Sumatra, Here I Come!

I have a four-day weekend coming up in two weeks and I have booked my ticket to Medan, in Sumatra. From Medan, I will take some form of vehicular transportation for the three hour trip north of the city to Bukit Lawang. There, I will spend three days and nights trekking through the jungle and visiting orangutans in their natural habitat. I'm so excited, I think I might wet myself.

Oh My God, I Live in the Suburbs

How did this happen? I swore I would never, ever, ever, EVER live in the suburbs. I mean no disrespect to those of you who do live in the suburbs. I understand many people find the suburbs to be the best of both worlds. I'm simply not one of them. And now I find that I live in an honest-to-goodness suburb. Crap.

It's not like I didn't know that my school was located on the outskirts of Jakarta. It's just that Jakarta is huge and before arriving I thought of it more like Los Angeles than Chicago. In Los Angeles, everything is a suburb, so technically suburbs equals city. And I gotta say, I was perfectly happy with that explanation. In my three months living in said suburb, I have found that it can meet my basic needs. It's easy to get to work. There are a ridiculous number of malls where I buy necessities and find entertainment. It's green and pretty, if you ignore the trash and pollution. Yes, I've seen parts of south and central Jakarta, but usually I'm either in a car or it's dark out. So, while I realized that my part of the city had a different feel, I wasn't able to make an apples to apples comparison. Plus, I was still kind of starry eyed and overwhelmed with every new thing.

Now that I've had some time to get settled in, I'm starting to notice the little details. Like the women who live in my city dress like suburban moms. And they all drive SUVs. And their kids are massively over-scheduled with things like piano and badminton and English lessons (Yes, I realize if there were no English lessons, I wouldn't have a job). Okay, so that's fine. I just figured that was all part of the culture of Jakarta. And partly it is. But this weekend, I discovered Kemang.

Kemang is an area of the city that is a long way from where I live. I'd heard about it--mostly that a greater number of foreigners lived there--but I'd never been. On Saturday, that changed. I hung out there in the afternoon, and had a chance to stroll up and down the equivalent of the Main Street. It feels different than Kelapa Gading. Very different. It took me about five minutes to figure out that's because it's urban. Which means Kelapa Gading is not. Hence, my realization that I live in the suburbs.

It's okay though. Kelapa Gading still has everything I need and now I know about Kemang. If I had to compare it to a Chicago neighborhood, I'd go with Bucktown. It's got plenty of boutique-like stores, restaurants and hip bars where you can hear live music. It also has a sports bar where I had a Twilight Zone moment. We walked in and everyone was white. It could have been any sports bar in any English-speaking country in the world. There were Americans, and Brits, and Australians and Canadians and probably some Irish too. And basically only the staff was Indonesian. It was weird but it will probably be a fun place to watch the World Cup games. We ended up at a place called the Elbow Room--no connection to the Elbow Room in Chicago--where we heard an excellent band while enjoying reasonably-priced cocktails.

It made me so happy to be in a place where I can look around and realize everybody is cooler than me. It also made me think about Chicago neighborhoods and how there are a lot of parallels to be drawn. My neighborhood, for example, is Oakbrook. Kemang, like I said, is Bucktown. The people are urban and there are lots of cool things to do. Jaksa, where I've been hanging out sometimes on the weekends, is like Rush Street--which explains why it kind of bores me. It also explains why people there drink so freaking much. Ancol, on the water, is like Navy Pier and Grant Park--tourist traps and open-air festivals. Each neighborhood has its charms. But I can't wait to spend more time in Kemang!

Update: I just read another blog where the writer called Kemang a suburb. Pshaw, I say.

Two Incredible--and Different--Weekends

Two weeks ago, I had a cold. It lasted about a week but by the weekend, it was better. Last week, I had a stomach virus. I missed one day of work and didn't eat much of anything for four days, but by Saturday, I was feeling all right. It's no fun being sick, but at least the illness have the courtesy to leave me in peace for the weekends because that is when the real fun happens.

Last weekend, I left Jakarta on a bus in the middle of the night on Friday, which was technically Saturday. We met at 3 am but didn't leave until about 4 am. We drove to a tiny village about two hours from the city where we were extras in a commercial shoot.

They started filming at about 7 am, on the bank of a river where they had set up this elaborate picnic scene. Across the river were endless rice paddies with mountains as a backdrop. My part in the first scene was to stand in the river, with water up to my knees, and pretend to catch fish (with my hands). There were eight of us trying to catch fish while the rest of the foreigners were lounging around on the river bank, enjoying the picnic. They had the fish in little cages with open tops, so we could easily pretend that we had some crazy hand-eye coordination skills.

For about two hours, I followed the director's instructions, moving around, being excited about catching fish. Then, we had to play in the water for another hour while the crew moved on to filming scenes on the riverbank and we were just background. By 10 am, my part was done. So, we moved back up into the village, which was really just a couple of houses and another elaborate set that the crew had constructed. They pulled another group to go off and do something else and I was free to nap.

Unfortunately, lying in the hot sun on a bamboo porch is not ideal for sleeping. After about an hour, I gave up and went for a walk. At some point, they fed us. Then, after lunch, they took more people off to film another scene. While the camera crew were gone, the building crew got to work turning our little makeshift huts into a serious party scene.

Because of the language barrier, it's sometimes hard to understand what is happening around me. I had an agent--or at least the person who had recruited me to be in the commercial--but she was off sleeping somewhere so I couldn't ask her when we'd be done. But as the crew was working on putting up lights and lanterns, it became clear that the scene was meant to be filmed in the dark. So, I settled in for the long haul, contenting myself with chatting up strangers and going for walks. It was pretty cool being there, seeing the village and seeing how a commercial is made. I was tired, but managing.

Finally, at about 5:30 pm, the sun started to descend and they gathered us all together for further instructions. The scene was a barbeque that the village was throwing for the tourists. We were about five minutes away from beginning when the rain started. You can tell when the rain will be heavy because the first drops are extra large and they fall with a loud plop. The first drops fell and everybody made a beeline for the covered patios. There we sat for about an hour and half, miserable, tired, and wondering if we'd get to go home. We heard that if the rain hadn't stopped by 8 pm, we would get to go home. So naturally, at about 7:45 pm, it stopped. It took them about an hour to reset everything and then we spent another six hours filming various scenes at the barbeque.

The rain had been heavy, but I still couldn't believe it when I walked to the river bank. The bridge that you see in the first picture above had washed away completely and the place where I had stood only a few hours earlier, up to my knees, was now completely raging. There were a few families stuck on both sides of the river, wondering (I guess) how there were going to get back to their houses.

I've rarely been as tired as I was on the drive home. The road was so bumpy, it was impossible to sleep but my muscles were done supporting me. So, I sort of slumped over and waited for it to be over. As tired as I was, I'm glad I did it. It was great to see what life is like outside of the cities and I met some cool new people too!

I have to say, though, that I much prefer what I did this weekend, which was take a boat back out to Pulau Seribu for another two days of sand, swimming, and snorkeling. During our first weekend, we were content to let the boat take us from place to place, but this time we just wanted to find a beach and relax for a while and then go to just one snorkeling spot. It turned out that there was really nice coral right off of the beach, so we just swam out and got our snorkeling fix without ever going anywhere else.

We had dinner again at the floating restaurant and we spent Sunday morning on the same island where we met all the kids last time. They were there again, but our jet skiing friends were not. No worries though. This time, we hired a boat that stayed with us until we wanted to leave so we made it back in plenty of time to catch the boat back to Jakarta. Pramuka Island is fast becoming a comfortable and familiar place for me. I can't wait to go again!

Crap, It's Hot

In the space of a week , it went from being between 87 and 89 degrees every day to being between 91 and 93 degrees every day. I wouldn't have thought that 4 to 6 degrees would make a big difference but it does--at least to me.

When I got here, I was so hot and sweaty all the time and it felt gross. At home, I generally don't sweat, even in the summer, unless I'm exerting myself, so to have the back of my neck and my hair damp all the time felt icky. Luckily, it only took about a month and my body adjusted and was back to mostly not sweating. Walking places would make me sweat, but once I got somewhere and spent ten minutes in the air conditioning, I was good.

Now, however, the rainy season is officially over and the dry season has begun. It's still raining a lot. But now it's even hotter and I am sticky all the time. I imagine in a couple weeks, I'll be used to it again but this week has brutal. I think partly it's because I have a cold so my head is full of goop. Whatever it is, it's been compounded by some water problems. First, on Tuesday morning, our power went out. I understand that I should expect frequent power outages during the dry season when everyone is running their air conditioning more often. Ours turned out to be a circuit breaker, but we didn't figure that out until after getting home from work on Tuesday evening, which meant on Tuesday afternoon we had to find a place to take showers. Our water pump is electric. When it doesn't run, neither does the water.

So, we loaded ourselves into a taxi and headed for our friends' apartments. Problem solved. Until last night. We got home from work and were greeted by a laundry room flood caused by a broken water pump. Someone from the school came over to look at it, but it couldn't be fixed until morning. That meant no showers and no ability to flush the toilets. Also, we couldn't do the dishes, so I imagine the roaches and ants had a pretty good evening.

This morning, someone else came to fix it. He's still working on it. I went to my friend's house for a shower again but, boy, was I cranky about it. Mostly, I was cranky because I felt bad all day yesterday from my cold and I was sweaty and clammy and when work was finally over I was looking forward to getting home and washing the grime off before climbing into bed. Oh well. Best laid plans and all that.

So, this week has been a little weird. I've been sleeping a lot because I don't feel good and I've been cranky. Also, my first round of classes is ending so I'm a little bit sad about that too. I've had 80 students for almost 12 weeks now and over the next two weeks, they will all move into different classes with different teachers. I feel like I'm just starting to get to know them, too. It's kind of a bummer. But also kind of exciting to get a whole new group of students.

One other weird thing happened this week. One of the Indonesian friends that I've made is a commercial casting agent and she asked me to come to a casting on Sunday. I have less than zero desire to be in a commercial but she's so nice I didn't want to say no. So, I went. I stood in front of a camera and did what the people behind the camera told me to do--pretend to be an excited tourist, fishing and riding a water buffalo. It felt weird and uncomfortable. I guess it didn't show because I got the job. On Saturday, I'm going to a village outside of Bogor to shoot a commercial. I'm consoling myself with the fact that I get to spend all day in a village with my camera and will only have to be in front of someone else's camera for a small part of it. And also, I get paid. It's still weird though, right?

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

As of the date of the latest census, in 2000, there were approximately 200 million people in Indonesia. Of those, 86% are Muslims. So, it makes perfect sense that Good Friday should be a national holiday.

Of course, I'm only joking. Indonesia's constitution grants religious freedom and the country is mostly proud of its reputation for religious tolerance. Most of the people on Java, where I live, are Muslim. Bali has a large Hindu population. Places on Sumatra and Flores are largely Catholic. Other places on Sumatra and Sulawesi have many Protestants. Atheism isn't recognized as a valid choice, so I don't bring up religion very much and when asked, I generally say that I was raised as a Christian but am not religious.

That said, I certainly do not mind having days off from work because of Muslim, Christian, and Hindu holidays. There are only two months of the year that are holiday free and twice--once for the end of Ramadan and once for Christmas--I get an entire week off. Last month at Nyepi (Hindu), we had a free Tuesday so naturally we had a barbeque. This month, it't Good Friday.

Taking full advantage of a day off is important and, yesterday, I had the good luck to be invited to go along with some friends to a safari park outside of Bogor. I'd seen the park before, on the way to Cibodas, but since the only way to see the safari is to drive through in your own vehicle, it wasn't an option. But my friends have access to a car and driver, so off we went!

Riding in a comfortable cross between and SUV and mini-van while an experienced driver worries about negotiating traffic and directions is a luxury I could get used to. We left early and missed most of the holiday traffic so the trip only took a couple hours. It was well worth it.

The road to the park entrance is lined with kids selling very fresh, very orange carrots. We bought three bunches and off we went. The drive through the safari park took about an hour and a half and we saw a multitude of different types of deer and antelope and water buffalo. Many of the deer and antelope roam freely between the slow-moving parade of cars, begging for carrots at the windows. The first elephant enclosure was fenced in by a wide stream, but if the cars got close to the edge of the road and one of the bigger elephants reached out with her trunk, she could grab the carrot out of a hand. The camels could too. The zebras walked right up, took the carrots, ate them, and stuck their noses right into the window to get more. There were bunches of little monkeys--the kind Ross had on Friends--and they were freely moving around their area, but they didn't come up to the cars. They also preferred oranges to carrots.

About half way through the trip, the car entered a gated area where the animals were sectioned off, at least from each other. Before entering, we were warned to stay inside the car and keep the windows rolled up. First up, lions. They were all sleeping on raised platforms and didn't look too interested in the cars, so we rolled the windows down half way and snapped some photos. I don't imagine anyone would be stupid enough to get out of the car but there was a park ranger nearby sitting in a jeep, presumably with a tranquilizer gun just in case. The tigers were equally uninterested and so we rolled the windows down again. They also had black bears, which looked like they'd be more at home in North America than the tropics. The bears were allowed to roam between the cars. We rolled the windows down to snap, but as they walked closer, the windows went up in a hurry! At the hippos' lake, I took a picture of the largest hippo as we drove by. His mouth was open and in the picture it looks like he's about to take a bite out of our car. But he just stayed there, by the water's edge, with his mouth wide open, waiting for the cars to drive by and the carrots to be thrown in. Hilarious!

After the drive was over, we went on foot into the other section of the safari which was part zoo, part amusement park. The rides were mostly for kids, so we headed for the baby zoo where we got our pictures taken with tigers and a baby orangutan. Then, we had a bite to eat and explored the other animals. There were exotic birds flying around in an aviary, close enough to touch, lots and lots of monkeys, a creepy reptile house, an enormous Komodo dragon, and another picture station where we got to hold a python and another, older, orangutan. For the record, I had my picture taken with the baby tiger, the baby orangutan, and the adolescent orangutan. The python was too big and scary for me!

I didn't care that much about the pictures, although I'm glad I have them. The best part was getting to touch the animals. The tiger wanted to play. The baby orangutan was curious and, just like human babies, immediately wrapped one hand in my hair. The adolescent orangutan was friendly and weighed a lot. At first, she sat on my lap but then the trainer had me stand up and hold her on my hip. I couldn't believe how heavy she was.

There were elephants all over the park. Some of them were in the enclosed area on the drive. Others were available to ride through the park, with a trainer of course. We came across the paths of several during the drive. The trainers have taught them a neat trick. They put their trunks into the windows of the cars they are walking past. At first, we thought they wanted carrots, but they don't. They are looking for money. When you put the bill in their trunks, they immediately lift their trunks and give the money to the guy on top. It's a riot. In cars that didn't have the windows down, they hopefully knocked on them with their trunks. When we ran out of small bills, we closed our windows. The next elephant to come by trumpeted his disappointment when we didn't open up. The way an elephant grabs something small, like a bill or a carrot, is to close the very tip of its trunk around the item. When it grabbed from my hand, I got to feel the tip, which is moist and slimy but so cool. At other places in the park, elephants were hanging around with trainers and we got to touch them. The rest of the skin is dry with wiry hair sticking out everywhere.

The whole day was just another to add to the list of incredible experiences I've had since I arrived in Indonesia. I have mixed feelings about zoos because I think it's sad to see animals penned in and held captive but I also think it's important to be able to learn about them. I felt equally weird about interacting with them so intimately. But the one thing I noticed was that all of them looked very healthy. Their noses were moist, their eyes were bright, and their hair and skin were shiny. Must be all the carrots.