Upacara Turun Tanah(I don't even know how to easily translate that one...)

Java is so rich in culture and traditions. One of the Javanese traditions is called "Turun Tanah," which literally translates "to go down to the ground." When a baby turns 7 months old, the parents will host the celebration "turun tanah." It's a celebration that has a lot of symbolism about the baby's future.
When I was still in Malang, I got invited to a "turun tanah" ceremony for the baby of a parent at the TK. The mom is also a relative of my friend, Bu Fitri. The ceremony was women only and was quite the experience!

They started out by reading Islamic worship out of a book they had, which was all in Arabic, and as they did, a family member brought the baby around the circle and every woman put white powder on his face.

I think he was a little overwhelmed...poor little guy!

 The main ritual they did was placed him down on the ground(hence the name "turun tanah") and placed different objects in front of him. There were necklaces and money, a pencil and book, and an Islamic book. When they placed him down, whatever object he picked up first symbolizes his future. If he chose the money or necklace, that signified that he would become wealthy. If he chose a book or pencil, he would have a high education and be successful. If he chose the Islamic book, he would be devout and a religious leader.

 Which one did he go for??

The pencil won! The best part of the picture...I love how wide his eyes are!! He's a cutie!

Me with my friend, Bu Fitri, and her daughter, at the ceremony.

Catching Up...

I really did have high hopes of blogging regularly again once I moved to Surabaya! But, as they say in Indonesian, that soon got "dipinggirkan," or pushed to the side. It is a priority to start again because blogging really helped me to think about and write down things I experience and love about Indonesia. To be honest, it's been a rough go since moving to Surabaya as far as adjusting and enjoying living here. It'll be good for me to be proactive in writing about things here. I'm looking forward to blogging about experiences here, people I meet and finding things I love about Surabaya. I also love being able to share day-to-day and cultural experiences with friends and family back in the States.
Although most of the pictures are from my last couple months in Malang, I figured I would start by going back through pictures I had taken on my ipod. Here are a hodgepodge of pictures from my ipod(not the greatest quality) that I have taken over the past few months.

My last day at the TK in Malang...miss these kiddos!

Two kids in my TK class dressed up for "Hari Kartini."

I ran a 10k road race in Malang with Lisa & Carolyn...always an experience to run in Indonesia!! :)

Learning how to make "Rujak Manis" with some friends

Reyhan, a student at the TK...I spent a lot of time with his family at their house in Malang...they're so special to me!

Me with Reyhan's mom, Bu Fitri

One of the views in between Malang and Surabaya...I made this trip a number of times on my bike the past few months!

Phil, my now fiance :), came to visit me in Indo back in June!

A couple of the girls I taught ballet to in Malang.

I love capturing knock offs here around Indonesia...can you guess what this copies?? :)

This was a path we were walking along through a kampung that goes under a bridge. Good thing they had the warning to watch your head... Except for me it was at my chest(tall girl problems in Indo)

In Surabaya, I started teaching 4-6 graders...I love them! Hopefully I'll add better pics soon!

Surabaya...My New Home!

Well, last Monday, I packed up all my stuff, hit the road, and finally made the move to Surabaya!

Ok, all but the picture is true...I didn't really load all my stuff on my bike. The day I do that, is the day I know I've lived in Indonesia a long time. I did ride my bike there, but Lisa graciously helped move my stuff with their car :)

4: # of Cans of Raid I've gone through in 5 days

70: minutes it took to go 10km on my motorbike

5: # of times I had to stop & take out my map on that ride

93: the average temperature(F) in Surabaya

What can I say, it's been a little bit of a rough start to living in Surabaya. It's a way bigger city, waaaaaay more traffic, and hotter and more humid weather than Malang. I am getting accustomed to get lost anywhere I go, having to carry my map on me constantly, and sweating profusely along the way. I was also welcomed into my house by fleas, which I tried to wipe out with Raid, until the pest control company finally came. I'm trying not to think about the amount of fumes I've ingested :) Good news...they're almost gone!
Despite these things, I am so thankful to be living in Surabaya. I've been anticipating this move for a long time and am finally here! I know that most of these difficulties come with any move to a new place. I just have to keep reminding myself that they are only temporary and Surabaya will feel like home soon. I'm praying for God's grace in the meantime and also for little things that make me begin to love Surabaya. It helps looking back and seeing how God carried me through adjusting to the initial move to Malang. At least this time I know the language! :)
It has been a very, very long time since my last post. But, with the new move, I figured I can have a fresh start with my blog, too! So much has happened over the past couple months and there's lots of things that I want to post about. So, over the next couple weeks, I will be slowly posting those on here, even if they didn't just happen!

Saturdays with Anak-Anak Jalanan

A very common sight to see here are children standing at street corners and traffic lights, begging for money. These kids are called "anak-anak jalanan" or street kids and it's a whole subculture here. Although some of them don't have families, most of them still have families and still live at home. Their parents and the kids realize they can make an income doing this and so often times they stop going to school in elementary school and continue begging for money.
The good thing is, there's becoming more awareness and people who are advocating for these children within Indonesia. People who are helping kids realize their potential and stay in school. On Saturdays, I have been going to an after-school program for street kids, helping them with homework, teaching English, and making up other lessons for them. The couple who oversee this center are Indonesians who live in that kampung and run it out of a house that they rent. These kids come everyday after school from 3-5PM to do their schoolwork.
I have loved going there on Saturday, helping out and spending time with the kids. On a given day, there's anywhere from 20-40 kids, ranging from 1st grade up to Middle School, who all cram in to a one-room home. It's amazing to see their eagerness to learn! Even when they're done with homework, they ask for me to make more problems for them to solve or for lessons in English so they can learn more.
Below are some pictures that I have taken with my phone over the past couple weeks. Sorry for the poor quality!

Sometimes it's complete chaos, but here they're working so diligently!! :)

A group of girls that I work with a lot while I'm there.

There are interruptions sometimes...like when it downpours and the alley floods! They all broke out and played in the rain.

New Food Friday...A Ginger Theme

Even after living here for over a year, there are still so many foods I haven't tried yet and my friend Nining likes thinking of new things for me to try(sometimes I think she wants to find something I don't like...which is rare haha). Now that she knows I really like ginger, she's been making me try any food with ginger in it :)
The other day she took me to a place that sells "tahwa," and by "place" I mean a cart on the side of the road :) Tahwa is this hot, sweet soup with a really strong ginger taste. And then tofu is layered on top. The taste was pretty good, but consistency of tofu kind of weirds me out sometimes...

The second thing she made me try was a lot better. It's called "ronde" and is considered a drink, even though it's served in a bowl.

It's served with peanuts sprinkled on top and the round things are balls made of rice flour with their local sugar(kind of like brown sugar) inside. It looks weird, but it was soooooo good! I think it's my new favorite thing to have, especially on a rainy night.

I Love It!

First off, I'm sorry that I've been really slacking with posting lately. Things have been pretty crazy over the past couple months and I have let blogging kind of fall by the wayside. Getting started again, I thought it'd be a good idea to start with a "Love It!" post...something I love about Indonesia. There are so many unique things about Indonesia, but one of them is the unique infrastructure(how nerdy and lame do I sound?), from neighborhoods to farming land, roads/paths, bridges, etc.
Cities are very densely populated, but instead of them being built up in highrises, they are more widespread. Cities are full of "kampungs", a type of neighborhood, are clusters of houses, wall to wall, sometimes on streets that aren't wide enough for cars to pass through. They weave and wind like a maze...it is so easy to get turned around and lost in some of them. It amazes me how these kampungs were built!

This is view from the outside of a kampung...a lot of times they're built on levels or tiers, especially if it's near a river so they houses lead down to the river.

Java's soil is so rich and so fertile for farming. The area of Java that I live in is surrounded by volcanoes, making the soil even more fertile. As the people live and farm in such mountainous areas, they plant of the sides of the mountains. It's one of the coolest things I have ever seen! One of my friends, Nana, is from a village near Mt. Bromo. Her dad is a farmer and their house is literally on the side of a mountain and his farm is on the slope. Can't be afraid of heights if you're a farmer here!

One of the neighborhoods that I frequently run in is called Puncak Tidar. It's a really nice neighborhood at the top of a hill(Puncak means "summit" in Indonesian). At the very end of the neighborhood is a big surrounding wall.

In the wall is a random door that looks like it leads to nowhere, but it goes to a village area behind it.

A path on the other side of the door that goes to the kampung.

The door reminds me of a secret passage! Each morning, a lot of workers from the village come through the door on their motorbikes to get to the city.

This bridge is one my recent finds. My friend, Faith, saw it once and wanted to drive back to take pictures. So, I tagged along. It's a bridge that connects the road to rice padi fields. But in the middle of the bridge is a door that is open during the day for workers to come in and out, but closed at night.

This guy had no problem posing for the picture...I'm sure his friend carrying the big load appreciated that :)

These are just a few pictures that I happened to have. I know they're not the best quality(most of them are taken with my phone), but it gives you an idea! Indonesia is in itself such a unique place and I'm finding more and more things that add to that as I live here. 

Christmas Party Ballet Style

Ok, please don't judge me for posting about Christmas almost a month later! How in the world is it already mid-January?? Before Christmas, I had a party for my ballet class to watch the Nutcracker(a favorite of mine around Christmas time!) and decorate Christmas cookies. Well, unfortunately we couldn't get the projector to work to watch the Nutcracker, but the cookies were a success!
I baked over 100 cookies with my friend, Widya(thanks for helping, Widya!), thinking there would be more than enough. They were completely gone by the end of the party! These kids didn't let anything go to waste! :) They went home with lots of decorated cookies and maybe some stomach aches from the sugar...sorry moms!

I came an hour early to set everything up, and these 4 were already waiting! So, I put them to work...they were great helpers setting up for the party!

Some of the girls that came...there were about 20 kids that showed up, despite the downpour of rain!

Those are some good lookin' cookies! The kids had a blast decorating. It was such a fun time(even though watching Nutcracker didn't happen!)