EF and Gading Serpong

I suppose I really should tell you about my school.......Gading Serpong is a suburb of Tangerang. I'd like to tell you that we're in the North East of Jakarta or the South West but frankly I have no idea!! Geography and finding my way around have never been a problem up until now, but here in Jakarta where i have lived for two years, I couldn't put my hand on my heart and tell you. I've even looked at maps. I've found where I live on Googlemaps but for some strange reason i just can't commit it to memory.

If it was a huge problem I'm sure I'd come up with a way to deal with it but getting into a cab and saying "Kemang" (a hangout spot for Bule2 in Jakarta) gets me where I need to go.

Gading Serpong is fairly new as a residential area I believe. I doubt it's more than 20 years old and it's a mixture of residential and retail properties but no industry to speak of. It has a golf course with a swimming pool(Gading Raya) which can be expensive. It has a number of schools, both state and private. It has a shopping mall called SMS or Sumeracon Mall which is in the process of being extended. It also has a great variety of restaurants and waroengs where I guess you can find food from most places around the globe.

Next to the Sumeracon Mall is an al fresco area called Salsa where a central stage that plays live music every night is surrounded by restaurants selling mainly Indonesian food, some of which serve beer! (don't forget Indonesia is predominantly Muslim and  drinking is not necessarily the cultural norm here)

In the mall itself, a pedestrianised walkway called Downtown Walk is enclosed with an even wider variety of restaurants ranging from Wendy's (The American burger franchise) and Pizza Hut, to more Indonesian branded restaurants such as Solaria and Dantes. Again a central stage has live music every night and on Mondays you can usually find a Beatles tribute band.

Indonesia is a land of malls and usually each one is subtly different. SMS has mainly clothing stores plus a couple of household/electrical stores, a smattering of personal shops such as Body Shop and a stationers/bookstore called Gramedia. There's a cinema on the top floor (more about that in another blog) and there's is also a well stocked supermarket called Farmers Market.

Driving in Gading Serpong is much easier than elsewhere such as it's near neighbour, BSD. The traffic seems much lighter and the road network spreading off from the main Jl Boulevard Gading Serpong means you always have options if the traffic is heavier than usual. The biggest problem I find is the potholes. Riding a motorbike you feel them a helluva lot more than in a car!

EF is a little over 2 years old and is located next to the Mall, maybe a 3 minute walk away. A 3 storey building, it houses 20 classrooms, a computer room with 11 computers and two activity rooms. The teachers staff room is spacious and my office is, well let's say it's compact, bijous and more than adequate for what I need. Over 700 students are catered for by a dedicated teaching staff and excellent administrative staff.

I'm contractually required to do a 40 hour week but partly through the love of the job and partly through a poor love life, I spend longer than that here! My day usually starts around 9.30 and I find coming in at that time allows me to get  things done before the teachers start arriving. Then, if I'm needed I'm available. I work Monday to Friday and work 3 saturdays in every 4. Depending on classes may day usually finishes around 7.30pm and 2pm on Saturdays.

Over the next few days i'll post some pictures to give you a better idea but right now it's 10.20am and time for coffee and a meeting with the school's Centre Manager. Daron out.