Laura Joy Land

Two more days of work and then 12 days holiday. I'm more than ready to say goodbye to my desk after three weeks (three weeks!!) of no teaching due to two weeks of exams taking place and one week of....uh, post-exam taking place-stuff? I miss my students. I miss having an active job; a reason to come to work other than admin and research. I did not move to Indonesia for a desk-job. I am looking forward to spending as much of my holiday as possible sitting on a beach, drinking mango juice and learning Indonesian.  Tis the season to be jolly...

On Sunday I took a little trip to the ocean. Although I forgot my camera, my (unfortunately camera shy) friend snapped a few blurry blackberry photos for me... From this resort you can see the Singapore skyline really clearly. There's no beach, but there are Balinese style wooden huts and spa facilities. I just posed for photos, enjoyed an overpriced magnum truffle, and admired the view. Lovely Sunday :)

Laura's Mellow Monday Evening: Step-by-step Instructions. Be Laura. Be in a positive mood for the first time in a week. Take an impromptu nap after work. Take a 20 minute walk down the hill into town and over to Glashaus. Order a cold fruity tea and relaaaax. Eat a bit of scrumptious leftover Indian food with your hands. Get stuck into a good book for the first time in aaages. Don't think about anything more taxing than whether or not to have another tea. Yawn occasionally. Smile within.

It is not my intention to use this blog as a place to vent work frustrations. However, it is my intention to give an honest account of my experiences in Indonesia, in a way that hopefully allows for and invites discussion. When I first arrived, my experiences were centered around exploration of the area, trying new things and just generally taking it all in. At the moment, my experiences are all about the job, but I am wary about sharing too much: a school environment is the kind of place you have to be in to understand and care about, and I know no-one wants to hear me complaining about a place they have no connection with. I needed to vent yesterday so I did - I was consumed with negative feelings and it wasn't enough to just tell myself to switch off. I needed to feel like someone was listening. But don't worry, I don't plan on making a habit of it. Maybe I should return to just posting photos, haha. I have the kind of personality that goes through phases of  't...

This past week at work was the most challenging, unpredictable and emotionally draining yet. Every week, or even every day, something happens that makes my mind boggle and I think that the scale of ridiculousness can't be tipped any further. But there's always something else. Another contradiction, another misunderstanding, another rumour. I am not used to not being able to trust the people I work with. It's something I'm told I will learn to handle, but the mere thought of having to play along while being lied to and gossiped about fills me with dread. That said, I still mean it when I say that I love my job. It's just another one of those pesky contradictions. The kids I teach are wonderful and every day I am reminded by their energy and their innocence that I am doing it for them, because they deserve a better education. And I love how much I am learning by being here. Having a BA and an MA is all well and good, but what I learn here means so much more to me. ...

In Batam I stand out as a white woman with blonde hair. When I walk down the street I am stared at and pointed out and commented on. Not in an unfriendly way. Just in a "I can't believe she's not brown" kinda way. I do it too. When I see white expats or tourists I have to stop myself from staring, just because they stand out to me. Sometimes it makes me feel uncomfortable to see them because they remind me that I too look different, that I too must look like a tourist and an outsider even though I feel increasingly at home here. To locals, white people are rich. Even if you are not rich, you won't be able to convince them otherwise. If you're white you have money and that's that. After two months here, I am starting to see what they see. When I see a white person, they look wealthy to me, even though I have no idea who they are or what their lives are like. So even though I don't like people assuming I'm wealthy when I'm not, I h...

Fun teaching a bunch of chatty, cheeky angels (added to the list of contradictions) Funny 6yr old student: (said as she was hugging me) miss have a baby? me: no, I just have a fat belly 7yr old student: why miss have hair like that? why you not have black hair like that? (points to friend's hair) me: (with a sad face) I was born with this hair. I didn't get to choose. student: (with great sympathy in her voice) Oh. Nice getting a free ojek ride Very nice drinking Indonesian shandies at Glashaus.

Okay, finally a post with words, but be warned, I was in a rather gloomy mood when I wrote this on Monday night... It is possible to be happy, to be content with your life, and at the same time to feel depressed. This is how I feel today. Although I am happy with my life and feel that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, today I feel sadness and frustration in my heart. I feel like crying but the tears don’t really come, as if my ego isn’t prepared to give in. I am so sure that everything that is happening to me is supposed to be happening and I am so grateful for all that I am experiencing, that to cry about it would seem contradictory. I find many contradictions and oddities around me. Like buying “brand new” bed linen and opening the sealed box to find strange stains on the new sheets. Like walking in to a very loud, crowded mall full of calm, quiet, unassuming people who smile sweetly. At work, colleagues say one thing to your face and another behind your back. They...

I love every minute of living and working here. Hopefully sometime soon I will have time to stop working and playing and actually write about my experiences. Until then, I hope you like my photo journal...

  Friends + music + food + 30 degrees in October = a very happy birthday!   The cake was a wonderful surprise!  (the colour coordination was a happy accident)

Last weekend I took a trip with two colleagues to a traditional village in Batam called Tanjung Uma. There's a large community of people living in houses built over the water. Over time the area beneath the houses has been filled with rubbish, some of which is caused by the residents themselves, and some of which drifted over from Singapore thanks to one not-so-nice company. To get to the village we took a 5 minute boat ride through the water, although it was 70% mud on the journey over. On the way back, there was no more water and the three of us (200kg+) were humbly pushed through the mud by two men who (try to) make a living ferrying people back and forth. The community covers a large area and consists of hundreds of wooden houses connected by wooden bridges. I walked along watching my every step for fear of the bridge collapsing at any moment, which was perhaps amusing to the locals riding motorbikes down the same "streets". The initial smell during the crossing wa...

This post is dedicated to someone special. You Noo who you are ;)  After seeing a photo of a delicious looking iced cookie-coffee drink, I wanted something delicious to drink too (*stomps feet*) so I got myself one of these... although it looks like a mini Guinness, it is in fact a peppermint-coffee-liquor-creation. photos courtesy of askwhy@FortunaPhotography   More drinks... On the left is my drink of choice at Glashaus. Someone wittily named it LSD...Laura's Special Drink - coffee and coconut milk with a little honey for kicks mmmmm. In the middle is an orange juice, made special by the fact that I asked for no ice and got a hot drink :) It was so good that I don't think I can make do with cold orange juice any more. And finally, mangoes mangoes mangoes, just for Noo.

I rounded off my first week in Indonesia with a trip to the beach. After an enjoyable but tiring first week of work, and a Saturday clouded by a little too much time spent inside my own head, Sunday was all about sand, sea, and "near-the-sea food". I drank my first fresh coconut beverage (blimey that thing's heavy) and chowed down on spicy barbequed corn on the cob, which was definitely worth the 15,000 mosquito bites I got while waiting for it to be burnt to perfection. Indonesia is tasty.  On the bridge above, locals hang out and there are street vendors galore. I was very grateful to be with locals who can speak Bahasa and know how to bargain... After about 30 minutes of negotiations, we bought three bottles of pure honey and two of 100% royal jelly. I paid about 20 Euro for my two bottles. If you know how much royal jelly costs in Europe, you know what a good deal that is!!!  The guy selling it collects the honey from the bee hives hims...

Don't be fooled by the title of this post... I'm not going to get philosophical; I just have a few photos to share. The first is a tree that I pass on the 10 minute walk from school into town. Of course there are many of these trees, not just one. I love how green it is here. Here is the school swimming pool, which I'm told I'm free to use in the evening. Don't worry, I intend to, but first I need to find the time to buy a swimming costume since I forgot mine in Singapore.     To the right is the view around the swimming pool and the building in the corner is the school cafeteria, which serves delicious Indonesian food (along with a scary selection of sugary chocolatey sweets). One decent sized meal with a drink costs 15,000 rupiah, which is about 1 pound. This is the view from my washing machine :-)   I was amused by the choice of wash programs. I went with fuzzy, in case you were wondering :-) ...

Upon arrival in Singapore on Thursday evening, I met up with a good friend who moved here a few months ago. She took me out for a delicious local dinner and then we ventured up to a rooftop bar called Altitude. From there we had a good view over the city, and in the photo to the left you can see the F1 racing track, which was host to the grand prix in Singapore on Sunday. On Saturday I left the comfort of being with a friend, along with the convenient and futuresque Singapore, to begin a new chapter of my life on the island of Batam, Indonesia. The ferry took about one hour, but since Indonesia is one hour behind Singapore, it really took no time at all ;) I am not much of a picture taker. I forget to take them, and my camera is also not of the greatest quality (maybe because I haven't read the manual). Nevertheless, here are a few snapshots from my first weekend in Indonesia. Rex, my new boss and office-mate, gave me a fantastic tour, which included three islands, ...

Isn't it always the way, that the times really worthy of being recorded, written about or reflected upon, are the times when it's really hard to find the time? I have been home visiting family and friends, frantically trying to see everyone and also get last minute but very important things taken care of. Despite the stress of being such a busy bee, I have loved every minute of being here and catching up with the people I love. It is a confusing state I find myself in, feeling so sad to be going so far away from home, yet still wanting to do it, needing to in fact. Tomorrow I travel to see a dear friend (I'd say that even if she wasn't driving me to the airport) and her far too adorable son. On wednesday I fly, by thursday afternoon I'll be in Singapore, and on saturday I will arrive in Batam. Let the traveling commence!

A few months ago I was longing to leave Germany. Although that desire clearly had something to do with ending an eight-year relationship, it also had a lot to do with the weather! I was just daydreaming of beaches, picturing myself backpacking around NZ, pulling pints and picking fruit. It was fun to imagine the possibilities, but in reality I couldn’t afford to go anywhere for a while, so I figured I’d just stay put and save some pennies while grumbling my way through another cold dark wet winter in Bonn. I felt positive however, that there was something waiting for me, something I was destined to see or do. All my daydreams seemed unrealistic and I felt like I was being laughed at, as though something bigger than me and my tiny perspective was at work behind the scenes, smirking at me and my clichéd thoughts of escape. When I accepted the job in Batam it felt good. Unlike my previous daydreams, teaching in Indonesia had a weight to it, a purpose and a direction. I don’t know wh...

Three weeks from today I will be on a plane to England...How on earth did that happen?! I am incredibly excited after reading up on Batam and trying to imagine myself living life Indonesian style! living in indonesia I have realised though how crazy it is that my plan is to arrive in Batam on Sunday and start work Monday! Yeah, didn't really think that through ;) Might try to arrive a day earlier if possible. I know this blog isn't all that interesting right now, but I hope to write more interesting entries once I am in Batam. So, if you are reading this, please keep reading and consider "following" me (thanks Nat and Tim!) so that I know I'm not just talking to myself!  

I've just had a lovely weekend in Bonn with my Mum & Tony who came to visit. On Saturday we got lucky with the weather and enjoyed a day of cycling along the Rhine, complemented by a beer garden pit stop. On Sunday we got absolutely completely and utterly drenched as we cycled across town, but that was fun too! After we dried off and the weather cleared up, we took a pleasant river cruise down to Koenigswinter and a steep train ride up to the Drachenfels. I am really glad I got one last chance to go up there and admire the view before leaving Bonn. Just before my guests left on Monday, we managed one last cool beer on Muenster Platz as the sun dazzled...perfect.

I love getting rid of stuff. I have already donated 7 bin bags of clothes and I'm not done! To use my Mum's terminology (and encouragement), I am taking a brutal approach to deciding what to take with me to Batam. If it's not essential and it doesn't have long-term sentimental value, it's got no chance. My goal is to take just one suitcase with me, so being brutal is the only way!

Today I learned how to say pitiful in Indonesian ( sedihkan ). I have to chuckle at the randomness every time my Indonesian word of the day pops up on my itouch. I can also say baseball, toolbox, and modern times. My favourite so far is pergelangan kaki , which means ankle. I'm sure these words will all come in very handy...