Traveling- Malaysia Trip Part 1

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been wanting to share our trip to Malaysia with you but wasn't sure where to start. So I kept putting it off and putting it off. In an attempt to try to tell you some tidbits about the trip I will break it up into parts. Here's part 1: Traveling. We had a week vacation for Idul Fitri this year. I love vacation and traveling. Usually with just a couple days we take a trip within Indonesia but because we had a whole week I thought it would be fun to travel to a different country and see some things outside of Indonesia. We chose Malaysia for the destination. There were 9 total of us who were up for the adventure (Molly, Kim, Krystle, Jennie, Laura, Scott, Aaron, Joel, and I). This is kind of a big group to take on such a journey. With our bags packed, plane tickets in hand, and hotel reservations made we set out to see what cool things we might find. We took a car from where we live in Kota Baru to the airport in Bandung. I thought it would be more fun if we all squeezed into one car for the first leg of the trip. With all of us and our luggage we barely fit. I am in there somewhere. Once we got to the airport and checked in we were walking to our gate when we encountered this sign. It kind of looks like choose your own adventure. If you choose Kuala Lumpur go to the left. If you choose Singapore go to the right. I guess those are the only two options. Choose wisely.Next we hung out in the Bandung airport waiting for our flight. Finally we got to board. Here's our gang walking to the plane. Off we go. Once boarding we got a special upgrade and were asked if we would like to move to the emergency exit seats for extra leg room. Yes please. Lastly, after landing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia we took a bus from the airport to the center of the city. This trip took about an hour and was filled with some chat pack questions and the start of some inside jokes. Stay tuned for our adventures in Kuala Lumpur.

Mohon Maaf

Ramadan came to an end last night. The local people stayed up all night praying. And when I say praying this is not a private, stay in your own closet kind of thing. Praying here is very much a public, communal affair. All the people gather at mosques to pray together. And those not present can still join in because they make sure to blare it all over the loud speakers. So as I lay in bed last night trying to get some sleep, I was constantly reminded that I was not there participating with them. And when I woke up this morning they were still going strong- sermons and chanting blaring outside my bedroom.

But all of this also means Ramadan is over, to which celebrating should be given. And a group of us are taking off for vacation since they gave us a week off of school. We will be going to Malaysia. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures and stories to share when I return.

Time for an Adventure

It was getting to be about that time to get out of Kota Baru and have a bit of an adventure. Plus Molly needed to check out a lake that she's going to be taking her students to on a field trip next week. So a few of us hopped on motorbikes and started driving.

Here's what we found:

Some traffic, weird trucks on the road, beautiful trees, and children in cool uniforms getting out of school

A really big lake, funny peddle boats, wooden docks and a fun boat ride

A whole fishing town out over the water and a yummy fish lunch

One of the highlights of the day was the "peddle-your-own" roller coaster we found.

The price seemed reasonable enough. Rp 8000 is about $0.80.
But if that seems too expensive for you, it's Rp 8000 per becak (car)
so that's only $0.40 per person.

Here are the becaks. But they aren't connected to each other like a normal roller coaster.

And yes, when I say "peddle-your-own" I do mean that there were peddles
and we had to get ourselves around the track. This is when I began to get
a little nervous. I am not a lover of bikes or the need to peddle myself anywhere.

Are these looks of excitement or nervousness?

Excitement

Off we go.
There was lots of yelling out of fear that we were going to die as the car rocked
back and forth on the track. At one point Laura, who was riding with me, started
screaming "I don't want to die here!" over and over again. She had stopped
peddling and I was laughing so hard I couldn't yell back at her to keep peddling.

And of course we found some new friends along the way :)

Statistics

The newest class I am teaching is statistics. It's a semester long course for 11th and 12th graders who want to take math (but don't want to take Precalculus or Calculus). Really the truth is that we are enjoying learning stats together. :) Right now they are working on a group project collecting data from the population of BAIS students and then presenting their data in different forms.

In all of this my love for statistics is growing. Today our director shared the following with us and I thought I would pass it along to whoever else might find it interesting. I know I did. :)

Some statistics as of 9/9/09:

We have 207 students
They come from 14 countries

Top 4 countries are in this order:
Korea 32.37%
USA 29.95%
Indonesia 28.50%
Taiwan 2.42%

108 students, 53.17% are business families
82 students, 39.61% are Mks (not including NICS)
15 students, 7.25% are NICS (staff kids)

Family religious backgrounds:
Christian 85.02%
Catholic 4.83%
Buddhist 3.86%
Muslim 0.48%

And my personal favorite (passed on by a colleague of mine):
We have 56 middle school students
Of those 38 are boys

Lastly, right now I am teaching 5 different middle school and high school classes and have a total of 91 students!

Pasar

Pasar means local market in Indonesian. Last Sunday I joined up with a couple friends and visited the large Sunday morning market near church. We walked around, saw some unusual sights, and purchased a few items. My bargaining skills are not so good but I love the culture and being out with Indonesians.

I spy the balloon man.

Picking out vegetables, but not eating. Indonesians are in the middle of Ramadan right now and are fasting from sun up to sun down.

Colorful Krupuk (you fry this and it puffs up and becomes an Indonesian chip/cracker)

For just 50 cents my friends bought bracelets and had their names written on them.

And yes, you can even buy these at the pasar. You have been looking for bright multi-colored chicks, haven't you?

A Little Shaken Up

Last Wednesday we had a pretty big earthquake here in Indonesia. The epicenter was about 100 km south of us, a little ways off the coast. We felt it quite strong here in Bandung. People felt it in Jakarta. The worst hit places were some smaller towns and villages in the areas surrounding us. Here are some details as reported on BBC News:

"At least 49 people are confirmed dead and thousands of homes ruined after the 7.0-magnitude quake hit on Wednesday. More than 100 people are in hospitals and dozens are still missing. Damaged roads and poor weather are hampering efforts to get heavy rescue equipment to the worst-hit areas in the West Javan district of Cianjur. More than 18,000 homes across West Java province have been damaged, about 9,000 seriously, Mr Kardono said."

"Indonesian television showed people being treated in temporary tents, while others were being attended to outside in hospital grounds."

"Garut and Tasikmalaya districts, along with Cianjur, about 100km (62 miles) south of Jakarta, were among the worst hit. Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the most active areas for earthquakes and volcanic activity in the world."

And now for my story:

Wednesday was coming to an end and I kept checking the clock waiting impatiently for the bell to ring. The last period of the day I have 8th graders in my classroom for an Algebra 1 class. We had finished our daily lesson and they were working on some homework, quietly I might add which was a new thing for them. For some reason this year the hormones are flying in 8th grade and it's been really hard to get them to settle down and focus at the end of the day.

Anyway, they were working and I was walking around answering questions when all of a sudden I began to feel it shake. The students also realized that the building was moving and immediately looked over at me as to what they should do. I told everyone to get under the desks. My classroom is on the second floor of our school building and the building felt like it was swaying back and forth. (And a side note here: Anna I think I can now kind of relate to the rocking of the boat and I am so sorry. I don't think I would be able to do it.)

We were all sitting under the desks trying to hold on for what felt like a long time (at least 2 minutes)! Midway through that time there was a moment when I felt like it suddenly got stronger and I began to worry that the ceiling tiles might start falling. The building sounded like it was creaking a bit from all the rocking and rolling. There were a few students who were growing nervous and started to freak out. I remember calling out to the class to stay calm and telling them that we were going to be alright. One of my boys didn't want to stay under the desk and I kept reminding him to get back under. We stayed under the desks until the shaking finally stopped.

I tried to calm the class down so I could give them instructions on what to do next. They had already erupted in talking long before the earthquake ended. In both excitement and terror they screamed out about what they had just experienced. Most of the boys thought it was the best thing ever, most of the girls clung to each other in near tears. Finally I told them they had to be quiet and listen. We crawled out from under the desks and exited the building. Outside we met up with the rest of the school. Our director got everyone together and said a few words. The kids went back inside to gather their things and then we shewed them out of the building for fear of after shocks.

There was very little damage to the building. In the library a bookshelf fell over and some other displays fell off the shelves. No one was hurt at all, just a little shaken up.

One of Those Days

Today was one of those days.

Not one of those days.

But one of those days where you are reminded that you are blessed. One of those days you are glad to be able to get up in the morning and are thankful for your health.

Last night as I headed to bed I began to feel really sick. I was convinced I could "think" it away and told myself I would be fine. I was not sick. I went to bed and tried to fall asleep but couldn't. I lay awake for hours with a growing stomach ache and a growing realization that maybe telling myself I was not sick wouldn't make it go away. I lost the battle in the middle of the night as I quickly got up and ran to the bathroom. I hate throwing up, but oddly enough I did it a lot growing up. Every year it seemed I would end up missing some special class Christmas party or something. I went back to bed thinking that maybe I was alright now. But as I lay there and the pain continued I had a feeling it wasn't over yet. Again I found myself back in the bathroom, my body rejecting everything I had eaten for dinner early that night. Making my way once again to bed I lay there thinking about the lesson plans I would have to write and the phone call I would need to make to the principle in the morning to tell him I was sick. "What time did he say was too early to call?" "What are we supposed to be doing in Statistics class tomorrow?" "How will I leave sub plans for someone to teach the Algebra 2 class I haven't prepped for yet?" I lay there asking myself. I then realized that I needed to drink some liquids to rehydrate myself and so I headed downstairs to find something to drink. Eventually I fell asleep and slept really well until my alarm went off at 5 am.

Surprisingly, I woke up feeling somewhat rested and not at all nauseous. I thought, "I think I might even be able to get up." So that is what I did.

I was so relieved to not have to write sub plans and to be able to go to work and see my students. And it seemed all day I was thankful to be healthy and well- to be able to get out of bed in the morning and do the things I want to do. It was just one of those days.