Finally made it!

After months of planning, stressing, worrying, and craziness - I made it to Indonesia! Very excited to finally be here. There were a couple hiccups on the way, such as my flights being canceled due to a big storm,  but other than that I made it fine.  My flights were great and I celebrated the start of my new adventure with lots of champagne - Thank you Korean Air!  Alo picked me up from the airport and I was greeted with a slew of balloons! Did you expect any less from Alo? ha.  I was so happy to see him. It's still pretty unreal to me that I'm living over here and finally with him again :)

Our apartment exceeded my expectations as well as many other places in Jakarta so that's always a good start.  I also think Alo kept me in the dark about a lot so I'd be impressed when I arrived rather than let down - smart boy! Everyone is so so nice and just has a big smile on their face all the time.  I honestly haven't encountered one rude person yet. Indonesians just love life and are so happy, which makes this experience much easier and enjoyable.

The language barrier isn't too bad although I'm very anxious to start a class. Alo is already taking one with his co-worker and has taught me how to say numbers 1-10, good, and thank you.  I got a cell phone the other day which is helpful so I can also show the cab driver addresses of places if they are confused by me.  I usually just point, nod, and smile a lot and it seems to be working just fine.

The first morning I was here Alo plugged my blow dryer in the outlet with a converter and blew it up! Ops! Of course it was my FAVORITE blow dryer of all time - but no biggy we just went on a hunt to find a new one. Note to self, a good blow dryer here costs around $80-90 bucks whereas my great one I loved was only like $25. On a good note, since I had no blow dryer for a couple days I went to the salon to get my hair blown out. Ladies - it's only about $5-$10 bucks depending on where you go and it's great. Turns out Alo blowing up my blow dryer wasn't so bad after all! I've been to the salon twice already.  Yesterday I went and they washed, dried and straightened my hair and also gave me a mani and pedi - brace yourself.....$21 American dollars - with TIP. Pretty awesome.

I took a trip to the Indonesian Immigration office yesterday for finger prints and paperwork for my Visa. That was pretty interesting. It was a crowded, sweaty, loud mess in a tiny little building.  I might have stood out slightly ha.  Luckily, JLL has an agent (a person who basically pays off the officials so you skip to the front of the line) and I was there for about 5 minutes!

Alo and I went to the grocery store called Ranch Market the other day. It's really nice - kinda like a Trader Joes look to it.  Lots of great fresh produce and meats. The prices however are not cheap, especially anything American. If you know me, you know I LOVE candy, and a bag of candy such as p-patties or snickers was about $9 dollars so I had to hold off and save it for an excuse like a bad day or feeling homesick.

This is a picture of one of the samples they were giving out at the grocery store - Grass Jelly - yummm! ha

Don't worry...I've already made my first friend!