I swear that I'm here to teach...

I'm sure that you're all getting tired of my blog posts highlighting some gorgeous island in Indonesia where I hung out with my friends and thinking to yourselves "Didn't she go there to teach English?" and I swear I've been teaching... a little anyway.

A week and a half after returning from my month long teaching hiatus, I found myself once more walking across the tarmac of the Pekanbaru airport, suitcase trailing behind me. This time however I was with Brian and neither of us had paid for our flights- we were headed to the ETA mid-year conference and this trip was on AMINEF. The ETA reunion began in the Jakarta airport, where our inevitable lay over made our paths cross with those of about ten other ETA's all bound for Surabaya. Once in Surabaya AMINEF spared no expense, putting us up in a five-star hotel for our two day outreach program with local schools. After successful programs with schools around Surabaya and sufficient discussions on teaching and practices with the English Language Fellows (the big brother to the ETA program), all forty-four of us were once again loaded onto coach buses bound for the airport. After taking over the Starbucks during our routine flight delay, we finally boarded a plane to the island of Lombok- Bali's more beautiful and less hyped neighbor. Here we continued our mid-year conference at the Sheraton resort- discussing the ETA handbook for future ETA's, changes AMINEF could make to improve the program, the WORDS competition, an English competition for our students, and generally trying to finish before lunch so that we could enjoy the lavish pool and dual happy hours offered by the Sheraton.

By Friday our mid-year duties were completed and most of us opted to stay in Lombok for a weekend in Kuta- a two hour drive to the south. The white sand beaches, turquoise water, and breathtaking rock formations made this small town look like something out of Avatar- it's the most beautiful place I have seen thus far. I went surfing with some of the other ETA's- we took a boat out to a break in the middle of the ocean- and while the waves were awesome I opted to sit on my board and take in the gorgeous scenery around me after getting thoroughly abused by the somewhat scary swells. We rented motor bikes and it seemed like we could go no where without coming across a stretch of undisturbed white sand beach- deserted except for a few local kids.

This Tuesday my Mom and sister will come to Pekanbaru, and after spending a few days showing them my school and the sights of the city we will head to Bali. I have been teaching for a week and I swear that I will begin teaching again after this one last vacation...as the Indonesians say "satu lage"- just once more...