Ascension Day, and other randomness...

I'm working late into the night, for the fourth day in a row. We just had a very much appreciated, 4-day weekend because Thursday was Ascension of Jesus Day. Why we observe that in a mostly Muslim country, I have no idea, but I think the government's wonderful for giving us that much-needed weekend. Yay for the Yayasan!

I observed the holiday by sleeping in, playing with Alia, taking a nap, and watching the "American Idol" finale. The rest of my weekend was spent working on lesson unit planners, trying to get caught up on grading, and injecting my body with too much caffeine, mostly from Starbucks.

Today, I went to the school to work and read a book in the pool for about an hour. No, I'm not burned, or even pink- just sun-kissed. :) I'm currently reading a friend's copy of Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. It was all the hype about 4 years ago, so naturally, I didn't want to read it then. It's very insightful, and I think I highly recommend it. (I'm only half-way done with it.)

Tonight, I hung out with my friend Yoshie for dinner. We went to this (crappy) restaurant that says they specialize in steak. It's been a long, hard lesson, but I've gradually learned that Indonesian steaks will never be a real, expensive, authentic, juicy, mouth-watering steak from a REAL steakhouse. Anyways, this place was called Obonk, which is a weird enough name, but you should see it. It looks like Hell inside. Literally. When you walk in, there's this demon head above the entrance, with angry eyes and claws and sharp teeth. The ENTIRE restaurant is in bright orange and yellow flames. I wish I had a photo to show you how I'm sooo not lying about this, but it was really creepy. I never want to go in there again! *yeesh*

On a random note, you probably/definitely won't hear from me for at least another week. This coming week is tech week for our musical; my almost-finished unit planners are due SOON, as well as my very-not-finished grades and report card comments; I have to write TON of documentation for some of my classes before I go home; and I'm going to be super tired from all of this. All that to say, if you don't hear from me for awhile, it's ok; I'm just passed out somewhere. :-P

I'm also now very catless. It took 2 different expats, who happen to be cat lovers, to convince me that keeping Asher and feeding him scrambled eggs would eventually kill him, because he had constant diarrhea. Which is gross, but finding a dead cat on my balcony would be even worse. So, I threw him out yesterday, and he's been gone, for the most part. However, when Yoshie and I came home tonight, he was cryyyyying on my front porch, so she gave him her fried egg. He's been quiet ever since, thankfully.

Some notes about next year...

Things should be a little smoother next year and the years after that for teaching here, because I'm working myself to death to lay out the foundation for my classes now so I can just repeat them and make only minor changes in the future. That is indeed a great thing. I'm going to be the head of the English department next year, which I'm excited about. It'll be challenging because I'll be advising the 3 new expat English teachers, 2 of whom are older and could be my parents. But it's also an additional step in pay increase, and I get a few more days off, if I need them, than if I were just a regular English teacher. In the end, it'll be fun.

(Eric and I are also going to do ONLY ONE school drama production next year. Doing one during the second semester is just killing us...)

If you remember seeing a crazy photo in an October post about a guy named Leland, he's currently my next-door neighbor...or so I'm told. I NEVER see that little man, except at school. He's getting married in July in Scotland to another teacher here, and then they're moving to Canada/England. Once he's moved out, my friend Lisa will move in, and we're already excited about all of the study/grading/dance parties we're going to have next year! :) (We share an affinity for Bollywood music!!!) There are 6 expats leaving SPH this year, so we'll be having a going-away party for them soon. No one's looking forward to it...

However, God's provided enough teachers for us next year. We'll have 2 couples w/ children, and we'll have 2 more single women teachers that will live on the same street as the single women teachers now. (Nope, no single guys got hired...bummer!) We always hang out and have fun, so I'm looking forward to the changes for next year!

In the meantime, I've GOT to finish this eternal grading!
Love you all!

The mansions and hillsides of Sentul

So I live in Sentul, which everyone already knows. However, what I didn't find out until Christmas time was that there are 2 distinctly different sections of the town, and that I live in the extremely affluent and more beautiful section.
Eventually, I'll post more photos of the town as I make time to walk to my school from my house. My school is on the corner of a street called Jalan ("street/road") Babakan Madang (no idea). If you continue down Babakan Madang, you'll discover the "real" Sentul, which means you'll see shops, houses, mosques, schools, etc. that look Indonesian.
And then there's my section. I live in a yuppie section of the town. Basically, all that's in this section are 2 gas stations, dozens of wealthy-looking housing additions, golf courses, and Bellanova (the strip mall where Hypermart is). Apparently, people from other parts of Indonesia, and from other countries, come to Sentul to play golf. Also, wealthy families in Jakarta have homes here in Sentul that they visit on some weekends and/or holidays.
I would feel rich saying all of that, but the fact that I'm not paying a penny for my awesome house makes me happy enough! :)

Anyways, on Sunday morning, my friend Lisa and I took a walk to one of the REALLY wealthy housing additions nearby ours. It was a hard-core workout, because we walked probably a couple miles in the mountains...and it was wayyyy hot out...but I managed to take some photos. (AND, my camera did NOT die!)
Enjoy!

This is the street in front of my house. The trees in the middle are actually a median for the traffic. (People drive on the left side of the road here.) This is the main road in Sentul, and it doesn't change too much as you travel through the town.




On the right, immediately outside of my addition

Here's Lisa, enjoying the view on our way back home.

And now....THE MANSIONS OF SENTUL!!!

The round thing was a giant bird house. (I didn't get a good photo of this because the family was standing outside, and it was a bit awkward.)

Here's a random house with a...cow?...water buffalo?... in front of it...

...and some were in front of the guard shack, on our way out! Sooo random!

This ugly, weird-looking dog was our unofficial tour guide in the addition, but he then tried to follow us home. He had a collar, so he clearly belonged to someone. He followed us out of the addition and tried to come home with us, even after we threw sticks and branches at it. Finally, he gave up and just sat in the shade along the road. He'd better watch out for the stray dogs...

On an unrelated note, here's a picture of Asher. (a.k.a. "Alien Kitty!)
He sleeps outside in a dog bed from one of the expat girls, and he's thriving on eggs and milk.

I'll make a run tonight for real catfood, though.

Meet my kitten

Yes. It's true.
This isn't an April Fool's joke.
I am NOT a cat-lover, but I have a kitten. (Temporarily, though, until I can find someone else who wants it.)
Here's how it happened:
I woke up really early this morning (really early on a Sat. morning means 7:30) because I heard a kitten crying outside. I went outside and found it in my driveway, and Alia was jumping around and screaming out of fear/curiosity. As far as I know, she's not been exposed to animals at people's houses.
(*Note: Stray cats exist because Indonesians don't like cats. When kittens are born here, people get rid of them quickly by taking them away from their mother, sometimes right after birth, and just leaving them along the road somewhere to die. It's horrible and sadistic.)
So I brought it into my house and gave it some milk. I played with it for a little bit with Alia, who's stoked about the cat. However, Samini's less than thrilled. (I'm not sure, but I think Muslims don't like cats, for some reason.)
I'm taking it in and trying to care for it out of pity. Don't worry; I haven't turned into a cat-lover. But it's hard to find someone who wants it. Like I said, Indonesians generally don't like cats, so most of the expat girls on my street have taken in stray cats. Out of sympathy. And no one wants another one.
*Sigh.* So it's with me until I can find another home for it, or until it's big enough to fend for itself out on the street...which is pretty horrible to say.
Based on the answers from Wikipedia, I've determined the kitten is a boy. I'd had a name picked out if it were a girl- "Sakura", which is Japanese for "flower", and it's also the name of one of my students. However, this could create severe psychological confusion for a male cat. So I've settled on "Asher", because he's ash gray.
(This could be interesting to teach to Alia, who sometimes has a hard time with some English phonetic, such as the "sh" sound, haha...)
I just fed him some milk and scrambled eggs, and he's taking a cat nap (*snicker*) on my soft laptop case as I play my soothing, cultural jazz music.

Here it is, carefully navigating the dangers of my living room.

Don't worry- it's not attacking my knee. It was licking me and mewing pitifully.

The Indonesian word for "cat" is "kucing" (KOO-cheen). I don't know how to say "kitten", though....

In the meantime, here are a few updated Alia photos for you to enjoy.

(I can't believe how big she's gotten since I've been here! She's a very big girl for being only 2 1/2; she's over half as tall as Samini. But then again, Samini's short.)

(Aw, c'mon, Alia, don't give me that face... How are you supposed to pose for photos?)

Here's a gradual progression of her as she remembered how to pose for the camera...

Pretending to be bashful behind her toy kucing that I gave her for Christmas...but she's a good actress here, because she's anything BUT bashful.

Soooo cuuuute!

I think she was trying to sing something here...

Yep, her t-shirt's very true. She has another one that says, "I'm baby happy!" No one's sure what it's supposed to mean, but we expats love finding cheap t-shirts (and pencils, notebooks, etc.) w/ confusing English grammar on them. :)

Isn't she cute?

Ok, Asher's quickly learned how to climb up the chair where I'm sitting. He wants to type a message to you, too, but he's not allowed to type. I've just taught him what "no", "off", and "down" mean, so he's back on the floor...but he's trying to climb again...

Any food suggestions for kittens, besides scrambled eggs and milk, are welcome!

Not sure what to call this post...???

I. Am. Wet.

Not just wet. Very, VERRRRY wet.

The rainy season is technically over, but there's still an occasional, terrifying thunderstorm about every 3 days or so.

I had play rehearsal today for a few hours after school, and then I made the fatal mistake of eating out for supper. This was a fatal mistake because I navigate around town on ojeks...and I got stuck in the middle of a storm while on one...and it was about a 10-minute ride home...

I don't think I've ever been this wet in my life- even in the pool! :-/

Anyways, I've lit candles around my downstairs, in case the power goes off as I write this post. (It often does.) While I dry off, I'll try to update you on my semi-exciting life for the past few weeks...

My Indonesian-Turkish Easter

(Not many people can say that!)

Easter was a weird holiday here, just like Christmas was. Everything was still open, it was super-insanely hot, and tons of people were out and about doing everything like normal, except, unlike Christmas, there were no clues that Easter was coming up. It's written on all of the Muslim calendars, as well as Good Friday, and Jesus' Ascension (which is a 2-day holiday break by the gov. for schools), but stores here don't sell fun Easter candy or decorate. I honestly forgot it was coming up until my friend Joy said something about it in Singapore.

I went to a church service with my friend Yoshie, but, naturally, I didn't get much from the service because it was all in Bahasa. (However, this morning, she gave me her Bahasa-English Bible, which is exciting to me because I want to improve my language ability!) Afterwards, I went out to a special Easter lunch in Jakarta with Eric and Christine...

Here we are- 3 Americans enjoying our Turkish Easter dinner in Indonesia. :)

I ate something involving lamb and lots of cheese. Yum!





Cool, huh?

Gettin down and dirty on Earth Day with SPH students!

In case you missed it, Earth Day was sometime ago, and our school acknowledged it last Wednesday. The student council students created activities to last all day, so thankfully, that meant no classes. (Translation: no teaching!)

Above are Aprilia, Delvira and Fabio, who made some recycled paper.

If you care enough, you can read my abbreviated photo recipe below for making recycled paper, which really isn't that hard at all.

First, you scoop out big handfuls of torn up newspaper mixed with water and put it on a small, wire screen...

...then you put another screen on top of it and shake it to sift out most of the water so that it forms some sort of hardening structure...



...then you flip it over onto a board and soak it with a sponge until it's all out of the screen.
Voila!
Finished product-recycled paper.



Eric joined a group of students for a quickie photo: Deviana, Fabio, Mr. Eric; Michelle, Sakura, Laura, Ghinna (eyes shut)

Fabio and Saku made "snowmen" out of their recycled paper balls. They tried to attach the heads to the bodies with toothpicks, but they couldn't figure out why they kept rolling off. It was cute. However, I have no idea why Fab's trying to lick his...???

They did some other activities that I didn't take photos of, such as an educational, recycling treasure hunt (which wasn't as boring as it sounds), CANSTRUCTION (making whatever out of cans as a contest), and performing STOMP with recyclable objects, which was actually wayyy cool to watch. :)

Here, Bita's not sure about this game in the pool. Teams were supposed to see which team could get the most trash our of the pool (which was put in it on purpose), either by raft or by swimming. It was a great excuse to get wet on a blazing-hot day! She's either skeptical that she'll stay on the raft with Frans and Alvin, or she's trying to hit Alvin with one of the oars. In the end, they managed to stay on the raft, and Alvin remained uninjured. (The three of them are also my English students. I love them!)



Since then, I've been keeping busy with more intense rehearsals for our upcoming school production of "The Secret Garden". I've also been having some pretty crappy days at school lately for a myriad of reasons. Still, it's soooo much better than most of my days from my teaching job last year. In the end...it's all good...


Now I'm feeling dry...and sleepy, which is too bad for me, because I have a ton to grade yet tonight!