Got an Office, Made a Friend

I'm back.

First off, the obligatory apology for not posting in a while. Sorry. I've been trying for the last week or so to write a catching-you-up post, but there's just too much to say, so I'm going to jump right in to things.

Note: I meant to publish the following post about 1 week ago after a few edits here and there, but other obligations got in the way.

The past two weeks has been midsemester testing at my school. For me, this means showing up to school and spending alot of time chatting with the security guards, drinking coffee, and smoking cigarettes while all the other teachers administer and supervise the tests. My computer is having difficulty connecting to the internet at school, so there really hasn't been much to do. At least I can show up whenever I feel like it as opposed arriving at 6:30 AM.

Oh, I guess I haven't mentioned that yet; since the sun rises and morning prayer is around 4:30 AM, school starts every day at around 6:30. This is excruciatingly early for me because I've been having a hard time making myself go to bed at 9:00PM every night. It won't happen tonight either because I really want to do this blog entry tonight. So aside from practicing my Indonesian, I haven't been doing anything as far as work is concerned.

One notable life event did happen last week at school though. I felt my first earthquake! The epicenter was near Bali, and luckily it was pretty weak, but we still felt it here. At first, I thought it was a large truck passing by the school until a few people (mainly students) started panicking. I later learned that a few other people thought the same as me at first. It kindof felt like the earth was vibrating slowly, which it essentially was, and that's what it felt like. The whole thing lasted long enough for about two classes to gather in the school's courtyard. We felt an aftershock later in the afternoon, which lasted maybe 5 seconds. Thanks to various adventures and acquainting so far, I now have friends in Bali, so I sent a few texts to see how everyone was doing. No injuries, no deaths, and almost no damage. Tidak apa-apa. No problem.

However, I have accomplished two happy-makers so far this week: I fixed up one of my spare rooms into an office and made a friend here in Genteng.

Myspace.

A little background first: Indonesian homes usually have a front foyer or sitting area for receiving guests. It's usually outfitted with a couch and/or some chairs surrounding a snack-laden table. I have one of these areas because the furniture was there when I moved in. The only other table in my house is the kitchen table, which is currently unusable. If you caught my facebook posts from a few weeks back, you'll know that I've been waging war against rats, mice, and cockroaches for a while (at some point, I'll be writing an entry detailing the various fauna in and around my home: there's plenty). If you didn't catch those posts, my kitchen is like a little poop-scattered war zone. The table there is the only surface in my home unreachable by pests, so its surface area is currently occupied by potatoes, oats, sugar, and a few other treats in chew-through-able containers. Therefore, I've been largely hanging out in my sitting area and scrambling to pick up my mess when my surprise guests arrive (surprise in this country does not entail few and far between, quite the contrary actually). One day while sweeping out the empty room across from my bedroom, I decided that I should make myself an office.

Last week, I mentioned my plans to the school's security guard, Mr. Mulyanto, and he offered to take me to his friend's furniture store after school. I had decided that I wanted a nice carpet and a short table so I could sit on the floor, which will make for easy transitions into meditating, slouching, and sometimes napping. Well, his friend's store didn't have any short tables like I wanted, and it didn't seem to me that I had much of a say in where I was buying, so I had to draw up what I wanted. A few days later, my table showed up, and (surprise!) it wasn't what I had asked for nor was it the quality I had been expecting. Let's put it this way: I don't build furniture, but I could build a better looking table than this. Luckily, Mr. Mul knew I wasn't getting my money's worth and told his friend to build another one.  I'm still waiting on my new table so for now, I'm using the sub-par table. Unfortunately, I didn't find out until the night the sub-par table arrived that (surprise!) there were wood bugs living in one of the slats. I hope they're unable to make a home in my carpet. 

All said though, I'm happy to have a space that is fully and completely mine. I have decided to label everything in my house in Indonesian at some point. I'm trying to decide on what to put on the door.

At least I have gold.

Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold. I've never really been a big fan of this song because it devalues old friends. (When was the last time you saw a commercial advertising the silver market?) However, I have no old friends here in Indonesia. Today though, I made a new friend.

A few days back during an afternoon stroll, I stopped for a can of Pocari Sweat and took a seat at the adjacent warung to gulp it down. Ok, backing up a second: Pocari Sweat is Indonesia's electrolyte drink (think flavorless Gatorade), and a warung is a streetside food stall. Maybe I should start making vocabulary lists for my posts. I'm a teacher now, so I'm getting used to doing so in class. Anyway, the guy who was manning the warung, his name was Arif and he was 19 years old. We chatted about the requisite "Where are you from?" "Why are you here?" "How old are you?"stuff before I made my exit. 

A few days after that, I was passing by a different warung while looking for something to eat, and he flagged me down. Since I was hungry, I obliged his request to join him. It turned out that his family owned this place as well and it turned out that his English was much better than the 4 or 5 words he sputtered out during our previous encounter. Between his English and my Indonesian, we actually held a conversation. He asked me what I thought about Indonesian education and about America, and I asked him what people our age do around here on weekend nights. 

In answer to his question, as far as the education system here is concerned, the primary teaching method revolves around rote memorization, even in language classes where there is very little speaking practice.  Another troubling aspect is that students largely learn a phrase at a time, and are expected to memorize those phrases without really understanding the mechanics of the language. Of course, this rote memorization is then tested by nationally-distributed multiple choice tests at the end of the year. I told him that instead of learning just facts, students should be learning how to think about facts and learning how to learn. They also need to rethink whether national tests should determine who graduates and who doesn't. I'm not sure he understood me because of the language barrier though. 

In answer to my question, he told me that most people our age go to cafes and berpacar (ber-pa-char). As far as my experience goes, berpacar might mean flirt, and it might mean go on a date, but my dictionary makes me think it might also mean hook up. 

"Cafes? There are cafes here? Ada cafe sini?" Every once in a while, I enjoy a several hour coffee filled cafe lounging. I hadn't seen any yet and was surprised by his answer. 

"Ya, ada banyak (There's alot)."

"Do you sometimes go to the cafes? Kamu kadang-kadang ke cafe?"

"Belum, tidak minum alcohol. (No, not yet. I don't drink.)"

At this point he ran off to help a customer that had shown up, and I was left to wonder what 'cafe' meant in Indonesia. I thought cafe was a pretty universal word for coffeehouse. But, here they serve alcohol at cafes? I guess in europe the sell wine in beer at cafes often enough, but it seemed odd that Indonesian cafes serve alcohol often enough to deter (someone who I'm assuming is) your average Muslim? When Arif returned, he explained a little more, and I got the impression that your average cafe in Genteng was a mix between a beer-serving pub with more traditional coffeehouse fare on the side.

When all was said and done and I decided it was time to head home, he wouldn't allow me to pay for my meal since I agreed to help him practice his English every once in a while. This country is so friendly. Maybe in a few months, I'll have a few more people I can call friends and not just friendly.