It's Fall!...and other Indonesian randomness...

Well, ok, it's technically not officially Fall for 3 more weeks, but in a country where the weather never changes, it might as well be Fall for me! :) I've been smelling my Fall- scented candles every night, and I'm currently watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" for the 5th time in a row while I try to motivate myself to pack and do lesson plans.
It's not motivating me, though...

On Sunday, I went handicraft shopping at a mall in Jakarta with my friend, Marie, who's new and needed to know where to go shopping. (That's my excuse.) :-P

I cleaned up my living room for this photo.

There's nothing representing Fall here, but I just thought I'd post a photo of it, anyways.

I bought a maple- scented candle at the mall, which sits on my table and makes me happy!



Isn't this gorgeous? This is a heavy, clay, hand- painted leaf bowl thing. I guess I could put candies in here, but it's too beautiful to cover up the designs on it. This is definitely a keepsake!

Here's my King Ramayana shadow puppet in front of my stairwell, surrounded by pumpkin- scented candles, leaf- shaped candles, and Fall confetti.
I bet he's never been in a situation like this one before!


I also finally bought a Mancala game board, which I mentioned in my previous post. It came with a little bag of seashells to use.

It's beautifully hand-painted and in the shape of a turtle!

Isn't he cute??!?

This is it opened up. I have yet to have a wild party and play Mancala! I'll bring it home with me at Christmas so I can teach my family how to play it.

In other random news...

• I bought a beautiful, new, bamboo cutting board. The Japanese word for cutting board is yijiazhumu, which was written on the label with this information: "People need bamboo for inhabitancy under the circumstance eating without meat- Su Dong Po." Whatever!
• I really can't accurately give anyone a picture of how AMAZING, ADORABLE AND SWEET my homeroom 7th graders are!!! I sometimes forget they're teenagers! This particular class is very sweet. They started sharing prayer requests as a class during the first week of school. Over the course of this past week, here are some of our prayer requests, besides for serious issues: a sick puppy named Violet; Nick, who had a ceramic fall on his head (I didn't ask for details); Nick's finger, b/c it was bruised (yep, same Nick); math tests; grandparents' anniversaries; any and all family members' birthdays; praise for it being the first day of September; and someone's sore ankle. They mean all of this with great sincerity, and I have to sometimes fight hard not to laugh out loud! THEY'RE SOOOO CUTE!!! :-D
  
• Current list of creatures that have been in my house over these last 2 years: millions of ants, in all sizes and colors; dozens of geckos; a cat; a kitten with diarrhea; a rat; a snake; a tiny scorpion; a HUGE spider (as of Monday night); and hundreds of cockroaches, 2 of which I killed after school today and 1 of which I found dead beside my fridge. GROSS!
• A week from now, I'll be on Idul Fitri break, which will be for a week and a half. I'm going to Singapore for a week to be with my friend Joy, who's currently recovering from an intense lung infection. Yuck! :-( Fun times will abound!
• I need to go pack now. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for Malaysia, along with 2 other English teachers. We're going there until Monday afternoon for more English teaching training. Yay for free trips! :) Hopefully, I'll get to see the Petronas Towers, but I'm not sure I'll be able to stomach a trip up them... I can't wait, even though it means I have to write sub plans for 2 days...which is what I need to do tonight, too.
  

Time to go! I'll try to post again next week, when I'm back. :)