Smells like green tea

Our computer lab has been notoriously smelly. It is one of the few air conditioned rooms on campus (the library is the other). We have tried to figure out why this is and can only guess that it is the 20 sweaty kids that have just come in from PE. For 2 years I have just put up with it but this year I decided to get some air freshener. I bought the good stuff that you plug in and prompty installed them upside down. All 3 months of scent spilled out in 1 hour. It took us 3 days of airing out before we could close the doors again. Today I bought replacement cartridges and installed them right side up. Now the office is a pleasant green tea smell and the lab is a sunny citrus smell. BTW, green tea makes a great bathroom scent as well. Much better than rose. Ask my roomates on that one.

Golf Results

The golf game was a blast. We had several newcomers out there (including me). The winner was Chevy (AKA Tiger Woods) with a 45. Josh came in second with a 53 and I came in third with a 55. Not too bad for the third time I played. We all had a lot of fun and we even had a sponsor that gave us golf visors that had "FAOMOBGT" printed on them. Can't wait for the next one.

Lunch Duty

Today I had lunch duty with the lower elementary which consists of Kindergarten, First and Second grade. I was a little hungry and my lunch hadn't arrived yet so I grabbed a donut from the school store. I was eating it as all the kids showed up. I was then lectured by quite a few of them that eating a donut for lunch was not healthy. I didn't feel like arguing with them. Later in the lunch one of the students, thinking he was clever, started calling me Mr. La-Dee-Da-Dee-Da. Oh the pain. Make it stop.

My achy breaky heart

I've been having some trouble with my heart the last couple of days. I'm not exactly sure what it is but I wasn't feeling very good. I went to the doctor today and had an ECG and a blood test. They didn't find anything out that is definitely wrong but there were a few small anomolies. I will be going for a complete physical early in September and I think I'm okay until then. I just hope it isn't anything serious. Still on for golf this weekend. Also, we started 24 season 2 last night. oh boy...

FAOMOBGT

This weekend we have the First Annual (Or More Often) BAIS Golf Tournament. I guess I'm getting in to this whole golfing thing. We'll see how well I do. Right now there should be between 8-12 people showing up. We even have a sponsor! I can't reveal details on that since it is a suprise. Oh, and I went to the driving range the other day and actually figured out how to drive the ball. Everyone said I swing like a baseball player but I could hit it over 200 yards straight which apparently is pretty good so I don't care what my form looks like.

24

I'm not a huge TV fan but I have to say, I'm hooked on the show 24. My roommates and I started watching it about a week ago and have been completely hooked ever since. I was very skeptical because I had seen a little bit of the earlier episodes when it first came out and wasn't impressed. It might have been that I was unwilling to have the week long wait between episodes. I'm very impressed this time around although an overnight wait between 4 episodes is still too much for us. The story is very gripping and incredibly long. We should finish it up tonight and be back to our normal lives... at least until we borrow season 2.

Update: We finished. I have to say the series, as a whole was very entertaining and quite addicting. The fast paced nature of the show, plenty of action and a well written script made for a fun, but long, watch. The theme of kidnapping got a little tiring and unbelievable. After the 10th one or so it just got repetitive. I won't ruin the ending but the plot of the last few episodes is remarkably similar to the beginning. The very last episode was the worst in my opinion but I will reserve final judgment until I watch the second season since it is tied in to it. There were several things in it that just didn't work. Overall I would have to say that the show was very good. I can't wait for the second season and I hear there is no more kidnapping in it. I would give them a B+.

Fiscal Tax Wohoo!

To leave Indonesia, unless you are on a tourist visa, you have to pay about $120 for a fiscal(exit) tax. This really hurts especially if you want to fly to Malaysia or Singapore and the airfare isn't even that much. Good News! They are planning on scrapping the tax before next year. Now it won't be nearly so expensive to travel around asia or to go home to the US.

Adventures of Feet, Zoss and Wendel

I went golfing again on Independance Day and we hired a caddy for the day. We told him our names: Pete, Josh and Randall but how they sound to an Indonesian is Feet, Zoss and Wendel. On our scorecards that is how our names were spelt. I'm not telling you my score although it has improved drastically over my first round.

Tujuh belas (17th) Augustus

Yesterday was Indonesia's 59th Independance Day. To celebrate, there is a national holiday and everyone goes home to their villages to celebrate. There are huge parties everywhere with loud music, games and lot of food. There are the regular games such as the 3 legged race, eating competitions and general fair type games. They also have a few that are unique such as sitting on a log over a pool and swatting each other with pillows until someone falls in. The most famous though is Panjat Pinang. Which is where a team of men attempt to climb a greased pole to get some prizes at the top. It usually takes them several hours until most of the grease is wiped off. For more info on Independance day, See this website.

Tujuh Belas means 17 in Indonesian but sounds remarkably similar to Tujuh sebelas (7-11). (note the extra "se"). Our first year here, my roomates and I thought they were asking for money for the local 7-11 store instead of the community celebration.

Last day of prep

Today is the last full day we have to prepare for the comming school year. School starts on Wednesday and tomorrow is a national holiday (more on that tomorrow). This has been a very good preparation period this year. We have done TONS of planning and had a sponsored trip to the beach. I still have lots of things to finish but I'm feeling very good about the coming school year.

A day for firsts

Today was a day for new things. In the morning, a group of us guys went to a gym and I worked out for the first time since I quit football in High School. I'm sure I will be sore for a few days. The second new thing of the day is I played a round of golf, not mini-golf. It took me a few holes to figure out how to hit the ball but I did get the hang of it by the 5th or 6th hole. I even had 2 putts for par in the 9 holes we played. One of them looped around the hole. Grrr. It was a lot of fun though. I'm sure I will be sore the next few days though (more from the gym than the golf). We'll see whether either of them stick.

ET, phone home!

A friend brought me back some Reese's Pieces and Peanutbutter Cups. I have been enjoying these immensely. M&M has a factory around here somewhere so they are easily accessable but Reeses candy is impossible to find. The other thing that is near impossible to find is Ranch Dressing. One store even has Ranch free which is like Ranch only without the flavor. You can get just about any other type of dressing, including Thousand Islands. I believe that the dressing is named after an area of Indonesia name Pulau Seribu which means, Thousand Islands. If you are wondering what everyone here craves, Reeses and Ranch.

You're the one

My roommate Matt recently got back from the US along with all the other teachers and unlike all the other teachers, he brought me an oleh-oleh (souvenier). I now am the proud owner of a rubber ducky for my desk. Why would this be a good souvenier? It goes back to a book I read in one of my college classes that recommends rubber ducking when you are stuck on a problem. Rubber ducking is explaining your problem to a rubber duck (the author had one, you don't have to use it). In the process of explaining to it, you organize your thoughts and figure out the answer. The rubber duck doesn't even have to answer to help you figure out the problem! For those of you who are interested, the book is The Pragmatic Programmer which is full of other words of wisdom such as "Don't think outside the box, define the box."

Becomming more wireless

I just got my new laptop to go with my new phone. It is a Dell Inspirion 1150 with internal wireless. Anywhere on campus now I can access the network. Combined with my new phone with bluetooth and GPRS I can also access the internet when I'm not at school. Pretty cool but expensive.

Cup of Java?

Starbucks has finally come to Bandung! After years of waiting and 3 months of delayed openings a Starbucks on Chiwalk opened on the 31st of July. Finally, overpriced coffee that has been imported from the US, that was previously imported from our island. I live on the island of Java which is where java (the coffee) got its name from. There is plenty of good coffee around but none as expensive as Starbucks. One of the most popular beans in the world is called cat poop coffee here (commonly called kopi luwak) since it is found in the poop of a small cat that likes the coffee beans. Apparently they only like the really good ones so the beans in their poop are the best. $300 per pound. Of course I don't like coffee so all of this is a moot point to me.

Gone again

Most of the teachers at my school got back last night and we are going on a trip to Pangandaran today. I'll be back on Monday. The Sea Tour people had a party last night and watched the video from the trip, all 4 hours of it. It was fun to relive funny parts of the trip even if the movie was a little long. I hope to edit it up and post it on the website.

I'm back and ready for business

What an incredible trip! I just got back and have written extensively about the trip. See newsletter 13 for all the details.