So this title is a reference to this show that aired three episodes on MTV a few years aga, called Suga. It was a show about young people in East Africa, and suppose to promote AIDS awareness. There is a scene at the end of the third episode where the main character is in a car after a night out, driving through the city, and she sticks her head out of the window and yells "I love you Nairobi!" It was a sort of on going joke for our abroad trip, wherever we were we would lean out and yell, "I love you Olasiti/Mombasa/Zanzibar!" And now whenever I'm really happy I think back to that phrase and want to yell out "I love you _____!" Wherever I am in the world. So today, my declaration of love goes out to Palembang.
When I got to school I saw some teachers huddled over a computer and a schedule. Things were shifting around because it was the beginning of a new term, and with our new school classes were shifting around a bit. I was a little nervous about this, because even though I wasn't in love with my current situation, and had recently come to terms with it and found a way to be happy with it for the remaining three months. But then something wild happened. The schedule Gods were smiling down on me today, because my new schedule is awesome! I get to sleep in a little more each day, and my days are a little more condensed (so I don't have 4 hour gaps between classes). Also, I have completely new classes, except my two favorite classes from the previous schedule! I am working with two new teachers who are super great, and don't have a single class with the teacher I dreaded being with. I feel like everything up to today was a test, and I passed it! So now I am rewarded with a better schedule. I still have just as many hours, but rather than 6 hours with the same teacher all day, but there is more varition within co-teachers. I don't have any one teacher more than once in a day, and most I have a day between classes with, so we can prep on our days off. I am thrilled!
When I went into one of my new classes today, I was pleased to see so many familiar faces without having taught them before. It was a nice reinforcement that I have been doing a good job mingling with students I don't have classes with. One of my new classes is made of students from a few classes that I was teaching before, and my heart sank a bit when I saw them all together. They managed to combine all of the worst behaved kids in my rowdiest classes in one place. But I was going at it with a new teacher, and this teacher found a way to include some discipline, and things went great! There are certainly some really nice sweet well behaved students too, but a good number of rambunctious 15 year old boys fill up the back of the class.
My new class schedule changes a few things in my weekly schedule, but nothing major. One thing I have been doing after school a few times a week is a sort of English club/class with the neighborhood kids. I usually do this on Tuesdays, but it now works out better to shift Tuesday's "class" to Monday. I passed the word on to those I could find, but ended up with a small group of girl (which was actually a very nice change of pace). It started out picking starfruit from a tree in the yard, with the girls pointing to ripe fruit and me jumping up to grab them and splashing in the mud. After we were ready with our snacks, we went through a few phrases, and pointed at different objects, then started drawing pictures and labeling things (roof, clouds, leaves, grass). Next we started talking about a few body parts, and I ended up teaching them head shoulders knees and toes. They were all so sweet (and the group was so manageable!) Then one of the girls asked about my fingernail polish. I asked them if they wanted it, and they all eagerly nodded their heads. Upon returning, I painted 50 little nails a nice shade of pink, and that about concluded out lesson. With the exception of the mandatory photo shoot!
Then this evening my ibu asked me if I wanted to join her to jalan-jalan, or go around, and included talk of badminton and durian. And by habit, I agreed. To have enjoyable experiences, you have to open yourself up to experiences, so I have been agreeing to pretty much any invitation that comes my way. This has gotten me out and about, exploring new parts of town and doing things I usually wouldn't with people I might not have otherwise met, and so far so good! Last week I went to DBL, D-something Basketball League, a high school basketball competition, to cheer on the SMA5 team. I was so glad I did because I was the only teacher that was there, and I could tell it meant a lot to the students. And I got to see the students in normal clothes! I also went to a party celebrating the first haircut of a child in the neighborhood. It wasn't exactly thrilling, but it was fun to be more involved in the community. It looks like the rain might prevent us from going out tonight, but who knows what adventures tomorrow will bring!
