The Indonesian tradition for birthdays is that the birthday person treats. It's kind of like grade school, as one of my elementary education major friends pointed out. So I made chocolate chip cookies for the teachers at school today. It's a good feeling to be giving on your birthday and not just receiving. Plus, I got to enjoy some warm cookies and milk for breakfast. Another Indonesian birthday tradition is that everyone shakes your hand. Now this does seem like that big a deal, but it's warm and friendly, and I enjoyed it. I also ended up with some lovely orchids (from my parents via Karla), balloons, and far too many sweets.
The cool thing about having a birthday on this side of the world is that it seems like it last longer. My birthday started this morning for me, but I don't feel like it's really over until it's over in the U.S., which isn't until tomorrow afternoon. I even got my birthday started early here. I went out to dinner on Wednesday with a few friends from work. The Italian restaurant near my apartment was celebrating its first anniversary by having everything half off. It was good times. I didn't go out for my birthday tonight. I decided to stay in, finish the book I'm reading (That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis), talk to my family, finish off the cookie dough, and enjoy a quiet birthday evening.
It still feels strange to have 80 degree weather in December. In some ways, I feel like my sense of time passing is all wrapped up in seasonal weather changes, which means I'm a little discombobulated by Indonesian weather (and it sure doesn't feel like I'm been here almost five months). A good example would be rain. I'm used to Midwestern rain, which usually gives you some clues that it's coming: it gets colder or windier, or you hear thunder in the distance, or it's gets darker with that strange greenness right before a thunderstorm. Not so in Jakarta. Rain comes without any preliminaries, as if someone flicked a switch. I'm really looking forward to some weather variety when I go home for Christmas. It will be wonderful to have something besides hot hot hot, but I'm a little worried that I'll be a cold weather wimp. I think that I need to go ice-skating at the mall before I leave, just to practice.
It was really nice that I didn't have to teach today. I didn't have a lot to do except plan for next semester since I'm done grading finals for my eighth grade students. I was sad to say goodbye to them last week. They gave me headaches, but they also made me laugh. My favorite answer on the final exam was in response to a question about the target audience of a Burger King ad for the Whopper. One student wrote that the ad was directed to almost everyone--families, teenagers, adults, children, etc, "except for people who can't eat solid food." Thank goodness for students like that who add a little spice to the bland monotony of grading.
Technically, this is a long weekend because of a Muslim holiday on Monday, but tomorrow there's a Christmas service for all the IPEKA teachers, so I have to get up early for that. It's kind of a bummer, but I'm going out to see Twilight afterward. To the shame and embarrassment of my sister, I have read the book by Stephanie Meyer. It has pretty much swept the school by storm, so I thought I'd better get on board. And I'm thrilled to see kids getting excited about reading, especially in English. I borrowed a copy from an eighth grade boy, and I was reading it in the library facing these big windows where students pass on their way to the chapel. You should have heard the squeals of excitment when some of my old 11th grade students passing by saw that I was reading Twilight. They loved it, and I'm pretty sure that I'll see some of them at the movie theater tomorrow.
15 days until I leave for home!
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