November month of 1sts

Wow November was a month of many firsts in Indonesia. I took my first trip by myself to visit my friends from North Carolina on the neighboring island of Sumatra on November 5th. It was a hassle to get there because i guess my flight didn't go through when i booked it online but i made it there and was very thankful that the price of the flight hadn't gone up. I got to spend time with Matt and Jess and their beautiful girls and see their community where they live. The people they work with are great. It was a blast swimming and relaxing with them. They know so much more of the language than me but they have to. Everyone there speaks Bahasa indonesia and no english at all for the most part. Where I teach in English all day, i only have to use Bahasa to speak to taxi drivers and such. I can get by but need to continue to take lessons.

On the unfortunate side, i put my back out but i am doing so much better and i am back to 100%. It only took about 2 weeks to recover. I only missed 1 day of school. I could and should have missed more but I pushed through.

I went to my first shrimp boil. It was great. A big American oil company hosts it yearly. We had a blast seeing many people we know from the JIS community. If you have never been to a s shrimp boil i definitely reccommend going to one. At this one we got an apron and towel as we walked in the door. It was all you can eat, you put on your apron and walk up to an empty spot at a table and they bring the food to you. IT was awesome! The shrimp, corn on the cob, potatoes, and mushrooms all had amazing flavor. This was the first time where I kinda felt like i was at home in the states. There were many Americans there! It was great to hear the southern twang accents of people from Texas and Louisiana. They had a band and stayed for awhile.

I had my first visitor from outside the country come see me this past weekend. My old roommate and colleague Sarah from teaching in NC came to visit me. She is living outside of Manila and took a 4hr flight and came in for the weekend. We had a blast together. We shopped and bargain hunted a lot. I got 4 dresses for like $35 total. I was happy and got lots of other cool things as well. On our trip around the city on Monday, Sarah and I went to North Jakarta to the port. Our taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong spot and we ended up riding on the back of a motorbikes to get to the right part of the port. We weren't going to do it at first but this young man was very nice and talked to us and since their wasn't room for both Sarah and I on his bike he wished us safe travels and left. Five minutes later he came back and had a friend and helmets for us to ride with them. It was great they didn't even charge us to ride with them. Thanks to our new friend Sano, we got to see North Jakarta by motor bike and got to the port safely. It was great fun, and i might actually take bike more often. It would have been scary by myself but with Sarah by my side we did it together.

I cant believe here i have been here over 4 months and I will be home in less than 3 weeks. I am excited to come home but i will only be in PA for this break since I am only home for a little over 2 weeks. If you want to get a hold of me please call my parents place or msg or email. I would love to see you!

Please pray that I have a good flying experience home that I don't have any delays and that I can sleep during my flight. Also i would like you to be praying that my back doesn't give me any problems with a long 16hr flight as just one of my legs of my trip. Thanks!