January 8, 2014

Introduction to Indonesia

Indonesian Lesson

Today was our first full day in Indonesia!  We had our first two meals today, consisting of chicken and rice, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.  I’ve never been a fan of rice in the United States, so I am anxious to see if I learn to like it throughout my time here.  We also were able to exchange our first bit of Indonesian money (100.000 rupiah is equal to 10 American dollars, so it goes a long way here!).  We went to a corner store to get some snacks for the night, and I was amazed by the different flavors of chips, Oreos, and sodas that were available here.  I bought some strawberry soda, Ice Cream flavored Oreos, and Cheesy Pizza Lay’s potato chips.  Today, we also got to see the two main schools that we will be teaching in, Wesley International School and Worldbridge Language Center.  All of the teachers seemed extremely friendly, and I am really looking forward to my time at these schools in the coming weeks.  I met the worship pastor and music teacher at Wesley, and it will be a great experience to work with him as well.  After our tour of the schools, we got our first Indonesia lesson by one of Ibu Jan’s friends, Ludiya.  The language of Indonesian seems fairly simple (no verb tenses, fairly simple number system), but it was very overwhelming at the first day!  I hope this gets easier the more classes that we are able to take.  We finished up the day with some TESOL reading and watching National Treasure with Indonesian subtitles.