Friday Morning Workout

Every Friday morning there is a mandatory school-wide [that means students and teachers] workout session for the first hour of the day. The theme of the exercise rotates week by week. Some weeks we go for a leisurely stroll around the town. Some weeks the students play soccer and the teachers jog. Some weeks we run laps around the school. And then comes my favorite week of the month - aerobics week. Imagine 2,500 children and adults "mouse-ercising" [remember that back in elementary school? aerobics with Mickey Mouse music?]. They blare a loud mix of Indonesian and American music. There is a hired aerobics instructor who stands on a platform leading the activity by example and by enthusiastic yelps and screaming encouragements. Surprisingly, everyone gets really into the aerobics. Both teachers and students go all out jumping and swinging their arms without restraint. Watching aerobics is one of the highlights of my month. Maybe it sounds rude, but nothing makes me laugh as hard. [I would feel bad about this, but considering how often people laugh at everything I do and 'surreptitiously' take photos of me without asking...Fair is fair.]

You'll have to forgive my cackling during the videos. These videos aren't the best of the aerobics. I missed most of it and this is their cool down, which is much calmer and less energetic than the rest of the workout. Still, it gives you a little insight into what I'm talking about. Enjoy!

ETA TFLN

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the website Texts From Last Night. For those of you who aren't, TFLN is a website where people can post text messages that they have sent or received. Texts are posted anonymously, but identified by area code. The texts generally focus on 1. sex 2. alcohol/drugs 3. ridiculous things. It is very college, but entertaining.
For example:
(203): The dean held back my hair as I was puking after graduation. That means so much more than a diploma and a handshake.

Some of the ETAs and I were discussing the website and saying that one of the reasons we enjoy occasionally reading it is that posted texts are so far from applying to our current lives. We said that if we were to create an ETA version, the majority of our posted texts would focus on 1. disgusting things we find in our houses 2. people inappropriately hitting on us 3. ridiculously odd situations we get forced into. Here are some sample texts [some real, some fake though based on real situations] from Indonesia ETAs:

(+62): the cat pooped on my couch. again.

(+62): 3 foot long monitor lizard being hacked to death in my living room. can't talk right now.

(+62): exactly how bad is it to eat bugs?

(+62): ants in my bed. cockroaches under it. rats in kitchen. giant lizard in living room. i live in a zoo.

(+62): what should we name my parasite?

(+62): i dont wanna close my eyes i dont wanna fall a sleep cz i.d miss u baby.. N i dont wanna miss a thing cz even when i dream of u the sweetest dream would nv do i.d still miss u baby,. i l0ve u, n hve a nice dream,

(+62): u beautiful smart young girl. i lucky have u my special friend. i can to your house now?

(+62): apparently i'm the guest lecturer at this english conference. thanks for the heads up bu.

(+62): just confiscated porn of women in jilbabs. now what do i do?

(+62): how do you politely tell 'bus "stop cheating! i can see you and i'm not stupid"?

(+62): 3 video cameras taping my class. i hate my life.

(+62): 12 year old girl just sang to me in front of 200 people. i feel dirty.

Please feel free to add your own ETA Indonesia TFLN!

It's All Fun and Games

I have had a great Fulbright grant experience. Much of that is due to my school--SMK N1 Magelang. I wanted to thank my school for hosting me and for taking care of me during my time here. I had brought gifts for teachers and students, but I wanted to give something to the school as a whole. My cousin Michelle, who taught in Honduras, had the great idea to give my school an assortment of games. So when my parents came to visit in April they brought a suitcase full of assorted games. We're talking: Scrabble, Connect-Four, Battleship, UNO, Scrabble Slam, MasterMind, Jenga, etc! Lots of fun.
I had to make the games at least semi-educational to use them in class. So I gave the kids the boxes with the instructions in English. I made them try to work out the instructions first and then helped them if they needed it. Once they figured out how to play, I had them write their own instructions for the games in Bahasa Indonesia. The point was to leave the games with instructions in Indonesian so that everyone at the school will be able to play. We had a lot of fun playing the games in small groups. I'm not sure that many of them had ever played board games before. Now every class they ask if we can play again.

Battleship was by far the most coveted game to play. Bloody-minded teenage boys. The directions weren't easy though and even I had to read them twice before I could sufficiently explain the game.

Andrianus puzzles out the directions for Connect-Four. This was another popular choice. I hypothesize that the bigger the box, the more they want to play that game.

Scrabble Slam is a card version of Scrabble. It is surprisingly a lot of fun and one of the more educational of the games since it forces them to practice spelling and word recall. One of the boys was very amused to tell me that his girlfriend's name is Jenga. Jenga was very popular because it made the most noise.

At first I worried that Scrabble would be too difficult because it is a complicated and sophisticated vocabulary game. After a bit of explaining and demonstrating on my part, all of the students were able to play. Not only able to play, but excited to play. They even came up with some words that surprised me!

UNO is so classic. Everyone loves UNO, how could you not? It is easy and fun. If I was going to pick a game to play, it would be UNO for sure!

The Beginning of the End

If you didn't previously know, you can see from the above photo that I'm returning to the USA in 17 days. Frankly, I was uncertain whether to end my last sentence with an exclamation point or a sad face. I'm conflicted about my imminent departure. On the one hand, I'm over being here. I honestly feel like I accomplished what I set out to do during my Fulbright grant period. I've taught English, I've learned Bahasa Indonesia, I've made friends inside and outside of my school, I've learned more about Indonesia than I can tell you. I sometimes feel like now I'm in a holding pattern; treading water until I move on to the next step. The next step is graduate school and I'm excited to start learning again. I'm tired of being in a place that is where I live, but never where I 100% belong. I miss my friends and my family. In so many ways, I'm ready to leave Indonesia and return to the United States, my home.

On the other hand, I am very sad to be leaving. I love Indonesia! I love that every day is an adventure. I enjoy the sense of excitement that I feel every day. I will miss teaching--for I've found that I really do enjoy teaching ESL. Most of all, I will really miss my students. They are sweet and kind, silly and curious, bold and gracious. They make me feel like what I'm doing is important--that I'm impacting someone. They make me laugh. They make me blush. They make me feel effortlessly beautiful and special. They are accepting of all my cultural/teaching missteps and fumblings. Their acceptance gives me confidence. We have learned together. I think that is a powerful gift. They can at times still puzzle me. I don't know why they sometimes yell over me in class or why no one ever does their homework and I'm still not used to boys sitting on other boys' laps in class. At the end of the day, I will seriously miss them. I will miss the moments when I feel profoundly alive teaching them--those FLOW moments Bruce Crowley taught us about. I will miss their laughter and their enthusiasm. I will miss their eager little faces constantly peering at, and following, me. I wish I could see into the future and see how they turn out. What will become of them? And I guess that is what makes leaving so difficult...I probably will never know. I'll leave here and it will be like I fell off their planet. They won't have the opportunity to leave Indonesia and it is unlikely I will find them if/when I return. They will be lost to me--absorbed back into their villages. And that hurts. I'm proud of them. I'm invested in their triumphs. I want to know what they do with their lives, I want to see what they make of themselves. I want to continue to be proud of them, even from afar, even from America.

Everyone is starting to panic about my departure. That was why I made the window countdown so that they would all be forewarned and have time to adjust to the idea. In the week since I've put it up I've constantly been receiving invitations to lunch, dinner, to visit people's houses; having my picture taken ["one last time miss!"]; being asked to sign things; and being given gifts. Once again, I am awed by the generosity and depth of feeling that people here possess. Class 1EC, which I taught last semester, asked my Ibu if they could come to my house before I left. She told them to come on Thursday because it was a holiday. So this morning, 26 students from 1 EC squashed into my house [there is no comfortable way for my house to fit that many people]. For two hours we played the boardgames that my parents brought for me to give as a departing gift to SMK N1. It was strange and fun for me to see them in normal clothes. The house was full of laughter as they played the games.

After they had tried out all of the games, they presented me with a beautiful piece of hand painted batik. Most batik these days is printed with stamps, but this is the traditional, hand painted kind. It is gorgeous--full of small purple flowers--easily the most lovely batik I've gotten here. I gave them each a penny taped to the "find a penny, pick it up..." poem.

Before they could leave, we obviously had to have a photo shoot outside. We took group photos, we took all-girl and all-boy photos, and then we took individual photos. We took photos until everyone was happy.

Before they all left, they each shook my hand and "salaam"-ed me [I know that's not what it is actually called because 'salaam' is a greeting, but people are always telling their children to "Salaam Miss Sarah" so that's what I refer to it as. What I mean is that they take your hand and press it to their forehead or cheek. It's a sign of respect.]. It usually makes me uncomfortable when they do it. I'm not old enough to be an elder and although I'm their teacher I'm closer in age to them than I am to any of the other teachers. I want them to feel like my equals, not like they must obey me. Today it felt natural. It felt like a proper ending to our day and to our time here together. And that makes me hopeful that when the time comes to leave it will somehow feel right.

Need a Pet?

If you're searching for the wild, the exotic, the rare, or the just plain strange; start looking at Yogyakarta's bird market--Pasar Ngasem. You never know what you'll find wandering through those narrow streets.
As its name suggests, the bird market offers many different species of birds. Chickens, canaries, small song birds, parrots, and many other birds are on display. Some of the birds can sing. Some of the birds can talk. They come in all different colors and sizes. Isn't this little blue one just adorable?They even offer owls! I've wanted a pet owl since I started reading Harry Potter books in 6th grade. Seeing them for sale instantly gave me the awesome vision of me teaching my classes with my tiny owl, Artemis, perched on my shoulder. Artemis would correct me when I made English mistakes. Sadly, back in the real world, 1. owls don't talk and 2. there is probably a 0%chance that US customs would let me bring an Indonesian owl into the states. Dreams dashed.The bird market also boasts other flying creatures...like fruit bats. This is a baby fruit bat. The adults are much larger.There were also small rodents and mammals like this squirrel-like creature. It had an impressively long jump. Also for sale: rats and mice. As if there aren't enough of those available for free in every home here.Moving on to reptiles, they had a nice selection of all scaly things. Green lizards, brown lizards, chameleons, snakes...

Miniature monitor lizards--read: komodo dragon family and the monster that invaded tall Sarah and Alexa's house in Gorontalo.

And of course, you can't forget your nice buckets of worms or maggots! Who doesn't want those?
Also available for purchase were cats, dogs, rabbits, an assortment of tropical fish, ants, and a porcupine. Who knows what else there was that I didn't even see!

Happy pet shopping!

Magelang Royalty

Two weeks ago my presence was "requested" at the Women's Meeting by the Walikota's wife. The Walikota is essentially the mayor of Magelang. He's kinda omnipotent and his power extends to his wife. She demanded my presence rather than requested it. Now, I'm sure this is my Western upbringing rearing it's ugly head, but I rather dislike and resent being commanded to do anything. This is unfortunate because Indonesian society is very power-structure/"respect your superiors" oriented and I'm commanded to do things quite frequently. I've learned to swallow my response and proceed as demurely as possible. Unless it's something that I really don't want to do. I really did not want to go to this Women's Meeting. I was tired and feeling ill and did not want to sit through 3-4 hours of women talking in Javanese and pose for 100s of photos and struggle to keep a smile pasted on my face. Theoretically, being personally invited by the Walikota's wife was a huge honor, but I still wasn't into it. I pointed this out to my principal...And an hour later I was being videotaped walking into the Women's Meeting.
Ibu Murwani, a SMK N1 math teacher, was sent to accompany me. I was grumpy and trying to suppress it until we arrived and I was told that it was going to be a batik show designed and modelled by SMK K Magelang--our sister vocational school where girls learning cooking, beauty, and sewing. That sounded much better than listening to Javanese lectures on feminine hygiene or how to properly care for a household. I started to relax. I had my picture taken with all the important people of Magelang--Mr. & Mrs. Walikota, Mr. & Mrs. Wakil Walikota [vice mayor], Mr. & Mrs. Head of Police, the list goes on and on. There was a lengthy photoshoot of me with Mr. & Miss Magelang. Seriously. The city voted on the two most attractive 20-somethings and make them dress up and greet people at events like this to promote tourism and the wonders that are Magelang. The tourism office thought it would have double the effect if I was shoved in with them too.
Miss Magelang, me, Runner-up Miss Magelang [They look just about as thrilled as I felt to have all these pictures taken]

Mr. Magelang, Miss Magelang, me, Runner-up Miss Magelang, Runner-up Mr. Magelang [Mr. Magelang is actually pretty cute. Where has he been hiding these last 8 months?]

Despite the unnecessary amount of photos, I was enjoying the event. There was a booth where this nice little old lady showed me how to make batik. Ibu Murwani and I each bought a batik sarong courtesy of SMK N1. Thanks Pak Heru! Then it was time for the fashion show to start. As the first SMK K models hit the stage, all my comfort fled. Batik show it was...batik lingerie show!?!? Something of the sort. The girls were wearing little tiny batik shirts and batik bustiers. They were strutting their stuff on the catwalk. And everyone was enjoying it...everyone except me. I was sitting there thinking, How is this okay? This is a Muslim country, this is definitely a Muslim town, and these are 15-17 year old girls, in bustiers, on a catwalk. There are men in this room, people are taking photos, and no one is bothered? This is not Yogya, this is not a cosmopolitan city; this is the place where I can't wear sleeveless shirts or my hair down in public because that is too risque. The female portion of the audience was all wearing jilbabs. I was, and still am, confounded. The show ended and I left feeling rather dirty and confused. I heard people on the way out talking about the creativity and the beauty of the designs. Many people were having their photos taken with the models. I wanted to wrap them all in batik sarongs. Maybe conservatism has rubbed off on me, but I couldn't help feeling that these high school girls were being exploited. They didn't look upset--they looked happy. But how is it okay to wear lingerie in a fashion show when the other 99% of the time you get criticized for showing your elbows?

MONGGO Chocolate Factory

This may be heaven on Earth! This Friday Lolly and I went to the MONGGO chocolate factory in Kota Gede, Jogjakarta! MONGGO is the only good chocolate that we've found in Indonesia and it is delicious! And expensive; which makes it a rare treat. MONGGO is made from Indonesian cocoa beans from both Sumatra and Java. The founder of the company is Belgian, but the workers are all Indonesian women.
It is a rare occurance to visit the factory when they are in production, but we lucked out! It wasn't quite as cool as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--mostly due to the lack of oompa loompas. It was still really cool to watch the women pour big dippers full of melted chocolate into molds and then pipe them full of filling. Lolly and I stood gaping at the workers until they started to gape back at us [probably no one has ever watched them for such a long period of time before]. We finally pried ourselves away to visit the gift shop for our free samples. Of course I thought of Chesh the whole time--the wonderful Aunt who first introduced me to the delicious world of chocolate! If I ever find myself jobless with no immediate prospects, I'm moving back to Yogya to work at MONGGO! We were behind glass so my pictures aren't that great, but here is the room where the chocolate is put into molds and filling added. MONGGO makes bars with nuts, strawberry jam, ginger, praline, and other flavors.

Those big pots are full of melted chocolate. Lolly and I debated the intelligence of begging for one, but in the end decided to settle for our free sample and the many factory-discounted bars we bought!