hard working students

goodbye graffiti hello new walls.  last week was the last week in our old building.  the new school is still kind of in construction but the parts that are finished are quite lovely.  before i left the old school, i made sure to say goodbye to the beautiful murals left by our students over the years.

we've got a sneaky little desk cheater on our hands.

whoever wrote this would not last in an american public school

whoever drew this would also not last in an american public school

pasar 16

pasar 16.  i finally went to the traditional market here.  tika and anggie came and picked me up around 11 on sunday and off we went.

very hot.  very crowded.  rows and rows of the same clothes.  oh but found an amazing stall selling sewing supplies and tons of gorgeous satin ribbons for so cheap.  i'm talking like a quarter for an entire roll.  that's less than what it would be per yard in the US.  i bought five rolls but probably should have bought more.  will post a picture later.

anggie with the bag and tika with the peace sign.  love those girls!!

mexican fiesta

good day thursday

piñata.  it was an excellent day today.  here is why.  i woke up feeling pretty sleepy but i dreamt about the beach and that seemed like a good sign.  when i got to yoga there was a different instructor there for some reason and i was thinking hmm i wonder what this will be like.  but it was great.  we got out late and i thought, hmm i'm really going to have to rush to get to school and plan my morning lesson.  boom.  morning lesson cancelled.

with all the new free time i had i knew i had to make the best of it so i thought...and i thought...and i drank delicious coffee... and then it hit me.  PINATA.  then i thought hmm, i don't have any flour or any balloons.  then i realized, OH MY there's a bakery just down the street that also sells party things.  so off i went, sweaty from yoga, getting sweatier with each step, growing increasingly more excited about my idea until i reached the bakery.  when i got there i found raw cashews.  hooray number one in the bakery.  next, i looked up flour (tepung) and asked the lady and she gave me some.  hooray number two.  then i thought, hmm i need to find balloons but i don't know what that word is.  so i started miming blowing up a balloon.  i must have done it three or four times.  they just let me go on miming for a bit and then said, 'oh.  balloon?'  who knew.  hooray number three.  then i saw some box mix of flan and thought, hmm that will be perfect for a mexican dinner.  hooray number four.  i win.

papel picado.  i still had another hour left before i really had to get in the shower and go to work and the piñata was drying so i thought, hmm this dinner is really going to need some decorations.  PAPEL PICADO.  so i got to work cutting and punching as fast as my stubby little fingers could work with a pair of crappy kid scissors i stole from the school (shhh).  i didn't have much in the way of colored paper but then i thought, hmm maybe i can just color some notebook paper in green and yellow (i had some bluish/green graph paper and some peach colored paper already but it didn't seem colorful enough just the two of them).

okay, i know i'm talking way too much so just stop reading now.  or keep listening to my awesome day.  i went to school and the ice cream man was there so i bought an ice cream and didn't get any of it on my white shirt.  i had my really dull class first but i got them to laugh and that was great.  my second class was good as always and i was done for the day.  yes.  i went home and thought, hmm i have this s&b golden curry stuff i could use.  oh but it's so quiet in here so i will go into my npr app and maybe just maybe they will have a new radiolab program.  AND THEY DID.  but i couldn't get it to play because my internet was being funny but we can forget about that, i'll listen to it later.  so i made the curry.  and it was so good.  then i chatted with annie, nick and serena on the roof about things like skiing, whitney houston and cassava chips.  now i'm here.  okay i'm done.  bye!

songket factory

songket factory.  we finally found the songket factory!  actually, we found eline (one of my students) who already knew where it was and she took us.  songket is an intricately woven textile either in silk or cotton with metallic threads.  a difficult pattern can take up to three months to complete for just one sarong sized piece.  luckily for us, palembang is the most famous producer of songket in indonesia so we got to see the real deal. zainal is a well known store in all of indonesia with branches in jakarta as well.  it was so beautiful and amazing to watch the talented gals work with such skill and patience.  it is not an easy life to work eleven hours a day on a piece of fabric that you yourself may never be able to afford.  hard lives.  we were grateful to get a chance to see how they are made and to chat with the sweet gals.   here i am starting my new job as a songket weaver.

the wooden sticks are all grouping the red strands just so and are moved around during the weaving process to create different parts of the pattern.

music box continued

music box

my sate man. he looks a lot friendlier in real life.  he sets up shop outside of the school everyday from 3:00-6:00.  he feeds me ten chicken skewers covered in delicious peanut sauce, chilies and diced cucumbers when i'm hungry.  it only costs me a dollar and he lets me practice speaking indonesian with him.  although it's not much and usually doesn't go beyond, "apa kabar?"  then he says, "baik baik, kamu?" and i say, "baik, aku lapar! mau satu sate ayam.  tidak lontong"  then his friend joins in and says, "kamu cantik!  kamu tidak suka lontong?"  and i say, "tidak suka lontong" then he'll point to the chillies and say, "cabe?"  and i say, "ya cabe" and he asks me if i want sauce, and onions and i say yes.  we have this conversation every single time.  then we laugh and sometimes we don't know what they other person is saying so we laugh some more and then i pay him a ten thousand rupiah bill (i'm a millionaire here!  thousands are like chump change to me!)  then i go back into school, open it up and finish it in two seconds and wish i had actually asked for two orders.

teaching perks

one of my students gave me a big chocolate box filled

with more chocolates on a white chocolate platform.  it

was heavy and a very sweet valentine's gift.  thank you!

here's my class down below.  they are an awesome group.

jakarta goods