Things

On my walk to school this morning, I ran into a member of our national staff, also walking to school. We had the following conversation, all in Indonesian except for the parts in quotes, which we used English for.

Him: Hey, do you speak English?
Me: No, why?
Him: Well, try this one - what is English for pom bensin?
Me: "Gas station". Why?
Him: Wrong.
Me: Wrong??
Him: Think about it. What does it say in big letters on the wall of every gas station?
Me: "No smoking".
Him: Right. So the English name for pom bensin must be "no smoking".
Me: Uhhhh....
Him: Try another one. What is the English word for keset?
Me: Ummm... keset.... keset.... I'm not sure.
Him: Do you know what keset is?
Me: I forget...
Him: It's what you wipe your feet on outside the door before you go in.
Me: Oh! "Rug!"
Him: Wrong.
Me: WHAT?!
Him: It's called "welcome". That's what it says. You're right, you really are terrible at English. You should go home to America more often.

Bahaha.... I didn't even realize until the very end that he was teasing me the whole time. I'm not exactly the sharpest tack in the drawer first thing in the morning.

In other news, I'll be in KOREA next week! That's right. An all expenses paid school trip to Korea for a three day conference. I'm looking forward to it and dreading it all at once. I mean... it's Korea. And it's not often that I get to travel and stay in a nice hotel for free! But I have a terrible attention span, and I am not looking forward to sitting through seminars from 8 AM until 8:30 PM every day.

Rainy season has started here, and it has been in like a lion. But as much as I hate it, I am looking forward even less to WINTER in Korea! I haven't felt winter since 2007, and I managed to miss almost half of that one! I don't care that I'm only going to be there for four days - I am taking a big suitcase and filling it with all the shoes, socks, and jackets I own. Hopefully I won't freeze to death. Dumb northern hemisphere....

Power is slated to be off from 9 until 4 today. That is awesome for teaching in the tropics... I just keep reminding myself that teachers in remote areas STILL do it without electricity. Every day. So I can suck it up every once in awhile.

That being said though, I need to make sure my laptop is charged and go make all the copies I need for today and tomorrow! So bye! :)