Happy Independence Day, Indonesia

Hello everyone, and happy 17 August! It's Independence Day here in Indonesia, and it's raining pretty hard. Not much has happened here in a while, though I did give a speech on learning English effectively yesterday at an open house for the school. It was a great speech, but I was nervous as hell. Anyways, here are some older pictures for you all.



Here I am at the beach in Pelabuhan Ratu, early March.


Chrys and I with Sarah and Connor, her niece and nephew, at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg.


At the Museum of Natural History in Winnipeg. An old snowmobile for exploring.


I just thought the picture was funny.


BUFFALO!!! RUN!!!


Chrys on the Greyhound bus, on the way to Boston from Winnipeg. We're waiting at the crossing for the train, which took forever, and we had to cross paths several times. This is the same area where a few weeks ago, some guy decapitated another passenger for no reason.


Ok, so that's about it for now. Hope everyone is doing ok, and thanks for reading!

Random pictures

A few random pictures from our trip to Singapore about a month and a half ago.


This guy is so cool.


Here is what you see when you arrive in Batam. A mall.


At the Jurong Bird Park


I am terrified of these birds, their little claws on your hands and their dry tongues licking up juice from a cup.


I think this was on the edge of Little India, it's a Hindu temple, I think.



I think that Singapore is a bit like a really big city in some places; it's like downtown Boston on Orchard Road, and there's a seedy area in Chinatown, and Little India has a lot of neat shopping. It's weird that for such a small country (270 square miles), there's so much diversity, and so much to see!

Here's a big cruise ship in the Singapore ferry terminal.



I was really excited that Singapore now has a Taco Bell. I've never seen a 3-in-1 KFC-Pizza Hut-Taco Bell.


Chrys and I in front of the school in Batam



All of the teachers at our school. From left: Nelly, Anthony, Chrys, Me, Roger, and Berlian.



I'll put up more when I get 'em! More coming soon.

Big news!

Hello everyone! No pictures today, but I do have exciting news. Chrys and I have been officially promoted! I am now the Director of Studies at REAL Batam, and she is the Assistant Director. We are overwhelmed with work now, and working 55+ hours a week. Tomorrow we get a little break though, as we will be in Singapore for the day. We're going shopping at IKEA and Borders Books, and looking for a guitar.

Things weren't great when we got here, and staff morale was very low. But we have gotten rid of a few problems, and though everyone's working more now, we all can focus on our work and enjoy ourselves.

If we take any interesting pictures, we'll have them posted up this weekend.

Later!

Last weekend, Chrys and I went to the beach on the last island, Galang, connected by bridges to Batam. It was pretty cool, and we stopped by a Buddhist temple and a Vietnamese Refugee camp from the 70's.



Not much to see here, folks



Good sandcastle sand



Yoshi got a new bandanna


So, that's all for now. Bye!

New update - From Batam, Indonesia

Hello everyone! I'm back in Indonesia, on the island of Batam, just a short ferry ride away from Singapore. Chrys and I have been here for about 6 weeks already, and we are settling in fine. We have a really nice house, and a cute little Pomeranian named Yoshi. He's 4 months old, and quite a handful.



We have been really busy recently with painting the house, and keeping monkeys out of our garbage, so we had to hire a maid to take care of laundry and housework.



I work a lot now, and it's not easy. I only really have time off on Saturday nights and Sundays, and the school I work at just lost a teacher, so it's not getting easier. But there are a lot of exciting things coming up, and a lot of new contracts in the pipeline. A local radio station has contracted us to do a weekly call-in show to answer questions about English and grammar, so that's really cool. Well, new weeks starts tomorrow, so I gotta get to bed. Good night!

24 April, 2008

Hello, been about 2 months since my last post, but I just kinda run out of things to talk about, you know? In 1 week I'll be on a plane heading back towards the States. Depok's been fine, you know, but I'm ready for a change. And around June 1st, I'll be back in Indo, this time in Batam, an island a short ferry ride away from Singapore. I had the opportunity to go there for a weekend and check out the area, and I think I'll be happy there for the next year; we'll see. I took some pics of the beach area there.