It seems like only yesterday I was fretting over my first day of teaching but it's four days later now and my feet hurt. It takes a while to adjust to anything new I suppose but I'm alive and so, hopefully, are most of my students so it can't have gone too badly.
In between my teaching schedule I found time to take a trip to the mall with my room mate and go shopping. Despite my protests he managed to persuade me to take a motorbike taxi. Driving a car through Jakarta is terrifying enough so I didn't want to petrify myself any more than necessary by leaping on the back of someone's bike. The journey was still horrible but not what I imagined.
'Pavement' and 'road' seem to be synonymous in Jakarta. Man and machine weave together in death defying ways. We only spent about seven seconds on what could possibly be described as a road though before speeding off down a network of alleyways. These were concrete strips about the width of a pencil with an open drain on either side. These alleyways also seem to be a popular hang out spot for half of Jakarta who wander along getting nudged around by motorcycles. At one point some poor bloke actually got shunted into one of the open drains by the bike and splashed up something that smelled like ammonia. The driver stoically looked onwards and I glanced around just long enough to see the man in the drain trying to wrestle an eel off his trouser leg. Before too long we were belched out somewhere near the mall and giving the driver the equivalent of about 40p. That was no where near the worst thing that happened to me that night however.
         Before I left the UK I called Lloyds TSB to notify them that I was going abroad. After the usual hour of security questions they assured me that it would be no problem and that I could use my card worry free, they also said in the 'unlikely' event of a problem I could call them on the reverse charge number. So, with my first week nearly down, I thought I'd take out a bit of cash to tide me over. After scouring every ATM in the mall I discovered that the first thing they had told me was a huge lie. Thanks Lloyds, great service, as ever. That's OK though, mistakes happen.
The next day a quick phone call determined that the reverse charges are a lie as well! Even better. So I called the bastards up and asked them to call me back which was obviously 'impossible.' Then I reluctantly answered an hour of security questions before running out of credit. Hopefully that money will go towards lining a poor investment banker's pockets at least. Wouldn't want the poor bankers going hungry.  

I was shocked at how healthy my bowel movements have been since I arrived in Jakarta. I had read up that the City was hard on guts. I was shocked right up to the point two days ago when I was taking a pee first thing in the morning and a surprise jet of shit blasted out across the bathroom behind me. Things have been along those lines ever since.
Tonight I went out with my housemate and a couple of students to see pretty much the worst film I have ever seen in my life. One of the guys we saw it with was crying after an emotional scene which I can't even remember. Everyone here seems to listen to One Direction. When we were driving down in the car both students (who are young men) were playing an album and singing along to the words. They asked me if One Direction were popular in the UK and I said that I honestly couldn't think of a single young man who listens to them. I thought it was listened to exclusively by young girls but apparantly that isn't the case the world over.
Afterwards we visited Jakarta's only landmark the 'Monas' and I'll include a picture of us all in front of it. You can just see the monument poking out from behind some traditional masked figures which everyone insisted should be included in the photo. Then we went out to eat and I had my first taste of Durian fruit, which tastes like feet smeared with cheesy fish, and some banana chocolate cheese bread which tasted exactly as it sounds.

I start teaching properly on Monday which is a fairly daunting and nerve racking prospect but I'm trying to play it as cool as possible. Wish me luck. 

It said in an email that there was a maid included with the accomodation.
'I know it's a bit weird,' the manager said. He then went on to tell me that a 'hippie' American a few years ago had been completely opposed to the idea and gave him some spiel about socialism. A few weeks down the line the American was complaining about the state of his shirts and asking for a new maid. We both had a bit of a laugh.

I admitted to the manager that having a maid came as a bit of a relief to me since I'd always had either a Mum or a girlfriend around. We both had a bit of a chuckle again and I didn't think anything else of it. I've started to think about after my house mate told me that our maid is only 14 years old and gets paid the equivalent of about £10 per month. My housemate also said that he thought about complaining to the school about her age but all it would do would lose the poor girl her job.

Her life is a far stretch from mine when I was 14 and maybe that's why my first reaction was to side with the original attitude of the 'hippie' American. If I had an easy time of it why shouldn't she? But it's a lot to think about and I'm still jet lagged. I don't want to become as big of a hypocrite as that American so for now I'll just accept things as they are.

My DOS told me to try and avoid street food for the first few weeks but my house mate said he actually thinks food on the street is safer than food you get in restaurants. He has been rushing to the toilet every five minutes since I arrived and needed to take the day off work with stomach pains though so I'll probably try and stick to restaurants for a while.

As for the job I haven't taught yet, just observing lessons for my induction week. Hopefully that will take some of the sting out of my first day of paid TEFLing. A bloke at the school gave me a lift back on his motorbike after my first day because I didn't know the way back. So far everyone seems to be quite friendly but I haven't seen much of Jakarta yet. Since my flat mate is ill I've been playing a bit of his chipped xbox 360 where all games seem to be 25p. You can order everything delivery here and we tried to order some Macky Ds yesterday but since neither of us has a phone it never arrived. Well, it might have done but neither of us ever found out about it if it did.  

The picture of 'My Place' doesn't really do the accommodation any favors. The DOS (Director of Studies) assured me when we arrived that all the barbed wire was to keep intruders out and not to keep the teachers in. Weird though that I've made 300+ handbags since arriving and I haven't been allowed outside yet.

New place

My new room

Finally made it

I will hopefully be in Jakarta on Saturday though so, even though my name won't be Jack Arthur, the blog may not be a complete loss. At the moment I'm in the most boring town on the planet. I won't name the town out of what little respect I have left for the place (St-Leonards-on-Sea) but I have a TEFL job lined up and if all goes well St Lennys will be a distant memory from the sweaty throes of dengue fever in just a few weeks time.

This blog is a lie. My name isn't Jack Arthur and I'm not in Jakarta.