Visiting a Partner School

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Here in Makassar I am having trouble posting pictures! We will be heading for a new location tonight so I will try to upload some more photos soon.

Today we are going to a traditional wedding and then this afternoon will be flying to our third city, Yogyakarta on the island of Java.

Here is an email that I sent to my students in Warwick a few days ago:

Hello Everybody!! It's Julienne here- I wish I could do skype from here but it is not available! So I'll write you this note instead and you can imagine that I'm reading it to you!

First of all, I miss you all very much! Everyday I see and hear different things and I think about things I'd like to show you- or things that we would all laugh about together. I'm sure you are having a good time in class with Laurel and Laurie and Karen. If you write a note to me through email I will be able to read it here! I'd love to hear about what you all are up to.

Today I visited a school that will be our "sister school"- our penpal partner school! It was very exciting. It's a large school- kindergarten all the way through high school in one building. There are classrooms all around and then an open court in the middle. In the middle part there is a court for playing basketball and places to hang out. Because it never gets cold here their gym area can be outside. There are little food stalls where you can get lunch food- I think some students buy food at the food stalls and other students maybe bring lunch...? I'm not exactly sure.

The class that we'll partner with has a lot of children- almost forty kids! So I gave your pictures with your letters to groups of two or three kids- then those kids can both write to you. They were really excited to receive your letters- and especially to see your pictures! I took pictures of your penpals and will show them to you when I get back. There are two teachers in the class. One of them is on Facebook on the internet, so I'll have to join so that it will be easier to communicate.

Two days ago our Indonesian friends brought us to go hiking in the rain forest. First we hiked in-it was so loud! Why? Because of the insects! I've never heard such noisy insects in my life! It sounded like lots of car alarms going off all at the same time. Then we got to the "canopy bridge." We climbed up, up, up to the top- and there we could see the canopy of the rain forest. We walked across several very skinny swinging bridges about 100 feet up in the air. My heart was beating fast! But it was really fun.

On the way down I could hear some rustling in the trees. I stopped walking and listened- and then I saw a monkey swinging from branch to branch! It turned out it was a family of siamang monkeys. They are a bright orange color. One of the siamang monkeys stopped directly above me and stared down at me while I stared back at it.

Because the cities that we have been visiting are right on the coast, we've been eating lots of seafood. Fish, crab, baby lobsters... and of course rice at every meal! And tea- I've been drinking lots and lots of tea.

Tomorrow we will be visiting some more schools, then talking to the local newspaper about our visit, and finally going on a city tour. I wonder what Emma Bear is going to see?


If you want, you can post comments on the blog about what you read. I'll try to post more pictures when I can.

I miss you!
Love,
Julienne