9/24

9/11

Hey, it's Tuesday, September 11th. Ramahdan starts on the 13th, and I'm a little nervous about it. I don't really know what to expect, but I know that pretty much everyone will be fasting from dawn to dusk. That means no food, no water, no cigarettes, nothing. But a couple of people tell me that it's just a big party during the night.

Ok, so Saturday we had the Spelling Bee at EF. I was the project manager, and oversaw pretty much everything, with loads of help from the office girls. We had 2 written elimination rounds, and pared 70 kids down to 36. Then there were 2 Jeopardy-style buzz-in rounds, and winners were declared. 9 kids got to go to the Regionals, 1 of them being an EF student. It took about 3 1/2 hours, and we were all tired, but it was a good feeling knowing that we did it with no major screw-ups.

After the Spelling Bee, I went with Chrys to Ranch Market in Pondok Indah. It's a good sized grocery store with lots of Western food. Ok, so here's everything I got that I haven't been able to find anywhere else: Campbell's tomato soup, Butterfingers, Pop-Tarts, Chicharrones (fried pork rinds), New England clam chowder, Chili, Old El Paso salsa, Pepperidge Farm cookies, V8, corned beef hash and 2 kinds of SPAM. I saw a bunch of other stuff that I decided could wait till next time, but it's such a relief to get some food that I can readily identify, even if it's mostly junk. I kinda spent more than I wanted to, but I'm happy. In fact, the other night I made tacos! oh man, do I miss taco night back home.

So Sunday, didn't do much, kinda lazed around the house all day. I've been watching a lot of tv, and catching up on all the shows I've missed. I saw the first season of 24, and I'm trying to find the next few. I am currently watching this show called "Lost", and I'm up to episode 8. I don't know if the title refers to the characters or the audience, but I'm as confused as hell. What is the deal with the polar bear?? Anyways, we've got up to season 3 at the house, so I'm trudging through it. Also found all 4 seasons of Family Guy, which is awesome.

Oh, Monday on her way home from work, Meg found a kitten. It is so tiny. We gave it some milk and leftover tacos, since the stores were all closed. We washed it up and it looks pretty healthy, but it's a real squeaker.

Ok, well I gotta get to work, I have a party class at 4, and we're going to the movies. Talk to you later.

--jared

8/28

Hey all, it's Monday evening, and i'm at home, watching movies. I went to Poins Square last night and got a boatload of pirated movies. I saw Superbad, by the same guys that did The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, and I gotta tell you, it was the funniest thing I've seen in a while. I Also saw Delta Farce, with Larry the Cable Guy, which was utter crap. It's a good thing they only cost about $0.75 a movie, or otherwise I'd be really upset that I paid so much for it, along with another crapfest, Hot Rod, Andy Samberg's attempt at a movie.

So last week we had the Independence Day Games, and I was co-emcee. We had a cracker eating competition, spoon and marble race, and a game where a pencil is tied to your waist, and you have to try and get it into a bottle on the ground. It was good fun, and all the kids enjoyed it. On Thursday, I started feeling sick, and by Sunday I was coughing up hunks of something scary. I also lost my sense of smell for the day, which was kind of strange. I could taste salty and sweet and stuff, but no flavors, very weird. I started opening up bottles of mustard and stuff, but nothing, everything smelled like Styrofoam.

So today I went to the hospital, had a checkup, and got a prescription for some pills. I never really get sick, but since I've been here, I dunno. It could be the pollution, or the appalling lack of hygiene everywhere, or both, I dunno. I know I tend to ramble a lot, but I think this is the only creative outlet I get to express myself through.

My classes are going pretty smoothly, but once in a while, you give your students a test and then wonder where you failed as a teacher when you grade them. So Meta is leaving at the end of the week, and Felix won't be back until the middle of next month, which means there will be no Director of Studies for that period. Guess who was picked to fill in until then?! She's been really impressed with me so far, and I am also going to be the project manager for EF's annual Spelling Bee, so I have to plan for that.

So the pills seem to be working, I'm less congested and don't feel like death anymore. I will catch ya later!

Weekend of 8/17

Friday- Indonesia's Independence Day. Chrys and I went to the stables so she could ride her horses. I took some pictures of the animals they had there, a monkey, horses, and some peacocks. I was a little bored, but i got to walk around the complex a bit, and they had ice cream, which was cool. Coming back, we had to walk through the Depok train station, and there were little shops selling t-shirts and shoes and different junk. That night we just stayed in and watched movies.

Saturday, the day of the luncheon. All the teachers went to the American Grille (Sizzler's) in Pondok Indah Mall. I got a steak, but it wasn't that great. The luncheon was for Meta and Sheley, who are leaving in the next 2 weeks. Later that night, Meg, David, Chrys an I went out to Kemang. We had dinner at some little cafe, that went to the club Nu China. I had a very strong White Russian. We made them turn down the air conditioners because they were very cold and blowing right on us. After a night on the town, we came back and played Risk for a few hours before going to bed.

Sunday, I went to the pool. Indonesian women wear extremely modest swimsuits, covering their arms and legs. They look almost like very thin wet suits. Uhm, that's about all i can recall for Sunday, I don't really remember doing anything really exciting that night. I think I watched some Simpsons, Meg got season 5 on DVD at Poins Square.

Monday, long day. I started out at G-Labs, the Global Islamic School. I teach there every 2 weeks for 45 minutes. I don't see how this can possibly have an impact on 6 disinterested 3^rd graders, but oh well. We got there a little late because of macet. “Indonesia banyak macet,” said my ojek driver. Yes, there are a LOT of traffic jams, probably because the roads are poorly designed, there are no traffic signs, and absolutely no one follows any sort of traffic laws. Margonda Raya is a road with 2 lanes going in each direction. I've seen up to 4 lanes of traffic on it at one point, and still, motorcycles drive up o the sidewalk to get around. The worst is when your angkot (small city bus) goes on the sidewalk or the curb to get around. Another strange thing about Margonda is that there is no double yellow line, there's just jersey barriers. So it's very hard to get where you're going. And god help you if you pass by your destination. You have to keep going about a kilometer up the road to find a break, then turn around, go back up, find another break, and come back again. In fact, coming from the south, if you want to turn into EF, you have to actually drive over the border of Jakarta, turn around, and come back into Depok.

Well, that's about it for now. Keep reading, and I'l keep you updated. Bye!

8/13

So, the weekend was pretty uneventful. "The Wrecking Crew" as we are called, Meg Chrys and I, went out Friday night to Amigo's. Damn expensive, but worth it. You can NOT find Mexican food anywhere. We had a pitcher of margarita's ($26) and it wasn't bad, but sorely lacking Triple-sec. After dinner, we went to a wine and liquor store, I got a bottle of Jamaican rum, Chrys got gin, and Meg had already gotten some Bacardi last weekend.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day, Meg and I just hung out around the house, and Chrys went to the stable to do her jumping practice. That night we ordered Italian from Barra Di Caffe, a little Italian place, had some gin tonics and rum 'n cokes. By the way, finding tonic water is almost as hard as finding liquor, I had to go to 3 different hypermakets to find it.

Sunday the 3 of us went to Citos, had dinner at some Portuguese chicken place (a had a steak with some fire-hot hot sauce), and saw the movie "Surf's Up". I have seen signs for the Simpsons Movie everywhere but nobody's playing it yet. Anyways, it was a funny, cute movie about penguins surfing.

So, I'll end with some pictures of the house, since no-one has seen it yet.


kitchen


My bathroom. Jeremy and Megan share the house bathroom.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Meta is quitting, and when Felix returns from Colorado, he's gonna be our new DOS (Director of Studies). Well, that's al for now. Take care!

8/10

8/10

Hey all, I know it's been a while, I've been a bad blogger. Not much has happened over the past few weeks, but I did meet an Iranian and a Tehrani guy on the way back from dinner last night. I had Padang food at the place next door. They bring you about a dozen plates of food and charge you for what you eat. It's pretty cool, and you get to sample a bunch of different stuff. I had rendang, eggs Balado, chicken curry, and some other unidentifiable stuff. It's not cheap tho.

7/30

Ok, so it's weekend recap time.

So Saturday after class, Meg and I went to Citos for lunch and internet. We had lunch at Mother's Cook, a burger place. They always have really good food, and they put onions in the burgers for a little extra zing. The Simpsons Movie is out, but it wasn't playing at Citos yet... Then we went to the Mr. Bean coffee shop, as usual. I called home with Skype, so it was nice to chat with the folks. You have to buy an internet voucher to use the wi-fi, but for Rp. 100,000 (about $11) you get 8 hours.

So at around 7, we get the call from Chrys to go out, we wrap things up and get in the cab. We pick her up at her place, then stop at my place to drop off the computers. Chrys was wearing some new, very high heels, which broke right when she got in the cab. I found a safety pin to hold them together for the night. Then, we had to walk up the hill to get a new cab. Traffic was awful in both directions, and it took us about 15 minutes to get a taxi. After driving about 10 minutes, Meg realizes that she forgot her wallet. Well, we weren't about to turn back, so Chrys said she'd cover her.

The first place we went to was the Autumn Cafe, a wine bar with a band. We got a couple pitchers of beer, the girls had the Autumn salad, and I had the Spaghetti Carbonara. It's wasn't bad, but they use smoked beef here instead of bacon, which makes me sad. On my last bite, I fumbled and sent the contents of my spoon flying everywhere, some landing on Chrys. A few minutes later, she responded with a volley of mesclun, completely by accident, I'm sure. She later sang (or mumbled) karaoke to some song that she didn't know the words to, and of which Meg has some rather embarrassing footage. Around midnite we hopped a cab to Public, a club.

They were playing techno, quite loudly, we had a lot of beer, and some of Chrys and Meg's Indonesian friends stopped by. Worth mentioning are the bathrooms, which are surrounded by mirrors. Can make you self-conscious... So around 3-ish, lights come on, music dies down, and we shtumble out there. Chrys lost her safety pin, so she walked barefoot.

We got to my place at what must have been 4:30am, because morning prayers were blaring over the loudspeakers. For the next 3 hours we sat on the couch and watched That 70's Show on DVD. Meg fell asleep at some point and was snoring rather loudly. Chrys left at around 8am, as she had some horse-riding competition at 10 and a race at 2. Good luck, right??

I went to bed, woke up at about 2pm, er, and then for real at about 3:30, and went to meet Felix at Margo. He was reading some Clive Cussler book in Starbucks. I had some Japanese fast food at the food court.

(Begin rant)

Ok, here's how an Indonesian food court works. There's about 15 or so places to choose from, all lined up on the back wall. You place your food order at the window, and they give you a ticket. If you want a drink, you have to go to one of the drink islands in the middle of the food court. And you get a ticket from them. You take your tickets to the cashier at the other end of the food court and pay. Then you wait for the people to bring you your separate food and drink orders. If you want another drink, you have to go back to the island, get a ticket for the drink you want, bring it to the cashier, pay for it, and bring the ticket back to the island. It is so stupid.

It's the same way for department stores. You cannot take a shirt out of the department and walk around the store with it. When you see a shirt you like, you can try it on in the dressing room, but then you have to give it back to them. If you want to buy it, they give you a ticket and bring your item to the cashier, and you pay for it there.

(End rant)

Ok, so that was pretty much my weekend, and, it seems, every weekend. I haven't gotten bored of it, but it is becoming a financial drain. Well, I gotta get to class, so I'll post again some other time. Thanks for reading!

--jared