The first semester always seems to start in the beginning of September and goes for 16 weeks. This is really a ‘recommended’ number of weeks as most universities only requires lecturers to meet 12 times for a once-a-week class, or 75% of scheduled class meetings. On top of the that, the nationwide attendance regulations require 75% attendance of those class meetings in order to take the final. So, in order to complete the class, a teacher only has to come to class 12 times (two of which would be midterm and final) and students only need to attend eight of the 12 meetings.

This week I had three students come to me pleading to remain in class. One had dengue fever for the first three weeks and the other two just didn’t come to class. They had upwards of 10 absences over the first 16 meetings. I gave the one with dengue a chewing out and told him not to miss anymore classes. Unfortunately, I had to scratch the other two off the class roster. The Indonesian instructors who listened to my conversations were mildly sympathetic in that they have the same students and the students have the same attendance record. Of course, content classes and language classes are two different things in my book. Yes, you can just show up for the exams in content classes if you know your stuff. Language classes require one to show up to practice the language. It’s never a good feeling to boot someone from class, but they also have to set priorities if they want to study.

Yogyakarta was great. I saw the sights I missed the first time around, ate some good food, drank some beer (but not too much). I also went to a Christian wedding. I wish I would have taken some pictures or The Last Supper mural painted in the church; it had a very Indonesian flavor to it with the apostles sitting on the floor in a traditional Javanese fashion. Below is a picture of the bride and groom in their traditional wedding garb.

The second half of the semester is starting and I’m grading up midterms. It’s disconcerting to see so many papers piled on my desk. And then I’m off to Jakarta and Medan next week for workshops. I’m in the process of tentative planning for a vacation to Laos, Cambodia, Viet Nam and Thailand after my fellowship. So many things going on…

Thursday is a holiday here, so I’m off to Yogyakarta for some sight seeing. I haven’t been there in three years and seeing the sights, possibly even Borobudur, will be a pleasant respite.

I’m still recovering from last week’s conference and did manage to see some of Bandung in the process, particularly a very quaint coffee store on a side street. They keep the beans for eight years and roast them using an old rubber-wood fired contraption. I didn’t bring my camera, so I’m waiting for my friend to send them this way. I did snag a business card though.

A half kilo of Arabica coffee was 25,000IDR, or about 2.75USD. I bought around 300,000IDR worth while my friend picked up over double that! This week’s haiku is a result of that visit to Toko Aroma in Bandung. Highly recommended.

I also had an interview with last Friday. It was a phone interview with about five people from their end and recorded for the others who couldn’t make it. I haven’t interviewed in four years, so it was a bit crazy. I felt like I hit 75% of what they were looking for. The verdict will be in two weeks.

I’m off to Bandung, West Java tomorrow for a conference: Teacher’s Competencies & Qualifications for ELT in Indonesia. The coordinating university is well-regarded here in Indonesia and I’m looking forward to see how various institutions around the archipelago are dealing with the certification of teachers now required by the central government.

Yeah, I know it’s obtuse, but indulge me.

Terang bulan is sold on the side of streets at night. It’s similar to a pancake that has cooked all the way through without being flipped. Once removed from the heat of the pan, it’s slathered in condensed milk and topped with your choice of nuts, chocolate sprinkles, or cheese. I go with nuts and chocolate. It is my guilty pleasure here in Aceh, as beer is verboten through normal channels.

Luckily, the travel was all work-related and for a two-day workshop in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, famous for being settled on the equator. The workshops went well and our hosts were magnificent, taking us out for a hot pot dinner at lesehan (a sit-on-the-floor-style restaurant), a visit to the equator monument, and dinner on a riverboat. We also found out that it is said that if you drink from the river, you will certainly return to Pontianak. None of us sipped from the river—not because we didn’t want to return, but because the river was, well, muddy and used as the local bathing hole and latrine (a not atypical situation in a developing country).

The equator monument was understated and we arrived after they closed the museum portion at 4p. Nevertheless, we got to take picture of the gyroscopic sculpture atop a pillar. There was also the perfunctory circumambulation in order to get the feel of straddling two hemispheres in an instant.

Then we went home.

The Thousand Islands are a popular weekend getaway for Jakartans, as it’s only a couple hours by ferry from the city. The ferry trip was fine as it was a clear day on Thursday. The only wrinkles were the instances when the boats motor started chugging, causing cries of “Plastic!” from a boatworker. We then stopped the boat and waited for the workers to clear the plastic from the boats propeller.

We booked into an all-inclusive island that, on the whole, wasn’t all that bad. The food could have been better for the price that we were paying, but that’s about it. I did some snorkeling along the various islands throughout the two-night stay. The water around the 1000 Islands is a bit murky and visibility isn’t the greatest. There’s also the ubiquitous bits of trash that invariably get blown around the area. It was relaxing to get away from all the hubbub that I’m accustomed to in the cities.

We befriended a French couple who met us for dinner at a Japanese restaurant, Yoshi’s, in Dharmawangi Plaza. It was all-you-can-eat with unlimited beer for about 10USD (they also charged for anything you ordered but didn’t eat). Oh, the sacrifices I make! Since we were commemorating a birthday, we went to a karaoke house nearby and sang some of the night away before pushing on to BB’s in Plaza Menteng (everything is pretty much a plaza here!). It was a classic dive bar with a pretty decent live band. I got into the act when the singer put the mic in front of me for the chorus of “Shake Your Moneymaker.” I’d probably be a regular at that spot if I lived in Jakarta. From there, we migrated to X2, a club at Plaza Senayan area. Eventually, the host of my crashpad and I decided to leave and I fell into bed for an hour’s sleep before having to wake up and go to the airport.