Selamat Tahun Baru!

As I write this post, I am sittiing in my room with the air conditioner on and trying to imagine feeling cold like all of you in the U.S. must be feeling right now. I've heard there has been a lot of snow recently! It's hard for me to imagine. Part of me misses snow, but part of me is happy not to be freezing every time I walk outside. The above picture is of me and Ayu when we stopped at the beach on the way home from our Christmas trip to Bandung.
The title of this post is "Happy New Year!" I can't believe that 2010 is already at its end! Tonight I am planning on just celebrating here with my housemates. We bought ingredients to make tacos and s'mores!
I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas! I spent mine taking a trip to bandung (another city on Java) with some of the Indonesian teachers from West. It was a lot of fun, although we spent 18+ hours in the car each way! Traffic here is crazy! Along the way, I learned that almost every city in Indonesia is famous for a certain type of food. One city is even famous for growing red onions! In Bandung we tried Batagor (bakso tahu goreng). It is made of meat and tofu fried together. Actually, it was pretty good, at least using the spicy sauce that came along with it.
(Yes, I am learning to eat more spicy foods here!)
Some of the other trip highlights were visiting a volcano, eating a Christmas dinner made by an American chef (including stuffing and mashed potatos!), shopping at the outlets, and singing happy birthday to my mom on skype with my friends in Bahasa Indonesia. When we visited the volcano/forrest, we had to pay an entry fee. The lady selling the tickets looked at me and said in Bahasa "Dari mana ini?" - basically, where is this from? So since I am from America I had to pay 5 dollars instead of 1.70 like everyone else. Oh well!
Oh, one more thing. Because I spent so much time with other Indonesians, I was able to learn more about their language. I asked them about the words to one of my favorite songs. I was trying to literally translate it and it meant "You throw water into my eyes." I was so confused until they told me that that phrase is an expression that means, "You made me cry." haha Who would have guessed?!

Immanuel - God with us

I just finished watching "The 12 Words of Christmas" talk by Louie Giglio (an early Christmas present from my sister) and thinking about God's great gift in coming to us. God is reminding me of the wonder of Jesus coming to earth. This Christmas, as I am without my family and most of the traditions that I usually associate with the holiday, I know that God is showing Himself to be Immanuel - God with us; God with me!
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14
Jesus came to this empty world ready to fill us with His grace and truth. And that truth is for everyone in every situation. (paraphrased from Louie Giglio)
I pray that God will make this good news real to every one of you this Christmas!
"God is in us, God is for us, God is with us - Immanuel." ("God is with us" sung by Casting Crowns.)

Christmas celebrations

Hello again! I hope that you all are enjoying your time with family and Christmas celebrations. I have been enjoying this Christmas season more than I expected. When I arrived, everyone said how Christmas is so different here in Indonesia because so many people don't celebrate it. But I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of Christmas decorations in the mall and Christmas music playing.
We had our Christmas celebrations last week at school. On Monday, we had a party for the kids where the teachers put on a little skit of the Christmas story. For some reason I was cast as Joseph and had to wear a make-up beard. No, I don't have pictures of that! I don't want to know how strange I looked! :)
On Wednesday the different classes each went to a school or an orphanage to pass out gifts. I went with the oldest class to an orphanage. The kids there were so great! They sang a song for us and were so joyful. The picture above is of me holding one of the babies there.
On Saturday the English club had its end of the semester party - a games day. I helped the two "modern" games. Frisbee golf, duck-duck-goose for the young kids, and island tag for the older ones. It was a lot of fun, but tiring. The other picture above is of me, Sara, and one of the university students who always helps.
on Sunday I taught S.S. for the third week in a row. The pastor's wife brought Christmas cookies to decorate, which was fun. I didn't think I would be able to decorate any this year, but God allowed me to. :)
Well, tomorrow is our teacher's Christmas party. On Thursday I will leave for a 5-day trip to Bandung (another city in Java). It's pretty far away, and we are driving, so it should be interesting.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Getting Ready for Christmas

I can't believe it's already December! Can you? Last Sunday marked my SIXTH month here! Wow! God has blessed me so much since my arrival. You may remember if you have been reading my beginning posts, how hard it was when I first arrived. But now God has really fulfilled His promise that He will give me good things here.
Let me share what God has been doing recently...
Last week a new teacher arrived to the school and our apartment from America! It has been so nice to have a native English speaker to talk to (not that I haven't been enjoying the other friends I have met here). :)
On Sunday, Sara (the new teacher) helped me in Sunday School and then we went to the second service together. It was the first time I had taught in a while and it was so much fun to see the kids again. I think Sara had fun too. :) The first picture above is of Sara and some of the Sunday School kids.
On Tuesday I had a chance to help decorate our church for Christmas. I was so glad to have the opportunity to decorate a Christmas tree after all. The second picture above is of me and one of the girls who is a reindeer in the Christmas play.
Last night we got to watch the church's Christmas play. It was nice to have another Christmas activity.
Well, I will go for now and get ready for English club! Have a great weekend!

Thanksgiving week...

Well, it's been a while again since I updated all of you...
Last week was hard emotionally because of Thanksgiving and all. Actually, the small group that I started going to had a thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday night but I didn't go because of having to work the next day.
This weekend has been good though. On Friday night I hung out with my friend Dyah at the mall. I was so excited to see Christmas decorations up! Even if not that many people celebrate christmas, I can still enjoy it here. I also got to buy a new motorcycle helmet! Now before you ask, no, I cannot drive a motorcycle...yet... But I often go along with others who drive and I always have to borrow their helmet. (The police pull over anyone not wearing a helmet.) Now I have my own!
On Saturday I went to the traditional market for fresh food and then to Carrefour for cooking ingredients. Santa went with me to a bigger Carrefour that has more items. I actually found taco seasoning and cranberry sauce! Now I can at least make up for missing it at thanksgiving.
After the English club, I was talking with some of the students (with Desy translating). One of the girls kept calling me "orang ingris" (English person) instead of my name! haha The other one asked me to invite her to America. I told her, "How can I when I am here? I'm not in America right now!" haha I didn't want her to wish to be in my country but to enjoy living here.
Today I had breakfast with Santa and her family. She showed me how to make biscotti (actually more like biscuits) so I can make it on my own now.
Well, I will go for now! Hope you had a great thanksgiving! Save me some turkey when I come home in June! :)

Fun Friday stories

I just wanted to share these two things with you before I forget.
O.k. The first thing actually happened yesterday. I asked my 5 year old students to write a sentence about an action word that I gave to them. One of the girls had the word sing so she wrote: "I like to sing Michael Jackson songs"! It was so funny to me that she even knows Michael Jackson. This is the same student who wrote about Justin Bieber. :)
The other story amused me because it reminded me that I live in Asia now. I brought an umbrella for the letter "u" and was asking my students when we use an umbrella. I said first, "Do we use it inside?" No... "Do we use it when it's sunny?" I was expecting no again. Then everyone said, "yes...". Then I remembered how they love to use the umbrella when it's sunny to avoid getting any color in their skin. Anyways, I thought it was funny. :)
have a great Friday!

Days of grace

Happy November everyone! I can't believe it's already November! Tomorrow will be my fifth month anniversary here. This is the longest I've ever had without seeing my family. It's been both really long and short at the same time.
The weather is still pretty much the same here. Still hot! haha Yesterday I put on shorts to wear around the house when I got back from school and then I realized that it is probably the first time I have ever worn shorts in November!
I title this post "days of grace" because of a sermon I heard last night by Grahm Cooke (he is a British pastor). I borrowed the cd from my friend Angie here. Anyways, one of the things he shared was that we should not consider any day good or bad. Each day is a day of grace. Sometimes God's grace allows us to enjoy what's happening. Other days God's grace allows us to endure. That is a good reminder for me to consider each day a gift from God in which He gives me His grace!
Yesterday I got to play badmitten after school with some of the other teachers. It was so fun, although very humid in the unairconditioned gym! I feel like it was a gift from God. Just recently I was watching some kids play badmitten on the street outside my house and I thought, "I wish I could play, but I have no supplies and no one to play with." But then the other teachers invited me to play badmitten with them every Wednesday!
Well, that's all for now! Enjoy your days of grace! :)