Second week in Surabaya

Well, it is now my second week of work. I start teaching next week. So, last week and this week are spent lesson planning (or updating my blog). I moved to my new house yesterday. It is nice. Smaller than the last one but, that is fine since the last one was massive! I am excited to be near the school I will be teaching at. I really do love this area of the city. I live right near the waterpark and near what will be the US Embassy (they are still building it). It's pretty suburban compared to where I was living before. I like it here but I had made some pretty good friends in the old neighborhood. Now we live an hour from one another so I probably won't see them much. I'm pretty sad about this. But, I hear the area where I am now has a lot of expats living there so I am sure I will make some new friends soon.

I am the only foreigner teaching at my school, which is a little weird. Everyone here speaks Indonesian and English but, their preferred speaking language is Indonesian. So I spend a lot of time thinking since I can't understand what anyone around me is saying. But, I'm sure I will pick up the language soon.

I am still looking for English curriculum. I am sooo not web surfing saavy so it is really frustrating looking for curriculum online. What I would love is to have teacher's books for Pre-K, K, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade and 3rd Grade. I wish you could download those off the internet but, I think you have to buy them. If anyone wants to purchase some and scan and e-mail it to me, I think that would be the happiest day of my life! Well, at least the happiest day of my life in Indonesia so far. And I would owe you BIG time! If you are interested in taking this challenge, I will be teaching English (Language Arts, Spelling, Reading, Writing, Speaking, etc.) to Pre-K thru Grade 3.

The internet is up and working at school so I am able to catch up on e-mails and my blog and all. I am so excited to be in touch with you all again! I still don't have internet at my house but I am hoping they will get that set up soon. Thanks again to all of you who have e-mailed. Getting e-mails from home is the highlight of my day. Sorry, I don't respond often but the internet has been so crappy. But, now it is up and running so I should be better about keeping in touch.

Love and miss you!