the daily things

For those of you that sit at home and wonder, "what is Ellen doing today?" (though maybe some of you never do...) here is your answer!

Now that STS is on holiday I have a new routine and schedule to my days. I teach English in the mornings, to students who are staying here for holiday (ones that cannot go home to China and Myanmar). Each day I teach from 9-12:15 between the six students. I really love the small group atmosphere of it, though I still am struggling with how to fill my time outside of teaching. This week I have a Malay class in the afternoon (Saya belajar bahasa melayu tengahari ini?) so I am attempting to switch my thinking into Malay a bit. Although the timing isn't great, as now the only language the students and I have in commmon is English, so I can't practice my Malay like I could when school was in session.

The students and I have created a bit of a routine where we have class in the mornings and then eat lunch together. This lunch consists of a water-based soup, rice, meat, vegetables, and fruit, and of course, eating until all the food is gone. Today they officially invited me to eat with them everyday, which I am extremely grateful for! Even when the conversation switches to all Chinese, I still enjoy the company and the cooking. To be honest, I don't think I was ever meant to cook for myself with only a stove top-- I can probably make a total of three meals. On the list of things I miss... an oven! As well as baked goods and dairy products.

In two weeks, I'll get to try my hand at cooking again for our Thanksgiving celebration! We'll see how that one turns out. I'm hoping through my lunch dates I'll be able to learn some cooking (and then I'll be the best Asian cook in the States!). I was joking with Erika that we will forever be really strange cooks since we first learned to cook for ourselves in another country. It seems perfectly normal to me to eat a fried egg over rice with a little bit of chili sauce. Hmm...

Back to my routine... evenings are quiet here, with a lot of down time. My plan for this evening includes correcting a student's thesis paper, lesson planning for tomorrow (I still find that I can only take it one day at a time), studying Malay, and maybe a little leisure reading.

Did I answer your question? :)

I'll be posting an entry about graduation soon! Sekejap lagi!