22 and Single

The first question any Indonesian will ask me is, "How old are you?"  The second is, "Are you married?"  And the third - "How about an Indonesian man?"

The culturally appropriate answer is belum, which means "not yet."  Sometimes I say that, but sometimes I just say tidak (no)!  These moments so far have been so awkward because they are almost always in front of an audience.  When I say I am single, they cheer.  Ugh.  I'm over it.  It's the Brawny Man or nothing for me!

Okay, here is what has happened to me over the past week:
1. I moved to Medan.
2. I got my apartment.
3. I met my students.

MOVING TO MEDAN
I flew on an airplane.  End of story.  Oh oh oh except for when I was in the airport in Jakarta, this random lady walked over to Erin and me and asked to take a photo with us.  Like we were celebrities!  And all because we are white.  Now that's screwed up.

GETTING MY APARTMENT
(I have pictures that I am trying to post, but my internet is slow so they might come in a few days on this same post)

Okay, so this is interesting.  I live in a one-room apartment above a pharmacy/clinic which is owned and operated by a Muslim midwife.  Is that not my own personal WGS dream or what?!  The family that owns the building is really cool.  The mom - Maulina - owns this clinic, and her husband has some kind of government job in the city.  He's cool, but I still don't know his name.  They have three kids - Nanda, Nora, and Ahwil - who are SOOO FUN!  Nanda is 14 and speaks excellent English, so she has been kind enough to translate for me and her family.  The kids like to come and hang out in my room.  On Saturday, we are going to cook some American style hamburgers.  They think I am cool because 1) I'm American, 2) I lied and said that I like Justin Beber (Beber Fever is everywhere in this country!), and 3) I can cook.  No lie!  I am cool because I can cook.  The pressure is on now!

My first night in Medan was really hard.  My room, which is really very nice, was not at all what I expected.  I thought I would get something with a kitchen and a bedroom, not just a bedroom.  When I arrived, I had a twin bed with plastic still on the mattress (that's good - no bed bugs), a pink sheet, and no blanket.  I didn't even have a top sheet.  Thank goodness that I brought a blanket with me because otherwise I would have spent the first night without a blanket to sleep under!  In addition to my bed was a small desk, a plastic deck chair, and a wardrobe closet like what you see in a dorm room.  In my bathroom was a western-style toilet and a tub of water with a big dipper to scoop water into the toilet bowl for flushing.  I took one look at the bare walls and the lack of kitchen and cried myself to sleep.

Since then, things have improved.  I got internet, which makes a huge different on my mood level.  Not being able to talk to folks back home is really hard, especially when culture shock hits and you need all the love and encouragement you can find.  And finally today, I got a shower head in my bathroom, a refrigerator, a water cooler/dispenser, and a gas stove.  I feel like a real grown up again!  The last on my agenda is getting a motorcycle or scooter.  That's all I need to regain my much-needed independence and sense of self!

MEETING MY STUDENTS
My students are awesome.  I never thought I would want to be a teacher, but I am starting to see it's appeal.  Would I want to teach in American where I have no celebrity status for my American passport and white skin?  Probably not.  But at least I'll enjoy it while I'm here!  I have a different class every day, and I only see my students once a week.  Thus far, all I've done is introduce myself and observe the classes.  I got to help in one class that was working on reading comprehension - students had to pick ten words that they did not know.  I walked around the class like a real teacher and helped explain the meaning of words like "bloodthirsty" and "surely."  Have you ever tried to explain the meaning of "surely?"  It's not easy!  But the whole experience was very odd.  In a lot of ways, I still feel like a child. Putting on my teacher hat and claiming to be an authority on something feels like playing dress-up.  I keep waiting for my mom to come and pick me up from school or the real teacher to walk in the room and tell me to sit down and be quiet.  I wonder if the feeling will ever go away.

I haven't even finished the week, and I already have a favorite class.  They were loud and rambunctious and totally disrespectful, and I ate it up!  It was fun because I wasn't the teacher in charge.  I just wanted to go and give all the naughty boys in the back of the class noogies!  They love the Mr. Bean movies here, so they would keep impersonating Mr. Bean.  Every once in awhile someone would shout out "Obama!" or "Hey America!" and I would giggle.  I suppose I have to learn how to hide my laughter on the inside.

Even more than the students, I love the teachers!  Most of the teachers at the school are women, and they are a RIOT!  Going into the teacher's lounge is like going into a hen house.  They are always gossiping and joking around and teasing each other.  I love to just watch them!  The men are cool too, and I already have this inside joke with one guy where every time I see him we do an elaborate secret handshake thingy like what I used to make up with my friends in junior high school.  He gets such a kick out of it, and I saw him teaching one of his students a handshake too!  I love it!  Everyone thinks it's so funny when we do fist bumps (yes, that is my cultural contribution to Indonesia: the fist bump) because he has very dark skin, and I have very light skin.  For some reason, everyone starts to crack up when they see the contrast.

One thing that I've got to get used to is the meddling.  For instance, on my first day I was going around to all of the teachers and introducing myself.  I met all the women, and they were nudging me to the back corner where there was a young male teacher working very busily at his desk.  They pushed me over, and I leaned over to shake his hand, but he wouldn't shake mine.  Instead he just bowed toward me.  I think he is super super super conservative and doesn't touch women.  Too bad - he's pretty cute!  Anyway, all the women started saying very loudly, "He is SINGLE!  SINGLE!  You know, NOT MARRIED!  And Miss Hannah, you are NOT MARRIED!  He is SINGLE, you are SINGLE!"  Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.  He and I both turned bright red, and they just died.