There’s one thing I forgot to tell you all in the last blog. It was Cameron’s birthday yesterday and to celebrate, we found a karaoke bar and sang with night away with Donna Summer and Prince. We had a blast! Luckily, Bettina got some great videos of Cameron’s solo on John Legend’s “Where Did My Baby Go?” It was a classic American good time.
Alright, on to today’s activities. We started with a visit to SDN Menteng, the State Elementary School of Menteng. This was the elementary school that Barack Obama attended during his 4th grade year. We were able to see paintings and statues in his honor. We were asked to give some presentations about America to some of the students. Our colleague Kattrina talked about public libraries and their reading programs for children (libraries are very rare in Indonesia, so the concept that they could be fun or interactive is foreign to them). After that there was some down time and Professor Hagedorn looked around the room for someone else to present. No one had a presentation with them..so of course Dr. H turned to me and said “teach them something” (what am I? The dancing monkey of our group?!) so without hesitating, I got up, walked to the front of the class, and taught the 5th graders some poky wrestling cheers. It was completely off the cuff but the students loved pounding on the desks and making fun noises. They were quick learners. After the classroom experience, we went to their end-of-the-year assembly and I led the entire school in the Cupid Shuffle and the Cha-Cha slide. A couple of the parents were there and they got in on the group dance too. It was adorable and everyone loved it. I had only planned to do one but they kept requesting more J Afterwards, I had a couple mothers and students come up to me and thank me for letting their girls dance.. “You’re such a good dancer. I’m going to stay with it.” That just warmed my heart! It was nice to hear…even though it was just a club dance.
We were then whizzed back to Cikarang to meet with the Rector (similar to the President) of President’s University. We had lunch with the Vice Rector at the Jababeka golf course, which is ranked in the top 5 hardest courses, and in my opinion, one of the most beautiful courses..Dad, you would have been in heaven! After dining with him (where I ate a traditional Sundanese meal..delicious) he escorted us back to the conference room of P.U. and we had a wonderful time conversing with the Rector. I impressed him with a little Indonesian I’d been learning and he suggested I come back to Cikarang to teach English. Connections people. Networking here. I loved every minute of it J
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