Still feeling cold anytime

May be some of you wonder why I put “still feeling cold anytime” as the title. It’s not that horrible anyway. That is just my joke, because the real winter has been taking place  for almost 1 months weeks. We have heater in our house here, so I always feel warm inside.

A few days before thanksgiving almost everyone talked about hunting. Hunting is typically American tradition before thanksgiving.  I went to Michigan in order to visit my hostgrandpa’s house. All the family member will gather in someone’s house in thanks giving.

We left our house at 9 am, and we arrived at Michigan at 8 pm. It was long drive away, we spent almost 12 hour on the road. One day later, we went to the festival, called “Turkey Trot”. It is a running competition, but you can either walking or running. The main purpose of it is having fun!! I just walked with my hostfamily and my grandpa. My grandpa isn’t able to run, so we walked intead. The city’s name that we went to is East Lansing, 10 miles east from the capital of Michigan.

We walked as far as 8 miles.  We headed back home afterward. We cooked turkey and the other food as well. Turkey was our main dinner menu.  We had some dessert also. It was the best time for those who haven’t men their family for along time and spending time with your family is the best time ever.

Thanksgiving night is different from any other night, because you can go to any store and get stuff you want cheaper than it is supposed to cost. That night is called Black Friday.  But you have to be at the store early than any other people, otherwise it will be sold out, but the worst thing is I didn’t go there. I was so exhausted. I had hectic thanksgiving day.

Thanksgiving day is celebrated evry November 25^th. We have 4 days off  to celebrate it. All the people around the world celebrated new year, so did I! My English teacher told methere is no specific  celebration here on newyears night, besides because the town that I am living in  is a small town, people here would rather to celebrate at their house with their friend than go outside . I went to my friend house on newyears night. The girl whose house I went to is  the exchange student from Germany.

All the people who were in the party are exchange student. We played a card game that I never played before, the way you play is there is supposed to be 1 judge among the player. And there are 2 different kinds of card, green and red cad. Every one has to has 5 red card. The judge will pick 1 green card and every player must pick the card that relates to the green card. The judge will five the greedn card to the person  who has redcard that most relate to it. The winner is the person who has 5 green cards. That’s fun! We listened to a lot of music and watching movie.

I even took a selfie with my hostfam when we were still walking on turkey trot, haha

Turkey Trot! A lot of people were there

I still even remember how delicious the turkey was :)

The only one who wasn't there is my hostbro. He was in Montana for college

Look at me! i was doing rock climbing, good experience!

It is taken at the place where i did rock climbing

This building is called State Capital Building, it is such an fabulous building

Hockey game! Fortunately, i wasn't frozen, haha

It is called mackinay bridge, one of the longest bridge in michigan

one of the most awesome picture i have had so far, :)

Me and my favourite teacher in my high school. There is Indonesian writing on the little board. I dedicate this writing to all the teachers in Indonesia.

The Road from Sumatra to Washburn

My name is Dhani Alhamidi Lubis. I am from Indonesia. I am an exchange student who was selected by AFS(American Field Service) to be one of Indonesia representative for intercultural exchange.  Indonesia is located in the Southeast Asia, the capital is Jakarta. I spent 25 hours flying from my home to Chicago. It is long way away.

I live on an island, named Sumatra. Sumatra is one of the biggest island island in the world, almost twice the size of the state of Wisconsin  ! I am from the town of Kisaran, we have the same population as washburn, 2000 people.

In Kisaran my parents operate small palm oil company. We harvest palm fruit by cutting the branches. The palm trees are very tall and the fruit are very heavy weighing 40-70 pounds each. We load fruit on the truck and take to a pam factory where they process palm oil. Palm oil is used to make crackers, soap, shampoo and many other products.

I arrived in Washburn in September so I was able to experience Fall. We have so many different kind of trees in my country because we have tropical forests, but I have never seen colorful leaves like we have in Wisconsin. I was very impressed.

Before I left home there were palm oil field fires on my island. This makes the air smoky and hard to breathe in some areas. Whenever I go outside here in Washburn I am reminded how clean the air is here. The fires in my country are over now.

I grew up in a small town but go to school in a big city called Medan, this is about four hours away from my hometown. My higschool has 3000 students with students from all over Indonesia. In Indonesia, students stay in the same room and the teacher moves around the school based on their schedule.

When I return home to Indonesia next June I will tell my friends how cold it is in Wisconsin. Wearing a heavy coat and long underware is something we don’t do in Indonesia as the average temperature is 80 degrees. I am starting to enjoy snow as I have joined the Kanski Cross Coutry program in Washburn. I hope I can bring some snow back to my country. I especially like to see now on all of the pine trees here. We have pine trees in Indonesia but they are protected because there are now very few.

One of my favourite things here is Lake Superior. I never knew, that I was going live next to the biggest lake in the world. I am looking forward to thr polar plunge this winter. I hope it is not too cold.

I am surprised at how clean the area around the lake is. We also have a big lake in my state on Sumatra. It is named Lake Toba. It is not as big as Lake Superior, but it is the biggest lake in Southeast Asia. Every holiday season many tourists visit. One of the favorite places for tourists is Samosir Island, in the middle of the lake. There is a beautiful waterfall there, called SIpiso-piso water fall. You can take a boat or ferry to the island. This lake is important for our economy as many tourists visit, similar to here. If you want to feel the sense of tropical country, Indonesia is a great place to visit.

I heard from some people that Lake Superior is going to be frozen pretty soon. I am looking forward to it. The scenery around Lake Superior is fabulous, I will mis Lake Superior when I return home.