January 2 2011 - Pontianak, west Kalimantan, Borneo Back in the 'big city' after a weekend in Singkarang ( '1000 temples' ) and Pumangkat, a few hours N of here along the coast.We hitched a ride to the former early on Fridaywith a colleague of my fellow ELF Cary, and spent the day wandering through a sprawling traditional market area with lots of covered sidewalks and historic buildings that actually reminded me a lot of the old French Quarter in New Orlean...

I know it's still a bit early to wish everyone reading this a 'Merry Christmas and Happy New Year", but I'm going to Borneo next week and I'm not sure if I will have internet access there. Another of the English Language Fellows has invited me to spend Christmas with him; he's posted in a city called Pontianak on the west coast. It will be the most out-of-the-way place I've ever spent Christmas. Then on the 27th I'll do a teacher training workshop at...

I arrived 3 months ago today and have been teaching for the past 2 months, so it's a good time to step back and look at my life here so far from a 'big picture' standpoint. First, pleasant surprises: before I came I expected to face lots of mosquitoes and terribly stinky air from local industry.In fact I see virtually no mosquitoes and those I do notice don't seem inclined to land on me.And the occasional stinky air is just from my own neighbors burning leaves...

Thursday, November 18 After lunch last Friday, Herizal and his wife took me to a friend's daughter's wedding - not the party but the actual, formal wedding.Though most attendees were outside under a canopy or in the next room, I ended up in the main room packed in along with scores of people of all ages sitting on the floor in a layered circle around a rectangular low table where the event took place.Pro-quality video and SLR cameras recorded everything over t...

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 myste...