I am a teacher.

I speak the title of this blog entry with a certain aplomb that I never expected to have during this experience. Sure, I signed up to be an English teacher but in actuality I have no formal training in teaching, in fact I never had a serious desire to become a teacher professionally beyond this, yet here I am in Indonesia and I...am a teacher...

Every morning (for the past four weeks that is) I wake up at 5:30 a.m. I hit the snooze button at least three times, getting me up on average at about 6 a.m. every morning. I mosey out of bed still asleep and walk to my ant infested bathroom. I clear the ants away from the listerine bottle on the sink and look in the mirror. "Why me?!" I ask as I clear the sleep from my eye, still drowsy and wanting nothing more than to go back to bed. I look at the bathtub and consider heavily whether I have the energy to lift my legs over its side to take a shower (breathe easy- the decision is usually yes).  After I have washed up and am instantly (only slightly) more energized, I proceed to get dressed. Once I'm dressed (as of the past week as i've just received it) in my new mustard yellow or seaweed green teacher's uniform, I gather my things, head out the door and proceed down the steps of my apartment. Almost ritually, once I've reached the second level of steps before the bottom I turn right back around, run up the steps, unlock my door and turn off the air conditioner in my apartment (because if I don't my landlord will).  Once I've checked my pockets front and back as to not have to heave myself back up the stairs again, I leave for the last time out the door. I'm usually met downstairs with warm salutations from the maternity ward's staff countered by the bemused stares of pregnant women and their husbands (i live in a maternity ward...not joking) alike as I walk out of the front door and head down the dusty road to the main thoroughfare.

Once at the street, I am met with more gawking from the people in town, who I'm sure have never seen a person quite like me. Usually, I take the stares in stride (I mean I am a foreigner) but some mornings (only one or two thus far) I take the incessant staring personally and find myself with a not so pleasant look on my face. Its not the staring that bothers me, it is the constant reminder that I am in fact an outsider, that I am alone an ocean and half away from home. By the time I am on the angkot on my way to school, the frustrations subside...until I arrive at my destination and the angkot driver tries to overcharge me because its clear that I am not from around here. Fortunately, I know enough Indonesian to elude his scheme and give him the 2,000 rupiah that I owe.

Rattled from the unpleasant encounter I once again find myself walking on a dusty path this time 200 yards away from school. As I'm walking, many thoughts wander through my mind: what lessons I'll teach for the day, how dirty my shoes are getting from the dusty road, how hot the beaming sun is, do I have any extracurriculars after school today? All of these thoughts help me to become mentally prepared to start my day at SMK Muhammadiyah Kudus. However, usually before I am really fully prepared I approach the front gate of my school, take a deep breathe and head in. At this point a change in current is felt. I hear the excitement in the voices of students as they yell, "Hey Mister!", (for many of them this is the extent of their English) and I respond, "Good Morning, How are you?", and the transition begins. The hard exterior formed by the lingering frustrations of the morning start to chip away, one student at a time. The excitement of the students instantly change my disposition and any worries that I had are left at the gate. I am happy again :).

Fast forward to the classroom. I love to teach! I have so much fun. Most of the time I am making a fool of myself, trying to get my point across by frantically gesturing or flailing my limbs, acting out a wide range of emotions or using my limited Indonesian vocabulary (the last is usually met with hysterical laughter). Miraculously the students understand and whether it is a lesson about introducing oneself, describing physical appearance, or expressing emotions I find some way to make it fun for both the students and myself. The best feeling in the classroom is witnessing the confidence level of students rise from the beginning of the class to the end. Routinely at the beginning of class, I have to beg for just the slightest whisper of an answer from students but invariably by the end of each class, the students are yelling confidently in English. Even more of a rush is felt when I can see that the students are learning, from something that I have taught them no less!

It is at the end of every class, after the students have enthusiastically yelled, "Bye Mr. Kalada!", and after I am exhausted from my latest performance in the classroom that I find myself in a daze of wonderment...I think to myself and smile...I am a teacher.

Best,
Kalada

A Bit of a Whirlwind...please forgive me

First, I must apologize for the lack of posts lately. I was expecting that I would have internet access regularly in my new apartment in Kudus, however I was grossly in err.  I won't go into much detail about my apartment yet because without visuals, I don't know if I could do the "experience" justice.  Instead, this post is really just to reassure you all that I am indeed still alive.  In fact, until I received a phone call from my dad last week checking on my whereabouts, I was ignorant to the fact that there had been an earthquake in my new country. 

Fortunately, I was not affected by the earthquake as it occurred on a different island than mine.  Unfortunately however, the lack of internet and cable in my apartment has kept me inexcusably uninformed.  In my defense, due to the whirlwind of a week that I just endured, I had no time to visit an internet cafe much less even find a newspaper.  Anyway, this is all to say that I am still alive and if you'd like proof just look below... 

That's me holding today's newspaper in a wi-fi equipped coffee shop in Semarang, Central Java.

I hope to provide a detailed account of my first week within the next few days with many pictures.  Until then, you'll sadly have to be appeased by my smiling face ;)

Best,

Kal

Angkot Confessions

On Sunday a group of us set off on a trip to Kawah Putih (White Crater).  Little did we know that it would be a three hour trip. Making matters even more interesting was the fact that we used an Angkot (see earlier blog for more info) to get there.  Piled in the Angkot were Jenny, Dylan, Dani, Mike, Thom, Kelly, Carrie, Erica, Courtney, Lolly, and myself.  The Angkot, which is principally a public form of transport servicing local destinations, was commandeered by our group for a bargained price of 300,000 Rp (approx. $30) for the day's trip.  Enjoy the pictures below documenting our journey (note most of the photos were taken through the open door of a moving Angkot):

Family of four on a motor bike...take special note of the baby in front

 

From right to left: Mike, Thom, Kelly, Carrie

Gas station attendant

A bit more sensible ;)

Rice paddies and mountains

Unofficial greeter at Kawah Putih

We're here!

 

 

 

Oops! We walked in on a wedding photo shoot ;)

Grilled corn on the cob!

3,000 Rp...best 30 cents i've spent!

Hot springs resort...the water was boiling...but it felt so good!

Dinner on the way back from a road stall: Goat satay with peanut sauce, vegetable fritter, white rice...this whole meal cost less than $2.00

Best,

Kal

Picture time- Bandung! (pronounced Bon-Doong)

I decided that it was time to switch it up a little bit. I have been taking pictures like crazy since I've been here and would like to share some of my favorites with the intention that these visuals may further shed light on my experience. Enjoy!

Angkot- Indonesian minibus (very popular means of transport in Jakarta and Bandung).  Essentially an 8 passenger van gutted with two long seats installed. See below for details...

 

...now this is a light load for the Angkot which usually is packed with more people :)

 Me, Ab, and Ricky

 Dinner...Beef dish, rice cakes, and white rice accompanied with a chile sauce. 

 Different night...Chicken (seasoned to perfection...almost rivals my mother's) with white rice in the banana leaf.

Intersection in Bandung

 

Experimenting with angles...there seems to be more motorcycles on the streets than cars

 Alleyway off of "Jean Street" in Bandung

There was a block of superhero themed stores with characters such as Iron Man, Superman, Tarzan, and of course, Spiderman...

   

 

...and yes that is a statue of Rambo :)

Best,

Kal

Making my way through Bandung

Selamat Siang! (Good Day!)

It is only 11:45 in the morning here and I have already had a great day! On the second day of our training we had the opportunity to visit Indonesian schools in Bandung.  All of the ETAs were separated into groups based on what type of school we are placed in.  The three main types are pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools, SMAs/madrasahs (state funded secondary schools), and SMKs (vocational scools).  Since I will be teaching at SMK Muhammadiyah Kudus, a computer science vocational school, I was part of the group that visited SMK 3 in Bandung.  The SMK group consisted of six (Ab, Kelly, Erica, Lolly, Sarah, and myself) who all sat in on an English class in pairs.  Kelly and I were paired together and sat in the back of an 11th grade class and observed as the teacher, Ibu Betty, lead the class in a lesson about describing daily tasks.

The students also prepared presentations where they brought in a traditional Indonesian item and shared how to use them and in some instances how to make them.  I was really impressed with most students' level of English.  If all of my classes are like the one I visited today then it will be smooth sailing!  At the end of the class Ibu (trans: respectful term for older lady similar to Mrs.) Betty asked Kelly to come to the front and answer questions that the students had for us.  The students were really thrilled to hear from us and were so enraptured by our responses.  After we spoke, the students presented Kelly and I with a special gift; an item for each of us from their presentations.  I received a kipas (Indonesian woven fan) and Kelly received a traditional basket used to hold rice. The students were so happy to have native English speakers from the U.S. visit their class that they all wanted to take pictures with us.  Luckily I had my own camera so you can see some of the photos below.

After the pictures the students brought us samples of traditional Sundanese (regional culture) food.  They also presented Kelly with another gift for her birthday (they also sang to her earlier!).  The students were so gracious! One girl came up to me with her pda phone and asked me if I have Facebook.  I answered affirmatively so she handed me her phone and asked me to type in my name so that she could friend me.  It was an offer that I could not refuse.

If there was ever any doubt about whether I made the right decision by coming here to teach, it was all diminished by today's school visit.  I am so excited to begin working at my school and hopefully building great relationships with the students there.

 Picture with our class (Me and Kelly in the middle, Erica and Sarah on the ends)

 

Class singing Happy Birthday to Kelly

"Lagi-lagi!" ("Again-again!")

Wahyu Ramadan presenting us traditional Indonesion food.  Wahyu is concentrating in tourism at the vocational school and wants to be an English speaking tour guide in Indonesia.  Judging by his knack for presentations, I think he will be quite the guide.

Best,

Kal

Move to Bandung

Yesterday was our last day in Jakarta and I can't say that I was sad to leave.  Jakarta didn't stand out as particularly exciting.  In fact, it was just like any other major city; dirty, filled with smog, and crazy traffic. The traffic in Jakarta was unlike any that I have ever witnessed.  San Jose, Costa Rica has been hailed as having the worst traffic/drivers in the world but after these past four days, San Jose pales in comparison to Jakarta.  The cars seemed to be in a constant battle with each other, aggressively competing to be ahead of the other.  Drivers had no regard for pedestrians or motorcyclists (we witnessed a car knock down a guy on a motorcycle who luckily got back up as if nothing happened).  While traffic signals were few and far between they were blatantly ignored and people even drove on the wrong side of the road just to get through. Each ride in a taxi was an adventure to say the least.

Outside of exploring a few of the hundreds of malls in Jakarta there really wasn't that much to do in the city. However the shopping experience did unveil an all too common social quandary: the vast difference between the "haves" and "have nots".  Poverty stricken neighborhoods were starkly juxtaposed with towering luxury hotels and mega shopping centers at their doorsteps.  Even more interesting, but not surprising, is that the patrons of the malls and luxury hotels were foreigners ("westerners" and northern Asians).

One of the highlights of my experience in Jakarta was meeting with Antih, a former Indonesian Fulbright who taught one of my fellow ETAs  Bahasa Indonesia at the Univerisity of Georgia.  The ETA who took her class last semester asked a few of the ETAs to join her in her reunion with Antih.  Antih turned out to be very sweet and super excited to meet us.  We met over dinner and talked about her experience in the U.S. and about life in Indonesia.  I was particularly happy because I had the chance to pick her brain about an area of interest of mine, the Anti-Suharto student movement of 1998. She happened to be in college during the student movement and was actively involved in demonstrations urging the then President of 32 years to resign. Hearing her share a first hand account about something that I researched extensively was so surreal.  She was also pretty impressed by my knowledge on the topic and joked that I should do a dissertation on the subject with her as my research assistant.  Her suggestion was duly noted :)

After a four day orientation to the program in Jakarta we moved to Bandung today where we will be staying for three weeks.  AMINEF has really spared no expense with the orientation/training by providing us with the best accomodations.  We even received Fulbright book bags and coffee mugs today and we are scheduled to receive cell phones tomorrow.  For the next three weeks we will undergo intensive Bahasa Indonesia and teacher training classes.  At the end of training we will spend three days working with our Indonesian counterparts (teacher that we will be assisting in the classroom) to develop a working relationship and work on ways that we can collaborate effectively in the classroom. 

I can't wait to start learning Bahasa Indonesia but even more so I am anxious to get into the classroom.

Best,
Kal

P.S.- I saw the requests to talk more about the food...I promise I will once I get some good pictures.

 Jakarta

Ab, Kelly, Nina (Antih's friend), Antih, Carrie, Me

Bandung (view from hotel room)

The "Great" Earthshake

So today I was awaken by what I thought was an intruder in my room during a mid afternoon slumber. I jumped out of my bed in attack/defense mode until I realized that my hotel tower was swaying back and forth...back and forth! The quake lasted for about 2-3 minutes and was really one of the most bizarre events I've ever experienced. When I realized the ground was "quaking" I threw on my clothes, grabbed my wallet and ran into the hallway to find no one there. I thought maybe everyone had evacuated already so I entered the balcony to look outside and saw a group of hotel staff standing in the courtyard laughing and just hanging out. So at that point, once the earthquake was over, I was under the impression that it was no big deal and went back into my room and fell back asleep. But as I was writing this entry one of my fellow ETAs stopped by and told me that all of the ETAs did evacuate to the lobby and stayed there for about 30 minutes while I was asleep lol. I guess I should have freaked out more than I actually did, especially since the quake registered at a 7.1 on the richter scale and even made the front page of the NYtimes.com. Not even a week has gone by and I've already experienced an earthquake...I can only hope that this is the pinnacle of my natural disaster experience here.

I arrived in Jakarta on Sunday at around noon with the entire group of ETAs at the Soekarno Hatta airport. The night before, AMINEF provided our group with a hotel for our over night layover in Singapore, which most of us barely used as we all spent the night exlporing Singapore's night life until shortly before we had to meet in the lobby at 7:00 a.m. to leave for Jakarta. Once we arrived to the hotel in Jakarta, we were given a free day to get over our jetlag (which I'm still getting over). On Monday morning we started orientation in the hotel at 8:30 after a very nice breakfast comprised of many American dishes and Indonesian fare. Monday's orientation went on until about 4:30 p.m. Monday afternoon was met with more sleep. Later that evening I went with a group to a restaurant in downtown Jakarta called Cafe Batavia.

Yesterday's orientation lasted until about noon, so we had the whole afternoon to spend exploring the city. I went with a group to the Grand Indonesia, "the height of luxury in Jakarta". This mall was humongous, it had at least 10 floors and was packed with department stores and high end shops from all over the world and countless food options that ranged from Cold Stone to Kenny Rogers Roasters to fancy sit down restaurants. Each section of the mall was themed by famous cities/countries. The mall was so big that we spent most of the day just exploring. Later that night we met with the English Language Fellows (ELFs as we affectionately call them are our counterparts that work in Universities in Indonesia teaching classes and training Indonesian professors...all ELFs have at least a Master's Degree and have worked as a teacher or professor prior) at a night club in the Shangri La Hotel, where I was first turned away because I did not meet the dress code of long pants. We all had a good time dancing and singing to the music of the South African cover band who covered artists from Aretha Franklin to Bob Marley to Kings of Leon.

This morning eight of us were pulled out of orientation to go to the immigration office to sign some paperwork in order to receive our KITAS (an Indonesian residency card). The process was pretty straightforward, most of the experience was just waiting in a busy waiting room that looked strikingly similar to the DMV. Upon arrival to the hotel we were met with another great lunch made up of delicious Indonesian foods and dessert. Then after lunch, once I settled back in my room is when the earthquake hit.

While it has only been four days since I've been in Jakarta, I realized that I haven't held up my end of the bargain in this whole blogging thing. Hopefully, it won't take another earthquake in the future for me to sit down at the computer to update everyone. I will try my best to at least update the blog once a week or more, provided I have access to the web.

Best,
Kal