Bandung I

After a week in Jakarta, I headed over to Bandung with my 43 closest friends (plus AMINEF administrators, so really more like 50). Apparently the hotel in Jakarta was not actually considered very nice. The Sheraton in Bandung was much nicer. Nice enough, in fact, that rumor has it that SBY (Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) stays there when in Bandung. This may be just a rumor though.

While in Bandung one of the ETAs decided to host a “hick wedding.” Each of the ETAs had a role and a characteristic (I was the secretly gay cousin of the bride), and we celebrated a fake wedding in our hick best. It was somewhat offensive, but fun nonetheless.

The hotel also hosted a real wedding while we were there. Apparently this couple really loved America, since they planned to dance down the aisle to Chris Brown’s “Forever.” For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past year or are older than 24, this video might be instructive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0
Note the number of times it has been viewed. Unfortunately, the wedding got rained out. Luckily for me (and for you), they rehearsed this many times. I made sure to get a video. The dancing wasn’t great, but it was very jarring seeing the obsession with America via Chris Brown. Once I have my computer situation ironed out, I will post it.

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While in Bandung, we (the ETAs) had three hours of Bahasa Indonesia and three hours of pedagogy classes each weekday. Apparently Bahasa Indonesia is pretty easy, since we came out of those three weeks knowing a lot. Also, it helps that my class’s teacher, Ibu Lily, put a lot of faith in us and made us do unimaginably hard things that greatly increased our confidence when we succeeded. So, for example, I had to present for ten minutes on public toilets in America in Bahasa Indonesia (other students presented about other public services such as education and transportation, but I chose last. I liked my topic quite a lot though). It pushed my limits, but not to the breaking point. Unfortunately, my progress has slowed significantly, but I have been reading Harry Potter in Bahasa Indonesia to expand my vocabulary and have been talking with teachers and locals to work on my fluency. We’ll see how that works out. I think I may also start a Bahasa Indonesia blog or email list so that I expand my active vocabulary. Let me know if you want to receive this, if it ever happens (Emmy, Liz, other ETAs, I’m looking at you).

Addenda to that paragraph:
-Anyone interested in toilets and other sanitation issues should check out Zac Mason’s blog, http://zacstravaganza.blogspot.com/. Zac spent the last two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali but continues to blog about development and anything fecal in nature.
-Bahasa Indonesia literally means “language Indonesia.” English is “Bahasa Inggris.”
-Ibu literally means “mother.” However, Indonesians often use it somewhat like Mrs. or Ms. Generally, one addresses other adults with such an honorific, but using the first name. So, Lily becomes Ibu Lily (or Bu Lily), and Marthen (pronounced Martin, since the t and h don’t combine as they do in English) becomes Pak Marthen. This politeness has the unfortunate consequence that everyone in town greets me by saying, “Hello Mister.” “ Halo pak” or “Selamat pagi pak” sounds normal (selamat pagi=good morning), but “hello mister” just sounds funny. I tend not to mind it though, since its much better than the other two alternatives, bule (boo-lay; gringo, though literally it means albino), and Belanda (the Netherlands). I tend not to respond to those since I find them rather offensive, though I should probably come up with a better response.

The pedagogy classes were also quite successful, as I felt surprisingly prepared to teach. Perhaps I will speak more about these classes when I get into my own teaching experience.