Delicious Fresh Food

24 June 2012

I went to church this morning.  I enjoyed the music, and the message was relevant to me/all of us who had come from Bina Bangsa.  It was about “church shopping”, basically.  Everyone seemed really friendly, and it’s quite a large congregation/fellowship.  There wasn’t a full house today, because of the summer holiday break, but they said there are close to 400-500 people at the service, and there are two services on Sunday mornings.  I was super tired, because I was on the internet for quite awhile last night, since it was finally working consistently for me, so that was exciting.  Next Sunday, the school will provide transportation to a different, international church so that we can find one we like.  They are in English, and the one this week had a lot of expats there, and one of the elders is originally from Lake Geneva…small world…and the man who spoke the message graduated from Purdue (note, there isn’t a designated pastor because it’s a fellowship, so people take turns, I think). 

After church, we went to the third big mall that I live by.  Setayan City, I think it was called.  We heard that there is a Food Hall there, and I’ve been looking forward to buying fresh food that isn’t at CarreFour in our mall.  Nicole and I plan on frying the chicken and making pasta some night for dinner, in my apartment, of course, because her gas burner isn't hooked up yet.  It turns out this mall is close to where we live, but we would just have to take a taxi (another interesting fact, it’s spelled 'taksi'...very phonetic).  Danna, Nicole and I walked around looking at some clothes and the stores, which were even more upscale than the shops in Central Park (our mall).  The first star we saw was Versace and then there was Armani…moral of the story is that Perl showed Danna a department store outside of Central Park that has good clothes for cheaper prices, which is exciting, because I definitely didn’t bring enough clothes (which, I didn’t have many in my closet before I left, anyway).  I figure buying something here will make it easier for me to gauge how appropriate it is, except the sizing will be interesting.  I was trying on some capris today, and they definitely did not fit me, and it was the biggest size they had out on most of the racks, but maybe the department store will have more of a selection. 

Tomorrow we are supposed to have time with our HOD (Head of Department) during one or two of the sessions, so I’m trying to get some planning done, so that I can get feedback.  I’m a bit unclear how fast I should be moving in the first few weeks.  I want there to be a good balance of fun games and getting to know you activities as well as getting into the lessons.  I just remembered that even though the students are coming back from “summer” break, it’s not like in the States when it’s a much more extensive break. 

Speaking of Summer break, I think I will be coming home over my Christmas break, since I get an entire month off for that.  We’re still trying to figure out the logistics, since our flight home is supposed to be in June, so that should be interesting…but we did check with the school and it is possible, at least.  And, now, speaking of vacations, a group of new teachers is trying to organize a trip to Bali during our first break this year.  We don’t have school from August 15-28 for the Ramadan holiday.  Okay, orientation is starting soon, so I’ll update more next week.  

Well Worth the LONG wait!

Sorry for the delay in an update: Here's how the journey went down :)

Here is a breakdown of my journey with Turkish Airlines. What’s that you say, you thought I was flying Cathay Pacific?  Well, so did I, until about 5 days before I was supposed to leave.  It turns out that our reservations for that flight were not made before the seats were taken (“Seat’s taken…Forest Gump”) Anyways, the people at the school got it all figured out, and the four of us ended up being split up, so I only traveled with Danna, and we traveled east instead of west from the U.S. 

Chicago to Istanbul 10:20 p.m – 9 a.m. (of course, there’s something like an 8 hour jump ahead in time zones, so it was around 5 p.m. in Turkey when we landed)

Layover in Turkey for about 5 hours.  Nothing exciting happened, except I taught Danna how to play the card game Tick.  Although we went through security again, after leaving the plane, which we thought was weird, since we didn’t leave the airport.

12:40 a.m. - Istanbul to Singapore 10 hour flight. The funny thing is that we thought it was only a 3 hour flight or so, according to our looking at the map.  Luckily, on this plane the monitor in the seat in front of me worked, so I watched a few movies while I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t as lucky on the first long leg of the trip, from Chicago.  I was able to sleep a good portion of the trip, thought, so that was good.  We also thought it was direct from Istanbul to Jakarta, but apparently there’s a stop in Singapore.  At first, we were afraid we had gotten on the wrong plane, or wouldn’t know where to go once we got off the plane, since neither our boarding passes nor the itinerary mentioned the existence of this stop.  It turns out they just sent us to a room next to the gate where we landed with a plastic “boarding pass” to get back on, so we just had to go through a quick security check.  It didn’t take long, either, because it ended up that we just had time to go to the bathroom, go through the security, and then we were loading back onto the plane. 

Singapore to Jakarta was only 1.5 hours, which seemed super short, compared to the other flights.  This flight was not full, so there were many empty seats, and unfortunately that is how Norbert, my penguin pillow pet, met his demise.  I had been carrying him through all of the other airports, on the other planes, and then when we stood up to leave the plane in Jakarta, I put him in an empty seat next to me.  I didn’t even realize that I had forgotten him until we were through immigration, waiting for out luggage.  It was a sad day for Norbert, but I hope someone claimed him instead of just throwing him away. 

We finally arrived in Jakarta around 6 p.m. local time, and the sun had just set…sad when I was just getting used to enjoying the long, summer days back home. 

There was a contact that the school had set up, so he took our passports and visas (I already had my business visa, and Danna needed to buy a Visa On Arrival.  All of that went very smoothly, and I’m SO glad that the school took care of that situation, especially since I was in no condition to be interrogated by Indonesian Immigration officials, which is fairly common, I guess, especially if you’re getting a business visa.  Then, we got our luggage with that man, and we met Miss Jane and two other women from the school.  We rode in the school’s van back to our apartment.  It’s very nice, and across the street from a huge mall (seriously, it’s like the Mall of America, minus the huge rides in the middle).  We dropped off our luggage, then went to the mall for dinner with Miss Jane and Miss Ira.  We tried to buy phones, but the stores close at 10:00 p.m., so we were too late by the time we finished eating.  I realize this is a weird place to stop, but I will continue later.  

Random/Interesting facts from the Guidebook

The random, yet interesting, facts that I have learned through The Lonely Planet’s guidebook to Indonesia (2007). 

1. There is a sport called sepak takraw that is played with a rattan ball.  It’s a cross between volleyball and soccer, kind of.  Check out the videos on YouTube, especially this informative one I found: http://youtu.be/15asVgf66KI
2. Historically, Indonesia was a Dutch colony, although Marco Polo (Portugal) was one of the first Europeans to visit and then dominate the valuable spice trade of the region.  The first Dutch ships arrived in 1596, and Indonesia declared independence in 1945 (with “help” from Japan, mostly by occupying the islands and getting the Dutch out of the way). 
3. In order to unite the expansive island nation, they have adopted the garuda as their mythical bird and national symbol.  On its breast are the five symbols of the Pancasila (five principles). Star: represents faith in God, whether Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or any other religion.Chain: represents humanity within Indonesia and its links to humankind as a whole. Banyan tree: represents nationalism and promoting unity between Indonesia’s many ethnic groups.Buffalo: symbolizes representative government.Rice and cotton: represents social justice.
4. During Indonesia’s first direct presidential election (October 20, 2004) over 115 million people cast their vote, making it the world’s largest ever one-day election.
5. I’ll preface this by saying that Indonesia is made up of over 17,000 islands, and it’s the 4^th most populated nation in the world.  Indonesia’s population currently increases by about 3.5 million people per year. 
6. Indonesians comprise approximately 300 ethnic groups that speak some 365 languages and dialects.
7. Not to scare anyone, including myself, but Indonesia is home to no fewer than 129 active volcanoes, the most of any nation.
8. Rice in the field is called padi; rice grain at the market is called beras; cooked rice on your plate is called nasi. 
9. The city of Jakarta, where I will be living, is located on the island of Java.  This name may sound familiar because the island was home to ‘Java Man’ some 1.7 million years ago (yeah, that’s a LONG time ago).
10. Another resource I’ve been using to research my soon to be home:  www.expat.or.id