Old Friends

Another week gone and more or less as tired as normal. I am currently teaching mornings and then doing my day job later in the day. The early morning teaching is still hard work but not as bad as last year because I am now used to being awake and moving about from 5.30am so being ready to teach at 8.30am is not so bad.

I am still there at St.Ursula, in the middle of the city but I have changed from elementary school to senior high school and this is for girls only aged from 15 to 18. Its a new challenge for me and less noisy so thats a good thing.  The views of the school as well are good. I am sure to post more pictures over the weeks of my time there but here are some shots from last week.

In the corridor outside a class

Looking towards the Cathedral

The class rooms themselves are still very traditional wooden desks and chairs and the most alarming the floor tiles (photos to come) remind me of the floors at Safeway where I once worked, as it they are I believe, the same pattern.

However much fun it is there, when my classes are cancelled its equally as great as I found out on Friday and as luck would have it, this allowed me to meet an old friend and colleague.

Back in the day when I first started with EF I was a teacher and I lived in a teachers house with everyone else. It was fun. The number of teachers grew and so a second house was called on and so I moved. It was far nicer. Teachers come and go and you have fun along the way. From the original western teachers that I worked with between 2007 and 2008 in Cengkareng; 5 of us remain in Jakarta as far as I know. Everyone else either moved on to somewhere new or went home after doing their year.  Keeping in touch with those I worked with is probably almost the same in number, be it through Instragram, Facebook, Whatsapp but some you still keep in contact with and some I still meet on occasion.

Class of 2008 EF Cenkareng Kartini Day

So hearing that an old colleague was returning for a holiday as part of his honeymoon was great news, especially as he was coming from Canada.

Dagan with my then girlfriend, now wife, Yovita

Just a typical day in West Jakarta

It was good to meet Dagan and his wife and we spent some time catching up over coffee and cake on Friday morning. Its good to see people move and develop and know that life goes on. Sadly Dagan lost his hair along the way, but his vests are the building blocks of legends!

Now Married

I forgot how short he is, but still just in a vest

Hopefully before he returns west again we can meet up and he can say hi to Yovita and Jeremy as we could not do that Friday. If not then again in another 7 or 8 years!