Second attempt to post today

The internet here is just not very good. So my earier post didn't post and I think it's just as well because it was a lot of the same.

The school provides drivers for all the teachers and they are free during school hours. Off hours they can be called and are very cheap. They will take you around Sumatra if you choose to book them. There are also private driving companies. The latter is what my friend and I failed to book in time. So we will go a week from tomorrow instead of tomorrow. It just takes a phone call and more Indonesian than I know how to speak. The problem with school drivers in off hours is that there are few of them and they get run around a lot. Also, this is a school in which everyone seems to concern themselves with everyone else's business. If you'd like to get away during the weekend without becoming part of the gossip mill, it's best to use resources outside of the school community's purview.

There was also a question in regard to a teacher at a school in Medan. I can safely say that no one by that name works at my school, to my knowledge. Having said that, it is my policy to avoid giving out names of anyone with whom I may associate as that is, in my opinion, an invasion of their privacy. There are many schools with western teachers in Medan. I've met some of the other already and there seem to be many more. The schools are of different stripes. Hard to say how mine is different except that I believe the Singaporean influence is pretty key. It's not an American school, nor even an Indonesian one. I'll leave it at that.

I hope to take a lot of pictures this weekend. Saturday the plan is tour Medan's cultural and religious landmarks, but also to do a little shopping--could be an interesting contrast. We'll see.