Day 6: Travel to Padang

Here we go!

We are leaving in pairs to go to our "host community" where we will spend a week in a given school.  My school is public vocational high school in Padang which is north west of Jakarta and about an hour flight.  It is a more conservative area than Jakarta and has both mountains and beaches.  It does not have good wifi.  So, these blogs might get a little more brief as I am really hogging a lot of data on my phone to put these together... sorry Dad, let me know what I owe you for our increased phone bill...

I love signs like these - I feel like it shows how "close" everything in the world really is.

Made it!

When we landed we met our host teacher Yulia who is a chemistry teacher and associate principal at the school we will be at.  I asked her about certifications to be admin and she said the principal needed to have a certification but associated principals were "elected" by the teachers.  THAT'S an interesting idea!  I don't know if I am for or against it, but it is an interesting thought experiment.

Yulia said she didn't want the post (sounds like a familiar story with teacher leadership positions at my school too), but felt like since the teachers elected her, she should take up the responsibility.

Here we are in Padang with our host teacher, Yulia.  It was hot as Hades out there.  I think that will be a theme.

From there we went to go get lunch.  We went to a "Padang Style" restaurant where they bring out ALL. THE. FOOD.  And then you pay for whatever you eat.  Kind of like the opposite of tapas-style eating.

Here is what the table looked like before we ate.  Afterwards the waiter counted up the dishes we ate from and then gave us the bill.  This was also a "eat with your hands" place so they gave us bowls of water to "wash" our fingers between meals.  

We had to take off our shoes to get into the restaurant.  It was the opposite of "No shoes, no service". 

After that, we headed to our hotel room to review the agenda Yulia made.  I think it will be an action packed week with a variety of experiences.   We will be observing some different classrooms, talking to a cultures club in the school, and meeting with some of the school leadership.  We will also be visiting a turtle conservatory, hiking a mountain, and visiting Yulia's home.

Tonight I did some good-old-fashioned "hotel sink" laundry which turns out is a good "grip strength" exercise that involves squeezing as much water out of each piece every five minutes or so.