I’m still not a “morning person”
Over the past few weeks I’ve been going to another school in the mornings to teach English to 3rd and 4th graders. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I’ve been getting up at 5:45, leaving the house at 6:30, arriving at my school at 7:00, and taking a small school van to another school that’s about 1/2 hour from my school. I get to the other school at 7:45, but don’t start teaching class until 8:15. I teach 3rd grade English for an hour 25, then I have a short break before an hour 25 of grade 4 English. Even though it’s early in the morning, the classes have been pretty fun. It’s a National School, and all of the lessons (except Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesia, I think) are taught in English. There are little signs up all over the school campus saying “English only”. Even on the playground the kids speak English. It’s quite different from my usual school in that way.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I don’t start teaching until 4:00 pm. It’s been a bit difficult to adapt to the staggered work schedule, and I feel tired a lot. Fortunately this is just temporary until the other school finds a permanent English teacher. I keep reminding myself that one of the reasons I wanted to be a teacher was for the variety. And this has definitely added some variety to my schedule here.
This past weekend was 3 days for us. Indonesian Independence day was on Sunday, so we got Monday off as a holiday. I was really happy about this since Mondays are my early morning days. Woohoo! I don’t have to get up early again until Wednesday.
On Sunday we went to the Sheraton to swim with some of our friends. The hotel is about a 10 minute walk from our house, and the pool is really nice. It’s surrounded by palm trees, and has a little island in the middle of it with more palms. It’s really relaxing, and the people that work there speak English. It was a beautiful day. I can’t believe that after living here for over a year, that’s the first time Billy and I have gone swimming there.
Sunday evening I got together with 3 of my girlfriends here, and we had dinner at a house that two of them share. Our newest teacher, Mel, taught us how to crochet. They had an acoustic guitar, and took turns playing songs. We all sang along. It made me realize how much I’d missed having girlfriends here. Last year I only had one other ex-pat girlfriend, and she lives about 30 minutes away. It’s nice having friends that are just a few minute walk from me. They’re artsy people like me, and it’s fun having other people to create things with.
Anyway, that’s about all that’s new with me. Hope everyone’s doing well.
Cheers!
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