So I’ve been in Indonesia for two whole months. My shipment still hasn’t arrived (Saudi
service sucks), so I’m not 100% where I need to be in terms of my
headspace. But I’m doing all right. I like my job and I live five minutes away
from it in a nice house. I’ve never
worked near my job, so to be able to hop in the car and be at work in under
five is every damn thing.
Once again, the school where I work is small. Small schools have advantages and
disadvantages. The main advantage is
that I don’t have to do direct collaborations with two or three other teachers,
which allows me to do what I want. The
main disadvantage is that because the school is so small, every instructor has
to wear multiple hats. I have a huge
course load, plus some administrative duties.
It’s a lot and some days I feel overwhelmed, but I do the best I can do
and that’s that. The school is in a nice
location; it’s lush and green and there’s a pond near my office.
The rainy season began last week. Apparently, that means it’s going to rain
every single day until sometime in March.
As my stuff is slowly making its way towards me, I am unprepared. It rains a lot and fortunately there are
trenches and drains that allow for runoff.
Even with that, it’s a lot of water.
My flip-flops broke yesterday as I was walking towards my car. I got drenched. My homie JVNX told me to invest in a good
poncho, quick-dry pants and wash my feet after every rain shower.
I love rain. I love
listening to it and love the cool breezes a good rain allows. I don’t like being out in the rain. So this is going to be an adjustment.
I’ve finally started exploring, but on a limited basis. Found a good movie theater and now I go to
the movies every weekend. Found a nail
salon, so I can get pedicures every couple of weeks. Just found a massage parlor, but I’m going to
try a different one closer to the job.
Found the wine shop and scored four bottles. Wine is expensive as hell over here…but it’s here and that’s all that matters. After two years in a literal and figurative
dry country, access to wine is a wonderful, beautiful thing. My next objective is to explore different
restaurants.
I don’t know if I mentioned this in my last post, but I have
a live-in maid. This is a first for
me. I thought I’d freak out because I’m
used to being alone, but no. She’s a
sweetheart. I don’t have enough for her
to do because my stuff isn’t here and I’m not a messy person. She keeps the house clean and—dig
this—prepares meals. I’ve had a
housekeeper for every country I’ve lived in sans the US, and I’ve never had
them cook for me. I’ve got a fairly
sensitive palate and just didn’t trust them to cook to my standards. But my current maid (let’s call her Nancy)
asked me if she could cook for me. I
said that it wasn’t necessary. Never
mind that I was hardly eating, and when I did, it was cereal and
sandwiches.
But one day, I came home from work starving and
exhausted. I had a package of noodles
and asked Nancy if she would prepare them for me.
Chile…
She hooked them noodles up with veggies, scramble eggs and
chicken and I housed the entire plate.
Then Nancy gave me a cookbook and told me to pick out what I liked. Now you got to understand that Nancy doesn’t
speak English and I don’t speak or read Bahasa (Indonesian). I ended up telling her to cook whatever took
her fancy as long as it wasn’t spicy.
This was one of the best decisions I made since moving
here. Nancy prepares fairly healthy
meals and she makes sure I get fresh fruits and veggies with every meal. I eat about 95% of what she cooks. I look forward to coming home to a hot plate. She has taken to making me breakfast and
lunch as well. So I eat better than I
did when I was cooking for myself. It certainly
makes a difference in terms of digestion and my overall health.
What’s different about my experience here so far is that I
don’t live in the same compound as my colleagues. We’re spread out over the city. As a result, I do everything alone. I don’t mind it too much, as I’m used to
being alone. But I will admit that
sometimes I do get a little lonely. I
don’t really know how to fix the situation, so I just try to keep busy and make
sure I have different activities lined up...and trips to take. Bali, here I come...
Anyway, life is good and all is well. That's as much as I want and need in my life.
Be talking to you soon!
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