Jacque in Jakarta: 10 signs you're an Expat in Jakarta

After nearly a year of living in Jakarta, I've started to become acclimated with parts of the culture I originally took issue with. Here's a list of ten things that any expat in Jakarta can relate to (and may be a sign you've lived here too long). In no particular order:

1. You think outside your front door is the appropriate place to store shoes

The shoe gallery down the hall

When we first arrived to Jakarta, we were surprised to see a shoe store outside our neighbors' apartments and vowed we would never leave our shoes outside of our apartment. Fast forward ten months and you will find the bulk of our shoes outside our front door. At first we may have had a fear of theft, but then we realized that nobody is going to steal a pair of Payless shoes.

2. You have Batik for every day of the week

A glimpse of our Batik collection

Batik is the traditional clothing from Indonesia. Each region has its own distinct design of Batik. Normally on Fridays, people are allowed to wear Batik to their workplace. When we first arrived, we were entirely Batik-less, but over time we have purchased Batik and received Batik as gifts from Indonesian friends. Now, we can wear Batik just about every day of the week in order to feel like a 'local'.

3. You own a pair of knock-off Crocs

Flooding is common in Jakarta during rainy season, and even in dry season there can be monsoon storms. Therefore, Crocs are quite useful since they dry quickly and have a firm grip on wet surfaces. I held out for a long time, but finally found my pair of purple crocs for a bargain price of 50,000 IDR ($5.00).

4. 'Banjir', 'macet' and 'demo' are part of your active vocabulary

That string of lights is all cars

Free swimming pool!

Upon arrival to Jakarta, even if you don't speak a word of Indonesian, you will quickly learn that 'banjir' means flood, 'macet' means traffic jam and 'demo' means protest. When Indonesians have asked me about my experience in Jakarta, I usually respond with these three words and they laugh, knowingly.

5. When you see a white person, your first thought is, "Bule!"

The only Bules in the village

In our first week of living in Jakarta, I lost track of how many times someone shouted "Bule!" 'Bule' (Boo-lay) is a term for white Westerners. Generally, it is not meant as an insult, but it can be challenging to our Western sensibilities of racism. After so much time here, I get excited when I see other white people and inadvertently say, "Oh, look! It's a Bule!"

6. You spend at least one day a week at a mall

One of the many Jakartan shopping destinations

Something we learned quickly is the cost of land here is so exuberant that restaurants, clothing stores and most other stores have to set up shop in a mall. It is difficult to find free-standing restaurants or shops, so most weekends or free days are spent in a mall. As a friend of mine said, Jakarta is the city of a hundred malls, so you can really find anything and everything you need in a Jakarta mall.

7. You've been hit/nearly hit by a motorbike at least once

Walking to work or the store is always an adventurous experience. As I've mentioned in previous posts, the sidewalks leave much to be desired, and motorbikes don't seem to understand the concept of pedestrians on sidewalks or one-way streets being one-way. If nothing else, I have learned to ALWAYS look both ways in Jakarta, even if you THINK you're on a one-way street.

8. You have at least one epic story of a horrible taxi driver

The "reliable" taxi company

Countless times we've had taxi drivers racially profile us as being rich and so they have taken advantage of us in numerous ways. Sometimes they offer to take us on a toll road that is 30 minutes out of the way. Other times they'll take a 'short cut' that extends our ride considerably. My favorite story is when the taxi driver insisted that there would be more traffic because of the Lebaron holiday (The holiday in which Jakarta is practically empty). The best advice I could give to newbies is to have a map and insist on the route you know. After a while you can explain in Indonesian, "Saya tidak bodoh".

9. You consider four people on a motorbike to be normal

A regular family vehicle

The first time I saw five people on a motorbike, my jaw dropped. Now, I consider a motorbike to be a family vehicle, suitable for the same number of people as can fit in a sedan.

10. Your diet contains more 'nasi' than bread

I have always enjoyed eating rice, which I consider a bonus for coming to Indonesia. The first time we bought a 5kg bag of rice, I thought it would last us the rest of the year. A month later I was worried that I didn't have enough rice for dinner.

There are many other signs to be shared, but these have been my main experiences. For those of you in the same situation, I hope you've enjoyed the post. For those of you who don't get it, just come to Jakarta for a few months.

Jacque in Jakarta: Pollution and Political Correctness

Since I haven't written in nearly a month, I decided I would catch up by giving a double dose of insights.

After the floods last month, we had an interesting point of view from our apartment. Once the water had finally receded, it left the river looking like this:

Yes, that pile of trash is actually the river. The heavy rains pushed all of the litter into the river, and the river carried it to this bridge. The next logical question is, 'Where did all the litter come from?'

The answer is that here in Jakarta, people have a different idea about littering. In the West, we are given fines if we throw trash on the ground, and even if we're not caught, the people around us think we are slobs. Here in Jakarta, there doesn't seem to be fines for littering and, in general, it seems to be a natural way of life. I've seen children throwing candy wrappers on the sidewalks, taxi drivers throwing bottles out of their windows and even an elderly women of about 70 throwing her used tissue on the floor of the angkot.

My students seem to realize that this isn't healthy for their environment, but when asked about it they simply accept defeat. They complain about people littering, but say nothing about it. It's as if they have accepted that this is the way it is, and therefore it's the way it always will be. Speaking of 'the way it is' leads me to my next topic.

In the West, it is generally understood that you never ask a person, especially a lady, the person's age. Additionally, marital status is something you find out from general conversation as opposed to flat out asking if someone is married. In Jakarta, the first question people ask upon meeting you is your age. The second question is about your marital status. If you are not married, they ask why you're not married. If you are married, they ask how many children you have. If you are married and don't have children, they ask why you don't have children.

Here, it seems to be understood that people, especially women, get married in their early twenties and start having babies in their first year of marriage. If you are single or childless, there's something wrong with you. This Western idea of having a career before thinking about marriage or saving money to have children seems to be lost here.

Whether or not I agree is another matter. It is simply a different way of thinking, and I suppose as long as I am a Jakartan resident I have to accept 'the way it is'. But no worries to my Western friends and family. I won't be practicing littering and I don't intend to pick up the habit of asking taboo questions any time soon.

Jacque in Jakarta: "Hei bule, bule, bule! How are you?"

After living in Jakarta for over a month, I've been able to notice some quirks of the locals. I've mentioned the cramming culture before, which is one quirk that I'm slowly getting used to. However, the thing that really drives me crazy is being called "bule" by a complete stranger.

Walking down the street, random people will quite often call out to me or Alexander and say, "Hei Mister/Hei Missus!", which is something I'm quite used to ignoring. The world over I've had to ignore unwanted advances of strangers. But more often then Mister/Missus we'll hear "bule". Generally, it is said more than just once. It kind of reminds me of a pig call, except they say, "bule, bule, bule".

"Bule" is not meant to be a derogatory term, it simply means Westerner/White person. It is not meant to be an insult, attack, or even rude. The most hilarious part is that they usually try to speak English to us after having called out "bule". The only problem is that we see it as rude, whether it is meant to be or not.

In Spain, I would joke about being a guiri, or gringa, and even here we say we're bules among friends. But if someone screamed guiri at me in the middle of Sevilla, I would understandably be irritated. It's kind of like telling someone who's disabled that he/she can't walk. Stating the obvious is never very polite. So even if they're just trying to be friendly, that's not the way to make a good impression with a stranger.

Alexander has taken to responding with, "Indonesian, Indonesian, Indonesian" everytime we're called bule. At first I was embarrassed that he did this, but then I realized a taste of their own medicine might be just what the doctor ordered. We may even achieve a cultural awarenes that bules don't like to be yelled at in public. Then again, Alexander might just give bules a reputation for being crazy.

Jacque in Jakarta: The grass is always greener...

This past week, Alexander and I moved into a new apartment. We were excited to have more storage space, hot water and a bigger bed. However, we didn't make the connection that with more storage there's more places for roaches to hide, that in a hot environment there's little need for hot showers, and that a bigger bed means the full size sheets we have don't fit.

Thus, our first night here we spent four hours cleaning out the kitchen cabinets and taping cracks of possible entry and laying down chalk that's supposed to kill roaches on contact. Over the weekend, we've spent several more hours scrubbing floors and cabinets and moving furniture to clean behind everything in an attempt to exterminate all the roaches.

As for the hot water, I think our bodies have gotten so used to cold showers that a hot one isn't that enjoyable. In fact, I generally enjoyed the cold showers compared to the hot ones. A hot shower just isn't as refreshing as a cold shower when the temperature is so warm outside.

And our bed is much larger and higher, but the sheets we brought were for a full sized bed. So, we spent Saturday shopping for sheets that would fit, and were surprised to find cotton sheets on sale for about 80USD including the fifty percent discount. We eventually managed to find some sheets for a reasonable 30USD.

As the saying goes,"the grass is always greener on the other side." On a positive note, while cleaning we managed to discover a way to arrange the furniture where we would appear to have more space and be able to use the moveable bar as a table. So, as another saying goes, "every rain cloud has a silver lining."

Living Room After

Living Room Before

Jacque in Jakarta: My commute to work

This past week was my first full week of teaching. It's been great. I really love my job. It's the only place I've worked where the second I walk through the door everyone is so happy to see me and is eager to greet me. It's incredibly welcoming.

Something that I'm not really overjoyed about concerning my job is the commute. According to google maps, my home is approximately 15 minutes from my work. In actuality, it normally takes about 45 minutes, and it can take hours. The reason for that is the traffic I discussed in my previous post.

Having to sit in traffic for an hour wouldn't be quite as bad if we took a taxi to work. However, being the penny pincher that I am, I always take the ankot.

In order to get onto the ankot, you simply wave the driver down and then hop through the open door. An ankot comfortably sits about seven people: One in the passenger seat, one on the bench at the door, two on one side, and three on the other side. But the reason I take the ankot, like so many other people, is that it's so cheap. To get from my home to work, it's 3,000 Rupiah, which is approximately thirty cents in USD. So, for the ankot driver to really make money, he has to cram as many people as possible. Thus, the top right picture shows the ankot with fourteen people, two who are sat in the passenger seat and one who is hanging onto the door frame out the door.

Family of three on bike

At first it was shocking for me to see how people were crammed onto the ankot, but then I noticed that there seemed to be a whole cramming culture here. Whether it's an ankot, an elevator or a motorbike, it seems people try to cram on as much as possible. It's normal to see a family on a bike, as pictured to the right. I've seen as many as five people on one bike and quite often see three and four people.

The cramming culture could be an explanation for why traffic is so bad. The metropolitan area has approximately 30 million people, and the population density is the nineth highest in the world, so people are just vying to fit in wherever they can.

As for me, I can honestly say I will be quite happy to return to the oversized seats of the West. It may not be the most economical, but at least it will be comfortable.

Jacque in Jakarta: The view from my balcony...

We've now been living in Jakarta for nearly two weeks. There are a vast array of differences with the West. Everything from the common modes of transportation to the main staples in the diet differ. For this post, I will simply discuss the view I have from my balcony, which is located on the 25th floor.

On a side note, the 25th floor isn't actually 25 floors up. There is no thirteenth floor, due to Western influence. Also, there is no fourth floor due to Japanese influence. The Japanese word for four sounds like the word for death. Thus, there is no floor 4, 14, 24 or even 22 because two plus two equals four.

Back to the main topic, the view from our apartment. It may seem innocuous from a quick glance, but take a closer look and you'll discover why Alexander and I have to travel to work everyday looking like this:

No, we're not off to rob a bank, we're simply trying to protect our respiratory systems from the inhalation of all the pollution that constantly surrounds us. After about thirty minutes of walking around without a mask one day, I could barely breathe in the evening. Needless to say, the air quality in Jakarta is less than desireable. 

"Why is that?" you may ask. Well, the picture on the right says it all. This was the view from our balcony this past Friday night. That's an image of bumper-to-bumper SUVs, taxis, ankots, motorbikes, buses and bajails all adding their own exhaust to the atmosphere of Jakarta. The problem is this isn't only on Friday nights. This is every night...and every morning...and every afternoon. For about 12 hours or more everyday the traffic is horrendous.

So, when we first arrived, we thought we saw a morning fog while looking out from our balcony. However, one day here taught us that it was actually a daily smog. Which is unfortunate, since it ruins what could be a beautiful view or a beautiful day and it also makes an already miserably hot day a few degrees hotter.

So should you ever venture to this side of the world, it's best to forgo your vanity and bring a facemask... lest you want to cough up Jakarta's air in the evening.

Planes, trains and automobiles: A trip to the other side of the world

It's been a week since Alexander and I started our journey from the West to the East. We left L'Isle Jourdain last Saturday and drove to Poiters with his parents, where they dropped us off at the train station. We then took a train to Paris Montparnasse, from there we took a metro to Gare St. Lazare and then took the RER to Marly le Roi where Alexander's Aunt Veronique picked us up in her car to stay the night with her. We had a lovely night enjoying wine, which we knew would be hard to come by once we arrived in Indonesia, and cheese, which is abundant in France, but not so much in Indonesia.

On the flight to Colombo

Sunday morning, I enjoyed breakfast with a bowl of Earl Grey tea, drinking from a bowl is a French custom that I thoroughly approve of, and then we loaded up into the car again and Aunt Veronique drove us to Charles de Gaulle airport. We flew with Sri Lanka airlines, so after nearly ten hours we arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka from Paris on Monday morning. The Colombo airport supplied me with my first jolt of culture shock. When we arrived, there were no customs officers to ask us twenty questions, there were no immigration officers to stamp our passport, we literally just walked right into the airport and on to the gate to wait for our next flight. We had to wait for the gate to open, during which time I needed to use the toilet....and I wished I had used it on the airplane. The floor was covered in liquid that I hope was water, but assume was urine. There were no trash cans in the stalls (for the men reading, women need trash cans in stalls to take care of female issues). Next to the toilet there was a kind of hose used to wash your unmentionables, which I didn't utilize. To top it off, I heard another woman use the toilet and not wash her hands, but that unfortunately happens in every country.

View of Singapore gardens

Once our gate opened, we went through a security check, but we didn't have to take off our shoes. We then waited for a bus to take us to board our plane. The flight from Colombo to Singapore was actually much more comfortable than the first flight, but it was only three and a half hours. Arriving in Singapore's Changi International Airport was kind of like arriving to a tropical resort. It was hands down the most beautiful airport I've ever been to. We then took a taxi to get to our hotel. The taxi driver was incredibly friendly, and basically gave us a free tour of the "Garden City". We arrived at the hotel late Monday afternoon, and tried to explore a bit, even though we were completely exhausted. It was really amazing that we had traveled to the other side of the world, but we were surrounded by the English language and Western stores. It was an illustration of globalization at its finest.

All day Tuesday we continued to explore Singapore. Of course we had to have lunch at an English pub. However, the traditional fish and chips would have been to heavy, so we opted for the neo-traditional dish of Chicken Tikka Masala. Once we explored the majority of the city, we took the very modern Metro/Subway/Underground to pick up our luggage and then took a taxi back to the airport. Our flight to Jakarta was just over an hour. Once we arrived in Jakarta, I was worried about the bottle of wine I had in my bag. However, security and customs were once again not nearly as strict as Western standards. From the airport we were picked up and brought to our new apartment.

So after four days of planes, trains and automobiles, we finally arrived to our new home in Jakarta. It's hot, polluted and a tad small, but it's a place of our own. There's a vast array of cultural differences, but I will save those for later posts. For now, I'm happy to be settled...at least for the next year.

An American in England: My next great adventure

I have now been in England for nearly three months and I'm preparing to move on to my next location: Indonesia via France. My three months here have not exactly been the best. It has been the rainiest English summer in the past century, my husband and I started off searching non-stop for jobs and once we found a job, started studying non-stop to get our TEFL certification. However, we have managed to find a job, and are a test away from certification, which are definitely good things.

I will be working as an English teacher with a company called English First. My husband and I were able to both get jobs with the same company. We happened to find the position by chance while looking for positions for couples. Through our research we discovered that companies are more likely to hire couples than individuals because couples are more likely to be established and willing to make more of a commitment to the position as compared to an individual who might get homesick and want to leave. We had our search narrowed down to positions in Russia, Turkey and Indonesia, and finally decided Indonesia had the most attractive contract for us. We'll be teaching English to a range of students, from 3-year olds to business people, for the duration of a one year contract.

map of Indonesia

In order to travel to and get visas in Indonesia, we've had to run around to prepare things. We needed to get an HIV test, drugs test, vaccinations and health screenings. We got our HIV test in Redditch, drugs test in Birmingham, vaccinations in two different Redditch locations, and health screenings on two different days in London. Although it was a very hectic two weeks, we were able to at least enjoy our time in London with friends and family. A college friend of Alexander came out with us to dinner and we were able to spend time with Alexander's brother James and James' girlfriend, Julie.

Other than running around to get all our testing and shots, we've also been studying to get a TEFL certification. We signed up for a 100-hour online course, which we finally completed, and now we just have to take a test to get certified. We aren't required to have a TEFL certification for our position in Indonesia, but we decided it would be better for future endeavors if we had certification. Eventually, we might just travel the world as teachers... who knows.