On Saturday afternoon of the last weekend of September ETA Anna Misenti headed out on a mysterious outing with a handful of her 11th grade students. Following class the previous week her students had excitedly invited her to jalan jalan (stroll) around Padangsidimpuan, but had offered no further details. At 3 pm sharp that Saturday they arrived at Anna’s door, and headed off. At first, it appeared that they were just heading for a casual walk to Indomaret, but minutes later they climbed into the back of the car and were driving across the city. As they drove, Anna’s students informed her that it was one of their closest friends from school’s birthdays and they wanted Anna to join them at her birthday party as a surprise. Ten minutes later they arrived at the restaurant and had just enough time to unwrap the cake and light the candles before another one of Anna’s students, who was celebrating her 16th birthday, arrived. The birthday party was quite the success, filled with much laughter, singing, and feeding each other cake, while swapping funny stories in English and Bahasa Indonesia. It was a great reminder of how sometimes the most fun moments of this grant come unexpectedly, and all it may take is saying yes to an ambiguous outing with some new friends from school.

Anna Misenti is currently teaching at SMAN 1 Padangsidimpuan, North Sumatra