Hello Students, Hello Fellow Teachers, Hello School and Hello Education!

 

It is another new chapter of my working life. I will never know if I will make it as a ‘career’, as career is defined as “an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress.” The word “significant period of a person’s life” and “opportunities for progress” are big words for me currently. As of now, I applied for this job because I want to spend my time with a more useful activities, and of course to shed some pounds. I am glad that I did, as for the past few days, I went out for work (not much work to do yet though) and still got my house chores done at home, making sure that someone still comes back to a HOME. Although those left me with not much energy by the end of the day, I have to admit that I am proud of myself for that. Little things count, don’t they?

From this, I am also very appreciative for what my partner has to scarifie to get me to school, every single morning, EARLY. Before I start working, we woke up at 7.30 (earliest), now, We have to be out from the house by 7AM. And I couldn’t make it possible, if it is not for him. This gives me the energy to do more at work and home. Thank you, Baby. The best thing is that we manage to squeeze in our little routine of having breakfast together still. Hooray!

But getting myself here, at school, as a teacher for real, I am looking at those kids and I am very eager to show them that learning Mandarin can be super interesting and fun. Most importantly, it is a beautiful language. Forget about career advancement, I am just hoping that I will make a difference in the students’ learning.

For the past few days, I didn’t have much things to do yet. I will only be starting having my own class when the new term starts. I replaced a few classes for other teachers for the last 2 days and found myself back in my “nature.” It doesn’t feel like new job, it feels like me. And I am happy that way.

However, system and politics in workplace just failed me again this time round. I am not very keen in politics at workplace, but people are just too consumed with work that they forgot the reason that they are here, to educate (or could it be, they were just sticking with their purpose all this while?), I will never know their intention, but I guess I just need to adjust my place here.

Being here for so short period of time, I have already learning. I just witnessed a few things that are jaw dropping for me. I am no expert in education nor have more experience than the teachers who are surrounding me for the past few days, but I am new and distant enough to see that there are certain things that If I can I might want to do differently.

1.       Disciplining kids

As I was writing this, a kid is being disciplined for profane languages in school.That is a good thing, isn’t it? I will definitely do it too. However, it is done in the teacher office with most of the teacher around. Today experience has taught me not to discipline kids in front of public. (NOTE TO SELF) I did that at times, the reason is because of lack of emotional control, things that I am not very good at. Thus, I am living and learning.

 

However, it’s worse if we do it because we are in charge, because we have the power, because we want to show to our peers that we are doing something good, because we are looking for fun stuff to laugh at. I am in no agreement to that, at all. School should have a room for this purpose, if needed, take less new students so that you make room for what needed, to provide quality!

It is not very nice to scold people in front of public, not to adults nor to kids. It is even worse when the kids started to cry, then you took out your phone and started to take a picture of them and threaten to spread it, while you laughed along with your peers. Even I know that you are not going to do that for real, but it is something I don’t appreciate. I have good-ex employer before, who discipline and explain things to their employees about things that could have been done better behind closed doors, one on one. That is a good example that I hope I will be able to follow.

2.       Crown yourself with good title/position at work, but don't forget to be Human!

I also learnt no matter what your position in a company, in life, be Humble. There is a saying in Indonesian “Diatas Langit masih Ada Langit.” As of this, I have good example in our family. My second uncle and his wife are really good in staying humble. With whatever they have in life, they have been great in keeping their feet on the ground. I am very proud to have that uncle. I have the opposite type as well in my family, I am not proud of him but I hope good things happen to him though.

Politics in the office, teacher’s office to be exact, is so obvious between the Mandarin and English Divisions, and I don’t see the need for it to happen at all. But it is there. The school I am with now is well-known for their Mandarin in this island, thus, the division is the biggest, it is happened that I am a newbie in this group and someone on another division isn’t happy about the division that has gotten bigger and decided to declare war from the first day I am in. That person even thought greeting in the morning is too much for the members of the 2 divisions. Bad Example! She must have been so unhappy at work. Poor her! I have no intention to be in the war, so she can have her own war! Amen! J

I am totally self-aware, I am a type who might not make it big in a career, but I will make whatever I have in hand good, well and better. Excuse my vanity! :p

All in all, here I am starting my third full time job as a teacher in a big school. It is not a fancy job, (it even has not-so-good-looking uniform) but I am happy doing it. To be Frank and Hopeful, I can see myself having school of my own and grow it in my own way, as I jotted down almost 4 years ago. As a housewife, I don’t see myself has a dead end in realizing my dreams, I am just taking another route, it might be longer, but I feel it is something visible. Above all, I am just praying for good health, time, physical strength and the continuous support that I have already gotten and I hope to always have from my partner and other family members! 加油！

Nyepi in Bali

Nyepi (Day of Silence) is a day celebrated mainly by the Balinese. This year is the first time of my 29 years of life which I have spent really experiencing a Nyepi day for real! As I mentioned, most of us know the meaning of the word Nyepi, but we have never thought that Balinese takes this day very literally and seriously and that’s so much respect for that!

The night before the Nyepi, there is a kind of parade going on around the street of Bali. You will experience a little interesting performance and a lot of traffic jam. During the parade, they were pushing carriage with ogoh-ogoh (symbolize the monster / evil spirits) on top, in which, from time to time, would be carried on the shoulder and sort of made the ogoh-ogoh came to life in the movement that they created.  

What amazed me was the durability of the ogoh-ogoh. I heard that they are made out of bamboo and processed paper and when you see how uniquely they are shaped and how strong the waving movement made by the carrier, you too will go “wow… they are still intact?” That moment, for me, I know how much time they must have spent in preparing that. Or another sign that we can look for is the proud expression of the people who push and carry them that show you this once a year event is important.

We didn’t spend too much time on the road, the heat (even it was already night time) and the traffic jam just made it impossible to stay on the street too long. I am a happy girl, witnessing that for short 30 minutes are good enough for me. J

Move on to the D Day. My dearest partner had kept on emphasizing on how we should stock up some food for the day. I was a planner, so I did so, not knowing how serious it is. But I believe there will be people who might still take it lightly and I can't imagine how they will spend their day with 3 meals on instant noodle, IF they have them in stock. The day before, I prepared 2 days amount of food, so that on the day itself, I could just heat them up and didn’t have to do the real cooking that sometimes can be noisy. I even bought super giant candle, the only type that I could found in the nearby groceries store (we didn’t use it at the end, because when we tested it out the night before, the light from the candle was visible from outside, and that might invite the visit from the Pecalang who were the only group of people who were allowed to roam around the street on that day to make sure everyone follows the rule!)

So food was good. We had enough to get by. It was quite a boring day though, because you know that you are not allowed to go out. You didn’t stay in by choice that created even more temptation to actually want to do something outside, as restricted. But we were good residents, so we stayed in and suppressed that boredom. That night, the sky was beautiful. The only ray of light that you can see came from the sky, the moon and the star. One day when I have a house with a good rooftop, maybe I would like to lay down and count stars during Nyepi. They were just so clear. No interference from our manmade light that lights up the city for the rest of 365 days this year. However, I must admit that when I peeked out of the window to check out on the opposite unit who didn’t exactly follow the rule and had been visited twice or thrice by the Pecalang, the darkness outside scared me. To my ear the quiet moment were soothing and at the same time foreign. We would not have that til next year.

So, that was my first Nyepi in Bali.

My Version of Living in Bali

One sixth of 2016 has passed, here we are in March. I haven’t set a goal or anything this year, as I am quite busy (I know… no one believes that a full time housewife, with no kids can be busy). Never ask us to explain, because there are no words to better express our work in making a house home, even the small space we are currently living. It takes effort so that when the sudden hunger hits in the middle of the night, there is always things that you can process to satisfy your hunger.

So here are my 40 days in Bali, my 40 days without doing anything that requires me to answer and report to anyone.

Here we are in Bali, Beach is something that a must and given the 40 days which equal to almost 6 weekends, we have visited a few different spots in Bali. Don’t ask me if it is nice, it is always nice to be out and have some fresh air (fresh air here includes the pouring rain). It is just nice to look at the vast horizon and no building blocks your view. It is always breathtaking for me. You know me, I am impressed by all the little thing and I take that at as a blessing. Isn’t it tiring to always live with no satisfaction towards anything that you encounter?

And I am setting a goal that we are going for 24 sunsets within a year time at 24 different locations in Bali. Someone has to do the thinking where to go J I, on another hand, will work on the compilation of photos. Teamwork!

 

Food is another good thing here. I am easily satisfied with food, someone isn’t. However, he manages to be impressed by a few restaurant in town. If he is impressed, I am in heaven! It is whole different level of satisfaction. One of the restaurants that made me fly is La Finca. Gosh… the Spanish food there is superb! I also enjoy sitting at Envy, one of the restaurants in Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali. When the weather is friendly, you can finish your lunch and just sit there sipping your afternoon tea and listening to the sound of the wave breaking and practically just do nothing! I super love that! The price at La Finca is quite expensive, so that’s once in a while treat. However at Envy, I think it worth every penny you spent! Medan won’t have this kind of quality food, while Singapore will never have the serene ambience. Bali is Good!

 

The good thing of being together is that we are together. Many things that we did a lot alone last few years, we are able to do it together now, that includes simple thing like breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now, morning breakfast and coffee is a must, while dinner at home has become a test and reward moment for us. It is a test for me whether I am cooking well, and it is very rewarding when someone else finish it and ‘clean’ their plate. Those time and heat in the kitchen is made worthwhile. It is also rewarding for the consumer who come back from work and able to enjoy good homecooked food. Isn't it home definition in the most conservative way? Surprisingly I have done quite well in Chinese food, I think. But I wonder if I will ever be able to master the spices used in Indonesian food. I am really clueless.

 

Even in this beautiful Bali, there are days that we just spent lazing around, watching movie, sleeping at home, and do nothing. It is the ordinary day when both of us get to recharge our body and be ready for the upcoming week. Someone was even very kind to buy me the spa session for my birthday while he was working hard a few weeks ago. Thank you, Baby… That was a very good experience!

 

I am also introduced to many different sides of the city, especially the habits of the locals. I gather that Balinese is more polite than people from other cities in Indonesia. I also awed by one of the 'profession' here. It is the seller and buyer of gold jewelry by the road side. They will just have a chair along the street, about 10m -15m distances from one another, and they will just sit there the whole day waiting for people to come to sell their gold jewelry (and maybe something they sell too). That’s pretty boring kind of work, and I wonder if it can give them stable income, but looking at the number of people who do that (sit and wait), I guess it does generate money!

 

Another big thing that I am waiting for is: Nyepi, known as “Day of Silence”. I didn’t know much and not bother to find out more before, because Nyepi is just another public holiday when I resided in another city in Indonesia. This year will be different. It is just two days away, we have already received a notice from the apartment management to inform us not to turn the light on and keep it very quite on 9^th March, from 4pm to the following day. We are also asked not to go out of our house. My partner told me that it will be very quiet that day and everybody who lives in this island, whether or not we are a Hindu, we got to respect that. Even the airport is closed! The night before the Nyepi, the New year, it is said that there will be ritual on the streets while they carry a huge statue (ogoh-ogoh), before actually burning them, this symbolizes the burning of the evil spirits. I have seen quite a bit of them in some of the temples that we passed by, and I am really excited about it. I wonder how it will turn out that day, will it be boring or serene kinda day? But it is always nice getting to know other cultures. It might be similar to the Konghuchu, or it might be totally different, the most important thing here is to respect.

So… here is a glimpse of my version of Living in Bali.

One more thing, I initially planned to take a few months break here, but not doing anything (cooking and house chores excluded) are a bit boring. So I am starting my teaching again by end of this month. The challenge is not in the work itself, I am pretty sure I will do perfectly fine or even good. The challenge is getting up early. Instead of teaching private class, I am teaching at school for real now. The bad news is school start at 7.15. Wish me luck! Next month, I am wearing a few hats at the same time, I am a teacher, I am a wife, and I am a daughter! A few responsibilities on shoulder, but I would like to do all well. J All the best~

时间都去哪儿了

 

这首歌应该表达了世上父母们的心声吧。。。


《时间都去哪儿了》

作词：陈曦 作曲：董冬冬
编曲：董冬冬
演唱：王铮亮

门前老树长新芽
院里枯木又开花
半生存了好多话
藏进了满头白发

记忆中的小脚丫
肉嘟嘟的小嘴巴
一生把爱交给他
只为那一声爸妈

时间都去哪儿了
还没好好感受年轻就老了
生儿养女一辈子
满脑子都是孩子哭了笑了

时间都去哪儿了
还没好好看看你眼睛就花了
柴米油盐半辈子
转眼就只剩下满脸的皱纹了

记忆中的小脚丫
肉嘟嘟的小嘴巴
一生把爱交给他
只为那一声爸妈

时间都去哪儿了
还没好好感受年轻就老了
生儿养女一辈子
满脑子都是孩子哭了笑了

时间都去哪儿了
还没好好看看你眼睛就花了
柴米油盐半辈子
转眼就只剩下满脸的皱纹了