Random Thoughts

Seeing someone wear skin colored leggings as pants (which is just never ok, really, they are NOT pants.) with a jilbab (Indonesians use this word for headscarf) is a strange thing to see. Not saying you can’t do it… but looking 100% naked from the waist down seems to compete with the modesty of the jilbab in my opinion.

Buying stamps is expensive. Buying 200 stamps is really expensive.

I went 20 days without being called “mister.” Note: not an insult. A lot of times Indonesians will learn the word mister but not misses. So they mean it in a nice, respectful way.

In my opinion, if sparks are literally flying you shouldn’t be wearing slippahs (flip-flops for non-islanders).

I am getting better at dealing with my own issues with wanting things to happen quickly aka right away. Living in Hawaii for many years has helped with this. Kind of.

People here are very nice and, so far, don’t get frustrated with me when I can’t remember something and have to take a second to think of a different way to say it.

I’m starting to hate packing.

I really miss my Mr. Sunshine Kitty. I need some cat cuddles.

I cannot handle the nasal drip anymore. I wonder if I take enough benadryl if I’ll turn pink like a flamingo. Like that episode of Scrubs where the guy was orange.

 

Ok. Random thoughts out of my head and I feel better. Now to take on the next couple of days. Moving, unpacking, taking on that whole motorbike thing, printing out a bazillion (or 150) questionnaires, addressing 150 envelopes unless I can find somewhere that prints labels, a meeting or two, and off to the Festival Dalang Wanita 2014 in Solo!

Can’t wait for this festival. I am so darn excited. Hooray!

XOXO.

Culturally Awkward Ninja

That title is even culturally awkward isn’t it? Aw well… I’m not changing it. It’s part of who I am. Being as awkward as a giraffe in heels and a scuba mask. You’re picturing that now aren’t you? You’re welcome.

Anyways, as you can imagine moving across the world to a completely different country where they don’t speak your native language is just riddled with cultural land mines. I mean even moving to the UK where they speak, roughly, the same language would be a cultural kick in the arse. Now there are a lot of similar aspects culturally to Hawaii here. Time moves similarly. I think it has something to do with living the heat. You move slower when it’s this hot and most everyone finds that perfectly acceptable. It is understood. However, there are things here that I am slowly learning. I can read about cultural norms all I want but it is different to experience it. I had a taste of it when I lived in Salatiga but that really was only a small bite. Living here by yourself is a smorgasbord. Slang for one is a big issue for me. Slang is constantly evolving and as an outsider it just seems like a completely different language I have to learn. Greeting people is different here. Normally a handshake does well but it is an interesting game to guess how people are going to greet you. Driving on the left side of the road… well ya you can guess how that one is difficult. Here is hoping when I get back to Hawaii and get in RuPaul (the name of my car you creepers) I don’t head down H1 on the wrong side of the road. Not that it could make traffic any worse…

My point is here my mind is swirling. Maybe if I cared less my brain matter wouldn’t look like a Van Gogh sky but I do care and it does swirl. I don’t want to upset or insult anyone. From the taxi driver taking me to my destination or the professor who is helping me at my destination. So that is why I act a bit askew sometimes. Like the aforementioned awkward giraffe. So this is why sometimes I curtsy in restaurants. Yes you read that correctly. As some of you know I recently went to an establishment I enjoy to get some spicy tofu. As I was leaving I said thank you (in Indonesian) and did a cute lil’ curtsy. Why? I don’t know! I just don’t. Who does that? In Indonesia? I curtsied. Sigh. I then twirled around and walked away quickly. Maybe they didn’t notice? Ya… the entire restaurant didn’t notice the giant white girl they had been staring at half the time. Oh well. I was the strange girl when I walked in and I sure was the strange girl when I curtsied my way out of there. Ce la vie.

Motorbikes. That is another thing I’d like to talk about. Yes, we have them in Hawaii. We DO NOT have them like they have them here. They own the road. They by far outnumber the cars and there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. Also, mopeds in Hawaii follow strict laws or they get pulled over, right? Right. Here… I know there are laws and regulations for riding your motorbike. I don’t know all of them yet but by just watching them you couldn’t tell. It looks like this massive sprawl of motorbikes weaving every direction with no rhyme or reason. Similar to a mosh pit. Yet it works. Seems to work just as well as Hawaii if not better. Still scares the crap out of me though. However, less now. My first time here I didn’t really enjoy being on the back of a motorbike. After yesterday and today I am starting to really like it. It feels freeing. So hopefully that will transfer to when I’m actually in control of a bike. On Friday. Lessons are coming with the bike. Well, I was told there would be help. I’ll be fine. I think.

A fun thing happened today while I was out buying a backpack, the one I had in the states had had the full Manoa/Diamond Head/Maunawili experience and was falling apart, two girls stopped me and asked “Excuse me misses do you have a free moment?” They were two young high school girls who were interviewing tourists for their English class. How brave is that? They were pretty shy yet still able to grab my attention and ask me if they could interview me. I of course said yes. Who am I to deny a strange person in a public place asking for an interview? I mean I need to put strange people asking for interviews in public ju ju out there! So I said yes and spoke to them in Indonesian for a quick second and then they interviewed me in English for 3 minutes each. Yes, they both asked the same questions so I answered them twice but they were very sweet and even professional. Made my day. They even took me up to the backpack store they knew so I could get one. Then they were off to find more foreigners. I really hope they found some more nice people to talk to and that they get fabulous grades. My favorite question they asked was if I thought modern clothing styles had influenced dress in Indonesia. Note: all three of us were wearing skinny jeans. My answer was yes, obviously.

Today I also met with a very sweet girl who is going to be my translator for the upcoming festival I am going to. She speaks English just as well if not better than me, is adorable, and is writing her undergraduate thesis about gamelan. So it is just a lovely match. I’m so happy to have her working with me. She says she doesn’t want payment but she is taking payment darn it. She is wonderful and deserves it. I’m so glad to have her help me with this. It makes me feel so much more relaxed. My Indonesian is coming back in strange chunks. I always think I have a handle on a language until you drop me in that country. Then is takes its time to become natural again. This time it’s very odd. I don’t know if it’s the “brain fog” or what but the chunks are strange. However, there are chunks and they are growing. Things are moving forward and going well. I feel really great about this.

I’ve had a few landmark moments since I’ve been here. The first time someone actually spoke Indonesian to me the whole conversation instead of starting out in English because I was obviously not Indonesian, the first time I made it through a whole conversation without really thinking, the first time I felt really happy, but this one is the most important. I feel secure in my research right now. I know there will be ups and downs but this is incredibly motivating. No matter how lost I may feel later that can’t take away how secure I feel now. Plus I know now that I will feel secure again even if I do stumble and fall. Ah good feelings. I like good feelings.

Now to just not curtsy at this event…

Duck, Duck, Work.

I had a somewhat productive day today. Minus the late start. I woke up when my breakfast was delivered but ended up taking a nap. I feel so much better after I got those pills from the doctor but I am still a bit worn down. Several days of not sleeping well thanks to the phlegm titanic crashing into my throat and the screaming child that was here for a few days can take it out of a girl. So after my nap I did get up, shower, and head off to a coffee shop to take advantage of the faster wifi so I could download some videos off my cloud while I read with a hot drink. Two of those things happened… When I got to J.Co I realized that I had not uploaded the documents I wanted to read to the cloud like I wanted. Oh well.

Instead I did download two videos to watch this evening before I go to bed, emailed some people to hopefully set up meetings, searched for some articles, found a few news articles, and translated some small things. Let me tell you, emailing people to set up meetings makes me nervous. I’m not sure why. The worst thing that could happen is they say no. Then I could email someone else. I sure don’t ever want them to say no though. Also, I know there is a festival coming up I want to go to and I spent most of the day trying to find more information about it. I felt like Nancy Drew searching down Carmen Sandiego. I know where it is, the time, and one performer but I would like to know more. Doesn’t seem to be out there. Guess I will just be surprised.

After a few hours in the coffee shop the youths seemed to be out and about and smoking up a storm. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to smoking inside. It just sits. Doesn’t go anywhere. Not my favorite. So I finished up my green tea latte and headed out to grab a taxi. Sometime soon I will have my own motorbike but for a few more days it is taxi time. I got home and sat for a bit, had some bottled water, and handled some business before heading out for some dinner.

Mmmm duck.

Tonight I walked down a bit to a restaurant named “Quack Quack.” Guess what the specialize in? Pork. No just kidding, it’s duck. It was good duck too. I got a fried duck leg, white rice, some sambal, and some veggies. The duck was great. Very crispy. I will be back to try the other duck plates. Especially since the whole meal, including my coke, was 20,000 rupiah ($1.70). I see some more duck in my future. As I was paying for dinner the cashier lady informed me that the cook wanted to take a photo with me. A lot of the time I don’t really want people taking my photo. It happens so often that eventually you get a little sick of it. However, in this case the food was really good and I knew I wanted to come back. So what the hell. Plus there are probably more pictures of me floating around than I can count. From the “No, I’m toooooootally not taking a photo of you foreign lady” pics people take of me when I’m just sitting or walking around. After that I walked my foreign self home. Then I saw a martabak stand setting up on my way back from my early dinner. That is also in my future now that I know it is there and about when it’ll be ready. Martabak is a popular street food in Indonesia. It is a type of pancake. So yes, gluteny. So I’ll have to get it on a day I feel good and can take a bit of gluten. It’ll be worth it. This stand looked really good.

Now I am sitting in my apartment resting. I don’t want to push it. Meetings on Monday. Can’t be sick. Maybe some reading before I watch a video.

Night night.

Another day.

Today was the day of walking in a circle and spending money in said circle. Last night was rather rough. My throat felt like it was exploding. I’ve never had a sore throat like this. It felt like my throat couldn’t move. Like it was made of stone. Stone that could magically feel pain and was coated in phlegm. So that’s fun.  Then I had to sleep at a specific angle so I could you know… breathe and not choke. Those are two of my favorite things really and I like continuing to do them. After falling asleep I ended up waking up 2 and a half hours before my alarm because my new neighbors have a “special” little child. I thought the loud German guys were a bit of a pain. This kid running around at 6am screaming like a crazy person is much more of a pain. She was having fun. I was not. We will see how tomorrow goes.

I did end up eventually falling back asleep for a bit of a nap but because of that I ended up waking up, getting ready, and eating breakfast way later than I had originally planned. So at about 1pm I asked the front desk folks, who are very nice, about the doctor they had listed in their info book. They told me where it was and that I could just walk in, no appointment needed. So I headed out on the supposedly 5 minute walk. It was 10 but that was ok. When I got there I was told that the doctor only works 2 hours a day at that office and he would be in at 3. So my longer than expected nap was a blessing in disguise. It was 2 o’clock at this point so I went down the street to a Taiwanese dessert place and had a nice tea drink with tapioca pearls while I waited. I then headed back to Apotek K-24 right before 3. I was then number 2 in line to see the doctor. At 3:40 the doctor finally showed up. Didn’t seem to be a big deal at the apotek so I imagine that is normal. Now please note I was and am sick so I was and am very cranky. I didn’t show it but I believe if you’re only somewhere for two hours you shouldn’t be 40 minutes late. The doctor was able to see all 3 people that were there before he checked out, good thing there were not more waiting. He was incredibly nice though. He even broke down what was in each of the pills he was prescribing. So even being 40 minutes late I still say I’d recommend Doctor Paulus. He was kind, informed me of everything that was going on with my throat, was very funny and nice during the blackout that happened when it started to rain, and the whole shebang cost me 325,000 rupiah. That is about $28.50. For the doctor visit and both medications. The last pills I tried to purchase in the US, during the brief period I was insuranceless, were priced at $669.  No, I didn’t mess that up. Six hundred and sixty nine freakin’ dollars. Not including the doctors visit. Which was also very expensive. Sigh.

After the doctors I continued my circle walk. I went to grab some more money and then hit up a restaurant I know and like that was on the way back round the circle. I had some spicy tongseng jamur. A spicy curry-like dish sometimes made with goat but made with mushrooms in this version. It was very delicious. Give it a try if you see it somewhere.

That is about it for my day. I did stop by the store to pick up some snacks for later because I knew I wouldn’t want to go out again. Walking around took it out of me today. Stupid throat infection. Maybe after another night of good sleep + these pills will  make me feel much better tomorrow. At least I’m no longer contagious. Who wants to share some silverware? A straw? Let me lick your face? No? No takers? Fine. Your loss, bub.

 

Tootles, peeps. Hopefully no more “woe is me I’m sick” posts after this one.

Time to get down to business.

 

Gado Gado for the Win.

I had been here far too long to not have had my favorite Indonesian meal, gado-gado. So even thought I currently have more phlegm than Phlegm Mountain in Phlegmville, Phlegmtonia (seriously, it’s a lot of phlegm) I got myself off my butt and adventured out today.

Run!

Sidebar: Before you freak out (I’m lookin’ at you Momma and Grandma) I am going to the doctor tomorrow. The sore throat seems to not be allergies to pollution anymore. It is a different sore throat than I’ve ever had. So it is doctor time. If only it was The Doctor. If David Tennant is at the doctors office tomorrow I am not coming back. Ever. Sorry.  Don’t worry though, he can travel through time and space so it’s all good.

Back to food. I decided to look up a little place I had heard about that had decent food at nice prices. Surprisingly it’s in a bit of a touristy area and still has reasonable prices. It had good reviews and it is in an area of Jogja I don’t really go to so I figured what the hey. This time, the first weeks, are for me to rediscover Jogja and get to know the city. I should go all about. Even touristy areas. And for food? I’ll go pretty much anywhere. So I packed up my stuff, got a taxi, and headed out. The taxi driver I had this afternoon was just such a gem. It was the first time since I’ve been back that I had a full blown conversation with someone without really thinking about it. I needed that. He was just so nice and so much fun. I even wished for a longer taxi ride. When we got to the street he didn’t know the exact restaurant but he was determined to find it for me. Eventually we found it. He didn’t have exact change and offered to get out to ask the restaurant if they had change because he wanted to give me correct change. I said, no bub… you keep that extra change. He earned that 5,000 rupiah. Just by being so concerned about getting it to me, really. Could he have been playin me for an extra bill? Maybe, but you shut your mouth I choose to believe in him, you jerk!

Give me food.

Anywaaaays, I did eventually make it to Warung Heru. Obviously a touristy place because the whole menu is in English. I’ve heard people get all huffy when they travel about how they *huff* would never *huff* eat in such a touristy place. So before you say anything, I’m just not that hoity. I will eat wherever the food is good and the people are kind. Touristy location or not. And the food was good and the people were incredibly kind so boom. My gado-gado was so tasty. Normally I like the peanut sauce a bit thicker but it was so tasty I didn’t care. It was a nice amount of spice and the hot lemonade I ordered after my meal was the perfect combo to battle the phlegm. For those of you who don’t know gado-gado is an Indonesian “salad.” I use the quotes because a lot of people have told me they don’t see it as a salad but that is how it is always described to me. So deal. It is a mix of boiled veggies (aka safe for my poor tummy to eat because they aren’t raw aka washed with unboiled water) with a peanut sauce that I dream about. Common elements are also egg, tofu, and/or shrimp chips. It made me so happy. The right size, the right amount of spice for today (I could go spicier but for a nice relaxing lunch it was perfect), and the right price. It was a good amount of food for 25,000 rupiah. That converts to $2.18 USD. The women who were working the joint were also incredibly sweet. The owner, Ibu Wahyu, sat down when I was done to talk to me for a while since I spoke Indonesian. I forgot a couple words but most of it came out well.  Made me very happy to chat with her. It might have been because my Indonesian was coming back quicker or because she told me I was pretty 5 times in our 20 minute convo. Must have been the Indonesian. Ya. That’s it. We talked about Indonesia, how long I would be here, her son who is in a popular band I guess, and Hawaii. One woman was wearing a straight up Aloha shirt and the warung is next to an Aloha Hotel. I meant to take a picture but I was in a peanut sauce daze. When it was time to go Ibu Wayhu asked if I wanted her to call me a taxi and I said no I wanted to walk around a bit. Probably because I was just feeling so darn happy. I really felt happy today. Not that I haven’t been happy since I landed in Indonesia but today something just clicked. Despite the throat issues I am feeling happy.

Bask in the glory that is gado-gado.

So I walked down the road and got distracted by an antique store. It was a beautiful, beautiful store. Filled with old wayang golek puppets, typewriters, masks, tea sets, fascinating dutch safes, beds, chairs, pipes, looking glasses, just everything. The prices were a bit more than I was willing to pay otherwise I might have walked out with a dutch book of Charles Dickens’ stories from the early 1900s. Why? Because it was beautiful. The sales girl was also really nice. Talked to me about what I was doing there, why, etc. etc. She was cute. Then I walked a bit more and finally grabbed a taxi because the sky started to get taken over by dark swirling clouds.

This taxi driver was also really nice. He talked to me a lot in the taxi as well. Mostly about how I was probably not going to make it to the Ramayana Ballet than evening because it looked like rain. I agreed. We were right. It started to sprinkle on the way home and there was thunder by the time I hit my room. It was nice to listen to the rain and I will be here a year. I can catch the Ramayana Ballet at Prambanan Temple another day. Plus I was feeling a bit run down even after this short trip. I ended up settling down in my room and doing a little work and watching some American TV with Indonesian subtitles.

A photo from yogyes.com showing the temple in the background and the ballet.

Watching TV here is interesting. Reading the subtitles and hearing the actual words is a trip. Let’s just say they are not always translated 100% correctly. After some reading and TV watching is when I realized that I might for real have a throat issue and should go to the doctor. I was pooped and the pain isn’t going away. So I decided to order some soup from a Chinese place down the street. This was not so successful. The soup smelled like vomit I’ve had in the past. Probably because I had had something similar before I got sick last time I got really sick. So I did not eat it. I did, however, end up spilling a bunch of it on my bathroom floor. That was sure fun. Potato crackers (love crackers made with potato flour) and water for my dinner. The interwebs says crackers are good for phlegm because it gets it out of your throat. I call bologna.

So… now that I have started and ended this post with phlegm, you’re welcome, I think it is time for me to hit the hay. I had no idea it was already 11:30. Time flies when you’re trying to hydrate.

Goodnight, my loves.

Sakit.

I always feel a little weak when I travel. It takes a lot out of me. My stomach got hit hard my second day in Yogyakarta. So much so I didn’t leave the room and ordered soup to be sent up to me. I thought I made it go away. Maybe I did… however today something is back with a furry. I feel like crap. I hate that. I hate being sick at home but I at least know I can call someone if it gets really bad. I don’t have anyone to call here. Yogyakarta is my home base because its equidistant from people I know and need to work with but I don’t actually really know anyone in the city. I slept most of the day, ordered some soup from a restaurant near here, and have taken some advil and throat meds. My muscles hurt, stomach is a bit icky, and my throat is killing me. Hopefully I can make it to the apotek (pharmacy) tomorrow and get something more specific. I was going to do some reading today and that didn’t happen so hopefully those new pills will make me feel a bit better and I can get that done tomorrow evening.

Stupid immune system. Hopefully this is the last of it? Please.

Made it.

Well, friends and family, I have made it to Yogyakarta. The flight from Jakarta was uneventful, thankfully. I’m always a fan of short flights with nothing to report on.

So I said I’d share a bit about my thoughts on Jakarta and the things I did while I was there. I have had a bit more sleep so hopefully these next few blog entries make a bit more sense. Jakarta is an interesting city. Very crowded, very busy, very loud, very polluted. It definitely had a different vibe from Yogyakarta or Salatiga. I didn’t dislike it. However, I knew after landing in Yogyakarta and driving through the city that this will always be my Indonesia. Central Java. I just adore it. But back to Jakarta…

Kota Tua di Jakarta

One of my favorite puppets from the museum.

Jakarta is hot. Very hot. Sweat dripping down your face in a matter of minutes hot. So I don’t know if the wayang museum had a lot of patrons because they were interested in wayang or because it was air conditioned. Either way there were a lot of people in the museum. A lot of young people too. So that was at least good to see. What wasn’t good to see was the condition the puppets were in. While air conditioned it was definitely not temperature controlled and the cases were not air tight either. There were dead bugs and a lot of dust in the display cases. The puppets weren’t in great condition either. I’m not sure if they were obtained in poor condition or because of the conditions they are kept in they have deteriorated. I am used to American/British museums so I also wished the puppets had more information on their id cards. I was hoping for approximate date created, date acquired, where they were from, etc. Pak Will said it has improved over the past few years so hopefully it keeps improving and more and more puppets are added to the collection. There was a dalang performing at the end of the museum. Which was nice to see. Pak Will said it was the first performance he has seen at the museum in a long time. So good things are happening.

We then took a short drive to look at the shipyard and after to a very old beautiful house where there was an art auction happening. We just stopped in to see it. They were auctioning off some ming vases for around $200 USD. So… anyone want a ming vase? Then I went home and then off to Starbucks with Anna as I mentioned before. We picked up food after Starbucks and headed back to the hotel. Where I downed a lot of the food and then hit the hay hard. I was feeling a bit off. I don’t think my sinuses or my head were very fond of the pollution in Jakarta. If I was staying there long I would have to really invest in some top notch allergy pills. Salatiga and Yogyakarta never seemed to bother me so we will see how it goes this time around.

Entrance to the Phoenix

I’m now sitting in my hotel room in Yogya relaxing. I thought about going out tonight and doing a bunch of stuff but I’m not sure. Even though I’m supposed to be keeping gluten out of my diet since it irritates my fibromyalgia I really do think some Nanamia is in my future. HELLO PIZZA REUNION. It is just so good. I can taste the joy already. Plus I have a meeting set up for tomorrow so I don’t want to get too tired since I’m already a bit worn down from the past week. So some pizza, some relaxing, and some HBO maybe? My LOGOTV app was working in Jakarta but now it wont let me load the new episode of Drag Race. GRR! I do love my RuPaul and I’d like my fix please. Which means I’m not caught up… so NO spoilers, everyone!

Well, I guess now you want to see how great the hotel is? I am still incredibly pleased with the deal I found on Orbitz. I am getting a steal of a deal for my two days here. Kind of pricey for here. Cheap cheap cheap for the US aka $40 a night. Compare that to $16-30ish (which includes breakfast) a night for the hotel that is attached to my new apartment. You could also compare that to the regular price of this hotel which is $95ish a night from the hotel website and $79 is the cheapest rate on TripAdvisor right now. So win for me.

Here ya go. Picture time.

My room with my balcony.

The fancy shower.

The staircase up to my room. I could take the elevator but why?

The stunning courtyard.

 

Ta-ta for now.

Jakarta

Sorry for the delayed posting. The wifi in my hotel room here in Jakarta isn’t the best. It will allow me to check mail and facebook, which are both rather important, however it wont allow me to load photos to facebook or instagram and the wordpress site also seems to be too much for it. So that’s that. I’m now sitting with Anna in the Starbucks at the Grand Jakarta mall. We are getting work done and avoiding nap time with coffee. Who is Anna? Oh Anna is the wonderful and amazingly sweet wife of Brad. Brad is a Fulbright-Hays recipient who, funny enough, was on my flight from Narita to Jakarta. All of the Fulbright students/scholars are put up in the Cemara Hotel while they are doing paperwork so we ran into each other Friday morning during breakfast at the hotel. Let’s start from there-ish.
So my flight from Narita to Tokyo was uneventful. I landed, got my luggage, grabbed a taxi I felt was safe (even though I couldn’t find the Blue Bird stand *gasp*), and got to the hotel very late. 1:30am late. I checked in, got a packet of information from Fulbright/AMINEF, unpacked just enough so I wouldn’t be groggy and trying to find things in the morning, and then hit the hay and hit it hard. Luckily my meeting Friday morning was moved from 8:30am to 10am. Thank the new and old gods for that. So I woke up at 8ish and jumped in the shower of evil. If you turn on the hot water even a smidgen it reaches 1000 degrees F instantly. So you move the hot tab 1/2 a centimeter and the cold water tab all the way over to have a really warm shower. This is what I get for worrying about hot water in Indonesia. Then I headed down to the free breakfast to grab some nasi goreng (Indonesian style fried rice) and fried sausage. In the middle of breakfast a nice gentleman (white, so the odds were good he was not from Indonesia. Just stating facts here, no one get upset) came up and introduced himself to me and asked if I was also a Fulbright student. I guess he had seen both our info packets at the front desk when he checked in. I’m incredibly glad that he did, by the way. This gentleman’s name is Brad and his wife’s name is Anna. They are amazingly sweet and have made my time in Jakarta so much better. They also have an adorable daughter who is just so darn cute and who I remember from the plane because she wanted her Minnie Mouse before the plane took off. After a few short introductions I realized a nice gentleman was looking at me strangely in the lobby. I then realized this was probably Rizqi because it was close to 9:30 and we should probably get on our way to AMINEF.

AMINEF front desk

I met Rizqi, who is just as cute as a button and very helpful, and we headed off to the AMINEF office for my meeting with Pak Will and Bu Astrid. Pak Will is the interim head of the program for the next 6 months and is a very kind individual. We spoke a little bit about my research in the meeting and about some things Fulbright did well and if there were anything I thought they could improve on since they are continuously trying to better themselves. Which is always fantastic to hear. There will always be some issues that can’t be immediately fixed with visas and working with the governments of two countries, of course, but it is reassuring to know that Pak Will seems honestly invested in always striving towards efficiency.
After the meeting I met up with Rizqi again to head off to several agencies to hand in paperwork, fill out a few forms, etc. etc. However, we did get caught in infamous Jakarta traffic (Think Honolulu or LA x 5) and ended up having to take our lunch before the first stop because the office would be shut down for Friday prayer. I got some great chicken soup. Which started outa bit bland so like an idiot I poured in some green sambal. Which, thankfully, was just the right amount to make my eyes water just a little bit. So perfect basically. If I had added in another spoonful like I wanted initially it would have been far too hot. Welcome to Indonesia, Kristina. We then continued on to several offices where I was told things went VERY fast. I was reassured later by other people that it did indeed go surprisingly fast. I made it to all three stops Friday even with bad traffic.

Downpour!

The traffic was especially bad because of the massive downpour we had right after police headquarters. I mean it created rivers of water in only a few minutes. Which, as anyone who drives knows, created even worse traffic on the way home. So bad that Risqi asked if it was ok if he was dropped off at the AMINEF office because it might closed before he gets back and all his belongings were in the office. I of course said yes and he apologized many times (which was unneeded but very polite) and he hopped out at AMINEF and gave me some rupiah for the taxi and I hurried my way to the hotel. I was soaking wet from waiting for a taxi outside police headquarters and still dripping when I got back to the hotel so the very first thing I did was take a scary hot shower. This time, however, the heat was a very good thing. After I dried off I decided it might be alright to take a nap. I did not take a nap. I passed out. I, being the over prepared person I am, set an alarm for an hour after I fell asleep and for 9am. Thank goodness because while I woke up at the first alarm I sure did turn it off with out really realizing it.

Mini river after the downpour

So at 9am on Saturday I popped out of bed and jumped into the scary shower of heat. The paper in my room said breakfast was served till 11 so I figured I had plenty of time to get ready and head down there. Even with the early bed time I figured I had earned sleeping in after my first two days of travel and such. However, when I made my way down to breakfast I noticed they were clearing everything away at 10:30. What I also noticed was Anna, Brad, and the little one sitting in the hotel lobby. Apparently Brad had missed breakfast too and they were planning on heading down to Starbucks, which is right down the street, for some coffee and a bit of a snack. They were also planning on getting their phones set up at a mall they knew and invited me to come along. Bless them. So we walked over to Starbucks and grabbed some goodies and then took a taxi over to the mall with tons of little phone stalls.
My first attempt at buying a phone didn’t go swimmingly. I wanted a used phone because it was a bit cheaper and I simply don’t mind having a second hand phone. My only real concern was having a phone with a real keyboard because texting is huge here and last time I got sick of the non-keyboard style of phone texting. It drove me nuts. However, the blackberry (rather popular here) I chose apparently had massive amounts of stuff on it and it was taking forever to clear off. Why they don’t do it before hand I don’t know, but that really isn’t important. So eventually they said they would just give me a deal on a new phone but it would have to be pink or red. Which means I am now in possession of a new, very pink blackberry. I already appreciate the keyboard by the by. I am a fan of the keyboard. Then after the phone I went back to the hotel to charge it and set it up. I then started to feel really not well. I think everything caught up with me. So I decided to grab some snacks from the Circle K across the way and stay in for dinner. Another early bed time and some nyquil were in my future.

My new very pink phone.

Sunday began with actually making breakfast and eating a whole bunch of some “smoked beef” which tasted like beef bacon. After breakfast I just stayed in the hotel and read since I had plans at noon to meet up with Pak Will and go to the Wayang Museum. It was so nice of him to offer to take me. Mostly because it allowed me some time to talk more about my grant and to have someone who has lived in Jakarta for 20 or so years show me around. He pointed out landmarks and government buildings and talked about the city in general. Some other perks were the air-conditioned car with driver and the trips to the ship yard and art auction. I’m still trying to compile my thoughts about the Wayang Museum, the Dutch area of Jakarta, etc. So those will be shared with you on another date. Also maybe pictures next time. When I got back from the day out I texted Anna as I mentioned and headed out shortly after that. So I did not have time to load any photos from today. So you all must wait till tomorrow or possibly Tuesday when I am in Jogjakarta.
Now I am going to finish my tea, head out to pick up food, and head back to the hotel. The little one may sick so Anna may be bringing home food and I might follow suit. I’m exhausted. Happy to be here but very exhausted. The travel, the in and out of offices, the up down of stairs, the heat, and the pollution will really get to a girl.

Bye Bye!

That was an adventure…

Well. I sure can’t say that today wasn’t interesting. So here we go with the story. Due to some confusion on my part which resulted in delays on my end and some delays on FedEx’s part my passport with my year long visa was scheduled to reach me on Tuesday. ONE DAY before my flight left. Talk about cutting it close… except that it did not make it on the flight to arrive Tuesday. So I got to plan the fun adventure of picking it up at the sort facility by the airport on my way to check in for my flight. When I first called about this the lady who spoke to me was great. She was helpful, pleasant, knowledgable, and even a bit cheeky. All the good things you need. However, she couldn’t do anything to help me until the next scan happened on my FedEx envelope. So she told me what to do when I called back. That is where the trouble began. I then called back as instructed I spoke to a gentleman who had, to put it nicely, zero idea what he was doing. Just no clue. So I asked to speak to someone else. The woman who answered, Isabel, sounded like she knew what was going on and was attempting to be helpful and offered to call me even when my passport landed in Hawaii so I knew right when I could go pick it up. HOWEVER, I don’t know what this lady was looking at but when she called me at 4am to tell me my passport didn’t make it on the plane and I should reschedule my flights I was shaking I was so upset. I started to freak out and email my reps in Indonesia to see what my options were. A cooler head eventually prevailed and I decided I needed to call FedEx back and speak to someone different. Again. Which I did. The woman (If you’ve lost count that’s the 3rd person now) she assessed the situation and sent me over to #4 at the customer advocate center. #4, who is also called Victoria, was super helpful. Located my package and told me it did indeed make it on the plane and I would be able to pick it up on the way to the airport. She even set it up so I could pick it up 30 minutes before the facility opened to make sure I wasn’t late for my check in. By this time it was 6:30am. Victoria was great. Worth being woken up at 4am and being told to reschedule my flights? Hell no, but still she was great. I then scooped up my passport, dropped off my rental car (my car, RuPaul, is in storage), and headed to HNL so I could get on my flight to Narita. It was an ok flight. The first flight I’ve been on in a very long time that didn’t have personal TV sets. Throwback. My section was almost empty so I got to spread out a bit which was nice and I was also apparently sitting in the “we are flying to Jakarta” section. So I talked to the guy from Brazil next to me about Indonesia and surfing for a while. Then I watched Psych and Sherlock, had a nap, and studied up on some language skills. I now sit in the fancy Untied Lounge at the Narita airport. Bless you, free one time pass to the lounge. Hello free wifi and food! I know I shouldn’t have gluten… but I already hurt from the stress this morning so I said “eh, I’m already in it” and had a tiny green tea cake. Worth it. I’ll be here for another 3 1/2 hours and then onto Jakarta. I’ll land at 11:30pm, grab my luggage, hop in a cab, and hopefully fall right asleep when I get in my hotel room. I have to be up and ready by 8am for meetings tomorrow. That’ll be interesting. Guess it’s hit the ground running time. But for now? Now it is free sushi time.

Me in the Narita United Lounge. I look sleepy.

Bye!