Back to the Future

I packed up all the things I would need for the next 6 months in my two bags, and a computer case. Fortunately I just slipped under the weight limit on my checked bag (mine weighed 49 pounds and the limit was 50lbs). It was so difficult figuring out what I might need for six months, there are the normal things like shampoo and toothpaste, but how much shampoo to bring, what amount of toothpaste do I go through in 6 months? And I had no idea how easy it was going to be to get these products after leaving the big city of Jakarta for the remote field sites.

Found this in the sidewalk, I guess the sticks help you not fall in! 

 

After traveling for over 24 hours I finally arrived at my hotel, it was the middle of the night and I had not met up with the graduate student who also arrived earlier in the day. We had miscommunicated and I thought she was going to be coming in 2.5 hours after I arrived at 10:45pm. But actually she arrived 2.5 hours after 10:45am! Big difference. So I had to change my American dollars into Indonesian rupiahs by myself and find a taxi at 2am. Kind of scary but I ended up at the hotel and somehow figured out how to pay for the taxi. (Still having a hard time with money though, it seems that around 10,000 rupiah is about equal to one US dollar.) What is difficult is when the money amounts are not in even 1,000s and the money is different colors but some of the colors are similar for different amounts of money. Hope to get a better handle on that before I have to pay for a taxi again.

Busy Jakarta street, moped gangs are everywhere.

The time difference here is kind of an interesting experience. Since Indonesia is on the opposite side of the world from the U.S. they have the opposite time schedule. So when it is 12 noon here it is almost 12 midnight back home, this makes it difficult to get in contact with friends and family. When discussing this difference with my brother who lives in Alaska we figured out that compared to the rest of our family living in Michigan he is in the past (the time is always 4 hours earlier for him) and I was traveling to the future (12 hours later than at home.) But to get here I flew west over Alaska to Hong Kong and then south to Indonesia...essentially back to the future!