First off, it's a huge HUGE city. Certainly bigger than anywhere I've lived before. Of course what did I expect since Jakarta has almost 10 million people and Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country in the world. Whew. They aren't lying! This place is packed. My Dad would just LOVE it :)
So second of all, the traffic is horrible. And not just traffic but getting a taxi as well. Tonight I waited in line for one entire hour just to get a taxi - not fun. Here they have lines for taxis, you don't just hail one. Well the traffic was no surprise to me since it is the one thing Alo did mention beforehand and every review online mentioned the horrendous traffic! DC has alot of traffic but this is even more insane. And add in a million motor bikes, old grungy buses and pollution and you can imagine what it's like. They don't really have traffic laws or speed limits. I think it's just kind of a free for all so it's quite the ride getting to a from work everyday!
Which leads me to my next point, the language barrier. I think I imagined that more people would be able to speak English. Cab drivers usually don't speak much English so I've learned the basics to get myself around town. The language barrier at work is a bit challenging but not too bad. In general everyone speaks some bit of English. Some of my colleagues have studied in the states and speak perfect English however others speak very broken English. I help some of my co workers by correcting their English when they write and they help me by teaching me Bahasa so it's a win win for everyone! My boss mentioned the company would pay for a classes today so I'm really excited and hope to sign up in the next couple weeks and really start learning!
Speaking of learning, I've learned that there must be some pretty wealthy folks in this country since the shopping is insane here. I've never seen anything like it. There are so many malls I literally cannot keep up. And they are all HUGE. There are at least 3 Louis Vuitton within a mile radius from our apartment. Along with multiple Guccis, Tiffanys, Mont Blancs, Pradas..well you get the point. So I haven't got to shop much at all ...which is both a good and bad thing. Besides all the designer high priced stores, they also have normal American stores like Banana Republic, Gap, Nine West, and even Forever 21 !(but it's more expensive of course). I was originally imagining Jakarta having lots of markets with vendors who sell lots of arts and crafts they make but I think I was just thinking that because Bali had all those great things. So far no great market like that, but I'm still on the look out.
The dress code is what I hoped it would be like - the same as home! I basically wear anything I wore before. All my colleagues dress just as I would, so that was a relief to find out. I didn't have to buy a new wardrobe :) Being the world's largest Muslim country, I expected to see alot more conservative dress. But really it's not that different. The majority of Indonesians in Jakarta do not wear the Hijab (the scarf that is worn on their head). Oh and one more thing I forget about the dress code - you can't leave the house without your high heels! Whether it's a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon, Indonesian women have their high heels on wherever they go. And I mean HIGH heels.One of the biggest things I miss....water. This might sound silly but being here has made me appreciate water so much more! Not being able to drink and cook with the water that comes right out of the faucet really makes you realize how we take it for granted. One night our water dispenser ran out of water while Alo was out of town traveling and man was that a small crisis of the night. I ran down to our mini mart in the basement and there was only one guy working so he wasn't able to help me bring the water up to our apartment. So I decided I could carry it by myself. I'm a strong girl but wow those things are heavy! I finally somehow get it through all the doors and up the elevator, and then hard part came next...getting this huge water jug turned upside down so fast that I don't pour the entire thing all over the floor. Well you can imagine how that worked out :) I made a big mess!
Which is my next topic...cleaning. Something that is hard to remember doing often since we now have a maid! It's truly awesome and I'll probably never be able to live without one now - thanks Jakarta. But really, it's great. She comes twice a week and does everything from cleaning to laundry to even cutting up our fruit (like watermelon, etc). Asians surely live an awesome lifestyle when it comes to service. Everyone has drivers, cooks, maids, and nannies. What a life!
And the last thing for now...TV! I was pleasantly surprised at the selection of channels we have. We have a basic cable so no guide that tells you when and what will come on but that's ok considering it would be in Bahasa Indonesia anyways. We have a variety of Australian cooking channels I really like. Alo already thinks their Australian accent is rubbing off on me! ha We also have a channel called "Starworld" and it's probably my favorite. It has a European form of the America show, "So you think you can dance?" which I now love and also has American shows like Greys, 90210 and Desperate Housewives. The funny thing is though they are a season behind so I've seen everything. But it's still nice to turn on the TV and see familiar shows. Oh and a couple movie channels like HBO and Star Movies. We don't really need the movie channels since you can purchase DVDs here, like new one still in theaters or not yet released in America, for about $1. And series of TV shows cost about $3 or $4 for an entire season. We have probably bought about 40 movies and 10 seasons of shows so I think we are set for awhile!
Hope this helps you understand a little bit about what it's really like over here so far..much more to come!
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