Did I mentioned we're going to Turkey and Greece?!?

Check out this awesome itinerary for our spring break! I don't think I've done anything besides coach soccer camps for the past 4 spring breaks. . .

so I'm a lot a bit excited!

The itinerary below starts March 31, but we're actually leaving a day early so we can spend a day in Istandbul, which the tour didn't include. We hope to make it to: Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, the Byzantine Hipodrome, the Basilica Cistern, and the Grand Bazaar! Let's hope we can pack it all in one day! We're flying through tonight (12 hours), and we'll bet there at 7:00 am ready to start our day - it'll be a long one! 

We'll be traveling with 37 other people (from the US, Canada, Singapore, and Indo). The leader of our trip is the biblical studies coordinator for one of our fellow SPH schools, and has been taking tour groups to biblical lands for quite a few years ( 7 trips through the middle east, 5 through Turkey, and 2 through Israel and Jordan). I'd say that's some experience! He's a great teacher and so knowledgable about biblical history. We're really looking forward to this trip because it has been pre-planned (not by us!) and we just get to go "sit in the passenger seats" and soak up all the sights and information that our already full brains can hold. And take LOTS of pictures! Between Chris and I, you can be assured that we won't let you down :)  

AND. . . just the thought of walking in the same place where so many stories

from the bible took place gives me goosebumps! The first part of the trip we'll be studying in Perge, where Paul, John Mark, and Barnabas arrived from Cyprus on their first missionary journey. And then to Pisidian Antioch, Colossae, and Athens. . . wow! Can't go wrong there! So many incredible places packed into 8 days of touring! Can't wait to have my bible in hand, reading Paul's account in Acts, while standing where he stood.

I'll try to blog and upload some pictures while we're there!

See ya later smelly Jakarta!

Busy week, and full of surprises!

This week has been so busy, that I've been bad at blogging. But that's life, and I'd rather have things to do, than nothing to do but blog. . . 

Because different and random things have happened, I'll label them by days:

Saturday: Taman Safari

Taman Safari is a pretty awesome place. We started the day with the drive-by safari. The animals come right up to your window if you've got carrots in hand! We fed elephants, zebras, and many more! There were also linos, tigers, giraffes, bears, kangaroo, the list goes on! After the safari drive, it was like a zoo, and you could also hold certain animals for a small fee. The sad part is that we could tell they had been sedated for it. . . so we didn't want to support it by paying for it. You can check out my facebook page for all of our pictures, but here's a few:

Erik, Amanda, Chaney, Kaitlyn, me, Chris

Check out that mouth!

These guys were pretty spastic

poor guy was drugged, but oh so sweet looking

This guy wasn't drugged though - he was full of energy!

There's lots more, so go check out facebook! :)

Wednesday: Student led Conferences, and an eventful morning. . .

Quite eventful! To put it simply, I got stuck in our bathroom and we were late to school. Yep, that really happened. Remember my "How Jakarted" post about dumb door handles? Well, that one was still broken, so that door didn't open. I got up like a normal morning and showered. As I attempted to leave the bathroom (in order to get my clothes), I was met with another "locked" door  - oh great! At first I was thinking: no way, this isn't real. But it was. I hollered for Chris, and we twisted and tugged from both sides, but whatever happened to the other door handle, happened to this one as well! I was stuck with no way out.  We called for maintenance three times. Each time they said they'd come, but no one ever did. Can you imagine being my principal and getting a text at 6:15 saying that we'd be late to school cause I was stuck in the bathroom?! Yea. . .

Our school's head of maintenance ended up having to drive to our apartment and speak with the apartment maintenance to explain the problem and get them to come fix it. And the story gets better. . . When I could hear them all outside the bathroom door, I had to awkwardly tell Pak Heri (from our school) that I had no clothes (just a towel), so if he could kindly ask them not to open the door all the way when they got it open, then that would be great. awkward!

They ended up having to saw off the doorframe, and now two days later, we have new doorknobs, and messed up door frames. I was stuck in the bathroom from 5:30 - 7:00. During that hour and a half I took my sweet time to get ready, and then decided to make better use of my time by cleaning the counters and  organizing under the sink. 

We made it to school within the first period of the day. 

And. . . we're still laughing about it. 

TIJ

Now onto conferences. . .

For the third term, conferences for Junior school are all about the kids! They get to show their parents around the homeroom class and all the specialist classes, while checking off activities at each point. For teachers, this means a LOT of front loaded work. But during the actual event, I just smiled, talked, encouraged, and took pictures :)  Chaney and I divided the subjects between our classrooms so our students roamed between both. I had math, biblical studies, and two science stations. 

Thursday (today): Great news!

Our Easter holiday started one day early! We've been jealous over here of Salem's snow days and cancelled school. That's definitely not going to happen here. BUT Indonesia is doubling it's gas prices as of April 1st. Funny April fools joke? I think not. This has launched many people into protests and demonstrations at the city center and congress buildings which makes horrible Jakarta traffic, even worse. Bad enough to cancel school! The big demonstration is happening tomorrow, and they anticipate closed roads and possible riots in the streets. Half of our kids might not even be able to get to school. So, while the reason for school being closed isn't as awesome as snow. . . we'll take it! :)

Tomorrow. . .

We hop on a plane headed to Istanbul! We're spending 10 days traveling between Turkey and Greece! I'll post our itinerary in the next blog. Thanks for reading about our crazy and exciting week!

ps. don't tell me if there are lots of typos. . . it's midnight and I tried to get this posted as fast as I could so we can just focus on getting to the airport on time tomorrow :)

Happy Easter/Spring break to all!

More than names and dates

Chris and I went to scope out some museums and historical landmarks of the oldest part of Jakarta, which was first settled by the Dutch in 1519, and called Old Batavia. We went to check it out so he'd be ready to take his grade 8 class there on a field trip (which happened yesterday). Old Batavia became the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company which had a monopoly on the spice trade for a. . . long time. We went to four different places.

{Old watch tower, Museum Bahari, Sunda Kelapa Harbor, and Fatahilla Museum}

Here's a panorama shot from the watch tower that was at one point the tallest building, used to signal ships in the nearby harbor of Sunda Kelapa. 

on his way up to the top!

shipyard {VOC building}

nastiness. . .

please don't smook in this building

Next stop: Museum Bahari

You can totally see the Dutch influence!

I realized I have a thing for locks and hinges. . . you'll see more.

the place was full of surprises

Going up. . .

. . .to this massive room! This was the third floor of the museum which was to be used to store the spices. Don't worry, we didn't fall 3 stories down through the holes in the floor.

Third stop: Sunda Kelapa Harbor {sorry, only one picture}

Several major battles happened in this harbor, right where we were standing!

Last Stop: Fatahilla Musuem {aka Jakarta History Museum}

Fatahilla was a Muslim leader from a Sultanate in Central Java, who attacked and defeated the Hindu kingdom of Sunda and renamed the port city Jayakarta, which means "complete victory". 

We were standing in the second floor balcony {you can see it in the picture above} where Dutch officials would sit to watch executions in the courtyard.

I love me some old keys!

And cute locks!

Bajajs (bahj-eyes) then and now. . .

those are the darn things that make our lungs black as we walk to school every morning. not cool. {salem you can't come soon enough}

The building's foundation contained underground prison cells where up to 300 prisoners were kept at a time. It has been said that the building itself quite literally "stood on the backs of prisoners and slaves", serving as a metaphor for the city itself which was also built on the backs of prisoners and slaves. In the 18th century approximately 60% of Batavia's population were slaves. 

How'd you like one of those around your ankles?!

Tough luck guys.

Hope you enjoyed that quick history lesson ;)

You can thank Chris for the details. His poor brain is way too full of them.