This week.

Last Saturday Christian (a Fullbrighter here) and his friend JT (also a Fullbrighter) and Joel and I went to a soccer game here in Kudus. It was Kudus vs Surabaya, a big city in East Java. We were predicted to lose but ended up winning. Super fun to watch. They were not too bad! Took me back to the days of soccer games in the Azores, watching Santa Clara get destroyed:

This is Marlon and Andrew, Stephen and I are in the background. Circa 1999

Unfortunately my computer/internet connection has decided it does not want me to update anymore photos onto blogspot, so I'll try to put them up on facebook and put the link to the album on this website.

The game was pretty nuts. We met JT and Christian at a local fish restaurant and felt our bicycles there. Walked over and got out tickets and I should have known from the near squeezed-to-death incident in the line to go into the stadium that it was going to be a wild ride. One of Christian's Indonesian friends grabbed us and took us to the area where the face-painted, waving, chanting crowd was and we were immediately the center of attention. A lot of camera phones in our faces, soccer club scarves around our necks, chant yelling in our ears... It was mad. And I, both as a girl and on top of that a white girl, was definitely in the minority. I've gotten used to it mostly but sometimes I just wish there was a chick around here that I could hang out with and who could relate!

Eventually we got told we could cross the fence into the field for better pictures and so we climbed over the 7 foot barbed wire fence and got to get some pretty cool pictures of the field. Ahaha I have some great photos of Joel leading the crowd in cheers from a high platform on the inside of the fence. My newspaper friend from church saw me and came over. He took some pictures and apparently we all ended up in the newspaper on Monday. I have yet to see it but I've heard it's a pretty cool photo. He did an article about me a couple weeks ago as well, so I've been in the newspaper twice so far this year. : ) Celeb status!

Kudus ended up winning and we got to see the crowd celebrate.

I had thought about not going... I had a rough morning where all I wanted to do was cry and not be around people. Sometimes I just feel such a void of love and understanding here. Not the love I'm used to anyways. No hugging, no cuddling, no hair messing, very little eating together as a family, very little soft speaking and politeness in the way that I'm used to, very little creative stimulation, not around a lot of people who have travelled and know where I'm coming from when I have difficulties with the culture.... I had just watched "New York, I Love you", a movie about many different stories of different kinds of love. Just made me feel sad. I'm glad I didn't give into the mood though, and got to experience the game.

It's hard to know when you've reached your limit and you need to shut down for a while. When is it appropriate to get away from it all, and when is it appropriate to dry your tears and get out there and face the world again? There could be negative consequences on both sides. If you don't respect your stress but go out there and try to face the world you may end up saying mean things to people, being rude, getting more irritated... That could be damaging to the world and to you. But then if you stay at home, what are you missing out there?

Sunday I went to the wedding of one of the lecturers at UMK. It was one of the smaller weddings I've been to (at the last wedding I was at they gave away a fridge and a tv as door prizes, had dancers with 4 foot feathers coming out of their hair, and a 6 course meal) but I really enjoyed it because there were so many people I knew from school there. I realized that they are my community and it was neat to see them in a setting other than campus. For some reason there was a lot of really beautiful batik and clothing at the wedding as well, and it inspired me to look into getting some clothes made here before I leave. And possibly making enough to sell over there in the States. Maybe. The month before I leave Indo there are no classes at the university. Maybe I  could use that time to travel around, find some good batik, and have some stuff made...

Other than New York I Love You, I watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Life As We Know It. Maybe because I had read the book before, but The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was not a great movie. For one, it was dubbed in English from Swedish and that was a little distracting, plus they left out significant parts. But Life As We Know It, with Katherine Heigle was really, really good. Laughed out loud several times, but it had some serious parts too. It reminded my a bit of What Happens In Vegas just because it dealt with the real issues. The hardness of life. The acting was pretty believable I thought..

This week Karen, Major, and Lilik came to Kudus to visit. I think they're going around visiting all the SALTers but Tuesday was the day for Kim, Joel and I to be visited.It was so, so great to be able to talk to them about my position, experiences, frustrations... They were really encouraging. Listened a lot, asked good questions, praised the strengths they saw in my work... It made me more excited for retreat. I just long for fellowship. I'm super thankful that Joel is here, but it still gets lonely.

This week in Small Speaking Group I showed the students a book I got from Christian called "Being Muslim in America." It had a lot of pictures and stories and lead to some really good conversations. Plus, I learned a lot through the book as well. You can read it too. Here: http://www.america.gov/publications/books/being-muslim-in-america.html

I went to the gym 4 times with week. Felt so good. It's been raining a lot lately so running outside hasn't been an option.

Yesterday I went into town and just hung out by myself which I really didn't mind. I'm thankful for the personality I have. I think it goes with what I want to do in life. I do need people- for sure. But I don't need a lot of people. I need a few close friends and a few occasional friends and then I'm set. I don't need people around me all the time and I'm completely ok with hanging out with myself for an afternoon. I could see myself getting along fine in a developing country living in a town with very few expats as long as I had at least a team of about 10 who come from my culture and be my community. I could do that for a good many years.

While I was out I went to Omah Mode, a factory outlet with a restaurant attached, I found out that a pair of pants I had been looking at for a while was 75% off. So I bought them for $5. :) They are cream and pink paisley, stretch, flared. Awesome. I'm not big into pink but I really love these for some reason. With a grey t-shirt they'll be fab. I also found out that a lot of the stuff there is 75% off including some amazing scarves I saw. I'm tempted to shop and re-sell back in the States. Really tempted. There's Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Burberry, Charlotte Russe, and Christopher and Banks. Also a lot of Adidas and Nike.

That's about all I can remember of significance for this week. I'm sure there's more that could be written but this is getting long and I just wanted you to get a little overview of my week and the activities it held.