The Dili-Grind

Damn, that should have been the title of my blog! Oh well. Well it's been more or less two weeks, so I'm more or less not a liar when it comes to blog updates. This one is coming to you on a Sunday night after an incredibly long day of grading papers, running errands, running beaches, and just generally being exhausted. Why am I so exhausted you ask? Well my compliant little readers, let me tell you a tale.

First we set the scene. Timor-Leste is a small island with a small population of, for the most part, small people (I feel quite at home 'cept for my startling whiteness). The city in which I, and some 1.5 million other people, live is called Dili. It is not only by far the largest city on the island, but also the capital and the location of important entities like the National Parliament, the President (and the Palacio do Presidente which is the equivalent of the White House), and LELI. LELI wouldn't typically make it onto a list of places to see in Dili, but I work there, so for me, and therefore you, it is important. 

The LELI building itself is actually an old Portuguese house that's been converted into half offices and half classrooms. The set up is actually quite nice, and I normally have plenty of room to both plan lessons and teach, although the former can be difficult if there are more than five other teachers planning at the same time. The building holds something like ten classrooms, although I actually have yet to really explore the whole building (wow, I really need to get on that). Despite the set-up at the LELI, most of the work we do is actually off-site. The LELI is the premiere English school in Dili, so any business around the city that has the interest/means will usually come to us for training. We provide classes for various UN organizations here, as well as many other Governmental offices. The work is fun and because of my background not too difficult. I am still trying to find my legs as a teacher rather than a student, and in some areas that has been more difficult than in others. One area that I am not struggling in is settling with the rest of the staff. The people who work at the LELI are awesome. Both of my bosses are incredibly friendly and really do everything they can to help me whenever I start to get overwhelmed or even when I'm not but still want a push in the right direction. They have years of experience and are nothing short of happy to help me plan lessons (especially the more difficult ones). 

Although I do spend a good chunk of my week either planning or teaching, I do also have a good amount of free time. I can sleep in, if I'd like, four days a week (not including weekends), with the exception of a really early morning on Thursdays. When I come home it is always to my lovely girlfriend Alexis, and then evenings Alexis, Sharanya, Carrick, and myself will settle down to dinner and movies/shows or a game of Catan, or even just sitting around and shooting the shay. I have time for pleasure reading and have been really taking advantage of that (and Alexis' Kindle), having just started and finished The Hunger Games and immediately started Catching Fire (the second in the series). Another part of my free time has been going to getting back into shape. Finally. Sharanya and I have been beach running together, and I even managed to get Alexis to come out with me once so far, and it is going very well. Carrick and I, as well as a friend of Carrick's from his work, have signed up to a gym and are getting into a regular workout regime. There were some hiccups due to sickness along the way, but now we are both healthy and really getting into it. Living with vegetarians and being far from my protein powder makes trying to keep up on weight lifting levels of protein tricky. I eat beans when I can, but basically peanut butter and eggs have become an extremely (see: ridiculously) large part of my diet. If anyone has recommendations for simple (ie no cooking necessary) protein sources, I'm down to take them in the comment section. 

 

So back to the question at hand. Why am I so exhausted? Because I want to be. There is so much to do here, but not in the touristy “I've gotta see/do/visit ________ before I go” because I have four more months here. At least. Every weekend we have been going to the beaches and either swimming, snorkeling, running, or just catching a sunset. To leave you with the best concise description of Timor Life I've heard so far: “Timor is easy.” And I feel like I've earned it.

Love you all, thanks for reading.

Connor

P.S. Hope to hear from you all soon in one way or another. Keep me in the know on life Stateside.