Kamar Tidur = Bedroom

After living with an Indonesian host family for the first two weeks of my stay in Indonesia, I moved into a rented house with three other college students.  Before moving in, I stopped by to see what my room would look like, and its a good thing I did because this is what I found...

...an empty room.

No problem though because my roommates knew what to do.  I met up with Parlin, a roommate, to go shopping for some furniture before I moved in.  We made three stops and had everything I needed.  First we purchased a desk, cabinet, and book case, then went to a nearby store to pick up some smaller items like a mattress, chair, lamp, and curtain.  Here's Parlin outside the furniture store.  He was a great help as he did the talking and gave advice on what I would need.

We paid to have a gentleman transport all of the stuff to our house, so they loaded it up into this pickup and we rode up front on the way back.

A fun experience in my first month here.  I was glad to have a room fully furnished once I moved in a week later.  This is what my room looks like today.

The Walk to School

Since starting language school about two months ago, I have enjoyed traveling there via public transportation the majority of the time.  After a couple of weeks I decided to try and find a walking route to school.  Thankfully I happened upon a few South Koreans who were traveling the same route and showed me the way.  Now I often walk this route to and from school, as it takes about the same amount of time to walk as it does to ride the public transportation, provides opportunity to meet new people and practice the language, and is a beautiful view of Bandung.  Here are some pictures of the journey...

A view from my house looking down the street and the second photo is of a nearby street I travel down.

              

The walk takes me down stairs to cross a local river and then back up stairs after passing through the valley. 

At the bottom of this valley, beside the river, lies this beautiful mosque and pesantren (maybe like a boarding school for Islamic studies).

I enjoy the view walking through this valley.

Sepak Bola (Soccer)

In my first month and a half in Indonesia I've quickly learned the importance of soccer in Indonesia.  I arrived as the Asean Football Federation (AFF) soccer tournament was beginning.  There was much excitement in Indonesia as their national team made it farther than they had in several years - all the way to the championship.  They beat the Philippines twice in the semifinals, both times 1-0.  Indonesia faced Malaysia in the finals, but lost the first game 3-0, and didn't have enough goals in the second game as Indonesia won 2-1, so Malaysia took the championship.  I took some pictures of some of the Indonesian people in the neighborhood.  Everyone seemed to be watching the game!  Although I have yet to play soccer here, I have enjoyed watching and cheering for a sport and team I'm learning to like.

My roommate watches the championship game in our house.

Men on the side of the street watching the game.   Notice the magazine stand with the Indonesian soccer player, Christian Gonzalez, on the front page.