Saturday November 6, 2010 - back in Palembang after the TEFLIN conference

I enjoyed Bandung, for many reasons.I never felt hot, and rarely even warm. I began getting to know most of the other ELFs, and RELO Director George Scholz (finally!).And on the last afternoon I did find what I'd been determined to find on this trip:novels to read ( 13 in fact - most pretty long, and mostly authors new to me, with interesting historical/ geographic settings for the mysteries ), and European muesli.The books were at a great little second-hand bookstore/café one of the Fulbright ETAs had heard about but not been to, though she works in Bandung.We had a wide-ranging and very enjoyable conversation there for a couple hours, plus going to/from - by far the best conversation I've had since coming to Indonesia, in fact.We didn't really know in any detail where the bookstore/cafe was but by luck got out of the angkot just a block away!It was another short angkot ride to the totally expat-oriented (and we saw several there ) supermarket - also thanks to a tip from a friend of Heather's - where half a dozen kinds of muesli were on prominent display not far inside the store.I got 5 bags, plus fresh-ground Indonesian coffee, a taco 'kit', and other odds/ends not available here.So now I'm 'set' at least through the end of the year on pleasurable reading and breakfasts, and then I'll go travel a while and be able to re-stock for the rest of the year.

The GH Universal Hotel looked ( as someone remarked ) like an Italian palace and was very photogenic outside, especially from the rooftop. The rooms were conventional and the sort-of-Chinese restaurant was nothing special despite the sky-high prices, though it was an excellent setting for long round-table discussions with ELFs, George and ( RELO Assistant ) Dian, and Mark Algren, outgoing TESOL president and the TEFLIN lead-off speaker.Both breakfast and internet access were free.The expressway drive to/from Bandung was scenic once we escaped the Jakarta traffic, past terraced rice fields with jagged peaks in the distance ( now I've at least seen scenes like the one in the 'stock' photo I use for this blog ).I wish we could have done like two colleagues from IAIN and taken the train - we could see the tracks at times and their views were much better as they were right in the middle of the landscape.

The conference was not that big, maybe 300 at most when everyone attended.Mostly I went to the other ELFs' workshops ( and they attended and helped with mine, which had 65 participants - way more than I had handouts for ).Despite having only 35-40 minutes each, I thought we all presented practical ideas in interesting ways even if not all were 'workshops', strictly speaking.Most of the Indonesian attendees seemed to be at least fairly fluent in English.Although they were far from representative of all English teachers here ( many being from universities and having advanced degrees, with perhaps half giving short presentations at the conference ) it all reinforced my sense that IAIN is a real 'backwater' when it comes to English usage and teaching.

That sense was further reinforced yesterday, when my counterpart Herizal brought me across town to Sriwijaya University's postgrad campus, where all the faculty I met had graduate degrees from the US or Australia - and I learned that they have 4 programs that annually send entire groups of students abroad for dual MAs.

I have not posted anything to this blog for quite a while because, simply put, nothing 'culturally interesting' was happening in my life and I didn't think anyone would be interested in reading more about my unmemorable (even to me) day-to-day teaching experience.All my classes have gotten into a routine that 'works' for me and for those of my students who are actually interested, which includes all of my faculty class, a clear majority of my Semester 3 Writing students, and a sizeable minority of my 5th-semester Curriculum Development students; sad to say, it appears that the others don't have much of a clue about what's going on in class and aren't at all concerned about that. Despite two full years of 'taking' ( in the loosest sense of the word ) English classes, they don't understand the short,simplified readings I assign and for sure don't understand what I say in class. I'm teaching to those who do at least care enough to try their best, and hoping that their example will inspire some of the others to get with the program before it's too late.I had been thinking that I would end up failing lots of CD students, but today I learned that the minimum percentage to 'earn' a passing grade at IAIN is just 50%, so many might scrape by in the end.I'll have a better idea after the mid-terms next week, and yes it is that time of the semester already.I also stumbled across a copy of the entire official English Ed. program syllabus, course by course, which even Herizal had never seen, and learned that for all courses the final grade is supposed to be based 40% on a final, 30% on a mid-term, and 30% on classwork etc.No graded 'projects'.Though Herizal says I have some leeway about that, I will abide by that formula now that I know it.I had thought to have the CD students do projects, but I've realized almost none would know how, no matter how much guidance I gave them, so it would end up being a case of 'going through the motions', which they already do way too much of; if it wouldn't be meaningful, why waste everyone's time and energy?

On a related note, I've finally 'picked up on' the fact that something weird and to me ( as well as Herizal ) inexplicable is going on: faculty/ directors of the English Ed. program whose courses I'm teaching have not shown even the slightest interest in meeting with me or finding out what I'm doing with 'their' courses!Moreover, whenever Herizal has gone over to try to talk with them he says the office is always locked up and no one is around.He was the original director of the program, which was 'his baby', but it seems that since he left no one truly cares about it.I told him I'm beginning to feel uncomfortable being totally outside of whatever is going on over there and want to meet the teachers of their other courses soon, and IF there are any meetings to be included in them - even if they're conducted in Indonesian.It's not clear to me if the other teachers even speak English very well, since Herizal as ever refuses to directly say anything critical of anyone; I suspect he knows a lot more than he's willing to tell me, and that what he knows is not positive.I'll just have to get myself into a position to draw my own conclusions.I'm guessing that they had nothing to do with the decision to apply for an ELF; from their point of view I suppose having one bule teach a few of their courses for a year - likely courses no one there feels any 'ownership' of - is insignificant in the overall scheme of things.Still, the original application for an ELF did clearly say that part of my role here would be to help re-think and reform their whole English Ed. program; maybe ( probably?) when Herizal wrote the application he never got around to mentioning that to the English Ed. folks.Possibly as a result of my bringing the matter up, Herizal today suggested that perhaps I could teach partly in a different program after this term - two courses for postgrad students, one mainly academic reading and the other mainly academic writing.I would much prefer that and I hope it works out that way.Actually I don't know why I wasn't assigned to those courses from the start, when I think about it.

So now I'm back in Palembang for two months until our January/early February break, when I'll travel on my own around parts of the country that are both scenic AND safe ( thinking of Mt. Merapi ).I do now have lots of reading-for-fun choices and no more feeling of bored resignation about daily unsatisfying breakfasts.I have internet access at home, allowing regular Skype talks with family, and basic satellite TV (watched the Hornets beat the Heat earlier today, in fact - yeah!).I have found two good supermarkets within walking distance from here.I know the Fulbright English Teaching Assistants and I expect we'll be spending time together regularly.As of this afternoon I have a fan as an alternative to constant AC as well as a small electric oven so I finally can bake lasagna, brownies, etc. - both paid for by IAIN, thanks to Herizal.Conclusion: life will be mostly pleasant and time will pass quickly, even if not much of cultural interest happens for a while.I know I still need to become a lot more proactive about getting out and about more on my own on weekends, and about learning/using Indonesian.And walking for exercise.