Hello!
Welcome and let me tell you a little bit about me.
My name is Julie…my nearest and dearest call me “Jules” – I’m happy for you to also do so! I was born in Melbourne and currently live by the bay, and love it.
Back in my early teens, I visited Indonesia for the first time (my family travelled around South-East Asia annually)…but it was this holiday to Indonesia that inspired me on a life-time journey and it was at that time that my obsession (oops…I mean fascination) with Indonesia began. I was so inspired by Indonesia that I went on to study ‘bahasa Indonesia’ as my major at uni whilst completing a Bachelor of Teaching and a Bachelor of Education.
I have worked in education for over twenty years (oh my – is it really that long!?) in the specialist roles of Indonesian Language, English as an Additional Language and Visual Arts, in a variety of schools in Australia and in Indonesia. After many years of teaching and travelling I wound up back in Melbourne and landed myself the position as Indonesian Language Advisor for the state of Victoria through the Department of Education, where I advised schools, teachers and students of Indonesian and managed a range of Indonesian Language educational projects. After five years of working as an Indonesian Language Advisor, I felt it was time to take that leap and spread my wings wider.
Since August 2013, I have been working as a freelance Educational Writer and Consultant. What’s that? – you may ask. Well, let me try to explain, I freelance, which means you’ll mostly find me at home all day juggling various national and international collaborative online educational projects; mainly developing Indonesian language and cultural educational resources.
My writing projects include; text books, e-books, teacher professional learning modules, curriculum designs, learning sequences, blog posts… and there’s fun stuff too like writing; stories, folktales, poems, scripts and songs. I guess you could say; I LOVE to write!
My biggest obsession: Traveling to Indonesia…and my wish is to visit all of the 18,000 islands! Yes, you heard me! I love exploring the more remote islands of Indonesia…my love for ‘the road less travelled’.
Aside from my passion for all things Indonesian, I also like travelling, swimming, drinking coffee, long walks on the beach, photography and making art; drawing, painting and my absolute love – making mosaic from recycled materials.
To find out more about my personal journey with Indonesia, feel free to read my first blog post, here: ‘Beginnings of my Journey‘.
You can read all About the blog here.
Anyway, that’s enough about me; I’d love you to join me, as I share my:
Indonesian Inspired Journey through … Language – Travel – Art – and a whole lot of other ramblings.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Cheers,
Jules xxx