I just got done riding my first motorbike in Jakarta
traffic. It wasn’t too bad. I volunteered at a friend’s class as he teaches
adults and needed them to converse with some English speaking people they
didn’t already know. Basically they tried to sell me laptops using the sales
lingo/outline they had been given. I was picked up by a tiny Indonesian boy,
and was running a bit late, so I hopped on with a loose helmet. 2 issues: I
couldn’t see because of my stupid bangs (not a real problem since I wasn’t
driving) and due to my long white legs, and the fact that I was wearing wedges
my legs went far above this short guys arms/shoulders. I’m freakishly tall
here. He had to hold his arms up above my legs, straining to reach the handles
of the bike. It also started raining (only a bit.) On the way home it was much
more comfortable as I was behind a tall white dude. Morgan went a bit faster
(there wasn’t as much traffic) so I actually had to hold on a bit. It wasn’t
nearly as scary as I thought it would be, and it felt so nice to have wind
blowing on me that wasn’t air-conditioned. I’d like to get a bike just for the
fun of driving it around. I know I wouldn’t get anywhere, and the chances of
ending up back home and alive would be small. Mostly because I cannot seem to
create a map of this city in my mind, and I wouldn’t have the first clue how to
drive, or drive in the awful traffic of the city.
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| typical |
Indonesian Wedding
One of my co-workers got married! Lucky for me I was invited
to the wedding. Here, they invite everyone. I was also invited to my student’s
sisters wedding, but I will not be attending. I was really excited to get the
cultural experience. Some interesting things I learned:
- The dress/customs depend largely on which area of Indonesia one is from. For example, the wedding I attended was a Balinese wedding, meaning that the family was from Bali, they had dancers from Bali, and they wore lots of flowers in their slicked back and painted on hair. I was shown pictures of a wedding in Sulawesi and their dress was quite different, and they always wear red on their wedding day.
- They don’t dance at their receptions. They have performers dance for you, but there is no dance floor or dancing music.
- You eat standing. There was a ton of food, and all was very delicious, but there were no tables to sit down on. I simply got a plate of food (followed by 3 more) and held my plate in front of me while eating.
- It isn’t customary to give presents, only cash. The amount is pretty standard unless you are a family member, then it changes based on your social status.
- The bride always changes after the ceremony. They wear white dress for the ceremony, but change to a different dress for the reception.
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| moving slowly |
I’m sure there was more, but that is all I can seem to
remember. We arrived early, and
were eventually let into the hall. The couple and family walking in, down an
aisle very, very, extremely slowly and then sat on the stage for the
performances. 3 dances took place,
all from Bali. One of the performances consisted of a man dressed as a woman
and I’m not sure of the symbolism of this. Then we all walked on the stage to
offer congratulations and get pictures taken. It was quite the hassle to get
the entire Royal Academy staff that attending in one picture, but we
managed.
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| performance number 3 |
The next part was the
best part: food! They had SOOOOOOO much food. I began with a pork/chicken
creamy soup with a puff pastry on top. Then I moved on to some Dim Sum, before
hitting the full course buffet of veggies, rice, chicken cordon blue, shrimp,
beef lasagnaish dish (it wasn’t made with noodles and was spicy) and french
fries. At this point I was already quite full and luckily Jackson came and
offered me one sate ayam (chicken sate) so I wouldn’t have to eat a whole
platter. I moved onto the dessert table where there was a delicious bread
pudding dish, with cinnamon and raisins. On the way home we asked what this
dish was made out of and they said it is actually coconut baked for a very long
time in cream. It was divine, and I had 2 servings before moving on to the very
sweet coconut milk ice cream. At this point I reached capacity and chugged a
glass of water. I should also note that not a drop of alcohol was served. It
was a wonderful evening with my co-workers and I’m very thankful to have
experienced it.
Solo Run Outside
Most weekends Angie and I have been trying to meet up with
our co-workers at car free morning. On Sundays they shut down the main road of
the city from cars (from about 5-10am) and allow people to bike/walk/run. Quite
a strange concept, but also awesome. They don’t really have parks or runnable
sidewalks here, so you take what you can get. Every time I go I feel like I’m
in a parade because the street is full of people, musical performers, and
banners with causes. I also will commonly get asked “Miss what’s your name” by
little kids, and pointed at/followed by Indonesian men. Most Sundays we meet
our co-workers at the bus stop about a 15 minute walk away and ride the bus
there, however we realized that we could run to the street in about 20 minutes
and we always run into our coworkers miraculously anyway, so busing was
pointless. We decided to simply leave the house at 5:30 and run there, run to
Monas (the end of the car-free road) and then to run home, stopping to walk if
we met our co-workers along the way.
On Sunday Angie woke up feeling quite ill even though we had
made it to bed by 11 after zero drinks (for her) and 2 beers (for me) the night
before. I was a bit disappointed but decided to go anyway, figuring I’d manage
to find someone I knew. We had walked the route once in our first month here,
but I was still nervous about finding my way. The streets were mostly empty on
the way there, however at one point I was crossing a main road and ended up
balancing my weight on the median while running to my new favorite “pump me
up!” song. It was a bit nerve racking, with cars flying by on both sides of me,
but I was proud of myself for finally looking the right way when crossing the
road. It has been a rough transition to look the opposite way, and usually
Angie has to pull me out of harms way. A few times I was nervous I was on the
wrong route and would get utterly lost in the city, but I had brought a bit of
money with in case I had to catch a cab home. I made it without any problems,
proving that once I walk somewhere I can totally make a map in my head. I
didn’t manage to meet anyone, but I did walk/run to and from Monas twice, and
managed to get home by about 7:00. I’d say I put in a good 10K, and quite
enjoyed some running outside time, even thought the sidewalks and crowds are
crap. I’ll take what I can get.
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