Taman Mini

Saturday morning I met up with my friend, Scott, at Taman Mini in South Jakarta. Scott is a fellow first-year teacher with BBS, but he is at the Kebon Jeruk campus (the other campus in Jakarta). He is from eastern Washington state and is as big of a sports nut as I am. We got along during our first week in Jakarta during our orientation period and have been trying to hang out for a couple of months now. We were able to meet up at Taman Mini and enjoy a relaxing day of chillin together (pictured below: Scott and I).

  

Taman Mini is a cross between an amusement park and a zoo. The park is built around a map of islands that are in the shape of Indonesia (pictured below: islands that make up the map of Indonesia). The only problem is that it is very large and there is no place in the park where you can get even remotely high enough to see the whole map.

Around the islands there are a bunch of houses that represent the different areas of Indonesia (pictured below). The houses are all in the architecture native to that area, but inside there were mostly just shops selling food and trinkets. On the outside of the different houses were different exhibits and activities. The best way I can describe it is that it is an affordable version of Worlds of Fun for your average Indonesian.

The entrance price was 9.000 rupiah, but for each exhibit you had to pay a fee to enter. The most expensive I saw was that the waterpark cost 120.000 rupiah, but all of the exhibits we went in were between 6-15.000 rupiah.

The first exhibit that Scott and I went in was the aquarium. Our ticket to the aquarium got us into the butterfly exhibit as well. They were both, eh. Nothing special. Saw a few cool things (pictured below).

(large electric eel)

(pimpin blue lobster)

(feeding frenzy !!)

(there were these random bunny mascots throughout Taman Mini: horribly misplaced but strangely awesome)

After the butterfly exhibit, we walked to the end of the park where the reptile exhibit and the bird exhibits were. We wanted to check those out, but we ate lunch, first. Bakso (meatball) is very popular here and I had my first experience with bakso at Taman Mini. Very cheap (17.000 rupiah) and very good (pictured below: mie ayam bakso).

Once our meals were done and some serious fantasy football talk had subsided, we headed to the reptile exhibit. One of the other first-year teachers from PIK (my campus) went to Taman Mini last weekend and posted a picture of himself petting a komodo dragon. He said the reptile exhibit was easily the coolest, so that was the one I wanted to see. I did not think that I would pet a komodo, nonetheless get anywhere near one. That thing could destroy me instantly if it wanted. The inside portion of the reptile exhibit is shaped like a komodo dragon (pictured below). The employee encouraged us to climb on their building and take a picture.

We saw some pretty cool stuff in the outside portion of the reptile exhibit (pictured below).

(big ol' gator)

(these two gentlemen wanted our photo; I took one too just to prove that people do actually ask for photos)

(mini python)

(the guy said I had nothing to worry about; this snake is a Dortmund fan)

(that tongue tho)

(hell yes I was scared)

The last exhibit we wanted to hit up before leaving was the bird exhibit. As soon as we walked in the door, we knew it was a good decision (pictured below).

(this eagle was straight staring Scott down for a solid minute)

(craziest lookin bird I've ever seen; has another top beak on top of its top beak - like a hat of some sort)

After a long day exploring Taman Mini, I was able to go to bed just after 9pm on Saturday. I had my alarm set for 2am because my parents were willing to set up Skype so I could watch the Alabama-Texas A&M football game on my computer (pictured below: football in Indonesia!!). I am a Johnny Football fan. Don’t understand the hate for the kid. If there is a more perfect college QB, I want to see him. It was a great game and gave me some time to sit and talk with my family while watching a great game. It made me feel like I was at home hanging out on a Saturday. It was lovely.

Still am not homesick at all. I miss my family and friends, but nothing bad. It is supposed to settle in here in the next month. Hope not. I’m still loving my time here and it has continued to be a great experience. Even if the next year and 9 months is awful (and it won’t be), this experience has easily been worth it. I feel like I am playing with house money from this point forward.

As far as school goes, teaching has been awesome. I have been very fortunate to spend my first 7 weeks teaching with great colleagues and with a great group of students. I have not experienced the stress that comes with being a first-year teacher. I think a lot of that has to do with my outlook on everything. I do not get too worked up about students’ test scores or any mistakes that I have made so far. Teaching is like everything else in life: make mistakes and learn from them. I have messed up many times this year, but I learn from them and become better for making my mistakes. That is the main message that I have tried to get across to my students. I am not upset if you make a mistake; I am upset if you make a mistake and don’t learn from it/get better.

I have a formal observation this morning. Supposedly, the school's Board of Directors might show up; that would be awesome and I would not be nervous at all if they did. The observation will be with my smaller math class that I get to be more hands-on with, so it should be a good one. Listen, for me, I can't worry about what everybody say about me. I'm Matt Phillips from Wichita, KS. I'm not even supposed to be here. Every day I walk into the teachers' work room and see my ID card with my last name misspelled - I'm blessed. I ain't got no worries (LeBron voice).

Three more weeks of teaching and then I get a week off (first week of October) for my second international adventure. I am going to Thailand for a week. I am very excited to see Thailand and visit both Bangkok and Chiang Mai. I will be doing this adventure by myself; my fellow first-year teachers have not been as lucky as me and will not have gone to Singapore in time to travel internationally this coming break. I feel bad for my fellow teachers, but I am excited to do this one on my own and see what traveling by yourself is like.

As always, thank you so much for taking an interest in my time in Indonesia. Thank you to everyone that has been thinking about/praying for me while I am here.

Love you all and God bless !!