One Week Down, and I'm Still Alive :)

     I have been tired a lot this week. The days are very long at school with orientation. We leave at 7:30 am and we leave school at 5:00 pm. We have been working on our lesson planning for the first weeks of school. I have to plan for English, Math and Science for the whole first week of school. With the cockroach infestation in my apartment, I feel like I have been pretty stressed out. 

     To update you on the cockroaches, they are getting better! Someone came to clean our apartment today. We got home and the floors were mopped, sinks and toilets were clean, etc. It was great! I'm glad they are doing something to help us get this taken care of. We did put some bait out in the apartment so hopefully that will help. 

     Today at school, I had my first demo lesson. I think it went pretty well, but of course, there are things that I need to work on. I did a 3rd grade Science lesson on classifying things. We were in a room where we "taught" the lesson to a group of colleagues and the principals. It was nice to get feedback at the end of the lesson, so that we know what we can work on in our lessons. 

     I really like it here. When I first got here, I was thinking: "What am I doing? What did I get myself into?" Now that my apartment is getting better, and I am getting used to things, I really like it. The apartment and the city are growing on me for sure. My roommate and I can't wait for our apartment to be somewhat bug free (our place will never be completely bug free), so that we can start making the place our own.

     The traffic is completely insane here. I would never be able to learn to drive. They have lanes on some of the roads, but they don't use them. Of course, they drive on the opposite side. That threw me for a loop the first day. I didn't even think about things like that before I came here. Lots of people drive little motorcycles around the city, and they weave in and out of cars like crazy. There is no stopping for traffic to turn onto your street. You just keep going and hope that they don't hit you, and that you don't hit anyone. It's a bit scary when we're riding in the school van on the way home from school. On the way to school, there is hardly any traffic since it's early. 

     Starting today, we did a new thing where we sit in the van and learn how to say new phrases and words on our ride home since traffic is horrible at 5:00 pm (I think it's worse than D.C. traffic!). There is a guy who works with us from the Philippines who can speak the native language fairly well, so he helps us with pronunciation. Today I learned how to say, "I love you", "I hate you", and "you're stupid", "welcome to Jakarta", and the proper way to say "thank you". We have been using a English/Indonesian phrase book, but most of the words that it teaches you are the formal words.  

     Since we have been staying with Andrew, Josh, Ike and Ben; we have become like a little family up here in this apartment. Amber and I were just talking earlier about how things happen for a reason. It happened for a reason that our apartment was infested with bugs. It made us become much closer with everyone so fast. I feel bad that we are taking over their living room, but they don't seem to mind us being here. 

     There is a man and his wife from India that live in our building that help us out a lot. Their daughter speaks the native language fluently, so that is very helpful. They helped us to order some pizzas last night. It was funny, because we told them that we wanted six pizzas and two orders of bread sticks, and they asked us if were partying. Us Americans eat too much food, I guess. Haha. 

     The food that we have been eating at school is quite interesting. Today was probably the best, probably because it seemed so American. Haha. We had a choice of 3 different kinds of chicken, and it was all served with mixed vegetables, some garlic bread, and cold french fries. 

     Well, I should probably stop here and get to sleep soon. I will be woken up in about four or five hours, because the guys will be waking up to watch the soccer game. Oh, I almost forgot; The school is flying a bunch of us to Singapore for the day, because we have to get our business visas. I definitely won't complain about that. I'm pretty excited. Also, a bunch of us are planning a trip to Bali in Aug. I am super excited about that. Let the traveling begin! :)