First batiks

There was a batik sale at the mall, so we went shopping.  Left the kids home.  There had to have been 30,000 shirts to choose from.  It was mind blowing, but Zeric was brave.  Everyone got one but me.. and wow! do they look great! I'm noticing that batik can be very busy when cut into grown-up dress styles. I'll stick to furniture for the moment.  

[notice the subliminal continued allegiance to the Nats!!]

Found the party people!

Zeric gravitates to them.. but I don't do a bad job either. We suspected we had identified some good ones, and this past weekend proved that to be true.  

 

who knew Tina Turner and Buddy Holly were so German??


 It's still a mystery to me why Oktoberfest was happening at the end of September here.. but Lufthansa, Heineken and Mercedes were all behind it (and we were invited by a bunch of FUN people!), so we went. 



Zeric was there for the food

There was a ton of food.  Lots of pig, lots of dough, and lots of cheeeeeese.  Lots of loud [um American] music and loads of tables and benches for dancing on.  Pretzels everywhere! (that's really why I went).  All kinds of traditional German dress.. from the couple in purple plaid whose lederhausen and dirndl matched, so a couple of.. er.. invitees who figured it was a good event for displaying their allegiance to the Germans with their cleavage. Very cute young Indonesian women in very tight very short very green Heineken dresses were carrying pitchers and filling steins all night long.  The Indonesian boys were doing the same had their makeshift lederhausen on.  That part was a little.. colonial, in a sad way.  In all, the whole thing was pretty twilight zone in just about every way.

But did I mention that there was free-flowing beer all night?  [not that that does me much good, however.. Zeric actually handed me a cappucino along the way] As was pointed out to me several times, it was not REAL BAVARIAN beer.. but, well, it seemed to be doing the trick for some people: 

Zeric somehow made it to his first ever 9am squash lesson the next morning. Go Zeric!  And, we had a birthday party invite later on, and--as you know--there's nothing like a few clowns to cure a hangover.

I hope this coming weekend is a bit more low-key... but I fear that whisky-tasting night at Murphy's Irish Pub could have similar results.  I'll bring my camera. 

Who knew of the plethora of cultural activities that Jakarta had to offer?

Shana Tovah!

Happy new year! Not many Jews.. or as Eben calls us, "Jewishes"..  in these here parts.  There are no synagogues on the island of Java, and I think there are only two in the whole country.  See http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/synIndonesia.html  Honestly, they aren't too high on the 'vacation destination' list at this point.  There are a few groups of bule that get together for the holidays.  We did own our thing this year, and not surprisingly, we continued our tradition of focusing the holiday on food.  Zeric took the afternoon off from class, and I postponed a squash lesson (let me say that again! I'm not working, I'm not working, I'm not working..) and we cooked.  We had a few friends over to enjoy dinner with us, we said a few prayers about our wishes for the new year, our responsibilities to help others, and--of course--we did those great Jewish blessings for the children.  We ate and ate and laughed.  And then we left all of the dishes for Ibu Sikom.  Or, as we sometimes call her, Ibu Fischer Paykel.

Here is the menu 

We did do the soup.. as the stick blender arrived in our air freight (someone was thinking!).  We did the beets, the chickens (three.. they are small here).  We did the couscous, and roasted baby zucchini replaced the green beans.  Tarte tatin I'm saving for the weekend when Charles and Juan visit (right? right?!?). Couldn't find pomegranates in the market.  What?! Snake fruit, yes.  Dragon fruit, yes.  Not the same.  Did raisin challah (round weave, it was cool but not great.. it's gone. sorry no pic).  Did apples and honey.  Did honey cake (they taste better if you call them 'honey brownies', see pic).  AND... drum roll.. Eben and I did our first batch of ice cream, vanilla of course, in our new ice cream machine.  It was great.  What a perfect way to bring in the new year!  Apple ice cream in the works for tomorrow.  Maybe I can stay here after all.

Today, we kept the Jewishes out of school and I took them to the port. We brought some stale challah from the freezer and threw a bunch into the ocean to wash away the sins of the past year.  We had quite a bit, so don't worry.. we have you all covered. 

The kids reminded me that last year we did it from the Calvert Street bridge, tossing the bread threw the bars, watching it sail down 30 feet before hitting Rock Creek.  This was a step up!

Why the port?  Well, we've been meaning to go and we didn't make it our first weekend as planned (we ended up at a Chinese restaurant instead, see one of my first posts).  And we needed a running body of water.  There were a few closer alternatives, but for those of you who know what 'running water' in third world cities is all about, you know that that wasn't quite the right ambience for a Rosh Hashannah ritual.  

 

The port is at the way north end of the city.  It was founded back in the 1600s by the Dutch East India Company, and it currently docks the traditional large wooden boats that ferry goods between islands.  We saw all kinds of loading and off-loading.  Trucks. Cranes. We saw lots of old buildings.  And we talked about the Dutch.  Or as Eben calls them, "the Dutches".  We need to work on irregular plurals. Right after he nails French.

Though we were invited, we were too chicken to walk up the board to get on the ship.  "Maybe next time", Eben says.  Yeah, or not.

The big thing we missed was having all of you at our Rosh Hashannah dinner table.  Maybe next year.

With hugs and wishing you all sweet things for 5772!

Ah, the markets..



rattan rockers.. once you're in, it's hard to get out!



If I am in the right mood, have the right shoes on, have small change in my pocket, have nowhere to be, and have nothing I have to get.. I love going to the market.  Determining price seems to be a similar bargaining process to the West African markets, though so far, the I'll-just-walk-away strategy doesn't work as well.  And there is a very substantial 'bule' (boo lay' - albino, derog. white person) markup. I need to take my Bahasa lesson seriously this afternoon, if for no other reason than so that I can negotiate more stuff for our money. 

We went shopping for baskets.. we took the kids.  Convincing them to use the "walk away" method of negotiating was tricky.  I think they've got it now, though, especially given that they ended up getting their pink and green net-covered baskets (originally intended to keep bugs off of food, but great baby beds with built-in mosquito nets!).  I got ten big baskets for about $50.  And I'm sure I paid too much.  But I bargained, I did.  I made a stack of what I wanted, they named the prices of each as I went along. Once I had my stack, I did the math in my head and offered a price half of what they were going to say.  They made the face.  I made the other face. We went back and forth on the calculator.. and we came to a standstill.. a different of about 15,000 rupiah ($1.70).  So I added my new office trash can and said okay.  And that was that :)  But he was still making the face.

 

Ibu Sikom helped us navigate basket shopping!

Last week,  I finally got the 'traditional Indonesian' vegetable market, again with Sikom as my guide.  Very familiar, lots of great produce.  Again, I need more Bahasa.  At one point, a grandma was asking to adopt me.. or maybe it was the other way around.  I was proud of myself that I understood when one woman said, "mau! mau!" and I understood that she was saying that I wanted [whatever she was selling].  My standards are low for having had two lessons... meanwhile, Zeric is jammin'.  He gets 6 hours/day everyday through November, so he can already get his taxis to go where he wants and is probably about to start translating Shakespeare.  But I came home with beans, brown rice, the best bananas, cucumbers, garden tomatoes, palm sugar, thai ginger, dikon radishes, and lemon basil.  Can't wait to see how much more I get when I can speak for myself!

 

unhappy catfish, amazing cinnamon, and a market lady with niiiice tomatoes

On the road in Jakarta

Here are a few shots of the city as we were driving.. I've been likening it to NYC in terms of size and character of neighborhoods, but I know nothing yet so I reserve the right to revise that perception.  Notice though that Uncle Kevin can come visit, there is a McDonald's on every corner AND there are 24-hour MickyD delivery motorcycles that cover the whole city [will get a photo of that too].   They are huge and fancy.. competing with KFC ... ick ick ick.  Hoping that J&E don't notice the monster play places inside of each one as we've already had to explain once why they have never eaten at any of these on any continent. I think I'll die if one of their classmates ever decides to host a birthday party at one of them.  That won't happen at a French school, right?!

 

Finally, my favorite sign to date, look closely:

It's not really what you think.  They don't really cook cat here.  At least not in Jakarta.

More of these to come, I'm sure.

Jakarta is notorious for its traffic, and so we are learning to organize our lives around it.  So far we have not had to sit in 3-hour jams (but then again, it hasn't started raining everyday yet).  I am working on getting a car potty for when that day comes.  We already have the snack box.  I'm thinking about a car cooler.  It did rain a little the other day and Zeric came on on a motorcycle taxi.. he was soaked but in one piece. That's all I know about it, and that's all I want to know about it. Eben and woot do have a great coping mechanism for traffic, however.

I would drive here.  I would, if we got an automatic and if they got rid of the motorcycles.  I get it.. it's cheaper than a car, and it's faster than a car.  And you really CAN fit your whole family on one.  We've seen 4 people on one motorcycle. [I'll get a picture of that an add it.]  Doesn't usually involved helmets on the kids--and Eben always has something to say about how dangerous it is to be without a motorcycle.  Can't wait till he learns Bahasa, then I'll roll down the window and let him lecture.  The thing is, the morotcycles are allowed anywhere on the road, including both sides of your car.  I hide my eyes and let Pak Supono (our very safe, patient driver) deal with it.  He is awesome.

Gettin' some soul in Seoul

Backtracking a bit in the chronology as this was the on the way to Jakarta, but it was a fabulous 24 hours and I wanted to share. 

The second we found out we were flying through Seoul instead of Europe to get to Jakarta, we had three simultaneous thoughts:

1. Will the dogs get eaten in transit (just kidding!!!)
2. What?! No Paris layover???
3. Yay!! We get to see Young Hee!!

Young Hee was our awesome au pair for 9 months.  We hadn't seen her in almost 2 years, and while the kids had changed a lot, we all still remembered her with lots of love in our hearts.  So this was a bonus.  [Side note: The dogs flew through Amsterdam, but neglected to pick up some cheese.]

reunited!

Young Hee recommended a great hotel in a terrific part of town, and she and her best friend Young Young came to get us for dinner.  We had real Korean bbq. Yum!!  The kids fell asleep on our laps (more food for us!).  The next morning, Young Hee came back and had breakfast with us, and we did some walking around.  It was so nice to catch up with her and hear how well she's doing.  By the time we had spent a day in Seoul, we were sold!  We would have been happy to stay on and live there.  I'm sure they need something developed.  We are now very much looking forward to seeing Young Hee when we go back and forth across the ocean, and to having her come visit us in Bali (I mean Jakarta).

 I'm noticing a climbing theme here...

...and (shockingly) a food theme too.

sleeping kids, a grown-up movie,  and more bibimbop!

On that note, you'll be happy to know that bibimbop doesn't stop on Korean soil.  Korean Air served it on every flight!  Woohoo!





Food, part 3 - L is for litchi

Zeric took me out on a date last night to this super funky place called Koi.  It might be my new favorite hang out, and it's just a 10 minute walk from our house. We went there for brunch with friends last weekend; their coffee is great and their food selection is great--even by Columbia Heights standards.  Most of what I remember about last time is that Jaffa and Eben had a lot of stickers happening.  I was wearing quite a few of them by the time we left, including a tennis racket on my shoulder and a tree on my.. er.. lapel.  Anyway, we wanted to try dinner for grown-ups and so we went back last night. We started with drinks.. Zeric had the cucumber rosemary gin and tonic. [Save that idea for your next dinner party if you like G&Ts, it a great combo.]  I ordered the kiwi litchi martini.. and it was just.. dangerous.  I could have gone through 5 or 6 of them. Instead, we had the chili garlic calamari. I could have gone thorugh 5 or 6 plates of those too.

And then he had the szechuan monster shrimp, and I had the green mussels with stinky cheese sauce.  You know how I feel about cheese, and at Koi, they have sauce AND raclette AND fondue.  My new favorite place in Jakarta. To be honest, cheese on shellfish is a bit.. risky, and there were moments when I wasn't sure it was working. So then I went back to dunking the baguette in the cheese. That worked fine.

I'm going back tomorrow to try out a morning without stickers.

 



the camera wasn't quick enough!



All dressed up

"Jaffa, we look like we're going to be marryin', don't we?"

Food, part 2 - Cheese

Mom?  Mom?  Mom??  Can you hear me??  You're flying through Paris to get here in a month?  Please pack an extra duffle bag for cheese.   I promise to fill it with furniture for your trip back home.

This:

can be found at the chi chi upscale very expensive grocery called KemChix.  It is behind a locked door.  (See photographer's reflection in the glass.) It costs $50 for a normal cut of French cheese.

I'm afraid I have to rethink living here.

At least we can still make challah.  

...and be goofy doing it!

First exposure to furniture



coffee table - cross-section of a tree trunk, probably 7 feet in diameter at its widest



In fine trailing spouse form, I spent a good part of the day today out with ladies going through furniture stores in Ciputat.  I didn't buy anything.. yet.  But this is definitely the place to be if you like wood.  They do everything--modern, traditional, new wave, Dutch colonial (completely with finials, cane weaving, and Delft tile), Chinese influenced.  And lots of things made out of pieces of wood from trees that were soooo big that they shouldn't have been cut down. 

So I was planning for a new headboard,
but heck, why not a 4-poster with a roof? 

Some shops had beautiful layouts and AC, others had furniture stacked all over the place.. it was a good time, and nice to get some exposure to what's out there.  Our house is furnished, so we can take our time finding the right pieces.  That was my mantra today, each time I went reaching for my wallet: we can take our time... we can take our time...  Besides, Mom will be here soon and I'll of course have to go shopping with her!

The other thing that kept me from spending was learning that shipping between islands is fast, cheap, and reliable.  So I'll wait and go get the perfect pieces from their sources! 


how many Dutch bottoms sat here?



I need him for our front porch

please park your frog here

Oh, and I will be starting my stone Ganesh collection very soon..

On the state of things..

Captain Mommy.  And the mask matches my dress :)

Still not over the jetlag.  The thumb eventually fell out of his mouth.  Great chair.

All the latest in Muslim women's fashion. Fancy department stores here!  Mini skirts are around the corner ;)

Water wall fascination.  Did we mention fancy department stores?

yup, groceries are a five-minute walk from our door.  awesome!

Parlez-vous frog?

We are so excited to learn French!!

So once we realized we weren't going to a francophone post, we decided that the kids should get French anyway and that the French school (Lycee International Francais de Jakarta) was the best way to do that.  The American school here is apparently one of the best EVER and people rave about it, but we have stood firm that we want these kids to get some French fluency (even though it will ruin our ability to talk about them in front of their little faces).  We went to the welcome session yesterday, and Jaffa made a new friend Malvy.  Who is in her class, and is... British.  So much for the French speaking. 

Eben, Malvy, and Jaffa (who is not mad, just trying to obey orders not to make a weird face)

School started today, and so far we have been impressed by the range of nationalities and the friendliness of the parents and teachers (and kids) alike. It's a French school after all, so we kicked the bar down a notch in anticipation.  But it's really nice.  We've been a bit frustrated by the overall lack of information/communication, but we have the handbook in hand now.. and we know who to call.  We're on a roll!

We also learned within 5 minutes of arriving that there are lots of climbing and zooming things.  Which means Eben will be happy and I'd better order more princess band-aids for Jaffa's knees.