Love More

As you can probably figure out by my oh so interesting title nothing really exciting happened this week. The government in Surabya will "randomly" cut out the power to certain parts of the city during rain storms where there is a lot of flooding in order to prevent people from being electrocuted. Well our power was cut three times in the last week and one time it wasn't even raining. It gets a little frustrating because when we don't have electricity we don't have AC, our house is an instant oven, and of course the power isn't cut during the day when you are at work it is cut at night when you want to sleep but can't because its too stinking hot. Friday was a holiday so I got the opportunity to go to Taman Safari which is a little ways outside of Surabaya and it was so much fun. It is WAY better than the African Lion Safari. I got to hold orangutangs, pet two tigers and a lion as well as make friends with a zebra. The safari is up in the mountains so it

There is an organization which I am a big supporter of called "To Write Love on Her Arms". I am sure most of you have heard about it, but if not here is a little run down; To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to e ncourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery. I love this organization and what it stands for. The other day one of their interns wrote a letter in honour of National Eating Disorders Awareness week and they posted it on their blog. I wanted to paste it in mine as well, so many girls (I know guys also struggle with this) obsess about body image, no thanks to our wonderful society, but I feel like this letter captures how a lot of people feel about self image, and that there is hope you can overcome struggles and fully love yourself. Dear Body, I’ve always let some imperfection or an

I am finding myself falling into more of a routine, I am slowly starting to realize that I am not just here for a vacation that for the next year (possibly two) this is my home. This past week was my first week teaching solo and I feel like things went really well. My very first class I did have a kid puke (and those of you who know me know that I don't handle puke very well) but I handled it very professionally, removed the student from the class, brought all the other kids outside to play games and had the janitor clean it up! (I am SO thankful for our janitor). I feel like I have already established a good rapport with all of the kids they are really funny and are anxious to learn english. I was a little more stressed about teaching at our central Efex location. I am coming into the middle of a semester so it's a bit tough to pick up where the last teacher left off, but I now have made my own schedule of what needs to happen and things are much more organized so I am feeling

Well I have been here for a week. In some ways it feels as though I have been here forever but in other ways it doesn't Things have been going really well the transition has gone very smoothly. I have had moments of homesickness but nothing too severe yet. My roommates are awesome, I knew Ellie from Hamilton but didn't meet kelsea until I arrived here but we have hit it off and get along really well. I also have met Karrie who works at another ESL school in Indonesia she is also a great person and we have hit it off as well. I started working this week, mostly training which was pretty boring I had to sit and do nothing during prep time because I have nothing to prep. Sitting in on the classes was more interesting. My hours are Monday - Friday 10-7 I don't usually start teaching until 3:00 as the kids go to their "normal" school during the day then come to Efex after that. Some kids start school at 6:45AM and then don't get out of my class until 7pm...thats tw

Well I am here! After a year of planning and many let downs I have arrived. My flight(s) went smoothly. I flew out of Buffalo at 2:15pm and arrived in New York at around 4:00 I had a five hour layover that went pretty fast, I walked around JFK for a bit soaking my last little bit of Western culture for awhile. From JFK I flew to Germany which took around 8 hours, I slept the most this leg of the trip as I had a whole row to myself, so I popped a couple gravel and pretty much passed out till we landed. From Germany I flew to Singapore I wasn't as fortunate this time and had to sit beside someone I slept on and off watched 100 movies and ate crappy airplane food. After 11 hours in the air I made it to Singapore. Singapore airport is amazing its like its own world there are swimming pools, spa's, massages etc... I only had a 50 minute layover so I didn't get to see much of the airport. From Singapore I had a 2hour flight to Indonesia. I finally arrived in Indonesia at 9:00am o