After spending 3 wonderful days in Hong Kong - eating, shopping, sightseeing, and seeing a typhoon come and go, we arrived in Jakarta on June 26. Our sponsor, Kristie, picked us up from the airport. Our temporary house is a 2-level townhouse with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2 living rooms and a sizable dining room and a kitchen. There's also a maid's quarter but we don't have a live-in maid.
The first thing I did after dropping off luggage was grocery shopping. There are a couple of Giant-type supermarkets as well as upscale shopping malls within walking distance from our residence. During the past 2 weeks, my parents, who never walked to a store by themselves in the U.S., have founded several short-cuts from our house to Grandlucky, a large supermarket where we can find just about everything we need. They also found a traditional local market in a neighborhood close to us. One day, they went out, exchanged $20 near Grandlucky (I couldn't figure out how they communicated with people), and came home with sweet potatoes and such. Truly adventureous - more so than they were in the States.
It seems that local people spend more money as a proportion of their salary on grocery than us. Our pembantu (maid), Ibu Tinah, spends about 500,000 Rupiah monthly on food and her daughter's schooling. Public school is free here so I guess she meant anything other than tuition. That is a third of her salary. But rent is relatively cheap. She spends 350,000 rupiah on rent for the first floor of a house, including a living room, a small kitchen and a small bath, and a large bedroom. The owner of the house lives on the second floor. Unfortunately, Ibu Tinah's place was flooded twice in the past 5 years and many of her limited belongings were washed away.
We get spoiled quickly -- Ibu Tinah cooks, cleans, washes and irons and sometimes shops for us at local markets. She is a very sweet and quiet lady and we all like her.
Our air shipment has been here for more than 2 weeks but we can't get it. There is a lengthy process here to clear our shipment. However, I am (trying to be) optimistic that we can get it delivered in the next 3 weeks. So now, we've living on bare minimum. We'll have friends in town next week but we can't have them stay with us - there aren't any beddings and bed for them. What a shame!
But all in all, we really like living in Jakarta. Eddy and Elizabeth love the pool. They dive tirelessly each time we're at the club. There're a lot of good restaurants we can walk to. Most restaurants in shopping malls are Chinese and Japanese, but the most crowded ones are Wendys and McDonalds. Go figure.
The first thing I did after dropping off luggage was grocery shopping. There are a couple of Giant-type supermarkets as well as upscale shopping malls within walking distance from our residence. During the past 2 weeks, my parents, who never walked to a store by themselves in the U.S., have founded several short-cuts from our house to Grandlucky, a large supermarket where we can find just about everything we need. They also found a traditional local market in a neighborhood close to us. One day, they went out, exchanged $20 near Grandlucky (I couldn't figure out how they communicated with people), and came home with sweet potatoes and such. Truly adventureous - more so than they were in the States.
It seems that local people spend more money as a proportion of their salary on grocery than us. Our pembantu (maid), Ibu Tinah, spends about 500,000 Rupiah monthly on food and her daughter's schooling. Public school is free here so I guess she meant anything other than tuition. That is a third of her salary. But rent is relatively cheap. She spends 350,000 rupiah on rent for the first floor of a house, including a living room, a small kitchen and a small bath, and a large bedroom. The owner of the house lives on the second floor. Unfortunately, Ibu Tinah's place was flooded twice in the past 5 years and many of her limited belongings were washed away.
We get spoiled quickly -- Ibu Tinah cooks, cleans, washes and irons and sometimes shops for us at local markets. She is a very sweet and quiet lady and we all like her.
Our air shipment has been here for more than 2 weeks but we can't get it. There is a lengthy process here to clear our shipment. However, I am (trying to be) optimistic that we can get it delivered in the next 3 weeks. So now, we've living on bare minimum. We'll have friends in town next week but we can't have them stay with us - there aren't any beddings and bed for them. What a shame!
But all in all, we really like living in Jakarta. Eddy and Elizabeth love the pool. They dive tirelessly each time we're at the club. There're a lot of good restaurants we can walk to. Most restaurants in shopping malls are Chinese and Japanese, but the most crowded ones are Wendys and McDonalds. Go figure.
1 comment:
Good to hear from you. I went on the register just before July 4th, and am anxiously awaiting hearing from State about the September class.
I think I told you already, but my blog is at http://hogline.wordpress.com
All the best.
++rich
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