Protractor functions not running (I've looked through configs, logs, etc.)

Question

I'll describe the problem best as I can - if I've left out details, please tell me - I'm still learning about Protractor.

I'm writing my first protractor test for a website, and its contents are really simple.

teacher.js

describe("teacher list", function () {
  beforeEach(function () {
    browser.get('http://127.0.0.1:9000/teachers');
  });
  it("has teacher", function () {
    initiateDebug();
    var teachers = element.all(by.repeater("teacher in items track by $index"));
    initiateDebug();
    expect(teachers.count()).toBe(20);
    initiateDebug();
  })
});

...where initiateDebug() is a function defined in the onPrepare function in protractor_conf.js as follows:

initiateDebug()

global.initiateDebug = function() {
    browser.pause(debugPortNumber);
    debugPortNumber++;
};

The reason I included this was because calling browser.pause() results in the error:

Port 5858 is already in use. Please specify another port to debug.
[launcher] Process exited with error code 1

and I copied a temp fix proposed by a member in this issue's thread: https://github.com/angular/protractor/issues/2206.

Back to the problem

Question 1

If I run this code, the page just hangs there, and nothing loads. Googling came up with this (Getting error: Error while waiting for Protractor to sync with the page: {}), and I directly used browser.driver.get() and that seems like a workable solution.

However, my first question is - is this a case of it not being able to find angular? Because I distinctly remember that when I ran Protractor a week before, if it couldn't find Angular, it throws this error:

UnknownError: javascript error: angular is not defined

The error from my console, however, is this:

1) teacher list has teacher
  Message:
    Error: Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within timeout specified by jasmine.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL.
  Stack:
    Error: Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within timeout specified by jasmine.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL.
        at [object Object]._onTimeout (/Users/Baggio/project/project_bugs/node_modules/jasmine-core/lib/jasmine-core/jasmine.js:1812:23)

Question: Is the fact that this error is thrown because the page is forever stuck loading, and the async call never runs? Or could it be that angular doesn't load? Or is it something else?

I'm quite sure protractor loads because I outputted it in the console, it it enumerates all of the object properties.

And as an extension of question 1, here's the next question I don't understand.

Question 2

If I try running this test with browser.driver.get(), I get the exact same error message:

1) teacher list has teacher
  Message:
    Error: Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within timeout specified by jasmine.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL.
  Stack:
    Error: Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within timeout specified by jasmine.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL.
        at [object Object]._onTimeout (/Users/Baggio/project/project_bugs/node_modules/jasmine-core/lib/jasmine-core/jasmine.js:1812:23)

So it shouldn't have anything to do with the page loading or not.

What I tried

I tried, after calling initiateDebug() in interactive debug mode (entering the exact same line proceeding the first breakpoint, and I got this:

wd-debug> repl
> element.all(by.repeater("teacher in items track by $index"))
A Jasmine spec timed out. Resetting the WebDriver Control Flow.
A Jasmine spec timed out. Resetting the WebDriver Control Flow.
F

If I read this correct (https://github.com/angular/protractor/blob/master/docs/debugging.md), entering a protractor command should yield something, but here, it just resumed the control flow outside debug mode, failing the Jasmine spec.

I'll present the relevant code here that:

The html the element.all line is supposed to grab from

<section ng-if="staFlag" class="teacher-item yes-cursor cursor-over" ng-repeat="teacher in items track by $index">

Question 2: Why does Protractor fail here?

Question 3

What I've tried as well - thinking that this is a case where Protractor might not be able to find Angular, defining the rootElement property in protractor_conf.js, (adding ng-app='kp' in the root html file, and rootElement: 'html' in the config file) but it returns yet the exact same error message:

1) teacher list has teacher
  Message:
    Error: Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within timeout specified by jasmine.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL.
  Stack:
    Error: Timeout - Async callback was not invoked within timeout specified by jasmine.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL.
        at [object Object]._onTimeout (/Users/Baggio/project/project_bugs/node_modules/jasmine-core/lib/jasmine-core/jasmine.js:1812:23)
  Message:

Thought 3: Can this effectively prove that this isn't a problem where Protractor can't find Angualr?

Additional information

I have to run this test on the same server where the website is running locally, because for some reason if this starts on a different server, the website doesn't work at all. By "doesn't work", I mean: the page loads correctly, but all bits that require data to be fetched from the backend via Restangular don't show.

Short version question

What exactly is preventing this Protractor test from running correctly? I think I'm missing something very obvious - but I've been looking at this for hours and I haven't come up with any ideas.

I'd really appreciate pointers to the right direction, or a solution if possible - thank you very much.