Lightning Bolts and Comfort Zones

Dear Friend,

Tonight as I was walking home I was continually amazed by the evening sky being lit by a lightning shower. I didn't hear any thunder nor feel any rain, I only saw the entire sky filled with light for a brief second. I don't know why, but for some reason I always feel inspired to write someone when I see lightning like that. Maybe I just want to share the amazing experience with someone. I mean, for one flash of light to fill the sky for miles and miles is incredible! It's like being able to physically see, for just one second, the power of God covering the whole earth. At least, that is what it reminds me of.

Anyways, how are you doing? I am eager to hear how life over on your side of hte world is going. As you know, I am currently teaching in Indonesia. I have been here for 3 weeks and one day. It feels like I have been here for a lot longer than that. I like Indonesia. It's not as hot as I expected, or perhaps I am just never outside when it is extremely hot. I haven't learned too much Bahasa Indonesian yet. I figured I should get used to being a new teacher and being in a new country before I start to intensely learn the language.

You know, I haven't gone through any culture shock yet. Perhaps that will come, but I honestly don't think it will. (You will probably read a letter from me in a while saying, "Ha, what was I thining? Of course the culture shock was going to come, and boy did it!" But that will be another day, not today.) The reason why I don't think it will come is that I am back in my odd comfort zone. I am once again living in an Asian country, eating quality rice every day, and I not understanding a word of anything anyone says around me. I know, you are probably thinking, "Dude, that's not normal." But for me that is, remember, I grew up in Japan, loved the Japanese food which included at least one serving of rice each day, and I sadly didn't learn the language fluently so I never fully knew what anyone around me was saying unless I was at home or school.

School here is going well. As you know I am teaching Language Arts for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. My first day was a little tough. I started out with first grade and I had a lot of fun things planned I thought, but it turned out not being enough. We had story time where I read them my newest favorite kids book Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes by Eric Litwin and illustrated by James Dean. Such a fun book! If you haven't read it, I suggest you do! First I read it to them, then we listened to the CD recording of the story and I taught the students the dance that the author, Eric Litwin, taught me at a conference last year. Then I taught them alphabet aerobics and we started slowly and kept speeding it up, finally we played a name game to help me learn their names. Regardless, I still had extra time and I ended up teaching them the procedure for getting the reading books from the back of the room. So not being adequately planned for that class threw me off and the rest of the day was rough because of it. As a result to that day, I have over planned every single day since for every single class.

I haven't had one of those 'go home and cry' days yet. I almost cried that first day, but in the end, there were no tears shed.Perhaps that day will also be in a later letter.

I hope you are doing well and look forward to hearing from you,
Till next time,
res