Sugar Cane Harvest

I recently went to visit my roommates parents with her and while there I wanted the sugar cane harvest in one of her father's fields. I also got to taste sugar cane fresh cut from the field which was amazing and yummy.


walking to the field


Men loading the cut cane into a truck




cutting the cane. apparently this is really dangerous for their feet. They walk around bare footed and this field is full of the chopped stems of the plants. A couple of them had bandages wrapped around their feet.





It was a pretty interesting experience and the works thought it was hilarious, just like the rice farmers I previously visited, that a white girl was there taking photos of them.

Fun in Jogjakarta

A few weeks ago I went to Jogja to meet up with a bunch of other VIA volunteers.



Becca and I drove around for insane amounts of time looking for a USB cord for my phone. After finally finding one, it doesn't work anyway.


We made our own versions of Pina Coladas which was fun and delicious!

And for some unknown (or forgotten) reason, we decided to wear santa hats and reindeer antlers.




And we all had fun playing with Beccas kitten Bat


And we went to a karaoke place next to Becca's house. It was way more fun than I ever knew karaoke could be. In this photo I believe that becca is singing My Heart Will Go On while Ben and I recreate scences from Titanic


Becca and Andre


Ben and I singing something awesome I'm sure




I loved the decor in our little room








Picking songs with Becca





I wish I could remember which song this photo is from




And after kareoke i found this poor lost little kitten outside on the side walk and i wanted to keep it forever but i couldn't really get it back to ponorogo so I had to leave it and I was so sad.


At the end of the week we went to buy some Bak-pia, the Oleh-Oleh of Jogja. Basically these little pastries are the famous food from Jogja that everybody takes home as souviners after visiting.



We walked through a really small neighborhood where everybody seemed to make these things so we could try them fresh off the skillet






Then we went to a little roof-top cafe where I kinda crashed after a really long day


But we enjoyed our bakpia and some coffee


One evening we went to Ben's and made some amazing homemade pizza.





It was a great week and a little sad because in all likelyhood I won't see some of these friends again before I come home.

One day with a native speaker

Here are just a couple pictures from a special program my high school students created called "One Day with a Native Speaker" They were really proud of it. Basically it was like a talk show with me and I gave a little powerpoint presentation on teens in America using a lot of photos of Missy and her friends.


My name is spelled wrong on the banner, haha


Students came from various high schools in the area


After my interview they played a bunch of games, some in English, some Indonesian.

Drum Parade

A few weeks ago I was woken up in the morning by people screaming my name and laughing hysterically to find out I was still sleeping at the hideously late hour of 7 AM. Turns out there was a little parade going on outside my house. Local pre-school students in drum bands were showing off their skills. The whole neighborhood was gathered outside my house to watch. There were like ten different ice cream carts and kids running around everywhere. It was an....interesting way to wake up.

student fashion show

A few weeks ago my elementary school students had a coloring, singing and fashion show competition. As usual, they were pretty darn cute.


Boys coloring and hamming for the camera


Singing the national anthem




The fashion show participants


The fashion show MC (the dance teacher)


There was only one boy in the fashion show but he LOVED the attention


Girls wore everything from princess dresses like this to stylish modern fashions


This is Talitha. She has autism and it's kind of beautiful how her class loves her and totally includes her in all the activities




The girl on the right showed up totally decked out. She had on full make and had her hair done.