what’s the rule?

“look. i ate a gyro for you.” - dad

NO TALKING ABOUT FOOD THAT I CAN’T HAVE! NO FAIR!

 

in other news.... this is my new favorite thing:

i got it in the mail earlier this week from a friend. and it has improved my standard of living greatly. i’ve never had a nice water bottle before. i take it everywhere with me. and i now drink 8 times more water per day on average than i did before i had a water bottle. dang. that is a lot of water.

Gabriel Cramer

earlier this week, we were learning about matrices and Cramer's rule in Algebra 2. I assigned a brief one page paper on WHO cramer is to my students, since most people know nothing about this famous mathematician. students who have been here longer than me always joke about cramer's rule being written by jeremy cramer, a much beloved teacher i replaced when i came. when i arrived, i felt like i had some really big shoes to fill. i never met cramer, he left before i moved here, but i heard nothing but good about this guy. anyways, the papers were due today, and one student turned in this:

Jeremy Cramer was the coolest guy ever. We were really close. He used to teach at Mountainview International School. Crames is married to Rebekah. Bekah used to go to our school before Crames taught here. I miss him a lot. He was a good runner. His best times were, 800 meters: 1:58.42, 1.5 kilometers: 3:58.89; 3 km: 8:45.23; 5km: 15:35.61. He was a really good runner. Unfortunately he left before he could teach me, but then the best female teacher I have ever had took his place. But that is another story. Crames would do everything with us! He invented this new game at the beach called attack shark. It was epic! We would also wrestle at my house with all the pillows as an arena. He would teach me wrestling moves. But now he has gone off to America where he and his wife go to college, living happily without me. I will remember Crames as many things. Wise, cool, funny, and crazy. He was like my oldest brother and an older brother to my ssiter and brother. My dad also saw him as a brother and mentored Crames. We Skype once in awhile, but other than that, contact is limited. Life has been different without him, but I'm glad I have had awesome memories with my favorite Cramer in the world!

sometimes these kids warm my heart.... the things they say and the ways they think. and every day, i love living in a community where i'm more than just a teacher to my students and their families.

btw, after he knew i saw that his paper was about jeremy and NOT the famous mathematician, he turned in his real paper.

oh, language

so every day except friday, spanish class is held in my room. i don't teach it, but i'm usually working at my desk while class is conducted. sometimes, strange things happen. usually in the form of awkward conversations. i'm pretty sure the teacher doesn't think through some of the things he says before he says them. he's an awesome guy, fluent in spanish, and a MUCH better language teacher than i. he's also our only black teacher, and he enjoys dressing a la the cosby show, circa 1992. our urban influence.

actual conversation 2 minutes ago:

teacher: ok, we need to take a closer look at the verb "gustar". it means "to be pleasing", so it's conjugated based on what is pleasing, NOT on the person it is pleasing to. so for example, i like those girls. i like girls.
student: you only like girls?
teacher: no, i like boys too. but back to the girls. me gustan las muchachas. girls PLEASE me.
student: boys too?
me: APPLES! YOU LIKE APPLES!
teacher: good idea. i don't like where this conversation is going. me gustan las manzanas. apples are pleasing to me.

vomit

this has been one of those weeks... where every little thing seems designed specifically to test my patience. a lot of it has stemmed from the fact that i live in a third world country and few things are logical or efficient. a lot of it has come from situations with other people that have just been wholly aggravating. mix some work stress and some unruly students into that mix. THEN throw in me having to explain to 3 different guys in 2 weeks that i don't feel the same about them as they do about me (seriously - NOTHING for 2 years, and now all of a sudden three guys in 2 weeks! and 2 of them, i NEVER saw coming...), so i feel guilty about that too, and now i have 3 friends who don't really want to talk to me because their feelings are hurt. and top all that off with the fact that i can't sleep at night. i am absolutely exhausted, emotionally and physically, but sleep won't come. and when it finally does, i am woken up frequently for no apparent reason and can't get back to sleep for 30 minutes to an hour.

my students pointed out today that i haven't smiled very much this week. the IT guy confided in the school secretary, who in turn told me, that he's worried about me because he hasn't seen me smile lately. this from the guy i only see once in awhile when he ventures out of his techno cavern across the parking lot. aduh.

last night, with a dejected sigh, i crawled into bed. and i realized that since i'm planning to stay here for awhile, i should make a concerted effort to actually LEARN indonesian instead of just picking it up on the street. so i decided my first personal language lesson would be reading my bible (which is always what i end my day with) in indonesian instead of english this time, looking up all the words i don't know and making a list to memorize later. and what book did i "happen" to open up to? - yakobus, of course. james.

Saudara-saudaraku, anggaplah sebagai suatu kebahagiaan, apabila kamu jatuh ke dalam berbagai-bagai pencobaan, sebab kamu tahu, bahwa ujian terhadap imanmu itu menghasilkan ketekunan. Dan biarkanlah ketekunan itu memperoleh buah yang matang, supaya kamu menjadi sempurna dan utuh dan tak kekurangan suatu apapun. (Yakobus 1:3-4)

[my translation: my brothers, consider it as a joy, if you fall into some kinds of temptation, because you know that the test of your faith results in perseverance. And let that perseverence get some mature fruit so that you become perfect and whole and do not lack anything.]

[the real translation: My brothers and sisters, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience. Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete and will have everything you need. (James 1:3-4)]

of course, i had to look up anggaplah (consider it), ketekunan (perseverance/patience), matang (mature) and utuh (complete).

but wow, God, thanks for slapping me in the face.

i slept well last night for the first time in a week.

*and when i woke up this morning, i still remembered about half the 22 words i had looked up last night. 50% is a good start.

those boys

so here's a picture of a typical mountainview lunch. a verbal picture. because it's all i have. we all eat in the pavilion, which is just what it sounds like - a long open sided "building" with a tile roof over the top, located between our secondary and elementary buildings. the elementary kids eat at one end and the secondary kids at the other. there's about 30 picnic tables that span the length of said pavilion in 4 rows, with a walkway in the middle. also, along one side of the pavilion are regular tables. before lunch, students' helpers, drivers, or parents bring their lunch boxes and leave them for the kids on those tables, where the kids retrieve them from and (hopefully) return them to when they are finished.

except for the kids who live in the dorm. we have 3 dorms - the girls dorm, the boys dorm, and the coed southern baptist dorm... those southern baptists. they all eat buffet style. the dorm helpers cook the food and bring it ALL out and each dorm basically claims one picnic table to spread all the food out on. this usually involves a big urn of white rice, a pitcher of juice, a casserole dish full of chicken thighs swimming in oil and hot sauce, a bowl of veggies and garlic, a bowl of fruit, and dish of cookies, and plates, cups, and silverware for everyone.

my job each day is to come to lunch, open up all the dishes (they bring them covered so flies don't get in them), and watch the food for the girls dorm to make sure that other kids aren't just coming and helping themselves. in exchange, i get a free hot lunch. mmm... chicken thighs. not my favorite, but i'm not complaining. it's a free lunch. so i sit there. by the food. usually 3 of the dorm girls sit with me. we're creatures of habit. or at least they are. i sit there every day because it's my job.

there's always some rambunctious boys who come along and try to sneak a cookie out of the dish. one of the costa rican kids is - for reasons beyond me - obsessed with dorm pears. so i gotta keep an eye on the fruit bowl. yesterday i had a kid trade me a half eaten bag of cheetos for a bite of my bacon sandwich. the "cheetos" turned out to be carrot sticks he had shoved in the bag to give it some weight. haha....

anyways, all that to say, something really funny happened at lunch today. four of the boys - juniors and sophomores - who are notorious for every day trying to weasel food came over to the table together. our table is at the very end of the pavilion, at the end of a row of tables. they examined the food for awhile, then one of them declared, "PLACES, EVERYONE!" each boy immediately ran to one corner of our table. and before i knew what was going on, one of them yelled, "LIFT!" and they PICKED UP our picnic table - with four people and all our dishes of food - and carried us to the grass!! then a couple minutes later, they decided they should put the table back where they found it from. so back we went. all without spilling a thing!

and the hilarity of that situation totally made my day.

the end.

i just learned la bamba with the spanish class that i don't even teach.
guess what's gonna be stuck in my head all week now....

today marks the beginning of 4 consecutive weeks of school with no breaks (except weekends, of course). that's the longest we go in a year with no holiday. but the light at the end of the tunnel is.... FALL BREAK! 10 days of no school! i love my job, but i love my holidays more. :) i think our schedules get acclimated to having frequent holidays. and when we don't have one for so long, everyone gets antsy and on edge about halfway through. no fun.

i think i'm gonna stay in salatiga for more years. God says, "what i have for you is here. and it is good."

and it IS good.

it’s overrrrrr

well, the fasting month has officially come to an end as of friday or saturday, depending on which calendar you follow. for most of indonesia, idul fitri was on friday. the whole holiday surrounding the end of fasting month is known is lebaran. this is a time for everyone, muslim or not, to travel to their hometown and ask forgiveness of family and friends. this is also a time when a simple 10 minute drive across town takes 45 minutes. because EVERYONE – literally – is on the road to somewhere. the only quiet place on the island is jakarta – because everyone has gone to their hometown. the capital city of the most densely populated island in the world turns into a ghost town this week.

as usual, i took advantage of the communal idul fitri morning prayer and turned it into a photo op. unfortunately, i couldn’t remember what time prayers started, so i woke up at 4:45 and walked to the soccer field in the center of town, pancasila. even more unfortunately, prayers didn’t actually start until 6:30. uughhhh. oh well, got some good praying time in myself before everyone else of the predominant religion got there.

here are some pictures of the morning.

(prayer fence for the women. they must be behind the men.)

(carrying his family’s prayer rug)

(filling up the street around the pancasila)

rencanas

pakd: do you still have holiday on monday?
me: yeah. no school.
pakd: good.
me: why?
pakd: i have plan to take you to magelang.
me: oh?
pakd: yeah.
me: ok.

guess we're taking a bike trip through the mountains to magelang tomorrow? not sure what we'll see there or what we'll do there, but i've been told to bring my camera and a jacket. i can't really decide if i like having plans made for me or not. for now, i'm excited to see what there is to see. i've passed through magelang several times, but i've never actually stopped to do anything there.

weekend webcam photoshoot with boy cat

he bit me!

that's really all you have to say?

i wore my hair in a braid today.
and one of my tenth graders asked me:
"how long did it take you to condense your hair like that?"

holy monday, batman.

1. i got asked this weekend to teach english at a buddhist monestary/school. it's a maybe at this point.

2. back when i was planning to move to sumatra (i'm waffling now), i was considering taking the time to get my TESOL (teachers of english to speakers of other languages - one of the most ridiculous "official" acronyms i've ever heard) certification, because teaching english is one of the biggest areas of ministry there. and frankly, i really stink at it. ya, i'm a native speaker... but really, try explaining how english grammar works to someone who operates under a COMPLETELY different system. i mean, why CAN'T you say "i have so many homeworks today"? btw, i do say that now after living here for 2 years. "gee, i have so many homeworks to grade today." maybe i shouldn't be allowed to teach english... but anyways, i kept forgetting to look into getting my certification online. i wasn't even sure if that was possible. however, in light of number 1 in this list, i finally checked it out. because even if i stay here for another year or longer, i am asked to teach english frequently. that ministry is NOT limited to sumatra. twice a year we go to teach in madura. indonesian friends ask me to tutor them or practice with them all the time. i've been asked to speak in so many schools and even churches. i even got asked to address a group of english teachers once. anyways, the bottom line is, i CAN get my certification online. it takes 12 months. and since i am a resident of a UN listed "impoverished country", i can get it for $400 instead of $1000. hmmmm.... definitely thinking about it now.

3. the minister of education came out with the most ridiculous law today. previously, foreign students have had to obtain a letter of permission to study in indonesia, but effectively immediately, ALL students of any nationality must obtain a NEW letter of permission to study at an international school. to obtain said letter, each student must fill out an online application which is incredibly buried within the ministry's website (100% in indonesian) and supply the following documents: student’s passport, student’s latest report card/transcript, statement letter explaining that the student is not and will not work during his study period in indonesia, sponsorship letter from the parents, attendance letter from the school in indonesia, and parents’ passports. and there is still some confusion regarding whether the necessary documents can be scanned and emailed or if they have to be delivered in person to jakarta (a 12 hour drive away). uuggghhh.

4. i played some intense badminton last night and i am really sore today. i never thought i would ever, ever say "intense" together with "badminton" in my life, much less with an "i played" in front of it. btw, don't ever play badminton with anybody named aswan. your sitting down skills will be impeded the next day.

5. i had lunch with the commander of the air force for the province of jogjakarta on accident on saturday. i was with 5 indonesian friends and i fell asleep in the car and when i woke up, we were at his house. i didn't figure out who he was for like 2 hours. nice guy. took us all out to his favorite restaurant. babi panggang - roasted pork. i've NEVER eaten that on java before! only on sumatra. soooo good. btw, this indicates that he's a christian, which is also awesome. not many people here are, much less people that high up in govermnent.

6. it finally clicked why money is so much tighter now than when i first came. first of all, my quality of life has increased now that i know how to operate here. i went from having a helper who could only cook fried chicken and rice twice a week to a helper who cooks the most amazing food every day. i now have wireless internet and satellite television in my home (though the tv is going away soon). i have friends in different cities - or on different islands - who i go to visit. i have a motorbike which requires fuel and upkeep. i have a nicer/better phone now. and while my quality of living has steadily increased, the dollar has progressively weakened. and since we are paid in dollars, that has really hurt how much money i am actually making. when i first came, the exchange rage was somewhere around rp12,000 = $1. so my $500/month paycheck ended up being about 6 million rupiah. for the past several weeks, the exchange rate has hovered right around rp8,900 = $1. so now, my monthly paycheck is a little less than 4.5 million rupiah. that's a 1.5 million rupiah difference. every month. it costs me 100,000 rupiah to eat for an entire week. 1.5 million rupiah is 15 weeks worth of food. that's a HUGE difference. and in a year, i'm making, on average, 18 million less. that's more than my BRAND NEW motorbike cost. that's enough to feed me for MORE THAN 3 YEARS!! but technically, i'm still making the exact same amount of money - $500/month. this was an exercise in sad realizations.