May randomness

I can't believe I haven't updated my blog in a month! How the time flies...

I don't have anything earth-shattering to report on here. I've been sick for the last 2-3 weeks with the flu, sore throat, and stomach issues taking turns invading my body. (I'm mostly well now, though, thankfully!) My USB crashed yesterday, which contained all of my documents on it. I can find a few that are posted online, but for the most part, I'll to retype rubrics and documents all over again- a travesty. :(

But no one wants to read about that.

Here are some random photos of my life from the past month!

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I got home from school a few hours ago. I wasn't working; I was watching "Toy Story 3" with my beautiful cell group ladies!

The girls in this photo are in 9th grade. We were in the same spiritual cell group that met once a month during student chapel time. I tried to gear our time together between discussing teenage stuff and understanding the 5 love languages. However, the girls are very shy, in general, so our time usually involved me talking a bit and the girls laughing at me, for some random reason. :-P


Me in my ill-fitting, pregnancy uniform shirt, with (back row) Cleo, Nadia, Catty (pronounced "Cathy") and Levina, and (front row) Tannia and Regina

Last month, after the week where I should have been in Korea, the elementary kids put on an Easter drama. My friend, Marie, was the primary drama teacher for them, grades 3-6, but she needed help with all of the kids, so she drafted Josh. However, he knows nothing about drama, and she got into 2 motorbike accidents, so I ended up helping out as much as I could.

It was a very interesting cast. There weren't enough boys to fill all of the mostly-male roles, so all of the disciples were girls! It was like Jesus and his harem. (Blasphemy, I know, but it's true!)

The boy who was to play Jesus didn't return to school right after the holiday break. We knew he was either still in Singapore with his family or sick. The kids had fun saying things like, "Where's Jesus?" "Have you talked to Jesus lately?" and "Do you know when Jesus will return?"
Kinda funny, but way too stressful...

I had a lot of fun helping out.

I can also rest assured I did NOT miss my calling as an elementary teacher! :(

OH. My. Worrrrd.... *pulling hair out*


I took this photo. Marie and Josh are in the middle, in front of Jesus.

(Sorry the photo's kinda small on here...)

A few weeks ago, we had a Girls' Day to celebrate Becky's birthday at the awesome Marche restaurant, which is the Swiss restaurant I wrote about for my birthday a few years ago.


Me, Lis, Becky, Shirley Anne, Marie, Brittany, Elise

This semester, I tutored some students in 9th and 10th grades after school that are from my English classes, since I teach the lowest ability levels for those grades.
Just like last year, we held our last tutorial for the year at Starbucks, so here's a pic of us there last Thursday.

(I had 4 students, but the boy didn't show up! He missed out!)


Feli, Jessica and Devi :)

On Saturday, some friends came to visit. I wrote about Steve, Julia and Cahaya in posts from 2 years ago. Now, they live a few hours away, and they came to Sentul to say good-bye to the girls who are leaving our school next year.

We went to a nice, Italian restaurant for dinner.


Elise, me, Chrissie, Cahaya, Julia, Shirley Anne, Steve, and a lady on the wall mural who looks like she's doing something inappropriate to Steve!

Sittin pretty with Cahaya!


*Our finest hour*

My last few days of NOT being in Korea...

It's Saturday night, April 23rd.
This date is significant if you're a Justin Bieber fan, because he's giving a concert IN SENTUL, IN MY TOWN IN INDONESIA, 10 minutes away from my house, at this very moment!
I'm sooo NOT a JB fan, but I think it's pretty cool that he - and, reportedly, Selena Gomez - are in my town, of all the places in Indonesia. :-P

Anyways, my friend Yoshie is spending the weekend with me in Sentul. On account of the insane traffic in the town today/tonight, we've pretty much stayed home and have done a whole lot of nothing, except for watching "Psych" episodes and drinking coffee excessively.

Bliss!

Yoshie and me, at the handicraft fair in Jakarta yesterday

:)











Josh and I made some new friends yesterday! He and I went with Yoshie and Marie to the fair, and then we went to a fancy mall for lunch at a Wendy's - a rarity! He and I wanted to go to the imported goods grocery store in the lower level.

On our way down the escalator, we saw these guys in front of a bookstore, so we jumped in w/ them for photos!

(We're also on tons of other people's cameras, too...) Sooo random!

This morning, Marina and I went to our second Balinese dancing lesson. Each lesson is an hour long, and we're thoroughly soaked with sweat after each one. (My shoulders and upper arms are also still severely sore.)

This is my Balinese dance teacher, Ibu Ayu. I think she's wonderful and very patient with me!





As you can see, I need to work a bit more on my arm positions. :-P









And here we are! Marina's on the right. She does a great job of translating between Ibu Ayu and me. (The girl in the middle is Marina's sister-in-law named Jenny.)

On June 11th, the 4 of us are going to perform in Bellanova, which is the strip mall here in Sentul. We'll have full costumes and makeup and head gear and everything! I'm a bit nervous but excited! :)

Right now, a thunderstorm is brewing. It's been thundering and growling for hours, just like each night this past week. I'm not sure if it'll actually rain or not, but I hope it won't rain tomorrow morning, because several of us are planning to have an earrrrly outdoor, sunrise Easter service.

Monday is a day off for us, although I'm not sure why. If I do anything photoworthy tomorrow or Monday, I'll post about it then. Otherwise, I'm content to say that this week has been a blessing in disguise, because I was able to spend lots of quality time with people, even though I didn't make it to Korea...

Now I'm getting ready to go eat a Mexican dinner in Indonesia with some Americans. What a great way to prepare for Easter!

My first few days of NOT being in Korea...

I really don't want to go into the long, sob story, but I missed my flight to Korea on Saturday and was unable to reschedule another flight.

That being said, my time spent in Indonesia instead has been a blessing in disguise, because I've been able to spend some much-needed quality time with three of the four teachers who are leaving next year.

One of them is Dini, who will still live nearby.













We ate with our friend, Marina, at a Singaporean restaurant at our favorite mall. Then we did karaoke and had a blast!










(Oops, Marina's eyes are shut...)

I go Balinese dancing with Marina on the random Saturday that works out for both of us, one of which just happens to be this coming Saturday. Pics to come!










I cut up a papaya yesterday morning for the first time.












If you cut off the end, you can see a star! (Cheap thrills!)














My flowers in the front yard were really pretty yesterday in the sunshine. :)

























A close-up of the flowers














Lis and Chrissie will also be leaving next year.

Yesterday afternoon, we all went to Chrissie's neighborhood in nearby Bogor, where she ministers part-time to the children there. On Tuesdays, she teaches English to some kids in an impoverished neighborhood. All of the kids are poor, most don't go to school, and all are eager to learn English with her! They all come randomly but voluntarily.
Even though one of the songs Chrissie teaches involves the word "God", the Muslim parents allow their kids to learn it, if they want to, because they do believe God created the animals in the song.

This was a boy who basically stalked us on the bus from Sentul to Bogor. It was a 15ish minute-long ride, and he STARED AT US THE ENTIRE TIME. We don't think he was mentally all there, because he didn't understand the words "turn around" in either English, Indonesian, or via gestures.

Being stared at is pretty common, but not to this extent. SOOO annoying!



Her bedroom overlooks this "scenic" view of the neighborhood's back river. Ugh!

















Here's Lis, cherishing every moment with the kids- laughing...


















...doing a Macarena-style game about body parts...












...and singing the animal song with the kids!
















Chrissie's such a caring and great teacher! She helps the kids with rote activities to enhance their English skills, since this could be the only exposure they'll ever have with a kind English speaker.

She teaches the kids songs about God and animals...


















...and reviews numbers.














Then the kids colored cut-outs of monkeys.





















Sooo cute!
















Beautiful girls!

















Tuff kids

















This boy is much older than the others, but he came in, out of curiosity, and joined the little kids. He's an example of how the kids here treasure small things in life and view them as meaningful, even something as small as coloring a piece of paper.












Picture perfect!













So sweet...















Precious kids!

















All done coloring! They're so proud of their puppets!






















Aren't they ADORRRABLE???
I don't know these girls' names (yes, they're both girls!), but Chrissie told me they're basically orphans. I think their mom died and the dad's not around to care for them, so various parents are taking on parenting duties for them. The oldest little girl acts like her sister's guardian. So sad!

















This is a great photo of the kids at the end of the session, even the fighting kids in the front row!















The Pizza Hut menu offers so much more than just pizza. You can get fruit juices, milkshakes, desserts, various pastas, weird things, and, of course, rice.

Here, this page is advertising pizzas called Beetato Pepperoni, Fishchips, and All Veggie (bottom), all of which look sketchy and sound revolting.









Chrissie's eating a soup bread bowl...









...and I've got dessert! (Which arrived before my pizza. What a great concept!) I love getting dessert at Pizza Hut. Only in Indonesia can I say that!

I love this photo b/c it looks like Lis is hitting on me...! ;)


















Sharing ice cream with Lis is a very happy thing!

I'll post more photos sometime this weekend or early next week!

Random fun in April

I am leaving for South Korea on Saturday, which is only 5 days away!

In the meantime, I need to grade like a mad woman, because Miss Mandy has been a major slacker teacher this semester...so I've posted some photos of the randomness in my life as of lately....enjoy!

(My next postings will be about Korea, after I've returned. Who's excited?? I'm excited!!!!)

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Two days after I returned AND recovered from being in Bali, we expats celebrated Cara Grace's 6th birthday party.

Here she and I are, playing in her little pool.

None of us knew water and mud would be involved at this party, but thankfully, I wore clothes that I didn't mind getting filthy. (!)

The party began innocently enough.

Here, Leanne's playing with Cara in her pool.

However, when Cara left to go play with her toys instead of playing ball with us outside, our ball game quickly turned into a mud fight!

Yep. That's me, totally face down in the mud because I tried to get the ball away from Leanne.

:-P

Later, we had a bonfire and s'mores, just like we did for Chinese New Year.

A few weeks ago, I finally paid off my student loans!!!

Right after that, some of us had a Girls' Day/Night in Jakarta.

Our first stop of shopping was at a place called Galeri Pot.

(Translated: "Pottery Gallery")

I didn't buy anything there, but I thought the hand-painted pottery was beautiful.

Marie organized our day out. Here, she's posing in the shop with her crutch, which she earned after having a a bike accident while I was in Bali.

After shopping and lunch at Starbucks, we arrived at our hotel.

Here I am in the lobby, pretending I'm loaded with money. :-P

There were 4 of us, so we stayed in a sweet suite. It was so cool - and big! - that I felt the need to take photos. Because I'm like that.

Fera and I shared a bedroom.

Here's one of the two bathrooms...with a separate bidet!

The other bathroom had a BATHTUB!!!

Living room

Marie, looking at the Jakarta skyline

Here we are, all dressed up for dinner at the hotel!

Fera, Marie, Rebekah, our friend from another school who celebrated Halloween at my house.

(Marie and Rebekah are wearing different batik styles, if you're interested in batik.)

Gettin some love from Fera!

The youngun's were crazy and pretended they were in a band while we waited for our food.

Our shopping!

I can't tell you what we/I bought, because some of them will be Christmas presents for people who read my blog, but I can say we went shopping at Starbucks, the pottery place and at a bamboo angel place.

*ahem*

Yesterday, after church, I celebrated Yoshie's birthday with Lis and Elise.

Here we are at Marche, the awesome place where we celebrated my birthday a few years ago and where I took Joy in January.

Blowing out her candle after being serenaded "Happy Birthday" by waiters with cowbells!
(No photos of the cowbells, though.)

(...dang flash...!)

Eating with Elise and Lis

The last bit of randomness was when Josh randomly came over for a bit a few nights ago. He was cold in my house because I always have my air con on, so he wrapped up in one of my blankets. I told him he looked like an Indian guy, so he also made a turban out of my Indian wrap. :) Haha!