My first 3 months here - condensed!

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After that rainy first night and eventful few hours in the airport, I awoke feeling ready to explore the city I'd been living in for a year - Sidoarjo. Sidoarjo is not a pretty city. Neither is it a tourist destination, or a hotbed of activities to occupy expats. It is however, an interesting city to live in, because it's close to Malang (a beautiful city) and Surabaya (a city with lots of commodities) and because the locals aren't used to non-Indonesian people yet. The call us bulés (pronounced 'boolays') which essentially means 'white person'. Indonesian locals are fascinating people; and they find bulés just as interesting as we find them. There are countless occasions where I've been stopped in the street and asked for photos with grinning Indonesians, been followed round villages by groups of giggling kids on bicycles, or simply elicited open-mouthed stares by walking to the supermarket. "Mister mister!" they shout, "how are you?". It's a rhetorical question for most Indonesians, as their English doesn't stretch far enough to reach your answer. The people here are far more interesting than I could explain in a bog, but the aspects I most wish to try to describe are the personality traits that make Indonesia famous; they smile an awful lot, and are extremely accommodating, and helpful people. I've been chased down the street by someone after I left my shopping in a restaurant, even though I was round a corner, and walking at quite a pace, having left the restaurant 5 minutes before. Other bulés have told me of times where they've even been chased down by people whilst they were cycling, because they'd dropped something by accident.

I have been teaching at English First Sidoarjo for 3 months now, and it's a brilliant job. My working day consists of two main parts; planning (in the morning), and teaching (in the afternoon). I generally plan the day's lessons at 10:00, and begin teaching at either 15:00, or 16:30 until 21:00. We're a private institution, so the kids come here after their school. The staff at EF (English First Sidoarjo) are good people, hard workers, and have a good relationship with the kids. There are around 20 teachers in all, 5 bulés, and 20 Indonesians. There was a period of learning, and shadowing, for a week, before I was let loose as a teacher. During the subsequent month or two, I learned more every day than I did in that week. That could still be said of the job today. Kids keep you on your toes. I never had myself down as such a lover of children, but have surprised myself during these first few months. We end up bonding a lot with some of the kids in the classes we teach, and often get hugged, waved at, or hear exultant cheers and giggles as we enter classrooms. The hugging and cheering is generally reserved for the younger kids (from 5 years old, and up) who can be utterly adorable, and make me (a 230lb weightlifting brute) say "awwww" every lesson. The first lesson with the younger kids is always a scary experience for them; they often have never seen red hair before, or someone who is about the size of two Indonesian men... (Also, as I'm slightly deaf, I have a fairly loud voice, which probably does nothing to persuade them that I'm lovable and gentle!) However, by the second lesson, they're as cheeky as any kids you can imagine, but completely, and disarmingly, adorable and sweet. Just one example of the sort of 'sweet' we're talking about, if you're not a parent, is that kids imitate everything you say. One of the boys in a small stars class (5-7years old)calls me a "cheeky monkey" because that's what I call him in class, which never fails to make me chuckle.

Lessons are 80 minutes long, and during that time, we usually cover a variety of written, spoken, and listening activities. Some kids here are rambunctious to say the least, and there are a few naughty classes that no-one wants! However, they make kids back home in the UK look like spawn of Satan, as they're so deferential and well behaved here. There's a sign of respect known as 'salam', (Or 'salim', I forget) which is shown by the younger person to their elder. They take the hand of the elder as if to shake it, but then they turn their hand to the bottom and rotate yours to the top, before bowing to touch their forehead/cheek to it. They're made to do this in Indonesian school, but they don't have to do it at EF. Generally, if kid do 'salam' with you, they're trying to say that they've learned something during the class, or that they respect you. It's extremely flattering that I've experienced numerous instances of this gesture during my first few months here. It's very nice when the younger kids do it, but it's also much more of a compliment when a moody 13-15 year teenager does it for you!

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