Home Sweet Heart Attack

I used to think that I was at least a little hardcore.  I liked to think that I grew up in a rural enough area to not be completely pathetic. 

I now know that I was living in a fantasy world. Being here makes me realize that I am a wimpy town girl.  In my mind, I was Laura Ingalls Wilder.  In reality, I’m Nellie Oleson (but less evil, I hope). 

I have many Indonesian friends to thank for introducing me to my true self.  So…I offer my recognition in order of appearance:

To the cicak – little lizards that hang out in our house:  I know you’re harmless—perhaps even good luck—but you are so darn fast and pale and sticky-fingered that you catch me off-guard every day.  I’m still sorry I accidently shut one of your brothers in the front door.  It was traumatic for all of us.

To the bat – I was just enjoying a nice evening run around my neighborhood when you hit me in the face.  This is the repayment I get for trying to stay in shape?  In the words of Gob Bluth, “COME ON!!!”

To the rats – I’ll give you credit, good sirs--you are impressive. How on earth you managed to chew through the thick wire mesh over the hole in our kitchen will forever be a mystery to me.  I’d appreciate if you would give up on trying to enter our kitchen—while Nichole and I are welcoming folk, we’re not fond of your presence.

Well played, rat...well played.

To the cockroaches - not only are you large-and-in-charge, but you can fly.  Enjoy the apocalypse...I'm convinced that you are indestructible.

To the snakes – You are sly, spry little creatures who play dead impressively well.  It's like you had acting lessons or something.

Although I’ve admittedly struggled at times over these past few months as I turn down the critters who want to cozy up with me, I refuse to completely brand myself as "too pathetic to live in a tropical nation" just yet.  The beauty of my time here is that I can reinvent who I am.  I can grow into a strong, independent woman who can fearlessly slaughter cockroaches, trap and dispose of rats, and remove snakes from our kitchen without hyperventilating.  Do I really like the idea of myself as the alternative—a weak, helpless girl who cannot confront the pests in her life with grace and confidence?

Maybe.  Rats are scary, people.

Teaching Adventures at SMK Muhi!

Miss Sarah and the lovely ladies of English club!

So…want to know what is it like teaching English in an Indonesian high school?

If I could sum it up in a sentence, I’d say it’s different from anything I’ve ever experienced, but awesome all the same.   However, we all know that I cannot sum up anything in one sentence.  That’s why it takes me a month and a half to write a blog post, Mom!  :)

Indonesian high schools are composed of students in Grades 10-12.  While elementary and middle school education is compulsory, high school is not. There are four main types of high schools – SMA (college-prep type schools where students focus on science, social science, or language), SMK (vocational schools – each school has a different focus), madrasah (schools that emphasize religious study more than private SMAs/SMKs do), and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools). I was placed at a business-focused SMK sponsored by the Islamic organization Muhammadiyah.  Each week, I teach the thirteen classes in Grade 10 (about 530 students -- 35-45 students in each class).

At my school, half of the tenth graders and all of the twelfth graders go to school from 6:30-12:00 and the other half of the tenth graders and all of the eleventh graders go to school from 12:30-5:30.  School is in session on Monday through Saturday (but I'm spoiled and have the good fortune of having an American work week).  There are seven 45-minute periods throughout the day, but unlike high schools in the U.S., the students stay in their classroom all day and the teachers come to them.  They also have the same subject for multiple periods in a row.  For example, my Grade 10 Business Administration Class 3 students have English from 6:45-9:00 on Monday mornings.  I teach them for the first two periods (90 minutes) and my co-teacher will take over the class for the last 45 minutes.  This format has its perks and downfalls.  It is great when I have my students for 90 minutes—it almost isn’t enough time on most days!  Unfortunately, because the students don’t change rooms, they tend to get a little stir-crazy when their English instruction is scheduled for the last three periods of their day.

Practicing introductions!

Teaching has been exciting and challenging because each of my classes has a different personality.  I not only have to adapt my lesson to the level of my students, but to the temperature of the classroom (it gets HOT in those rooms in the late-morning and early afternoon) and the orneriness of the class (it definitely varies…and generally increases proportionally with the number of males in the class).  The classroom is louder than what you’d find in most Nebraskan high schools, but this is primarily because we must keep the windows and doors of our classrooms open to prevent suffocation...and the students outside of the classrooms are NOISY!  One time I was writing at the board and it got so loud that I turned to shoot a reproachful glance at my kiddos…only to realize that they were all silent and listening attentively and a group of twenty students was crowded around our windows, yelling enthusiastically.  Apparently everyone likes to watch the bule (Westerner) jump up and down and make a fool out of herself as she and her class enthusiastically sing "If You're Happy and You Know It."  But seriously...I was just happy and I knew it!

Exchange the rice for corn and get rid of the palm trees and it'd be Nebraska!

Our campus is a beautiful place to be.  There are plants everywhere and white pigeons that fly around campus.  From the second level, you can look off of the balcony to see a sprawling rice paddy lined with palm trees. The people on campus have personalities as beautiful as the scenery.  My students are full of energy and are always willing to try something new or act a little crazy with the American weirdo standing in front of them.  The other teachers at the school have taken me under their wing and watch out for me.  They are helping me improve my Bahasa Indonesia slowly, but surely.  Pak Darmaji, who picks me up and takes me home from school each day, is my guru Bahasa Jawa – Javanese language teacher – and we practice every day in the car.  The warung (road-side food stand) owners are always shocked when I thank them for my sate ayam (barbequed chicken with peanut sauce) by saying matur nuwun (thank-you in Javanese). Javanese is definitely increasing my coolness factor…I’d estimate that I have risen in coolness rank from “trained monkey” to “circus clown.”  I like to think that’s a blog-worthy achievement.

The view behind the school--pretty nice, huh?

Someone back home recently asked me about the best and worst part about my teaching experience thus far—and they were pretty easy to identify.  My favorite part about teaching English is definitely the people at my school – my students, the teachers, my headmaster, the staff, etc.  The worst part of teaching English is English.  How am I, a poli sci and biochem major, supposed to explain why the past tense of “make” is “made,” but the past tense of “take” is “took” and the past tense of “bake” is “baked?”  My knee-jerk response is to say either, “It just sounds right, okay?” or “someone must have consumed one too many adult beverages when they made that grammatical decision.” However, I usually respond with this unsatisfying, yet completely accurate comment:

“I’m sorry…English is just crazy.”

More campus scenery

My counterpart and I practicing our sweet self-picture pose. We're THAT cool and not ashamed about it.

Two classrooms on the upper level

Inside of the classroom (taken on a Sunday as not to distract learning!)

Five of the classrooms on the lower level

Teachers' room

There’s No Place Like Home…But I Sure Do Like Genteng

For the next eight months, I have the distinct pleasure of residing in Genteng, a town in the region of Banyuwangi in east Java.  It’s a relatively small town (people have given me population estimates that have ranged from 25,000 – 100,000 people….it feels to me like a solid 50,000...as if I knew what that felt like) and it’s surrounded by a whole bunch of villages.   Even now after only two weeks of being here, I already think I could not get myself too lost here…which for me is saying something.  I love smaller towns…it’s what I know best.

There’s no place like home, but I sure do like Genteng.

I get the chance to teach English to 10^th graders at SMK Muhammadiyah 1 Genteng.  SMK (Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan) means it is a vocational school, so my students have chosen a field (accounting, business administration, technology and multimedia, etc.) to study that will prepare them for the workforce.  I have only taught one week of classes so far, but I can already tell that my students have a LOT of energy and run the gamut from terribly shy to notably ornery.  It will be a challenge…but I’m up for it!

There’s no place like home, but I sure do like Genteng.

Nichole (another Fulbrighter) and I get to stay together in a nifty little house in an adorable neighborhood.  My neighbors (especially my preciously thoughtful neighbor across the street, Bu Ila) are kind, generous people who are always looking out for the two bule (Westerners) living around the corner.  The sense of community here is incredibly strong—it shows in the way that people leave their front doors open so neighbors can drop by and chat.  I’ve encountered no shortage of kindness or friendliness in my neighborhood, my school, or in Genteng as a whole.

There’s no place like home, but I sure do like Genteng.

Life isn’t always the easiest—but as a whole, I just can’t complain.  Things I have in my house include:

1. A Western toilet.  If you heard me worry about my living situation before I left, you know this was my number one concern.  No shame.  There may not always be running water to flush it…but that’s what a bak mandi is for!
2. A kitchen.  Granted…I’m still scared of the kitchen because it is notoriously home to 4- to 6- to 8-legged creatures with which I’d rather not form relationships.  I’ll adapt, though.  I did swear I’d be “Sarah Hotovy:  Nature Woman” by the time I returned to the US.
3. An air conditioner in my bedroom.  It may be a toasty 30 degrees outside, but I don’t have to sweat it out at night (I do enough “sweating it out” in the classroom).
4. A really fantastic roommate.  It’s nice to have someone you can complain to about getting hit in the face by a bat flying by on your evening run…or cry to about accidently smashing a little lizard in the door when you locked it for the evening…or have stand with you as you cook dinner or hang your laundry in the terrifying kitchen at night. 
5.  WiFi!  As of yesterday afternoon, I will no longer feel pathetic about how my lack of Internet affects my mood…which I suppose still means I’m pathetic. 

There’s no place like home, but I sure do like Genteng.

My home is surrounded by rice paddies—it truly is a tropical paradise.  When I head to school in the morning, I get to stare out at the mountains decorated with palm trees that line the skyline.  Life here is slower-paced, meaning I have more time to simply look around and embrace my current environment.  I have no shortage of time to think, reflect, enjoy, and learn.

There’s no place like home, but I sure do like Genteng.

It’s difficult to be so far from home, but it’s comforting to see so much of my home here.  Staring out across the large, flat rice paddies reminds me of surveying a countryside lined with cornfields.  Already being able to see familiar faces as I’m out in the town is like being back in York where everyone seems to know everyone else.  One of my favorite things is when people in Genteng ask me what Nebraska is like, because I can take great pride in telling them that the thing I love most about Nebraska – the kind, thoughtful, hard-working people who call it home – is something I can also find here.

There’s no place like home, but I sure do like Genteng.

An (Unfortunately Vacuous and Description-Void) Ode to Singapore

Never in my life have I visited a large city and thought to myself, “I could actually live in a big city like this!”

That all changed in a 48-hour whirlwind of visa-obtaining and sight-seeing in the beautiful city/country of Singapore. 

Do you know the feeling you get when you see/experience something really incredible and you can’t seem to put into words why you feel the way you feel?  I’m still having that problem with my time in Singapore.  You’d think I’d be able to pull myself together to put out a meaningful blog post, but I just am unable to do that.  I suppose these adjectives come to mind:

CLEAN!

The bay, Marina Bay Sands, and the ArtScience Museum

ACCESSIBLE!

Merlions and tigers and bears...oh my!

FUN!

Lanterns in Chinatown! 

BEAUTIFUL!

Gardens by the Bay

INNOVATIVE!

This bridge is a double helix...and the lights that illuminate it at night say A & T and G & C.
Needless to say, I wanted to stay there forever.

I really wish I could give you a better description…but I honestly can do no better than to word-vomit out a pathetic attempt at a love song for this incredible destination and slap some pictures on this blog.  I cannot wait to go back sometime soon.

View from the Singapore Flyer

Marina Bay Sands