You want to work in Paradise too?

There is a steady stream of people who decide, for one reason or another, to up-sticks and head for Jakarta. Some people do as I did and head for Asia and then consequently find themselves in Jakarta. Other people head for Jakarta or other parts of Indonesia specifically.

The reasons for coming vary enormously too. It could be to work for a company, such as in the oil industry. It could be a gap year, or it could be as simple as needing a change. Whatever that reason, if you want to work your way around a new country, then teaching is a great choice for many reasons.

If you choose teaching, and teaching English, it usually means learning a new skill (more about that later). It allows you to then take that skill and potentially apply it anywhere that needs an English teacher. Depending on how the experience progresses, you may find yourself diversifying into other jobs. One thing I can pretty safely guarantee though is that the experience will change your life.

So, how to begin........
Well, assuming you aren't currently a teacher then you need to get some experience to become one. Most institutions are looking for some qualification that proves you understand what is involved in teaching either EFL (English as a Foreign Language) or ESL (English as a Second Language). If they're not interested in you having any teaching qualification, worry.

Many teachers take a TEFL course, the 't' stands for teaching. This is often through a company such as  i-2-i (http://www.i-to-i.com/about-i2i/careers-with-i2i/) who offer both online and classroom based opportunities. I'm not familiar with this as it's not the route that I took somy advice is that you really do need to check what your future employer is looking for. So don't skimp on the research. Put another way, it may seem relatively easy to do an online course, but will the qualification get you a job? Or just onto an extended course for further qualifications?

I went down a slightly different road and took a CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) with a company called International House based in Bangkok (http://www.ihbangkok.com/index.php). I really can't rate this highly enough. It was the toughest month of my life in some ways. It was also the most satisfying ( I should apologise to my ex-wife for that last sentence). What I have found since is that the Tefl courses seem fine but the CELTA is just so much more developed. I can only tell you how I felt at the time coming off the course. It was so in-depth and extremely focussed on lesson planning and delivery that I still adhere to it's formats over two years later.

So why Thailand? Well, Thailand has it's knockers (no pun intended) but International House are a reputable company and the CELTA is directly affiliated with Cambridge University so carries a prestige too. The second reason was that they offered a residential course in Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand which appealed enormously to me. I had absolutely no intention of staying and travelling in the sweatbox that is Bangkok, but Chiang Mai offered a different perspective.(The picture below is not the accommodation, rather it's the view across a serene, tranquil catfish lake, perfect for reflecting on your teaching practice or essay writing.)

This is the website for the residential course location http://www.nugentwaterside.com/ you don't book your accommodation, it comes as a package but this site shows better angles than my photos!

There is a maximum of twelve teaching students on the CELTA course and ages and experience vary enormously. below are some of my friends from the course.

The added benefit of taking the CELTA in Thailand was that with the classroom teaching practice, I taught non English speakers and in hindsight this was immense value when starting my first job.
The students are locals from Chiang Mai and are offered a structured English course for free, as long as they don't mind being guinnea pigs for the teaching students!
(above is the computer and research room and below is one of our training classrooms at Nugent Waterside)



"I've passed my TEFL/CELTA, what's next......"

Well next up is to apply for a job but who to apply to?
For me I'd settled on China or Indonsia in the first instance. China because I'm fascinated with the culture and Indonesia because I knew next to nothing about it. Why not Thailand? Well, the CELTA course had finished in February and the fact is that the State schools don't really recruit until May/June and financially I needed to be working.
My Uncle, who has a great deal of academic experience of China was at pains to suggest I didn't go there. Before anyone hyper-ventilates, this is my blog, with my experiences. I hear many good stories of experiences teaching in China. I have never worked there so really can't comment other than to point out that my Uncle didn't consider it to be the best move I could make. So it came to pass that I took up an offer with EF English First in Jakarta.

I reccommended earlier that people should do their research carefully. I did not. I was partly so happy to get the job I'd applied for (I had also been offered a job in China) that I just kept anticipating putting the hard work into practice.
Not researching carefully enough usually, after having started the job, leads to cries of "what?" or "You want me to do what?" or "I'll be sharing a room with two goats and Grandma Probolingo?". I have been lucky. This comes from being placed in a great school with an academically excellent Director of Studies. But my advice to everyone is DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

Have a list of what you want to know:-
location
salary
what ages will I be teaching
expectations of ability to follow your own interests outside work
accommodation
etc etc

This way in any interview, you will be prepared as much to ask questions, as to answer them.
If you're offered the job and time allows, I'd expect the Director of Sudies who you'll be working with to contact you and offer the opportunity to speak to or email current teachers. Another chance to ask pertinent questions. This along with the research you did earlier will ensure you don't arrive and immediately think "what the ......?"
In all likelihood you'll be taking on a one year contract. That may or may not be extended depending on your performance as much as your intention and any extension depends on what you want to do next. I know teachers and DoS's who have continued into their fourth years and beyond.

Finally. This is a job of work you are taking on. If your goal, as in the words of the immortal Artist Formerly Known as Prince, is to party like it's 1999, then don't do it. Do something else. Get into party planning or wedding organising. You're going to be responsible for impressionable minds. Of course you'll have plenty of chance to let your hair down but you're not on some kind of extended holiday. Better to hear this now than when you're struggling to get a reference for your third job in three months!

Life as a teacher is hard work but there's also fun too. My school is often organising day trips or overnights to different places. Going off on your own is also fun and there's always plenty of help and support to do this.

Good luck and feel free to comment here or ask for further help. I'm happy to oblige.

In Memory of Roisin Burke

On 31st May 2011, we said goodbye to Roisin Burke.

To those of us who knew her, she was always the life and soul of wherever she was, encouraging people to see the fun side of things. I believe this is how she will want to be remembered.

"Derek"

Food Glorious Food (Indonesian style)

Anyone that know's me, know's I like my food. Yes I can be picky at times and at others downright confusing (I love cheese but I can't stand anything with cooked or melted cheese) but I'm always up for trying new and unusual things.

Back in the days in Thailand, before travelling to Jakarta, I went hill trekking and managed to try both rat and water buffalo. I also tried deep fried crickets too which, after a few beers, are not overly dissimilar to pork scratchings if you take the legs and general cricket shape into account.

The food I've tried here in Indonesia has been of tremendous variety. Simple dishes with complex flavours made by carefully combining herbs and spices and other ingredients to combine into what can only be described as a taste sensation. And I'm not talking about 5 Star restaurants. You get this same attention to detail even from the street vendors and roadside waroengs. The biggest complaint I hear levelled against Indonesian food is "everything is fried" and whilst this is not entirely true, alot of the food can be fried..........let me introduce you;

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From top to bottom of these pictures we have:-
1. Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice)
This is a staple part of the Indonesian diet and possibly the most versatile meal on the list. This meal can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner or just as a snack. I've seen this dish prepared in a matter of seconds as long as the ingredients are ready to go. Here's the recipe and method from my local lunchtime waroeng, Wong Solo.
Basically you add some oil, garlic and salt to a hot wok and lightly stir in an egg. Next is added a little chicken stock and some thick soy sauce called kecap (pronounced ketchup but not to be confused with the tomato sauce variety) and to this is added a portion of steamed rice. This is stir fried and has pieces of cooked chicken and, depending on your taste, chopped birds eye chillies* are added. Now it's just about combining the ingredients. If this is served as a take-away then it is scooped onto a piece of banana leaf and topped with fried shallots, chopped pickled vegetables and, as is my preference, shredded cabbage. Finally garnished with prawn crackers called krupuk, the cost of this lunch is RP12,000 or about 80p in English money or $1.20 US.
The picture show's the more traditional "eat-in" service of the dish straight out of a bowl mould and topped with a fried egg and garnished with cucumber and tomato but, in my opinion, the dish I've described from Waroeng Wong Solo's is the best Nasi Goreng I've had since I've been here.
* The chillies are usually optional although in some dishes are already present. Indonesian preference is usually towards spicy. If you require your meal "spicy free" then the expression tidak pedas should immediately be in your vocabulary. Asking for something pedas usually ends up in vindaloo++ proportions of spicy heat! It should be born in mind that very little food here is ever entirely without being a little spicy.

2. Mie Goreng (Fried Noodles)
It's difficult to tell just which is more popular here, Rice or Noodles. I'd have to say that on reflection it would be noodles. Indonesians eat noodles in so many ways from the amazing variety of pot noodles and dried noodles found in supermarkets that with a little hot water, reconstitute themselves into great snacks (or in the case of cash strapped teachers, possibly a staple diet) to angel hair noodles or udon noodles.
This picture show's the most traditional way to eat them. Stir-fried with some vegetables and some stock and of course, the prerequisite chillies!

3. Gado-Gado (Vegetable Salad)
Possibly the least appetising dish from the pictures, I agree, but don't let that fool you. Gado-Gado can be translated into English as "jumble" and basically that's what this is. A jumble of steamed vegetables coated in peanut sauce (and chillies) and usually served with plain steamed rice or Lontong, a compacted rice cake.

4. Soto Betawi Ayam (Chicken Soup)
The fourth picture down is a great soup made with coconut milk, chicken and vegetables. It also has these weird egg crackers which don't taste particularly nice on their own, but once soaked in the soup give it another texture altogether.

5. Sate Kambing (Barbecued Goat Skewers)
There are many types of sate, quite possibly the more popular one is chicken, but this goat sate is more complex. The chicken version is barbecued then coated in a spicy peanut sauce and served on rice. The goat version is barbecued but then served with a sauce of sweet soy, chopped chillies, shredded cabbage, tomato, sliced shallots and lime juice.

6. Iga Bakar (Grilled Beef Ribs)
Pork isn't entirely off the menu in Indonesia but with the majority of the population being Muslim there are only select places that you find it. This dish does away with the need for pork ribs. The ribs you get in the waroengs and restaurants are usually huge and often served with something called Sambal*. Don't oder if you don't like fat. whilst there is alot of meat on the ribs, there is also some fat too. I'm a big fan of the taste of flame grilled beef fat but I understand it's not to everyone's taste.
* Sambal - Initially there are two types of sambal, matang (cooked) or mentah (raw). but the varieties don't stop there......
Sambal terasi
Possibly the most common style of sambal with a strong flavour coming from red and green chillies, shrimp paste, sugar, salt, and lime juice
Sambal asam
This is similar to sambal terasi but with the addition of a tamarind concentrate.
Sambal kacang
A mixture of chillies with garlic, shallots, sugar, salt, crushed fried peanuts and water.
Sambal bajak
Chilies fried with oil, garlic, candlenuts, this is a darker and richer sambal.
Sambal pencit
Take some sambal terasi and add shredded young mango. Pencit means young mango in Indonesian.
Sambal lado ijo
This is a Padang speciality- the sambal is green, not red and is made from green tomatoes, green chilies, shallots and spices and then stir fried.

The list goes on and is seemingly endless!

7. Bebek Goreng (Fried Duck) above
There are many Chinese restaurants here that serve great duck but this dish, found in waroengs and roadside restaurants is simple. Fried bits of duck served with a salad of raw cabbage leaves, mint leaves, tomato cucumber and a hot and spicy green chilli sambal.


No list of Indonesian food, no matter how short or how long, should miss the local delicacy(?) that is Durian. New York is called the Big Apple because everyone wants to take a bite out of it. Jakarta has earned the international moniker of "The Big Durian". Let me tell you durians stink. A ripe open durian smells like the inside of a 3 year old running shoe that's been left to go damp and moldy in some outhouse. Even Indonesians themselves are divided with a significant percentage not liking it either.
This does not stop shopkeepers and supermarkets from placing the display right at the front of the store where you can smell it from a considerable distance (aprox 2 miles). How this attracts customers rather than repels them is beyond me. It would have the same invitational appeal as a rotting warthog carcase displayed in the window.
The list of things made from this disgusting fruit includes iced smoothies, ice cream and even a sambal! Whilst durian flavoured candy is also available.
All i can say is........you've been warned!

Customary Confusion #1

One of the things that never fails to bring a smile to my face every day is the differences in Asian and Western customs. I know there are huge disparities around the globe such as the "ok" sign being acceptable in some places whilst not in others, but in Indonesia there are some great ones. I do hope my Indonesian friends and colleagues wont mind me poking a little fun at this area as I'm sure many of our customs seem strange to them and I'm absolutely positive that a trip to the west would bring about the same perplexion (probably with our attitude to beaurecracy in particular!).

Noses
Let's begin with the nose. Bule, as westerners are commonly referred to, have generally bigger noses than our Asian brothers and sisters. This in itself can be cause for much hilarity, pointing or staring depending on your situation. The customary divide is that we Westerners do tend to refrain from inspecting the contents of our noses at regular and often public occasions.
My father once taught me a small rhyme as a kid;
"you can pick your friends,
and you can pick your nose,
but you can't pick your friend's nose"
Now admittedly even in Asia I have never seen anyone picking another person's nose, but the acceptability of the second line of the rhyme is extraordinary. Were it ever considered as an Olympic event, The Gold would indeed come to Indonesia I feel.
In particular, students of all ages quite happily sit in class "raiding the snotbox" and to say this is off-putting when explaining the formula for passive voice is an understatement. However, this behaviour is not limited to students. No sir, no indeedy. I have been physically stood in front of policemen, immigration officials and much more frighteningly, waiters, who all believe this is an acceptable past-time.
The thing that makes this slightly more confusing is that it is considered rude to blow your nose in public. The use of a handkerchief or tissue is frowned upon!

Driving
The customs in this area are not only confusing, but if you don't have your wits about you they can be downright dangerous and I should point out that there is no test of driving ability in Indonesia. As long as you can afford the cost of the driving licence (Rp300,000 for Indonesians, Rp500,000 for Bule) that is sufficient to get you onto the road.
Consider two lanes of traffic. As in the UK, Indonesians drive on the left hand side of the road. Most of the time! Quite often you will encounter a bicycle or a motorbike and extraordinarily at times a car or a truck, coming at you on your side of the road. The reaction to this in the UK would be hand gestures, shouting at the other driver (window up or down optional depending on level of frustration) or liberal use of the horn and flashing of beam headlights.
These responses highlight other customary differences. Firstly, Indonesians rarely show anger. I have heard stories from other drivers where people have been knocked off of bikes, picked themselves up, dusted themselves down and depending on the state of said bike walked or ridden off. Once even with a smile and a wave! Hence any show of anger is treated with confusion. (NB. There isn't really any insurance here either. Rather the common acceptance is that the biggest vehicle must be at fault and therefore stands any costs)
Secondly, the horn and beam lights. here these are used purely to let other drivers know you're in the vicinity or that you have no intention of stopping. Angry use of these two accessories purely causes yet more confusion and a long, single blast of the horn would make most people assume it's just broken.
Finally, as I mentioned at the beginning of this posting hand signals have different meanings here to the point that you'll probably end up complementing the other person hehehe.
My point of view on this subject comes from having held bike and car licences for the last year, regularly riding a motorbike around the area an also having an amazing view of the main road from the smoking area on the first floor of our building.
Do not be tempted to adopt any highway code that you use in your own country. Giving way to traffic at roundabouts and junctions seems more instinctive than controlled by rules and certain vehicles such as angkots (cheap minibus taxis), taxis and ojeks (motorbike taxis) seem to be a law unto themselves.
Tip: drive as if you're the only person on the road and have major difficulty parking and you'll fit in nicely.

Punctuality
As a Brit, I'm used to the different cultural values of this custom. In Spain, "Manjana time" is the standard where whatever it is you're waiting for will happen soon. Probably.
Depending on exactly what it is you're waiting for, this laissez-faire attitude is usually pretty funny. Most people experience it in a holiday context so are usually more relaxed and accepting. In a working capacity it must be more frustrating.
We Brits are usually less forgiving when something at work needs to be done. It's part of our DNA make up. We're just raised that way.
Our reaction is impatience and this shows in a few ways. This could be despairing or exasperated looks generally looking for what it is you're waiting for.It could escalate to finger tapping or grinding of teeth or possibly starting a random argument with some innocent bystander. These usually occur before the final "flipping out" stage which can also be referred to as "losing it". Quite often in this situation a "messenger gets shot" as the impatient person finally "goes off the deep end".
Any time spent in Indonesia quickly leads you to the realisation that time as a concept is arbitrary. Certain things you'd expect to be expedited quite quickly, usually aren't.
1. Getting your passport stamped on arrival back from Singapore with a new visa. (relatively long. Depending on just how many times one guy can look at every page of your passport without ever making eye contact with you in person)
2. Getting an Indonesian mate to help you sort out finance on a new motorbike. (never-ending. Currently I've been waiting nearly 5 months for this to arrive and the list of excuses recently went from laughable to just sad)
3. From choosing a new shirt to leaving the shop with your purchase. Way longer than you'd think!
4. Waiting for some teenage students to get to class. Hmmmmm.

First week of May 2011

So my birthday week has arrived and looking ahead it's going to be a fun week.

Today isn't actually the best start as I've got a bit of a cold, you know that type of cold that isn't full blown feeling crap, rather it's the type of cold that means you can't actually taste anything, you have to blow your nose every 2 minutes, the air conditioning makes you feel cold, but the minute you turn it off you sweat buckets and basically you can think of a thousand places you'd rather be than at work.....ah well, some panadol capsules and writing myself a memo to say "man up and get on with it" should do the trick...

It's currently 11.25 on Monday morning the 2nd of May and I'm waiting for a group of parents to turn up to talk about their children's next steps. This is a class of kids who've completed our Trailblazer levels but are a little to young (in maturity stakes as well as physical years) to move to the Real English levels. The meeting was supposed to start at 11.00 and the complete lack of respect it shows to arrange a meeting and then to not turn up, to not even bother calling is remarkable.

I have an illness issue this week in other terms too. Two of my Indonesian teachers are off with Chicken Pox. It's actually a curious form of Chicken Pox as both called me after the initial diagnosis to say that they'd be off for two days. Having personally been unfortunate enough to have had Chicken Pox as an adult I feel huge sympathy for both Inge and Haryo but what doctor worth a medical degree can suggest two days rest as a cure for the Pox?? The incubation period alone is 12 days and it only stops being infectious after the scabs from the spots heal over. Anyway, Inge will be off for at least another week and Haryo thinks he'll be back next monday......we'll see. I guess it's one of the perils of working in a school that you expose yourself to all manner of bugs and diseases.

The upshot of this is that with Jacob, one of our native English speaking teachers having to return home due to epilepsy and Widi, one of our non-native teachers taking a new job as a translator, we're pretty short on teachers. Paul Hutchens is also on holiday this week and I'll be going to Singapore on Thursday with Emma Winfield, another of our teachers to do a "visa run". With this being the situation, we've actually had to borrow two non-native teachers from other schools so I'm waiting to welcome Angel and Puput.

In a small side note, I've just noticed the death of Osama Bin Laden on the BBC website.

Looking forward to the rest of the week, on Thursday i'll be flying to Singapore. Usually our visas are extended within the country once we have them, but recent issues in the Indonesian government have seen some problems with this process. Anyway, owing to other Indonesian govenment problems over the taxing of International movies, no new movies are currently being released anywhere in the country! This means that impending blockbusters such as Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern and X Men - First Class (to name just the superhero blockbusters) won't be seen. On Thursday, on landing in Singapore, I'll take the MRT to Orchard Road and go and see Thor and I'm as excited as a kid at Christmas!

Thursday 5th is also Emma's birthday so I guess a couple of beers may be consumed as well!

Bringing us swiftly to Saturday the 7th and my own birthday. With Emma's and mine being so close together we decided to host a joint party and invite just about everyone we know. The Singapore trip before it gives us the chance to get some spirits as well.

So what with all of the teaching issues this week, I'm going to use the more relaxed times to recover.......

til next time.........

Students, Students, Students

I changed jobs and moved to the other side of the world because I thought I wanted to teach. Doing the CELTA (The Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, living for a month with 11 other people at Nugent Waterside, socialising, interacting, learning, laughing, arguing....this experience really cemented my desire to teach.

The CELTA is not easy. There is no final exam, instead you are assessed over the course of a month on physically teaching students. You also have to write 4 essays on teaching methodology that are assessed for your final grade too. The benefit of this and doing the CELTA in Chiang Mai for me was two-fold. Firstly, the students would all be Thai and wouldn't have much experience of English. Sometimes teaching in England, the students are already exposed to the language. This would be less so in Thailand.
Secondly, I'd be staying on-site at the training venue. This meant that we could spread the work and relaxation, not have to worry about travelling everyday and all of the meals would be arranged for us.

The actuality was that the CELTA was ultimately rewarding in experiential terms, but a complete bitch at the time. The pressure to perform well and the intensity of the learning when coupled with the high expectations on the assessments was overpowering at times. The release valve came in the form of having 11 other people around me in the same position.

I have no idea what the TEFL courses such as I-2-I are really like. What I do know is that if you're interested in teaching, the CELTA will confirm it, one way or the other.

So, this brings me to the students that I have taught with EF. I actually had no intention of teaching kids. The CELTA is aimed at teaching adults, but the methodology is essentially the same. The reality is that kids make up aproximately 90% of the market, be that in actual schools or extra curricular learning such as ourselves. The experience has been surprising on many levels.

Firstly, I wasn't sure I really liked kids. The outcome of that is that I do, and understanding some child psychology has definitely helped with this. Secondly, I wasn't sure i could teach kids. I thought I'd respond better to adults, predominantly because of my age. Let me tell you, age is no barrier to teaching. I have taught kindergarten up to adults and each class brings it's own set of challenges. My age has never proved inhibiting for the students or for myself.

The students are amazing. They can be moody, lazy, obstinate and unco-operative. But they can also be enlightening, diligent, inteligent and funny. Their responsiveness is a direct result of how good our lessons are and it's our job to make those lessons as interactive and enjoyable as possible. I don't mean games, games, games...rather educationally responsible activities that are also fun to do.

The downside of being the DoS is that it takes you away from teaching. Because of the administrative duties you have less time. Our teachers have a minimum 23 hour contact teaching hour week (contact hours being the hours you actively teach in a classroom) after this they get paid overtime. As a DoS mine is 14 hours. I wasn't sure that I actually wanted to even be a DoS so at my contract meeting i had a clause written in that said if I didn't like the job and wanted to do more teaching I could go back to my old job! The reality is that I still get to teach, I have great classes and I also love my new role too.

Easter Weekend

So how does a Director of Studies spend his first long weekend off since starting as a DoS in January?....well let me break it down

As it may have occurred to you all from that last remark, I've worked every Saturday since starting at Gading Serpong. This is unusual as my contract allows me to take one Saturday off in four but due to it being the probationary period and that for the last few Saturdays I've been teaching a private student how to deliver a presentation in English, I haven't had the opportunity. Let's just say I was looking forward to it!

 Firstly I will take the TKT test on Monday morning so part of the weekend has actually been spent revising for that. The TKT is a test of teaching methodology knowledge, linked to EF through Cambridge University. I already hold the CELTA qualification but all of our teachers attain the TKT so it's only fair that the DoS leads by example and takes the same exam. I don't know why but I'm quite nervous about it, hopefully it'll go ok.

So Thursday night I headed back home after some food in Salsa, the food court I've referred to in a previous blog. The lie-in on Friday was great. really needed and I probably stayed longer in bed than I'd intended.

My laptop hasn't been working and I've been waiting for a suitable opportunity to go the 30 minutes to the Supermal at Karawaci. Here you can find all manner of electrical help. Be it a new mobile phone (or a second hand one come to that), Pulsa, the local term for mobile phone credit  as there are no real contracts to speak of here, plus computers. You can find laptops and notebooks of all shapes and sizes and along with this there are all manner of shops set up to mend any problems that you come across. My problem was that no power would get to the laptop so I took it to one of the sites, immediately found a guy who had a good grasp of English (although my Bahasa Indonesian is improving, I could never carry a conversation on the technical difficulties of a computer!) and explained the problem. he plugged it in and of course it immediately started working!

Next stop was a trip to see Bhoni. Bhoni is a girl who works at one of the knock-off DVD stores you can find here. Whatever you're looking for you can probably find it. As a movie buff it's a godsend, especially considering the current craziness going on in the Indonesian government and cinemas but more of that in a future blog. Rp21,000 or the equivalent Sterling of £1.75 saw me walk away with perfect copies of Inception, The Fifth Element and Rise of The Silver Surfer. Now it was time for a coffee.

There's a Coffee company called JCO where they give you a free glazed doughnut with every coffee purchased so it was washed down with an excellent hazlenut latte. As a matter of note, the guy behind JCO got his idea from Krispy Kreme doughnuts from the USA. He applied to hold the franchise rights for Krispy Kreme in Indonesia and, after attending the orientation course, decided to set up his own operation!!....They have a great range of doughnuts and sell a box of 12 for about £6.

Having just moved into a new house my last purchase today was a wi-fi router and with a working laptop this would now come in handy. So all of this in hand I jumped onto my borrowed moped and headed back to Gading Serpong.

I had no real plans for Friday night but that all changed with a phonecall from Zia. She's an Indonesian girl I know and she asked if I'd meet her and some of her friends and maybe record an English introduction for a company her friend works for. We arranged to meet in the Downtown Walk area of SMS and an hour later saw the voice recording done and a fun conversation over a coffee

Before leaving SMS Zia asked if I had any plans for Saturday and I told her no. She had to meet some other friends in Blok M, an area of Jakarta, to pick up the fabric for a bridesmaids dress for a wedding she'll be attending in July and asked if I wanted to go along. Any excuse to go into jakarta is fine by me and especially with a pretty girl too. So on Saturday morning I rode the moped the hour or so it takes to get to her house in Pamulang and we jumped into her family's car and I drove us into Jakarta.

We'd arranged to meet Zia's friends at 1.30 but a delay meant this was now going to be 4.00 and so to fill some time we headed to the Jakarta Convention Centre in the Senayan area where they were hosting and Indonesian handicrafts exhibition.

No sooner had we got through the entrance doors we bumped into Roach, a teacher who'd previously worked at EF Gading Serpong but for his second year he'd be working at EF Tangerang City. Roach was there with his girlfrind Alve and her young neice. I guess it wasn't difficult to spot Roach as we westerners do tend to stand out. We spent some time with them wandering through the exhibits before saying our goodbyes and heading back to the car.

Next stop was Blok M. one of Jakarta's older shopping areas and an area that on a night-time can be linked with the seedier side of the city if you know what I mean. We were meeting Zia's friends in a cafe and as with her friends the previous night they were all very nice and made me feel very welcome. Meeting Indonesians is a great way for me to learn more about Indonesian culture but also a great chance to practise my Bahasa.

From the cafe we then went around some stalls looking for a trophy. Two of Zia's friends are getting married and the four of them had a plan to buy a trophy which would be passed onto the next one to get married....interesting.

With the trophy bought we headed back to the car to return to Pamulang. It was totally dark now and this makes driving even more of an experience.Motorbikes and mopeds buzz around you like angry mosquitoes and you really do need to keep your wits about you. Arriving back at Zia's house i spent some time talking to her sister and her mum while waiting to see if the spitting rain would turn into anything more serious.......it did turn serious but not until I was back in BSD. Needless to say by the time I got home I was completely drenched!

It's now Sunday morning and my plan today is some more revision, probably over a coffee and doughnut in JCO. From there I'll head to ITC, a shopping mall in the BSD area where Iwant to buy a bookcase and a bed.

That's how this DoS spent his Easter weekend....