Crisis Vs Food

The Wall Street's bailout news was everywhere! It was the headlines on newspaper and the radio kept going on about it. I don't really understand the whole thing of what's going on, but what I know is that US needs money. $700 billion, I think. (Wow!!)
Today at dinner, as usual we always have discussions on whatever felt like being discussed, so we talked about the US government (oh no! there's a test coming up this Friday!) and the role of women in Islam. Pretty hard stuff. I did my best to explain to them what Islam really is (though I know little about it) and that they don't have to be scared of Muslim. My host dad made a good point of wearing burqa, hijab, jilbab, head scarf, whatever you wanna call it. The Amish also wear those. What's the point of fussing around about what the Muslim women wears when the Amish, who aren't Muslim also covers their head?
Well, I guess I got another new perspective now.

Anyway, at school the student representatives had been talking about forming an International Club which I think is really great. I attended the meeting today and we brainstormed the ideas that could be used. I really wish this will work. One of the ideas that was mentioned was international food (which I totally agreed on! haha..) What can be more fun than eating food from other countries?! We have 5 exchange students here in Canton district; Thailand, Phillipines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Ukraine. So if there's gonna be international food as well in the club; guess how many food we're gonna eat?!

Talking about food, we're gonna make pretzels tomorrow in my cooking class! By the way, my stomach is getting fatter (which is a bad thing. I don't want a fat stomach!) and right now, it really hurts because I ate too much today. I was kinda bored of the homework, so I went downtown to McD with my friends. I had an apple pie, a choc chip cookie and a cup of hot chocolate. As soon as I got home, my host parent were cooking steak!! I then ate the steak as well, of course. Not forgetting the salads and baked potatoes!

Nature...western life.

Nature. Brings solace to all troubles


Cute western library

Okay, let's see... It's been 50 days since I smelled the fume of Jakarta, felt the sweat running down my thighs, saw the gigantic sky scrapers, the smiles and laughter of my classmates and family, heard their advices and talks... It's amazing how time went really fast as if running after life! No, it's life that's running after time! No, it's us that's running out of time! What?! I'm confused.
Anyway, today is Sunday, I'm staying at home. Bored.
Yesterday was pretty interesting, tiring too. Me, Mohsina and my host parents went to Lake Placid, Adirondack. A very beautiful place. It's the beginning of autumn here and I could see the leaves starting to change color. Red, yellow, orange. Though, the evergreens are always green. I saw an amazingly beautiful scenery. Little houses and cottages along the lake with mountains that are colored. I then thought I was inside a photograph that I once saw in my Biology textbook. Nature. Anne Frank was right, nature brings solace in all troubles...

We then went to the Asian Buffet. My favourite restaurant!! I ate a lot!! haha..tell you what? I think I'm getting fatter here. But the food are just so yummy and tempting, I couldn't help it. I am soo gonna be good at both cooking and eating!!

By the way, talking about food, reminds me of the school nurse. Haha... A few days ago, the nurse did a general check up on me. She then found out that my right eye is not working properly. I was kind of surprised. I realized I kept squinting in class to be able to see the white board. Back in Jakarta, I even had to sit on the floor, exactly in front of the board to be able to see what was written on it! But I never thought that it was my eye having problems. Unfortunately, it's not insured. So I have to wait 'til next year to see the doctor.

Oh! Guess what? Last Friday, I suddenly have this really weird courage to wear my beloved batik to school!! Haha... I woke up in the morning, found out that it was almost 50 F outside and decided to wear my favourite Indonesian-Casual outfit. A dark brown batik dress with a light brown plain skirt + my brown butterfly flip flop + my brown bear earings + my brown school bag. (I looked so brownie and chocolatey. Yum..yum..) Because the batik is short sleeved, I wore my black cardigan over it and I tied my hair in a "konde"-like way. A soon as I entered school, I kind of realized lots of eyes were on me. Sure enough, i got sooo many compliments on my outfit! hehe...I was really proud of wearing that batik and to be an Indonesian, of course!

Right now, I just wish I can take a day off to celebrate eid. I miss my Mum's "Gulai Kambing"...