about 10 of us walked over to the terminal and waited and of course i text one of the cfs and they say yeah the terminal but so far only one other person has walked over to our group so i call erin and ask her what to do and she says shes across the street and half of our group is there.. so we walk back over and halfway there we see one of the cfs.. its funny what different people mean by meet at the terminal.. i would assume its at the actual place.. but i think sometimes people have their own ideas..

so we get on an angkot and the ride takes like 50 minutes to get to the bus station.. it was the longest angkot ride yet.. by the time we got there we were all ready to get on the bus and stretch out.. so we find our bus with a little help from the cfs and we get on..

the ride was nice and short and thankfully air conditioned.. we sat in the way back in a big seat since there was 4 of us going.. i got a few pictures of the scenery in the ride in.. it was ncie to see a little bit more of indonesia besides the two cities i am right in the middle of..

so we get to probolinggo and immediately are accosted by all these people asking us where we want to go.. its really annoying and we just say no thanks, no thanks since most of them are asking us if we want to go to bromo.. we find sarah who is a current volunteer and she was gunna take us to meet up with gio who was still teaching.. we got into a little mini bus and took about a 45 minute ride close to where Gio lived and then me and erin got off and met gio by the side of the road.. then we got in a becak, which is kinda like a bike with a little wagon on the front and took a 10 minute ride to her house.. it was pretty neat.. she lives really close to the city so she can go into it whenever she needs anything and she has a bike.. its interesting, here in malang and batu almost no one has a bike but a ton of people had bikes where gio lived.. it was also a lot cleaner.. its probably the cleanest place i have seen in indonesia thus far.. they have garbage cans every where which is really really nice..

so we get to gios, get the tour of her house, which is really really nice, and then we went exploring.. we got es degan which is just like coconut juice with shavings of coconut in the glass and then afterwards we ventured out to find some food.. we went to this really cool place that gio says she usually goes to when she goes out and then we went on an adventure to the harbor.. its pretty neat.. probolinggo is really really close to the ocean.. kinda just felt like i was on lake erie though.. doesnt really feel like an island.. i never feel like im on an island here..

but i got some pictures and it was nice to feel the breeze.. we went back to here house took a mandi (which was a lot warmer than the water in malang) and then had some food and went outside for a little bit to talk with her family.. around 8ish we went in went to bed.. i woke up in the middle of the night convinced it was morning because the room was so bright.. i checked my phone an it said 10 and i was like no way i have only been asleep for like 2 hours.. so i turn on my other phone and it says ten too and im like im losing my mind! its bright outside.. so i lift my head a little bit and there i see it.. its a light thats on in the hall.. i just drove myself crazy over a light bulb.. haha so i fall back asleep and then its morning and around 8 we wnt to school..

it was nice for breakfast we didnt have to eat regular food.. we had an apple and some bread and gio said she usually has fruit or oatmeal and i cannot wait to start that in the next house.. it was fine in the beginning eating regular food for breakfast but i cant handle that all the time.. it just gets monontonous.. but its nice to see you can change some things if you ask.. and now that i know enough of the language to get that across, i can start right out in my next family..

but anyways we we went to school and then went to one teachers class while gio prepared her other class.. we got to see how her counter part teaches and it was a pretty typical lesson.. a lot like the teaching at MAN 2 Batu.. we then sat through a couple speeches some students had in preparation for a speach contest.. it was nice hearing students speak english and it being loud and clear, for the most part.. i think usually they are just so quiet.. after that we went to two classes with gio and watched her review with  jeopardy.. we also got interviewed by the students which was the same as it usually is.. what do you like about indonesia, whats your favorite indonesian food.. usually if erin spoke before me she would say everything that i was going to say so i kept my mouth shut a lot haha.. tends to happen to me more often than not.. but ohhh well.. i dont really mind..

so after class (which ended at 120) we went and got lunch in the canteen which was awesome.. it was so good.. and then we had english club.. it started late since indonesians almost always run on their own time haha but it was fun.. we went on a scavenger hunt and we (erin and i) talked about american culture and stuff we do at home.. it was fun.. afterwards we went home changed and then went out for ice cream down the street..

tried my first magnum bar.. and wow.. real chocolate and real ice cream.. it was awesome.. it was only like a dollar and some change in US dollars but its the most expensive ice cream bar here.. but it was worth it.. it was hot and it was probably the most delicious thing i have had yet.. now i know why my friend mike raves about them..

so after that we went home and it was already pretty late.. we mandi, ate and then sat around.. it was a relaxing night.. and then next morning i got up at like 545 because i couldnt sleep anymore so i just took a mandi and got ready for the day and then around 6 we were all up getting ready to leave.. left gios house around 630 and then made it to the bus station around 730ish.. we had to wait about 20 minutes for the other two people but they got there and they were so ready to go.. from comparing experiences it seems like they had a wayyyy different time.. they had fun and laughed a lot but it made them think about the whole experience and i think they both got a little nervous for the site announcment tomorrow..

which i felt just an nervous even though i had a great time.. gio and sarah are only like an hour away from each other but thats still pretty far.. the more i think about it the more i hope that i am close to someone.. or else i may be getting pretty homesick for americans haha.. but we will see.. im not going to pass any judgements on my experience through this experience because everyones is different.. its just going to be tough learning how to be without all my friends.. and i love saying that since a lot of these people have become my friends.. its gunna suck when we all have to leave each other.. i hope im close to some awesome people though.. but i cant think about it! i dont want to have my hopes raised..

one day at a time..

so now im home.. i took a two hour nap but im still really tired.. im probably just gunna read for an hour take a mnadi eat and then around 630 go to bed.. cannot wait to use the interent tomorrow.. not that i have much to expect but its been over a week.. and i love reading the few emails i do get everyday..

well i gotta go..

love you all :)

weekend before the site visit..

so its been an interesting weekend and i get the feeling that its going to be a good week.. hopefully

the weekend started out with the language test that actually went pretty well.. and now that its over im happy.. after the test mary ellen and i went out to eat and on the way down the steps i fell.. it was lovely and i was assured it was very graceful haha.. luckily my elbow saved me from hurting too much of the rest of my body.. im initial reaction was wow i just fell.. good thing i didnt take mary ellen out.. and the next was to just laugh.. life is funny sometimes and really this was one of those moments.. there was nothing wrong with the stairs or my shoes.. it seems like i was just destined to fall.. afterwards i started thinking how lucky i was that i didnt break my leg.. that happens to be one of my fears.. so thankfully that was averted..

so we went and had an awesome lunch of nasi pecel and gado gado and then we went on an excurssion with a few other folks to go find some durian.. which is a lot easier said than done.. we went to Batu and walked around forever and every place we went the price kept getting higher and higher.. first we went to the pasar and they didnt have any so someone told us to go to the indomart down the way.. we get there and its going to be like 60,000 something for one and that is just not agreeable to us so we move on.. next place its like 70,000 or something equally ridiculous and the lady tells us its because they are imported from vietnam or some place right over the pond.. and it just funny because these things are everywhere.. they cant be that expensive or they wouldnt bother importing them..

oh well.. after that we gave up.. not really all that adventureous but it was getting late and we were getting tired so we went on another adventure to go find batik..

we ended up at the place that mary ellen, daniel and i had found a few weeks before and some people ended up getting fabric.. i saw one i really liked and though my mom would like but i was too lazy to ask them to bring it down and i didnt really feel like spending any money.. so i just sat there and watched other people buy stuff.. we decided that we would be back before we leave out to our sites and since i had seen the fabric there before i assumed it would be there next time too.. hopefully this assumption doesnt turn out wrong..

so then we go home and life as normal.. eat some dinner so something that i cant remember (and its only the next day not quite 24 hours later..) and then i went to bed.. pretty exciting..

this morning i wash some clothes and it looks like its going to rain.. this is so my life.. almost every time that i have washed my clothes.. it rains.. its like a block or something somewhere is like oh allyson is washing her clothes.. lets rain..

thankfully today the heavens stayed closed and my clothes are pretty much dry.. good thing because i need a few of them for tomorrow..

after my clothing adventure i sat around for awhile reading.. i finished yet another book and thought to myself “im gunna run out before school even starts in two months..” ive been FLYING through books and im not even sure what it is.. i dont have that much time to read and its usually only before i go to bed or while im waiting before i have to go do something.. but i must read freakishly fast.. that or all the stuff im reading is just not long enough.. 300 pages just really isnt as much as it used to be i guess.. wow im a nerd..

hm.. so around 8 i left to go to mary ellens house and afterward go to angelas to do out little media exchange.. we made a little detour to indomart so i could break one of my large bills so i have change for tomorrow and the ride back.. but anyways i diverge.. so we start the media exchange by angela giving me like a thousand books for the kindle app.. which is AWESOME... so we put all the books on.. i decide ill take them all and then weed out the ones i really dont want.. so then i go to see if their all there on my ipad and of course.. my kindle app freezes.. so i click out of it and try again.. my heart is beatting a little fast and i was like “oh, shit.. this would happen to me..” angela turns my ipad off and then tries to turn it back on and it wont turn on and she starts freaking out thinking she broke it but i knew what was up.. she had turned it all the way off and another button had to be pressed to turn it back on.. so we get it back on and play with the kindle app again but its not working so she deletes like half the books we put on.. still nothing..

at this point im like hell ill jsut delete the app and put it back on later when i have the internet.. i can still access all my books off the amazon website.. so no biggy.. but as soon as i say that it magically starts working.. and it seems like almost all the books angela added are on there.. SWEEETT! so i go through and start deleting some since its working and we figure out that it did delete some of the books she took off so when im done deleting some she adds on some more and of course the app freezes up and boots me out.. so we wait a little and i try opening it again.. it doesnt open.. so anglea tries and i swear.. she has magic fingers.. of course it opens for her.. so we finally figure out that it takes a pretty long time for it to adjust to having the books so we add a few more and call it quits.. thank god nothing happened to my device or i know angela woulda felt bad..

then we exchanged movies off our hard drives.. which was awesome.. because we like a lot of the same stuff AND! she had the first three seasons of the Big Bang Theory!!!!

i about died when i saw that.. i LOVE that show.. and the first and second season are hilarious so i know im gunna have some good times in my future hah..

overall it was a good day today.. got some more movies (like 50).. i have more than i know what to do with..  my sister is gunna have to buy a hard drive and bring it with her when she comes to visit so she can take some home with her.. im sure by then ill be over a lot of them and will want to get rid of them..

so now im eating watermelon.. watching soccer.. ew.. and relaxin till i gotta go eat.. hah this is the life right?

well until thursday i guess.. which is the next time ill get to use the internet.. and the day i find out my site! i need a little excitement in my life! haha..

well as always,

love you all :)

test day!

so right now im talking to my sister and getting ready for the language test that we have to take.. i didnt think i would be all that nervous but im starting to get afraid that i am going to forget all that i want to say..

tend to happen when i get nervous.. i freeze up and forget everything..

oh welllll..

wish me luck :)

love you all :)

my bday.. first of a few away from home..

so its hard to believe that its been a year since my 21st bday.. wow so much has happened.. and even though i dont really remember that night i have a ton of pictures to prove how awesome my friends are.. i only wish that i could have you all here right now.. doesnt feel like my birthday.. i opened some cards this morning but i dunno.. kinda just feels like cards..

its weird getting older.. i dont really feel like it.. when am i going to start feeling older? haha maybe once i start teaching.. which is right around the corner.. its weird that PST is pretty much almost over.. i mean its thursday of week 6.. and next week we get to go visit a current volunteer and see what life is like for them and then thursday we find out out site.. i know ive said this before but ooooohhh im so excited and pretty nervous.. everything is just snowballing right now.. crazy!

anyways yes my birthday.. not too exciting since they really dont celebrate birthdays here.. got up to go take a mandi and yeah just a regular morning.. not that 22 is really all that exciting but i dunno its a totally different culture.. ohhhh wellll looking forward to a phone call from the parents.. hopefully my mom wrote down the right time and calls me today.. since its the 19th in indonesia.. so weird that time change..

well i should go eat before they chase me around the house asking if im going to eat breakfast.. haha

well love you all :)

ok so let me correct my earlier statements.. my family did end up saying happy birthday but it wasnt like there was a party or anything.. but when i got to school maryellen gave me this awesome card and she made it out of the paper that we use for flip charts so its pretty big.. which is awesome.. i am totally planning on hanging it up at my next home.. my walls are going to be full of stuff.. love it! she also gave me some cookies.. which was awesome.. and then Bu Ning showed up and gave me some cookies too which was also really nice.. then Niken had everyone sing me happy birthday in indonesian.. which was funny..

then we went to link and i got a few happy bdays and at the end of the session they brought out a little cake.. really it just made me miss real cake even more.. my mother can blow the cake that i had out of the water.. thats one of the things i cant wait to have when i come back to the united states: baked goods that arent full or sugar but still taste amazing.. everything here has a certain taste to it.. so its very similiar in flavor.. guess ill get used to it after two years but right now its still kinda hard.. some things from home are still fresh in my mind..

so now im home and its just a regular night.. im really ready for bed and its not even 6.. i dont know whats wrong with me but lately ive wanted to go to bed so early.. ill probably go to bed again tonight at 630.. oh well..

tomorrow we have to go to UMM to get shots so ill probably post this and check my email and then saturday after the language final i will probably send email responses out.. i hate that for some people i have so much that i need to write to them because its been weeks since i typed anything meaningful and i feel bad.. i dont want anyone to feel like im ignoring them.. i know once we are done being busy like 12 hours a day it will be easier to get back to people in a timely manner..

so until the next time.. which probably wont be until next thursday when i find out where im going! wooo! so exciteddddddd..

same as always, love you all :)

english camp..

so its hard to believe that i have been here for so long already.. i really feel like i just got off the plane in san fransisco but that has already been well over a month and a half ago.. time really does seem to fly by.. crazy..

so lets see i updated this past weekend.. and ive been trying to keep up regular updates because i feel like i am slacking and i know that some people really love reading this blog.. lord knows why.. im really not that interesting..

so.. this week is our last week of bahasa indonesia class.. pretty exciting.. its also one of those momentus landmarks meaning we are halfway through with PST and next week we find out where we are going and all sorts of fun info.. Yesterday i talked with Betsy, someone on the staff and she said that some people may get to have photos of their new families.. i would love that.. to be prepared seeing their face.. but at the same time i think its almost like finding out the sex of a baby.. do you really wanna know or do you want to be surprised? haha i love the analogy..

so today was interesting.. we had to put on an english camp and man on man.. it was crazy..

first of all.. we planned thinking that maybe tops 50 people MIGHT show up.. but really we were only expecting like 10.. Second we have like limited supplies.. again thinking that we arent going to have too many people coming to this thing.. i mean its a holiday.. who wants to go to school?

WRONG..

So Daniel has to go to the school we were using a little bit early to prepare his scavenger hunt.. at about 720 he texts us all saying there were about 10 children ready and waiting.. i thought to myself.. well odd.. thats like wayyy early (we planned on starting at 9..) so i told him to tell them to wait.. i mean how many more kids could show up an hour and a half early? i leave around 745 so i can get there at 8 and maybe prepare a little bit.. when i round the corner to the school all i see are little groups of children.. at this moment there might have been like 30.. maybe 40.. half of them were covering Daniel as he was trying to get his activity together..

so i see this mass of children and as im standing there even more are showing up.. Daniel and I start to think that just maybe the prinicipal of the school told the kids to come to this.. awesome.. i learned last night that there was like 900 students at this school.. really? what are we going to do with 900 students with only like 4 volunteers? so i told Daniel id be right back and i went down to Mary Ellens to warn her that we may have an influx of students.. she just laughed..

by the time we get back to the school the number of kids has doubled and still more are coming in.. mary ellen and i just laugh cuz i mean what else can you do? we start discussing little things that we can do like games or whatever and finally we pull out some paper and see if they want to draw.. so we lay the paper out and i pull out the crayons and markers and they just sit there.. we we walked away and finally some of the kids started up on the drawing.. The Mary Ellen and I start to throw the ball to each other saying english words and try to get more kids interested.. easier said than done.. first we are strangers and second we are trying to get them to speak english.. yeahhh.. but finally some brave children start to toss the ball with us and some of them were actually trying with the english words.. but eventually the enthusiam died out and we moved on to another game.. Red Rover..

Now who hasnt played this game as a kid? its fun.. for the most part.. trying to get indonesian children organized to play this game.. kinda like pulling teeth.. i think the language barrier had a lot to do with it.. and the fact that for some reason none of them would talk loud.. it was like whispering “red rover, red rover, g...... come over” and the name would just trail off.. how some of the kids even heard it was their turn, ill never know.. but soon they got the hang out if but i still had to say red rover red rover for them no matter what team i was on.. hah and then they all just started calling for me.. i wasnt seriously running so i never broke through anyones arms so i kept flip-flopping from one team to another.. finally i was like nope! pick someone new.. im staying here! but the kids enjoyed it.. maybe they will try to play again in the future.. it would be funny to walk by and see them playing.. so we played this for like 40 minutes.. in the sun.. it got pretty hot..

finally the game broke up and i just walked around trying to find something to do.. which was a lot harder than you would think.. but eventually i found myself in a room with a bunch of kids trying to do telephone.. which is a very simple game.. for the most part.. but it kinda just failed.. we had to keep yelling at the students not to cheat.. which they did every time we turned our backs.. of course my little brother was one of the ones who was cheating.. i had to keep yelling at him.. and he just smiled at me and said what? he’s so funny..

so after they started to lose interest in that and i couldnt think of anymore lines that were easy to say we started playing 7up.. we lost a few of the telephone players so then we had to play like 4up.. which in the beginning was fine but after awhile the people kept picking their friends and it was like a never ending game of giggles.. so after a billion rounds we started playing another game that was kind of like musical chairs but not.. but whatevs.. they had to translate something and then shout out a fruit and whoever was like an orange had to get up and find another chair.. it was interesting we had to keep changing it up because again people kept cheating.. number one my brother.. haha it was all very funny though..

finally the game ended and people started leaving.. it was the longest three hours of my life.. haha but it was fun.. for the most part..

but wow what a day.. whellppp im done so better get moving on..

love you all :)

picturesssss!!

 the students

the school yard..

update for a week..

so i gotta write this down or im gunna forget it all.. i know i have been slacking on getting this blog entry written and every time i go to start this.. i give up.. which is kind of where im headed now.. haha

so to start..

friday i ended up going to a wedding.. well more of a reception.. but it was pretty neat.. the bride and groom were all dressed up in this really elaborate dress.. it was pretty neat.. we didnt really stay long.. just long enough to have some food.. i was like the only one who ended up shaking the hand of the entire wedding party.. haha but it was fun..

then on saturday we (Mary Ellen and Daniel and I) decided to go on an adventure to Batu.. it was prettyyyy interesting.. we went to the new town square.. it was really big and it would probably have been a lot more enjoyable if there hadnt been sooo many people there.. i swear half of Batu was out.. apparently there was going to be a parade and people were just lining up hours before it started.. it was intense.. some woman was really interested in getting daniels picture.. it was pretty funny.. i don think i was really taking the picture right so she had to keep walking back to have me take it again.. ohhh well.. we walked around for maybe 45 minutes and then i had my fill.. we alllll know i cannot stand crowds.. haha

so then we decided to walk back to the terminal and maybe do some shopping on the side streets if we saw a shop we liked.. Mary Ellen ended up seeing a sign for Batik so we went down this side road to see if we could find this shop.. we all thought the sign was wrong because it looked more like it was an alley with houses and there was no way that there was a shop but we found it.. it was attached to this really nice house and they had some really nice stuff inside.. i immediatly saw this fabic and it like drew me in.. the people were soo nice and even though i think i was over charged a little it was too much.. so it was nice.. i got probs a total of 4 or 5 meters.. so hopefully my mother can figure out something to do with it.. the owner of the store ended up coming out to chat with his.. his wife even fed us haha.. they were really nice people..

so then we continued our walk back to the terminal to catch an angkot back to our village.. we finally got to the station and went to sit in this angkot.. we sat for probably 30 to 45 minutes before the driver spoke to us.. he asked us where we wanted to go and kept insisting on taking us to malang which.. we didnt want to do.. i kept saying my village name but he kept shaking his head.. finally he was like 50,000 for the 3 of us to go to Malang.. and i was like.. im walking.. this guy just doesnt get it.. and we already get overcharged for stuff because we arent indonesians but that was just ridiculous.. so we got out and walked home..

it really wasnt that bad of a walk.. it kinda sucked though because it was getting dark and we had to rush back to get home.. on the way back we stopped at this graveyard that i have been dying to see.. i know it sounds a little morbid but we had to pass by it every day when we went to school to teach and it is just filled with all these graves that are chinese.. so i had to investigate.. it is huge! it goes back so far and i think mary ellen and daniel got a tad weirded out by my fasination with it all.. ohhhh wellll.. haha so then we continued our walk down and let me tell you.. i was probably almost hit like 20 times.. people just drive soooo close to you on the side of the road.. i was a little afraid for my life.. haha.. i dont really want to die on the side of the road in indonesia.. notttt high on my list of things to do here..

soo we finally get home.. im dead tired but i gotta explain the whole thing to my ibu.. she couldnt believe we walked all the way but i mean.. once we started walking there was no going back.. we had to do it.. and it only took like 45 minutes.. so id say it was a good walk over all.. so as soon as i got home i took a mandi, ate and then went to bed.. then the next morning i woke up at like 330.. that was hell.. it was so cold and i had to take a mandi and oh it was miserable.. i took a half mandi.. i didnt even attempt to sound like i was taking a real one.. it was just too cold and too early to be messing around with the frigid water..

so around 430 my ibu and i walked to daniels and then daniel and i left to go wait for the car that was going to take us to UMM.. we waited about 15 minutes.. everyone here runs on indonesian time so we coulda been late and we wouldnt have missed the car.. so we picked up some other people in beji and then went to UMM to meet up with the rest of the group that was going to Pulau Sempu.. we only had to stay at UMM for about 30 minutes and then we packed out for the 3 hour ride..

i have to say in america.. i never really get car sick.. but here.. its bad.. one of the girls in the cars ahead of us had to take a break from being in the car because she felt so sick.. and i think stopping for that five minutes did me in.. once we started up again i was so ready to hurl.. i was in the back seat with erin and daniel and i felt so bad i was taking up so much room because i was trying to find a position in which i wouldnt feel so sick.. but i guess they didnt mind too much so thank goodness for nice people haha.. but finaly we made it but of course its POURING.. its raining so hard that none of the boats are leaving the shore for the island.. it was decided that if the rain didnt let up by 9ish that we would turn around and head back.. i was not looking forward to that..

thankfully it stopped raining a little after 9 and we were able to go over to the island.. this had to be done in groups of 11 though.. anytime we have to cross over water we have to have life jackets as a precaution.. so since right now peace corps only has 11 we had to go and then wait for the same boat to come back with the life vests.. it didnt really take that long for the boat to come back from the first trip and luckily i was on the 2nd trip.. by that time the sun was starting to come out and it was getting pretty hot.. so we get on this boat that doesnt really look too safe but it manages to get us to the island in one piece.. of course we couldnt find the first group of us because they wandered off so the captain had no idea where to drop us off.. long story short finally the group popped out of the woods and we went in towards the beach and then we almost tipped.. it wasnt really scary just shocking because we really came close to tipping and the only thing i could think of was my camera getting wet.. stupid thing to worry about when the boat could land on my head..  but whatevs..

so we got on shore and got right into the water.. it was glorious.. so i swam around for awhile talked to some people and ate my lunch and had a reallllllly nice time relaxing.. half of the group ended up leaving to go try to find some other beach but i decided to stay and soak up the beach that we landed on.. i can always come back to this island.. so i wasnt really too concerned about tromping in the warm jungle.. sooooo yeah i got burned.. even though i put on sunscreen.. and now im peeling.. gotttttta love it.. its so hard to keep my skin hydrated here.. oh well.. cant win all the time.. i just hope it ends soon..

but anyways the day was nice and we ended up going home around 330.. i lost one of my flip flops.. not really sure how it happened or where it ventured off to since i left my flip flops in the car.. but whatever.. today i ended up buying some more and maybe these wont give me blisters.. but it was a fun time and i got to hang out with people i dont really get to see that much..

sorry this is so long.. i just havent had time to type up anything this week and if i dont do it all now ill just forget and not want to do it..

soooooooo this past week was the last week teaching.. thank god.. i enjoyed it and the students were really nice but.. after 3 weeks and trying to create lessons without really knowing the level of the students was pretty hard.. the last day of teaching this week was awesome.. we talked about advertisements and we had the students make their own and they are just soooo creative.. maybe ill take a picture of some of the ones that i took with me.. made me happy that one of the lessons really worked out.. it even ended up being the lesson that someone from peace corp came to watch.. so it was a pretty big success.. at least for the week..

ummmm.. yeah i got some pictures of the school and some of the students so hopefully i can get those up.. im pretty much the same color as some of the students so i blend in quite well haha.. all i need is a uniform like them and you might not be able to pick me out!

welllllllllllllllll this week is the last week of language and then next saturday is the language test final.. so this week will be full of studying.. kinda sucks since my birthday is this week and ill probably have to be studying.. notttt that there is anything super fun i could be doing instead.. i have to throw this in here but hannah is slackiiinnngggg on the bday card mail.. shes the only family member i didnt get anything from :( this birthday is just gunna suck now :((( im joking nanners :)

welll i gotta get going im tired and i gotta get up early tomorrow :( at least the early days are done though for the most part..

oh! i gotta give a shout out to two of my very best friends.. Dani and Adam I love you both so much and i really wish that i could have made it to the wedding.. you are both so awesome and we are just going to have to celebrate when i come home! I love you guys and i wish you a long and happy life together :))))

so peace out everybody!!

love you all :)

weekend pictures

so im dead tired right now but i figure i gotta have something short to post really quick and then later on this week ill post more.. but went to a small island today.. its was pretttty fun.. now im just gunna post the pictures and hopefully a video.. but thats all for now.. stories to come.. this weekend was just full of wonderous indonesian adventures.. (The pictures of the fabric is just something i bought the other day.. kinda random sorry..) 

more pics to come later 

oh ps i am going to try and get on skype again on friday same time as last week (like 830 pm thursday night for those in the states) so if you wanna get a group together (if youre in athens) or if you wanna just get on to chat then is the time :) find me through my email, if you dont have it ask someone who knows.. dont really wanna post it on here.. ha.. kk im falling asleep.. so night!

love you all :)

week thus farrrrr..

ive been in indonesia for almost a month now.. its kinda crazy knowing that it really hasnt been that long but it feels like forever.. but in a good way.. i am finally starting to feel like this is home.. i never really thought that i would really feel that way but every day that i spend here i know i will miss this country so much when i leave..

hmm so where to start with this week.. this week has been pretttttty long and im glad that the weekend is so close.. even though weekend is only one day now.. but its nice to know that a day off is coming.. hopefully this weekend is fun and it doesnt rain..

well so monday was our first day of working at the school and trying to do activities in class.. it was pretty interesting.. it was a little hard to concentrate after learning current world news.. it didnt seem real at all and to be honest it still doesnt.. it feels weird not being in the United States for something that big.. my family hasnt really been watching any tv stations that play the news so i have no idea what is going on in the world right now.. i can only imagine.. its times like this when i wish i had a modem so i could keep in touch with the world.. i feel so out of it..

but besides that the rest of the week went fairly well.. tuesday was pretty uneventful.. Daniel and I just went in did out activity in one class and then left for the day.. Then wednesday.. oh wednesday.. it wasnt really a good day for the teaching aspect of things.. when we got the chance to do an activity we thought we would try out simon says, just for a warm up activity.. Turns out the class was one of the largest at the school.. lovely.. so 33 students are packed into this tiny room and needless to say.. simon says was a fail.. it was obvious that a lot of the students had no idea what was going on.. so we ended that activity really quickly.. then the teacher didnt really wanna teach so he had his students write out questions to ask us.. it was the usual why are you here? where are you living? how old are you? can you speak indonesian?

lovely.. then the next class we went to ended up being observed by someone in PC.. so you can guess what happens.. the activity was such a fail.. the teacher ended up leaving so we had no one to help translate for us.. and by the time we finished the activity she still hadnt returned.. i was so done with my day by this time.. we didnt really have anything else planned so we tried doing simon says.. that didnt work.. i guess they dont really understand that game.. who knows.. then we had to have mary ellen help us get another game going.. i ended up going to talk to the observer, who happened to be a past volunteer from Africa (she has experience teaching..) and i apologized.. i felt bad because this was so not an accurate view of how we had been up until that moment.. she told me not to worry about it that we were keeping a positive attitude and thats really all that mattered.. ah well.. finally the teacher came back and we handed the class back to her and booked it..

afterwards we got some constructive criticism from her and she gave us some good ideas to use in the future if that happens.. hmm.. after teaching we went back into town and had some language class and then after we went and had a dinner and something with the mayor of batu..

let me tell you.. that was interesting.. of course it didnt start until 7 so we all knew we were going to be out pretty late.. butttttt.. it was hella interesting.. so we got there and then ate some food and then all the fun stuff started.. a couple of the trainees got up and sang some karoke.. it was hilarious.. gotta give it to them.. i dont think i could have gone up there and sang in front of my friends let alone all the trainees and some indonesians.. but it was good.. and then.. the fashion show started..

hopefully someone puts pictures up on facebook so you guys can maybe check it out.. i of course did not bring my camera so i have no photo memories of that night.. even so.. first of all.. indonesia is a very conservative country when it comes to dress.. i feel weird at times going out wearing a short sleeve shirt sometimes.. this fashion show really made a lot of us wonder what the heck was going on.. these teenage girls were walking around wearing this dresses that were very short and very tight.. almost like homecoming dresses but for some reason it was just shocking.. i know i have seen worse stuff in America but i was not expecting to see anything like that in indonesia.. just one of those things i guess that makes so go whattttt is going on??? but thats bound to happen a few more times right? hahah

we also got to see some traditional dancing which was nice.. it was an interesting night.. i just wish it could have been a little bit earlier.. i was dead by the time we got out of the event.. a lot of people were commenting on my allyson face.. im sure some people know what im talking about.. i have several annoyed/tired faces and im sure i kept flashing them because people kept saying they wanted a picture of me haha.. oh well ahaha..

so today was very tiring.. i could not wait to come home so i could go to bed.. but of course i have to type this first.. and i had to let my little sister place with my ipad.. shes been asking non-stop..

ahhhhhh.. well i think im going to wrap this up.. i think next week ill snap some pictures of the school im at but i dont really have anything to post up..

i was also just informed by my sister that my ibu was talking about taking me to a wedding on sunday.. the day that i planned on going to the island with everyone.. this is going to be a hard decision because i really want to go to a wedding to have that experience but at the same time i really want a break from everything and get a chance to hang out with everyone.. guess if she doesnt say anything to me by tomorrow ill tell her i have plans already..

welll im getting called lazy by my brother.. haha so im gunna get going.. haha..

love you all :)

wow..

i had a post i wanted to post.. but now nothing really seems all that important..

kinda in shock today..

of course everyone knows and probably found out around the same time i did about the current news reports.. pretty crazy.. i can only hope that this does not have any repercussions for anyone in the days to come..

gosh.. what a world eh?

well love you all :)