Canadian Weekend

I have been preparing and doing research for about 2 weeks in order to have a great and diverse menu for my Canadian Weekend (weekend of March 11th and 12th)…Of course there wasn’t much that was Canadian, except pate chinois!!!! And a lot of the recipes I used had mayo, and a friend of mine (NE) told me that the food has lotsa mayo in Canada…hehehe!!!!

And as an interesting fact, I asked a friend to buy some hamburger meat, and I sort of expected to see the meat we buy at a normal grocery store…Well, I got 2 big chunks (1kg each!) of meat…What am I supposed to do with that…I can’t shove that in the pate chinois (sheppard’s pie)! So we had to ‘ruin’ it as the host called it! It took 1 hour to put the meat through the ‘ruiner’…and all manually! So next time you buy ground beef (viande hachee), think about me in this picture…hehehe!!! (Pic to come cuz of probs with the PC!)

So I spent about 1.2 million ( :O but it is about $125 Cdn or so!!!!) and more than 12 hours in the kitchen STRAIGHT to feed about 30-40 people! Interesting experience and thank god I had help! The food was pretty good and I now know how to make AWESOME brownies!!! :P

So I finished cooking at about 7:30pm and it was a bit weird because everyone kept away from the kitchen and they didn’t want me to get out of the kitchen…of course I knew they were up to something!!!!

So they blindfolded me and brought me to the living room…I was like: “The food is getting cold…hurry up!!!!” (Note to self: hahaha, dumb ass!) So they closed the lights, took the blindfold off and gave me a piece of paper (someone was playing the guitar in the background!). It read: “Light the candle of the friends in front of you (3 people were standing with candles!).” So I lit them and then I got another ‘clue’…it said to the same (light candles of 3 friends) and then step forward…someone will give you something….

I was expecting something like a water bucket over my head or flying tomatoes, even if we are in a house!!!!!!!! But no! A really good friend of mine gave me a rose…and then other people also gave me a rose each… And I started BALLING…I was so overwhelmed and tired at the same time!!!! I didn’t know what to say but I was crying and smiling and laughing...And I had about 25 roses, 2 of which were white…and 2 really ‘special’ people gave them to me!!!! :D

Oh, and while they gave me the roses, the song in the background was: “I just cannnnnnn’t smile without you, etc.” (I forget the rest!)

I think it is the best surprise they could have given me for my efforts of this day!!! It was an awesome feeling although I was a bit shy about it!!!!! Man, I cried in front of 30 people!!!! Hahaha!

The teacher with whom I work everyday on the AIESEC project told me that it was great to see me cry of joy (because she also saw me cry of pain/sadness!) and that I was now ready to get married….hahaha!!!! It was funny…and I hope that all of you can meet people as awesome as that when you will go on an internship! J

SS or ZZ?

I always wondered what these symbols meant…I know one is bad, duh!!! I am German, so if I wouldn’t know this, I would be pretty ignorant… But I was told/heard that it was a good symbol before but I never looked into it…



Well, my current host family goes to the Confucian temple once in a while and they took me there last week. One of their friends is a priest there and he explained everything to me. You know, the Yin and Yang and the symbolism of men and women!

The temple has 3 religions: Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian. The symbol for Buddhism is the ZZ swastika( the right picture)…but the SS stands for Hinduism and it is also the symbol Hitler used (the left picture)…Hence, the symbol has negative connotations since then, but it was a pure symbol in the past!

Une chose est clair, je me couche moins niaiseuse le soir…hehehe! :P

RUBBER ATM

I work with 6 English teachers and we always sit together…Read: My Bahasa Indonesia hasn’t progressed much cuz we always speak in English!

And last week, we had a discussion…DON’T ask me how it started but whatever…So a really cool teacher, let’s call her Ms. P, asks me if I know what a Rubber ATM is… I had NO idea (What do you guys think it is before reading more????)
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So after we all guessed, she told us the answer…It is a condom!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!! I never would have thought that guys would consider their ‘member’ to be an ATM!!!! And naturally, only one of the English teachers is a man, so he was pretty proud!!!! He just said: “YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!”

So who will call their ‘member’ an ATM as of now??? Any takers? :P

Indonesian Men

In the first weeks I was in Indonesia, I went out with some friends to MATOS, which is the Malang Town Square, i.e. a shopping mall! So I chilled with about 8 people and we used the photobox, which is a closed picture taking area and you can make whatever you want in there…SUPER popular and I am sure the idea would be popular at home too!!!! :)

Anyways, this is beside my point…So I was hungry so I ordered some food for supper/dinner…And the dude sitting beside me told me this: “Wow Sofie! You eat a lot” Ohhhhhhhhh ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Let’s just say that I wasn’t quite enchanted by this comment!!!!

So I am on the quest to make this boy realize what to say and what NOT to say to women…And one thing NOT to talk about is food with a girl! I know girls all over the world that are STICK thin and eat 2 or 3 times what I eat! Besides, I’ll eat if I am hungry so back-off…(It’s myyyyyyyyyyyy cheesecake ;) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, last week, I had another ‘episode’ with this boy!!!! So I had a date Friday (YES, a date with a great Indonesian dude :P). And there is this guy from AIESEC Universitas Brawijaya (the LC I am here with) that is going to AIESEC Edmonton for about 1.5 year!!!!!!! Man, big shock with the weather is in store for him…hehehe!!!!

So the guy going to Canada (Let’s call him B) knows the dude with the food comment (let’s call him A) VERY well. So A sends me an SMS a couple of hours before my date and says: “I know you are going out with ---- tonight but I need to speak with you about B. Please tell me where you are going and I’ll come and see you for 10 or 15 minutes!” AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…I want to kiiiiiiilll u!!!!! So I called him! I figured if he wants to talk to me, we can do it over the phone….and NO! He STILL wanted to meet….ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

My date with ---- was awesome for those who want to know (:P) and I asked him if he ‘invited’ them (A & B)…And the answer was negative, THANK GOD!

So, I had a talk with A…And he told me that he knew it was impolite, but he sent me the SMS anyways…ARGGGGG!!!! I told him that next time 2 people from opposite gender go out ALONE, don’t try to tag along…hahaha!!!!

Here I am in Indonesia trying to educate men what to do with girls…hehehe!!!! Stay tuned for the other ‘lessons’ I will have with A!!!!!! :P

Heaven or Hell?

I am DEARLY sorry for this late post...Let's just say that I have been 'basking' between heaven and hell over the last 2 weeks. Let me explain:

WORK
It is GREAT (heaven part!) to work with bright students that want to learn and challenge themselves. I make them write in a book every week about different topics related to the class and it seems that a lot of them enjoy reading my comments, and so do I. Some of the students even realized that grades are not the only important part in life, but also development...AWESOME!!!!!! It was heart-warming to read these comments! :)

But the hell part was last week: On Tuesday, we had a session with a Sociology teacher that is very involved in everything...Of course, he doesn't understand English so it was in Bahasa Indonesia. So I sat there for like an eternity and listen to people's comments although I didn't understand.But I saw my kids' dirty looks...Luckily, the teacher with whom I work translated bits and pieces to me and it wasn't good...Complaints...ONLY complaints!!! At a certain point, I had to use the washroom, so I left with my purse (read: toilet paper in my purse) and it seemed like I was upset....which I was! I was a bit emotional and so was the teacher with whom I work. I am not here, on the other side of the world, to hear a bunch of 15 and 16 years old complain that they are too busy, while they have 500 different activities in which they partake!!!!!! Made me very annoyed and I lost a lot of energy (which I regained over this weekend!).

EVERYTHING ELSE
Of course most of the stuff is heaven-like...Like getting to know an Indian lady living in Singapore (read: she invited us for divinnnnnne Indian food...TP, can't wait to cook with you to learn how to do it!!!!) and she told me I could spend a couple of days with her and her family...SCORE, because it is REALLY expensive to live in Singapore...hehehe!!!! And the fruits are just tooooooooooooo yummy!!!! I tried funky fruits like snake fruit, custard apple, fresh guavas and rambutan and also the King of Fruits, durian...It was almost a guarantee that I dislike it...but everyone here is crazy for it!!!!

Anyways, I have to see my kids now and I have to prepare a Canadian weekend March 11th and 12th. I have about 40-50 people to feed and I have no oven as of yet, while I am making sheppard's pie (pate chinois) and lasagna (I know, I know, it isn't Canadian, but it goes fast and my aun't recipe is really yummy!)...Stay tuned to see what I'll do!!!! :P

PS. If you guys have any ideas about typical canadian salads or something, please send me e-mails or comments on this blog ASAP....I need to buy food!!!! :)