Settling in to Yogyakarta

I have to say that I'm going through a bit of culture shock! I think the Peace Corps in Tonga was a little easier since we had a few months of training/orientation before starting to work.
I'll be working at Sanata Dharma University here and will teach classes in the English Education Dept. (teacher training) and the Faculty of Letters (literature). All of my coworkers speak perfect English and they have been so helpful. I have two counterparts who have been assigned to help me while I'm here, Tata and Mita. Mita has been out of town, but Tata has been helping me get my house set up, showing me where to get groceries, etc.
My house is HUGE for one person! I live just about 5 minutes from the center of town in a small community. My neighbors don't speak ANY English, except for one boy who is a university student. So I've given myself a crash course in survival Indonesian. Most of the time I just smile. My house has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. The baths have taken a while to get used to. The toilets are typical Asian style....just a hole in the floor with footrests on either side. Each bath also has a small tub that holds water. I wish it was a bathtub, but not so! This is the water used to flush using a scoop. I have a wonderful garden area and have been planting some tropical plants.
I live on a pretty busy road and there are many warungs (small family owned eateries) around. I've been surviving on this food since I haven't had a stove or frig.
The city of Yogyakarta is a fairly busy city of about 450,000 people. It's full of contrasts......huge shopping malls with Starbucks, dirt floor markets with women selling exotic fruits and veggies, and the home of the king and queen of Yogyakarta. (There is also a President who oversees the entire country). Mount Merapi is a beautiful cone shaped, smoking volcano that looms over the city. It's a safe distance away though....I hope.
My first trip to the grocery store was an interesting one. I spent over an hour in there just trying to figure out what many things were and ended up with a mostly empty grocery cart. I was happy to see lots of tropical fruits, one being bright pink! They also had lots of fish and seafood so I'll be content for the next 6 months. Some things I probably won't be buying.......packs of chicken and fish heads.
On Dec. 20 I'll be joining the other fellows on a trip to Borneo! The highlight will be seeing orangutans in the wild. I can't wait! Promise to post some pictures as soon as I find a fast internet connection. Have a great Christmas!

A Busy Week

It's hard to believe I've been here only for a week. My schedule has been packed! All of the Fellows attended the TEFLIN (Teaching English as a Foreign Language Indonesia) conference last week and each of us conducted a workshop. I was nervous but my workshop went well. My topic was "Applying Brain Based Research to Design Effective Instruction." From what I've heard from other Fellows, teachers here use very rote methods of teaching....mostly lecture. So the participants of my workshop seemed to enjoy learning how to incorporate art, music, drama, etc. into their lessons.
After the conference the Fellows and Teaching Assistants (Fulbright Program) went to Puncak which is a 2 hour trip from Jakarta. We stayed at a beautiful resort in the mountains for our retreat. A State Dept. official joined us and he really had some interesting stories about life in the foreign service.
I'm now back in Jakarta and leaving tomorrow for my site, Yogyakarta. I'm excited to get settled and to finally be able to do laundry!
I've definitely seen some shocking things this past week. A colleage and I were in a taxi and saw a dead man on the side of the street. He had been riding a motorcycle and was hit. I'm still pretty shaken from seeing that. Returning from the retreat we saw people without legs begging in the middle of the road. One man had no legs and had large tumors growing all over his body. Obviously we have accidents and beggars in the States, but these things here are just more intense.

Finally in Indonesia!

After a few minor incidents getting here I've finally arrived. My flight from DC to LA was delayed by 2 hours so I missed my flight to Hong Kong. This actually turned out to be not so bad because the airline paid for my hotel which meant I was able to sleep in a comfy bed and take a hot bath before my 15 hour plane trip to Hong Kong. The plane ride was fine with only one amusing situation. I was leaving the restroom and a woman pushed her way in so we were both in there together. It took a few seconds to register what was going on because I had just woken up and she had limited English. It turned out that she just needed me to show her how to lock the door. I have to say that has never happened before. So I finally arrived in Jakarta after flying for 24 hours but my bags decided to take a different flight. It really was just a minor setback because they arrived late last night. The director of our program had a welcoming reception for me last night with all of the other fellows in the program. It was great to see everyone again, even though I was exhausted. Some of my first impressions of Jakarta are that it's dirty and smelly. I saw two men pushing a bus full of people across an intersection and trash piles burning here and there. Amongst the traffic are horse carts and men on bike carts selling various kinds of food. Today I really just wanted to relax a little so I decided to get a hot stone massage. For only 180,000 Rupiah ($18) I had a 90 minute massage which was wonderful! It included a few unexpected things like pulling my toes and fingers until they popped and (while I was on my stomach) bending each leg all the way back until my foot touched my bum. I really didn't think I was that flexible.