Getting to Know this New Country

We are having an interesting time getting to know this new country that we are living in.  Here are a few of our experiences.  If I had pictures to go with each one of them I would post them, but sometimes words have to be enough.

Since we got to Indonesia the Muslims have been in holiday mode to celebrate Ramadahn.  Last week was what they call Lebaran.  We decided to head to the mall!  Shopping during Lebaran is like shopping during Christmas.  It is not something I recommend.  However, we did manage to buy a few things, including a bike for Alana, a shelving unit for our kitchen (which was nicely stored in a box for us to assemble - fun times), and a few groceries.  The tricky thing about buying all this was that we came with a family of five who also bought a shelving unit (not nicely tucked inside a box) and some groceries.  We managed to fit all of our items plus 10 people into a small car.  Not the most comfortable drive home. 

This is the vehicle, now imagine all the above mentioned inside of this.

 



Since coming to Indonesia we went from having no internet and no cellphones to wifi for our laptop and ipad, and two new cellphones.  We are loving this internet thing.  Communicating has become so different for us now, but it is so wonderful since we live so far away from loved ones.  Along with our internet package comes cable, but we have not had any success with getting it set up, so Paul decided to call the cable company.  He got through very easily to customer service, but had no luck with talking with someone who spoke English.  Vince had a great time watching his dad repeat "Is there anyone there that speaks English...cable broken."  He laughed even harder when Paul reached for the ipad to use google translator where he typed in what he wanted to say and repeated the words in Bahasa.  I was impressed with Paul's persistence, but it did not pay off, they eventually hung up on him.


Paul definitely has embraced this culture as he wants to try new things right away and figure things out for himself.  Thus, his grocery adventure.  He took Vince and Alana to Hypermart (the name fits as it is a busy place) and were dropped off at around 6:30.  Grocery shopping takes longer right now just because everything is so unfamiliar, so by 9:00 I finally texted to see if they were almost home.
The answer I got back was "ummm....almost."  He was just checking out, which I thought was a good thing, but checking out takes a very long time (not as efficient as back home) and since he was taking the taxi home it took even longer.  After he found out where the taxis were he also found a line with 40 people.  They were home by 10:40.

BlueBird Taxi

 

 



My grocery trip this past week was a little eventful as well.  I went shopping with a friend, putting my complete trust in her knowledge as she has been living here for a whole year.  With our carts full of groceries, she brought me all over the place trying to find our way to the car.  If only there was actual video footage of us you would be able to see how silly we really looked; going up hills with gutters,  going up escalator ramps with no magnets for our carts to stick to and down ramps with no traction therefore almost hitting a van   I'm sure those guys in the parking lot were laughing at us.

We have also been able to enjoy some of the nature that Indonesia has to offer.  Paul was able to see his first (and hopefully last) cobra while golfing.  Golfing in the rough has a whole new meaning here.  We enjoyed the challenge of getting a gecko out of our sink without actually having to touch it.  We actually have enjoyed these little guys in our house.  The kids think they are cute and consider them our pets, especially the tiny ones.  We have also been able to enjoy authentic coconut drinks while lounging at the pool.  One of the teachers climbed all the way to the top, threw some down, then used his machete to cut the tops off.  He came prepared with straws for everyone to enjoy some coconut milk.

One of our little pets

School starts late this year and we have taken advantage of the downtime.  We have enjoyed our mornings at home and have used the pool a few times as well.  We are getting to know new people in our neighbourhood and are spending a lot of time with our wonderful friends, the Huizenga's.  We have been blessed so far with many wonderful people who are willing to help us out as we figure things out here. We are getting a little anxious for school, which is starting on Wednesday and praying that everyone adjusts to the schedule; 7:00 start time means early, early mornings.

 

Driving down one of the main streets

Visiting the Living World Mall