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