I can't even believe that I have been in Jakarta for a whole month! Time has gone by so fast. I think that I have been so busy with everything, that I haven't really had time to think about it. Everyone asks me if I miss home yet, and is it sad to say that I don't really miss it yet? It's a whole new experience here, and I am loving it! I am glad that I have made so many new friends, because I think it would be much harder without them. It's nice that all of us that are new here have friendly colleagues to help us out with whatever we need.
Last weekend we all went to the pool again at Royal Mediterania. We had the sun for about 30 minutes after we got there. The buildings are so tall, that they have about a two hour window (Noon - 14:00) when the sun shines through. Kind of crazy! We get the sun at our building for much longer than that. I need to go and check out the pool at our place. I haven't done it yet. After the pool, we went out to eat at a place called Murphy's. It was an Irish pub. The food was really good. I ended up getting some fish. Of course we all had a few beverages to go along with our food. Some others had too many, but we won't talk about how that turned out. Sunday was a very lazy day, which consisted of making breakfast, watching tv, and lesson planning.
Work Week: The days go by so fast. My kids are still pretty chatty and need to work on listening and teamwork. It's been a bit stressful with everything going on. They throw new things at us all of the time. I can't remember everything. Haha, it's funny to see how many sticky notes I have all over my clipboard of things that I need to remember. My new saying, besides TIJ is: The life of a teacher. When things are crazy in the classroom and we have a lot to do, I just say, "The life of a teacher." It's so true! Teachers have a lot to do and have a lot on their minds. I know I do. I am constantly trying to come up with new ideas for lessons in my classroom, so that my students will be more engaged, trying to be organised, and absorb all of the new information that they are throwing at us everyday.
I have never been so tired in my life! I have never felt like going to bed at 21:00 every single day of the week. I am just exhausted when I get home from school. The kids wear me out. On Tuesday night I slept for 13 hours. Apparently I needed it. I was in such a good mood the next day, and the kids also had a good day. I have learned not to bring work home from school, because I don't do it. Haha. Only on the weekends. I come home, relax awhile, eat dinner, and then I am ready for bed.
We took a couple of mini trips again this week, and by the time we are done, I am ready for bed. Any time we take a little trip to the mall to get groceries or anything like that, I am just exhausted by the time we get home. We try to do most of that stuff on the weekends now.
It was a short week again. I think the kids were excited about having a day off, because Thursday wasn't the best day. The kids did not want to listen or do anything. My P4 students are so smart, but their behavior really needs some work. We have talked about respect, what it means to be a good friend, etc. They just don't seem to care. Hopefully I can figure something out with them, and soon. I will definitely take more time in my lesson planning to think about this.
Friday was a holiday for the school. I am not quite sure why we had it off since the first official day of Ramadan is today (Saturday). I guess I won't complain about having a day off, and I'm sure the kids didn't either. I was lazy all day until about 13:00. Got ready to go to Grand Indonesia (one of the many shopping malls in this city) to see The Dark Knight Rises. Amber and I went with the guys from upstairs. It was an awesome movie. I loved it. After the movie we decided to try some Indonesian food. The guys have already tried quite a bit, but not me. I was brave and tried some, and believe it or not, I really enjoyed it. It was called mutton. Had never heard of it before, but the guys suggested that I tried it. It is goat or lamb meat I believe. Not quite sure what some of the things are that I eat here, but oh well, it's good.
More about the city: I don't know if I mentioned before that this city smells! It kind of reminds me of Paris, but sooo much worse. I have never seen so much trash in the water here. People just throw their trash anywhere including the water. I have seen one area of this city on the way to school where the water is very clean. Otherwise, any other water that you see is just filthy. No wonder the water that runs out of the faucet is not clean at all. There are hardly any clear days because there is so much pollution. When I look out my window, there is definitely not a clear view of the skyline when I look across the city. SMOG!! That is what I see.
The traffic pretty much doesn't phase me anymore. I am getting used to the crazy driving. Although, I am still scared to death to cross the street in fear that I will be killed by one of the crazy drivers. A lot of things don't phase me anymore about the city: the trash, the smell, the smog. This is Jakarta (TIJ). I do know that I am thankful for what I have, and have realised that I can live without all of the things that I had in the US. Good internet connection and cell phone service being a couple of them. At first I used to complain when I couldn't get my internet to work, and it is still frustrating when it doesn't, but that's just how things work here. I don't even know if I will get this blog to post since I am typing it in my apartment. That is okay though. I am just glad that I have some way of communicating with others that are here and with my family and friends back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment