Friday, July 22, 2011

Back to Blogging!

Scenery in Malang
Ok. So I know that is has been forever, and I am very sorry!!! I hope that you guys are still reading my blog. It has been crazy. Just when I got settled into things in Malang it was time to relocate and move in with a new family in a new city. It has been an adjustment but It is going well. I am now living in Madiun and have started teaching. As a result I now have pretty steady access to the internet and can therefore again begin blogging on a regular basis again! YAY!
So an quick overview of what has gone on in the past three months!  I was living in Malang with a very nice family, The Bambang family. I was there for 10 weeks until my training was completed. It was very hard and very sad to say goodbye at the end of the time. I found myself a little angry that Peace Corps allowed us to become attached to a family and then make us move away from them. But after some reflection I understand. Our training family was like a starter family. They were there to kind of buffer our crash into Indonesian Life. Once we got our feet wet it was time to start the real part of service.
Scenery in Madiun
So now I am living in Madiun with the Darto Family. Life is completely different here. It has taken some getting used to but things are starting to smooth out. Madiun is beautiful but it is much flatter than Malang was. In Malang I had Mountains and beautiful scenery, in Madiun it is a lot of fields, but each place is equally pretty in it's own right.
My new school is amazing. I never thought I would love going to work so much. The teachers are awesome and the students are energetic and very welcoming. They are all very eager to learn English and want to talk with me.  I enjoy being in the classroom but sometimes it can get frustrating with the kids don't want to participate because they are scared to talk in front of me or are shy. I will work on that and hope that it gets better.
I have to think of ideas for starting an English Club for my students. I need activities that are fun and engaging. If you have any ideas please feel free to share them. I need all of the help that I can get.
I have been emailing out a newsletter every month about my experience in Indonesia. The fourth issue is about to go out at the end of this month. If you have not been getting it and would like to, please let me know. I would be happy to share it with anyone who is interested.  I was hoping to find a way to upload a pdf to blogger but I haven't been able to figure it out. If there actually is a way, please let me know.