1 month down . . .
I have a confession to make, I am now HOOKED on the Twilight series. Hear me out. When I came to Indonesia I only brought one book, I was seriously strapped for space and when I weighed my suitcases I was WAY over the weight limit (thankfully the lady was nice and waved all weight fees) Anyways, I finished my one book and I asked my roommates if they had any books I could borrow. Ellie had Twilight, I reluctantly took it. I read it in less than a week, it is such a good book. Two days after I finished it we were at the mall and then I caved even more and bought the movie - also really good. So now that I am hooked Ellie tells me she only has the first book of the series, so I am searching for cheap copies of the rest of the series. Don't make fun of me, I held out for SO long on the hype.
I am seriously loving the 10 - 7, Monday - Friday hours of my job. Back at home shift work was anything but ideal, but I knew thats what it would be like entering the support field. Having every weekend off is new to me and I love it, I love that I can go out on Friday night and not have to bail because I have a 7am shift on Saturday. It's also nice that most of my social group does the same thing as me and has the same hours so it works out when we all want to do something.
The last week or so has been a bit more stressful with school because the kids are in exams. Now that I am a teacher the tables have turned, I don't have to take exams I just have to make them up, which was not as easy as I thought. The thing with EFEX is it is an after school program and our exams happen to fall on the same week as the kids exams at their "regular" school. So most of my kids prior to the exam where already giving me excuses that they weren't going to do well, or they were not going to be able to show up. So on top of making exams and review sheets you have to schedule certain kids to come on different days and spend more time reviewing with others . . . it is all very hectic and crazy. Thankfully all of my kids did really well, I was so proud of them, and it's such a great thing to see when all of a sudden the lights come on and they understand something.
I have a student named Jason he is an awesome kid but has been struggling in the level that he is in, his social english is not that great and he is always talking in Indonesian in my class which gets frustrating for both of us because I don't understand what he is saying and he can't get his point across clearly. To add to this he is the class clown so when he doesn't understand something his attentiveness goes out the window and he usually brings half the class with him. I had a meeting with his mom last week just to discuss my concerns that he may have to go down to a lower level. We set up times so he could have some more one on one teaching before the exam. I think a combination of his mom's wrath and our little tutoring sessions went a long way, because he got a 91% on his exam. He wanted me to mark his exam in front of him and when we had finished marking it you could just see how proud he was of himself. It was such a great moment for me as a teacher to see that.
So far in my experience I have realized that I enjoy teaching the older kids a lot more than the younger kids. When I first started teaching I think they were all terrified of the 5'10 blonde giant that replaced their asian teacher. I think they were in a shocked silence. Well that has definitely faded away and now they are all crazy. It takes half the class time just to settle them down. I think God gave me this class just to show me what my teachers had to go through with me. I think with time we will find a nice balance of respect and having fun . . . I am just hoping that day comes SOON.
I survived my first bought of illness away from home. I don't care how old you are or what situation you are in when you are sick all you want is your mom. I wasn't THAT sick I just had the stomach flu, I popped a lot of pepto and taught most of my classes the Monday I was sick. I felt bad for my kids because my patience level was at 0 that day.
Sometimes when I go on facebook it is a little hard to see what all of my friends are up to, that their life is carrying on without me. NOT that I am expecting them to do nothing and wait around for me the year that I am gone, I just miss them lots. It's also interesting to see how some of my friendships back at home are already changing because of the distance. Some friendships are just easier to maintain at a closer distance.
I got my first pay check and I am trying to be responsible and budget my money so that I actually go home with some. (I know how proud you are of me right now dad) As I was doing this I got to thinking, I would rather go home with no money and TONS of amazing experiences, then go home with tons of money because I sat around and did nothing while I was here. So on our long weekends and days off we are planning lots of sweet stuff. On Tuesday (tomorrow) we are going white water rafting, and there is a deep sea fishing trip being planned for the near future. Thankfully most of these things are fairly cheap compared to back home, so I think I will be able to come home with good experiences and a bit of cash as well.
This past weekend was pretty exciting. My roommate Kelsea has been dating a guy for awhile now that she met here. Anyways he told us all it was his friends birthday so we all went out to celebrate. When we got there Kelsea and I were wishing his friend a happy birthday and he kept telling us that it wasn't his birthday, we were all so confused but just figured they were being weird. Anyways while we were sitting there Kelsea's boyfriend gets down on one knee and proposes. It happened really fast, but it was so exciting to be a part of! I am really excited for them!
Ok family and friends. I know this is a long one, thanks for reading (if you are still reading after all my rambling!) I think of you all daily and love you all so much!!
This is me at the Taman Safari hanging out with some orangutangs Love from Indo
- Kim
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