Have you heard of the app, 1 Second Everyday (1SE)? It lets you compile a video of one-second clips from every day, creating a fun, fast-paced glimpse into your past.
Inspired by some of my fellow ETAs, I jumped on the bandwagon and started adding daily clips. I kept it up for the entire year, and finally finished my Fulbright Year video. Enjoy this glimpse into my daily life in Indonesia!
I spent 19 of the last 21 months living in Indonesia. It was a wild ride from start to finish, but one that I wouldn’t have traded for the world. I also learned a lot… some things serious, others less so… I’ve spent the last month or so developing this list – I hope you enjoy!
Mock-teaching in Bandung
At my favorite cafe, Bottoms Up, with my favorite food, Nasi Ayam Lada Garam… spicy chicken with rice.
I wore this proudly
Vacationing with friends is the best
My kids had lots of questions for Martha about the U.S. government’s feelings towards Muslims and what it would be like if they ever went to America. I was so proud of them for asking those questions.
I’m sure I learned hundreds more things but this is what came to mind. It’s weird to think that I’m back in the States for good now, and can’t jet off to climb an active volcano or stumble upon a deserted beach. But America has many modern conveniences that I am eternally grateful for – hot showers, sinks, clean drinking water, all the Western food, the ability to pass unnoticed wherever I go… I’m grateful to be home but will always miss the beautiful country of Indonesia that I was lucky enough to call home for two years!
The spring is so much better than the fall semester as an ETA. You finally understand how things work at your school, you have routines, you know your students and are much more comfortable in the classroom, and… there are so many great things to look forward to!
My lovely coteachers! Ibu Asni, me, Ibu Sukma, and Ibu Ernida
In the spring, AMINEF hosts an English speech and talent competition in Jakarta called the WORDS Competition. Each ETA hosts their own local competition at their school and then the winner gets to travel with their ETA to Jakarta to compete in the national competition. My weekend in Jakarta with Telsy last year was my favorite memory of the whole year. You can read about last year’s competition at SMAN 5 here and last year’s national competition here!
Telsy and I at last year’s national WORDS Competition
We had our MAN 1 competition on March 3 after weeks of preparation. This year’s theme was “Cicak on the Wall”, a take on the English expression, “fly on the wall.” Students had to write a short speech answering, “If you were a cicak (or fly) on the wall at any point in the past, present, or future, where would you want to be? What room or place would you want to observe?”
(A “cicak” is a house lizard. There are dozens in my house. From Kate: “Sometimes they make little chirping noises…like “eya, eya, eya.” They are very fast but are friendly because they eat mosquitos and ants so we like them. They are as long as finger and green/grey/yellow in color.” Cicaks are everywhere so they were a fun, culturally relevant substitution for a “fly” on the wall 😉
Initially, this theme was a little difficult for my students to understand, but I believed in their creativity. With a few of my classes (the English language track) we worked on brainstorming ideas and topics in class. I had them come up with 9 different potential places and then helped them choose their best three (most creative!) ideas. From there, students wrote further on each topic, describing what they might hear, see, feel, think, smell, etc., there. Then, the student and I chose the best one.
Dilla and Shohibah, my sweet 11th grade girls!
Students brought me drafts of their speeches every day for weeks. It was exhausting but so worth it! I loved helping them work through the drafting process, it’s something most of them have never done before. Teachers usually assign textbook work and so students rarely get the chance to exercise their critical thinking and revision skills.
Elanda and Febby, two students who brought me countless drafts of their speeches 🙂
In addition to the speech, students also had to present a talent. Singing and dancing were favorites among my students. We also had students do magic tricks, taekwondo, and paint a beautiful watercolor. All in 2-3 minutes!
Mitha painting her watercolor…
Mitha’s incredible watercolor! Her speech was about NASA so she painted this (in three minutes!!!)
Misra reading her speech before doing Taekwondo
Irfan doing magic tricks!
In addition to helping my students prepare their speeches and talents, I also had to design and get a banner printed (which ended up being the biggest banner I have ever seen in my life), prepare score sheets for the judges, design and print certificates for all the students, prepare prizes, and organize photographers and videographers… It was a busy week leading up to the competition!
Tell me this isn’t the coolest banner you’ve ever seen 😀
My students being interviewed before the competition began…
The competition went off almost without a hitch! The only issue was the hour long mati lampu (black out) that started just as we were going to begin. Of course… Luckily, it only lasted an hour and everyone was patient. Shelby even led all the students in a round of the “peel the banana” song and dance while we were waiting 😀
Finally, the competition began. The topics of the speeches ran the gamut from wanting to be a “cicak on the wall” in an alien spaceship, to Heaven, to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, to her parent’s shoe store, to Edison’s workshop as he made the first lightbulb, and on and on…
My kids were fantastic! I was so incredibly proud of them! Most left the stage with gigantic smiles on their faces, so proud of what they had just accomplished. Many of the students had never given a speech in English before and they were so proud of themselves! A few left the stage in happy, relieved tears. They had been so nervous that once it was all over, their emotions just came out in the form of adorable tears. I was ready at the bottom of the stairs for each one – with a hug or a high-five.
Sweet Redita in tears after she finished <3
I had three lovely judges for my competition – my sitemates Kate and Shelby as well as my Bahasa tutor and friend, Yuni. I was grateful I didn’t have to be a judge because I don’t know how I would have chosen a winner!
Much thanks to my fabulous judges! <3
When all 19 students had finished, the judges huddled together and decided on the first, second and third place winners. I contributed my opinions for a few superlative awards (best talent, most improved, best pronunciation, etc) and then it was time for the announcement. As I called students up for the superlative awards they were so excited that I could hardly take it. My kiddos had worked so hard for this and it had paid off in a great competition.
Our third place finalist was Fadillah, who wrote a touching speech about wanting to be a cicak on the wall in the hosptial when her dad was sick and passed away. She beautifully sang, “Flashlight” as her talent, to round off an extremely touching performance.
Dilla, 3rd place
Our second place finalist was Syerin (pronounced Sharon), who wrote an excellent speech on wanting to be a super cicak in a voting booth. He wanted to gather an army of super cicaks to influence the hearts and enlighten the voters to who would be best to lead the Indonesian nation.
Syerin, 2nd place
And our winner was Elanda, an 11th grader who wrote an inspiring speech on the Indonesian heroine, Kartini. During Dutch colonialism, Kartini was taken out of school and secluded in her home, following traditional Javanese nobility customs. Kartini wanted to continue learning so taught herself at home and corresponded with Dutch friends. After her marriage, she built a school for girls before dying in childbirth. Kartini is remembered today for her passion for women’s rights and education. Elanda, as a cicak, wanted to go to the past to be in Kartini’s room and observe her as she wrote letters and educated herself. Elanda had put in a lot of work and her speech was well-thought out and passionate. It was a no-brainer for the judges as to the winner 🙂
She wrapped me in a huge hug when I called her name as the winner <3
Elanda, 1st place <3
Elanda and I head to Jakarta in just two and a half weeks! I can’t wait to show her around the big city (she has never been to Jakarta!) and treat her to a week like she’s never had before 😀
Merry Christmas Everyone!
It’s December 18th and I’m packing and cleaning my house before I leave for Vietnam tomorrow. I am super excited for our trip – I haven’t left Kendari since we arrived after orientation in September and I’m itching to travel! We’ve spent the last several weeks planning our trip – we’ll start in the north in Hanoi and make our way south to Ho Chi Minh City over the course of two weeks. We’ve booked our hostels and flights and looked up fun things to do in each of the four cities will be in but other than that, we’re planning to take each day as it comes! I’ll be traveling with Kate (my sitemate) and Caroline and Daniel, two fellow ETAs. There will also be a number of our other ETA friends in Vietnam so we hoping to see them along the way, too.
I can’t wait to be in a place with lots of holiday spirit, Western and Vietnamese food, and hot showers. You have no idea how excited I am for a hot shower after four months of pouring buckets of cold water over my head and calling that a shower…. (I’m not exaggerating in the slightest).
But before we get ready to enter 2017 I want to look back at 2016. Who would have thought I’d still be in Indonesia, still rooming with cockroaches and giant spiders, still eating rice for a majority of my meals, and still have no idea what I want to do with my life…?
2016 Year in Review
January: highlights included the Fulbright mid-year conference in Jakarta, finally getting to see the other ETAs after four months in our respective cities; and traveling to Ko Tao, Thailand and getting scuba certified!
February: finally got into a teaching routine after months of evacuations and joined my kids in a crazy mud-filled scout camp.
March: hosted our SMAN 5 WORDS Competition, spent a beautiful week in Bali, and officially decided to return for a second year!
April: Hung out with orangutans in Tanjung Puting National Park and spent a week in Jakarta with my student, Telsy, for the National WORDS competition.
May: welcomed Spencer to Palangkaraya, said a tearful goodbye, and began our Indonesia adventure heading to Nusa Lembongan and Flores/Komodo National Park.
June: Finished our Indo tour in Ubud and Jogja and came home to the USA! Did a whirlwind trip from Seattle to DC to St. Louis and back to Seattle.
July: Enjoyed time with my family, played a lot of golf, attended a lecture by Malala, and worked my ass off to finish the 1 million step challenge (success!)
August: Returned to Indonesia, spent a few weeks in Jakarta working with AMINEF, visited my kiddos in Palangkaraya, and finally went to Kendari for the first time!
September: Attended orientation in Bandung, settled in to my new home in Kendari, and started the crazy BBG workout.
October: Explored my new city and settled into a teaching routine.
November: Visited Moramo waterfall, despaired over Trump’s election, celebrated Thanksgiving three times, and shed pounds doing Kayla’s BBG workout.
December: Chilled with no school for 2.5 weeks and headed to Vietnam!
Books of 2016
I read a lot (29 on #30!) of books in 2016… I enjoyed almost all! Here is my list with the starred ones as my favorites:
If you have any highlights from your 2016 book list, let me know – I always love book recommendations!
Game-changers
What have I acquired or done in 2016 that changed my year for the better? Here’s my list!
Left: June 2nd, 2016 Right: December 18, 2016. All due to three months of BBG.
I find myself entering 2017 with the same career questions and future unknowns as I did last year… but I’m not worried about it, rather, I’m excited to get going on the job search post-vietnam and to know where and what I’ll be doing come June!
2016 has been year full of meeting new people, making new friends, and exploring so many new places. I’m incredibly blessed to get to travel as much as I do and to see so much of the world and I’m excited for one more journey in 2016… to Vietnam!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Guys. I got to celebrate Thanksgiving three times this year. And got to eat stuffing and pumpkin pie TWICE!
As an ETA in Indonesia, Thanksgiving and its related foods are not easily found. In Jakarta and some cities with an expat community, some restaurants will serve a traditional Thanksgiving meal and if you’re ambitious enough you could probably even find the ingredients and make a whole meal yourself.
In Kendari however, it’s a different story. There are eight expats living in/around Kendari (including us three) and Western food is limited. Restaurants include two KFCs, Pizza Hut, and Papa Ron’s (pizza). Grocery stores carry a tiny selection of Western food and brands, namely pasta, tomato sauce, and mayonnaise. So when November rolled around, we didn’t expect anything Thanksgiving-related.
But that assumption was FALSE!
The first celebration of Thanksgiving occurred on Thanksgiving Day. I taught three classes that day and then met my English club after school. I wanted to introduce them to Thanksgiving a little bit so I shared a few photos of my family at Thanksgiving from years past. They loved the pictures of me and my family, all the food, but especially to see the inside of my house 🙂 I shared about Thanksgiving food and how my aunt Suzy and I usually spend two days cooking and preparing everything for the family – they were impressed! As a treat, I had made them guacamole because I had talked about it before and they wanted so badly to try it! Half of them loved it, half of them hated it! (Avocados are usually considered a fruit and served sweet here so it was a weird experience for them!)
Digging in to the guac!
(Mostly) Happy kiddos!
We made hand turkeys of what we are thankful for – I loved watching them make it and was so happy to put them all up on the wall in what is quickly becoming my beautifully decorated classroom!
Everyone pitching in to decorate the wall!
How cute!!
We also did a mannequin challenge, the viral video challenge where everyone freezes in place like a mannequin – swim teams and gymnastic teams have made some pretty impressive ones! Ours is fun too!
That evening, I met up with Kate and Shelby and we went and ate pizza together to “celebrate” Thanksgiving 🙂
On Friday evening, the other expats invited us to their Thanksgiving celebration the following day. So on Saturday we followed them out to where the other expat couple lives (on the beach!) and were astounded to discover a beautifully set table on the beach and endless dishes of stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, black olives (my favvvv), gravy, homemade rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie… my jaw literally dropped.
Got off our bikes and discovered ourselves here
We enjoyed a wonderful evening chatting with all of these new friends, watching the sun set over the mountains, and eating food we thought we would have to wait another year for…
Best looking plate I’ve seen in a year and a half <3
A perfect setting
Beautiful view
Pies!!
Then, on Sunday we hosted our own Friendsgiving! We wanted to share some of our culture with the people who have helped us and befriended us in the three months we have been here, so we invited them to a big Thanksgiving potluck last Sunday. We spent the week before looking up oven-less, simple ingredient recipes, going to different stores and markets to find the ingredients, and finally spending all day Sunday cooking up a storm!
Cooking away!
We ended up with quite a spread considering our limitations. We made delicious creamy garlic mashed potatoes, a fantastic stovetop stuffing, yummy but nasty looking (not orange) sweet potatoes, garlic green beans, and even managed pumpkin pies – from scratch! I bought a pumpkin from the market, cut it into big slices and boiled them until soft, cut off the peels, and then had pumpkin to work with! Let me just say, I was quite impressed with myself 🙂
Proud chefs!
Our friends loved the chance to visit, meet each other, and try our food. We even made little Thankfulness turkeys and went around in a circle sharing what we are thankful for. It was a great end to a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend!
The crew!
Potluck-style – everyone brought something to share
Two of my coteachers, Ibu Asni and Ibu Erni enjoying our meal!
Forget the 14 couches we all could have comfotably sat on… in Indo we sit on the floor 😀
My ibus <3
My no-bake pumpkin pies!
Introducing bahasa tutors to Apples to Apples
Shelby, Kate and I finished the day sprawled out on Kate’s bed watching both the cartoon Grinch and half the Jim Carrey Grinch, before we began to drift off into a happy, food-coma sleep.
The last two weeks have been busy and full – just a few days after posting about teaching I caught the flu and had a fairly miserable three days trying to recover from it. Let me just say, it sucks being sick alone and it doubly sucks being sick in a foreign country alone. I tried to go to school and came home with a fever. Definitely learned my lesson…
Anyways, all that to say – I meant to post this last week but everything snowballed after missing half a week. So – here we go! A tour of Kendari, via my motorcycle helmet!
My fantastic parents got me a go-pro for my birthday and I am so excited to go exploring with it. I wanted to give you all a little tour of Kendari, so figured why not attach the gopro to my helmet and ride my bike through town!
A few caveats:
Hope you liked the little preview of my city! Off to the beach tomorrow! Time to take the gopro underwater 😀 😀
