Morning Walks

The kids just enjoyed a 4-day weekend so they joined me on my morning walk.  They prefer to ripstick, which gets them quite a bit of attention on our street.  I don't know that many kids have ridden ripsticks here!

On other days when I have time, I love to walk around the corner and past the Pondok Indah golf course into a beautiful gated neighborhood called Bukit Golf.  It's entirely surrounded by the golf course and full of lovely homes and landscaping.  Best of all, it only has two loops (the outer is exactly a mile, which is handy) and one entrance, so there is almost no traffic.

 

The quiet streets are perfect for walking and I love looking at all the flowers and plants.

Many of the houses have huge sculptures or art out front as well.

By far my favorite part - these incredibly huge, luxurious homes turn their chickens out in the morning :)

 One of my favorite driveways...

 The streets are perfectly clean because of all the sweet ladies that sweep every day.

Another pretty plant...no idea what this one is.

Some of the homes are just unbelievably massive.  This one would be an entire city block.

But still, there people dipping a little electricity straight from the box...ha!

Back on our street, the homes aren't anything compared to Bukit Golf, but it's a pretty street and I think the vendors out selling snacks all day make it much more interesting.

It's nice being able to walk places in our neighborhood.  I've met a friend who runs a bootcamp on her balcony and I can get there in about 20 minutes in the mornings when the driver is still on his way back from taking Matt to work.  Thank goodness he's back before I have to walk home, though, because I'm not sure I could get home after my workout.

I had to make a tough choice between boot camp and Alex's first choir performance, but he told me it was no big deal.  I chose to show up sweaty to bootcamp and not to a school assembly. I did enjoy the pictures and video on the school website, though!

 

 Sometimes, a good walk in the morning calls for a treat in the afternoon!  Every once in a while, we have to hit up McDonald's for something familiar and easy.  Extra bonus - they have dipped cones here!

 

Cub Scout Hike

We have never been a scouting family but heard that we should join here because the outings were pretty cool.  Boy Scouts looked a little too time consuming for Ben, but Cub Scouts was the perfect answer for Alex.  All of the activities are for the entire family so we all get to learn and explore together.  Our first hike was in a national park outside of Bogor, about 1 1/2 hours south of Jakarta.  It was pretty exciting to drive up and see the volcanic peaks.

 

Lots of people attended, so it was a little slow getting started.  I think we had over 100 on the hike.

First we passed through some rice paddies at the base of the mountain.

Selemat Datang = Welcome
Heading into the national park!

After passing through some pine forest, we came to a clearing and got a nice view of one of the volcanic peaks.

We hiked up into a ravine and enjoyed Hidden Falls.

My friend Pam got this great shot of all of us:

Alex was pretty interested in the rocks because several appeared to be old volcanic rocks.

We passed another beautiful fall on our way down.

We had a picnic lunch and played where the ravine opened up and the water created big pools.  The monkeys also noticed that it was a nice picnic spot and came to join us.

At first they were cute, but several had no fear of us and were rather aggressively looking for our food.  Good thing we got our rabies vaccinations!

The ones in the distance were lots of fun to watch.

The kids' favorite place was a natural slide in the rock into a deep, frigid pool.  The closest I got was wading in to cool off my feet.  It was a hot and humid day and we were sweating buckets.

We finally had to pack up and get back on the buses to head home to Jakarta.  It took us a little under 2 hours to get there...going home was nearly 4!  Jakarta traffic is really no joke.  And it's not just Jakarta.  I took this in Bogor because it was so much slower passing through on the way back.  You know you're going slow when you're getting passed by motorbikes carrying mattresses.

Our first adventure out into Indonesia was successful (we all fell asleep on the way home!) and memorable.  We cannot wait to do more exploring here.

Home Sweet Home

We have been in our house for two weeks now and it's beginning to feel a little bit like home.  It's never really home until our beds arrive and we're sleeping in our own sheets again, but we're settling into our new place.

 

It's big.  And everything in it seems big.  I do think the movers are going to love this front door when they start hauling our things in, though!  We actually rarely use this door because we come and go from the service stairs into the garage.  We now employ a staff of people - a full-time maid, a driver (courtesy of the company), and a guard who lives here 24 hours a day.  It's actually two guards who swap off every 3 days.  There is full kitchen outside our kitchen for their use and in the basement there are two rooms for them, a full bathroom, and plenty of space for a couch and TV.  It feels a little weird sometimes to be in the house alone and have 3 people hanging out in the garage watching TV and eating lunch together, but that's very much the culture here.  I think we've been fortunate to find some pretty great employees, too, and they're all friendly, helpful, and seem to like one another.  The house is more interesting and busy with them around.

 

Looking down the front steps.  I guess we actually live on the second and third floors but everything here is ground floor, then first floor, so technically it's just a two-story house.  We have no doorbell, which is part of the reason we need a guard.  He's responsible for opening and closing the gate, accepting deliveries (which I have started using a lot - only $1.50 to get groceries delivered!!  forgot the broccoli for dinner?  hire a go jek motorbike to pick it up and bring it in 10 minutes for just $2!), and maintaining everything in the front yard.  The guards we hired have worked at this house for years so they also know all the people working in nearby houses and I was happy to see them catching up with their friends after being gone for a several months while the house was unoccupied.

 

So far, this is definitely my favorite space in the house.  It was rare to find an open kitchen with a bar, but we lucked out here.  We spend so much time together around the bar eating breakfast, doing homework, and playing games.  I love this spot.

The kids' favorite place - our own pool, finally!  It's pretty big by Jakarta standards and we even have a little patch of grass, which is rare in this neighborhood.  It means we have barely any front yard but this is what I look out on all day so I'm happy to have some greenery.  Next on the to-do list is to find some flowering plants to brighten it up.

The house has some pretty touches, like this tilework in the entryway.  It's going to be fun turning this house into a home.

Pictures

So what have we been up to lately?  It's great to read about life here but everyone really wants to see the pictures, right?

I got a waterproof camera for my birthday and we've had lots of fun with it at the pool.  Underwater pictures are tough to take!  Don't expect to see any of my glamorous shots on here...

 

The Kristal hotel had a great pool and we spent a lot of time playing in it.  The only problem here is that the water still gets cold...it always seems to me that the tropics should make it hot!

After just two days of school, the kids had a day off for Indonesian Independence Day.  It's traditional for kids to compete in games and win prizes.  Our kids tried their best but didn't win anything.  They did get to try a traditional rice cake in this contest, but apparently it wasn't worth finishing when the race was done.

 

The popping of the water balloons was harder than expected but it made for great entertainment.

 

Happy Independence Day, Indonesia!

 

Hard to see, but we also spent quite a bit of time like this in the hotel - sitting on the couch watching TV or playing on devices.  It was a great place but it got rather small after a month.

 

Interesting sights around the streets - these tiny streets exist and motorbikes still navigate through them.

Yep, I don't see any problems here.  

After just a few days' use, this power strip blew out the breakers for half the building.  We learned quickly to ask for the warranty.

Yum...there is a Din Tai Fung here!

We'd been warned about the pollution here and I knew some days were much worse than others but the pictures can tell you much better.

Clear day!  Notice all the high rises in the city.

 Stay inside today.  On the very worst day I've seen, you couldn't clearly see the shorter tower in this picture.

 

Some of the sunrises were pretty amazing from our hotel room.

 We did join the American club here, mostly to have a place to relax and let the kids run around.  It's nothing fancy, but the menu is good, the beer is from America, and it's completely laid back.  The kids have a play area with foosball and a TV and we have a gym.

Not only do malls have some "Ladies Only" parking, this one has "Exotic Supercar" parking...ha!

Ben initially didn't want to learn another instrument, but we didn't really give him a chance and he chose the violin.  Now he's pretty dang excited and we can't wait to hear what he learns!

 We wanted to explore a little one Saturday and I'd heard about a pretty amazing bird market in the city, so we had to check it out. It was pretty fascinating and had thousands of birds of every size, shape, and color.  I don't know half the birds we saw, but I recognized finches, love birds, owls, woodpeckers, parrots, and lorikeets, just to name a few.

 

Ben and a myna

Matt thought this guy was awesome.  

I loved this cat sleeping in the middle of hundreds of birds.

It wasn't limited to birds - we saw squirrels, sugar gliders, and even some bats!

Life in Indonesia, Month 1

Many people have asked us to share our experiences and it's so hard to put into words what our life is like here, but I'll try...

Jakarta is massive.  I actually have no idea how large because everything is measured in terms of traffic times, not kilometers.  The population is 10-20 million, depending on where you look.  I read in the paper that there are 10 million registered motorbikes and 4.5 million cars.  No wonder there is so much traffic.

We live in South Jakarta and, on the ordinary day, probably don't go more than a few miles in any direction.  Many roads are tiny (what we would consider alleys back home) and covered in speed bumps so it's impossible to drive fast, even without traffic.  I'm still fascinated by all the things we see driving through these mazes of streets and the way the traffic moves.  Food carts, a sewing machine on a bike, men loaded down with coconuts, entire families on motorbikes...you name it, it's probably here.  Motorbikes are everywhere, passing between cars, weaving through traffic, heading the wrong way on a one-way street, and occasionally on the rare sidewalk (part of the reason they don't have more sidewalks).  I can never guess who has right of way because cars yield in these weird games of chicken, but drivers aren't aggressive.  The streets are loud and polluted and vibrant with life.  I wish it was easier to walk here because I'd love to wander and explore.  And I would love to eat some street food but that's generally considered a guaranteed dose of Bali belly, so I'll have to stick to restaurants.

A lot of our lives revolve around the international school.  When you pass through the gates and get inside, it's like a quiet college campus...a real sanctuary in a busy city.  The education is great, of course, but what we're most excited about is all the other opportunities afforded the kids here.  They have tons of after school choices and can ride late buses home.  Right now Alex is doing Tae Kwon Do, choir, Lego robotics, computer coding, and card games, plus a private piano lesson.  Ben is doing Tae Kwon Do and private guitar after school, and has started orchestra and electronics at school and will be doing a special-interest program during school starting next week (he requested photography, drone piloting, and the minecraft team as his top choices...how cool are all of those??).  They offer adult classes as well so I signed up for yoga.  It's really awesome that we can get so much enrichment through school!  Especially when driving is a hassle and we want to be efficient.

Speaking of driving, no way would I get behind the wheel here.  We have a wonderful driver that has worked for the company for many years and was highly recommended.  He takes Matt to work (which thankfully is one of the closest office buildings to the school, so Matt has a short commute) and then comes back to the hotel for me and drives me around during the day until he needs to go back to get Matt.  It's a weird feeling knowing someone is waiting on me all the time.  I feel like I should go out more just so he's not bored!  Most places have a little hut outside for all the drivers to hang out, maybe watch TV or sleep.  When we move into our house, our driver will be able to relax with his own space in the garage.  All the houses have extra bathrooms outside and small rooms to sleep or pray in.

As I type this, I can hear the 3pm call to prayer.  The volume depends on your proximity to a mosque.  Prayers are something like 4am, 9am, noon, 3pm, and 7pm.  Thankfully, we never hear the early one.  At other times of the day, I kind of enjoy it because it's sometimes really pretty and it reminds me to pause what I'm doing and give thanks to God for all He has done for us.  Maybe I'll make a habit that sticks with me.  There are churches here, mostly small, and we've already visited a few and been happy to worship with other Christians.

Indonesian people are so happy and so friendly.  There are smiles everywhere and they love our feeble attempts to speak Bahasa and I think they appreciate our efforts.  Most people do speak at least a little English, so communication hasn't been a huge problem.  Thank goodness for smartphones and Google translate, though.  It's invaluable at the grocery store when I'm staring at 100 kinds of green, leafy veggies and trying to guess which one is basil.  (It's kemangi)

One of the big challenges is not drinking the water.  The pollution is terrible and it has contaminated the water table.  We have to use bottled water for everything, even washing vegetables.  But we still wash the dishes in the hot, dirty water and don't use them until they're completely dry.  That still bothers me.  It's hard to rinse out your toothbrush with only bottled water as well.  I have to remind myself constantly not to open my mouth in the shower.

Overall, I'd say we've had a very good and successful first month.  The time has absolutely flown past and the culture shock hasn't been nearly what we expected.  Many things are common to Southeast Asia, so even though Jakarta is very different from Singapore, lots of things weren't surprising to us this time around.  The kids have each had a few tough days but they jumped right into school and never looked back.  Expats are very friendly and the American community here has welcomed us with open arms.  There was a mass exodus of Americans a few years back when oil prices dropped so apparently new faces are exciting.  I've already joined a boot camp in a personal trainer's house, a book club, and a Pokeeno group.  I'm also doing Bible Study Fellowship in my fourth country, which is always interesting.  Here it is bilingual, so ladies are singing hymns in Bahasa and English at the same time and the lecture is in English with a translator speaking at the same time in the balcony.

This weekend we move into our house and I'm honestly a little sad about leaving this hotel.  It's been a great home for the first month and a little safe haven in an unfamiliar place.  And I dread the thought of packing up suitcases AGAIN but this is the last time for hopefully a very long time.  We won't get our sea shipment for another month or so, but we have some rented furniture in place so we can start settling into our real home in our new country.  Here's to a great three years!