Clarity...ahhhhh the relief (perhaps starting the day with Mr. Carlin is for the best)

Starting at Sekolah Mentari, being in a private school, and being slightly mis-informed yesterday, I was anticipating I would have to drastically change my teaching style in the coming year. However, after meeting with the current technology teacher, Matt (who has been there for 7 years), I am extremely relieved. It may have been the language barrier and differing expectations, but yesterday I was under the impression that students purchased their textbooks at the beginning of the school year and that the school advocated students writing in the textbook as supplementary notes. However, today Matt clarified that Ibu Elena (yes, similar to 'bu Cindy' for all my WaM friends :) lol) prefers teachers who don't use textbooks (something I've become very familiar with due to my time with TFA) and that the students only borrow the textbooks. Thus, today I was able to better construct what my lessons and classroom would be on a daily basis (at least for the 8th grade, tomorrow I'm going to work to familiarize myself with the 9th grade coursework)

In other news, Ab, Mike, and I walked home from school today to start to explore the neighborhood of Kemang. It is definitely a nicer neighborhood in Jakarta (and as a point of comparison, it has a Chelsea-type feel relative to the rest of the city, so yes, I'm turning into one of those, but don't you worry, there are no gays in Indonesia, so Kemang is not like Chelsea in that way :-p) The walk coupled with trying to be really observant while taking transportation has helped me start to get my barrings, but it is difficult because there are a lot of winding roads that often change names, often for no reason whatsoever (clearly urban planning is an Indonesian strong-suit) Also, the first two days of work, Ab and I have shared a bajaj (pictured below) to work which has added to the whole Jakarta experience. When y'all come, we'll definitely take one :)


And finally, I've yet to be told when my "non-stop" flight to Singapore is going to be so that I can pick up my work visa. Unfortunately, the administrative assistant at school didn't understand that I insisted that my flight stop, preferably at the Singapore airport. Once again, tossing it up to a language barrier... :)


...my favorite mode of transportation :)