Yep, you've guessed it. My life has been consumed with endless grading, along with lesson planning for 6 classes for the 5 months left of the semester, beginning play rehearsals for the musical, trying to plan the musical, etc. etc. So THAT's why I've not been very available on Skype lately.
There has been SOME small relief in this hectic school schedule. We've had one Monday off for report card day, which is when the students who are under academic contract need to come into the school with their parents to pick up their report cards, but only after they've talked with the teachers that put them under the contract. I actually had a few parents to talk to, but they're very nice and actually concerned. (I keep comparing everything here to my teaching situation last year.)
About 2 weeks ago, on another Monday, we had Chinese New Year, so we had no school. I celebrated by going to Botani Square with my friend Fera, but unfortunately, we had missed the dragon dance at the mall. Darn. I'll have to go next year. So we went to some botanical gardens down the street and ate at a cute little cafe.
Everything here is still decked out for Chinese New Year-lots of red Chinese lanterns, huge red, decorated entryways everywhere, and lots of pink blossom branches. They're very pretty. I think they keep it up for about 2 weeks afterwards.
Meanwhile, my friend Yoshie has been teaching me a little bit about Indonesian grammar, so eventually, I'll learn how to say more than the 3 sentences that I know, which are, "Barapa ini?/How much is this?", "Di mana toilet?/Where is the bathroom?" and "Saya mau cuci dan gunting./I want a wash and a haircut." This is exciting to me! However, it's a slow process. Next year, I hope to use one of our week-long breaks to take a language course that many of the other expats have done and have found useful. We shall see...
We don't have any days off in February, which is going to feel like a very long month, considering we always have at least one day off each month for some random holiday.
Last week was super stressful, mainly because of all of the school work and documentation I needed to do. I'm gradually getting caught up, but it sure takes awhile.
Fera's birthday was last Thursday, so she and I and other teachers celebrated on Friday night. We went to a mall in Bogor that I've not been to yet. (It also doesn't have a Starbucks, which is a very sad thing.) Celebrating her birthday was a welcome reprieve from the stresses of school. Here are a couple photos...
We ate dinner at this cute little Chinese restaurant at the mall. We are, left to right: Stela (weird face), Detty (not smiling), Yuda, Fera, and me. Yuda left us after dinner because she would rather be with her family on a Friday night than do crazy karaoke with her fellow teachers. (We forgive her.)
Here, we were having wayyy too much fun with either an N'Sync, Britney Spears, or Marc Anthony song. :) (Stela, me, Fera, and Yoshie)We're definitely going to do this again. :)
There isn't much else to say right now. It's noon, and I hear the call to prayer down the street. They do it 4-5 times a day, so it usually doesn't register in my mind anymore when they do it because it's so frequent. Thankfully, I don't hear the ones earrrrrrly in the morning because my air conditioner in my bedroom drowns out the noise. (Except for when the power randomly goes off in the middle of the night and I wake up, in a sweat, to the call to prayer...talk about annoying!)
I'm headed to Botani Square pretty soon to do some work at Starbucks. I'm in a grading mood today, which is rare, so I should take full advantage of it! Laterz~
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