Wed. Sept 22 Yet another interesting and satisfying day, and in the end one that left me feeling very fortunate to be here with very friendly, interesting, professional, and helpful people everywhere I turn. I expect that things will get even better once I'm teaching daily - and in my own house. It was a lot more quiet today in the Pusat Bahasa ( Language Center ) - though by late morning, groups of students were walking and sitting everywhere outside.We ...

Tuesday Sept 21 I stood in front of by far the largest audience of my life this morning, 1000+ at a guess, and talked for over 20 minutes - with less than a minute's advance notice!I went to the school's big opening ceremony for the fall semester, for all incoming freshmen, plus faculty and administrators - with whom I was seated in the front row of an immense, filled-to-overflowing auditorium ( guys on one side, women on the other ).A guest speaker from Jakar...

Monday night Sept. 20 I just waddled up from the hotel café.In addition to my capcai cah/nasi putih, I had the cooks heat up my leftover pempek; I had 6 ( quite filling just by themselves ) and the guys in the kitchen shared the rest - 'special', they said, and they should know. I had my first real meetings with students this morning, though not scheduled ones.First I met with 4 women/3 men in my Curriculum Development class who had come in to get a requ...

Saturday night Sept. 18 I finally got a massage today, and it was worth the wait - and certainly worth the $8 it cost, including a generous tip.The masseuse, a friend of Herizal's wife, is an older woman who knows no English but does 'know her stuff' when it comes to deep massage; no one could question her thumb strength, that's for sure!She stretched me out a bit too.I felt noticeably more 'relaxed' afterwards both physically and mentally.We'll have another s...

Friday Sept. 17 At IAIN I attended my first staff meeting this morning, and didn't even need to leave my own desk to do it. Six of us who are sharing the teaching of the new 25-hour-a-week English program for 30 selected faculty met to decide who will teach which skill areas and at what times. Three of the teachers are ones I hadn't met, and all are very experienced; in fact, one won this year's 'Teacher of the Year' award for Palembang and was first runner-up...