-I don't think I have ever seen my feet as often as I do now! Bare foot or sandals, thank you very much!
-The majority of Indonesians do everything in flip flops: climb mountains, ride on motor bikes, run races... They have very athletic feet.
-I finally know why most expats and wealthy Indonesians shop at the Ranch market, where you can buy Western quality food and brands, too, at two or three times the cost of other markets. It goes along with the fact that I now know what BRAT really stands for.
Answer: bananas, rice, apples and toast. [I've started ordering homemade 9 grain bread that is delivered once a week to my apartment from an expat bread company, as well. I never thought I would miss bread! I guess if you are raised on dairy and wheat, you kind of have to eat it more often than once every three months.]
-If you like salt, Indonesian is the place to come. For the same reason I now know what BRAT stands for, I now need a lot of salt (and sugar) to keep in balance.
-Authentic Korean food is now my food of choice. Kimchee, forever! A new Korean friend in my building insists I come for dinner often. An excellent and varied menu, the likes of which I have never set my eyes on before. She asked me yesterday if I thought her new live-in maid was too old. I asked how old was she and she replied, "46".
I hope she wouldn't think I was too old! I am a pretty good match for her in squash, so perhaps I pass.
-Two of my students are meeting President Obama tomorrow, so they will not be in class. Their parents
work at the American Embassy. The news came out after I asked John, how he had gotten a haircut so quickly! (I just saw him the night before at the American Embassy Recreational Association clubhouse where I saw a play called, "Veronica's Room".) He was not happy about the haircut!!
-One of our middle school teachers named Polly was proposed to in front of 400 screaming middle schoolers at the Bali stage. It was a complete surprise for her, the other MS teachers and the middle schoolers. Her fiance got down on one knee and everything.
-Our principal likes to dress up in bizarre costumes. On Halloween he came through all the classes dressed as Shrek. It was an amazing costume. The kids were speechless. They have never seen a principal like him, either. At least it was Halloween! The other times it is very unexpected. For instance, when I was having my review with the assistant principal, he kept changing into different chicken costumes and making faces at me in the window. The asst. principal turned around to see what was distracting me and said, "I do not think he has enough to do." At a Stand-up meeting Thursday morning 20 minutes before class starts, he showed us a job acceptance video by a couple from Taiwan. They had on silly hats and accepted the offer with a very unusual way. We can only imagine what the principal was wearing and saying when he offered the job to them!We love him, though because he has a big heart and when he says, "how are you doing?" and "come see me if you want to talk", you know he means it, but he is still the principal, and I'd rather talk with someone else! It must be lonely at the top!
-Time to do the endless school preparation. Tomorrow is the Science Summative exam (One of two tests that counts toward a grade for the quarter. All homework, quizzes, formative tests, lab reports etc are all consider part of the learning process and therefore should not be part of the grade. I like this! We all write and give the same exam. It is short, so we will also do a Filtration Challenge Lab. Each group of three gets to draw three items from a cup to use as a filter to clear up muddy water and then compare them with three other groups to see which filtering materials work best. We then go to a water treatment plant in a small village and in the city of Jakarta to see how it is done on those two levels.
-Teachers in the past asked the Jakarta plant why we can't safely drink the water since they used 5 steps to clean the water that included disinfection with chlorine and they said "the water is clean when it leaves the plant, but since they do not own or manage the pipes, there is no guarantee that it gets to your home that way."
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