Farewell, Andrea

Expat friends are the best.  They become family because most of us have no relatives within 10,000 miles and we rely on one another to get through this crazy life.  Which makes it a million times harder to say goodbye when one of them has to move on.

Andrea was the second person I met in Jakarta and I started going to her boot camp my first full week here.  I have seen her probably every single week since then and our schedules slowly lined up so much that we were eventually meeting every day for a workout, golf, tennis, or lunch.  So when we found out she was moving sooner than expected, the news hit really hard.  We were happy to get 10 more days with her while she was in town packing up her house and closing up her life here in Jakarta.

Pam and I planned a dinner at her favorite restaurant, Komunal 88.  The owner knew her family and left the sweetest note on the table.

They did a really lovely job of setting up everything for the ladies.

We had a wonderful evening talking and laughing and celebrating our friendships.

Cheers to Andrea!

  

We also managed to squeeze in some spa time, several dinners, and one last plate of chicken wings from the American club.

Pokeeno nights are going to be particularly quiet with Andrea's laugh and energy.  We had one final evening together to enjoy before she becomes one more Pokeeno legend who has moved on.

As much as I'm going to miss her, I wish her family all the best in their new home!  There will be no replacing her as my every day friend, but I'm grateful for all these other sweet women here and their friendships as well.

Roemah Djawa

Our friends Pam and Brice hosted a dinner for 20 at a local home that is better than any museum in Jakarta.  We were so excited for a tour and dinner together!  The owners have been traveling around Indonesia and Asia for the past 45 years and have amassed an incredible collection in their home.  They spent the first 90 minutes walking us through the incredible home (which is actually 5 traditional houses joined together) so we could soak in the sights.  Some rooms had specific themes (like this Chinese guest bedroom) and some were from specific islands of Indonesia. 

Tiny shoes from Chinese women with bound feet

Masks from all over the Indonesian archipelago

A complete gamelan orchestra and wayang puppets

A lot of these relics are rare and unique.  It made me nervous that many of the rooms were in a basement, because Jakarta floods often!

An incredible array of puppets

Dinner was in the most incredible room, filled with masks and carvings from tribes deep within Papua.

The number of authentic shields and statues was staggering! And thank goodness the tallest ones were secured to the ceiling - one of the servers at dinner bumped into the statues and caused a chain reaction that knocked over several!

Ceremonial masks

We were served a traditional Javanese dinner, starting with nasi kuning, yellow rice with coconut milk.

The food was really delicious, but I didn't enjoy much because, unbeknownst to me at the time, I was coming down with a parasitic infection and I felt pretty poorly.

The entire group for the evening.  It was a really fantastic dinner and experience!

Houston - Beijing - Jakarta

It's always tough saying goodbye to Texas but it was time to get home.  Our flight departed at midnight and my traveling partners were ready to go.

These boys are so much fun to travel with now.  Not only do they carry their own stuff, they're actually a huge help with the checked baggage and good company.

Looking forward to a nice 15 hour flight!  It was actually a terrific flight and my seat companion (behind Alex) only got up twice during the entire flight.

We decided at the last minute to do another excursion from the airport because I couldn't imagine sitting around for 9 hours there.  We landed at 5am Beijing time and by 7:30, these two had crashed.  I enjoyed the drive through Beijing because it was so much cleaner and more organized than I had expected.  It was a lovely city.

About 8am, we had made our way through traffic (which was nothing compared to Jakarta) and were taking in the sights of Tiananmen square.

The Great Hall of the People, the Chinese equivalent of the Capitol Building.

Then we crossed the square and saw the monumental entrance to the Forbidden City, so named because it was forbidden to commoners until it was open to the public in 1925.

Alex was thrilled to see that another winter storm had passed by just prior to our visit and they were still raking up inches of snow.

It was a balmy 32F when we arrived.  We had changed into all our warm clothes but this tropical family was still struggling with the temperature!

This was all constructed in the early 1400's and was absolutely magnificent.  The palaces got bigger and grander as we made our way deeper into the grounds.

We had a fantastic day to visit, and not just because of the perfect skies.  They sell 80,000 tickets a day and apparently in the summer those can sell out in a matter of hours.  This can be wall to wall people.  I was very happy with the crowd around during our tour.

Up close, the artwork and architecture were impressive.

These massive bronze cauldrons were placed strategically around the buildings to hold water in case of fire.  Sadly, the gold coating was scraped off when the British invaded in the 1800's and you can still see the marks.

Ben was conquering mountains of snow!

The sheer scale of this place was amazing.  It used to consist of 9,999 rooms but due to renovations and time, it now only has around 9,000.

The snow made everything a little more beautiful.

We were able to peek inside a few of the throne rooms and offices and they were all impressive.

We made our way through the entire grounds in about 2 hours and enjoyed seeing the frozen moat on the back side.  There was a hill across the street that would have given us a great vantage point over the entire Forbidden City but my foot was done for the day.  I was curious about the one random hill in the middle of Beijing and it turns out it was created when the dug the massive moat!

At 3pm, we were happy to be on board our 7 hour flight to Jakarta.  The kids crashed pretty quickly and I couldn't wake them up for meals, so I just let them rest.  Once we were back in Jakarta, found all our luggage, and reunited with Matt at home, we were so happy to sleep in our own beds again.

The next morning I was busy unpacking suitcases and putting away all of the wonderful treats we brought back!  3lbs of HEB tortillas? Of course! 10lbs of bacon? Why not.  We should be well-supplied for the next several months.

So long, winter!  I'll take year-round summer any day!

We don't get a lot of colorful sunsets here, but this one was a special welcome back.

More Fun in Houston

Our last week in Houston flew by!  We got to spend a little more time with Matt before he flew back to get back in the office.  Then the kids and I had some time to catch up with a few friends.  We love meeting up with the Oswicks because these 4 kids have so much fun together.  They played cards for 2 hours at their own table!

And I love, love getting to spend time with Lesley and catch up.

Holly got to enjoy some ripstick walks with Alex and we all soaked in the amazing sunshine. 

I was excited to watch my foot improve week to week and actually walk for exercise.

It was a huge day when I finally wore two real shoes!  I'd been wearing furry boots my whole trip because they were the only things that fit.  By the time we left, it was 73F and getting a little steamy for Uggs.  Two months after surgery and I was starting to feel like a normal person again.

Poor Ben kept running a fever day after day and it turns out he had developed walking pneumonia as well.  He was about 3 weeks behind Alex but had the same nasty bug.  We sure hope we didn't leave it in Texas!

We had to go to Katy for a checkup for Ben (which was timed well because by then the doctor could see improvement and give Ben the all-clear to fly) and were so happy to have lunch with Ryan and Gabriella.

Then, as trips always do, time ran out and we were back for our traditional Tex-Mex goodbye dinner.  This is the best sendoff I can imagine from Texas, just hours before departure.

We sure love all these faces and can't wait to see them again in June!