It seems this is the only post I write anymore, my annual book review. Each year, I list out the books I read with some commentary with the goal to encourage myself and others to read good books and share what we learn. Considering the wild ride of 2020, I'm happy I hit my goal of averaging one book per month. This Year in Data About the Books I Read I read: 12 books total…
I pondered over Jared’s request to write about our trip from my perspective. Thousands of memories, images, and thoughts flooded my brain. This left me paralyzed as to how to fulfill this request without leaving anything out, yet being able to convey in an article the magnificence of our trip, without writing a novel. I could have chosen to write about all the places we visited but our photo album will speak for itself. After…
My parents and I meeting my headmaster. Batik school uniforms FTW! For my quarter-century celebration my family came to visit me in Indonesia. My parents came first to live for two days in the asrama (dormitory), my aunt and cousin from South Africa met us in Bali, where my brother Max showed up as well. Showing my family the life I lead was a surprisingly pleasant experience. Each had their own difficulty adapting to life…
A few weeks ago 8 fellow Fulbrighters came to visit Jogja on vacation. I, unfortunately, was still teaching for most of their visit, but I got to participate in one day of adventure. We went to Goa Pindul, an area known for a small mountain, rivers, and caves. We took a day trip, about 1.5 hours outside the city, to get there and took a tour of the caves via tubes. To follow we headed…
Last week, the entire Fulbright ETA program gathered together for our Mid-Year Conference held in Jakarta this year. After being at our individual sites spread all over Indonesia for the last few months, it was nice to finally be back together to swap stories and whine a little bit. The most common cultural adaptation to vex us is the immense differences between school systems in Indonesia and the United States. For example, senior high-school students…
The term "documentation" may be a curse of the worker, or it may be a human curse finally granted a name once the brutality of the real-world makes itself known. While in university, the extent of my knowledge of documentation was to never put anything disparaging in writing that could be dug up and reproduced in the future, photo albums & scrapbooks, and Facebook photos. The term has taken on new meaning as a full-time…