Moving...Again

I was feeling like I was in the same place for to long so I decided to move again. Not really... but kind of. We are getting a new teacher in Grade 4 and they needed a place to put him. They asked if we would move into a bigger house and give him the smaller house where there are more single people on the street. We said yes, so Brittany and I are moving into a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom house. It is just like the first house that I live in only on a different street. This will be my third move since I have moved to Indonesia. We should be moving this Thursday. Yippee.

Happy Birthday

On Saturday the 27th of November it was my birthday. I had a great day of celebration. We started off at Starbucks to start off the morning. We went to a mall and went to an Eiger store where I bought a raincoat for my backpack. It rains a lot here so I thought that it was kind of necessary. Then we went to an expatriate grocery store where I bought chocolate chips, and other things that I cannot normally get at the regular grocery store. After that we went to Kemang and had Mexican food at a place called Amigos for lunch. After that we went to Chic Mart to buy some Christmas gifts. Since it was Saturday we went to church. After church we went to Outback for dinner with a whole bunch of people from church. It was quite a day to celebrate being 23. Here are some pictures to commemorate my day.

Banana Cake Road Kill

As I was driving to school this morning I put some brownies, banana cake, and coffee on my clip on the front of my bike. As I was driving I noticed that the coffee started to come loose from the clip so I quickly grabbed it and stuck it between my legs and continued to drive. Thirty seconds later the banana cake fell to the road to become road kill. My first thought was, "that is amazing cake I have to stop and get it." My second thought was, "that is good tupperware and it is hard to find here." I pulled my bike over to the side of the road and ran back to save the cake from becoming road kill. The rest of the trip the cake made is safely and now the rest of the teachers are enjoying it.

Goat Slaughtering Holiday = Holiday in Bali

We had a 5 day weekend so some of my friends and I went to Bali. We had a great time. We went to the beach, went shopping, and went on a bike tour of the villages, rice patties, and Hindu temples of Bali. It was so much fun. The beauty that was surounding us was amazing. God is so creative.

As I was sitting on the beach one day reading my book two women thought that it would be a good idea to come and take a rest on the back of my chair. As you can see I continued to read intently.


The rice patties.


A big bunch of bananas. As we were waiting for the rest of our bike group to get with the program we had a photo shoot with a large bunch of bananas. They were heavy.

I was going to add more pictures but it was taking way to long to upload and I need to go to bed. I have to be a teacher tomorrow.

Ding Dong the Rat is Dead

For those of you that have been following the story of the rat I have some very exciting news. The rat is dead. On Friday night we got home from the mall and the note from our helper literally said , "I threw away the rat." We went upstairs to check out what happened and there was some blood, rat hair, and elephant glue on the floor and the railing. What we are hypothesising happened is that the rat ate all of the poison that we had laid out and exploded on the elephant glue. Our helper cleaned up most of it up. I got the joy of cleaning up the rest of it. I have pictures but I did not want to be too graphic. This is a G-rated blog you know. Then this weekend we got a sonar noise making device that will keep the bugs and rats away. No more rats for us. It was very exciting day for us.

Christmas in Bogor

I went to the friendly neighborhood Starbucks today to work on some school work. When I walked in there was Christmas music playing, snowflakes on the windows, and the baristas were wearing Christmas shirts and hats. Is Starbucks like this in America right now? I would really like to know. I was a little sad. What happened to Thanksgiving?

Happy Birthday to Auntie Kooch and Leah Koetje

Rat Traps 3 and 4

We have been trying to catch this rat for a while. We have tried many different ways of trying to catch him. On Tuesday as I was talking to Maddy on Skype I saw the rat on the stair glaring at me saying, "You can't catch me ha ha ha ha ha." So I screamed. Really loud. So loud that the neighbor came over with her helper who is fearless, and a great rat fighter. She could not catch the rat that night either. We have taken the rat catching to a whole new level. Forget drowning it (Sorry grandpa and grandma. We bought "The Reusable Never Miss Rat Trap (Kills Rats Every Time!)" So far it has not killed yet. A rubberband is supposed to go around the rats neck and suufocate him. It is quick and humane. We also bought some Elephant Glue that is supposed to be so sticky that the rat will go on it and not be able to get off. That has not worked yet either. I took some pictures of the lastest traps. Hopefully they will be filled with something soon. I am a little skeptical though.




The lady in the picture is Brittany. She is my roommate. As you can see we added a decorative pattern of raisins and nuts to the Elephant Glue I am all about style.

Sexy- The Motorbike

Here are some pictures of my new motorbike. Her name is Sexy. Sexy is a Honda Bemo from the 80's. I got her for free ninety-nine and then I had her completely rebuilt. I got to help design her and pick out the colors. Sometimes I would argue with the mechanic that was building the bike because I did not care about her original state but he really seemed too. She gets me to where I need to go which is to and from school, which is her purpose. I hope that the pictures will do her justice.

The Saga of the Rat Continues

Last night after running errands all night and being at school all day I got home. The electricity was off, and I was afraid to walk into my house for fear of being attacked by the ferocious warrior rat. I went and found a flashlight and a candle and sat in the dark eating some cookies figuring out what to do next. One of my errands was buying rat poison. This was the day that the rat was going to meet it's demise. When my roommate got home she had the same thought. We moved the rat traps inside. We baited them with fish, bread, and peanut butter covered in rat poison. We then sprinkled more poison around most of the house. Now we are waiting for the day when we can pull a grandpa and drown the rat.

The Saga of the Rat

I have a rat in the house. The other day I made cinnamon rolls to take to school. I let them rise over night so that they could be extra big and delicious. I woke up the next morning to put them in the oven and there were bite marks all over the cinnamon rolls. The rat decided that he really wanted to eat cinnamon rolls too. Earlier we tried to kill him with poison but he still prevails. My roommate bought live traps today and a big bucket. We set the traps with fish and peanut butter. Once we catch him we are going to pull a grandpa and drown him in a bucket. Hopefully we will catch him soon so that he will not keep eating our food. I will keep you posted on what happens.

Playdough

Yesterday I made playdough. It was a highlight of my week.

Tiga months

I know I am pretty much fluent. Tiga means 3. That means that I have been here for 3 months, can you believe it? It has been going by extremely quick. A lot has happened since then too. I have moved to a new house, finished the first quarter and have parent teacher conferences tomorrow, and I have taken the volunteer position of being the children's coordinator at church. I have been to Lombak for vacation which was great. I have gotten a motorbike that is being made from scratch kind of. The color is going to be copper brown/burnt orange with white accents. It is going to be off the chain. That is about all that I know about it though, it is going to get me up and down the hill to school (which is what I need). There is a lot more that has happened but those are the highlights. I would hate to bore you with more details. Oh! another highlight. I am going to make play dough later tonight. Oo Oo

Autumn has come to Indonesia

I received a large envelope of leaves from Michigan from my grandma. She wanted me to share them with my students. I did. They were pretty excited to see leaves that were read and orange. They all wanted the orange ones. Here are some pictures of the Autumn leaves in Indonesia.

Colorblind Math

On Friday I was helping a student with math. We were trying to add 7+3. I was using my fingers to add 7+3. The student was not getting it so I colored 7 of my fingernails green with a marker. I colored the other 3 fingernails orange. I had the student count the 7 green fingers first. As he was counting I realized that he was colorblind and that he could not differentiate between green and orange. My plan was foiled and I ended up with colored fingernails. Bummer dude.

The Big Move

Last week Tuesday I moved into a different house. I thought that I would share some pictures with you of what the new house looks like. I am sharing the house with Brittany an English teacher at SPH.
This is the front of the house and the entry way. It is a pretty green color.


This is our pathway to get into the living room and dining room. Then you see what the living room looks like.


The kitchen. Enough said.

The bathroom is upstairs with the bedrooms.

My Bedroom. It is kind of hard to see what is in there, but it is a wardrobe and a bed. That is about all that fits.


Thanks for looking at my house. I am a lot happier at this new house. It is a blessing to be able to move. Brittany is great for letting me move in with her.

Laxing in Lombak

I went on my first big trip while in Indonesia. We had 12 days of of school, I took full advantage of those days off and traveled with 6 other girls to Lombak. Lombak is an island of Indonesia. If you look on the map it is towards the bottom of the page.

We started our trip by riding on the airplane. We were all so excited about the trip we got a little picture happy. Mataram is the capital of Lombak. That is where the airport is located.


We then packed 7 women with all of our luggage and a driver into a very small car. We headed for the Homestay where we were going to sleep for the night.

We climbed to a waterfall and got to spend some time in God's creation. On the way to the waterfall we went to Monkey forest and fed the monkeys. At the waterfall the water was cold for the Indonesians but I am used to Lake Michigan so it was perfect. We got to go swimming, and we climbed through a tunnel that had water rushing through it to get back to the start of the hike.


I drove a motorbike to Senggigi to go to the beach. At the beach we got lunch and I got a milkshake that was served in a bag (how random). The beach had black sand, but the water was warm. We drove all over Senggigi on the motorbike it was so much fun, it is an easier mode of transport in Indonesia because there are a lot of people here.

After Senggigi we went to Kuta to spend some time at the beach. While we were there we took a day trip to a different beach called Mawun. We took a tour of a traditional Sasak village. Sasak people are the people of Lombak. The roofs of the house came up to my nose if you can imagine that. People are shorter here then I am. I am kind of a giant.


We finished off our trip at Gili Nanngu an island that has one hotel and one restaurant on it. I could walk around the whole island in 30 minutes. It was fairly deserted which was exactly what we wanted. I went snorkeling everyday and saw some awesome fish. At night I slept in a traditional Sasak house on stilts. Every morning I would look out my window and I could see the ocean. We would go have breakfast, sit on the beach all day then go and have dinner later. It was great. I am glad that I had the opportunity to spend some time in a different part of Indonesia. God is so good. I am truly blessed.

Pigeons and Sheep

Yesterday and today my students learned about Jesus when he was in the temple and he overturned the tables. It is found in John 2:12-24 if you want to look it up. Yesterday, we read the story from a Children's Bible and from the NIV version to get the real facts. Today as an extension activity I split the students into groups and had them act out the story. All of my students wanted to be pigeons and sheep, and that was it. That is what they got from the story I guess. I had 3 girls running around the classroom flapping their arms like pigeons, and then all of the sudden they would drop onto the floor and start baaing, and they would be sheep. Another group of students was arguing because no one wanted to be Jesus. I solved the problem in the most reasonable way possible. We played Rock, Paper, Scissors to figure out who was going to be Jesus in the little reenactment. It was quite the day.

Indonesian Celebration

Wednesday we had a celebation of Indonesian culture. I got to wear a traditional costume from Kalimantan. It is an island that is part of Indonesia. My students performed a dance and played the angklung which is a traditional instrument to Indonesia. Enjoy the pictures.

The Adventure

On Tuesday we did not have school so a couple of us decided to go on an adventure. We rode on Scott and Diane's motorbikes all over Sentul. We rode through a kompaung, hiked up a small mountain, went to a hotel that was in the middle of nowhere. To get to the hotel that cost a lot of money to stay at each night was off of a road that was not even paved. We hit a bunch of boulders, and rocks going up and down the hill. After the hotel we went to a waterfall. I do not have pictures of the waterfall because it was raining so I did not take my camera. A random guy said that he would take us to the waterfall since the road was not drivable. We hiked through rice patties, over hills, and through rivers to get there. It was quite an experience. It was so fun though. My legs are all scratched up from walking to the waterfall but it was worth it. Here are some pictures of the adventure. Oh I also saw more water buffalo.

The road to the hotel

There is a village that we rode through in the background but you cannot tell.

Everybody's got a water buffalo

The motorcycle I road all day. Look I am wearing a helmet. You cannot tell but I am smiling for the camera under my helmet

Field Trip

Today we went on a field trip to Cingangeng. It is a place that will teach you about traditional Indonesian culture. My students played the Angklung (a musical instrument), danced a Sundanese dance, made rice flour and coconut something yummy, made ginger tea, and went on a tour of rice patties, and a village. We also painted hats that would be worn in the rice fields, and made dolls out of plants. It was a lot of fun. The students had a great time, and they did not have to sit in school all day. It was a win win for everyone.


A rice field from the village


Painting Rice Field hats.


Dancing a Sundanese dance with scarves.

Just over a month

I have just about finished another week of school. In total I have been here for a month. It seems I have been here a lot longer but not in a bad way. It is going really well and the students are great. Next week we are celebrating Indonesian Independence Day. I get to wear a cool costume from the island of Kalimantan. I will take lots of pictures. On Monday we are going on a Field Trip as a whole Junio School. Also next week we have Tuesday off from school. A couple of us are going to go exploring somewhere. I do not know where yet, but we are going to go. I will take pictures of that too. Have a great weekend.



A random picture of my student Sammy. He is posing for me.

The Tim Tam Slam

This weekend I did a Tim Tam Slam and I thought that you needed to know about it. Tim Tams are cookies from Australia. What you do is bite a little piece off of opposite corners of the cookie. Dip it in a hot beverage such as Cappuccino and suck like it is a straw. The cookie gets all hot and melty and then you eat it. It is so yummy, and so fun all at the same time. There are pictures to illustrate what happened. Enjoy.