Indonesian Trio + Nate

As all of you know how great of a signer I am I thought I would put my first karaoke experience up for your enjoyment. It's an Adele song, which is of course is in my singing range. Enjoy...

You have Kavi to thank (or not) for this footage...

Liverpool v. Indonesian National Team

These are my friends at school that I work with being interviewed before the Indonesian National Team v. Liverpool summer friendly game. There will be more information on bule (respectful term for a white person) later, but you are picked out here by the locals and asked to take pictures with people and even autograph locals' soccer jerseys (No Joke!). In this case, they were pulled out of a crowd and asked if they speak bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language). They said no and were pulled aside for an interview. Liverpool won 2-0.

Hanging at Seaside!

 

This picture is taken at the Seaside bar & grill. We had our friends Isong and Ipang take our picture. One of these days we need to take a picture with our seaside bar tenders buddies.

Arcade Time!

Ran across this arcade across from Emporium Pluit Mall. Jeremy, Kasandra, Aaron (shown below), and I decided to get some tokens and let out the inner child. This place was huge and we had a great time getting frustrated playing beaten-up arcade games. Aaron played some Street Fighter, while I stuck to the massage chair and smashing stuff.

Kwetiau

Kwetiau is my favorite dish at the little outdoor food stand across from my school. The dish itself has pieces of chicken, the best chicken broth ever, kale, and amazing noodles. Simple, but I love it! Almost everyday I walk across the street to order this dish for Rp 15,000 (approximately $1.50) and sit outside to enjoy it in the sweltering heat.

Wednesday is Batik Day

Left to Right: Me, Ben, and Aaron. English department rocking the Batiks.

Hulk Smash

So after my way too hot chilli sauce experience, one of the girls happened to lock her keys in her room. Can you guess who she asked to rip apart the door handle?

First way too hot food experience...

At dinner with about twenty of my coworkers and had been eating chilli sauce for the past few weeks so I decided to put all of my chilli sauce in my rice without trying it first. I found out quickly that this batch of chilli sauce was a little more potent than others I've had thus far.

By the way, that is Linda in the background thinking that she is hilarious....

The Bubble Tea Craze!

Bubble tea, also known as milk tea, is from Taiwan and created in the 1980's. The tea is brewed with either fruit or milk and is unique because of the little tapioca balls that sit at the bottle of the drink. You are given an extra large straw to suck these down. It tastes great, I cannot believe isn't bigger in the states yet.

More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea

Labelled Worst Traffic in the World for a Reason

Patience: an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay. Patience is much more than a virtue in Jakarta, it is a requirement. The traffic being the biggest challenge that you encounter. In a week I've been in a ceaseless traffic jam. Highways, main drives, side streets, parking lots... Everywhere is backed up in Jakarta. You may move in a minute or ten and it may be as minuscule as five feet. Whether you wish it or not, you will be stuck in traffic. A route that takes you twenty minutes one afternoon may take  two hours the next.

Imagine entering a cab, your first thought dwelling on  how long will this ride last? You just hope that your next cab ride doesn't become one of the many traffic horror stories that are rampant in this city. The roads themselves weave back and forth so that you may have been helplessly waiting in your taxi for an hour, but infuriatingly still manage to see your apartment complex within walking distance. You often wonder, how is this possible!?!? Until you come to the realization that this is just another part of the culture in Jakarta. Something you must accept and learn that bringing a book, tablet, or laptop with you wherever you go is the best policy. If anything, this experience has taught me to NEVER complain about traffic in the United States ever again. In fact, I wrote this entire post while sitting in traffic... Tidak!!! (No!!!)

Who needs a taxi?

I think the video speaks for itself. This contraption is called a bajaj. You can find more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw#Indonesia.

Rambutan (First Strange Fruit Experience)

Rambutan or rapiyah in basasa indonesia is indigenous to Malaysia and Indonesia. The particular type of rambutan in this video is not the traditional "hairy" and red colored one that may show up in a google search. Enjoy!

You can find out more about this fruit here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan

Halo Jakarta!

Good to see everyone! I will be updating this blog at least once a week and will be having plenty of videos, opinion posts, and pictures to keep you all connected to me! Enjoy!

Initial Reactions

After travelling thousands of miles, countless hours, experiencing Doha, Qatar, and chocking on my in-flight dinner. I find myself on the other side of the globe in Jakarta, Indonesia. I thought that I knew what I was getting myself into... I've traveled in Europe, seen poverty in Mexico, and told myself relentlessly that no matter how much I read or "knew" what Jakarta would be that I would need to adjust dramatically. That being said, I have never been anywhere in my life that remotely functions as this city does.

Although I have only been in Jakarta for a handful of perpetually sweating days I have come to identify several uniquely Jakartan characteristics of the city from my early observations. From the moment you leave the airport there are people everywhere and in large numbers... The streets are packed with motorcycles and bajajs (motorized minicab), each  seemingly fitting three to four if not more people on them. When walking in a mall, which every mall seems to be a "supermall", there are employees everywhere usually in groups of four or five, socializing as there are not nearly enough customers to warrant the amount of employees. Even as I'm shuttled to school, vans (smaller than a standard van) are designed to fit as many as possible into them, which from my early experiences is about 11-12 people. Space is at a premium and thus far it has been in short supply.

After you get past the initial shock of getting off an airplane and realizing that you've reached your destination, you come to a new discovery. The SMELL!!! To say that Jakarta is a city of smells would be a serious understatement. How would I describe it... Like a slap in the face of sewage, pollution, and concrete as there are innumerable construction sites. And if you are lucky enough to catch a strong breeze while strolling down the street, you may feel a small sense of relief from the heat and humidity, which while enjoyable is completely negated by the slap-in-the-face "stench" emitted from one of the many aqueducts that align the streets. As the "stench" fades, you realize that not all of the smells in this mammoth city are bad. Closing your eyes and following your nose will take you to one of the seemingly endless restaurants, huts, and carts that provide all of the southeastern Asian dishes your heart desires: satay, nasi goreng (fried rice), ikan goreng (fried fish), jus alpukat (avocado juice), and many other meals that I cannot identify yet let alone name.

Once you acknowledge the sheer amount of people and the overwhelming smells, you begin to hear a language as foreign as the country itself. The swiftness and subtlety of the speech makes it difficult to comprehend the first few days, but through interactions with locals you begin to pick out the common words and phrases. With just a few days spent at my oceanside bar I have made fast friends who are all too happy to humor a bule (respectful term for a white person) and teach me the local bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language). This discovery has led to my initial admiration of Indonesians, who are quick to smile, take pleasure in regular laughter (at both you and themselves), and use their varying amounts of English to tell a lighthearted joke. From the outset it seems that their carefree mentally leads to a happiness that is truly rare in the United States. For this reason alone I could not be more excited to be here!