Saturday, left Depok at 6 to catch a flight to Sumatra. Got there waaay too early, and sat around playing cards for a few hours till I could get in. Then, the flight was delayed, twice, and I was finally able to board, 2 hours late. A friend picked me up at the airport, and we went to Lily's Cafe for a few beers. Went back much later (2 a.m.) to the same place to watch England kick France's butt in the rugby championships.

Sunday morning I caught the tail end of game 2 Boston vs Cleveland. What a disappointment, the first time in a long while of being able to see the Sox, and they lose it in the 11th inning. Later that afternoon I got a ride with Banzai, and he took me to the Sunday H3 run. It was just up and down this mountain, through some of the muckiest terrain I have ever encountered. I nearly lost my shoe in 2 feet of mud. There were a few children who washed everyone's shoes for about $0.30. So anyways, I got pretty hammered that night.

Monday, took a bus (actually a minivan, about $8) to Prapat. 5 hours in a minivan is not fun, btw, and I got a pretty mean sunburn from leaving it outside the window.

The first 2 nights were at Samosir Cottages, but moved to Hariara for the rest of the vacation.
The first night there was very fun.



As was the second...



I rented a motorbike, and got horribly lost in the middle of the jungle




And that was the good part. It just got muddier and rainier from there. I was in the jungles for over 4 hours. Not good. Anyways, more pictures coming up!

Weekend of 10/7

So, Friday David Chrys, Megan and I went to Eastern Promise in Kemang. I had the "All-day breakfast special" with real bacon and sausage. It was excellent, and is sorely missed. There's no IHOPs here, and normal breakfast is noodles or bubur ayam, a chicken porridge. Next time it's the pork chops. So later, we had beers and were out of there by 3:30.

Saturday I got up around 10, had some water, and fell back asleep, finally waking up for real around 4?? I went to Senayan City, got a book for my vacation and ate lunch at Burger King. It was just as good as America, but you couldn't substitute onion rings for fries. Have it your way, indeed! But it was the first real "big" burger I've had since I've been here. McDonald's only has Big Macs and regular burgers, so forgive me for going off on a tangent about Whoppers. Also stopped at an international grocer and got some Doritos and Dr. Pepper.

Today, Sunday, went to the stables with Chrys, it was the owner's wife's birthday. Had way too much wine, grapes, cheese, etc. Megan finally got some medicine for her kittens' ear mites. That's about it for my weekend. This Saturday, I leave for Toba in Sumatra for a week, relaxing on the beach. See you later!

Weekend of 8/30

Hi all! I know these are becoming more irregular, but not a lot happens around here save for the weekends. On Saturday I managed to convince Chrys, Meg, and David to join me on the Hash. It was in Cibinong, some place out in the boonies between Depok and Bogor. Very beautiful run, through 8.5 km of Cassava plantations, rice paddies and villages. It was interesting to see the different stages of production of the Cassava root, from growing, to harvesting, peeling and mashing to a pulp, and the big tubs of processed Cassava starch at the end.

Running through the villages (David was with me), we passed a big group of kids who had apparently never seen a white guy before. They called me "putih sekali" very white! I guess I need to work on my tan...

About 2/3 of the way through, we met up with the hashers that took "the long run", which was 19km! And these old farts ran right by us! We had the on-in, an hour and a half circle-up, the virgins got initiated, and we got dinner at the nearby restaurant. Container offered us a ride back to Kemang, to Eastern Promise, a local hasher's hangout. Chrys went home early because she was feelink icky, but the rest of us stayed till closing, around 2:30.

Chrys missed an excellent fight, between some Brits and Indonesians. I'm not sure who started it, but it was a fight about the pool table; I heard a crack, turned around, and there was a broken pool cue, some scuffling, and the Indonesian guy being dragged out, shouting "Get out of my f------- country!"

Sunday, no hangover, but a little sore. I rode my first horse at the stable (scary as heck!) and celebrated the stable owners' birthday with wine, cheese, and a traditional Indonesian dinner.

Yesterday I saw the Bourne Ultimatum; hadn't seen the previous movies, but it was full of action.

Well, that about sums it up! Catch ya later!

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!