Indonesia!

Helloo. I've been here in Palembang for over a week now. The journey here from Singapore was interesting. I had to change planes in Jakarta and this involved a confusing time at the passport check where I managed to make friends with most of the staff just by filling in an arrival card. I then had to collect my bag and make my way to a different terminal. This was a very confusing affair but I was kindly directed to a bus stop where I could get on a little yellow bus complete with crazy driver to be taken to Terminal 1. Inside the terminal was crazily busy with trolleys everywhere and long queues. When I had checked in I went up to the gate area which resides in a big wooden structure like a giant log cabin on stilts. Very weird. I then sat and waited to hear the word Palembang as the display screens didn't really seem to be working. After a slight delay we got into the air and on our way.

Jakarta Airport domestic flights section - the log cabin

So, the first week of work went pretty well. I'm just learning the ropes but should properly get the hang of it soon. I teach between two and four classes a day with a wide variety of ages. It's nice!

I've met lots of nice people since being here. I have four housemates, Beth, Amy, Sarita and Zach; 3 British and an American in that order. All very cool people. I've also met quite a few of their friends who all also seem like nice and jolly people. Today we took a trip to Jakabaring, the venue for the 3rd Islamic Solidarity Games which is being held in Palembang at the moment. We rocked up and walked around trying to find where to buy tickets. Not as simple as one in a non-chaotic country might think. We were bombarded by manr requests to take photos of us. Some people just grab you while others ask nicely. Very strange thing to get used to. So we decided to hide out in the shade where loads of police officers were hanging out... Who then asked for a photo with us. We had a chat with them and stuff and they showed us where to get the tickets. We went for the VIP option at a very reasonable price of about £3. We made our way to our seats ready to watch an epic battle of a football match between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. By epic battle I just mean that it wasn't really that exciting. Not being a football fan myself, what I would say about it is that it was not very fast moving and the players seemed to fall over a lot, even when doing simple kicks. Anyway, Turkey were victorious with a final score of 2-1.

The score at the start: 0-0!

Now I'm back at the house. I've just had a jacket potato and I'm going to chill for a bit. I'll try and write again soon, promise!

The view from my window!