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.
Saturday, 21 July 2012
Friday, 13 July 2012
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.
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.
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.
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| Chillin in Singapore |
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| 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.
Sunday, 8 July 2012
One Week to Prepare for School!
Sorry that is has been so long since I have posted, but you can probably understand why I haven't when you look at the title of this post. They only gave us one week to get ready for school!! We have been so busy with meetings and the conference that we haven't had time to work in our classrooms until this week. We finally got our final lesson plan template that we have to use for each subject. For primary it is kind of nice, because our principal is making it super easy for us to turn in lesson plans each week. He gave us an electronic template with drop down boxes. SOOO nice! :) The only part we really have to fill in ourselves is the procedure part of the lesson plan (aka, what am I going to do with the students during that lesson).
I worked at school trying to get things ready from Monday through today! Who goes to school on Saturdays?! Haha, teachers do :) The school has a lot of practical supplies, but nothing that we can buy to put up in our rooms. We have to make everything by hand! There are no teacher supply stores around here where you can buy posters or anything like that. At least we haven't found any. My roommate and I have looked a couple of different malls now.
I cannot believe that school starts on Monday (My birthday)!! Happy Birthday to me. I hope the day goes well. I know that my room isn't prepared completely, but oh well. No one has their room completed. I will probably have the students help me with it this week. I can't believe they only gave us a week to work in our rooms. That is definitely not enough time for the new teachers that have to seek out all of their materials and make a bunch of things (posters, signs, etc.) by hand.
On the 4th of July, the school actually took all of the Americans + 1 Canadian out to Chili's for dinner. That was very nice of them. It was a very good meal, but I think switching back and forth between Indonesian food and American food is starting to get to me. I will have to remind myself to ease back into American food when I go home. Haha. I think I am getting used to the small portions here, because I get full so fast! They have super small portions, and they think that our American portions are quite ridiculous. Now that I have been here, I really think they are. We get way too much food when we go out to eat.
On Thursday, I bought my plane tickets to Bali!! I am super excited about going there in August. There are about six guys and six girls that are going. I think it's going to be a good time. I have heard it's beautiful there, so I'm looking forward to checking it out for myself. I will definitely take a lot of pictures, so be ready for those. If I don't post them on here, they will be on Facebook for sure.
Last night (Friday), I went to the mall near our apartment for dinner with my friend Terence. It's called Emporium Pluit. Terence has been here for a year already, so he kind of knows his way around more than we do. We went to a restaurant that served pasta, pancakes, sandwiches, etc. I ended up getting seafood spaghetti. It was really good, and I even tired squid!! It's a good thing that I asked Terence what it was after I had already tried it. I actually liked it :)
After dinner we met up with a bunch of our other friends, and we all went to see the movie, "The Amazing Spiderman" at the movie house (as they call it). The 3D movie was so awesome. I think it was better than the 3D that we have in the states, or maybe it's just me? Haha. My roommate thinks so too. The best part is that it was in English, AND it was only about $5 US to see it in 3D. We pay over $8 in the US just to see a 2D movie. How crazy! There were Bahasa Indonesian subtitles, so it was kind of nice to read them and try to figure out some words.
Speaking of Bahasa Indonesia, I really need to learn this language. It would be so much easier to get around when we are out and about in the city. The taxi drivers don't understand us, and we don't understand them. That is never good. When we get in, we just tell them the name where we want to go, and we hope that they take us to the right place. That's all we can do. Haha.
The taxi drivers (along with any other driver in this city) are crazy!! Tonight (Saturday) after being at school from 8:30 am - 4:00 pm, we decided to go to the Grand Indonesia Shopping Mall. We left around 7:00 pm, which was definitely a mistake. The traffic was horrible!! What would normally be a $3 US taxi ride ended up being about $6-7 US! There were eight lanes going in one direction, and they just made up the lanes. There are lanes on the street, but they don't use them. You try to squeeze in between cars as much as you can. The motorbikes own the road. They squeeze in wherever they can. I feel like it may be quite a bit faster to get around on one of those. I don't think I would ever be brave enough to get on one. The driving here is so crazy, I would be afraid of getting killed on it. But anyway, our taxi driver was getting angry with the bad traffic. I thought we were going to die a few times. We would almost get hit by other cars. I have just learned to close my eyes or not pay attention when riding in the taxis. This was the worst the traffic has ever been though. It took us like an hour to get there! Right outside of the building there is a fountain, and you are supposed to be able to circle around it. Of course, we couldn't, because they had it blocked off with cones. We had to circle back around another way. No wonder our taxi ride was so expensive. Amber paid for the taxi ride, and she made sure to give him a good tip after all of that.
Grand Indonesia is HUGE! I had never been to this mall before. We were looking for a bookstore so that Amber could buy some children's books for her classroom. They told us that the kids would bring some books for the library in our room, so I am just going to see how things go before I start buying any books. It was a pretty nice bookstore that had a bunch of books in English. Those are kind of hard to find around here, I guess. We also ate at this restaurant called Marche. Terence suggested it to us. We were so confused when we got there how it worked. You get a card, and you walk around to different food stations and order what you want on the card. Kind of like in college I guess. We ordered some potato soup, garlic bread, and some fresh squeezed juice. It was delicious! It was a little on the expensive side, but it was well worth it. It was a neat little place, and I would definitely go back there again.
Thank goodness the taxi ride home was much better. Only cost us about $3 US, which is pretty good for that distance. The mall is located in Central Jakarta. The traffic was much better. It was actually moving. Haha. I am still having a really hard time counting the money here. $1 US = about 10 000 Indonesian Rupiahs. I guess I need to learn to count higher?? I am figuring it out, but it's just different (along with just about everything else around here).
Well, after this week I am exhausted. I should go to bed since it's 1:00 am. No rest for the wicked; tomorrow is another work day. I have lesson plans left to finish, and things to make for my classroom. At least I am going to stay at home to work. I am going to sleep in first, and I may get a massage. We'll see how things go.
Oh! I slept in my bed for the first time last night. We haven't seen hardly any cockroaches (or any other bugs) in the last 5 or so days. Yay!! :) I slept so well too. No more sleeping on the futon in the guys' apartment. I can't wait to crawl in tonight. Now, only if my air conditioner would work in my room. Haha. Oh well!
I worked at school trying to get things ready from Monday through today! Who goes to school on Saturdays?! Haha, teachers do :) The school has a lot of practical supplies, but nothing that we can buy to put up in our rooms. We have to make everything by hand! There are no teacher supply stores around here where you can buy posters or anything like that. At least we haven't found any. My roommate and I have looked a couple of different malls now.
I cannot believe that school starts on Monday (My birthday)!! Happy Birthday to me. I hope the day goes well. I know that my room isn't prepared completely, but oh well. No one has their room completed. I will probably have the students help me with it this week. I can't believe they only gave us a week to work in our rooms. That is definitely not enough time for the new teachers that have to seek out all of their materials and make a bunch of things (posters, signs, etc.) by hand.
On the 4th of July, the school actually took all of the Americans + 1 Canadian out to Chili's for dinner. That was very nice of them. It was a very good meal, but I think switching back and forth between Indonesian food and American food is starting to get to me. I will have to remind myself to ease back into American food when I go home. Haha. I think I am getting used to the small portions here, because I get full so fast! They have super small portions, and they think that our American portions are quite ridiculous. Now that I have been here, I really think they are. We get way too much food when we go out to eat.
On Thursday, I bought my plane tickets to Bali!! I am super excited about going there in August. There are about six guys and six girls that are going. I think it's going to be a good time. I have heard it's beautiful there, so I'm looking forward to checking it out for myself. I will definitely take a lot of pictures, so be ready for those. If I don't post them on here, they will be on Facebook for sure.
Last night (Friday), I went to the mall near our apartment for dinner with my friend Terence. It's called Emporium Pluit. Terence has been here for a year already, so he kind of knows his way around more than we do. We went to a restaurant that served pasta, pancakes, sandwiches, etc. I ended up getting seafood spaghetti. It was really good, and I even tired squid!! It's a good thing that I asked Terence what it was after I had already tried it. I actually liked it :)
After dinner we met up with a bunch of our other friends, and we all went to see the movie, "The Amazing Spiderman" at the movie house (as they call it). The 3D movie was so awesome. I think it was better than the 3D that we have in the states, or maybe it's just me? Haha. My roommate thinks so too. The best part is that it was in English, AND it was only about $5 US to see it in 3D. We pay over $8 in the US just to see a 2D movie. How crazy! There were Bahasa Indonesian subtitles, so it was kind of nice to read them and try to figure out some words.
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| Movie Time! |
The taxi drivers (along with any other driver in this city) are crazy!! Tonight (Saturday) after being at school from 8:30 am - 4:00 pm, we decided to go to the Grand Indonesia Shopping Mall. We left around 7:00 pm, which was definitely a mistake. The traffic was horrible!! What would normally be a $3 US taxi ride ended up being about $6-7 US! There were eight lanes going in one direction, and they just made up the lanes. There are lanes on the street, but they don't use them. You try to squeeze in between cars as much as you can. The motorbikes own the road. They squeeze in wherever they can. I feel like it may be quite a bit faster to get around on one of those. I don't think I would ever be brave enough to get on one. The driving here is so crazy, I would be afraid of getting killed on it. But anyway, our taxi driver was getting angry with the bad traffic. I thought we were going to die a few times. We would almost get hit by other cars. I have just learned to close my eyes or not pay attention when riding in the taxis. This was the worst the traffic has ever been though. It took us like an hour to get there! Right outside of the building there is a fountain, and you are supposed to be able to circle around it. Of course, we couldn't, because they had it blocked off with cones. We had to circle back around another way. No wonder our taxi ride was so expensive. Amber paid for the taxi ride, and she made sure to give him a good tip after all of that.
Grand Indonesia is HUGE! I had never been to this mall before. We were looking for a bookstore so that Amber could buy some children's books for her classroom. They told us that the kids would bring some books for the library in our room, so I am just going to see how things go before I start buying any books. It was a pretty nice bookstore that had a bunch of books in English. Those are kind of hard to find around here, I guess. We also ate at this restaurant called Marche. Terence suggested it to us. We were so confused when we got there how it worked. You get a card, and you walk around to different food stations and order what you want on the card. Kind of like in college I guess. We ordered some potato soup, garlic bread, and some fresh squeezed juice. It was delicious! It was a little on the expensive side, but it was well worth it. It was a neat little place, and I would definitely go back there again.
Thank goodness the taxi ride home was much better. Only cost us about $3 US, which is pretty good for that distance. The mall is located in Central Jakarta. The traffic was much better. It was actually moving. Haha. I am still having a really hard time counting the money here. $1 US = about 10 000 Indonesian Rupiahs. I guess I need to learn to count higher?? I am figuring it out, but it's just different (along with just about everything else around here).
Well, after this week I am exhausted. I should go to bed since it's 1:00 am. No rest for the wicked; tomorrow is another work day. I have lesson plans left to finish, and things to make for my classroom. At least I am going to stay at home to work. I am going to sleep in first, and I may get a massage. We'll see how things go.
Oh! I slept in my bed for the first time last night. We haven't seen hardly any cockroaches (or any other bugs) in the last 5 or so days. Yay!! :) I slept so well too. No more sleeping on the futon in the guys' apartment. I can't wait to crawl in tonight. Now, only if my air conditioner would work in my room. Haha. Oh well!
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