Poll Results: Would You Ever Travel to Indonesia?

Yes	7 (63%)
No	0 (0%)
Maybe, If I knew more about the country	0 (0%)
Only to visit you!	4 (36%)
Never, I cant stand the heat	0 (0%)

Thanks y'all for voting. Keep an eye out for the next poll!

Can we have a picture of you in your new dress?

Due to popular demand here are a couple of pictures of me in my new dress! My grandma and I went shopping the day before I left to find a good solid dress for me to wear in Indonesia. We shopped all afternoon and managed to find this great dress which she and my grandpa generously purchased for me! Thanks again grandparents! xoxo

Here is another self portrait. I took this one after school in my homeroom/grade 6 class. In my fantastic new dress! I wore the brown belt today and my new black sandals!

Then we walked home after school and after we had visited the travel agent here. It usually rains in the late afternoon and we usually make it home before that. But today that didn't happen. We got caught in the heavy tropical rain on the way home. Anyways, I only had my raincoat so that kept my top half dry but my bottom half got soaked on the 5 minute walk home!

How are your classes going?

Pretty much as well as can be expected I think.

I have been assigned the following classes:
Science 9
Science 10
Science 6
Social Studies 6
Language Arts/Writing 6
Language Arts/Writing 7
Writing 4 (Teacher's Assistant)
Tutoring for a Boy Writing/LA 7

Yeah, you might say that is a lot of courses to cover, and it is, but so far its been okay. I have taught Science 10 and Science 9 once already and that was fun. So far at least teaching the science courses are my fave. I am a big science nerd so talking about the discovery of the atom and how chemical symbols are written is right up my alley. Ah.... those were the days when chemistry didn't have the dreaded "organic" prefix....

Also you might have noticed that I am teaching a lot of writing and social studies. Yes, well isn't that interesting since I haven't studied social studies since grade 11 (not counting environmental studies at UVic). Social studies has been interesting to teach (the one or two days so far) as the kids don't live in Canada and aren't familiar with the geography and have no first hand experience with the issues we discuss. For example we were talking about First Nation's land claims today and treaties.... it was hard to explain to an Indonesian school kid why First Nation's were disadvantaged and why people would put them into reserves and what a reserve was and the poverty and disadvantages that are the realities of living on the reserve in plain and simple terms that they could understand, especially being that I don't think there are "First Peoples" here to relate it too..... interesting lesson. And also, I am no expert. I actually think Paul would really like teaching grade 6 subjects and this class in particular because they are so curious about Canada and the issues.

Also I had to teach and learn how to properly use a colon today. That was an interesting class. At the beginning of the day I got a note from the secretary from the principal that I would be teaching that first block. But I pulled through and I think the students never even knew how to use a colon properly until I literally started teaching it to the class. Go Me!

Anyways, in grade 6 science we are moving on from flight to the "Biodiversity" unit and I can't wait to start teaching that! We were talking about the flight of animals as a transition topic today and they had so many questions, and I had the answers! YES! Yay me! Finally that Bio degree is paying off. For example:

Grade 6 student: "Are snails insects?"
Miss Chelsea: "What a great question! No, they are not, they are in a different order than insects. Snails are more closely related to clams, octopuses, limpets, polyplacophorans and slugs...

The good thing too about this school is besides the grade 4 class with 24-ish kids in it, there are only 2 kids in grade 10 and 9 kids in the grade 9, 7 and 6 classes. Talk about ideal class sizes. But seriously I don't know how the teachers in Canada do it. With so many kids its got to be hard to do all that marking... not that I have done a lot of marking yet.

Its a lot to take in right now and sometimes it seems daunting the amount of teaching that is required. But its okay so far, I am managing and seeming to do alright :S

Here is me after a Monday of teaching. This is the first day I wore pants, and it was surprisingly bearable, I think it was a bit cooler today and I also think that I am getting used to the heat. Also excuse the weird expression and sweaty face/hair, it was a self portrait!

Will You Have Your Own Room?

Yes! I do get my own room. And that's probably a good thing for the first week anyways well I am sorting this jet-lag thing out!
View of my room from the door.

View of my room from the bed.


So its been alright getting used to this time zone here. Just a few nights of restless sleep. But I am also going to blame that on the heat. Although I do have air-conditioning which makes it a lot better to sleep. I also have a mosquito net which is good because during the rainy season here the mosquitoes are bad and they somehow find their way into the house and then my room. So we keep our doors closed and any doors that open up to rooms that open up to the outside. Dear Mosquitoes, I don't want Dengue fever. K, thanks. Also there is the call to Prayer around 4.15 or so every morning. That is also factoring into my sleep patterns, and the maid getting up and cleaning the bathroom in the morning, that's a bit disruptive too. But that's okay I am sure once I get more settled in here I will get used to the noises.

My bed is comfy in case you were wondering about that. Its a piece of foam on slats. Its good, just right. Honestly, I have been pretty tired every night so I haven't noticed it too much.

I also have a nice wardrobe and a desk and a mirror and a set of shelves in my room that are nice for storing things in and so I don't have to live out of a suit case or anything.
My little gecko roommate. It chirps and makes cute noises.

I think for my next blog I will do a house tour. The house is huge and very different from Canadian houses. I only wish we had a pool, because I would be in that every day!

Mas Photos Por Favor!

me in front of a really awesome Bill Reid at YVR.


Welcome to Teipei! ... umm.... wtf

Temple in taiepei, for the Moon Godess :)


there are 135 of these stone pillars which took 1000 years to carve. they are awesome. and this is Ben

busy street outside the temple





Giant wok in pottery museum for mom!


this one is for Dad try reading that writing....


Don't even ask....

Scotty the tour guide and the Palm tree lined street

Your Layover is for how long?

Ummm... 10 hours... at least.

Yeah, so the 13 hour flight from Vancouver to Teipei went as well as could be expected. I got dinner watched "The King's Speech" (again) and slept watched about 5 seconds of "Tangled" and slept, slept and woke up, had breaky and watched "Skyline" (which is worse than "Cloverfield" btw and not at all appropriate for an inflight movies) and slept and woke up and slept.

After landing in Teipei at an ungodly hour there, but a normal hour (early afternoon) for my internal clock time, there was a lady with a sign with my name on it. Odd because I was supposed to not be meeting anyone until my final destination. But as it turned out she was a flight attendant and thought I was going to Singapore as my final destination and was ready to put me on an earlier flight. But we sorted out the miscommunication and she sent me on my bleary-eyed way in search of the travel desk and half-day tour. A couple of confused security attendants, and a quick stop at immigration later and I found the desk. It didn’t open until 7am so I had to wait a bit, so I slept. Then when it was time I registered walked around took some photos and freshened up.

We met in Terminal 1 for the tour at 8 and were escorted by a Taiwanese man to a minibus which we boarded and headed to pick up the next group of passengers at terminal 2. While we were waiting for our tour guide “Scotty Gyau” to get back I struck up a conversation with my seat mate. Turns out he is a guy from New Zealand heading to Fort Mcmurray via Calgary to work on the oil sands up there. Scotty was an interesting tour guide, but also talked really fast and with an accent. But he was also funny. As we drove to our first stop a temple I noticed all of the rice paddies next to apartment buildings in rural areas. Interesting. The temple was awesome. I will out some pictures up hopefully. There were people there actually coming to visit the temple and do offerings. That was sort of odd. Felt weird about taking pictures, but still did. I mean what would you think if someone came into OLOA and started taking pictures in the middle of confession. After Ben bought me some street food since I had forgotten to pick up some Taiwanese dollars in the airport. This would become the theme of the day actually.

Then we went to a museum of ceramics. It was interesting, I mean I don’t love museums but it was alright as far as they go. Scotty was rushing us through though, only showing us the “highlights” hahaha. There was a singing toilet bowl. It made me think of Loreena as I know she would have loved to see it in real life. Luckily I have a vid of it for her J.

Then we went to a touristy place that had streets lined with palm trees. It was alright, but I was not too into looking around at the shops because being that its just the beginning I don’t want to be lugging things around :S…. I think I am developing Cameron’s attitude of buying little on the road as to carry little and be responsible for little. Anyways, I started walking with a man from the tour who is probably in his 60’s. He lives in both Australia and Austria for 6 months of the year and he was on his way to Austria to catch the tail end of the ski season and his uncle’s 92^nd birthday. Which is awesome. Pretty interesting guy, we talked about travel mostly and his trip he is planning to see BC in the fall in an RV.

Then it was time to go back to the airport. On the bus my new New Zealand friend asked if I would like a beer. Unfortunately there was some confusion about which terminal we each had to get off at so we ended up getting off at different terminals. But I checked through security and decided to walk around to got some food and some internet and some Taiwan dollars. He found me as I was walking and bought me lunch and a couple of beers. Turns out he is a pretty interesting guy, owns a landscaping business, did a round-the-world-ticket at 17, races motor bikes, hunts boar, and is now going to work in northern Alberta. Odd. But whatever. So anyways I had to leave for my flight earlier than him and got on my plane okay, at some more marginal airplane food, watched “Love and other Drugs” which turned out to be a little awkward on a plane and slept a little bit. We had a touch down/re-fuelling in Singapore and we on our way to Surabaya. I tried to watch “Tangled” on this flight but was not able to finish before our descent into Surabaya.

After a little documentational harassment by the Surabayan border guards I met up with Jackie in the airport terminal and her drive drove us to my new place. Here I met Ashleigh, my bubbly and knowledgeable new roommate from Toronto and my new room, oh and Indonesian toilets and showers…. I will get into that later.

Sunday was a lazy day, after my Yoga I lazed about reading and looking up the lonely planet guide. Pretty good day, got some groceries went to a man selling fried rice for dinner and fell asleep by 9pm. I can’t even remember the last time I was asleep before 11pm. Like really, it’s been a long while. Definitely the jet lag!

You Are Leaving When?

Ummm... Today actually.

I originally thought I would be leaving on the 12th or 13th but things got a bit bogged down with a fleeting offer from Maple Leaf China and sorting out interviews and technical details. So with all of the emails going back and forth between me and the school contact and Visa procedures, we decided initially to go with a flight for the 20th (early early Sunday morning). But thankfully my Visa came through really fast and I was able to change my flight (with the help of my cheery travel Agent "Jackie") to very early Friday morning, a time I would consider late Thursday night. I am travelling with China Airlines and am under my baggage weight limit, which is a good thing! Mom says to do my Christmas shopping while I am there, since I will have room in my suitcases on my return flight. :)

So its a 13.5 hour flight to Taiwan, 10 hours in Taiwan and then an 8 hour flight to Surabaya (which is in the province of east java, FYI).

I am very excited and everyone has been most helpful in getting me ready to go. Its been awesome being home with my family these past couple of months and seeing friends and family of friends. Sorry If I didnt get a chance to say bye to you or give you too much notice about my leaving! See you when I get back!.

You Are Going Where?

Ummm... Surabaya. Have you never heard of it? That's alright I had not either until I googled it, like I am sure you are going to do now to, or maybe I already showed it to you.

View Larger Map

Anyways, so let's make a long story short for all of those who haven't heard the sad saga:

Cameron and I were offered contracts by the Maple Leaf Schools in China. In January while at Big White I got an email from the contact person in Vancouver saying that my Chinese work Visa would be denied because I did not have my official degree from UVic yet. And since I would not be getting it until June (thanks UVic) my contract was now null and void.

So Cameron decided to go on ahead and maybe I could work something out with UVic. Nope, UVic still wouldn't budge and the Chinese government could not be convinced that I was a graduate even with a certificate of degree completion.
So amidst my search for jobs which I was either overqualified for or could not commit to honestly long term and compulsive craigslisting I found a job in surabaya, which I had applied for during my initial search in November 2010.

So they invited me down. I after an interview, researching the school, many emails with the staff there, a plane ticket, and a trip to the Indonesian consulate I am off to Surabaya!

To be perfectly honest, I don't know really what to expect except to be culture shocked, out of my comfort zone and really hot. But that is the fun of traveling right?