For the last several years, students in grades 7 - 10 are able to select from a variety of field trips that all occur during the same week. This year there were about 11 different field-trips for the students to select from ranging from local trips in Jakarta, to other destinations with in Indonesia such as Bali, the Thousand Islands, Lake Toba, Medan, Manado, and a few further destinations as Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand. The majority of the grade 8 students selected to go to Chaing Mai, Thailand- and I was going with them since I am an eighth grade homeroom teacher. We were all set and ready to go, many of the students were already packed, we had the tickets, all arrangements had been made and three days before we were supposed to leave there was a political coup in Thailand and we had to cancel the trip. Not only did we have to cancel the trip, but we had to plan something else to do with the students for a whole week and we only had a couple days to make arrangements for 80 people. We decided to take th students to a water park the first day to let them just have fun and get over the fact that we weren't going to Thailand. 
So, on Monday, September 25th we visited Waterboom, a water park about 90 minutes away. This is a shot of the lazy river. I always think my students seem so Westernized, and not much different from kids at home. But was interesting to see how modest they are, the majority would practically be fully clothed while swimming. The girls more so than the boys. But the girls would wear a one piece suit with long shorts and a short or long sleeve shirt. We would have the opposite problem at home. :)
Here's a picture of the boys enjoying a game of volleyball. 
The second day, we had to be a bit more educational. Half of the group went to a local pottery workshop to see how it was run and make a few of their own pieces. The other half, my half, went to Mekarsari which is basically a huge fruit plantation. This was great for my students because we were studying plants in science, so it fit perfectly. We had a tour of the plantation, tasted numerous fruits and met walking durian fruit (pictured above). The durian is the pride and joy of most Indonesians but is also a controversial fruit. It is the only fruit that is banned from commercial airlines and most hotels due to its overpowering smell. The other day, there was a sale on durians at the grocery story, and people were going absolutely crazy. Pushing and shoving to fill entire shopping carts with them....I don't get it but I haven't actually tried one...maybe later.
(Pak Pujo- the Bahasa Indonesia teacher for grade 8- and I enjoying the bamboo swings)
On Wednesday, we loaded up two coach buses and headed off for Bandung, a town about 4 hours West of Jakarta. Our first stop was at a milk and juice factory, Ultra Milk. This was actually very interesting. It is one of the only (if not the only) fully automatic factories in Indonesia. This factory provides Indonesia with about half of it's packaged milk and juices and has a total employee count of 300 workers in the factory and warehouse. We were able to see the process from when the milk is delivered through its packaging and storing in the warehouse. The warehouse was so neat- there were little cars/trucks that drove around the enormous warehouse picking up loads of milk/juice and delivering them to the proper row in the warehouse- where it would be put on a crate by another machine and lifted to the correct row and column in the warehouse. The warehouse had about 10 shelfs across, 15 stories heigh and 25 columns deep. It was just irry because it was all run by machines and computers, there was only one or two people over seeing everything. Crazy!
After the milk factory, the next stop on our tour was an Angklung school and show. The angklung is a traditional instrument of Indonesia (in picture below) made of bamboo. We all first were instructed how to make our own angklung, then enjoyed a show put on by the students of the school. At the end, they taught us how to play them and we played a few songs.
Students and staff putting together their angklungs.
Two of my favorite students, Andrew and Winson, learning to play the angklung.
This is were we spent the three days, Pesona Bambu Lembang. It was very nice- especially since Ibu Cynthia (the grade 8 art teacher) and I were able to share a bungalow with no students!
This sign was in the womens bathroom at the hotel, it basically asks the patrons to not stand on the toilet seats. Which sounds funny but most Muslims use squat toilets (basically holes in the floor) and I guess don't know what to do with these crazy Western toilets, so they stand on the seat and squat. A teacher at school had a top ten list of ways you know you've been in Indonesia too long and one of the them was that you start to stand on the toilets. One of the first times I used a public toilet here the toilet seat was covered with foot prints, and I couldn't figure out what a person would be doing standing on the toilet seat. And it kept happening at different restaurants or wherever, so I finally had to ask. Inquiring minds.
Thursday was a fun filled day. We started out by doing a short hike up to the top of this volcano, Tangkuban Perahu.
Here I am with Pak Wong (math & science teacher grades 7/8), Ibu Cynthia (art teacher 7/8) and Pak Johnny (student teacher from teaching university in conjunction with SPH) an overlook by the volcano. After we hiked to the top of the volcano, we hiked down to take a look at the smelly craters below.
Here are two of my most hilarious homeroom students, Dae Kwang and Ho Kyun. They both bought walking sticks from vendor along the hike from the volcano to the craters. Don't they look so mature with walking sticks?
Here we are at the craters. This area was swarmed with men selling souvenirs. You could even pay to have them boil eggs in the craters for you! We ate lunch at a warung right by the craters which wasn't the best idea since it was so smelly-sulfur yuck!
From the craters some of us took the challenge to walk another 10km to a hot springs pool. This was no walk in the park. The majority of the time we were walking through brush and just getting cut up by all the twigs. But, it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip because I got to know the students better and was able to walk through and enjoy the sights of this tea plantation. It was absolutely amazing, everywhere you looked was tea- it went on as far as you could see in every direction. But, I was so relieved to see the end- those tea bushes are vicious! We then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the hot spring pools, well not all of us. The students saw that there was a place to go paint-balling right next door, so half the kids went paint-balling instead- so it was even more peaceful!
To end our last night of the trip, we went to a very nice restaurant called The Valley, which was a poorly chosen name since it was on the very top of a huge hill but I guess it did overlook a valley. Here are the four remaining teachers left standing (Ibu Cynthia was feeling sick, and Pak Wong took a student to the hospital) so that leaves Mr. Ross (head of Middle School and grade 8 humanities and English teacher), Pak Pujo, me and Pak Johnny.
Friday, the last day, we went to a museum sponsored and run by IMB that was kind of like a miniature Museum of Science and Industry. Puspa Ibtek had all sorts of hands on stations- the students (and teachers) really enjoyed it! Last stop- shopping! Bandung is know for its outlet shopping, and these aren't like our outlets at home. These outlets are stocked with clothing from the all the factories that make clothes and send them off to Australia, Europe, and the U.S. They were just stacked with clothes from a range of brands like Nike, the Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Addidas, Express, American Eagle, Abercrombie, you get the picture. And most items were about $5! It was too overwhelming- we only had two hours to shop. But, I did the best I could. :)
