conspiracies

i just found a very illuminating website run by Christians (naturally) in which they claim that the wizard of oz was made by the occult, beyonce is practicing satanist mind control over her fans, lady gaga is a tool of satan, and rihanna's song "umbrella" is an invitation for the devil to rape her. i mean, it's so obvious... how did i miss all this? sigghhhhhh.... people.

i also just found out that the registration and license plates for my bike are FINALLY ready! they said 2 - 3 weeks. it's been almost 5. yes, i've been driving illegally. granted, only around this part of town. mostly. it'll be nice to feel free to go anywhere for the first time.

i'm gonna try to hike merapi this friday night. "try" being the key word. i'm not really sure if i can do it. it's an all night hike. we're leaving at 8 pm, and we'll be lucky if we see the sunrise. i'm going with a group of girls, so that helps. hopefully i won't be too far behind everyone else. i figure by saturday evening, i'll mostly just want to die.

but i can't! because i have a date with mr l to watch harvey! we love old movies, and so far, nobody else does. yo and gt, my usual weekend accomplices, are going to be on a different island for the weekend. they get to road trip to sumatra. i'm extremely jealous, but oh well. i have a job. and a girl - especially a white one - should definitely not be traveling alone with a couple indonesian guys.

i watched all 4 seasons of criminal minds in the past 2 weeks. it feels strange to have a life again now that that's done. one in which i'm looking over my shoulder and leaving lights on a lot.

it is hot hot hot these days! i was sweating by 7:30 this morning. we thought rainy season was starting a couple weeks ago, but it was only toying with us. hasn't rained all week, except a quick sprinkle 2 nights ago. my hair is reacting negatively, as expected.

charles and marie have a new baby, william. since they can't legally adopt him, he's technically a foster child. they're still not sure what God has planned for his future. but he's an adorable little thing who definitely needs some love in his life!

gramma taught me how to crochet when i was like 8 years old. unfortunately, i never progressed past crocheting one looonnnnnnnng strand that could wind its way through all the rooms in the house. until this week. mom brought me a ton of yarn and a crocheting needle when she came (among many other fantastic things that i had been craving for a year) and i promptly taught myself how to actually make something useful! so far, i've made 2 hotpads (can you believe i went almost a year and a half without owning any?!), and i'm starting on a scarf. which might seem ridiculous, given that i live on a tropical island. but you'd be surprised.

christmas plans are in full swing. yo found us an awesome bungalow to stay in on the nearly deserted tropical beach island of gili air for new years (thereby avoiding last year's bali madness), then after about a week of that - and once the holiday is over - we'll likely head to a semi-remote part of bali to spend a few days before coming back to java. i'm excited. come here, christmas!

ninth grade is undoubtedly my hardest class to teach. there's only 10 students, but i have ALL the loudest and most attention needy kids in that class. i also have 2 of the kids who get teased the most and 1 of the kids who tends to tease them the most. and there is no quieting them down. i had about all i could take last week, and so i decided to appeal to their intellect by explaining to them how disrespected i felt every day and how little respect i saw them exhibiting toward each other. they quickly got in a shouting match, trying to outargue each other in their claims that they did respect me and that they were just "social" kids. so the next day, i instated my first ever seating arrangement and laid down some rules with serious consequences. so they started asking questions, two of them being "do you hate us?" and "which class is your favorite?" so i told them honestly that i didn't hate them, but that they did sometimes frustrate me, and that geometry was my favorite class to teach. so they asked why. and i told them that it was because geometry is my favorite part of math and because the 10th grade class is very respectful, but at they same time, they get excited about learning math. so now the 9th graders have decided that they want to be my favorite class. and the loudest kids in class have now become the ones who remind others to be quiet or raise their hand. i have not heard a single insult hurled yet this week. i have not gone home from work frustrated a single day this week. this is fantastic... my only concern is this: did i just pit two grades against each other in a competition to be my favorite?