I Wish I Could Eat That Turkey

First of all, I am getting very, VERY excited to come home for Christmas! The holiday spirit, at least commercially in the nearby mall and stores, is in full swing. They don’t have Thanksgiving to act as a buffer before all of the Christmas madness, so there was a huge cone-shaped decoration built in the outdoor area of the mall and decorated as a Christmas tree over a week ago. Last night, when I was grocery shopping, I noticed an aisle full of ornaments and toys for sale. Did I mention that there is also Christmas music playing inside and outside of the mall? It made me happy to sit outside, eating dinner on Wednesday night, listening to Whitney Houston confess that all she wants for Christmas is me ☺ Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be getting sick of it at some point, but for now, I am enjoying it.

 I know it’s Thanksgiving Day (at least it was as I wrote this), so I just wanted to let everyone know how thankful I am. I am on the amazing adventure, on the other side of the world. There are times in the day when I get this surreal feeling about where I am in my life and what I am doing, and I almost have to pinch myself, just as a reminder that it’s real. I am teaching. I am Indonesia. I can’t believe the opportunity I have as I am learning how to be a better teacher (well, let’s be honest, I’m learning everything about teaching and then some, this being my first year and all, learning a new curriculum and, not to mention, all of the cultural differences). I am also meeting a ton of new people, learning school and life lessons from my new friends and colleagues and simply enjoying life. Yes, there are days when I miss home, family and friends, but luckily for me I have a phone with capabilities to text internationally to other ‘smart’ phones, and Facebook is always there for me with all of the really important details of my friends’ lives.

 Okay, I know you’re all dying to know what I have been up to since Thailand. ☺

 1. I opened a bank account. That means no more white envelopes of cash sitting in my apartment…darn.

 2. My school had an Open House event, which I wasn’t a part of due to a Maths Professional Development seminar I am a part of. From what I observed though, with preparations and such, is that it’s quite different than what I am used to. Typically, in the States, an Open House is a chance for a teacher to show-off the classroom, and students bring their parents to meet their teachers. Well, at my school it is more of a way to show off the school and all of its’ accomplishments in order to recruit more students, since it’s a private school. That was definitely a different set of expectations than I was used to.

 3. I took a long weekend vacation to a place near Jakarta called the Thousand Islands. To the north of Jakarta, there are a couple hundred islands (I know, the name is a lie) where locals go to get away from the city. A small group of us decided that we needed a break from the city, too, so we booked a trip to one of the islands furthest away from Jakarta. We took a taxi to Ancol, which is where the port is, early Friday morning (this was back at the end of October when we had no school on a Friday for the Islamic holiday of Hari Raya Idul Adha). It was a 2-hour speed-boat ride to the island in a nice yacht. We had no idea what to expect, but we got away from the city, that was apparent. We were on Tidung Island, and we had paid for our 2-day/1-night accommodations before we left the port. Included, for around $90 USD, was a room for the six of us, and all of our meals. There were no hotels or restaurants on this island, because it is not classified as a ‘resort’ island. During one of the previously mentioned meals, which usually consisted of a homemade rice or noodle concoction, we decided that it was good that we had waited until this far into our stay to come out and stay on a secluded island, otherwise we would not have eaten or enjoyed the food. Anyways, we rode bicycles around the island and found an empty beach where we swam around the coral and laid around for a few hours on Friday. We made it back to our home stay for a late lunch/early dinner and were informed that we were being taken snorkeling. I knew it had been included in the price, so I was more than happy to break up the lazing around with something active. We took a boat out around some of the other nearby islands. It was my first time snorkeling, and I had a blast. It is amazing what is happening under the water and how far away action can be seen, especially near the bottom! The next morning, we were kicked out of our room by 9:30, so we took our stuff and found cover from the massive storm rolling in. Nicole and I took refuge under the roof of another home stay and wrote in our journals as it rained for over an hour. It was definitely the first taste of the rainy season we had seen, and it did not disappoint. It was an intense downpour for most of the time, but I didn’t mind since I had nowhere to be. We found out later that day that the rest of the group had ducked inside a local family’s house and proceeded to entertain the children by playing games with them and attempted translated conversations in Indonesian using a phrasebook. That was the extent of our short trip. A nice little vacation from the city, and no flight or long travel required.

 4. Singapore! I know I mentioned Singapore early in my stay in Indonesia (the country I traveled to for one day while my visa was being processed, so I could come back into the country and legally work). Well, Danna, Nicole and I decided to take a Singaporean teacher, Mildred, up on her offer to tag along on her trip home. So, two weeks ago, we flew out after school on Friday and got into Singapore after midnight (the flight is less than two hours, but you do jump ahead one hour going there). We stayed at her parent’s house, and they were very hospitable. Mildred’s mom cooked us local carrot cake for breakfast (not what you’re thinking like in the States…it was a steamed flour mixture with veggies and eggs, but it was actually quite delicious). Then, Mildred showed us the basics of using the MRT (subway system), so we went off to explore the Botanical Gardens. We wandered around for a couple of hours before we heard threatening rumbles of thunder. Also, I found some beautiful green, open space where I would love to play Frisbee (maybe this weekend when I’m there again). We decided to head over to the area of the city/country/island (yes, it is all of those simultaneously) called Chinatown. There had been some gifts we wanted to buy the last time we were there. We wandered around shopping for the next few hours until Mildred met up with us again. She took us out to dinner at the Hawker Center where we ate a local dish Chicken Rice and washed it down with Sugar Cane drink. We headed over to the area called Marina Bay Sands.

The picture above is a new area built up recently with an upscale mall and neat architecture. The crazy building in the background is a casino in the basement, mall above, and the towers are apartments (the crazy thing sitting across on top is apparently a pool and restaurant, but we couldn't actually go up there to check it out).

 We walked past the Merlion, the national symbol/monument of Singapore. We ended the evening by watching the nightly laser show at the water’s edge. It was a great, short artistic video displayed onto a stream of water acting as a screen, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Sunday morning, we overslept (oops), so we only had about one hour at Sentosa beach, but it was glorious. We had not had time on the beach like that since Bali. The Singapore sun was super intense, and luckily we did not get rained on or too sunburnt. I am glad that Mildred invited us along, and I hope I can return her the favour one day when she comes to visit near my home.

Bangkok in Thailand

21 October 2012 Sorry, once again, about the long time since my last blog post. Since my last post, I’ve been busy trekking through Thailand, celebrating Children’s Day, participating in a Singapore Math Academy, and, oh yeah, that thing called teaching. First, I’ll start with the highlights from my last school break. Our first term was done at the end of September; therefore we got an entire week break before the start of Term 2. What’s a girl to do, but go with three friends on a trip to Thailand…obviously! For those of you who don’t know where that is, basically it’s a country almost entirely land-locked, situated north of Indonesia, south of China, and west of Vietnam and Laos. An interesting fact that I learned is it’s the only country in Southeast Asia that has never been colonised by European powers. We started off our trip by flying into the capital city of Bangkok. We spent the first day walking around to some of the sights in the city, including The Grand Palace, where the royal families used to live, to the famous Reclining Buddha statue, which is about 150 feet long by 50 feet high! We took a ride on a traditional boat admiring some sights and the Chao Phraya River, which happens to run through the city. There is also a Floating Market, but we didn’t go to it. After our exploring for the day, we decided to get in a tuk-tuk (a small, open-air taxi) and check out Khaosan Road. This is a famous attraction we saw in the guidebook, “lined by budget accommodation, shops and bars catering to tourists”, as described by Wikipedia. I had a delicious dinner of Pad Thai noodles. I had Pad THAI noodles in THAI land. Pretty awesome, huh? Spoiler alert, at the end of our trip I learned how to cook previously mentioned noodles, and they turned out to be delicious. Anyways, on with the evening, because it got quite shady, when Kristina convinced Nicole and I to head over to the Patpong area with her. I won’t go into many details, except to tell you that Bangkok is a well-known major destination in the sex industry. Let’s just say that as we walked down the street market, there were “shows” being offered to us as we passed the bars along the street. Don’t worry, we did NOT go in, and I plan to never see that kind of a show…ever!

Enough about that excitement. Next, on the agenda: we took the overnight train north to a city called Chiang Mai. We had booked a trip to trek through the jungle and stay overnight in local villages, but we had a little time to spend in the city before leaving for the trek on Tuesday. As soon as we got settled into our hostel, we left for a temple that was a 40-minute ride outside the city, in the surrounding mountains. It was a beautiful setting with over 300 steps leading up the side of the mountain. Kristina and I took part in a ceremonial prayer walk around the Buddhist Pagoda where we gave a donation, took a flower and candle, then proceeded to walk around in a square four times, as we were advised to do by someone. During the walk, we were supposed to recite a prayer, conveniently available on a sheet of paper, written in Thai, of course, so that was not helpful. I prayed in my head as I walked anyway (not in Thai, sorry Buddha). When we got back to Chiang Mai, we ate dinner at a nearby restaurant that was recommended to us by the owner of our hostel. It was delicious, and just what we needed to have the energy to wander around the night market. There is a street that is lined on both sides with a ton of stalls selling souvenirs, backpacks (basically everything you might ever need). This street is just on the way to the buildings where the actual night market is housed, but we found some gifts we wanted to buy, so we decided that we would return to the market after our trekking trip in order to stock up on gifts. We also watched a free cultural performance on a small stage. It was a spotlight on about four different areas and dances around Thailand. Nicole decided to buy a nice, big backpack for her traveling adventures, present and future, and she got a great deal. We had a great idea, at that point in the night, that we would share one backpack for the trek. Little did we realize, that was not the smartest decision with all of the hiking that we would be doing. Anyways, more about that a little later. Tuesday morning, Nicole, Kristina and I were picked up by our guides in a covered pickup truck to begin our journey to the jungle. Unfortunately, Danna was still recovering from being sick the week before, so she decided hiking through the jungle probably wasn’t the best way to give her body what it needed to fully recover. We rode in the back of the truck for almost two hours up into the mountains with eleven people total, which made for a hot, cozy ride. We made it to our destination, which just happened to be elephant riding! It was kind of like riding a horse that took giant steps that almost knock you off its back. Luckily, we were sitting on a seat on top of the elephant, and there was a bar to hold us in. We had to work hard to stay in the seat at first, though, because the mix of sunscreen, bug spray, and sweat made for some slipping and sliding around the seat. The man who was sitting on the top of the elephant’s head/neck, I will refer to him as the ‘driver’, was just as cool as a cucumber as Kristina and I laughed and held on for dear life behind him. Our ride involved a walk down to a river, where the elephants drank and sprayed themselves, and us, with muddy water. At the end of the ride, we were fed a lunch of fried rice, and they offered to sell us a picture of our elephant ride in a frame that I assume is made out of elephant poop. It’s awesome, the picture and the frame, so I bought it! After the elephant riding, we began the hiking. The group of eleven plus two guides headed into the jungle, and we walked for almost two hours up into the mountains. Nicole and I were walking nearest to the first guide, who we affectionately refer to as ‘Oh My Buddha’ because that was his reaction to almost everything (get it? instead of saying ‘Oh My God’, he is Buddhist). Alright, time to finish up this story to get it posted to my blog, so I’ll make it short and sweet. It’s not going to sound nearly as exciting and exhausting with just my writing about it, but believe me, hiking through the jungle in Thailand is exactly both of those! We stayed in a local village high in the mountains in a bamboo on the first night. It was an amazing view from the deck of the hut (for lack of a better word). We showered, were fed dinner, and were entertained by our guide showing us tricks (with a piece of rope and cards) and singing along to the music on his phone. We awoke the next morning for a breakfast of toast and eggs to get us ready a day filled with hiking. Our group, along with a family of four from Australia, were the only ones staying on for another night, the rest of the group was heading back down the hill. Our day of hiking included three separate waterfalls, after which we ended up at a small collection of more bamboo huts where we stayed for the night. There were two local women already there who had come down from their hill village with supplies for us. We spent the evening talking with the Australian family, relaxing, making popcorn and fried potatoes over a bamboo fire (which we helped collect bamboo for) and, once again, listening to our guide sing along to his music. The experience of sleeping next to a river, listening to the sounds of nature lull me to sleep all while laying in a building made of bamboo was quite surreal, and I would love to fall asleep like that every night instead of hearing the traffic of Jakarta.

We made it back to Chiang Mai by early afternoon, ate dinner and headed back to the night market to make our souvenir purchases. We stopped by a bar to watch a cabaret show, which was pretty fun and interesting to watch (mostly because I felt super awkward…for those of you who don’t know, a cabaret is men dressing as women to put on a singing and dancing show). The next day we wandered around the city, checking out the temples. We got caught in a horrendous downpour at one point, but it’s not like we melted or anything. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 10 p.m., so we even had time to take part in a Thai Cooking class. We learned how to make a bunch of different delicious dishes, including Pad Thai and Banana spring rolls. First, we went to a traditional market and learned a few things about the local veggies and foods, then we took our fresh ingredients to the instructor’s house. There was a group of 12 of us, and we all had our own cooking station, apron and cookbook for future reference. We each got to cook everything as he instructed us, and then we had our entire meal at the end of the cooking. We each got to eat the same food we had just made, and I must say, it was scrumptious! Our bus came almost an hour late, and the ride was stinky and uncomfortable, but we made it back to Bangkok by Saturday morning in one piece. We took a taxi straight from the bus station to the airport and hung out for a couple of hours before we could check in for our flight. I was sad to come back to Jakarta, knowing that I would once again be breathing to smoggy air and getting stuck in terrible traffic jams. I was happy to think about starting new Maths units at school, though (yeah, I know I’m a dork because I actually like stuff like that). Quickly, since I mentioned it at the beginning of my post. I'm taking part in a Professional Development opportunity with one of the developers of the Singapore Mathematics Curriculum, after which I will have earned a certificate in the teaching of Singapore Math. Dr. Yeap is an amazing presenter, and as much as I love my Saturdays to relax, I don't mind giving up one Saturday a month for the chance to learn more and talk with other teachers about the Maths curriculum and how I can become better at using it to teach. Also, Children's Day was a big deal here. My school celebrated the day before Term 1 break, which meant we did nothing academically that day. The students didn't have to wear their uniforms, there was an extended assembly for student and teacher performances (I was the narrator for a Little Red Riding Hood story put on by the Maths Department) and each class had a class party (my class brought in food, played some games and had a mini dance party with Miss Nicole's 3rd grade class. We taught them the Cha Cha Slide and Cupid Shuffle). It was a successful day, and the kids competed in some group games with their houses before being dismissed early for the day.

That is all for now. I’ll start working on the next update, because it has practically been a month since we got back from Thailand. Remember to vote on Tuesday (don’t worry, I sent in my absentee ballot when I first got over here). Love always, That girl you know who is living and teaching in Indonesia

It's Been a Long Time Coming

Sorry it has, once again, been so long since I posted an update. Enjoy the rambling about my school and the past month's happenings. Since the beginning of September, I have simply been chugging along in my school routines. Each day has its high and low points, but overall I’m still enjoying the school, students and Jakarta. There have been a few events over the past few weeks that have forced me to break my routines, and I’m going to tell you about them. 1. The first full week after returning from Bali, we were informed of the upcoming scheduled lesson observation by our Principal, our Head of Department, and one of the school’s base members. This wasn’t anything too nerve-racking since I knew when it was scheduled and I didn’t plan to do anything drastically different than I already had planned. The lesson went smoothly, and then I had the opportunity to get feedback from my observers. I know you’re just dying to know what they told me…you’re a horrible teacher, and you’re fired! Haha, just kidding. The most important lesson I learned was that I need to force myself to type out daily/individual lesson plans for each topic I plan to teach, because it makes me significantly more prepared for whatever may happen during class. Yes, it sounds like that’s something I would’ve figured out by now, what with all of the lesson plans I wrote in the School of Education, but it’s not easy to make myself write down more detailed lesson plans after I have already created the required weekly lesson plans. My proud, relief-filled moment was when my principal told me that she was pleasantly surprised with my teaching. That sounds really bad at first, but then she reminded me of the lesson I presented during the first week of the school’s induction program. Basically, I got super nervous and hadn’t been well-prepared. We were then warned that in Term 2 there will be an unannounced observation. 2. Next observation, oh yeah, two observations in two weeks! This time, the director of academics of the school came to observe all of the new teachers. Our vice principal set up the observation times, so I knew that he was coming in to see my 6th grade class. Little did they realise that I only have five students during that time, because I have the Maths pull-out group (the lowest academically-achieving Maths students in all of 6th grade). Apparently, after observing for one 30-minute period, he decided that he had seen enough. Once again, I hadn’t planned anything fancy, I just did what I always do. I found out later that he wanted to observe me once more, but in one of my classes with more students….”would that be okay?” The vice principal asked me, like I had a choice ☺ So, two days after the 6th grade observation, he came into my 4th grade class. It went well, and I was happy with the lesson (all except one girl who kept staring at the director and laughing, so she was even more distracted than usual). At this point, I have been observed in each of my three Maths classes. The next day I had my post-observation feedback, where the director asked me how I thought the lesson had gone. I, of course, responded that it had gone as well as I had expected. He told me that he noticed I have a soft-spoken person, and sometimes it might not hurt to talk more loudly during class. My immediate reaction (in my head) was ‘no. The students are loud enough on their own. I don’t need to add to the noise’. Quickly after his previous mentioned statement, he added that it might make more sense for me to just use my quiet signal more. By actually taking the time to wait for everyone to be quiet and paying attention with the quiet signal (which is the simple, yet effective ‘Give Me Five’ hand in the air technique) it will be more effective. What he said definitely makes sense, and I have noticed my impatience sometimes use my quiet signal. It’s worth it to wait for a minute or two (which seems like an eternity when I could be teaching) when it will ensure the students are paying attention, can hear and aren’t distracted. 3. This past week, we had a holiday (darn, another day off school) for Jakarta’s Mayor election. Danna, Nicole and I each got a massage, and then we sat around by the pool, even though it was quite cloudy. The week ended well, followed by a productive weekend of watching The Hunger Games and actually getting some of the schoolwork done that I brought home (that’s amazing for me, because I’ve been having a really hard time doing any work outside of school, and I’ve enjoyed being lazy at my apartment). This coming week will be a whirlwind. It’s the end of Term 1, so the students have a lot of tests, and then it’s Children’s Day on Friday (apparently, it’s a school holiday for Primary students only). The students don’t have to wear their uniforms, they can have a wacky hair day, and there are no academics for the day. What will we do all day, if we’re not teaching, you ask? First, we have an extended assembly (I don’t remember what’s happening for those 2 hours, but I just know that I’m not in charge of it), then we have a class party for a couple of hours (food, games, and fun…I’m also not quite sure what is expected of that, but I’m sure I’ll buy a little gift for each of my students), and then there are school-wide games for the rest of the day (and don’t forget about early dismissal!). Before then, though, we are supposed to finish all of our students’ progress reports for Term 1 (one of the many productive things I did this weekend, thank you very much) and submit their test scores (my students’ tests aren’t until Thursday, so that may be a bit rushed, but I’ll be able to handle it). 4. Last, but certainly not least, we get week-long break before Term 2 begins. A small group of us just booked our flight to Thailand! 5. Enjoy the beauty that is Fall! Each time I talk to my mom, she asks how the weather is, and my response is, “Mom, the weather is and will be the same all of the time: Mid 80’s and humid all day” (eventually some rain once the rainy season starts, soon, I think). Take a moment to appreciate the changing of the seasons, please.

You put the words in my mouth

So, I was reading a book called The Secret last week when I came across a quote that perfectly described the reason why I'm here (in Jakarta). "You've come to this juncture juncture in your life, merely because something in you kept saying, 'You deserve to be happy.' You were born to add something, to add value to this world. To simply be something, bigger and better than you were yesterday." Don't get me wrong, I was never unhappy back home. I have great family and friends who are so supportive. There was just always something in my head that told me that there is more to life than what I was doing. That is that. I just wanted to share.

Bali: the Cancun of Indonesia

First of all, Bali was a much needed break, and I would call it a successful vacation.  Here are some of the highlights that I wrote about in my journal while there. 

1. We saw the stars every single night. That may not seem like a big deal to most people back home, especially if you’ve been spoiled like me at my dad’s farm and have grown up seeing the Big Dipper all of the time in the night sky. Anyways, in Jakarta, there is too much smog and light pollution, so there is no chance of seeing the stars.  The best part was that no one recognized any of the constellations of the southern hemisphere. 

2.  We played in the waves of the Indian Ocean. We headed to the beach on our first full day in Bali, and I was not expecting the waves. I did know that most of the beaches are considered ‘surfer’ beaches, so I should’ve put two and two together, but I have not had much experience swimming in the ocean.  The highlight of the ocean was walking out away from the shore, where the water was waist-high, at most, and watching the waves build up higher than my head.  For the most part, I could jump up and catch the wave before it broke, but there were a few that were bigger and took me out. The only bad part about those times was that my swimsuit bottoms also got taken away, and kept almost falling off…not to mention getting full of sand. Yuck! Needless to say, I was sure to rinse off in the pool at our hotel before I took a shower at the end of that day. I didn’t try to surf, but it was fun to watch the people who were surfing. Some of the guys even used the waves to body surf, which was just as entertaining to watch. 

3.  We hiked up the Mt. Batur volcano in the dark, so we could get to the top in time for the sunrise at 6:30 a.m.  It was worth waking up at 1:00 a.m., riding in a van for 2 hours, then following a guide with a flashlight to the top of the volcano (don’t worry, we each had our own flashlight as well).  The climb was intense, but the view from the top was spectacular!  We could also see the island of Lombok in the distance; just another place I would like to visit since it’s near the Gili Islands, which are supposed to be absolutely beautiful.  Our guides fed us a breakfast of a fried banana sandwich and hardboiled eggs, which were all cooked using the steam from the volcano.  The trek back down the volcano was even more terrifying than the way up.  I was afraid that Ben and Josh would run us over (or fall on top of us) as they jumped from rock to rock, mimicking our guides’ expert descending skills (who, by the way, take that trip at least once each day, sometimes twice). 

4.  The hotel where we stayed was tucked next to a rice paddy that stretched back a long ways, where we saw workers doing their thing during a few of the days we were there.  There were a bunch of villas, a pool, a small fitness room, as well as a buffet breakfast provided each morning.   On days we weren’t out and about exploring nearby volcanoes or going scuba diving, we could spend the morning next to the pool, taking a dip whenever we got too hot in the sun.  Then, we could either move ourselves to the beach (just a 10-15 minute walk away from the hotel, or they provided a shuttle at 10 and then again at 1) or we could venture to the nearby restaurants and shops.  I don’t know how we lucked out with such a great place.  I’ll give Josh the credit, because he is the one who booked the guys’ room at the hotel first, and then we followed suit.

5.  We hiked around Ulu Watu Beach for part of the day on Sunday, and then ended up at the Ulu Watu temple just before sunset.  Impressively enough, this actually was part of our plan from the beginning, because the temple is built on the edge of an ocean-front cliff where we heard there is traditional Balinese dancing at sundown.  The beginning of our beach adventure was originally going to be relaxing and swimming at a different beach than the beach that is closer to our hotel (Ulu Watu was about a 45-minute taxi ride away).  Well, we got to Ulu Watu and realized there was a bunch of coral where we wanted to swim, so we decided, instead, to hike along the beach filled with huge stones.  We figured we could venture further down and meet up with the other beaches we had seen signs for on our way.  It was definitely an enjoyable adventure, and we had a beach walk that was mostly devoid of other tourists and people (granted, we were hiking over a bunch of rocks).  When we finally made it to where we assume was Padang Padang Beach, we found stairs leading up the side of the cliff. We took these, walked to the main road (which just happened to be named Pentai, which means ‘beach’) and were lucky to catch a cab to take us to the temple.  The tickets to the dance were sold out, but it was an amazing view of the ocean, yet again. 

6.  We traveled to Ubud, a city about one hour north of where we were staying in Seminyak.  We walked around the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, which was cool, however, it was creepy to realize how many monkeys were around.  Our driver then took us to the downtown area where we ate at a delicious pork restaurant that we read about in our Indonesia guidebook.  Then, we explored a temple and walked around in some shops for awhile.  Next, per our driver’s suggestion, we went to the Elephant Cave and explored again.  Nicole and I ventured away from the beaten path, following a sign that directed us to the second temple.  We just happened to run into Kristina, who was exploring a cave she found, and by the time we got halfway to the second temple, we realized we didn’t have time to continue walking if we wanted to get back to the rest of the group in time, so we turned around.  It was a great addition to our trip (the Elephant Cave), which just goes to show that we should always ask the driver for suggestions of where to go (not that we always have to go to said places) because they're the locals and know what is cool to visit.  

7.  There was a small group of us who wanted to try to scuba dive, so we took a day to try it out.  We took a taxi to Nusa Dua (away from Seminyak for about 45 minutes) and met up with the diver who would take us.  I wore the whole shebang: a wet suit, goggles, air tank and even a weighted belt to keep me from floating to the top.  It was very strange to only breath in and out of my mouth, but I got used to it (because there was no other choice).  The pressure wasn’t too bad, especially after I finally got my ears to pop.  There were two divers in the water with the four of us, and one-by-one, they led us down about ten meters to the ocean floor.  At the bottom, there was a railing where I hung on, to keep myself from floating up and away.  I hung out there, and enjoyed watching the fish swimming by.  We each had a plastic baggie of bread that we could use to feed the fish and lure them closer.  One of the divers had an underwater camera, so I’m excited to see the picture c.d. we bought of our underwater adventure.   

All in all, the trip was amazing, and I will be very tempted to return to Bali (especially after one of my co-workers told me that normal plane tickets to Bali are only around $100. Ours were way more than that because of the peak tourist season and the Lebaron Holiday).  There is quite a nightlife in Bali, as well.  It was full of tourists, many of whom were Australian, and we went out dancing two of the nights we were there.  Even though it was weird to see so many white people, the locals knew English really well, which made it a bit easier to bargain while I was shopping.  Although, I am at the point where I want to be able to use the words and phrases of Indonesian that I have learned, and they were very impressed/confused when I could speak a little bit of their language, which made me feel good. Of course they followed it with "You speak Indonesian?", which I could reply, "a little".  

 So, moral of the story…anyone who wants to visit me will go to Bali at some point during their trip here.  Any objections? Good. 

Be Careful Sliding into the Crater

30 July 2012

Sorry it has taken me so long to post an update. I haven’t felt like I was far enough ahead for school planning that I could justify spending time typing this (I already wrote it in my journal, but it wasn’t edited or typed).  Well, enough with the excuses, here is what I have been up to.  Be prepared for another post of randomness after the story about Bandung, which dates back to the weekend of July 21. 

Here goes…On Friday, July 21, our driver picked us (Danna, Nicole, Kristina, and I) up at our hotel in Bandung (a city that is about 2 hours from Jakarta) at 9 a.m.  Hold on, back up, how exactly did we find ourselves in Bandung on a Friday? We had a holiday for the first day of Ramadan, so we had taken a bus from Jakarta to Bandung.  None of us had made any concrete plans to go out of the city for the long weekend, and as the week began, we had been talking to some of the teachers at school.  When one of the teachers at school, who just happens to have lived in Bandung and whose husband currently lives there, heard we wanted to go for the weekend, she took care of everything. She told us we could buy bus tickets at Central Park, the mall we live by, and that’s where the bus arrives and departs, very convenient!  After school on Thursday, we bought our bus tickets, but when I say bus, I really mean a van with 6 seats in the back plus the passenger seat in the front.  It was a great deal, though. We paid 75 000 Rupiah for a one-way ticket.  The teacher from school asked us if we had figured out a place to stay or any specific plans we had, and when we told her, “not yet” she asked us if we wanted her husband to book us a room in a hotel she knew of and hire us a driver for the weekend.  So, basically, there was no planning involved for us, besides we looked in our guidebooks and took people’s suggestions of places to go and sites to see. 

So, back to Friday morning, with our driver, Jamal.  We told him we wanted to go to Tangkuban Parahu, one of the many local volcanoes.  First of all, we had mainly come to Bandung to get away from the crowded, smoggy city of Jakarta, so we had planned on hiking around in the green surroundings.  Unfortunately, our driver spoke little to no English, so instead of letting us hike up to the volcano, so he ended up driving us to the top.  It worked out fine, though, because the clouds/fog started to roll in as we were leaving the top of the volcano.  We walked around the top ledge, looking down into the steaming and hissing crater of the volcano, which had imploded in on itself years ago.  There was no lava, or anything, just steam.  There were quite a few tourists on this side of the crater, but as we walked further around to the other side, the crowd thinned.  We continued walking to the opposite side, where we came upon the second crater.  This one was not steaming or hissing, and it seemed very calm and dead compared to the other.  It never would have crossed my mind to walk down into this crater, except that there were a bunch of words and messages spelled out with rocks in the crater.  So, we thought, why not?  Danna followed a few guys down the hillside (and by hillside, I do mean the side of the volcanic crater).  There was no trail to follow down, just a bunch of loose rocks to halfway slide down.  It was a bit treacherous at times, but fun!  We took a bunch of pictures while in this crater, because, let’s face it, we were standing in a volcano!  We made it out of there safe and sound, and we made our way back around to where our driver had dropped us off.  We came back around a slightly different way, so we walked up the street lined with the souvenir shops.  Danna and Nicole bargained for a tshirt for Danna.  She didn’t think it was a great deal, but she was proud of her bargaining and using numbers in the Bahasa Indonesian language. 

On our way down the hill (and by hill, I do mean volcano), our driver took us to an Outdoor Adventures place where we thought we could zip line.  Turns out they call zip lining the flying fox.  We had seen a billboard and brochure, so we wanted to at least check out the facility and price.  For a mere 20 000 Rp each (about $2) we each got to do the flying fox.  It was fun, for what it was, but no comparison to the time I went sky diving, or the time I will have when I do something else crazy here, like bungee jump or cliff dive.  J 

After the fun of flying through the air, we told the driver to take us back into the city. Kristina heard about a traditional show that was happening, and the driver knew where to go.  Unfortunately, we were a little late for the show, and the tickets were 100 000 Rp. (about $10) each, and once again, we were too cheap to actually want to pay that much money for a show we knew little to nothing about.  We decided to wander around the gift shop while we listened to the show going on next door.   It sounded funny and interesting, but I don’t think we missed too much.  Next on the agenda was Amanda’s Bakery, which had been recommended to each of us separately by different people who heard we were going to Bandung.  We walked in to find boxes stacked on all of the counters, about 6 boxes high.  Having no idea what to expect, as per usual in this country, we assumed there was an assortment of baked goods, including brownies, in each box.  As we looked more closely, we realized each box was a big ‘loaf’ of brownie.  There were a bunch of different kinds, including strawberry, which I bought.  It was worth the whole 20 000 Rp (if you’ve been paying attention to my conversions thus far, you could’ve figured out that’s only about $2) for the equivalent of a pan of absolutely scrumptious brownies.  Of course, each of us bought a box to try and share with everyone else…but that still left us with an entire box to eat ourselves.  We (Nicole and I) decided workout when we got back to Jakarta, because it requires too much self-control to turn down brownies when you’re on vacation.  After that, we were out of ideas for places for the driver to take us, so he dropped us off at our hotel.  We showered and decided to venture out to find some real dinner (apparently brownies don’t count).  From riding around, we noticed our hotel’s location in relation to a famous street with a ton of factory outlet stores with superhero-themed stores and decorations.  In the guidebook, this area is referred to as Jeans St., and it was entertaining to walk around.  It was quite late, especially for it being the end of the first day of Ramadan, so the shops closed relatively early (not that we really wanted to do any shopping, anyway).  We saw a small restaurant/bar on a side street and decided to check it out.  As we walked in from the street, a hostess greeted us, and Danna asked if they had beer.  The hostess told us yes, and then asked us how many.  Assuming she was referring to how many people in our party, we replied four, a few minutes later, the waitress showed up at our table with four bottles of Bintang (the local beer).  Apparently, the Americans had walked in demanding four beers before even taking their seats.  The best part is that Nicole and I don’t like beer, so there were already two beers a piece for Danna and Kristina.  We thought it was entertaining, and not the most inconvenient conversation that had been lost in translation. 

Saturday morning (21 July) our driver showed up at 9 a.m. again, but this time his name was Hendra.  He spoke much better English than Friday’s driver, so we were talking about America and his family.  Our goal on Saturday was to enjoy some hot springs and maybe a waterfall.  Well, both of those goals were an epic fail, as it turned out.  Hendra drove us to the Maribaya hot springs that we read about in our guidebooks…bad idea.  The water was really dirty, and it definitely was not a tourist spot.  As we’re asking Hendra where we can swim, he tells us that even HE wouldn’t swim here, and then he follows that statement with, “I told you not to come here.”  That’s when we decided that he knows the area better than we do, so we told him to take us to wherever he recommends.  He took us to Ciater, which had hot springs and pools, but it was still not what we had been expecting and at this point, after driving around in search of this place, we were all annoyed and disappointed at where we had finally arrived.  We stuck our feet in a small fountain/pool where we didn’t have to pay money (once again, we’re cheap, especially after already having paid to get into the park to simply walk around).  We found out later, from my friend Nathan who has been living in Bandung since January, that a good time to go to Ciater is late at night because they’re open all night.  That’s on the list for our next visit to Bandung!  We made an attempt to pick strawberries on our drive back into the city, but all of the places were either closed because of the Ramadan fasting or had already been picked through…bad timing, once again.  I finally made our driver stop by a roadside stand selling pineapples, because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was mid-afternoon by this point of the day.  Fresh pineapple was one of the highlights of the day, especially since everything else had been such a disappointment. 

Continuing our pledge to listen to the driver for the day, we asked him to take us to a place to get cheesecake (once again, it had been a suggestion from someone before we left).  We each had a slice of cheesecake that was delicious, and, once again, the food did not disappoint.  I was feeling guilty about our driver being around all of this food, because he had been fasting all day (he didn’t even drink any water), so I suggested he take us to a restaurant to try a local Bandung dish.  On our way to the restaurant, we stopped by one of the famous buildings in Bandung where he said people always have their picture taken because of the architecture.  I don’t know what was so special about it, but our driver wanted his picture taken with us, since we were his first international customers.  It was hard to miss the tents and two stages set up across the street, so we decided we had nothing better to do except check out the commotion.  It turns out there was a concert, in the one-block area, called The Pink Plop, which had a tagline of ‘What Woman Wants’.  There was a stage on each end with tents of vendors in between.  Danna and Kristina decided to rollerblade when the walked by the Roller Universe tent, so many local onlookers were entertained while they both rolled around.  Before leaving, we stood by a stage to catch some of the music.  None of us could hide for long before pictures were being snapped of us watching the show, but the best part was when Kristina was playing air guitar with one of the songs.  That had also not gone unnoticed, because the mc of the show ended up talking to her later and asking where she was from, which drew more attention and pictures to us.  We left the Pink Plop around 5:30 in hopes of getting to a restaurant by 6:00, in hopes that Hendra could break his fast (when the sun went down) and then join us for dinner.  Well, it ended up being all for naught, because Hendra didn’t want to eat with us anyway, he just drank his bottle of water, and Danna was the only one hungry enough to eat a real meal (we were still full of sugar from pineapple and cheesecake). 

Later Saturday night, I called my friend Nathan, and we met up with him and his girlfriend at a local restaurant.  They both have been living in Indonesia since January, and they were very helpful with all of my random questions and concerns before I moved here.  It was fun to get to know them a little better in person, and they even showed us around their neighborhood, which is, by the way, located down a long, dark alley surrounded by rice paddies as you get closer to their house.  We sat around their house for a few hours talking about traveling, teaching, and such.

They offered to show us around a street market on Sunday morning, and then take us on a hike.  We gladly accepted the guidance, since we were out of ideas for activities.  Kristina was especially disappointed that there would be no Ram fights on Sunday morning, like usual, because of the Ramadan holiday.   The hike in the great outdoors was, by far, the highlight of the weekend, only after the volcanic crater. 

31 July

Now, more recently, I have been teaching, teaching, and teaching some more.  Last week was the first time for the CCA (co-curricular activity) that I’m in charge of.  Yes, I’m in charge of the Badminton CCA each Tuesday.  There is one hour after school for the 3^rd and 4^th grade students, from 2:00-3:00, and then the 5^th and 6^th grade students have their CCA from 3:00-4:00.  I don’t have to do anything like know anything about the sport, thankfully, because there is a professional coach who comes to the school.  I just take attendance, keep kids from messing around too much, and I even practiced with a few of the students today, which was fun. 

I am a chaperone for a Maths competition on Thursday afternoon in Jakarta, so another teacher and I will accompany 18 students to the competition.  I lead a few practice sessions with four 5^th grade students, and they definitely made me feel stupid about most of the math problems they were solving.  I could figure them out, usually, but it just took me twice the time.  Working through a packet full of word problems made my head numb J

I will be flying to Singapore on Friday to get my work visa taken care of.  It has to be done soon, since my current visa expires soon, and I need my passport returned to me by mid-August.  We leave for Bali in two weeks!! Yay, vacation soon!  This Saturday, we have a morning of Parent/Teacher Conferences.  I’m not sure what to expect for those, since we just found out about them last week.  I’ll let you know how it goes…

Sorry again, for the ridiculous amount of stories at once.  I really need to get better at this.  Also, you can check out the pictures from Bandung on my facebook wall (Danna tagged me in her pictures). 

I was tired after the ride, but it was worth it . . .

(Please refer to the last paragraph for the title reference)

First of all, Happy Independence Day, America!

So, I’ve been compiling a list of updates I need to add to my blog, so this will probably be even more random than usual, but oh well.  Also, as I’m sitting here writing my blog, I’m reminded that I really should be working on school preparations, but I’ve really become an expert at procrastinating (I’m convinced that I enjoy cleaning much more when I actually have something important that I should be doing instead, if that makes sense).  Anyways, I definitely need to get back in touch with my crafty, creative side at school, so I can make things for my classroom and decorate some bulletin boards! Oh yeah, and I need to have three weeks of lesson plans done by Thursday…I’m one-third of the way there, almost…

Now, to begin the randomness: Prawn crackers are served with many of the dishes of food here.  Yes, shrimp-flavored crackers, but not like Ritz or anything, they’re much lighter.  Personally, I think they’re disgusting.

Pocari Sweat is one of my new favorite drinks here, besides fresh strawberry juice (I also tried an avocado float, which was interesting, but not in a bad way).  Pocari Sweat is the equivalent of lemon-lime Gatorade, kind of.  It says that it’s an Ion Supply Drink, and I actually bought it thinking that it was just a bottle of flavored water that looked strangely cloudy.  Luckily, it turned out to be a delicious decision. 

Being that my school is based on the Cambridge system (yup, that’s in England), they use terms and words that we, as Americans, aren’t used to.  For example, they spell the word ‘color’ as ‘colour’ and z’s change to s, ‘tire’ is spelled ‘tyre’…I’m not going to be teaching English, so I don’t know a lot of the rules, yet.  Anyway, the best/weirdest part to get used to is everyone calling me “Miss”.  The students will call me Miss Lynsey, but also the other teachers also call me that or they simply shorten it to Miss.  It makes me smile because I feel like some sort of British royalty or something.

Zumba became one of my favorites ways to work out, especially during my last year in college, so I was excited to hear that there is an aerobics/zumba class at my apartment building twice each week.  I’ve walked by a couple of times while this was going on.  Randomly enough, the class takes place in the front lobby of my apartment, which opens up into the front pull-up area of the parking lot.  Not only does everyone coming into the lobby get to watch us awkwardly dance and shake our hips, (okay, I only attempt the latter, but I still do it awkwardly) but all of the security guards and apartment workers just stand there and watch us.  Lastly, the woman who leads the class is super flexible, energetic and fun, and, best of all, she blasts Adele for most of the warm up and cool down of the workout, which she attempts to sing along with.  Moral of that story…I’m going to do it again on Thursday evening!

Our neighbor is signing up for internet in the apartment tomorrow, so hopefully Danna and I will be able to split the cost with him, so that we’ll have reliable internet that we can use to Skype with our families.  It’s rather expensive, but it turns out that it’s with the only company that is allowed to install in our building, so I’m happy we’re splitting the cost three ways. 

This past Sunday, we were taken to a church in the part of Jakarta that’s considered the China Town of the city.  It was a small English service, but we found out after the service that the real service was being held upstairs in the actual sanctuary.  We walked up there to have a look around, and there were around 2,000 people in the Chinese/Bahasa Indonesian service, which was SO MANY people!  Also, this church has something like 36 different branches around Indonesia and Southeast Asia, and they actually want to start a church in Los Angeles.  I’m still looking forward to continuing my church search.  We also went to the Ranch Market, which is like another Whole Foods, and it had a lot more imported food than the other places we’ve shopped.  It was a treat to buy Macaroni and Cheese, but it got expensive quickly, because I wanted to buy the familiar products.  I think I’ll stick with shopping at Hero, a grocery store in one of the malls I live near, so then I won’t have to take a taxi to get there.  We also ate at an amazing restaurant called Ninety-Nine, and we all agreed that we needed to return there later in the school year for drinks, because they have an entire wine room called The Bottle.  Later in the day, we ventured to a massage place called Zen-O.  We all scheduled 90 minute hand and foot massages, which were amazing.  I wasn’t quite sure how they would fill that much time while I just sat in a big recliner with everyone else also sitting around me, but they really focused on each of the hands and feet, as well as the lower legs, and then, at the end, there was some focus on the shoulders and back.  I would say that was well worth the price of less than $10…no, I did not forget any zeros on that number, it only cost ten bucks, even after the tip!

This Bali trip is not as easy to plan as I had hoped.  Last night, Nicole found out that “the boys” (a group of American guys who work at a different school than we do) booked a villa in Bali, and they informed us that there weren’t many left for the taking.  So, Nicole and I made a trip to Burger King in the mall to take advantage of the wi-fi and book a villa for “the girls”.  Thankfully, we got that booked.  Unfortunately, when we attempted to book a flight today, there was a problem with the Air Asia website that wouldn’t allow me to pay with my U.S. credit card.  I called the customer service tonight, and it turns out that they’re having a problem with all accounts from the U.S.  So, I think we will go to their office in Jakarta tomorrow, since it’s located in another mall nearby.  The only problem is that we’re supposed to go out for dinner with the Americans to celebrate our nation’s birth, so we’re trying to work around that.  I think it will all work out fine, and maybe even for the better, since I can use cash to book the flight. 

I don’t remember if I mentioned spending too much money to wash my clothes the first time around, but I took my second round of washing to a local laundry shop outside of my apartment building.  Unlike the laundry in my building, which charges per item, this place charged me per kilogram.  I had about 1.5 kilograms of laundry, which cost 9,000 Rupiah, which is roughly $1.00.  I was very happy with that price, so hopefully I’m satisfied with the quality of my clothes once I get them back.  It takes three days for the washing, unless I want to pay double to get them by the next day, which wouldn’t be much anyway, if I needed it.

Last, but certainly not least, is the adventure after which I named this post, which happened last weekend on my way back from the school’s teacher conference in Puncak (pronounced Poon-cha, because the letter ‘c’ is read as ‘ch’ and the ‘k’ at the end of a word isn’t said—there’s your Bahasa Indonesian lesson for the day).  We left Jakart at 5:30 a.m. on Friday morning to start our 2-ish hour journey to Puncak for our conference, which was only scheduled to last until noon-ish on Saturday.  We made fairly good time on our way up to Puncak, which is located in the mountains, or at least that’s what they kept telling us.  It was very picturesque scenery with hillsides of tea plantations as we neared our destination.  The conference seemed to be kind of a waste of our time, as the new teachers had just spent seven days doing much of the same thing.  It did give us a chance to meet the other teachers at our school, though, which was great.  By Friday night, after a few sessions and dinner, it was apparent that there was a stomach illness or food poisoning going around.  There were a ton of sick teachers, expats and locals alike, so the school staff was passing around medicine and Pocari Sweat like it was candy.  Fortunately for me, I did not get sick.  The suspected culprit was the previous night’s seafood buffet dinner, which, ironically, was a treat from the school for all of the new teachers after our last day of orientation.   Side note to our being sick: Indonesians don’t shy away from discussing bodily functions, especially when inquiring about you being sick. They give specifics and actually we prayed at our assembly for the “sick teachers who have diarrhea.”  The Americans found that particularly strange, but I also found it entertaining.  Thanks to Veronica and the Polinske family for exposing me to the bathroom talk for the past two years, because now I’m not nearly as uncomfortable when someone tells me too much information, i.e. “Did you feel sick? Because I have diarrhea from last night’s dinner.” J  

Anywho, by Saturday morning, most of the teachers had recovered, for the most part, so all they looked forward to was the journey back to Jakarta on the bus.  Little did we realize, the 2.5-hour journey to Puncak would be easily doubled on our way back because of a traffic jam.  Some of the school officials had warned us of this possibility, but we assumed that they would attempt to work our schedule around the closing of the road, so that we could make it back at a decent time…nope, that’s not how it worked out!  We had a box lunch after our session on Saturday morning, and then we boarded the buses.  We proceeded to sit on the bus for an hour, in the parking lot of the hotel.  It didn’t make any sense to us, but we could do nothing but eat our lunches and wait.  We finally left the hotel a little before 2 in the afternoon, but about 30 minutes into the drive, we hit horrible traffic and stopped alongside the road.  This little stop turned into a five-hour ordeal, no joke.  I remember seeing all of the roadside stands and shops on our way up the mountain, and I had wondered how they ever got any business if there was just traffic zooming past, well my question was answered.  Once the bus stopped, we were informed that they close one side of the mountain road so that two lanes can be open coming up, and it had been known to be closed for up to six hours in the past.  Here’s a rundown of how I spent my time on the side of the road: We stopped at the nearest shop and ate grilled sweet corn; drank Pocari Sweat, ate ice cream flavored Oreos, which tasted actually very much like an orange dream sickle filling; explored the real Indonesian bathroom, which did not have any sort of toilet, just a porcelain hole in the ground where you pour water in to flush after you’re done.  That may not make sense, but I’m sure I’ll have a picture of it at some point; and Nicole and I had a ‘photo shoot’ with some local, older women at one of the shops where I stopped to buy a Sprite.  They asked us, in English, if we wanted to sit and chat, so we obliged.  After asking where we were from, what we were doing in Indonesia, and how we liked it so far, they took some pictures with us (their idea, not ours).  When we left, they asked if we were Christian, and then told us that Jesus loves us, and God Bless.  It was quite interesting and random, but it made the time go by more quickly and it’s a funny story, not to mention a funny picture.   All in all, I wasn’t angry about getting stuck in the closed road for a few hours because I looked at it as a chance to get a taste of the “real” Indonesia, since we’ve been stuck in the “bubble” we live in by the mall.  I didn’t think about all of the items I wasn’t getting finished on my to do list, and I just tried to remind the annoyed people with us to relax because there wasn’t anything we were going to do but enjoy exploring!

Delicious Fresh Food

24 June 2012

I went to church this morning.  I enjoyed the music, and the message was relevant to me/all of us who had come from Bina Bangsa.  It was about “church shopping”, basically.  Everyone seemed really friendly, and it’s quite a large congregation/fellowship.  There wasn’t a full house today, because of the summer holiday break, but they said there are close to 400-500 people at the service, and there are two services on Sunday mornings.  I was super tired, because I was on the internet for quite awhile last night, since it was finally working consistently for me, so that was exciting.  Next Sunday, the school will provide transportation to a different, international church so that we can find one we like.  They are in English, and the one this week had a lot of expats there, and one of the elders is originally from Lake Geneva…small world…and the man who spoke the message graduated from Purdue (note, there isn’t a designated pastor because it’s a fellowship, so people take turns, I think). 

After church, we went to the third big mall that I live by.  Setayan City, I think it was called.  We heard that there is a Food Hall there, and I’ve been looking forward to buying fresh food that isn’t at CarreFour in our mall.  Nicole and I plan on frying the chicken and making pasta some night for dinner, in my apartment, of course, because her gas burner isn't hooked up yet.  It turns out this mall is close to where we live, but we would just have to take a taxi (another interesting fact, it’s spelled 'taksi'...very phonetic).  Danna, Nicole and I walked around looking at some clothes and the stores, which were even more upscale than the shops in Central Park (our mall).  The first star we saw was Versace and then there was Armani…moral of the story is that Perl showed Danna a department store outside of Central Park that has good clothes for cheaper prices, which is exciting, because I definitely didn’t bring enough clothes (which, I didn’t have many in my closet before I left, anyway).  I figure buying something here will make it easier for me to gauge how appropriate it is, except the sizing will be interesting.  I was trying on some capris today, and they definitely did not fit me, and it was the biggest size they had out on most of the racks, but maybe the department store will have more of a selection. 

Tomorrow we are supposed to have time with our HOD (Head of Department) during one or two of the sessions, so I’m trying to get some planning done, so that I can get feedback.  I’m a bit unclear how fast I should be moving in the first few weeks.  I want there to be a good balance of fun games and getting to know you activities as well as getting into the lessons.  I just remembered that even though the students are coming back from “summer” break, it’s not like in the States when it’s a much more extensive break. 

Speaking of Summer break, I think I will be coming home over my Christmas break, since I get an entire month off for that.  We’re still trying to figure out the logistics, since our flight home is supposed to be in June, so that should be interesting…but we did check with the school and it is possible, at least.  And, now, speaking of vacations, a group of new teachers is trying to organize a trip to Bali during our first break this year.  We don’t have school from August 15-28 for the Ramadan holiday.  Okay, orientation is starting soon, so I’ll update more next week.  

Well Worth the LONG wait!

Sorry for the delay in an update: Here's how the journey went down :)

Here is a breakdown of my journey with Turkish Airlines. What’s that you say, you thought I was flying Cathay Pacific?  Well, so did I, until about 5 days before I was supposed to leave.  It turns out that our reservations for that flight were not made before the seats were taken (“Seat’s taken…Forest Gump”) Anyways, the people at the school got it all figured out, and the four of us ended up being split up, so I only traveled with Danna, and we traveled east instead of west from the U.S. 

Chicago to Istanbul 10:20 p.m – 9 a.m. (of course, there’s something like an 8 hour jump ahead in time zones, so it was around 5 p.m. in Turkey when we landed)

Layover in Turkey for about 5 hours.  Nothing exciting happened, except I taught Danna how to play the card game Tick.  Although we went through security again, after leaving the plane, which we thought was weird, since we didn’t leave the airport.

12:40 a.m. - Istanbul to Singapore 10 hour flight. The funny thing is that we thought it was only a 3 hour flight or so, according to our looking at the map.  Luckily, on this plane the monitor in the seat in front of me worked, so I watched a few movies while I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t as lucky on the first long leg of the trip, from Chicago.  I was able to sleep a good portion of the trip, thought, so that was good.  We also thought it was direct from Istanbul to Jakarta, but apparently there’s a stop in Singapore.  At first, we were afraid we had gotten on the wrong plane, or wouldn’t know where to go once we got off the plane, since neither our boarding passes nor the itinerary mentioned the existence of this stop.  It turns out they just sent us to a room next to the gate where we landed with a plastic “boarding pass” to get back on, so we just had to go through a quick security check.  It didn’t take long, either, because it ended up that we just had time to go to the bathroom, go through the security, and then we were loading back onto the plane. 

Singapore to Jakarta was only 1.5 hours, which seemed super short, compared to the other flights.  This flight was not full, so there were many empty seats, and unfortunately that is how Norbert, my penguin pillow pet, met his demise.  I had been carrying him through all of the other airports, on the other planes, and then when we stood up to leave the plane in Jakarta, I put him in an empty seat next to me.  I didn’t even realize that I had forgotten him until we were through immigration, waiting for out luggage.  It was a sad day for Norbert, but I hope someone claimed him instead of just throwing him away. 

We finally arrived in Jakarta around 6 p.m. local time, and the sun had just set…sad when I was just getting used to enjoying the long, summer days back home. 

There was a contact that the school had set up, so he took our passports and visas (I already had my business visa, and Danna needed to buy a Visa On Arrival.  All of that went very smoothly, and I’m SO glad that the school took care of that situation, especially since I was in no condition to be interrogated by Indonesian Immigration officials, which is fairly common, I guess, especially if you’re getting a business visa.  Then, we got our luggage with that man, and we met Miss Jane and two other women from the school.  We rode in the school’s van back to our apartment.  It’s very nice, and across the street from a huge mall (seriously, it’s like the Mall of America, minus the huge rides in the middle).  We dropped off our luggage, then went to the mall for dinner with Miss Jane and Miss Ira.  We tried to buy phones, but the stores close at 10:00 p.m., so we were too late by the time we finished eating.  I realize this is a weird place to stop, but I will continue later.  

Random/Interesting facts from the Guidebook

The random, yet interesting, facts that I have learned through The Lonely Planet’s guidebook to Indonesia (2007). 

1. There is a sport called sepak takraw that is played with a rattan ball.  It’s a cross between volleyball and soccer, kind of.  Check out the videos on YouTube, especially this informative one I found: http://youtu.be/15asVgf66KI
2. Historically, Indonesia was a Dutch colony, although Marco Polo (Portugal) was one of the first Europeans to visit and then dominate the valuable spice trade of the region.  The first Dutch ships arrived in 1596, and Indonesia declared independence in 1945 (with “help” from Japan, mostly by occupying the islands and getting the Dutch out of the way). 
3. In order to unite the expansive island nation, they have adopted the garuda as their mythical bird and national symbol.  On its breast are the five symbols of the Pancasila (five principles). Star: represents faith in God, whether Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or any other religion.Chain: represents humanity within Indonesia and its links to humankind as a whole. Banyan tree: represents nationalism and promoting unity between Indonesia’s many ethnic groups.Buffalo: symbolizes representative government.Rice and cotton: represents social justice.
4. During Indonesia’s first direct presidential election (October 20, 2004) over 115 million people cast their vote, making it the world’s largest ever one-day election.
5. I’ll preface this by saying that Indonesia is made up of over 17,000 islands, and it’s the 4^th most populated nation in the world.  Indonesia’s population currently increases by about 3.5 million people per year. 
6. Indonesians comprise approximately 300 ethnic groups that speak some 365 languages and dialects.
7. Not to scare anyone, including myself, but Indonesia is home to no fewer than 129 active volcanoes, the most of any nation.
8. Rice in the field is called padi; rice grain at the market is called beras; cooked rice on your plate is called nasi. 
9. The city of Jakarta, where I will be living, is located on the island of Java.  This name may sound familiar because the island was home to ‘Java Man’ some 1.7 million years ago (yeah, that’s a LONG time ago).
10. Another resource I’ve been using to research my soon to be home:  www.expat.or.id

HIV negative...random visa requirement

So, I have no new updates as of late.  Well, I am NOT HIV positive, which is a plus.  I found out a couple of weeks ago that I had to send proof of that as part of the new visa requirements for Indonesia.  Not that I was worried about the actual results, since I regularly donate blood at The Red Cross, but it was reassuring to know that someone at the school is actually in the process of getting my visa paperwork taken care of.  In the same email, the woman from the school asked when it would be convenient for me to come to Indonesia.  First of all, I found it strange that I had a choice in the date, since she's the one booking and buying the plane ticket, but I suggested we have a chance to arrive a few days early to get over our jet lag and have a chance to settle in.  Apparently, our school's orientation begins on Thursday, June 21st, so that's the latest day we should be getting there.  Anywho, I suggested we leave the States on June 16th, so with the travel time and time change (12 hours ahead there), it wouldn't be too quick of a turn-around.  She said she would let me know the flight details before she books a ticket, so now I continue to wait patiently.

I have begun planning my going away party, as well.  I sent out a Facebook invite tonight, and I will be making an invitation to mail to people this week.  Luckily, Veronica has so graciously agreed to come home with me on Memorial Day weekend to help me get ready for the party.  If you don't already know the details, it will be on Sunday, May 27, around 3 p.m. at my Dad's house in Highland.  We'll have plenty of food and beer, so come one, come all.

I am planning a meeting with three other teachers going to Jakarta with me.  Three of us live in the Twin Cities area, and the other is in LaCrosse, so we're figuring on everyone meeting up for dinner soon.  I already met Aasha at the UNI Job Fair, after we both accepted the offers from Bina Bangsa school; I had dinner with Danna a couple of weeks ago near Stillwater; I have yet to meet Ike.  I'm excited for all four of us to hang out and talk about Indonesia.  It will also be especially helpful to meet everyone before we're put into the already stressful situation of traveling across the world, not the mention the fact that we'll all be leaving our homes and families for the next two years (we're all supposed to be flying out of Minneapolis together).

That's basically it for now.  I just thought I should write an update for anyone who is actually following this blog already.  I hope to see you at the bittersweet farewell party!  Please call me or leave me a comment here if you have any questions or concerns (about the party, specifically, or Indonesia, in general).

Why Jakarta, you may ask?

So, as I keep thinking about telling people (i.e. my family, but mostly my mom) about my blog, I realize that many people reading it may not know much about me, for example, why I'm leaving and/or why I chose Indonesia.  Well, long story short, they're the ones who offered me a job. 

I've wanted to continue traveling abroad ever since I was a part of a study abroad program to Oaxaca, Mexico, during the Summer of 2008.  I had an amazing experience meeting new people, making friends (Julia and Josh, just to name a few), and volunteering at an elementary school.  I taught English to classes ranging from students in 1st grade to 6th grade, and that was when I realized that I truly was meant to become a teacher.  Fast forward almost four years, and Jakarta is going to be the opportunity of a lifetime, and why not go to the other side of the world while I have the chance to take advantage of learning about and living in a country first hand that is as diverse and different than the States?  I am learning so much about the country and my school already, but at the same time I have a ton of questions ranging from "How much is actually furnished in my apartment/living situation? to "What in the world consists of the English curriculum that I'll be using?"

This may be a stepping stone to many teaching jobs abroad in a range of countries, it may be the beginning of many years (obviously, more than 2) of teaching in Indonesia, or it may just be something fun and amazing that I get to be a part of for the next two years, only to be followed by my return home where I'll find a job in the States and spend the rest of my days (get married, have a family, etc.).

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

So, I've been thinking about things that I think I'll miss when I move to Jakarta, Indonesia for the next two years, and here is a list of what I've come up with so far.  If anything, I think it will be interesting to look back at this list over time and compare it to what I actually miss.
  

1. my friends, 

1. my family, and the Polinske family

1. getting together with friends for lunch/dinner 

1. going to Madison for the weekend 

1. calling to chat and catch up with friends whenever I think of it 

1. the change of seasons (I love Spring and Fall) 

1. the lilacs at my dad’s farm 

1. my new bed (one of my first, "real, adult" purchases)

1. the Badgers and Packers 

1. snow days -- no school and so I can wear my new scarf, favorite hat and mittens 

1. singing at church (and seeing everyone there) 

1. volleyball on Sunday nights (getting dirty in the sand) 

1. the public library (with the endless supply of books...in English) 

1. my car and being able to drivewhenever/wherever I want and get there in a timely manner 

1. going home to hang out with my dad (he’s so amazing that he deserves a place on the list in addition to the family spot) 

1. sending “snail mail” (I realize it will be much easier to update my blog or facebook, but I think mailing letters is so much more fun and makes me feel nostalgic...or something