2 months down . . .

April 11, 2010

My 2 month anniversary has come and gone . . . 2 months has gone by ridiculously fast. Today I ate lunch at the American Grill, which is the same restaurant that I ate at the first night I came here and I was having flashbacks to being exhausted and actually quite confused to what was happening around me, compared to how I am feeling today. Indonesia has now officially become a part of my every day life, I have gotten over the tourist hump and I now feel like it is my "home". I still have these moments where I am like "Wow, I am in INDONESIA!!" There are so many things that I now find familiar that two months ago where totally foreign to me. Things like taking a taxi EVERYWHERE (let me remind you that I am from Lynden and had taken maybe 5 taxi's my whole life before coming here.)

When I first arrived here, I had learned to tune out all outside conversation because, well, it gets overwhelming being surrounded by groups of people who are speaking a language that you don't understand. But now I have picked up a bit of Indonesian and now I am finding myself tuning into outside conversation again because I can pick out a few words here and there, don't think I am anywhere NEAR fluent but I am quite proud of what I do know. They say the best way to learn a new language is to live in the culture. Which I believe to be true because I was taught french for four years and I know more Indonesian then I do french.

Last semester was a breeze and I think I assumed thats how things would stay. . . HA! This semester I am teaching 10 classes, which is a lot. I teach 2 early phonics classes, Basic Phonics, grade 1, 5, 2 grade 7 classes, grade 8 and I do a reading and writing centre. I am trying my best not to get overwhelmed with the work load, I am coming into work early and doing about an hour of marking and preparing a night at home. I am finding that helpful with the feelings of being overwhelmed. I think the younger kids are cute and all but I am not enjoying teaching them, not because of them but because of the situation. I have students as young as three years old in my Early Phonics class. I would rather take them outside and play with them, and if any of you who have three - five year olds you know that keeping them focused on one thing for 10 minutes is a challenge . . . well I have an hour and 11 kids between the ages three - five . . . you can imagine how that goes. I am lucky that most of the kids are well behaved and they are all adorable and such sweet hearts. I am hoping to find a good routine for myself as well as them so that things go smoothly. We usually get through our daily tasks pretty quick and then we can play a few games, but I am limited in space and recourses so I have been using my imagination. They really like dancing so we have a five minute dance party before they leave for the day :) I will take a video and upload it because it is hilarious.

I thought rainy season was coming to an end but I was wrong it has rained a lot again the last couple of days which has taken a toll on our house. My roommate Ellie has had some problems with her ceiling leaking every time it rains, nothing major. I have had a couple leaks as well . . . we mentioned it to our bosses (who are also in charge of our housing.) They had someone come and fix our roof and it seemed to fix the problem. WELL yesterday I woke up and went to go say good morning to Ellie and our whole upstairs living area was flooded, and the water was coming from Ellie's room, there was an inch of water on her floor and a section of her ceiling was bent from the water pooling in between the roof and her ceiling. Needless to say it was a sloppy situation. We notified our bosses and they told us that someone would be over by noon to fix it. Ellie didn't want to leave the house until they showed up because she is the only one with a key to her room and didn't feel comfortable having people in her room with out her being there (totally understandable). Anyways Ellie sat around the house all day and no one showed up. Finally they arrived today around 10:30. Indonesians have NO concept of time, I am not just saying that either it is common knowledge. Hopefully they will be able to fix it and not just do a bandaid solution.

On Friday we went to an outdoor night market where they sell really fresh vegetables and . . . goats. Our security guard from the school was nice enough to accompany us as it is a tad dangerous there. It was a really neat experience we didn't really stop to buy stuff just walked around and got a feel for it, I would and will go back there in the future (NOT carrying a huge purse) and purchase some fresh fruit and veggies.

I always start typing thinking I have nothing to update you guys on and it always ends up being a 1,000 word essay! I hope all is well in the great white north!