After two months of not being in my classrooms, I am back at the school again!  I’m beginning by preparing all of my paperwork, which takes forever.  I need to have attendance lists prepared and old speaking scores noted (to adjust as constant assessments happen throughout the semester) for over 1,100 students.  Then I need to have my handouts or worksheets ready so the school can make copies.  It feels like a mountain of paperwork, but I’m so glad I’m at my school a few days early to get myself organized.  After that, it’s easy to stay organized.

It’s weird though.  I know I’m leaving Indonesia after this contract is up in January, so this is the home stretch.  I’m looking at everything in a way that I’ll never be able to again, which is a little sad.

I remember feeling this way in college.  You’re in a place temporarily, but it feels like you have all the time in the world.  Then you really become comfortable, almost as if you forget that the day will come when you have to pack up all your stuff.  Finally, you have to start getting rid of things, scaling down and letting friends take things off to a new home, because the life you’ve accumulated won’t fit in your suitcases.  You have to choose which mementos and memories get to stay.  The world of your living space becomes smaller and more compact until it collapses into a suitcase to board a plane.

Basically, the countdown has begun.  I’ll be lucky if I can fit in a cheap weekend getaway somewhere, but I have to reflect on all the cool places I’ve gotten to see thus far and focus on daily happenings and my students’ smiling faces.  Those little things are what I will end up missing.

I need to start mentally preparing how to pack my bags, considering some of my clothes won’t even last to the packing stage.  Many items may have to be retired early due to rough hand washing my first year here.

As the countdown continues, I anticipate more intense Western food cravings than the ones I am having now.  Currently, I dream of American pizza that has delicious cheese and proper sauce…not flavorless, over-processed “white stuff” mixed with pure ketchup…. Not to mention the friends and family I will be chomping at the bit to see, as the clock runs down.

I know that my next adventure (re-assimilating to North America…and a full Winter season) will be nothing like this.  I need to drink in the tropical climate, the crazy food, the unsafe building practices and the chaotic school systems while I still have a chance, because pretty soon this lifestyle will just be a memory.