I'M BAAAAACK! :)

I'm back in Indonesia again!!!

I've been here 2 full weeks, as of today (a Sunday).  I've returned to my former school in Indonesia (2008 - 2012) to finish teaching the school year here.  (An English teacher left unexpectedly a few weeks ago.)

I'll quickly recap my situation here, for anyone interested:

• I had a 15-hour layover in Hong Kong on my way over here, which sounds ridiculous, but it ended up being a blessing.  Hong Kong and Indoland are only an hour apart, timewise, and I arrived in the evening, so I walked around a bit and was able to sleep for a few hours before breakfast the next morning.  For this reason, I barely had any jet lag when I got to Indoland, which is the first time that's ever happened!  Woo hoo!  I had a drama-free journey over here, too, and I don't take that for granted, ever.

• My first week at the school was the perfect week to arrive b/c I didn't teach the entire week, as most of the students were on field trips.  I used that time to hard-core clean out my classroom (I found an EpiPen!), try to understand the new curriculum I'm teaching, and get reacquainted with former friends who are still teaching at the school.

• I'm staying in one of the teacher apartments in the school's boarding house that the school built a few years ago.  I have mixed feelings about it, for sure, but since I'll probably be here for only 3.5 months, I'll make do.

• I'm teaching English 9 - 12.  The 11th and 12th grades are at DP level (Diploma Programme).  I don't know most of the students; some of the 12th graders were in my drama productions, but the others were too young for me to know when I was here earlier.  It's going to take me forever to get their names straight, but the kiddos are very sweet and patient.  :)

• Last week was my first week of teaching, and it was sooooo therapeutic to be teaching again!

• We had last Wednesday off for the Hindi New Year called Nyepi.  We have this week of school, and then we have all of next week off as our Easter Break.  I have no travel plans for the break.  I might spend one or two days working in my classroom, but at the end of that week, I'll have a friend and her husband stay with me here for a few days.  Excited!

• I haven't been to church yet.  I used to attend an international church in Jakarta sporadically when I used to live here, and I plan on attending it again whenever I can.  Last week, I didn't go because I couldn't remember how to tell a taxi driver to get there.  (I guess there's no longer a Jakarta bus to take from our bus station here in my town.)  Today, I was just physically fatigued and needed to rest before a full week of teaching.  I plan on going next Sunday, fatigued or not, b/c I know I can rest the next day.

• I don't have much else to report, at the moment.  Once I clean up my apartment a bit more, I'll take pics and post them on here.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to ask any questions about Indo life in the comments section here.  :)