Rain

So it's been raining a lot lately. Like a LOT. Like I didn't see the sun at ALL from Friday of last week until Thursday of this week. And while the sun finally did show its face on Thursday morning, it was gone by the time I finished teaching my first class.

This is the glorious time of year when everything molds. My shoes. My clothes. The teflon in my pots and pans. This year, the mold has upped its game though. For the first time ever, my SKIN is now molding. That is right. I have some sort of fungus growing on my arms. Don't worry, I'm taking something for that and wearing long sleeves in the meantime (thankfully with the heavy rains comes the cooler air, so wearing long sleeves in the tropics isn't as unthinkable as you might think).

One nice thing about the rain is that most Indonesians avoid it. This means that during a heavy rain is a great time to go to the bank, the grocery store, the yoga studio, etc. BECAUSE THOSE PLACES ARE EMPTY! When you live on one of the most crowded islands on the planet, it is a LUXURY to not have to wait in line to pay for your groceries. I mean, it comes at the high, high price of your skin literally molding. But STILL. #worthit

At my yoga class last week, only one other person showed up. Usually the room is so jam packed with sweaty women that it's difficult to catch your breath. Being one of only three people in the entire room (2 students + 1 instructor) was divine.

At yesterday's yoga class, only 4 students showed up. The instructor waited to see if anyone else would come, and the lady next to me decided to strike up a conversation. It went like this:

Her: How much do you weigh?
Me: Oh, um... about 58 kilos.
Her: REALLY? That is much heavier than I thought.
Me: Oh?
Her: It must be because you're so tall. How tall are you?
Me: 170.
Her: Yes, yes... Very tall.
Me: Yes.
Her: But you have such a nice figure. What do you eat?
Me: Food?
Her: But I mean do you just diet all the time?
Me: Oh, no. I never diet. I just try to eat healthy foods and not too much rice.
Her: But what do you eat instead of rice? Potatoes? White people like potatoes.
Me: I don't think I eat too many potatoes. At home, I just switched out white rice for red rice. It's healthier for you. And if I eat out, I just order half a portion of rice instead of eating a full portion.
Her: Oooooooh. Yes. I'm going to start doing that. Half portions. Much better. But what about snacks? Do you eat a lot of snacks, dear?
Me: No, not really... Most snacks here are fried, and they upset my stomach. Sometimes I have a fruit for a snack.
Her: FRUIT! No wonder your arms aren't flabby!
Me: Um... thanks?
Her: Now what do you drink?
Me: Water mostly.
Her: What about milk?
Me: Not too much.
Her: I see..

And then we had to do some supta baddha konasana. But the whole time, I just kept thinking how funny it was that I was interrogated about my eating habits. And how that would NEVER happen in America. And how I'm glad that my Indonesian is pretty good because those were some weird questions.

OH! Speaking of language, the Indonesian government is now requiring foreigners to take a language exam in order to get a work visa here. So over Christmas break, I went to the nearest big city to take the Uji Kemahiran Berbahasa Indonesia (or Indonesian Proficiency Test - kind of like TOEFL, but for Indonesian). I was nervous about how I would do having never studied the language formally and knowing approximately zero grammar rules. So I did what I do best - I studied. I got myself a language tutor and a book of practice exams, and I worked at it. Because I am not OK with not doing well on something. I read up on the format of the test and on past test scores. I even found an article that reported on the average scores of Indonesian school teachers teaching Indonesian language in schools throughout East Java. Their districts had them all take this test, and their average was an abysmal 55%. Foreigners in the same province scored an average of 67%. So I decided to aim high, and I set a personal goal of 80%.

The test was HARD and took several hours to complete. I walked away from it feeling discouraged, as I realized that the test is essentially set up for failure. It is literally an un-ace-able test. We even had two of our Indonesian staff members take the test with us just so that we could get their perspective on the whole process, and neither of them even finished the test.

Anyways, we just got our certificates and scores this week. One of the Indonesian staff members who took the test got the highest score from our school. But yours truly came in second with a whopping 81%! This is exciting for two reasons - I achieved my personal goal, and I also did better on the test than one of my Indonesian co-workers! It's always exciting when your hard work pays off.

And with that, I am now going to go enjoy the start of my weekend! Happy Friday, everyone!