January randomness

Happy New Year!

Yes, I know it's already halfway through January, but this is my first blog posting of the year, and today's actually Chinese New Year, so it's totally appropriate. :)

(Random, but I recently found out the actual name for CNY is Imlek. I don't know why I've never known this until now, but in case you ever need to know this...now you know!)

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I've been back for a little over 2 weeks now, and the time has just FLOWN by! It took me a full week to get over jet lag + traveler's flu, and it took even longer for me to do something remotely exciting enough to post about on here. My first week was spent going to school, going to bed, and waking up insanely early for school. Last week, I actually made an effort to teach something in each class, but I severely lack motivation; I think I lost it back in Indiana while watching hours of "Modern Family" with my family.

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Last Thursday night, Katy Perry performed at the convention center in Sentul. Once again, just like w/ Justin Bieber in April, a superstar came to Indonesia and was TEN MINUTES from my house. I'm NOT a fan of either one, but I think it's crazy.

That being said, most of the kids weren't worth anything at school on Friday b/c they'd gone to the concert and were tired. I didn't figure that out until later, but I don't feel sorry for them.

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I've begun Balinese dancing lessons again, and we'll have another performance in June. Marina and I had our first lesson last week, and I'd forgotten everything - including how HARD it is! My arms were aching for a few days afterwards. I've got a lot of work to do! :-/

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Fera will leave very soon to get her Master's in Education in Australia for a year-and-a-half. Her going-away party will be at my house on Friday night. I'm not sure yet when she's actually leaving the country, but I'm NOT looking forward to it... :'(

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On Sunday, I bought a new laptop b/c the battery in my current laptop is quickly dying, which means the next thing to die would probably be my hard drive again. So, I'm making the slow, painful transition of moving everything of value from the old to the new. Even though the new laptop is red and black and completely appropriate for Chinese New Year, I've bonded with my old Dell. However, after using it for 3 1/2 years, I'm lucky it hasn't died on me yet again. Time for it to go. :(

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Last year, at this time of year, we had several holidays during the week, which resulted in many days off of school. This semester, most of them fall on the weekends, which is much more helpful in lesson planning and actually getting stuff done w/ students.

Our Quarter 3 break will be the last week of March/first week of April, which will involve Easter. I plan on going to Singapore for most of that time to hang out w/ Joy, since I haven't been in S'pore for a year-and-a-half. One of my goals for this trip is to swim with pink dolphins at Sentosa Island. We shall see!

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My teaching schedule next year is going to change drastically. I'll be teaching Drama 8 - 10, like I am now, but I'll also be teaching 5th grade English, Art, Bible, and Unit of Inquiry, whatever that is. I'm looking forward to a change of pace, but it'll be a huuuuge jump down for me, so I'll have to relearn procedures and teaching methods for younger kiddos.

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In honor of today being Chinese New Year, here are some photos of how I'm celebrating in my house...

Here's my little shrine to Chinese New Year in front of my stairwell.

Here are close - ups of envelopes that people put money in and give to kids and unmarried people.

These are my international, post - Christmas gifts, which sit downstairs in my house. The Kenyan tablecloth is from Leanne, when she went there and to Rwanda over Christmas, and the genie lamp is from Marie, when she passed through the Abu Dhabi airport on her way home in December. Love them! :)

I'll go to the mall in a few hours in hopes of catching the Dragon Dance in action!

More photos later.