Today began kind of late. I dragged myself out of bed almost 30 minutes late, after waking up 2 minutes before my alarm was to go off. This, in turn, made me late for breakfast, so I ended up eating some of it in the taxi on the way to AMINEF. Our first lesson was a brief talk with Mike McCoy, and was almost nearly useless to me. There was no information in particular that I could use, and so I was glad it was only thirty minutes.
We had Bahasa Indonesia class for an hour and a half, and I am again struck by how insubstantial my vocabulary is. It seems like I accrue knowledge of new words all the time, but yet whenever there is a time to practically apply my language skills, I crash and burn.
We spent a fair amount of time next on the practice of teaching, just discussing our experiences and observations in Bogor. Really, I think any kind of interactive work would improve these classes, but when I think about it in terms of what do I have to do? the steps are still very vague. I keep thinking that I won’t be able to start working until I get to my assignment, but really, that’s kind of waiting to the last minute, isn’t it? By the time I get there, it will be too late to find out how I should do my job.
About other things, I have yet to experience true homesickness, although having to use the mahndi at my aunt and uncle’s house was traumatic enough to be close. Not as traumatic as having to use the squatty potty yesterday at Regina Pacis sans toilet paper. Pyuck.
I have very little complaints about the other Fulbrighters and am genuinely enjoying my experiences here. It would be hard not too—we’re staying at a five-star hotel, we rarely walk anywhere, we don’t do our own laundry and we eat every meal out. Having someone make your bed everyday tends to put you in the mind frame to overlook a few personality quirks that otherwise would really bother me.
The internet thing is really bothering me, though, and I’m beginning to weigh the price of a taxi to Sarinah to use the $5.00 / 3 hour wireless against the joy of not having to leave my hotel and paying the $12.00 / hour wireless. I haven’t gotten desperate enough to pay the hotel’s extravagant fees yet, but I’m getting close. Yesterday I took the time to go to Sarinah and was still unable to check my email. Talk about frustrating. On the plus side, the computers at 24 have USB ports, so I could upload pictures and blogs. We’ll see. Everything’s going to change when I move to Bukittinggi, anyway, so I’m not going to try to get used to things in Jakarta.
We had Bahasa Indonesia class for an hour and a half, and I am again struck by how insubstantial my vocabulary is. It seems like I accrue knowledge of new words all the time, but yet whenever there is a time to practically apply my language skills, I crash and burn.
We spent a fair amount of time next on the practice of teaching, just discussing our experiences and observations in Bogor. Really, I think any kind of interactive work would improve these classes, but when I think about it in terms of what do I have to do? the steps are still very vague. I keep thinking that I won’t be able to start working until I get to my assignment, but really, that’s kind of waiting to the last minute, isn’t it? By the time I get there, it will be too late to find out how I should do my job.
About other things, I have yet to experience true homesickness, although having to use the mahndi at my aunt and uncle’s house was traumatic enough to be close. Not as traumatic as having to use the squatty potty yesterday at Regina Pacis sans toilet paper. Pyuck.
I have very little complaints about the other Fulbrighters and am genuinely enjoying my experiences here. It would be hard not too—we’re staying at a five-star hotel, we rarely walk anywhere, we don’t do our own laundry and we eat every meal out. Having someone make your bed everyday tends to put you in the mind frame to overlook a few personality quirks that otherwise would really bother me.
The internet thing is really bothering me, though, and I’m beginning to weigh the price of a taxi to Sarinah to use the $5.00 / 3 hour wireless against the joy of not having to leave my hotel and paying the $12.00 / hour wireless. I haven’t gotten desperate enough to pay the hotel’s extravagant fees yet, but I’m getting close. Yesterday I took the time to go to Sarinah and was still unable to check my email. Talk about frustrating. On the plus side, the computers at 24 have USB ports, so I could upload pictures and blogs. We’ll see. Everything’s going to change when I move to Bukittinggi, anyway, so I’m not going to try to get used to things in Jakarta.
posted by Amelia at 11:22 PM
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