The END is in sight!

With less then 4 weeks left in the school year, I can finally say that the end is in sight. This realization brings both feelings of joy and feelings of sadness. I am sad to say goodbye to the students I have been teaching all year. We have all grown to know each other and understand each other, and pretty soon I will not be seeing them everyday. It is also sad to see the end of the year approach because I will not be teaching in Middle School next year. Instead, I will be moved down to the Junior School teaching grade six. This will mean a different program, different schedule, different co-workers, younger students...and the list goes on. This was not my choice, but a choice the Administration was forced to make because of an increase of students in grade 6 next year, and a decrease in grade 7. I was disappointed with the decision because I totally love my placement right now, but there are some positives to moving down to grade six. I will also also be packing up my apartment in a few weeks because I will be moved to a new apartment after the summer break. Along with all of these changes is the regular stress of the end of the year, which why I am looking forward to the end of the year.

Considering my lack of blog-posts lately, it is probably fitting to look backwards to the past month in addition to looking forward.

This past month I was blessed to have my parents come and visit me. They spent a little under 4 weeks here in Asia. They arrived just before my spring break, which was an awesome opportunity for us to travel together. We headed off to Thailand for the 10-day break.

Our first destination was Koh Samui. It is located in the Gulf of Thailand, just east of Phuket, but on the other side of the peninsula. Samui island is surrounded by several other beautiful island. We spent one day on a boat tour of the Anthrong National park where we kayaked, hiked to a view point, checked some caves, and enjoyed the beautiful beaches. I also got to spend a day diving in the gorgeous waters around some islands nearby to Koh Samui, while mom and dad toured Koh Samui. The rest of our time we did some shopping, exploring, zip-lining and relaxing in the sun.

Destination number two was Bangkok. We were able to spend 4-5 days with my Auntie Lisa, Uncle Jeff, and their four kids. It was great to visit their missionary base, swim in the pool at their complex, visit the girls' school, and shop at the market and the mall. We were also able to take the public transit into the city one day and visit the Grand Palace, which is a beautifully ornate Buddhist temple. It was a short visit, but it was so good to re-connect with my extended family here in Asia.













Mom and Dad spent the next week here in Lippo Village where they relaxed, but also explored the city of Jakarta. I sent them off on the day trips that I went on when my grandpa and grandma visited. They had a fun time getting their pictures taken all the time and seeing interesting sights. They even got into the practice of taking ojeks to the mall and school. I am pretty sure they know the Super Mall better than I do now! It was so great to have them here with me and sharing in my life.

They next week they went to Bali on their own, and then i met them there last weekend. Saturday we took a sailboat to an island close to Bali and did some fun water activities there. It was a great day out on the sea in the sunshine. Our second day we relaxed at the pool and then went to Ubud to visit the monkey forest and do some shopping. While we were at the monkey forest, a monkey attacked me by jumping onto my purse. It was screeching and grabbing at me, so I swung my purse away from my body. Finally, I took the purse off and swung it all over to get the monkey off. It kind of freaked me out! We ended that evening eating some yummy Indonesian food at a restaurant that overlooked some beautiful rice paddies. It was a great weekend away in Bali.

Mom and Dad flew back to Canada on Tuesday morning, and I have been settling back into normal routines this week. I am really grateful for this morning because I did not have anywhere to go, but to sleep in, read and get some work done.

This year I have discovered how important it is to just slow down sometimes, even if I don't really have time for it. I sometimes let my work run my life because it is so demanding, but I am starting to discover how to balance things a little more, because there will ALWAYS be work for me to do. :)

The Rakata Experience

This past week I went on the grade 7 field trip with about 95 7th graders and 8 teachers. It was refreshing to be out in the mountains and away from the city. Although we were camping there, the tents were very spacious and comfy, and the bathrooms were really nice. So, really, it was more like luxury camping. I actually laughed when I saw one of the signs said it was a 5 star camp. I will say, that I was glad the facilities were so nice because it meant we didn't have to deal with as many issues with our city kids.

The program we went through was called Rakata and they had our 3 days packed full with fun activities such as a high ropes course, rappelling down a waterfall, sound exploration (making music out of random objects), a village visit (palm sugar making, weaving, and fishing), and raft building. We teachers got to join in all the fun with the kids, which was really awesome. I did high ropes for the first time and I also enjoyed the rappelling. We ate typical Indonesian food and it was quite yummy, but I was thankful to return and take a break from eating rice at every meal.

Included are some shots from the trip. I didn't take as many as I wanted because I had a low battery the whole time.

A Moment

The weeks sometimes drag by, but the weekend always shows up again. Even though this week was more fun than a regular week because of the opportunities I had to spend with friends, I was still eager for the weekend. I am starting to feel the weight of this year settle on my shoulders with so many things coming up during the next few weeks, but at the same time I am still able to see glimpses of God's grace in my life. Take, for example, a few days this week when I came to school tired and unexcited about dealing with adolescents all day.

But then things started happening.

One of my students smiled and said something funny to me, another erupted with his unique laughter, a leg "accidentally" fell into the aisle as I passed by, and I begin to feel my heart softening. Suddenly I remembered how much I love my kids and the relationships I have been building with them. I have always hopped that I might be able to brighten my students' days and make them feel at home, but it has never crossed my mind that those feelings could be reciprocated. I thank God for those special moments this week where, by his grace alone, enthusiasm replaced passiveness in my teaching.

Even so, the weekend is here and I am very thankful for the chance to refresh and renew myself before another crazy week.

On another note, how do I explain the events of the past month? I am still amazed at all of the opportunities I have to explore and experience in Indonesia. Just a brief description of this past month: swanky wedding, soccer carnival,Jazz festival, dancing, beach bumming and hiking, professional development,and crazy tie day.

Jogjakarta

Some of you may be thinking "Does she ever work? It seems like Michaela is always on Holidays!" If you have had these thoughts, I understand. I have had two 4-day weekends in February and it has felt like I have been gone a lot lately. Us singles at SPH live by the motto "work hard, play hard." How can we sit around on a weekend when there is so much to discover!!

On that note, I got to visit the city of Jogjakarta, in central Java, this weekend.This past Tuesday was a Muslim holiday for Muhammad's birthday, and Monday was a school holiday. I went with my friends Amy and Lydia. We left on the train Saturday night and Lydia and I flew back Tuesday night (Amy the day before because she had prior commitments). It was a whirl-wind weekend, but it was full of great experiences. Some of these included:

-the Sultan's palace
-the Water palace
-puppet shops, batik art shops, and silver art shops
-Borobudur (a Buddhist temple that was once a wonder of the world)
-A crazy night fair
-Ramayana (A Hindu ballet)
-The Prambanan
-motor-cycle adventures around the city

I thoroughly enjoyed the cultural richness in Jogjakarta, which is not as evident in Jakarta. I was able to bargain for some neat souvenirs and enjoyed using the little Bahasa Indonesia that I know. I discovered that if I mentioned that I lived in Jakarta, I often got a better deal or was given more respect by shop owners and such. Even so, we were constantly being asked if people could take our picture. After a while it got annoying and very old. I guess that is what celebrities feel like when they go out in public. We aren't celebrities by any means, but we are white, and apparently that was an exciting thing for a lot of the young people we saw. I am considering making a collage of all of the pictures I have taken with Indonesian people. :) Amy wants to make a book of signs or t-shirts with totally bad English. It is pretty funny sometimes to see what non-English speakers will wear on their t-shirts.

This was a successful trip with some more great Indo-moments to remember!

More fun in Indonesia with Grandpa and Grandma!

The fun in Indo continues!

Yesterday we went to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (translates as Mini Garden, Beautiful Indonesia...or something like that). This was a large park area that had life-size examples of homes from tons of cultures and Islands in Indonesia. Inside many of the houses or buildings were additional artifacts, costumes and such. We drove around the park and looked at many of these houses and learned some cool things about Indonesia's history. For example, there are more than 17,000 islands in Indonesia, with 300 different ethnic groups and 500 different languages. Wow. So, as you can imagine there were many things to see at Taman Mini. We had to pick and choose what we saw. Some of our favorite things from the day were:

-Sulawesi's houses and history
-Papua's history (We talked to a man who grew up there, and spoke dutch because of the colonialism. G&G enjoyed that.)
-Petting the Komodo Dragon and holding a python
-Taking a gondola or tram ride over the park
-Walking through the beautiful National Museum







Today was also a day full of fun.

The day started off with lots of rain, so we decided to go to a national museum near Monas, the national monument to wait out the rain. The museum was pretty good, but not as good as the one we saw yesterday. After that we went over to Monas, which is basically a tower with a flame on the top. The flame is plated in 50 Kg of gold. We also went to the gold room, where there are other things plated in gold. We were going to go to the top of the tower, but it would have been a 3 hour wait. So, instead we went up the stairs to the second floor, then to the basement for a quick look at some historical dioramas.

After this we took a taxi to Batavia, which is the old city were there are some remaining dutch buildings. Overall, the area is very run-down and dirty, with many buildings falling apart, but there were some interesting historical things as well. We had lunch at a nice cafe, went in a museum, walked along a canal and over a bridge, and then went to a ship museum in the harbour area. We ended up walking through some dirty little streets and past a fish market, which was interesting. Nothing like getting right down with the locals. On the topic of locals, we were celebrities for the day. I lost count of how many pictures we had taken with kids. Yay for being white!

We finished off our evening with dinner at a little restaurant down the road, which was actually quite good. I have always wanted to try it, and now I can say I have. Grandpa and Grandma are leaving for Bali tomorrow, but they have had a great time with me in Jakarta.

A Day at the Zoo!

Grandpa and Grandma have been in Indonesia for three days now and they are having a great time here. Wednesday they came to school to check things out and Thursday we spent the day in Karawaci doing things like swimming, biking, and enjoying a Chinese New Year lunch. Today, however we broadened our horizons and headed to the mountains in South Jakarta, to Taman Safari. Taman Safari is kind of like a zoo, but it also has a water park, a small theme park,a camp ground, and some different shows. Although we couldn't do it all, we did enjoy the "Zoo" aspect of the park quite a bit.

When we first arrived at the park we did a caravan drive which is basically like driving through all of the animal's pens. At the beginning we had all kinds of deer, zebra's and antelopes coming up to our windows and looking for carrots, or wortel as they say here. Luckily we had bought come wortel on our drive up. This drive took us through the homes of elephants, giraffes, tigers, lions, bears, hippos, rhinos, and the list goes on. When we went through the lion and tiger pens we could see them walking right by the car, so we made sure that our windows weren't too low. There were signs depicting people's arms being bitten by the tigers, which were quite funny to see.

After our caravan drive we parked the car and walked through different parts of the park. We first stopped by the baby zoo where we got to take pictures with a leopard and a baby orangutan. It only cost a dollar per time, so I figured it was worth it. After this we had lunch and then we went to see the komodo dragon, which was quite large, but lazy and not in the mood for a photo shoot. The Cowboy Show started soon after that, so we headed out to that and listened to an Indonesian version of a Wild West show. It was all in Indonesian, but it was fun to watch anyway. They had western-type stunts and all kinds of typical farm animals to make the experience more real. We even got sprayed by some water during part of the show because we were sitting close to the front. We did not expect it at all. After the show Grandma and I had a quick ride on an elephant and then we visited the reptiles and monkeys before our 3 hour drive back to Karawaci.

Overall, we all considered the day to be quite a success. We have included some of our favorite shots from the day. I love the one with Grandpa's Taman Safari shirt. He was cold during the day, so he bought a shirt to put under the shirt he was wearing...but we think it was an XL for an asian woman, and not a North American man. Haha. Don't worry, he is not trying to pull off a new look, he will pass the shirt on to one of the grand kids. :)