I'M BACK! A quick update

I'm back in Indonesia!  :)

I left the U.S. 4 weeks ago today and had to land in Singapore with other new teachers.  We were told to arrive in Singapore so that we could have our visas processed together there prior to arriving in Indoland.  We stayed at a nice YWCA lodge called Fort Canning Lodge.  We hung out there for a day or two and sweltered in the heat as we wandered around to feed ourselves.

I won't go into the crazy details of traveling to Jakarta and arriving at our apartments, b/c we were all SO tired.  Those first few days were filled with late nights, early mornings, jet lag, meetings at school about culture shock and life here, and coming home to my trashed apartment just to crash and not get anything done there.

Finally, my apartment has mostly come together and feels homey and not like a boring storage place!  I'll post photos of it later.

School has been in session for 2 weeks.  We start Week 3 of school tomorrow, which is a short week on account of Indonesia's Independence Day on Wednesday.  We teach only half of the day on Thursday because we have Independence Day activities in the morning and at the end of the day.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get caught up on lesson planning this week!

I teach 2 sections of Drama 8, 2 of English 8, and 2 of English 7.  My students are very sweet and a lot of fun!  

Photos to come soon!  :)

A quickie life update

Wow.  
I'm terrible at keeping my blog updated.  Sorry if you've been waiting for an update from me!
I'm not one of those bloggers that enjoys spending time pouring my soul into a blog.  The purpose of this blog, for me, is to show the faithful few who follow me here some pics of life over here in Indonesia, anything unique and exciting I do, and some of my friends.
I haven't done anything exciting lately, though, and I've been very busy with school lately; hence, this verrrrry belated blog post.  :-/

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A quick recap for you:

• In April, my school needed to send me out of the country, because I was on a visitors visa, and my 60 days for it were going to expire.  So my admin. sent me to Singapore overnight, where I hung out with 2 former students and my other friends there.
• Prior to arriving in Singapore, I'd been getting small headaches, off and on.  While in Singapore, my headaches worsened, aggravated by the EXTREME heat there.  
• I began having dengue-like symptoms while in Singapore, to the point where I could barely hold my head up to send sub plans to my school before my flight home.  I held my head in my lap in the taxi all the way to the airport, where my friends took me to the airport clinic.  I got a shot to bring down my 102 temperature, and they gave me some pills that didn't seem to help much.
• I got back to my apartment safely but feeling horrible.  The next day, I stayed in my dark, cool bedroom, because light hurt my eyes, as well as moving my eyes at all.  I also threw up every single liquid about every half hour or so.
• The next day, some coworkers grabbed me in the morning and took me to our local hospital, where I spent the night getting rehydrated and food.  I felt tired but MUCH better when I was released, so, I'm thankful God took total care of me in that situation!
• I'm relocating to a new campus next year within my school corporation here in Indonesia.  I'll be living in Jakarta, on the north side, very close the airport.  It's in the ritziest area of the city, so there's a better than decent chance I'll turn into a yuppie.  (It's actually in Lippo Village, which I talked about a few posts ago.)  This campus is the main campus and is the biggest one of the 5 campuses.  It's actually HUGE.  (I've visited it twice over the years and always felt lost.)  I don't know more finalized information yet, but when I do, I'll post about it.
• There's a chance a college friend of mine will be teaching there with me next year!  We haven't seen each other in 9 years, but we've stayed in touch, so we're crossing our fingers that her application interview goes well next week!  :)

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I don't have much else to say right now, except that I'll get home a month from today, on June 21st.  My summer breaks are very short; we begin school at the end of July, so I'll have to return in mid-July.  We get several breaks throughout the year for various holidays for the 5 religions in Indonesia, so that's supposed to compensate.

I should get caught up on grading right now, but I feel like baking cookies instead.  :-P

I'll try to post again within the next few days.  :)

A magical restaurant called Spatula!

There's a fairly new restaurant in Sentul, my town, called Spatula that's about a half mile from school.  I went there twice last week because I'm in love with the interior, it's a great place to grade, and there's a wide variety of nonIndonesian food there.  :)

The exterior

And the interior, upstairs

(The bottom level is a bakery.)

Fun signs inside  :-P

My mint frappuccino...

...and chicken cordon bleu with fries and cheese sauce.  SOOOO delicious!!

Before I went home, I went to a convenience store down the strip mall from Spatula called Indomart, and there were some stray kittens outside the door, playing with a cigarette.

This is pretty common, as stray cats wander around everywhere.

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I'm getting ready for Week 2 of full-time teaching and feel a thousand times more rested for it than I did a week ago at this time.  I didn't go into Jakarta today for church because I was so physically and mentally exhausted that it literally took me the entire day today to recuperate.  (I haven't left my apartment all day, not even to take out my trash!)

If I do something exciting or worthy of sharing on here, then I'll post again soon.  Otherwise, it might be at least another week, as I don't plan on doing much of anything this week, other than teaching and school stuff.  Until then...

The magical world of Lippo Village + my Easter weekend

This post is a week late, but it's because I've had literally NO time or energy to post it sooner.

The week preceding Easter was our Easter Break, and I was in taxis/vehicles in Jakarta for 2/3 of it for various reasons.  I was also grading essays, so the break wasn't all that restful for me at all.

I did have 2 Singaporean friends, Joy and Don, visit me for the last few days of the break, though.  I was in their wedding in Singapore last 4th of July, and I went to college with Joy, so we go wayyy back.  :)

We had fun during our short time together.  Much of that fun was spent in the kitchen in my apartment.

They made Indian food for dinner (above) while I slaved away at my essays.

The bread-looking things on the left are called cakwe (pronounced "CHOCK-way").

We made breakfast together the next morning.  They revived my gross pasta noodles with some sort of vegetable, and I made apple pancake bites.

We spent a night in Lippo Village, a ritzy area of Jakarta, and we ate lunch at a Balinese restaurant.

A very Balinese entrance

The pretty, Balinese interior

A blurry photo of the beautiful, carved teak panels

Duck spring rolls and kebabs, fried calamari, spicy veggies...

...ginger melon duck soup...

...and baked duck. smile emoticon

 Balinese coffee, which had the consistency of mud and which was undrinkable for me, even after 5 packets of sugar. Sad! frown emoticon

Some random sights around a supermall across from our hotel

THERE'S A ROLLER COASTER IN THIS MALL!!!

The mall had a regular amusement park.

 

Live piano & jazz singers - something I've missed.

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On Easter Sunday, the three of us went to a nearby church created by a mission team from Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I loved it, and we felt very welcomed there.

The hospitality team at church this morning gave this baggie to visitors...

...with homemade cookies inside! So nice! 

After church, we headed back to our hotel to cool off with some Baskin Robbins in the lobby, because it was sooooo, so hot out that day.

After this pic was taken, we split ways - me in a taxi to go home, about an hour and a half away, and them in a taxi to the airport, about 30 min. away.

Interestingly, I found out last week that I'll be sent to Singapore in a few weekends for visa reasons, so I'll spend the night at Joy and Don's apartment.  Lucky me!

The many sights of Jakarta

I had to go into Jakarta today to renew my visa, 
so the school had one of its drivers take me there.  
I took advantage of this opportunity to try to show 
a fraction of this massive city!

(I took all of these pics from inside the school's vehicle, 
so if they're slightly blurry, sorry.)

On the toll road

A Blue Bird taxi is on the right here.  The Blue Birds in Jakarta were all on strike yesterday to protest the widespread use of Uber and other taxi alternatives.  Today, they were issuing free rides to customers (I was told) to get business back.

A mosque beside the toll

The Jakarta skyline really is expansive.

A Dutch bakery

This is an angkot, which are everywhere and are like taxis for short distances.

Slums beside railroad tracks

It's easy to get a drink on the side of the road.  (I never do, though, b/c I always bring my own so I don't get dehydrated or carsick.)

A warning sign at the railroad tracks

Major tracks through a majorly busy thoroughfare

The railroad crossing guard is down, 

but there are still unwise people crossing the tracks.

I was genuinely scared for them.

More and more ojeks cut in front of us to get closer to the guard so they could leave first.

More cutters.  *sigh*

I guess this is how homeless people dry their clothes on the streets.

Banana trees...

...and bamboo trees grow along a fence by the tracks.

Heading home on the toll again

Some ridiculous, luxury high-rise apartments