The Authoritahs!

On Friday at 10am, Miss Kate came rushing into my room telling me to avoid leaving my room and especially to avoid the main office. Apparently, some immigration authoritahs had come to the school and were taking pictures of the ex-pats who were in the halls or main office area time of their arrival. Later on, once the authoritahs had left, Ibu Elena told me they were most likely looking for a bribe and didn't have the proper paperwork with them to question the status of the teachers at the school, but either way it was disconcerting to have that happen during the school day.

This weekend has gone by pretty quickly! On Friday, I got to hang out with other ex-pat staff members and it was really interesting to gain their perspective on living in Jakarta and teaching at Mentari. They've had really positive experiences and while I realize the sample wasn't representative, it was definitely encouraging that my positive interaction with the school thus far might not be an anomaly or "honeymoon period." Saturday, I was able to do a good amount of reading (I'm really enjoying the current book: "Nudge" by Thaler and Sunstein), went for a distance run, and had coffee and conversation with Ab prior to seeing Inception with him. Part of our conversation had to deal with September break, and we're looking to start to finalize plans to go to southern Vietnam and Angkor Wat. It's really surreal that this vacation may happen, I mean there's a National Geographic special on Angkor Wat and we may be able to go there! Today I've been able to run a number of errands and I'm about to go out to purchase some futsal boots so that I'll have more traction on the turf surface! Additionally, I started the "Forgiveness" sermon series with Church of the Resurrection online. My landlady has invited me to her church service, but I'm really enjoying the quality of the messages provided by Adam Hamilton, so it may be some time before I venture out with Ibu Thelma to try her service (which also has some components in Bhasa, so motivation to study up!)