January

 With Christmas, New Years Eve, and long school vacation, I had lots of time to Celebrate and travel a little. For Christmas, I traveled to Bandung, a city about an hour plane ride from my host city, to be with the other exchange students for Christmas. Bandung is an absolutely beautiful city. Like my host city, Jogja, it has many mountains, but they feel very different than the mountains here in Jogja, maybe because they’re much closer to the city. In any case it is a magnificent place, even despite the crazy traffic that makes it almost impossible to get anywhere. However, we made due. In Bandung, like many other cities in Indonesia, there is a form of public transportation called Angkot. There aren’t any Angkots in Jogja, so I had a very fun first experience riding these tiny busses around the city, as I looked out the window to see the mountains. We celebrated Christmas at Hamza, another YES student’s host family’s home in Bandung. We decorated their house with paper chains, made pancakes, carved a Christmas tree out of Styrofoam, and listened to Christmas music. It was wonderful to be together. On Christmas day, we had all planed a secret Santa gift exchange, so it was a lot of fun opening the presents to see what gifts were given. In Bandung, it is actually very cold compared to most of the rest of Indonesia, especially some of the cities us students live in. Another surprise on Christmas day was Indonesian carolers! Although they didn’t sing Christmas songs, and they asked for money instead of foggy pudding… it was very nice and ironic of them to appear singing in front of Hamza’s house on Christmas day. So, to getting away from the heat, especially for the holidays, was a very nice treat as well.  As everyone returned to his or her host towns after Christmas, it wasn’t long before we all met up again. Everyone came to my host city, Jogja, for the New Year.  Myself and the two other girls hosted here in Jogja showed everyone around the cool streets, restaurants, and even helped them successfully bargain for clothes, in Indonesian, with the street vendors on one of the most famous streets named Malioboro. For New Years Eve, we all went into a part of Jogja called Kaliurang, which is in the mountains. On the edge of the mountains, there are many small café’s and restaurants perched on the side, looking over the whole city. At night, looking from the mountain, the city lights look like stars in the sky, and it is beautiful. The name of this place in Indonesian is Bukit Bintang, which translates in English to Star Hill. We went to a little pizzeria, and ate Indonesian style pizza, and drank hot chocolate until it was almost midnight. As the New Year was approaching, there were fireworks being set of everywhere. I mean everywhere, and by everyone. Looking down at the city, you could see bursts of light coming from every corner. I think we figured out that it was legal to set off fireworks for anyone, and pretty much anywhere. Even from our café, there were a couple of fireworks set off. At one point, someone set off a firework in our café that smoked up the whole restaurant, and shook the whole building. Aside from that minor heart attack, all in all the night was defiantly one to remember. It was a truly peaceful night spent with some of my closest friends, in a country that we have all grown accustomed to in the past few months, yet still have so much to learn about. It was reassuring to hear and share our experiences, struggles, and accomplishments in person, for we all live far from each other, and rarely get to meet up. This past month has been a month of reflection and realization. Not only do I have an Indonesian host family, but I also have my Indonesian/American family. I feel lucky to be sharing this experience with both of my amazing families, and can’t wait to see what happens next.