Jacque in Jakarta: The Last Month

One month from today, Alexander and I will be finishing our year-long contract here in Jakarta. The original plan was to renew for another year. We planned to live in Jakarta for one more year. We planned to dodge motorbikes, breathe in pollution and circumnavigate holes in the sidewalks for one more year. We planned to spend more time with our friends, have dinner out a few times a week and get massages for under five dollars for one more year.

That was our plan. But life isn't something you can always plan.

After much thought, long talks and a lot of prayer, Alexander and I decided we need to be closer to our families. This doesn't mean we'll be living in anyone's backyard. But there's a big difference between a 9-hour flight and a 24-hour flight. There's also the complication of exit visas here in Indonesia, which don't exist in Europe.

So we've decided to return to Europe, Poland to be exact. This wasn't a decision left to chance. Over the course of a week, we sent out about thirty applications around the world. By around the world, I mean: Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, France, Spain and Morocco. Out of all those positions in all those countries, there was only one school that offered an acceptable package for both of us: Poland.

It will be a bit of a culture shock for us to go from a city of over 17 million people to a town of around 10,000. We also aren't completely prepared to go from temperatures of 40°C (104°F) to 25°C (77°F). It will additionally take some getting used to going from Indonesian Rupiah to Polish Zloty. But I think we're ready for the change, and it's a decision that is best for us at this time.

In the meantime, we still have a month left in Jakarta. I don't want to get upset about leaving my friends, but instead I want to enjoy the time we have left together. It's not "goodbye", Jakarta, it's "see you later".

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: My walk to work

This past month has been a bit hectic, so I'm just doing my best to try to write a post twice a month. Exciting news: Alexander and I have decided to renew our contracts for another year, meaning we won't be leaving Jakarta until October 2014 at the earliest. Thus, the longer we live here, the fewer things I'll be able to comment on, so I might eventually only write once a month.

For my topic today, I decided to write about my walk to work. I have previously written about my commute to work, but that was when we were living at a different place. Since we moved, our new commute to work is only a walk of just under 10 minutes. This might sound like a pleasant improvement from the terrors of the angkot, however, there are still plenty of...what should I say...challenging aspects of getting to work.

To start with, our apartment is still a construction site. That means there are quite often cranes suspended in the air which we have to walk under and there isn't really a place for pedestrians to walk. They seem to only take motor traffic into consideration.

Then, as I have discussed in a previous post, the sidewalks in Jakarta are, to say the least, difficult to walk on. The sidewalks between my apartment and work pose a few additional hazards, which include: An exposed and dirty river, dodgy coverings for said river, motor vehicles on the sidewalk, and parts of the sidewalk missing.

I think Jakarta without human influence would actually be a beautiful place with lovely canals. However, Jakarta is known for its pollution, thus the canals aren't that lovely. Imagine walking next to this everyday with the fear of falling in:

As you can see, there have been a few attempts to cover the river, but I don't trust the stability of wood that has been exposed to the monsoon rains of Jakarta.

Then of course there is the issue of where to walk, when it seems that cars and trucks have taken up all the possible space you could use to avoid walking on the road.

And finally, it wouldn't be a Jakarta sidewalk if there wasn't damage to it.

If I think of it imaginatively, walking to work is really an exciting adventure. It's like mixture of an obstacle course and kind of the opposite of "Hole in the Wall"....don't fall in the hole!

Jacque in Jakarta: The perils for pedestrians

As promised in a previous post, I am now going to address one of the "cultural quirks" about life in Jakarta: Pedestrianism. Or, to put it more bluntly, the lack of access for those who wish to be a pedestrian. Not only are there not proper sidewalks, i.e. flat, even surfaces for people to walk, there are additional hazards such as motorbikes and floods that prevent people from walking even the shortest of distances.

Since arriving in Jakarta less than four months ago, I have purchased three pairs of shoes. First let me say that I'm not much of a shoe horse. Although I have thirty pairs of shoes waiting for me back in Arkansas, those shoes have been accumulated over the course of about fifteen years and the majority have been given to me by my grandmother. I hold firmly to the belief that if I keep them long enough they will eventually come back into style. So for me to purchase more than one pair of shoes in ninety days, I assure you there is a good reason.

The first two pair that I bought were on a two for one sale. Ask most anybody who knows me and they'll assure you I'm a sucker for a good sale. Thus, I had no choice but to purchase two pair. I assumed they would get me through my entire year hear in Jakarta. Well, you know what they say about assume. After about six short weeks, one pair of shoes had broken....in half.....from the sidewalk. Merely walking on the Jakarta pavements caused a pair of shoes to fall apart. Therefore, my husband forced me to the shoe store to buy another, more proper pair of shoes for this environment. If only the uneven, broken, damaged sidewalks were my only concern, then I might still hazard a stroll down the road.

However, there are also the motorbikes. Lots of motorbikes. They don't follow the so-called rules of the road, and I'm increasingly doubting Jakarta even has rules of the road. People don't seem to stay in lanes when they're driving, and I have yet to even see proper lines down the road to mark lanes. But the motorbikes seem to even have different "non-rules" as compared to the automobiles. Motorbikes don't always stop at red lights, they drive down the wrong side of the road, and sometimes they even come up onto the sidewalks. There is no safe place from the motorbikes.

And last, but certainly not least, the rainy season. Not rain as in a miserable British summer. Rain as in torrential monsoon downpours. Add that to the ever increasing litter problem and you get floods. Monstrous, jaw-dropping, see-it-to-believe-it floods. And since a picture says a thousand words, let me say no more than this:

This is what it's like to be a pedestrian in Jakarta