Finally! You know, although I don't get to check my email very often, which really sucks, there is a hidden blessing in that by the time I get to open my email account there is almost always something good waiting there for me. I mean, first it takes more than thirty minutes to get to a decent internet cafe, and then, sometimes it's closed, or has had to be shut down, and sometimes it rains in the afternoon from the time I get out of class and home to the time around four or later, which means it's too late to head out, cause I'd only get like thirty minutes to an hour on the internet (which believe me, is not enough time to get anything done-- it's taken me thirty minutes just to OPEN my email this time, and this blogger page), so I just have to try and wait for tomorrow. I'm not bothered today, however, because it's been over a week since my last check, and when I got to open those wonderful pages, not only did I have email from official peoples, I had email from friends around the world! Also, friends I haven't heard from in quite a long time.

Things are snailing on by, and gratefully, November wasn't good enough to beat me. Actually, a pretty amazing blessing was revealed in November right in time for Thanksgiving, after I decided to follow a call to apply to Seminary. Isn't it amazing? I used to smirk at people who seemed so flighty they couldn't make decisions because they were unsure of what God wanted them to do; but now here I am deciding to do something that MUST seem like just a whim to everyone else, but really feels to me like God's command. I'm sorry for being judgmental.

Anyway, I'm trying to answer all the emails everyone has sent me, but it's taking quite a while for them to all disappear once I press delete and reload the page. It's going to take me awhile-- which is alright by me, because I have dinner plans in the city!

Kind, kind Hannah and Christine told their nice Embassy lady (why don't I have an embassy lady!?) that it's lonely in Bukittinggi, and she told me about this big group of American high school kids who arrived today. I sms'd and got myself a dinner invite (but how I'll get to the restaurant, and how I'll get home, I don't know!) Wow, it's a new... low (no offense little high schoolers) that I'm so excited to spend another hour and a half with sixteen year old kids, after spending six hours with them already today. ::sigh:: In less than a week, I'll be with other ETAs for a reunion in Salatiga! And Christmas isn't long after that... and more travelling. Whew.

Okay, I'm ending it to focus more on my emails and stuff. LoL, like I can't concentrate on two things at once... I seriously hope I'm not losing my ability to multitask by not having tasks to complete here!

This week was... hum drum. I did a lot of going to school, then coming home and falling asleep until dark. I don't know what it is here, if it's a reflection of my mental state, or if it's the high altitude (can different altitudes make you sleepy?), or what, but I just had no energy. I decided I don't like trying to navigate the angcot system on school days, because there's just not enough time to get there and back and actually do anything of substance-- I end up cutting it too close. If the angcots operated past six, or if there were a back up system like available taxies, it might be different. But I don't like the idea of being stuck in town, and I don't like the idea of having to beg a ride off of someone, so I just as soon wait until my day off before I go off venturing.

I got to actually teach half my classes this week, sans the other teacher. The other half of my classes, again, I didn't even go to because the teacher decided to give an exam and didn't bother informing me until I got to the class. This means it has been a good... five weeks? Since I have been to her classes at all, because last week, she asked me not to come because she was "teaching grammar" (although once that was made common knowledge, the bullshit was revealed and I didn't actually end up going because the school changed the schedule and nobody told me), and this week because of an exam. The three weeks before that were all the Ramadan holiday. Sometimes I feel so much like my time here is wasted, it's just depressing. I think I could have accomplished what I have here so far in one week back home (at the pace I was going last year). Yes, it's that bad.

Part of the problem is that the school is just not a priority. All of the teachers are of course underpaid, and thus teaching here is considered a part time job. Then, I also found out this week that part of the reason this particular teacher seems so absent is because she is taking classes towards a master's degree in Padang. That means that both of the teachers I work with are in programs in another city two hours away, and they are only both at the school on the same day one day per week. Pak Haswin is gone T, W, and F, and Wenny is gone W, Th, and F. They are only both at the school on Monday, when the staff is scrambing trying to put the week together, almost everyone misses their first class due to an overly-long teacher's meeting, and classes start late, anyway.

Besides the school situation, I've really gotten into my Bible this week. It has been my one source of constant comfort and I've really been with God in prayer. I am so grateful that November is flying by. It is perhaps not the best way to deal with being here, but sometimes you just do what you can.

I wish there were other ways to occupy myself here. I have made inquiries about NGOs or any kind of volunteer opportunities, and none exist in Bukittinggi. There are several schools that would enjoy a native English speaker visiting, and I'm on that, but I would like to do something that has nothing to do with education. I would like to do a lot, but just can't.

I've got two more weeks to survive in Bukittinggi before the TEFLIN conference at the beginning of December. Hopefully, the rest of November will just oblige me and be gone, as it has been incredibly difficult being gone from my family on my mom's birthday, my sister and brother in law's first wedding anniversary, and now my first Thanksgiving away. Once December gets here, I can reasonably start planning vacations away and I'm hopeful that is how December and January will go. We'll see. I'm learning to cope, but slowly. It's taking me time, which is all I've got! Haha...

Thank goodness! It took absolutely forever for this page to load, and after twenty-six minutes, I've yet to load any of the THREE options I have for viewing email. ::Sigh:: I guess I got spoiled visiting Semerang where there's a broadband cafe around the corner, or a mall with a decently speedy connection relatively nearby a Dunkin' Doughnuts. Oh well. You know, it's interesting how when I leave Bukittinggi, I really feel like I'm lacking here, I feel like I'm missing out, like my entire situation is just miles and miles away from the standards of others' situations. But then when I get back here, it doesn't seem to be quite that bad. Don't get me wrong, the 6pm curfew still sucks, but despite the mandi and squatty potty, my little place with no television, no radio, and no easy access to warung or restaurants has become very comfortable to me. I've got a decent bed, there's no need for AC (but I have a fan anyway), and pretty much no one bothers me. Sometimes the fact that I could probably die in my room and no one would notice until they could smell it from outside bothers me, but other times, I'm just grateful to be away from everything that makes this place hard to live in. Honestly, this is beginning to sound a bit cowardly, like I like my room because I can hide out there, but that's actually the truth; I like my room because it's my haven. I'm surrounded by the things I own, and I don't have to worry about taking or receiving with my left hand, or any other cultural or religious no-no. Now, when I'm out and about, those are the things that I relish, it's all a part of the experience of living here, and I follow the rules and customs as best I can. But in my home, I'm not taking my cross off the wall because someone else is uncomfortable with it. Because I'm the only one who lives there. And not that many people visit in the first place. And why should I? It's not as if a cross on the wall makes it unacceptable for Muslims to enter. ::Sigh::... I suppose I've subconsciously led into this issue; it must be bothering me more than I thought.
Today, I had a visit from one of the teachers at school. Yesterday, when I woke up, I think I pulled a muscle in my back, or something and so I didn't go to school. But I have one afternoon class today and I was planning on going until this teacher showed up at my house and said that the schedule after Ramadan is different-- not like the Ramadan schedule, but not like before it, either. Apparently, my class started almost an hour earlier than my schedule said, and no one bothered to tell me. So that's two days now without teaching. Oh well, I don't like the teacher I'm supposed to teach with, anyway.
So she shows up and we chat for awhile and then she sees my cross on the wall. I bought it in Jakarta. I wouldn't have brought one with me from the states, because it's not like it's a vital part of my faith. But I liked it in Jakarta, and so I bought it, and to make my home in Bukittinggi more homey and less like I'm living on a mountain surrounded by jungle, I attempted to decorate. And look! I just happened to have bought this cross in Jakarta, and why don't I put it on the wall!? So this teacher starts talking about the last time she visited, when my landlord wandered inside and apparently hid her shock at seeing it on the wall from me but asked the teacher if she knew of a sensitive way to ask me to take it down. And this teacher is nice, she was clearly relaying a message on behalf of my landlord, but still. Why the heck should I? I live there. I'm not going to hide my Bible so it's presence doesn't disturb people who don't even really come into my house in the first place. Why should I take down my cross? If it's really a problem, she should not have volunteered for a Christian to rent from her. Taking down the cross should not have been a big deal to me, but somehow, as it is within my own home, I felt that taking it down would almost be denying my faith. I already don't wear religious jewelry, abstain from attending worship services (not like there are any here), and really basically manage to practice my faith with no one knowing. Taking down a cross I bought in Indonesia anyway off the wall of my home where I live alone is just too far for me, I guess. Such a strange limit.
Anyway, I guess that's all for now. My butt's getting numb from sitting on this stupid plastic stool for so long. I'll write more later.