Lots of Laughs

Christmas was filled with lots of laughter... the way Christmas should be.
I was blessed to be able to fly all the way back to Pasadena to be with my family for the holidays.
Christmas Eve was spent with my dad's side of the family.
Christmas morning was spent with my parents, sisters, and my sister's fiance.
Christmas evening was spent with my mom's side of the family.
And the evening ended with a white elephant gift exchange. A new tradition that I missed last year since I had stayed in Indonesia for Christmas.

This year's white elephant exchange spurred lots of fun and lots of laughter. Here's a taste:

Gathering around the tree and fireplace to open presents. My sister and her fiance.

My cousin Steve enjoys his white elephant gift- a funky hat. My sister with her "Cat-A-Pult".

Someone ended up with the Bumpit, but I can't remember who because everyone had to try it on.

My sister and cousin with their white elephant gifts. My uncle tries out the head massager, quite the gadget.

My little cousin John took over the head massager and gave everyone a chance to experience it.

My little cousin Steve is really into Harry Potter these days. Isn't he cute?

Hope you too had a little bit of fun this Christmas!

Merry Christmas

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness,
but the darkness has not understood it.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

Merry Christmas to all! Many blessings to you and your family!

Christmas is Coming

While most of Indonesia does not celebrate Christmas, we sure still do at school. This month we are finishing up first semester and with that comes final projects, tests, and of course exams. But this month we are also doing lots of celebrating. Last weekend we had our school's annual Christmas concert. We heard lots of Christmas music and got to see students from Kindergarten all the way up through high school perform. Last weekend we also had our annual staff Christmas party. We enjoyed visiting together, eating some snacks, and singing Christmas carols. Student Council has been busy at work decorating our school hallways and bringing some Christmas cheer. They also encouraged students to come dressed in red and green for Christmas spirit day. These small things are the reminders we have that Christmas is coming. Otherwise it would be easily forgotten, as you do not see reminders of it when you are out and about around Indonesia.

Thanksgiving Recap

I know it's already December but we did have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I haven't shared it with you yet. Turkey, cranberry sauce, and homemade stuffing. A yummy salad just like my mom's. :) Great conversation. Coconut drinking and a coconut throwing contest. Swimming in the ocean as the sun set. Fireworks on the beach. "The Great Durian War of 2009." Slaughtered rams. Lots and lots of games. Reading and relaxing on the beach. 18 friends, 18 places around one big table, 18 Pilgrim and Indian hats. A very memorable Thanksgiving.

Happy December

I cannot believe December is already here and well under way at that.

As I sit here typing a mosquito is buzzing around me and I cannot seem to kill it. Despite how much it does not feel like winter or like Christmas is coming, we are attempting to remind ourselves that this is in fact true. This past week we got out the fake tree and other various decorations and transformed our living room into a winter wonderland. We listened to Christmas music and sipped hot chocolate. My roommate asked the 4th graders to make snowflakes and then put them up all over our wall and even hung them from the ceiling. So it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house. How about yours?

White for Harvest

"Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together."

Loveology

The study of love. Last week was our school's annual "Week Without Walls." A week dedicated to stepping outside of the walls of our school and serving the local community. This year's theme was "Loveology." We were on a mission to study love. What does it mean to love our neighbors? What would it look like for us to do that? Practically... not just in theory. So all 207 BAIS students and all 40 BAIS teachers and staff left the building, stepped outside of the walls of our school and tried to tear down the walls we put up inside of our hearts. I led a group of 12 high school students that went to a local school in the kampung (local neighborhood) to teach English. The school was down a muddy dirt path off the main road where no cars could drive to. The school has 210 students and only 9 teachers. The building is small with 6 classrooms (one for each grade). My high school students created lessons to teach English words for simple things like colors, body parts, animals, etc. They sang songs, acted out motions, did some coloring, and passed out candy. When it was all over we stuck around to play with the kids and a few of our guys started up a game of soccer. My favorite part of our time at the school was on our last day when we were about to leave. We told them we wanted to say goodbye, so they gathered all the kids out on the courtyard. I gave a little speech and thanked the principle for letting us come. We gave some gifts- donations we had collected for the school (basic school supplies, books, colored pencils, etc.). The principle gave a short speech and thanked us for coming. Then our group sang a couple of songs. The second one was in Indonesian and all the kids joined along in singing with us. It was a beautiful moment all of us there, singing together. And the goodbye ended with them singing an impromptu song to us. We took a group picture and then shook hands and went our separate ways. When it was all over we walked away with some simple reflections. Here are some things my group learned about love: -loving others means serving them -love is something we give away once we ourselves have received it -love takes relationships, relationships take time -love must be sincere -love is puzzling to those who do not often receive it Such beautiful stories came from each group in our time scattered across the community. One of the things I took away from the experience is how incredibly blessed we are to be living the life we do. Each of us lives a life far better than most. Yet in the midst of our thankfulness and rejoicing that we are blessed, we must not forget that we are therefore called to be a blessing to others because we have been blessed with so much. There are many pictures to share, but I just chose a few. Enjoy!

Teaching Math

For those of you who follow this blog you may or may not know that I am a math teacher. I don't often bring it up here. But anyway, yes it is true. I teach middle and high school math. I live in Indonesia and I love that, but the reality is that I spend most of my days in my classroom teaching. My current load is five different classes ranging from 7th grade Pre-Algebra, 8th grade Algebra 1, 9th grade Geometry, 10th grade Algebra 2, to 11th/12th grade Statistics. I love my job. I love the variety. I love the students. It's challenging at times and overwhelming at others but overall really, really good.

Just wanted to give you a glimpse into my classroom for a change. This week in Geometry we learned about four important points in triangles. We talked about the Circumcenter, Incenter, Centroid, and Orthocenter. Then the students created examples of each on oragami paper and I hung them in our windows to add some color to the room.

I love math! :)

Do you?

Weird Weekend

What a weird weekend.

Lots of odd things happened this weekend.

Perhaps it started last Friday when I walked into my classroom in the morning and there was a bird flying around inside. It kept darting back and forth across the room, smashing into the window over and over again.

Then Friday night I drove my motor bike into town (about 45 minute drive) in the pouring rain. The strange thing was that it was raining so hard and so hard to see but pedestrians kept j-walking across the street anyway. On top of that there were several motor bikes on the road driving without their lights on. Very, very dangerous.

Saturday morning on my way into town I saw a guy peddling a bicycle. Strapped to the side of the bicycle was a door. Yes, a whole door. He made it look quite easy to ride his bike with this large object tied to it but I had a feeling it was not.

Saturday was filled with weird things but perhaps the weirdest was the adventure a few of us went on to find a crocodile farm we had heard rumors about. We were told it was up in Lembang, a mountain town about an hour from where we live. Apparently there is a guy in Singapore that has a wife in Lembang and goes there once a month to see her. As his hobby he bought some crocodiles so that he could enjoy them when he came. We had heard you can watch them feed the crocodiles live chickens. A friend had been before and fed them live rabbits. We stuck with dead chickens. It was kind of like jaws where you could sense something under the water and then they brought out the chicken and out of the water came the largest crocodile I have ever seen.

(Oh I almost forgot! On Sunday I was sitting on the side of the road waiting for a guy to come back with a motor bike to be a taxi for my friend so she could join us for lunch after church. As I sat there a woman walked up to me and in pretty good English asked me what I was doing. I told her I was just waiting. Then she proceeded to invite me to her son's wedding next weekend. It has always been his dream to have an international wedding, she told me. He would really love it if white people came. So she asked if I would please come. Then without giving more details about time or location she walked away. So weird.)

Oh Indonesia. You never stop surprising me.

Plans Changed

Hi friends,

So despite the fact that I had planned and prepared to go to Vietnam and meet up with my sister it didn't work out. I had made my plans but the Father reminds us "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Everything was ready for me to go. My lesson plans were done, my sub plans were written, my plane ticket was bought, and hotel reservations were made. There was just one small detail I forgot in all of it. I arrived at the airport on Wednesday, sat and waited until I could check in. Finally, I walked up to the counter where the guy behind the desk informed me that I could not go to Vietnam without a visa. I had forgotten to check into the visa process in all my other planning. Apparently, you need to apply to the embassy ahead of time and can't just get a visa on arrival. Can't even get on the plane without a visa.

I was crushed.

I had come so close but could not go and would not get to see my sister. However, since I had already taken days off and arranged for a sub, I decided to take advantage of it. I bought a ticket to Batam to visit a really good friend of mine who is living there right now. We spent time at Telunas Beach where she is working right now. We relaxed and chatted lots. It was good to reconnect. We swam and ate good food and kayaked and slept. The last night we layed on the dock and looked at the stars (trying to figure out the constalations in the southern hemisphere... quite hard when you've grown up looking at totally different ones). Then one of the Ibus who works there took us shrimping. She showed us how to catch the shrimp with this long fork like thing and a bright light (to shine on them in the dark). She laughed at us the whole time as we attempted it. She would point out the shrimp to us and all we had to do was stab them, but they just kept escaping before we got to them. She told us we were good at it, but we were not.

I came back refreshed and re-energized which is what I had been hoping and praying for. God answers our prayers in many unexpected ways. And through it all I was reminded that the Father knows how to give good gifts to His children, even when we initially don't think they are good and we are filled with disappointment.

I didn't take very many pictures but here are a few:

Me and my friend Jennie in the boat on the way to Telunas

A fisherman passes us by

In the boat on the way to the isolated resort

So peaceful

To Do

This week I will:
-teach my students about standard normal distribution
-go to women's bible study
-do morning duty
-meet with my language tutor
-travel to a foreign country

Yes, the whole list is true including that last one. This week I am headed to Vietnam for 5 days. I will meet up with my sister who is sailing through and stopping there for a few days. I cannot wait to go!

On Friday I took the 10th graders on a class trip to the hot springs. I felt like they needed some bonding time as a class so I arranged for us to leave during lunch and miss 7th and 8th period on friday. The drive was an hour and a half up some windy roads (and I felt very sick by the time we got there). We arrived and some of our group went paint balling while others just walked around the large resort area. Then we spent some time in the hot springs. The water was so hot I could barely stay in it for more than a couple of minutes. On the way home we stopped for roasted corn on the side of the road before driving a little further and stopping for dinner. We went to a local favorite and ate chicken and rice. It was very fun to have the whole group of 24 people all around one table. So many fun memories together. I think we might have bonded. Here's a recap!

Bye bye school

Yay! Skipping out on the end of the day... what else would get all twenty 10th grade students there.

Let's go!

Some of our guys (and a couple girls who aren't pictured) went paint balling.

A beautiful sunset

The guys played poker for awhile around the pool...

and bet push ups.

Hanging out in the hot water

Jumping and splashing and having fun

But most importantly, hanging out together.

Time to head out. Here are most of the girls from the class (with one boy who snuck in there).

A quick stop to enjoy some roasted corn

Dinner time! We ordered two different kinds of chicken- ayam bakar and ayam goreng.

And we ordered lots of each! But ate it all- so yummy.

All of us gathered around one table.

And then we walked out of the restaurant and I noticed this hanging up. I just couldn't resist taking a picture with it. Where else would you see something like this hanging outside a restaurant. Only in Indonesia! And where else would you get to hang out with such great students and get to take a class trip like this. Only in Indonesia!