Touring Jakarta

This has been a while, but a couple of weekends ago, fellow teacher Ami and I decided to explore Jakarta for a day. The result was an early morning, a late night, a lot of walking and a lot of fun. Here are the results:

It was the day of the national election so one of the first things we passed was a polling station, which is pretty much what it looks like: a makeshift tent in the middle of the street. (By way of update, the election went pretty smoothly, except for the fact that many people couldn't vote because their names weren't on the voter lists. We still don't know who will be running for president in July since coalitions haven't yet been finalized.)

We moved on to Monas, the National Monument, where we spent some time on the grounds around it. Here's Ami:
And here I am in front of Monas. You may recognize it from when my parents, Megan, and I visited in October.


Then we walked down to one of Jakarta's oldest cathedrals, which has a lovely wooden ceiling. Because the doors to the cathedral stay open, there were little birds flying around the columns, perching on statues, and chirping little choruses. I loved the idea of sparrows and songbirds living in God's house.
Walking around the cathedral, I snapped this picture. These people live under the bridge and live off whatever they can find, including the garbage in the water.


After the cathedral, we walked around a bit back toward Monas, where I got a taste of a traditional plant drink. Sweet and woody, it was served to us out of this bamboo-like container.

Next, we headed up to a mall for lunch and the Indonesian version of a dollar store where everything costs 6000 rupiah (about 60 cents) as long as you have exact change. This sign says "Everything!! One Price!" I'm not sure what the dancing rabbits are for.


The last thing we did was to go to the top of Monas. We waited in line for a long time, but it was definitely worth it. One thing I noticed this time was how cool the gardens around Monas look from above.

There are metal bars to keep you from falling off, but what are metal bars for except sticking your head through to take pictures? ("That wrist strap better be in working order," thinks my camera.)


(Yes, I got sunburned.)


Every once in a while, I take a good picture. This is one of my favorites.

Heightened Visibility

By this time, I should be used to the extra attention that I get when I go out, but it's starting to get old. Obviously, I am taller, blonder, curlier-haired, bluer-eyed, bigger-nosed, and lighter-skinned than most Indonesians I encounter, but this seems to project a silent "I'd-appreciate-it-if-you'd-randomly-say-hello-to-me" signal, mostly to men. Some people want to take pictures with me in public places. I even had a woman plunk her infant son on my lap to take a photo of us in the angkot on the way to the mall.

I try to be gracious, giving nods, smiles, hellos, or pictures as I feel comfortable, but I get tired of it sometimes. This is probably due to my American over-developed sense of privacy. One of my Indonesian colleagues has a collection of cartoons that highlight Indonesian-Western cultural conflicts, and my favorite documents an experience I've had more than once. An Indonesian man gets on a bus and sits down next to a Western woman with comically curly hair. As he asks her questions ("Hi. Where are you going?" "Where are you from?" "How old are you?" "Are you married?" "Not yet? Why not?" "So when?"), her expression goes from quizzical to irritated to furious before she yells, "SHUT UP! NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!

Of course, I'm sure that many the people I encounter are thinking, "What the heck is she doing?" Like when I stayed to the very end of the credits last night at a movie, the theater attendants were giving me extremely strange looks. Apparently, that isn't done here.

Hanukkah Miracle

Way back last July when I was just moving in, one of the apartment helpers came to install the gasoline canister in a compartment under my stove. I think almost all gas for cooking comes in canisters here, and that's what allows for the pushcarts on the streets that make all manner of fried delights. Here's the miracle part: for nine months now, that same canister of gas has been fueling my stove and oven. It has baked pies and cookies, roasted a Thanksgiving turkey, heated gallons of water for tea and coffee, fried stir-fry, steamed rice, popped popcorn, boiled beans, and simmered soups. Every time I put peanuts in the oven to roast (home-roasted peanuts are my new favorite school snack) or scramble an egg or make curry, there's a part of me that wonders how much longer that canister can last. But mostly I enjoy having my own little kitchen marvel. Here's to another nine months!

Campaign Season

Good news! National election + Good Friday = four day weekend.

Real Campaign
Tomorrow is Indonesia's election of the national legislature. I haven't been following it very closely, but I know that the outcome will be extremely important for the presidential election later this year. In honor of the election, here's a picture from Kalimantan (but I've seen the same kind of thing lots of places in Jakarta.)

It's the Indonesian version of lawn signs: campaign posters with pictures of stoic politicians (no artificially whitened teeth or Blagojevich hairstyles) and checkboxes with the corresponding party number. I've also seen some campaign ads on TV that are very poorly spliced into the commercials breaks interrupting all those commercials that I really wanted to see. I can't really comment on those since the only thing I understand of all of them is "Untuk Indonesia," which just means "For Indonesia."

Campaign to Learn More Indonesian
Fun fact about the Indonesian language: to express a belief or opinion, most Indonesians will say "saya rasa," which is literally "I feel." But it is a mark of a more educated person to use "saya pikir," which is "I think." This is the kind of stuff that I find fascinating about learning a new language, all the little cultural assumptions that are hidden in language. Like "terima kasih," the expression for "thank you," is literally "receive" + "love." And "sama-sama" (which means "you're welcome" and is just plain fun to say) is something like "same here." I know I said fact (which usually implies one), but it's hard to stick to just one when I'm learning so much interesting stuff about the language. Please forgive the dorkiness.

Campaign for Having a Great Weekend
Even though I don't have school tomorrow, I'm still getting up early because I'm being introduced to the Jakartan public bus system tomorrow by Ami, one of my fellow teachers. We're going to the national monument and a cathedral, and I'm hoping for cool pictures and all around good times. I love Ami because she's my personal cheerleader for learning Indonesian. She forces me to speak Indonesian when we eat lunch together, and she teaches me songs in Indonesian. Today we performed a song she taught me for our Wednesday afternoon chapel service. And I didn't screw up the words.

Other campaigns I've supported this week:
The Movement for Getting Student Work Off Laura's Desk
Drink More Fresh Juice Society
People Recognizing That Taxes are Especially Painful When You Graduate from College and Move to Another Country in the Same Year
Lovers of Leftovers
Campaign to Stay Up Late for No Good Reason
The Movement to Promote Better Student Grammar
People Looking Forward Visiting Home in Two and a Half Months!