Immersing in Indonesia and First visitor!

I have had my first visitor from Canada come to visit me, but before I get to that I have a few quick updates from the weeks leading up to my first time playing tour guide in my new country.

Part 1: Getting more immersed in Indonesia

Jeremy, Kassandra, Aaron, Khavita, Linda (all friends teaching in Jakarta) and I went to the Indonesian National Museum. It was fairly interesting and it only took about two hours to walk through and see everything. This is the maximum amount of time any sane person can spend in a museum without risking falling asleep while standing up. Well done Indonesia for keeping the museum small enough so people don't get disengaged before they've seen everything. Not so well done Indonesia with the height of some of your displays, leaving us large Westerners having to come up with creative ways to read the displays, as Jeremy is demonstrating below. 

After my weekend visit in Jakarta I had a two-day training conference for teaching Cambridge AS and A level. This is a fancy name for how to teach grade 11 and 12 at schools where the students will be writing the standardized Cambridge exams. The delegates were teachers from many schools across Indonesia so it was an excellent opportunity to meet some teachers from other international schools. What immediately struck me was how much younger I was then all of the other teachers. Additionally, how much less experienced I was than all of the other teachers. It was a reminder of how challenging the teaching assignment I have been given this year is and that there aren't many other first year teachers in the situation I am in. I have realized that this year will be by far the most difficult year of my entire teaching career. Its a comforting thought because I am now managing very well, and I can be confident that I can handle any teaching assignment I happen to get in the future.

Cambridge sent a British lady to train us, and we received a certificate for our efforts. That stylish t-shirt I am wearing is called a batik and is traditional Indonesian attire. 

As it happened the first day of training I found the second youngest teacher there and we sat next to each other. Tallis is also a biology teacher, also from Canada (Vancouver), and has taught for 1 year in Australia, 1 year in China, and has now currently found the job of his dreams. For the dedicated followers of TrevinIndo you will remember the beautiful Gili Islands I visited and blogged about in August. For the less dedicated readers the Gili Islands do come up later in this blog. That Island is a ten minute boat ride from his house and is his view from his back yard. Tallis and his girlfriend work at a school on the island of Lombok, an island just off Bali famous for its excellent surfing. After work if the swell is good he can get to the beach 5 minutes from his house and go for a surf or snorkel. Living on a beautiful island with a loved one sounds like a dream retirement and Tallis has realized this dream at only 29.

Tallis invited me out for dinner with an old friend he taught with in China who is now teaching in Jakarta. Ronnie was one of the coolest guys I have ever met. Not only did he sound exactly like Russell Peters, but he was the type of guy who carried the conversation at all times, keeping everyone engaged and included and you just knew that this guy has never met anyone who didn't immediately get along with him. Just to put an exclamation mark on how awesome he is he picked up the tab and afterwards we exchanged contacts for future encounters. He had taught for 8 years in China and between him and Tallis I learned so much about international teaching and the world (literally) of opportunities that are out there.


Back to Bandung now: Two of my students took me out on a hiking trip one Saturday afternoon. Hiking is a euphemism for near death experience on a mountain. These students take their hiking seriously and feed on adrenaline. If I had to try and estimate the incline of this mountain we "hiked" down it would be about 45-60 degrees. There was no path, and for good reason because no human was meant to try and walk down this way (there was a paved trail you could hike on if you went in the entrance to the park). The two strategies were 1) a) grab a tree branch or root that you believe (hope) can support your weight, b) hold tight and jump forward as much as possible holding onto the branch and when you are fully extended try to find solid footing. c) Repeat steps a and b. 2) a) Spot a tree a few metres down the hill that you believe (hope) is well rooted, b) jump/slide down the mountain and stop yourself on said tree. c) Repeat steps a and b.

At the bottom of this mountain was a cool bit of history and one that meant something to me personally. There were several caves here that were occupied in world war 2. Some were occupied by the dutch, and some by the Japanese. One of my uncles fought for the Dutch army in Indonesia for 3 years after WWII. Indonesia was under Japanese rule during the war and when the Japanese surrendered in WWII Indonesia declared its independence. There were 5 or so different local groups that wanted control in Indonesia, but also the Dutch weren't ready to give up control of a country that had been so prosperous for them with spices. My Uncle Bill fought for 3 years and took a bullet through the neck. He survived the shot, and was back in action only a month later. He is alive and well today at 86 years old and I made a point (rather my Dad made sure it happened) to visit him before I left for Indonesia. He educated me a lot about Indonesia and the history of the post WWII power struggles. He has been back to Indonesia to visit as recently as 1995 and the most amazing thing happened. In the airport he met a stranger who asked him why he was in Indonesia. This man had fought in the same war as my uncle, but for the opposite side. They said to each other "once we were enemies, but now we are friends" and they visited the cemeteries of their fellow soldiers together and my uncle stayed with him and his family for several days. The site I visited was not where he fought, he fought on an entirely different island, but seeing the caves definitely made me think of Uncle Bill.

One of the caves occupied during and after WWII

This next update is from a proud teacher.

I had the honour of being the MC of the prefect induction ceremony at Bina Bangsa School Bandung and welcomed the returning and first time prefects for the 2013-2014 academic year. Prefects have to display exemplary leadership skills and/or role model traits and as part of the nomination committee I am pleased with the selection of prefects.

I would like to point out 10/15 of the students in my homeroom class are prefects

This article was in an Indonesian newspaper a few days ago and links back to Alice, Kyle, Cass, myself and the two school drivers, Jojo and Okie going to a professional soccer match in September. The article was about support from around the world for the Bandung soccer team, the Persib Vikings. The article is in Bahasa but a picture in the paper is a picture in the paper, regardless of what language the paper is written in. 

http://issuu.com/inilahkoran2/docs/17_okt_13/24?e=6102832%2F5258776

I can't tie this into a story at all but it was the first time in my life I've had a meal that was substantially bigger than my head. What's more is it was $4.00 and they lit it on fire in front of me before I ate it. It was also delicious. It was a BBQ eel pizza but if you order it as a "Volcano" they bring it out to you as a giant hollow ball of pizza dough first.

My last update for part one of this blog entry is a series of decisions I made to ensure that when I leave this country I will have no regrets knowing that I dove right into this experience and put my whole heart into it. I have committed to trying to learn the language, Bahasa Indonesia, and have already received some very encouraging responses from interactions with locals at stores or in public places, as well as the Indonesian staff at the school. Indonesians love when a Bule is making an effort to interact with them in their native language.

The second decision I made was that I need some independence in travelling around since I am at the mercy of taxis and school cars for getting around. So I bought a motorcyle

The three stores I had to go to to find a helmet was quite a blow to my self esteem but I can Kruis around town now on my own set of wheels

Part 2: Pacar Cantik

My first visitor of my time in Indonesia, travelling over 40 hours thanks to some unfortunately long layovers, was my pacar cantik (beautiful girlfriend) Lynsey. Having a visitor to show around allowed me to realize just how much I have learned and how comfortable I have become in Indonesia. 

We spent the first weekend in Jakarta so she could see the Nation's capital and meet some of the Jakarta teachers who I had become so close with during the induction Ceremony in June/July and have maintained our friendship on holidays and weekends. Jeremy and Kass were excellent hosts but no one can welcome someone to Indonesia like Indonesian's themselves and we experienced one of the best examples of Indonesian kindness that I have been a part of in my time here. Two weeks earlier at a restaurant called "B Steak" Jeremy had commented to our server that he liked her "I heart B Steak" pin and asked if he could have one (we eat there all the time). She tried to give him her pin since they didn't have any extra laying around but he declined. Two weeks later that same server approached us with the manager apologizing that the restaurant still didn't have any pins for him and gave him a desert on the house as an apology. The thoughtfulness of this waitress remembering Jeremy and his request and feeling badly for not being able to give him a pin is such a great example of how kind and giving Indonesians are. 

Walking to the mall for $7 massages Jeremy sighted an iguana and we laughed when he tried to catch it in an open field. Jeremy and his quickness and resilience got the last laugh though

Back in Bandung:

To me, travelling is all about stepping out of your comfort zone. I had arranged a karaoke night with several of the other teachers and a few of the admin staff. After I told Lynsey about this plan she informed me she has a fear of singing in public and could not possibly do karaoke. The incredible enthusiasm of the admin staff and encouragement and support of the group quickly turned that fear into enjoyment. However no one was able to get quite as many perfect scores as Kyle and I. 

When the admin staff weren't singing Bruno Mars or Justin Beiber they would revert to Indo pop

 Our monthly Karaoke team

When I told my friend Rachael that I was getting a motorcycle she told me motorcycle owners were called organ donors. 

After letting Lynsey drive and nearly ending up with us in a ditch I learned Rachael wasn't joking.

This is one of the restaurants just minutes from my school.

After Lynsey spent a week in Bandung seeing my new life, meeting my new friends, and of course coming to school and meeting my students, it was time for the one week term break and we headed to Bali. 

We were picked up from our hotel in Kuta on Saturday morning and took a van with 3 others to the fast boat to the Gili Islands. Ben is from Belfast, Ireland and is currently working in Shanghai. Robert and Aliza are from Melbourne and were heading to Gili Trawangan to meet a bunch of other friends for a 40th birthday getaway. When we got off the fast boat and Aliza and Rob asked "Are we going to wait until dinner to meet up or should we meet up in an hour and grab a drink?" I knew the start of a great friendship had began.

The top of the fast boat offered an amazing view of ocean, mountains, volcanos and looked to be an amazing place to hang out for a few minutes. Unfortunately we fell asleep for the two hour ride and I woke up with the worst sun burn I have had in years.

Our new friends! From left to right Robert, Aliza, Ben, Trev, Lynsey

Right when we arrived on Gili T we split from the group and checked into a comfortable but affordable guest house, run be two locals who we became great friends with by the end of the week. When we met up with Rob and Aliza, we learned that they were staying at a little bit of a nicer place and that we were more than welcome to use their pool. 

When we met Rob and Aliza's Aussie friends the next day we learned that they were staying at a very very nice place with a beautiful pool complete with waterfall and swim up bar, and again we were more than welcome to use their pool too.

 This is part of the place our Aussie friends were staying and it literally looks like a page in a travel magazine

Can't go to the Gilis without watching the sun set over the mountains

After sunset the fire performance began. Last time I was here they would joke "who's next?" after their performance so this time I was determined to call them on their bluff to let a tourist swing flaming metal balls around. 

Except that they weren't bluffing. They let me swing flaming metal balls around

One night after dinner with our Aussie crew Robert started setting up chairs on the beach and called everyone over. Throughout dinner he had been organizing charades and we played the funnest game of charades of my life. The Australian crew was so enthusiastic and the restaurant did a great job replenishing our Bintangs when they went empty, all of which made for a hilarious time. 

 So much Australian enthusiasm

Our Aussie group all out for dinner pre-charades

With my earlier comment of travelling being all about stepping out of your comfort zone I couldn't find an excuse not to try my first ever pedicure. I had trust issues that the lady wasn't going to tickle my feet but all in all it was a pretty relaxing foot massage and my toes have never looked so well-groomed. 

Notice the sun burn. Ouch!

I first tried scuba diving in Belize less than two years ago but it is something that has definitely changed my life. I fell in love with it and have now amassed 40 dives and counting. I have literally discovered a new world being able to go 40 metres below the surface of the ocean for almost an hour at a time and see so many living organisms I otherwise would never have seen. It has also shaped the way I travel, looking into countries largely based on the opportunities for diving. It has even shaped how I meet people because you are always diving in small groups, with people from all over the world, and they always have a keen sense of discovery and adventure and love nothing more than to share dive and travel stories with people they've just met. 

Knowing how much diving has changed my life I encouraged Lynsey to get her open water certification and she jumped in with both fins (literally). While she was taking her course I was doing fun dives and meeting some amazing people. I met two guys from Australia named Dean and Dan and was able to dive with them a few times, which almost always turns in to dinner and some beers later that day. I met two very interesting gentlemen who were from England originally, but had moved to Thailand to live a life where they could dive every day. Gal has been a dive master for 6 months in Thailand and at the same dive shop Neil has been instructing new divers for 5 years and has been able to share the first time diving experience with thousands of people. These two were like so many other travellers I have met who have realized that if you are not happy with your life (for example working in a rat race business world in an over populated city) you can change it. 

Watching Lynsey learn how to dive took me back to my first time diving. I was lucky enough to be in a course with two friends, Cole and Khalif, and my sister Emma. Until actually paying attention to a first time diver I forgot how challenging it can be and how much more there is to it than what it looks like on tv. Lyns had a slight panic attack underwater but was calmed down very well by her experienced instructor. Despite in that moment feeling convinced she would bail on the course, she stuck with it and was rewarded by seeing sea turtles, sting rays, octopus, white tip sharks, nemos, sea slugs, lobsters and so much more. Welcome to the world of diving Lynso.

 First day of the course

Ivan, one of the local dive masters

Course complete and off for a fun dive with a super cool dive buddy

After the dive course it was time to say goodbye to our new Aussie friends. For me it was a see you later because I am determined to visit Australia for two weeks next August.

Again we took a fastboat off the island but lucked out and there were only 6 people on the whole boat. We learned our lesson last time about riding on the roof so stayed in the shaded inside. 

I am not the most experienced traveller but I have travelled quite a bit over the past two years. I strongly believe that the most important item you could ever bring while travelling is a pillow. Any trip longer than an hour in a plane, car, bus or boat and I would choose a pillow over any other item. I have now learned that when travelling with a girl the second most important item you can bring while travelling. . . is a second pillow.

We headed to Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali. I had been hear before in August with Jeremy, Kass and Aaron but Ubud is a place where you could spend months without discovering everything, and years without needing a change. But, it is impossible to go to Ubud and not go to the monkey forest.

 I just want to know how the monkey was able to put on the green dress

 We ran into Patrick and Nava, two teachers for BBS. The four of us were at teachers college at Queen's just 6 months ago

As a science teacher I teach about developing theories from careful observations. Based on what the sign says and what the monkey is doing I think the only plausible explanation is that monkeys can read

One of the highlights in Ubud was a cylcing tour through the mountains. Included was breakfast, lunch, water and fruit, transportation, bike rental, tour guide and 8 hours of cycling down a mountain while stopping along the way to experience lots of Balinese culture, all for only $35. Highly recommend this to anyone who visits Ubud. 

We stopped for some pictures of the rice field from the mountain top on our way to breakfast

Breakfast was overlooking a volcano that had erupted only 35 years earlier

After breakfast we headed to a Kopi Luwak where the rarest drink in the world is brewed. This is the coffee made from beans that have been eaten and excreted by the chiva animal, a small cat like creature.  

Here is Lynsey drinking her Cat-pooh-chino

 

Our tour guide, nickname Ring, was excellent, filled with many one liners. My favourite was his joke when he found out we were Canadian and it was time to leave breakfast. He said "Let's make like hockey and get the puck out of here". 

We stopped along the way of our bike tour and got to hold a very poisonous looking spider. Rumour has it I didn't even blink

 This is the Indonesian equivalent to a scarecrow that is meant to keep birds from eating the rice

Alternatively the workers of the rice field who had to bring their children to work would have their children fly kites. This not only keeps the children entertained, and allows the parents to be able to know where they child is at all times, but it also helps to scare off birds from eating the rice.

Rice is such a staple in the Indonesian diet. Anywhere you go in the countryside you will see miles upon miles of rice field. Even though so much rice is grown in Indonesia, it is also a very large import. Many Indonesians believe that you cannot feel full if you do not eat rice with a meal. If you think of a country with 250 million people and all of them eat rice at every meal, it is no wonder so much rice is grown here as well as imported. 

As part of our tour we helped some of the rice workers.

 inexperienced rice workers will use one hand to hit the rice loose

Experienced rice workers will use two hands

Somehow those tiny Indonesian ladies carry bags like this one home on their heads every day. They don't get paid in money, they get paid in rice. 60% of the yield to the land owners, and 40% to the workers. I was just taking my cut

As seemed to be the theme of this trip we met a really nice couple from Australia called Bruce and Donna. 

I thought this sign was absolutely hilarious

Our final days in Ubud turned into full on relax mode. I even gave into the idea of trying yoga for the first time. Mostly because we went to a yoga/spa place and it looked like this:

I have never seen the movie Eat Pray Love. I likely will never watch it. But Lyns is convinced this yoga place, or one very similar, was the set for the scene where Julia Roberts goes to Bali. 

I hope that this post has helped convince a few more of my friends to come for a visit. I have Brindan, who is currently on exchange in Hong Kong, coming to visit for a weekend in November. And I will be meeting Cole and Lucas in Thailand for a week in March. I would love to share this beautiful country with you and just like this hilarious taxi driver, my hugs are always free.

Until next time

Persib Vikings!

For those of you who have been following the criminal investigation of the Balinese monkey who steals water bottles, the police have released this photo

If you have seen this monkey please contact crimestoppers immediately 

Welcome back to Trevinindo. One of the highlights since my last post was attending a Persib Vikings football match. Persib is the local professional soccer team and two of the BBS drivers offered to take Kyle, Cassanadra, Alice and I out to a game. The stadium is 30km from where we live. The game began at 3:00pm. We left at 10:00am in case there was traffic. As some of you may have just calculated, it would have been faster to walk to the game.

One thing that Indonesians are very good at is carpooling. And today it seemed like everyone was coming out to watch Persib play

First order of business was to purchase some Persib gear so we would look like real fans

Usually my first instinct is not to wear a scarf in a country that is summer year round but for today I will make an exception

In Canada, "one size fits all" hats are a lie. It is even more of a myth in Indonesia

Fortunately there was "no traffic" so it only took us two hours to get to the stadium. It then took us another two hours to get in the stadium because we stopped and posed for literally over a thousand pictures. Every local wanted a picture with the four Bules (white people) who were at the Persib game so we happily obliged and received many laughs, smiles and much gratitude from everyone who took a picture. We stood still for hours while locals rotated in and out for a photo, while we smiled and wondered when the line would ever dwindle down. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I kind of enjoyed all the attention. I am also happy to know that if teaching doesn't work out for me I have a promising career as Santa Clause in the "take a photo with Santa" booth at the mall.

When we did enter the game my water bottle was taken from me and the water was poured into a plastic bag and I was given a straw. Having owned several goldfish as a child I had to double check that there wasn't a goldfish in the bag. Later I did find out why my water bottle was taken from me. I originally thought the water bottle monkey thief was hiring soccer security guards to do his dirty work but I will share the real reason with you shortly.

A shot of our group. Alice, Cass and Kyle in the front row. And in the back is myself between the two school drivers, Jojo and Okie, who joined us for the game

A photo from our seats showing how decorated the crowd gets. Fortunately our seats were in the shaded section

If posing for photos all afternoon didn't make us feel like celebrities, the interview with a television crew certainly was the icing on the cake. It still perplexes me why this was a newsworthy story but it must just be incredibly rare that white people would be attending a Persib game (again, later I got a better idea why that is the case).

One interview would have been interesting enough, but a second television crew spotted us at halftime and wanted an interview. Questions included where are you from? Why are you in Bandung? Do you like Persib? Kyle managed to get a plug in for Bina Bangsa School.

Just after halftime Kyle received a facebook message from one of our students that he saw us on TV. He kindly rewinded and took a photo for us all to enjoy. 

I was going for Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker", for my more artistic readers

Oh and yes, there was actually a soccer game being played this whole time. Persib dominated the scoreless first half but gave up two goals early in the second. We managed a late goal on a penalty kick and the crowd absolutely erupted. 

I just found a youtube video showing the goals of the game we were at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeOSLuG0b_8

The game itself had what I imagine to be a very South American vibe where you just do not show up to a game dressed in the away team's colours. I found out that the perspective from many expats, locals, and all of my students is that going to Persib games is very dangerous. The following two photos were taken towards the end of the game when the fans decided Persib was going to lose (we were only down one goal). The first picture is of some flares that were lit by overly passionate fans. The second is the reason why water bottles are confiscated before entering the game, because they throw them on the field. There was also a large amount of police with riot control gear in attendance the whole game. 

I'm reluctant to post this video because I think it implies that it is much more dangerous than it actually felt but here is a youtube video about some rioting at the game we were at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzvsG890Zr0

I have no idea what the reporters are saying, its all in Bahasa Indonesian, but I can definitely understand why there is a belief that it isn't safe to go to the games. At the same time, I can't emphasize enough that it is actually quite a small percentage of fans that get reckless, and we felt fairly safe the whole time. As we were leaving there were many people trying to take photos with us, and just enjoying the sunny afternoon, and not looking to make a fuss about Persib losing. Please don't take the video and photos out of context. I would be fully comfortable going to a game again, it just isn't somewhere I would go with my mom. But Adonis Hamadi, if you're down to go I'm sure there is some serious betting action on Persib games.

Then it was time to pile everyone in, and on top of, the car to head home. I respect that one of them had the consideration to bring a drum since they don't have radio on the roof

These past two weeks had quite a few memorable moments that I'd like to share with you:

Surprise moment of the week!

There are certain things in life that you have just always known to be true. Stealing is wrong, fire is hot, all dogs are boys and all cats are girls, watermelon is green on the outside and red on the inside. You don't remember ever learning these things but everyone knows them to be true. Imagine my surprise when I cut my nice, juicy, green watermelon in half and saw this

I almost didn't eat it because I didn't trust it, but I think yellow watermelon might taste even better than red watermelon

Ironic moment of the week!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I'm generally a happy guy and almost always in a good mood. But from time to time, I can get a little grumpy. Another one of life's truths is that when I am grumpy, the worst possible thing you could do is ask me if I am grumpy. I hate it. And it makes my grumpiness worse. It got so bad that my housemates of four years at Queen's started referring to it as "the G word" because it was much more tolerable for me to hear when I am grumpy.

One fine Wednesday morning last week I woke up and immediately recognized that I had a bad case of the G word. I was not going to be fun to be around today. When I got to school and tried to make a coffee, the water heater that boils our hot water wasn't working. I made it very clear to those around me that it was to everyone's benefit that I find some hot water for a coffee.

My first class that morning was life skills, and of all the possible topics I could have taught on that day when I was the G word, I had to teach positive attitude. Another universal truth was broken. I thought the worst thing that could happen to me when I was grumpy was for someone to ask me if I am grumpy. But it turns out the worst thing that can happen when I am grumpy is to have to teach a group of very impressionable children the importance of having a positive attitude. After the previous week's fiasco on teaching perspective, and now this, I am beginning to think teaching life skills is not my calling.

Just had to ask moment of the week!

Another universal truth is that if you dig a hole deep enough, you will end up in China. By logical reasoning, I assume that children in China grow up being told that if you dig a hole deep enough, you will end up in Canada. This realization occurred to me in the middle of class, and Indonesia is kinda close to China, and I couldn't focus on teaching until I found out for sure. There was a slight moment where I realized the students might think I am crazy, but I had to ask. "Hey guys, if you dig a hole and just keep on digging, where will you end up?". Blank stares. The seconds on the clock ticked by. The literalist in the room took a stab at it, "The centre of the Earth?". I could work with that, "Keep digging, where do you end up?". Finally one student shouted out, "China!!". I guess its not a two way tunnel after all, if you dig a hole anywhere in the world, you will end up in China.


This past Friday we went out for Karaoke with some of the school secretaries and their friends. There are quite a few things in Indonesia that I prefer the way we do it in Canada, but I have to give Indonesia credit that they do Karaoke right. In Canada, you go to a bar, put your name and song on the list, wait up to a few hours for it to be your turn, all while listening to strangers sing quite terribly, and then when it is finally your turn to sing you have to sing in front of a bunch of strangers, who are judging you just as much as you were just judging them.

In Indo you and your group go into a private room with your own Karaoke set up. You can sing all the songs you want, you're only performing for your friends, and with the press of a button they bring you another pitcher of beer. It was such a good time and it is a tradition we hope to keep up once a month for the rest of the school year. Not to brag or anything, but Kyle and mine's duet of "Shout" by the Isley Brothers got a score of 100, the highest score of the evening.

 The other thing about Karaoke here is dancing is highly encouraged

And I am sure everyone knew I would be singing this song. See if you can spot the typo

My Students

Heading into week four I was fully refreshed, rejuvenated and re-inspired after my two-week vacation in Bali. The first three weeks were filled with learning school procedures and protocols, learning an entirely new curriculum and educational setting, and playing catch up from missing the whole first week of school. Week four I finally felt in control, and I was able to start enjoying teaching. With comfort in my overall situation came comfort in the classroom and there wasn’t a lesson this week that went by with out many laughs, many smiles and many insightful questions that really promote thinking. The smiles and laughs did not all belong to my students though, many of them belonged to me.

The reason I have been so delayed in posting anything related to my students and teaching is largely because of the teaching assignment I’ve been given with my JC2 (Junior college 2 aka grade 12) class. Essentially I am given four weeks (22 hours in class plus any after school or Saturday classes that I can arrange) to review a year long course (that I have never taught before) to prepare them for three very challenging tests. The syllabus is Indonesian, based off of a Singapore curriculum and the test is issued by Cambridge, which is a British education system. The scores they get on these three tests, as well as the three tests they will write in June essentially determine their university acceptance. University is the future for 99% of Bina Bangsa School students, and if student’s test scores are low the teacher is always one of the first options that is considered to place the blame. So a lot of pressure on me.

Normally I would be ready for any challenge, but in addition to this task, I teach three other courses (the equivalent to a full teaching load in Ontario). Initially I was spending as much time preparing for my JC2 course as I was for my other three courses combined so I estimate that in the first couple weeks I was roughly doing the work of two first year teachers. The second worst part was the previous year's teacher had left me nothing in terms of resources and my campus is so small that I am the only biology teacher at my campus, meaning there was no one to help me learn how this teaching assignment is feasible. However, the worst part was that if I failed and couldn’t be successful in this task, then my students would be the ones to suffer for my failure. All of that to say, when choosing topics for my blog I felt it best to avoid talking about my teaching until things stabilized.

Ready to meet my students?

The typical BBS student works incredibly hard, is very motivated, extremely well disciplined, and is very well rounded as demonstrated by being trilingual (Chinese, Bahasa Indonesian and English) and having mastery of at least one musical instrument. What stands out the most about the students at my school is the level of respect that they have towards each other, their environment and most of all, their teachers. There are many routines required of students to demonstrate their respect for authority including standing to welcome the teachers at the beginning of each class, standing to thank the teachers at the end of every class and referring to all teachers as "sir" or "miss". I thoroughly enjoy being called sir because I like to believe that all of the students think I am a knight. To be honest the first few weeks all of these gestures of respect for authority felt a little ridiculous. After really getting to know the kids, and actually earning their respect, all of these actions and more seem much more genuine and are always done out of excitement, with a smile, and with genuine gratitude. It is very difficult to have a bad day when the students are constantly reminding you that you are someone they respect and care for. 

I teach four different biology classes, as well as one period a week of a "life skills" course to Secondary 1 (grade 7) students. This life skills course is great and is not for credit so I have really taken it on as an opportunity to teach some important values and cover important topics with the kids. Not to mention to let the students have half an hour a week to just have fun, because the academics can get very heavy. 

My Sec 1 class having fun and learning valuable skills about life:

I was required to teach the topic of "perspective" in two periods to my life skillz class. I gave them an activity called "living a day in someone else's shoes". For the first period I showed them 5 images of different types of shoes. They were required to choose one out of dress shoes, high heels, cowboy boots, sandals or clown shoes and create a fictional character and write a short narrative describing a day in the life of the owner of those shoes. For the second part of the activity they would receive another students narrative, before reading it would make 3 predictions about that individual based only on the shoes that they wear, and then read the story to either confirm or refute their original assumptions about the fictional character. In my mind, all of the assumptions the students made based only on shoes would be wrong, and we would talk about stereotypes and judging others based on appearance before we get to know them, and how we can only really get to know someone by walking a day in their shoes, and considering things from their perspective.  I had already begun preparing my acceptance speech for the lesson of the year award. 

Unfortunately I assumed wrong. Turns out every single student thinks that everyone who wears dress shoes is a businessman, everyone who wears sandals must be a lifeguard, and everyone who wears cowboy boots owns a horse named El Darado. I had set out to teach a valuable lesson on perspective, but instead I had demonstrated to the students that in fact you can determine everything there is to know about a person just by looking at the shoes they wear. 

But I quickly thought of a way to recover. I made two charts on the board. One was "Mr. Trevor's impressions about the Sec 1 class", the other was "impressions about Mr. Trevor". Each chart had a "first impressions" and a "now column". Here is the final product:

I had mixed feelings of flattery, being highly offended, and highly concerned that I look like I've aged 15 years in 4 weeks. But when I asked the students "Were you able to tell everything there is to know about who I am just by looking at me once?" and they yelled "Noooooo" and then I asked "Do you think now you know everything there is to know about me?" and they replied "Not yet!", I knew that I had salvaged my lesson and that I had effectively taught my first life skill. 

I teach Secondary 3, Sec 4, Junior college 1, and JC 2 biology and each individual helps to contribute to the unique dynamic that I have with each class. Teaching is a lot of work but every time I leave a class I feel motivated to work harder so that I can be as positive an influence as possible on these kids. 

This is my desk in the teacher's room that I do all my hard work at

If you are wondering, "organization" is not part of the life skillz curriculum

This is a picture of my 6 JC2 students during "lab camp" practicing for their practical exam

 I might be able to use this photo when I teach science labs in Ontario for the "circle ten safety hazards in this lab room" activity

This is the view looking outside of my JC1 class

This is the view looking inside my JC1 class. Junior College students have a fancier uniform

This is a picture taken 3 seconds after saying "pretend you're having fun and learning lots"

 The student on the right's nickname is giggles. . . well deserved nickname

As well as my teaching duties, I coach basketball, have a few other duties that I have been neglecting, and am part of the discipline committee, which means I supervise lunch and after school detentions every Wednesday. Students at BBS receive detention a lot! This is not because they are misbehaving students, this is because they automatically get detention if they are late for school, if they forget a textbook, if they have not completed their homework, as well as all the usually stuff like talking too much in class. Although I think talking in class is the closest thing that these students do to acting out. 

It is because almost none of these actions are done with any sort of malice, and many of the late students are the result of traffic or something else outside the student's control, I try to make detention a little lighter and seem like less of a scorning, as well as being a little more flexible with the students when it comes to administering detention. However, I do recognize that the only way a school policy will work, is if all of the teachers are consistent and follow it so the students always know their expectations. 

When a student has lunch detention, they must sit at the back of the cafeteria, they may eat their lunch but they may not talk. When I supervise lunch detention I have to sit at the back of the cafeteria, I may eat my lunch, but since no students are allowed to talk, I also cannot talk. Sounds to me like I am also serving detention. Here is what's worse though, the image below is my view during "supervising" lunch detention:

When I say this is a picture of my view, I literally mean that student is part of the scenery. He is always on lunch detention. He is always on time so he never gets after school detention but he forgets his textbooks and binders all the time and therefore keeps me company every Wednesday at lunch. We've gotten pretty good at conversing in silence.
But back to my complaint. I already feel like I am serving detention, but I have it worse than the students. You've seen my view, but this is what the students look at during detention:

When I say they have a nice view I am not referring to the handsome gent eating his chicken and rice


I think there is an unofficial rule in teaching (actually it is probably official) that you're not suppose to choose a favourite class. Not saying I have a favourite class, I am saying that if I did it would be my Sec 4 class. I am also their form (homeroom) teacher so I spend a little extra time each week with them just having fun. Today being the funnest day yet. . .

During my first class today with Sec 4 (on Fridays I have them for half an hour in the morning, half an hour after lunch for form teacher time, and again for a half hour class at the end of the day) I had told two students who had yet to buy a binder for biology (come on, its week 4) that there would be punishment for them if they hadn't bought one by our form teacher time. One student bought one at break but the other student did not. Knowing that a) I couldn't just let her off the hook in front of the whole class because the kids would forever know I am a pushover and b) that its Friday and I don't want to stay after school for an hour to supervise one student for not having a binder, I settled on a different punishment. Another student was lightly strumming a guitar (form teacher time is very casual in my classroom) which gave me the idea to have the "disobedient" student sing the Barney song in front of the class. Little did I know the trap I had just set for myself. . .

When the student finished singing, and the class had applauded and cheered for her performance, one of the students said "sir you sing!". I replied "haha, no". The next thing I knew 15 students were chanting "Sing! Sing! Sing!". I caved almost immediately.

They suggested a few songs for me to sing and we actually had a bit of trouble finding one we would all know. "Sir, what music do you listen to?". "I listen to country music". "Sing Taylor Swift sir!". Too many nights at Tumbleweed Tuesdays in Kingston had taught me how much fun it is to sing country music. We decided I would sing "Trouble" and laid out the ground rules. One of my students would play guitar, I would sing the verses solo but the whole class would sing the chorus. Even in Indonesia they have heard the "I knew you were a goat when you walked in" remix to the song so there was obviously going to be a lot of goat noises. And lastly, anyone who knows me saw this one coming, we would sing the chorus as "I knew you were Trevor when you walked in".

And so the symphony began. I wish I had recorded it because it will never happen again but I have never in my life seen 15 students laughing so hard all at the same time. Many of the students were in tears and were complaining that they were laughing so hard it was hard to breathe. By the second chorus when I really showed them how to make a goat noise the laughter got so hard that the guitar player lost rhythm, and none of us could suppress the laughter enough to keep the song going. I couldn't help but smile and think about all the times back home when friends would sing "Trevor when you walked in" for me and it felt great to form a connection, however small, between my two different worlds. Although the blunt of the joke was my terrible singing, it felt great to have the class feel like such an inclusive community and its moments like that one that will really help to build that important rapport with students that will not only help me to be an effective teacher, but also to be a positive role model the students will remember for the rest of their lives. I guarantee you five years from now if one of my students was asked if they remember what Mr. Trevor taught them about plant hormones they likely wouldn't, but if they were asked if they remember the time when Mr. Trevor sang Taylor Swift in front of the class it would be a happy memory they will have with them for a long time.

Of course after the stellar performance they were more than willing to take a class photo

And a group photo shoot wouldn't be complete without a goofy one

So now you have met my students. You can be sure that they would have stood to welcome you, always respectfully referred to you as sir or miss, and before you would leave they would stand and thank you for your time. (sometimes I forget and go to leave the class and they stand up and do it before I can escape).

During my vacation last week was the first time I started to love this country. That was a huge step in my acceptance of the position I am in. It unlocked a level of positivity that I didn't even know I had. Week four of my teaching was the first time that I started to love my students. This is huge and whenever I am having a bad day I will turn on Taylor Swift and think back to my students and all of the great moments we've shared together. 

To demonstrate how great these kids are, I was all packed and ready to leave at 4pm to go home for the weekend. But instead of going home I stayed at school two hours longer to hang out with the kids. I played a little bit of doubles badminton with some of the students, shot a few baskets with some others, and had a jam session/guitar lesson with two of my Sec 4 students. I am brutal at guitar and these students have played 3-4 instruments since they were old enough to hold a guitar. I was holding back smiles and laughter thinking about how patient they were being with me, always adjusting their playing of drums or piano to my tempo that was all over the place. They would hesitantly offer me tips because they didn't want to offend me, and they were so positive and encouraging at the slightest sign of improvement. I must have sounded really terrible strumming with my fingers, while hooked up to the amp because one of the students playing basketball came over and gave me a guitar pick from his wallet, but no one complained or gave any indication that they considered me to be any worse of a musician than they are. I realized that these students would have stayed after school with me on a Friday, helping me hopelessly try to learn guitar, as late as I had asked them too. Not just that but they would have been happy to. The combination of how much respect these students have, how much help they are ready to offer, and how willing they are to please is something that became really clear to me this week and I feel incredibly fortunate to not just be able to teach such amazing students, but also to be able to spend so much time with such amazing kids and to learn so much from them.  

Our Friday afternoon Jam Session

And one for Rolling Stone Magazine for when our band makes it big