Pollyana Cowgirl

I am here in Jakarta!

Selamat Malam..
time check.. it is 5:38 pm in Jakarta!

Yes dear readers. I made it to Jakarta. The luggage, well.. I exceeded the baggage allowance by a cool 18kg and had to pay S$63 dollars. Well well... my belongings arrived with me in Jakarta, I was paranoid that they might be orphaned and I will be so lost without my pillow (yes, I decided to bring it along.. ahahaha). The only blooper was that my bottle of shampoo leaked a little and I now have the honour of the most wonderful smelling luggage around...

I have absolutely no idea how to start and what to say. It has been a sensory overload, and since my arrival yesterday afternoon, so many things have been happening (even now.. I am looking around the other users at the cybercafe... my 'neighbours')! I will try to summarise the most interesting and 'blogworthy' bits...

My apartment! I must say, I was fretting about the apartment for the past 2 months because despite the trawling on the Internet for information and placing my trust in the school's admin to locate and select a nice and safe abode, I was worried.

The condominium is NICE. Oh yes! I am living in a 2 bedroom newly furnished apartment! I am lucky to have all the major appliances provided for (they are all NEW in fact!) and I think I heard my own sigh of relief when I saw that the bed and mattress were still wrapped in plastic. The thought of sleeping on a used bed is plain... scary. With freshly painted walls and everything in order... my worst nightmare did not come true and I am in the midst of writing down a list of decorative furnishings to make the apartment home. Potpourri... mmmmm

I made two trips to Carrefour and I now have a functional kitchen and will be preparing my own dinner tonight (after I am done with this blog-post). This is all so exciting.. buying towels (hand, bath, sports, kitchen! I never knew towels were so diverse!), toiletries and little hooks and knick knacks. To my relief, my stereo system and hairdryer lugged across the vast oceans from Singapore are working fine here.

The plan tomorrow is a shopping trip to the mall to purchase bedsheets, a carpet and some pillows for the sofa... exciting! I am colour-co-ordinating! I have peach coloured curtains and a brown sofa.. so today I bought a brown doormat! I must be Martha Stewart's biggest fan in Jakarta!

I took a walk around my condominium before going to the cybercafe (here NOW!) to check out the facilities. There is a gym (tomorrow morning I will check out the equipment.. and exercise!), a pool, tennis courts, basketball court and a variety of shops and restaurants on the ground level. There are 6 towers of residence in the condominium and on the ground level there are 2 minimarts, 1 supermarket, a laundry, a few cafes, a Chinese restaurant (which sells Singaporean Chicken rice at Rp16 000.. hahahaa), a Japanese Bento restaurant, a high-end Indonesian restaurant, 2 normal-price Indonesian restaurant, a GAMING CENTRE (to my horror!!!! Lan games! Yucks.), a cybercafe (where I am at now.. it costs Rp 5000 an hour to use the Internet), a tour agency and I think that is about it. Oh.. and my favourite.. aside from the cybercafe is this cafe that sells desserts ONLY! I made a deal with myself and I will try a different dessert every week! Es Campur... Es Teler... and Bubor Hitam and .. and ..

I have been raving about the good things first.. here comes the bad...

Going to sleep was difficult last night.. I woke up at 6am (despite sleeping at 1am) feeling a bit strange... a new bed and a new place I suppose. I miss my family loads and loads! I called home and spoke to Mummy last night and she was glad that everything is fine with me... but I miss her terribly!!! But, Mummy is coming to visit in March with Mal (maybe Papa might come along if the business is not busy)! I absolutely can not wait!!!

Jakarta has a huge rich-poor divide (am I stating the obvious?). While sitting in the car, and looking out at the streets, I see slums. I am not oblivious, and hopefully I never will. Enough said. There is no point describing scenes of poverty as if there are displayed highlights.

The car drove past the school where I will be teaching last night and I will start teaching next Monday. Oh yes.. and I am excited!

More updates about my new job soon!

I finally bought a pre-paid SIM card, so yes.. I am connected.

That is it! For now...

posted by Poot @ 6:37 PM