Promises

In my last post, I promised to try to post some pictures soon. And since today is a B day and my only class is AP Calculus and they will be taking a test which I already wrote, photocopied, and made an answer key for, I find myself with some rare extra time on my hands! But I realized that now that I have a tablet AND a smartphone (my Blackberry was breaking down rapidly, so I bought a cheap-ish Samsung phone) with decent cameras, I hardly ever use my actual camera! So I transferred all the pictures from my tablet and phone to my laptop, and narrowed down the 400 or so pictures from the past few months to my top few. And by few, I mean like 50. Because sometimes it’s just so hard to choose. So here are some less-than-real-camera-quality pictures, many of which are courtesy of my Instagram account.

1. My morning commute is at least 10 times better than yours.

2. Random things I find in my wallet…

3. I actually made and put up some decorations in my stupid apartment! It only took me 5 years. Now I should paint the walls some color other than white…

4. I found a new favorite food. And then I learned how to cook it. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you mpek-mpek. Say that five times fast!

5. I went to to south coast beach one day. And it rained and drizzled the whole time. But I took some cool pictures of the waves!

6. Pak Kur retired and Liz graduated. Two very important events for two very important people in my life! I’m thankful I got to be there for both of them!

7. And speaking of Pak Kur, here are some recent happenings around his place.

a. The day we won a chicken at church. We already ate it by now. Pak Kur made me hold it until church was over. I made it fall asleep. And it didn’t poop a single time! I’ve still got the magic.

b. Pak Kur’s mom was very sick for about three weeks, and I went to visit her several times. The family kept saying we were “waiting” for her. Around her, we said we were waiting for her to get better, but we all knew there would be no getting better. The sweet lady - who always shuffled around the house in a bra and sarong, who never stopped smiling, who always wanted to chatter away with me in Javanese (even though I never understood her toothless jabber), who always got up to greet me when I came - was so overcome by pain that even though she was conscious, she could no longer even recognize that I was there.

By the time she took her last breath, she was no longer conscious and was being fed through a tube by the family. I mentioned before that this was one of the easiest funerals I have ever been to. And this is why.

She died on a beautiful day. I drove through the forest to the village, and I stopped to take this picture, because the moon was rising over the trees and it looked so much like fall, which I have decided is the season I miss the most.

The funeral and wake lasted three days. Each night, they would pass around trays of plates full of snacks like peanuts and cassava chips and little cakes made from coconut and palm sugar. And um… tobacco?

Each night there was a short sermon, and each night, all the old people fell asleep. Does anyone else see the irony in sleeping at a wake?

But as soon as the sermon was over, they would wake right back up and open up their bag of leaves and narcotic nuts which they would excitedly share with each other. Someone told me it helps keep their teeth strong. I was thinking it seems a little late for that…

c. Pak Kur knows that I have a new neighbor, and each night of the funeral/wake, he asked me why I didn’t invite her to come with me. He really just didn’t seem to understand that a funeral is not really an ideal situation in which to get to know someone new. So about a week after the funeral, I invited Kim, my neighbor, to go visit the village. It was so fun to see her excitedly exploring the rice fields, and she kept exclaiming what a cute little village it was! It made my heart happy to know that she too shares my love for village life. I took these pictures while we explored.

That last picture is of the spring fed village bath, built in 1953. To this day, it is still used as a public bath. I myself have bathed there more than once after a long day of working in the rice fields! (I’m hoping that last comment will make me sound super Indonesian.)

d. One last picture on the topic of Pak Kur. They really wanted a family picture, but they couldn’t find a time to get the entire family together to take one. It’s quite a big extended family as Pak Kur is the youngest of 8 kids. So instead of taking one large family portrait, they asked each family group to send a picture of their immediate family and they photoshopped them all together. When Pak Kur showed me the picture, I was surprised to find myself in it! You can hardly tell it’s been edited…

8. I modeled again for my photographer friend. This time it was wedding dresses. A girl named Erika modeled traditional Indonesian wedding wear, while I got the Western dresses. The lady in the middle designed and made all the dresses we wore, AND she did all our makeup and hair. I had a lot of fun with those ladies! I have a new appreciation for models now - 7 hours in a corset and heels is NOT easy. It was a fun experience – I met new people and I learned a lot. But I think it safe to say that I have now retired from modeling.

Oh, but my picture made its way into the local newspaper! I wasn’t expecting that… Half page, baby!

9. Our school retreat this year was at a place up the mountain. I took no pictures of actual students, just of the scenery. Typical…

10. First day of school photo collage.

And first day of school picture of all the seniors with all of the kindergartners.

11. Speaking of seniors, here is a previously unreleased behind-the-scenes photo of the Harlem Shake dance video I made with last year’s seniors that they “accidentally” played in the middle of their graduation ceremony! Gosh, I miss these guys…

12. Melanie came to visit me and brought me loot.

And because of the year’s supply of allergy medicine she brought me, I can now be friendly with cats!

13. Speaking of cats…

 

Nobody cut the grass all summer long. It got a little out of control. This cat is standing.

14. I still don’t understand why Google maps thinks that South Sumatra is on Kalimantan.

15. I also don’t understand why people give this man money. His scary devil monkey put on a hollowed out doll’s head and danced in the street. It was sick and I hate monkeys and I hid from him when he came to ask for my coins.

16. Found this guy at school. I named him Clark Gable.

17. Here are some other friends I’ve found at school recently.

That last one is one of my students earlier this week asking me NOT to take a picture of his noodle beard. Naturally, I took it anyways.

18. And here are some non-friends that I found at home. ANTS. IN MY DESK.

Basically, here is what happened. I was typing on my computer (actually, I was probably watching a movie) one night when I noticed a few ants walking along. I got distracted by the ants, as I often do, and I followed them, which I also often do. I followed them to my desk. Then they went IN my desk. So I opened the door that they went into. And I started pulling things out of that desk cupboard thingie. And I just kept finding more and more ants. And then eggs. And then more eggs. And then more ants. They basically had built an entire empire back among my empty, unused CD and DVD cases. So then I got grossed out and I made a grossed out face and took a picture of my grossed out face. Then I got a can of bug poison and I sprayed that cupboard full of it and slammed the door shut. Some ants crawled out under the door and writhed around on the floor and died. I sprayed them some more. Just to make sure. Then I went to bed. So I had a big mess to clean up the next morning. It looked like this:

SICK.

19. I found a Korean restaurant IN MY TOWN. Bibimbap. Yes, please.

20. Soccer season also gets a yes, please. I love sitting in the grass in the shade watching my kids play soccer in the afternoons.

21. A massive cockroach. In my bed. This one gets a big NOGETOUTOFMYHOUSENOW.

22. I’ve mostly been hanging out with my Indonesian friends lately. One group in particular calls themselves Tim AA (Team Apa Adanya – which basically means Team Whatever-Comes-Our-Way). They’re really into riddles and games and competitions lately. So they had me make a spelling bee for them. An English spelling bee. Losers got their noses taped to their foreheads. I’m so glad I was the judge.

Remember this kid? He’s getting so big! He totally stole my spelling bee hipster glasses… But it’s OK, they looked better on him anyways.

Tim AA has 2 child members. The one above, and the one below. I’ve been teaching guitar to the one below, and he is blowing my mind with his smartness. In one hour I taught him how to read chord charts, sheet music, and guitar tabs. And by the end of one hour, he could do all three with no problem. This is especially amazing because I handwrote all the music I taught him how to read, and so it was not exactly top quality stuff. This is also a picture of my new guitar!

23. I’m tired of making separate headings for everything, so here are the rest of the pictures I have to show you.

I’m super into granola lately. Like granola pieces or granola bars. And I can now successfully make both. It is SO easy! I even made my own recipe for it! I don’t want to brag or anything, but it is basically the best granola…

School bought me a new stove/oven! One that actually lights!!

A lovely student gifted me some books yesterday. I’m pretty excited about that too!

This illustrates the difference between the 5th and 6th years of teaching for me. I was recycling a Donald Miller quote that I used in Geometry last year, and I realized that it should look more exciting. So I used my magical editing skills (which is a lie. I used MS Word and a Google image search) to spice things up. Because I actually care about that this year. Not that I have time to. But I still do.

The river behind my house. This is the first time I’ve ever actually taken a picture of it. Up for a swim, anyone?

Gifts from friends who went to America. I made this my dinner one night – peppered beef jerky, Tillamook cheddar, and actual FRESH cherries! How did those even get through customs??

I’m glad to see everyone is having so much fun learning Geometry this year!!

I am mildly obsessed with Asian stationary. Letting me loose in an office supply store in America is a bad idea. Here, it is just plain dangerous. I spend so much money on stuff I don’t need. But I ALWAYS find a use for it! Because it is too cute to not use!

I came home from work on a day that I worked 14 hours and changed clothes. 45 minutes later I saw myself in the mirror. Oops.

And last but not least, one of the driving schools in town has now come out with a fleet of these. What a clever marketing strategy.

OK. The end of picture time this time around! Until next time…

Wow. This Week.

Something weird happened to time this week. Monday felt 3 days long. Then Tuesday through Friday seemed like two blinks.

Let me explain my last post about A days.

When our school switched to block scheduling last year, we created two different "days". We have A days and we have B days. Each day looks like this.

7:45 - 7:52 - Homeroom
7:55 - 9:30 - Class 1
9:40 - 11:15 - Class 2
11:25 - 12:15 - Instructor Access
12:15 - 12:50 - Lunch
12:55 - 2:30 - Class 3

So each day, students have three double period classes. Three of them are on A day, and the other three on B day. Each class meets every other day then. Instructor access is basically a glorified study hall. Some students have mandatory activities during that time such as AP exam prep, teacher aide work, language study, online classes, etc. Those who don't are assigned to a study hall. A very laid back study hall. Basically, teachers are supposed to be in their classrooms and available during that 50 minute chunk of time, because the idea is then that students can go to any teacher that they need help from.

So the A and B days alternate. But the homeroom stays the same all week, and the instructor access is different based on the day of the week, not the A/B schedule. Here is what mine looks like.

Monday - AP Calculus exam prep class
Tuesday - My teacher aide comes in to grade and slave away
Wednesday - I have a study hall in my room
Thursday - Secondary school chapel
Friday - Study hall again + my teacher aide

Last year, it worked out that I taught two classes each day and had one class off for prep work. The way it goes this year is that I teach all three classes on A days and only Class 1 on B days. A little unbalanced. And if an A day falls on a Monday or Thursday, I literally have no break all day. Here's how a Monday A day looks for me.

Homeroom - Make sure that all 20 tenth graders are in dress code and are listening to the morning announcements coming in over the PA system. Don't forget to submit attendance to the office on the computer (this is new this year - we used to have to phone it in to the main office).

3 minute break which is basically not a break at all because none of the 10th graders leave my room.

Class 1 - 10th grade geometry. Our books our online, so we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get everyone on the internet (for some reason only about half their laptops will connect at once) and the books loaded. Then I race through two lessons (on average, since I have to double up or we'll only cover half the book...) while trying to still make it interesting and interactive and give them enough breaks to not fry their brains while all the while making sure that nobody is on Facebook, Skype, Instagram, or playing games online.

10 minute break in which I quick switch gears, make sure everyone has gathered all their accoutrements (read: laptop cords, compasses, and graded assignments) and has gotten out of my room safely.

Class 2 - 11th grade Pre-Calculus. I like this class. I have always like teaching this class. I think this class will be a breeze. Now that the four kids that I'm pretty sure have never had Algebra have switched to a different math class... (Note - I liked the kids who were struggling. And I will genuinely miss them. It is just stressful to be explaining synthetic division with quartic polynomials to 17 kids when 4 of them keep raising their hands to ask questions like, "What is a constant?" or "Can we review division? I forget.") This is the fourth year I've taught this class with the same curriculum, and I know what works and what doesn't. I'm re-vamping some stuff this year, but overall, I think this will be my easiest class, just because I know it so well.

10 minute break in which I generally realize that I have prepared nothing for AP Calc exam prep and I frantically try to find a worksheet and often end up just giving them time to work on their homework together.

Instructor Access - Pretty sure I just summed it up above. Now that I've taught an AP class once, I'm trying to use this prep time more efficiently, which means less study hall time and more actual exam prep. But it takes a lot more work and planning. And I've never taken an AP exam before or had any kind of AP training. So this is tough. I'm relying a lot on materials left by previous teachers.

Lunch - I eat lunch with the students every single day. Our dorms set their food out buffet style, so I basically monitor the boys dorm food to make sure that no one boy is taking way more than he should and also that non-dorm students aren't just helping themselves to the food. This is actually a pretty difficult job. There may or may not be enough food for me to eat as well. On A days, I often bring grading to lunch to work on since I really have no other time during the day to grade anything at all. I also have to make sure that students are throwing away their trash and cleaning up their messes. In a school full of kids raised by pembantus, this is HARD. They are so used to being cleaned up after that they have very little motivation to be responsible for cleaning up after themselves.

Class 3 - 9th grade geometry. I have the benefit of teaching the same material first period every day, so I have it a bit more streamlined by the time I get to the 9th graders. The only problem is that the 10th graders have ALL had Algebra 2 because they are a class of geniuses whereas almost exactly half of the 9th graders pulled Ds and Fs in Algebra 1 last year. And that half would be basically all of the boys. I gave them their first Geometry test last week. The girls averaged a 91. The boys? 61. So now every boy has a female partner that they have to sit with every single day. I give them 10 minutes to go over homework together while firing up laptops (this also gives me 10 more minutes to grade), then we start the lesson. The girls help the boys. I have some budding teachers/mothers/wives in this class. They are all doing such a great job helping the boys. I thought it would be all awkward and weird, but they have really exceeded ALL of my expectations. And the boys are LETTING THEM. And the boys are GETTING IT. It has been great.

Once school is over, I usually stay 2 - 3 hours late trying to get some grading done. Then I haul AP Calc books home so I can sit on my butt on my own couch at home and study for the next days lesson.

My B days look like this.

Homeroom - Same as above.

Class 1 - AP Calculus. It is a lot easier the second time around. Stuff actually makes sense this year!

The rest of the day - Grade like a mad-woman, type up tests and quizzes and worksheets, screenshot and print pages of the geometry book for the next day's lesson (bc the online book is protected and cannot be downloaded, saved, or printed and this is the only way I can think of to be able to teach from the front of the room as opposed to teaching from my computer which is in the back of the room), re-arrange desks (because they always migrate to places where I don't want them), enter grades on the computer, meet with people I need to meet with, prep as much as possible for the next two days, get stuff around for my TA to work on, etc.

GAH! This year seems craaaaaaazy. I feel like I'm a first year teacher all over again. I haven't brought work home with me for YEARS. This is nuts. I don't think an A day has gone by yet that I haven't brought a thermos of coffee to school with me. And then sighed disappointedly when I drank the last drop.

We have no holidays for all of September  (which is really weird given that we have like 3047 days off a year), so right now, I'm just holding out for fall break in October. If I can make it that long, the worst will be over. There is no holiday-less stretch that long for the rest of the school year.

Prayers are definitely appreciated. Mostly for my sanity. And my ability to love well. I sometimes turn into a cranky mess when I am stressed out and tired, and then I am disappointed in myself, and then I just get more cranky and tired. I've already been dealing with some really tough situations with students this year. I caught one student cheating. They put so much pressure on themselves to do well. I'm also having a lot of really tough conflict with another student. This has led to me spending literally hours in my principal and superintendent's offices the past 2 weeks. Which, naturally, has not helped my workload. I'm also trying to help one of the new teachers as much as possible, which I honestly feel like has not been much. Good thing she's an independent girl!

I think I'm going to make it my goal to post more pictures. I haven't posted any for awhile. I really haven't TAKEN any for awhile. I'll try and change that this month. But please have mercy on me if I don't get to it until fall break! :)

A Days

I just peed for the first time since waking up. It's 4:30 pm. Mondays that are A days are the worst. Now I'm drinking a box of coconut water in an attempt to not die of dehydration before heading back to school for parent night.

Wanna know a secret? I'm scared of parents.

To Protect the Guilty

I have this student. Let's call him Joe, just for fun. I do actually have a student named Joe, but this story is not about him. Anyways, Joe REALLY likes to sleep during class. I, obviously, do not approve of this, but at one point it was so chronic of a thing that it was a lot more satisfying to prank him while he was asleep than to constantly be saying things like, "Joe, sit up" or "Joe, get your forehead off your desk" or "Joe, time to stand up for a stretch" or "Joe, please try to pay attention to what you are supposed to be doing right now" over and over and over and over and over...

I drew all over his face with a whiteboard marker once.

I gave paperclips to all his classmates and had them drop them one by one down the back of his pants to see how long it would take him to wake up. When he finally woke up, he didn't even realize there were paperclips in his pants until he stood up to leave class and screamed like a woman because he thought millions of bugs were running down his legs.

I slammed a math textbook down on his desk once. He and half the class almost had a heart attack.

So yes. Joe likes to sleep. Kind of a lot. He's just one of those kids who never seems quite fully awake, no matter what hour of the day it is.

This year I have Joe as a senior for AP Calculus. I had one of my happiest moments as a teacher yesterday when, after having the class work out some example problems, Joe declared loudly, "I REALLY like this. I don't know what it is about this. It's really hard, but it's so fun. I mean it's so fun that if you offered to let me go back to bed right now, I'd rather do THIS."

Ladies and gentlemen, proof that miracles DO happen.

Guys, Guess What?

I have gone over a MONTH without writing a blog post! That is a record. Lots of big things have happened in the last month, so let me just give you a quick (or maybe not-so-quick) rundown of the main events.

1. Ramadan and Idul Fitri all happened. If you remember from past blog posts, Ramadan is the fasting month, and Idul Fitri is the HUGE celebration that happens at the end of the fasting. I actually fasted two (non-consecutive) days this year, which meant waking up in the threes to eat breakfast way before first light, and then no food or drink (no water in this heat is DIFFICULT) until 5:42 PM when what sounds like air raid sirens go off all over town alerting us that we can now eat and drink. As if we didn't have both eyes glued to the clock in anticipation already...

Some of my church friends who knew I was fasting (because one of the days I fasted was a Sunday) joked that I must be converting. That is definitely not the case. I am thankful for Jesus who is full of mercy and grace and doesn't bless me just because I fast for an entire month. But as my white friends have moved away one by one, I find myself these days spending large amounts of my time (AKA all summer long) with Indonesians. And yeah, a lot of my Indonesian friends are Muslim. And if I'm spending time with them, especially if I'm in their home, I think it shows a lot of sensitivity and respect to NOT be scarving down three meals a day in front of them. It's not something they ever asked of me. It's something I wanted to do. And while I really have no desire to do the full month-long fast, I think it was a really good experience for me to do it for those two days!

2. There's not really a way to ease you into this next one, so I'll just come out and say it. Aswan and I broke up at the end of July. It's not really information that I like volunteering publicly, but for lots of people back home, this is probably the only way you'll know, and I DO want you to be able to keep up with what is going on in my life. We've been wrestling with some pretty heavy issues for the majority of the past year and our relationship had cooled off a lot - so much so, in fact, that none of our friends could even tell that we had broken up until we told them! In fact, I honestly don't feel like a lot has changed in our relationship except that we don't go on dates anymore. We are both involved in a lot of the same things, we go to the same church, and we have a lot of the same friends, so I see him just about every day still, and we've been able to transition almost seamlessly into a friendship, which I am SO thankful for.

3. School started, and I am now in my SIXTH year of teaching. As far as seniority goes, I have been here the third longest of any foreign teacher at our school, and I have been here for longer than ALL of the administration COMBINED. This is the very first year that I've actually been able to feel the age gap between me and my students, and I am finally beginning to ask myself, "Am I (gasp) OLD?" I'm teaching three of the same classes of students that I've taught in years past, but I also have one entirely new class, and boy, are they going to be a handful. My principal also decided roughly 8 days before school started to entirely change our math curriculum. That didn't leave a whole lot of time. So yeah... we just got our new material yesterday. School started three weeks ago. Um... good thing I am awesome at making stuff up and sounding convincing. I mean, I wasn't like "inventing" random math facts. More like I was just doing everything COMPLETELY from scratch with no curriculum. Thank goodness for experience. That makes it a whole lot easier. And this year is going to be a whole NEW experience as the new material we opted to buy is completely online, which means that students will be using technology (in the form of e-readers, ipads, tablets, and smartphones) in the classroom all day, every day. My principal has way more faith in a 9th grader's ability to use his iPhone for school purposes only than I do. Mostly because I know that if it were me, I would totally be playing Candy Crush the whole time.

4. Melanie came for a visit. And then left again. But that was pretty cool. So shoutout to Melanie.

5. MY MOM GOT FACEBOOK! WUTT? (Sorry mom, I couldn't resist.)

6. My Indonesian grandmother, Pak Kur's mom, died last week. If you are a faithful reader of my blog, you KNOW how I feel about death in Indonesia. This time was different. Maybe because I knew her. Maybe because I knew how much pain she was in before she died. Maybe because I am so close to the family. Maybe because I knew she was ready. Maybe it's because I know she is with Jesus. Maybe because when I looked down at her in her coffin, she looked healthier and happier than she had for weeks.

Because I am considered part of the family, I had to be there for all three days of the funeral. The day she died was basically just the visitation. They had her laid out in the house and everyone came to pay their respects and eat a meal. The second day was the burial. That evening and then on into the evening of the third day was the wake. I gotta say, it was almost a comedic funeral. At one point, a chicken had to be forcibly removed. They didn't dig the hole big enough for the coffin, so they stuck it down in as far as it would go, then three men jumped up and down on top of it until it finally went all the way down in with a loud BANG. Someone's herd of goats ran screaming through the graveyard while the pastor was doing the whole "ashes to ashes" speech. A woman passed out. They served plates of tobacco leaves and rolling paper at the wake. And I totally saw one old woman pull out a narcotic nut and start sucking on it during the sermon. That was AFTER she finally woke up.

OK, I think that's about the long and the short of it. Sorry it's been so long, but as you can see, there has been a TON going on. And sometimes I just need to process things before I can talk about them. So I hope you will forgive me for my hiatus, and I promise to write more soon! In fact, I'm about to write another post NOW!