Teaching, Day 2

Today was my brother’s birthday, and I sent him a text from halfway across the world to celebrate.  Crazy to think about technology can do sometimes.  It was also my day to wrap up teaching my material.  On the whole, I think it went rather well but was not nearly enough time to truly let the information sink in.  Thank goodness they can at least go back and refer to the presentations.

During our lunch break, I decided to walk to the stationary store next door to buy some stamps and to see if they had any postcards.  They were clearly honored and delighted to have me there, but it was also very clear that my Bahasa Indonesia was useless in this situation. Somehow we eventually agreed I was trying to buy stamps and I purchased a few before walking back to the classroom.

With the pressure off, I was able to assist my colleagues during their presentations by going around and helping the students individually to help them stay caught up.  That’s when it really started to sink in how many times I’d said “right click” or “and then…” during my teaching—the repetition almost made it a running joke.

That night we had dinner delivered to the dorms, and found a local soccer match on TV.  Each province has a team, and as we watched Bandung vs. Papua I felt more connected with the country but had no clue who to support.

That night’s homework was finally reading the history chapter of my Indonesia guidebook, something I usually do far in advance of a trip. I’d known a few details, but reading it gave me a whole new sense of respect for what they’d been through—colonialism, a difficult transition to independence, and decades of a tyrannical “president” they’re only now really recovering from.