Bandung: Day 2 - October 2012

     On the second day, we actually one of the other teachers join us on the trip (Eduardo). He decided that he needed to get out of Jakarta, so he came to Bandung to join us on our mini trip. He got there pretty early, but we didn't not get going until way later than we should have. Oh well, we still had time to do quite a bit. The first thing we needed to do was try and find a driver for the day. We called one place and they were all booked, but we did find one when we called the second place. He didn't speak much English, but that was okay. We had our phrasebook. That thing has come in handy so much. 

     We didn't end up leaving until around Noon. One of the Chinese teachers, Fanita, slept for so long! I couldn't believe how much she slept on the trip. I think she may have been the last one to get ready for the day. Our first stop on our adventure for the day was the volcano! I was told before we left for Bandung that the volcano was due to erupt anytime. Awesome, but they were still letting people up to view it. I am glad that I didn't have to hike up to the top of this one like we did in Bali. We were actually able to drive all the way to the top. When we got up there, we got out of the van and walked around. There was so much steam coming out of the volcano. It probably was going to erupt at any time! Right when we got out, there were guys trying to sell us stuff. You just kind of have to ignore them and shoo them away. 

     The view was so amazing. I had never seen anything like it before, but I was looking down into the volcano. I guess you are able to walk down into the crater of the volcano, but I think they had it closed off so people couldn't do that. Amber, the Chinese girls and Eduardo all rode on horses for a bit around the volcano. I didn't really want to, so I just waited for them and took some pictures. They had a Lady Gaga horse! Haha, the horse had pink hair and her name was actually Gaga. Of course we just had to get pictures taken with her. We took a lot of pictures together and then walked around to all the little shops that they had up on the volcano. They had some interesting little shops with things that you could buy like carvings and paintings. 

     It was starting to get dark, so we decided we should probably get going. We asked our driver in the best Bahasa that we could if he recommended another place for us to go. The other place that we wanted to go to was closed. He recommended going to the hot springs, so we all agreed. We had been wanting to see the hot springs anyway, but the ones that we wanted to go to were closed. He knew another place that would still be open. 

     We got to the place and we paid the entry fee. We walked past an area that looked like a locker room, and we all just kind of looked at each other. I guess people actually came there to swim in the hot springs. We didn't really think anything of it, but when we got out there, all we saw was a pool! We walked around a little more and we didn't see anything else. We were so confused. We asked the other people at the pool, "di mana hot springs?" They pointed to the pool. What!? Yep, that's what we went to see. We were a little disappointed at first, but then we walked over by the pool and dipped our feet in. Wowzers, was it hot! Haha. It took me awhile to be able to put my legs in all the way. I don't know how some people were bathing in it completely? It was actually quite relaxing, and we learned that it is one of the nicest hot springs in Bandung, because they have turned it into a pool. They are able to take care of it. 

     After the hot springs, we had the driver take us to this restaurant called Kampung Daun. We had heard it was in the valley of the mountains and that it was very nice. Well, they were right. I loved the place. We got there and it was a lit driveway up to the restaurant. It was so pretty. When we got there, they showed us to our little hut where we would be eating. You ate outside in a little hut that was dimly lit. The food prices were decent and it was really good. Amber ordered some sate that was delicious! I had some strawberry tea, pasta and of course some cheesecake for dessert. Our driver actually ate with us too, because we had to pay for his meal. Usually the cost of your driver doesn't include their meal so you have to provide one. He didn't really seem to want to sit with us, but we wanted him to. They probably aren't used to people asking them to eat with them. We really enjoyed the meal and the conversation. We even included the driver and asked him some questions in Bahasa using our phrasebook. He was a very nice guy, and he seemed to enjoy himself. 

     After we were finished eating, it was time to go back to the hotel. The drive was about an hour or so to get back. That was the end of our little mini trip. 

     The next morning we all got up, and checked out of our hotel. We decided to check out a little restaurant called Nannys Pavillon for breakfast. It was recommended by another teacher from the school. It was a pancake house, so they had a ton of different types of pancakes that you could get, but it seemed to all be served with ice cream. They did have some pasta and appetizers that you could order too, so I ordered some food and shared it with Eduardo.

     We went to the mall where our transportation would be picking us up to go back to Jakarta. It took us forever to get back. We came upon an accident where a truck had been completely crushed. Then we came upon another one on the side of the road. We think that because of the rain, there were accidents. Then when we got closer to Jakarta, the traffic got bad. I slept most of the time, so it went by quickly. 

Bandung: Day 1 - October 2012

     We had a week holiday in October from school, so we decided to take a mini vacation. I was invited to go to Thailand with some of the other teachers, but I didn't really want to spend a lot of money on a hotel and a plane ticket. Amber and I got a few of the Chinese teachers to come with us on our trip. Many people have been to Bandung, so it was easy to plan. We just had to ask other teachers at school where they recommended us to go. A lot of people actually go to Bandung as a day trip because it is so close. It is a popular place to go, because this is where all the good, cheap shopping is. We thought we had to check it out. We got my friend Lana, a local Indonesian, to help us book our bus tickets to go. You only had to pay about $8 (US) for a one way ticket. The trip there was only about two hours, so that's not bad at all.

     We arrived there very early in the morning. We stayed at a hotel called Scarlet Hotel in the Dago area. It was a very nice hotel that included free breakfast for us in the morning. We actually didn't reserve a room, so we got to pick one out when we got there. It was very quiet, as there were not many people staying there. 

Amber is loving the beds :) 

This is the view from the shower...haha. Don't worry there was a curtain. 

     After we got all settled in, off we went for our day of shopping. We decided to do shopping on the first day and sights on the second day. We saw a McDonald's on the way, so we decided to get lunch. After lunch, we started walking down the street. We didn't quite know where we were going, but that was the way that everyone was telling us to go. We were walking along and we weren't really seeing anything, so we started to ask people along the way in our horrible Bahasa Indonesia. We must have been going in the right direction, because not long after, we came to a bunch of stores that were outlets. We stopped at one outlet store and then decided to take a taksi to some of the bigger outlet stores that we had heard of. 

     As we were riding in the taksi, we saw that the street we were on, was lined with outlet stores. We just hadn't walked far enough yet. The driver of the taksi took us to one of the big outlet stores. We looked around for awhile and some of the girls found shoes and bags to buy. After that, we got a taksi and went to another mall called Paris Van Java. Amber and I got the craziest cab driver in Bandung I think. He didn't speak much English, so we were using our phrasebook. Amber decided to look at the "Talking" section. It had questions that you could ask people just to make small talk. Haha, one of the questions that she asked him was if he had any children. Apparently he thought that meant that Amber wanted to reproduce with him. Haha, moving on. We started to ask him other questions. He was just a cooky driver. He asked us if we wanted to go to the club with him and go dancing later that night. Poor drivers, they must get so bored, they have to find their entertainment somehow. It sure occupied us on the way there. 

     After we got there, we walked around and did a little shopping. Amber and I found this really good bubble tea place. I ordered a fruity tea, with fruit bubbles. It was the best bubble tea I had ever had. So delicious! :) We didn't really stay in that mall for very long, because we didn't really find much and we wanted to go a mall called Rumah Mode, which means "house of style" in Bahasa Indonesia. Finding a taksi to get there was a little harder. Amber did a good job of practicing her Bahasa and asked a worker at a restaurant to help us. For some reason when we called to get a taksi, they wouldn't answer, so he tried for us. He was finally able to get us a taksi so that we could leave. 

     Rumah Mode was just one big store that had a lot of clothes in it that were so cheap! I didn't really find anything that I liked, but the other girls bought quite a few things. I guess I am just picky. We stayed at that store until they were closing. We were getting hungry so we decided to try and take a cab to a restaurant that we had heard about.

     Well, that was the longest cab ride! We went all the way to the other side of town thinking that it was the right way, when we were only about 5 minutes from the restaurant to begin with. The driver drove us all the way back through town to the restaurant to have it be closed! Poor guy. We asked him if he had any suggestions as to where we should go, so he took us to a Pasta Warung near our hotel. The food was pretty good, although we didn't get as much food as we thought we were going to.

     After we got done eating, we actually took one of the little buses back to our hotel. It was a fun little experience. We have seen buses just like it in Jakarta, but we had never taken one. You always see them jammed packed with people sitting on the benches in the bus. They probably should only fit about eight or so people, but of course they fit more. This is Indonesia. Since it was getting late, there wasn't anyone in this bus. It only cost us 20 cents to take a ride on this bus. It is just a rickety little bus that seemed like it wasn't going to make it up the hills. I'm glad we did! 

     After we got home, we were all pretty tired, so we went to bed after watching a little tv.     

Padang Padang Beach and Uluwatu: Bali

     We decided to check out the temple, Uluwatu in Bali. We were told that the best time to go is at sunset to watch the traditional dance that they have there every night. We knew there was a beach nearby, so we decided to chill there for the day while waiting. It was a little ways from our hotel, so we took a taksi there. The guy dropped us off, and we weren't really sure where we were going. We found the stairs that took us down to the beach. We had to walk through a tight space between two rocks to get down to the beach. It was pretty neat. Of course, people were trying to fit through the tunnel more than one person at a time and it just wasn't working too well. We had to stop quite often to let someone through. 

     When we got down to the beach, we saw lots of vendors that were selling t-shirts, sarongs, and food. We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we checked out the places while walking by. We walked around for a little bit trying to find a place to set our towels where we could save spots for the rest of our friends that were supposed to be coming. Little did we know, they got dropped off in a different spot of the beach and we never found them. We thought the beach was small because it was surrounded by a lot of large "rocks". I guess there were other parts that you could go to, but you couldn't swim there. We were able to swim at the area we were in. I couldn't believe how clear the water was. You could see right to the bottom! It was kind of tricky walking out to the water, because there were lots of rocks. You had to try and find a good spot, or just swim, so you didn't hurt your feet. We relaxed on the beach for quite awhile before we left to go to the temple.

     

     It was impossible for us to find a taksi to get to the temple. We would find one, and this guy would send it away! We were so mad. We found out that the beach had it's own transport that you had to pay for to go to Uluwatu. Of course, they would send taksis away. We even tried to call a taksi and they told us that they wouldn't come to that beach and pick us up. I guess if you wanted a taksi, you needed to walk away from the beach and find one. Anyway, we took the beach transport, which was only one way.

     When we got to the temple, they made us all put on a wrap because of the clothes that we were wearing. We were all in our swimming suits with just shorts and tank tops on. You have to be dressed properly to go into the temple. Sadly, the sunset dance was sold out, but the view of the sun going down was amazing. It was like you were watching the sun sink into the ocean. After the sun was completely down, we walked around the temple and checked it out. The others had left already since they missed the dance. I think they were all getting tired, but they missed an amazing view of the sunset. There were monkeys at this temple as well, but not nearly as many as there were in Monkey Forest. 

     Luckily, when we went to leave, we found a taksi. I guess you were supposed to have your taksi driver sit and wait for you while you tour the temple. Well, we didn't have one to begin with so we couldn't do that. The driver was a really nice guy. He said, "I just knew there would be some girls looking for a taksi, so I just stayed." Haha. We're lucky that he did. There was a traffic jam (macet in Bahasa) on the way home, so it took us awhile. We didn't really mind since we were in no hurry. 

Potato Head: Bali

   
     One of the nights that we were in Bali, we went to this restaurant called Potato Head. It was very fancy and right on the ocean. All of us girls wore dresses, also because we were planning on going out after eating. When we got there, there was a huge line of people waiting to get in. Good thing we had made a reservation. We were able to get right in. I should have known that it was going to be expensive, but wow! It's Bali, so I guess I shouldn't have expected it to be cheap. I ordered a drink, which probably cost me about $10 (US), and a meal that cost me about $20 (US). I tried to find something affordable, but good on the menu. I ended up getting a sandwich, which was delicious. I was happy to know that I was getting a good meal for what I was paying for it. We sat around and talked, before we moved to the lower part of the bar. They had an area that had a pool in this beach club. If you wanted to sit on a couch, you had to rent it for like $50 (US)!! We definitely didn't want to do that, so we went and found some seats over by the bar.
     It was dark already so we decided to go and check out the ocean. I could not believe it! It was so beautiful at night. I was standing in the Indian Ocean in Bali at night. We played around in the water, took some pictures and just enjoyed our time. The air was fresh, and you could see the moon and the stars in the sky. It was so much different than being in Jakarta at night. I had never appreciated being able to see the stars and the moon as much as I did then.

     

     As we walked back up to the beach club, there was a small stream of water flowing through where you would wash the sand from your feet. We went and sat back down at our seats, and ordered a few drinks. We met a couple of Australians that decided to come and talk to us. I can't remember their names, but they were interesting. They were in Bali for the holiday, which was not surprising. It is the place to be for the Australians. They invited us to a party that they were going to later and we thought, why not? They decided to get up and start talking to some other people and then they never came back. Oh well, we decided we were going to do our own thing. We decided to leave and find another place to go out. 

     We had to take two cabs, because some of the others went back to the hotel to get money. Danna and I took one together and we got a little lost. We were dropped off in the wrong spot, which is another story that isn't really worth telling. Anyway, Danna and I had to try and ask people for directions to get to where we were going. We didn't want to pay to take a cab again, because we were so close to where we needed to be. I programmed the address of where we were supposed to be going into my phone and we started to walk. I don't know how much I will listen to my GPS on my phone again. It took us down some dark backstreets that I probably would not have been safe walking on by myself. I felt a little scared walking even with Danna. We passed a lot of Magic Mushroom places where guys sitting around outside tried to get our attention. We just kept on going. Finally, we made it to where we needed to be to meet up with the others.

     The bar was called The Tavern. It had really good music, and when we got there, they were having a drink special going on. You could buy a whole water bottle of a mixer. It was buy 1, get one free. We ended up paying about $3.50/water bottle. Not bad at all. They played all of the same music that would be played at any club/bar in America. We had some sketchy guys come up and start dancing with us, and we tried to get rid of them. It wasn't working very well, so we just left the dance floor until they went away. After awhile, there weren't very many people on the dance floor, so we got our whole group, plus some others that we didn't know to make a circle and start dancing. We all took turns going in the middle and dancing. It was so funny. We got so many people to join our circle, and it lasted for quite awhile. 

     When it was time to leave it was not too hard to find a cab. They are pretty much driving around everywhere waiting to pick people up. A lot of people will stay out until the sun comes up in Bali, but we went home at a fairly decent time. We were all pretty tired and ready to go home around 2:30 am. The bar was starting to clear out, and we didn't feel like going anywhere else. I will say that I did enjoy my night out in Bali. 

     One of our last nights in Bali, everyone decided to go out to the clubs/bars as a last hurrah before going home. Unfortunately, I didn't feel well. I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was something I ate, or if I was just tired, but I was not going to make it. I showered, got dressed up and everything, but I did not feel up to going by the time everyone was ready. I went straight to bed at 9 pm, and was woken up by everyone when they came home. The only thing I remember hearing was one of the girls saying, "Oh my gosh! I have a whistle in my purse!" I had no idea what she was talking about, but I went back to sleep. Of course I did find out the story behind the whistles. Apparently some Australians had these whistles at the bar and they were being annoying by blowing them to the music. Well, I guess my friends would go up to them and dance with them and steal the whistles from around their necks. My friend was proud that she was able to steal one and bring it back to the hotel with her. Haha. I guess I missed out. 

     I still had an amazing time in Bali, even though I didn't feel well that last night. I probably needed the rest anyway. 

Ubud, Bali

     While in Bali, we went to Ubud. It has a little more culture for you to see instead of the tourist, beach areas. The first place that we went to was Monkey Forest. I was told that this place was scary, because the monkeys will attack you, but I didn't really think anything of it. We were walking along, and the monkeys were all over the place! I mean they were right next to you on the pathway. Some of them were eating and others were just kind of hanging out. Before you go in there is a sign that tells you all of the "rules" of being in the Monkey Forest. Let's just say I am glad that I had all of my belongings close to me. It was a very beautiful place that you could walk around in, with the monkeys of course.
     When we got to the top of the hill near the temple there were lots of people up there. We saw one guy that was hanging onto some food and teasing the monkey. Of course, the monkey crawled right up his arm and took the food out of his hand. They are not afraid to approach you. We also saw another instance where a man and a woman had a guidebook out and one of the monkeys came and stole it from them. They are sneaky little devils. The man actually chased the monkey down over the bank into the forest to get his book back. Not long after he came back up, and he actually had gotten the book back from the monkey. Haha.
     If you sat down on the rock ledges, the monkeys would actually come and sit next to you or on your lap. There was this one guy that had a necklace on, and he had a monkey come up and sit right on his lap. The monkey sat there and played with his necklace. The monkey was so cute...so you think! There was one girl who the monkeys did not like at all. They actually bit her! They either like you or they don't, I guess.

     While I was sitting down on the ledge a monkey came over next to me, and I asked Amber to get a picture. She took my camera and she actually got two. There is no better way than to just show you what happened in the two pictures.

The monkey looks like he wants to get inside my bag. 

Attack of the monkey!

     Amber didn't even mean to take the second one. My camera took two pictures and it was like a before and after picture. I was so surprised, as you can see from the picture, when the monkey jumped on me. He jumped right on me and hopped over my shoulder. Then he ran down the bank. Haha, what an experience. I didn't sit down on the ledges anymore after that.
     As we were walking along after that, Danna, was taking a picture of a monkey that was right in front of us on the pathway. All of a sudden, a monkey comes up and jumps on her backpack and tries to grab her water bottle. Now, I don't think I would have done this, but Danna's first instinct was to grab at the monkey. Haha, she wanted to fight the monkey for her water bottle. I was just like, Danna! What are you doing?! She let go of the monkey and it had her water bottle. Then when the monkey did drop her water bottle, she was too busy taking a picture that she didn't grab it. Another monkey picked it up! One of the guys that worked there came over and distracted the monkey so that we could get the water bottle back. Of course the water bottle went inside her backpack after that.
     I have never been so close to monkeys in my life. It was quite the experience, and I do believe the lady who told me not to go there because the monkeys are scary. If you are smart though, they won't really bother you.
     We ate at a pretty good restaurant that served pork before going to the Royal Palace. When we got to the Royal Palace, we just walked around the area and checked it out. We took a lot of pictures, and we actually saw some of the Royal family coming in and out of some of the buildings. Here are some of the pictures that I took while I was there.

   

Indonesian Independence Day: Mount Batur

The girls climbing Mt. Batur!

   

       We spent Independence Day (Friday, August 17th) in Bali. We booked a couple of drivers to come and pick us up from our hotel by 1:30 am. One of them was on time, and I think the other one was still sleeping. We were definitely not happy about that. Nicole called him, and he said he would be at our hotel in 30 minutes. We needed to leave by 2:00 am to be there on time. You are probably thinking, where on earth would be going at 2 am? It was funny, because there were people just getting in from being out, and we were just waking up to go out. Haha. The first group left for our destination, and left the other group behind to wait for the other driver. 
     After about a 2 hour drive, we arrived at Mt. Batur. I could not believe that I was going to be climbing this volcano at 4:00 am! After a guy explained the hike to us and gave us a couple of guides, we were off. The walk just to get to the base of Mt. Batur seemed tiring, and we weren't even climbing yet! Haha. As we started climbing, I really didn't think I was going to make it. I was moving pretty slowly up the side of the volcano. I pretty much had my own guide, because they can't leave anyone behind. It was so sandy, so it was very easy to slide while you were trying to go up. After we got to the top, or what I thought was the top, we took a break and took some pictures. We stopped here to watch the sunrise. It was so beautiful; like nothing I have ever seen before. It was a great experience that I will never forget. Too bad that I forgot my camera...I will have to steal some from the others that took pictures. Since it was Independence Day, there were large groups of people with Indonesian flags singing the National Anthem. It was really neat. We were able to sing a little with them, since we sing it once a week at school.
     After watching the sunrise, we took off for the rest of our hike up the volcano. It seemed like it was taking forever...haha because it was. I was definitely not prepared for it at all. After many "water breaks", we reached the top of Mt. Batur. They told us that when we reached the top, they would serve us breakfast. They served us a banana sandwich and hard boiled egg that was cooked with the hot steam from the volcano. How cool is that?! We sat around and ate our breakfast, while enjoying the beautiful view from the top. When I looked out, I could not believe that I had made it that far. Climb a volcano in Indonesia. CHECK! That's one off my bucket list. Of course we weren't finished yet. We still had the journey down the volcano, and it was kind of scary. 

     They warned me that it was going to be a little scary, and they were right! OMG, I thought I was going to die. There were points when we were crawling on the side of the volcano finding rocks to put our feet on so that we could make it across. I don't think this would ever be allowed in Amerika, and we didn't even have to sign a wavier or anything before we went up! It was so sandy! You could just slide down the side of the volcano and hope that you didn't fall. Danna had a fight with the volcano. Score ended up being Volcano: 2, Danna: 0. Poor girl. She has the battle scars on her legs. We moved pretty slowly down the volcano. I was so afraid that I was going to fall. The guide was very patient with us, and he even taught us some Indonesian and Balinese language on the way down. I kept telling him that I was just going to roll down the side of the volcano. It would be much easier and faster right? Haha.
     About an hour later than we were supposed to be, we made it down the volcano. I could not believe that I just did that. I haven't done any hiking in over a year, and I just hiked up and back down a volcano! I did it super slow, but I still did it :) We thanked our guides, and got in the car for our two hour car ride back to the hotel. Everyone was so tired that we slept on the ride home. 

Bali: Seminyak Beach

     We went to the beach multiple times while we were in Bail. It was amazing!! I was so excited to be at the Indian Ocean :) The water was so nice, and actually clean. When we first got there, we walked along the beach trying to find everyone else that was already there. When we found them, we had people coming up to us right away asking us if we wanted to rent beach chairs?! So strange. Who would have thought you would ever have to pay to sit in a chair for a couple of hours. We ended up paying about $5 US for two hours.
     The water was a little chilly at first, but once you got in, it was just fine. It wasn't nearly as cold as when I was in the Atlantic Ocean in April (brrr!!!). We decided to fight with the waves that were coming in. Haha, one of them actually knocked me over and I went underwater for awhile. The guys were out farther than us jumping in the waves too. I was not brave enough to go out as far as them. I didn't want the water going quite so far over my head. I couldn't believe how strong the waves are. You can't stand up when they hit you. There were lots of shells, but none of us collected any.
     While laying on our beach chairs, you had to watch out for the people that would walk by and try to sell you things. They would try and sell you food, clothes, jewelry, sunglasses, etc. If they walked by and you told them no, they would still keep asking you. Some of them were pretty aggressive. They really wanted you to buy something from them. A couple of the girls did end up buying a couple of sarongs from a lady. They were actually very pretty, and I wished that I would have gotten one. Oh well, I found one that I bought later on.

The Indian Ocean :) 

T.I.B.B.Y - Holiday :)

     T.I.B.B.Y: This is Bali, Bali Yo.

     So, we came up with a new saying while we were in Bali. Instead of saying "TIJ" we came up with TIBBY. We had a short week at school with only two days!! I was pretty much checked out, and so were the kids. Haha. On Tuesday we celebrated the Indonesian Independence, so we had a special program in the morning and art projects with our kids. I only had to teach in the afternoon. After school I had so much to do: tried to make it across town in the busy traffic before an office closed (failed), dinner with Nicole, laundry, and packing. I actually didn't finish packing until Wednesday morning right before we left. Anyway, on to the trip! 

     After we arrived in Seminyak, we went straight to our hotel (Centra Taum, Seminyak, Bali) where we were greeted with a drink from the staff. What a welcome!! :) It was delicious. I never imagined that our place was going to be as nice as it was. The dining/lounge area was all open near the pool. So beautiful :) We had a room near the pool with 3 bedrooms (1 king size, and 2 twin rooms).

Our welcome drink :) 

Living room area

Kitchen

Master Bathroom

Master Bedroom

My bedroom

Bathroom

Poolside! :) 

     After we got settled in, we ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant. The first night was pretty chill. We just walked to the restaurant, and checked out the area a little bit. The lounge at the hotel was pretty nice, so we found an area where most of us would go and sit at night before going to bed.
     Our hotel offered a delicious continental breakfast every morning. It included rice, omelettes, potato wedges, sausage, bacon, etc. We would get up and go eat breakfast every morning before going out and about.

     

Busy, Busy, Busy...Where Do I Start?

     This is probably going to be one of the longest blogs that I have written, because it has been so long since I have been on here! We now have fast, reliable Internet at our apartment, so I will be able to update you all a little more often :) Well, here goes...

School: 

     We have been so busy at school. Remedials have started after school and also our extra curricular activities. I am in charge of the P3 and P4 Journalism CCA (that is what they call their extra curricular activities). We are helping the upper primary group (P5 and P6) submit materials for the school newspaper. The first week of CCA, I had my kids for about 15 minutes before I had to drop them off with Book Club before going to an insurance meeting that was canceled. TIJ my friends. For remedials, I have two students that I am supposed to give extra support to in English. Week 1 of remedials: both absent. Week 2: one present. Week 3: one present, and then he disappeared...You can see how well this has been going for me. The kids do not like remedials at all. They would rather run off with their friends and play, and then lie about it to your face. That is what the one student did to me during week 3. I was not happy with him and he knew it. 

     Meetings galore! Every Wednesday we have our weekly staff meeting where the principal and the vice principal update us on things that are going on in the school, or things that we should know.  Haha, sounds funny to say that they tell us things we need to know, because around here, they don't tell you a lot of things that you should know. Some of these things are: how to mark your topical tests, how to submit the marks, that you have to enter them online, etc. Good thing that I have very kind co-workers that will answer all of my questions :) On Friday of this week, we also had a Science Workshop. I wasn't expecting much, but it really wasn't much. A lady got up in front of us talking about how we need to engage our students during Science lessons and follow the Five E's (which I learned in college) for our lesson planning. She did not do any of that! She was not very engaging at all. She stood up there and read her PowerPoint notes to us, which we had right in front of us. The most exciting thing of the day that happened was watching someone try to manipulate a piece of paper that was laying over the crack of two tables to see how many rupiah coins they could fit on the paper before it fell...haha. We also had to go on Saturday early in the morning until about 4:30 pm. What a long day, and so much for sleeping in. Actually, sleeping in doesn't really exist anymore. I try to go to bed early on the weekends and wake up early in the mornings. Mom, I am just like you!! Haha.

     I thought my P4 students were getting better, but they definitely are not. They still drive me up the wall and make my days stressful. It is a little better because I am able to get through material with them, but there are still those five students that do not listen and distract everyone else in my classroom. I have had to send a few to the principal (P) or vice principal (VP). It still does not seem to help. They feel sorry at the time, but they go right back to doing what they were doing before. I have three boys in my classroom that fight all of the time, and no matter where I put them in the classroom, they still talk to each other from across the room. It's ridiculous. I received the following pictures from the teacher that uses my classroom after school. I was not happy to see this. I do not have them for the last period of the day. The health education teacher does, and they were working on a project. This is the mess that my kids leave almost every day without me knowing. The poor cleaners that come to my room at night. I did not know any of this, because when I get to the classroom in the mornings, someone has already been there to clean it up. I am so disappointed. I have talked to them about this before, because I have never seen such a messy classroom. I don't know if they were not given time to clean up by that teacher or what?! 

My messy classroom! So ashamed :( 

One more step to the garbage can...

Books and papers all over the floor and desks

Trash on top of the Air-Con!?! What?

Anyway, I have to figure something out with them soon, before they drive me nuts all year long. We have talked about respect, keeping the classroom clean, etc. It has helped a little, but this happened just this last week. They think they run the show no matter who the teacher is. I have never seen a class like this before, and all of the other teachers warned me. I am not the only one that has these problems with them. It is all of their teachers.

     It seems like it is always something with my kids. "Miss! I forgot my book", "Miss! I didn't do my homework", "Miss! He pushed me", etc. One of my students had to go home, because her and another student were goofing around out in the hallway before class. The other girl pushed her and she fell and hit her head on the corner of a desk. I was not there at this time, and the students are not supervised during this time. They are expected to sit in two lines (1 boys and 1 girls line) outside of their classroom and wait for their teacher to get to the classroom. Well, I have fixed this a bit. The line that is ready when I come up the stairs gets to go in first. I usually have to keep the boys, and I keep them until they are ready and quiet. I give the girls directions as they walk into the classroom and thank them for being ready to enter the classroom. 

     The mornings have gotten soooo much better when I get to the classroom. The kids used to be up out of their seats, talking with their friends, playing with their pens and rulers (they shoot them at each other across the desks), etc. When I come in now, they are in their seats, for the most part, reading silently like they are supposed to. Most of them do have the hang of unpacking their suitcase and putting it in the back of the classroom. These kids use suitcases for their backpacks! I have one student in my class that actually uses a backpack. I call it their luggage. Their backpacks are so heavy that their nannies, drivers or parents carry them up the stairs for them! WHAT?! TIJ... That is all I can say. I have never seen so many parents and nannies in the school. It doesn't really phase me anymore, but at first I was like, "What is going on?" Some of the students' parents come to the school and sit there all day long!! They even go to the canteen (lunchroom) and prepare their child's lunch for them. 

     I don't really talk much about my P3 students, but I teach Science to them. They are a pretty good group. Most times they are much better than my P4 students. I have one student in my class that just cracks me up. I think he may have ADD. He says the craziest things also. My roommate, Amber, also teaches the same class for English and she says the same things about him. He just cracks us up. Apparently he super glued his fingers together in her class while working on a cut and paste project. HAHA. I was not a bit surprised and it only took me one guess when she asked me who I thought it was. 

     

Free Time: 

     Ha, what is that?? I feel like I haven't had much free time lately, but I have done quite a few things in the past couple of weeks since I have blogged last that I can talk about. Let's see...where to begin.
     I went shopping a couple of weekends ago with the girls from the KJ (Kebon Jeruk) campus and Amber. I went to a place called Mangga Dua, which translates to be Two Mangoes. This mall is about five floors of electronics! I have never seen anything like it before. You have to bargain with them to get a fair/cheap price. It's like a black market of electronics! Haha. We went to Grand Indonesia. It is a very nice, huge, mall that is kind of far from our place, but the best place to meet up with people. It costs us about $5 to get there by taksi. We did some shopping at Forever 21, and we all walked away with some new clothes.
     All of us girls and the guys went out for a birthday party that night at a place called Viti. It is in PIK City (Pantai Indah Kapuk City) near where we live. It was a great time. We had food and some "beverages" of course. It was the first time that I have actually met some of the secondary teachers! I didn't know anyone at first. It is so strange to me that the secondary people work at the same school as us, and we never see them. Even outside of school, we seem to do our own thing. I hope that we are able to get together more often like we did that night. One of the ladies from the KJ campus took me to a small Outlet Store right next door to where the birthday party was. There were clothes there from AE, Express, Adidas, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Aero, etc. They were SO cheap. I got a pair of shorts for about 60 000 rupiah (about $6).
     The following weekend, I did nothing but work! I sat down on Friday night after school and got all of my marking done. I have been doing a really good job of keeping up on that, so I don't have so much of it to do all at once. I just need to get better about handing it back to the kids. I feel like it is such a task, because it takes up time during class. Anyway, not sure why I got off track talking about school...Back to my social life. I took a trip to Mangga Dua on Saturday so that Amber and I could get our router to set up our Internet. We checked around at a few different places for the one that we were looking for, but they kept on telling us that they were discontinued! :S TIJ...We ended up going with a different one, and luckily it works. The Internet company had told us which one we should purchase. Ha, they even told us to go to Mangga Dua, because we would get a better deal. We had a couple of friends with us: Eduardo, one primary co-worker who is actually from Milwaukee, WI, and also a secondary teacher (Ryan). He is from the Philippines. He cracks me up! We decided to all get dinner at a place called Hoka Hoka Bento. It is a Japanese restaurant and they have pretty decent food. Then it was back to marking...Of course Sunday consisted of sleeping in and working.
     I don't remember where this fits in, but Amber and I decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe one weekend, because no one else had any plans. We were so glad that we went! We had some good food and an interesting adventure after dinner. While we were eating, a group of three guys sat down at a table kind of close to ours. They were all clearly speaking English and they did not look like they were from Indonesia at all. We couldn't believe it and we were excited to hear other people speaking English. After we were done eating, we went into the gift shop and were looking at the shirts. The three guys walked in, and we actually stopped them and asked where they were from. They ended up being from Holland, England and Australia! They invited us to go bowling with them. Right away, the movie "Taken" popped into my head, and I wasn't sure what to think. I guess you won't understand that if you haven't seen the movie, but let's just say, a girl gets kidnapped, because she was friendly with a stranger. Amber and I figured what was it going to hurt? We were in public. So we decided to go bowling. We didn't actually bowl, but we sat down and talked with them. They were really nice guys. The one from England was much more talkative than the other two. They kind of just did their own thing. After they were done with their game, they were going to see the Dark Knight Rises. They invited us, but we never met up with them at the movies. Oh well. It was a fun night and I am glad that we got out and met some other people. Not that we will ever see them again.
     This weekend consisted of the Science workshop on Friday night and all day Saturday. After the workshop I got on the bus with the KJ people and headed to Royal Mediterania to hang out with my friends. We ended up getting dinner at a sushi restaurant, and watching The Dark Knight Rises. Still just as good the second time :) After the movie, we stopped at a bar outside of the mall area and had a drink before turning for the night. I caught a cab home to Apartemen Mitra Bahari and went to bed. Today is a completely lazy day. I have no lesson plans to turn in this week, but I should probably start marking my students' papers so that I am not behind.

     Well, I think I have updated you all on pretty much everything that has been going on in my life here in Jakarta. The city is still the same, although I am changing a lot. I have been learning new words and phrases that I really need to start learning. I really want to learn the language so that I can communicate better with people. I will update you more on the people in the city in my next post. I think I should stop for now before this turns into a book!

Bali in 3 days :) Yay!

     

One Month Already?!

     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.

The First Days of School

     Well, on Sunday, I obviously didn't get all of the work done that I wanted to. I did get my lesson plans done, but not everything for my classroom. That is okay. That's what the kids are for! Haha. I made the first meal in our apartment on Sunday :) Amber and I had pancakes and eggs! They were delicious. We were lazy for most of the day, and then we finally started working on stuff around 3 pm. Haha. We had to make it an early night, because we had to be up by 4:30 am.

     The first bus came on 09 July at 5:30 am. We wanted to catch the first bus so that we could get to school early and get situated for the first day. I was a little nervous about how things were going to go with the kids. When they first got there, they were supposed to be silent reading in the classroom. That wasn't so bad, and then we had to go to an assembly in the Hall. These kids seem like robots! They memorize and repeat songs and bible verses, and they automatically get in two lines: boys in one and girls in the other. All of the new teachers were introduced at the assembly and also the new principal. His name is Mr. Yew Yi. He is pretty awesome!

     After the assembly we took our form classes (homeroom classes) back to the room. Then we had an hour to go over housekeeping items, rules/expectations, and any other announcements that we had. My class was super, super chatty! They would not shut up. I know they were really excited to be back in school to see their friends and everything, but jeez! I cracked down on them though. I was pretty much told by the P3 teachers that I have the class from hell. Awesome! Haha. Oh well, I will make it all work out.

     We did a lot of team building/class building for the rest of the day. I was able to get to know the kids a little more and see which kids could work together and all. Pretty much none of them could, which I was already told by previous teachers. Awesome again! I guess we have to work on the whole teamwork thing in my class. I also assigned them to write a letter to me, so that I can get to know each student's interests.
     I have quite a work load for the week. I teach P3 (3rd grade) Science, P4 Math & English and I teach two project classes. I don't exactly know what they are supposed to be doing in their project classes yet. They haven't told us, so for the first week we are supposed to work on team building.
     I found out on the first day of school in the afternoon that I would be going to Singapore the next day!! What a surprise to me. They tell us a lot of things last minute here. I had to make lesson plans for whoever would be taking over my class, so that they would know what to do. According to my kids, they did not do what the lesson plans said. They sat and read their storybooks all day! I guess my lesson plans never got forwarded on, along with Amber's. Oh well, I guess.
     Tuesday: We woke up at 02:30 so that we could get on the bus to head to the airport. The airport here in Jakarta is all open, and has no air conditioning. It is not nearly big enough for the amount of people that come through. We were there very early for our 06:45 flight. You never know about traffic in Jakarta though, so you have to leave early any time you want to go somewhere. When we landed in Singapore (about an hour and twenty minute flight), I couldn't believe it! The airport was amazing. It was so nice with a lot of shops, and it was air conditioned :) There were a couple of ladies who met us at the airport and took us to where we needed to go for our visas. After they took us and we signed a paper, we were free to go wherever we wanted!
     The city was so nice! It was clean, it had sidewalks, and you could walk safely across the street without thinking that you would be killed by all of the traffic. Very different from Jakarta. I definitely want to go back there sometime when I get a chance. Good thing I have a friend there that I can visit :) We ended up taking the MRT (subway), which was very, very nice, to a place called Orchard Road. This is the main shopping area in the city. I can't believe how many Coach, Chanel and Louis Vuitton stores there are. They are on like every corner! We went to the bookstore in one of the malls to look at picture books for our classrooms. The books there are much more expensive than they are in the US. I guess not very many people buy English books, so they would be more expensive. After that, we walked around the other malls, and we ate some food in a food court area. I actually had a dish from Singapore. I can't remember what it was called now, but it was chicken with rice and vegetables. It was really good. I am trying to stay away from American food as much as I can.

Chillin in Singapore

I <3 SG! 

     We had such a short time in Singapore that we really didn't have much time for anything else. We got back on the MRT and headed toward where we needed to meet the lady to take us back to the airport. Our flight was 45 minutes late taking off. I have no idea why. We sat on the plane the whole time, and they didn't tell us anything. Our plane could have been broken for all that I know?!
     I was exhausted when we got back. It was such a long day. We had to take some other people home to City Resort, and then the rest of us to Mitra Bahari. I don't know if I mentioned before that I live in an apartment called Mitra Bahari. It's actually a historical building: The Mitra Massacre. It was where the government actually came to our building looking for Chinese Expats and would throw them out the windows of the 24th floor. How awful! We do have a lot of security in our building...that would probably be why.
     Wednesday: HOLIDAY! They didn't tell us this until about last week, but we had a holiday. The city of Jakarta elected their new governor on this day. About 20 of us decided to go to a pool party. It was so much fun. It was where the other teachers live that teach at the KJ campus. Their place is like a resort. It's super nice, and they have a mall right across the street. I couldn't believe it. They are super spoiled! Oh well, I like Mitra Bahari, and I am having a great experience going out and about in the city. After the party, we all decided to go out for dinner. I don't think people had seen so many North Americans in one place. Everyone was staring, of course. We took up pretty much the whole room in the small restaurant. On the way back to our apartment, we had an awesome taxi driver. He actually spoke a bit of English since he had been to Australia. He was hilarious. He was talking to us and pretty much asking why we would want to come to a country like this. Haha. He said it is corrupt, and that the polisi (police) just want your money. You can pay your way out of anything here. We were driving along and he saw a polisi ahead, and he swore in English. We all just started laughing at him. He was driving in a lane that only buses are allowed to drive in.
     Thursday: Back to school. The students were much better, but they still need to practice teamwork and listening! When I got home after school, I was so lazy. I didn't do anything all night except talk to my mom on the phone and attempt to update my blog. The internet connection is not that great here, so I am sorry to anyone that I try and talk to on Facebook chat or something, and then I am suddenly not there. We are hoping to get a more reliable connection soon.
     Friday: TGIF! The day is almost half over. My kids still need help with their listening skills. Haha. We'll work on it. I am sure that things will get better. Well off to my last class of the day.
     I am really starting to get used to things here. It's a dirty city that most people would probably not like, but for some reason I do. It's really growing on me. When things don't make sense we have just learned to say, "TIJ." Meaning: This is Jakarta. We just nod our heads and agree.