Arrival in Sentul

Hey Everyone!
Thanks for the encouragement you have already provided us with! We are safely installed into our new home in Sentul! What an adventurte we have had already! The last few days have gone by in something of a blur, but I will do my best to remember the key events ;).

So, we left on Saturday morning at 4:30 am local time to Michigan and were taken to the airport by the Challa family. Things got started without a hitch and we were en route to Chicago in no time. In Chicago we were able to meet up with another expat, Katie Bolling, who is going to be a co-English teacher with me. This was quite a blessing as the three of us were able to spend the long layover hours talking and getting to know eachother.

From Chicago, we flew into Los Angelas, arriving sometime in the early afternoon. We had heard reports of possible delays of our flight to Tokyo because of a typhoon/earthquake combo that had hit them that morning. By the time we made it to our gate, however, the situation was under control and the flight was on time. We expected the layover to be long in LA, but because of the layout of the airport, the layover was just enough to make it to our next flight. (The terminals were not connected internally, so we had to leave the airport, catch a bus to the correct terminal and go back through security to make our connection).

As it turns out, Singapore air is a fantastic airline. The service was impeccable, the seats were nice, and they gave us everything we could want from good food down to socks. I am not kidding, they gave us those kinds of socks with the no-slip grip on the bottom. They were purple. It was great. So, the flight was long, but the time was defrayed somewhat by their development of "personal monitors" on board. In front of each person, we had a 6x8 screen and a remote that let us choose from an assortment of games, movies, and music to play, watch, and listen too during the flight. In addition, it had a realtime progress map which showed exactly where the plane was at any given moment over the Earth, so we could look out the window and know what we are looking at.

Finally, we landed in Singapore. Of all the cool cities I have visited (London, Dublin, Rome, Florence...), Singapore has been by far my favorite. The city is immense, but it is clean, high tech, and diverse. The things that make cities fun to visit: international shops and food, street musicians, beautiful buildings, etc. were all prevalent in Singapore. We spend the day (after our flight) touring the city with our new friend, Katie. Pictures will be added soon.

Unfortunately, time cut us too short in Singapore, as we had to get to the airport for our final flight by 5pm. Just before we left, we united with the other new Expat, Chrissie Barham, who had flown East from Africa.

The flight to Jakarta was short, lasting only about 1.5 hrs, which went by fast in contrast to the gruling 12 hr flight to Tokyo. Once landed in Jakarta, we eased through customs and went to meet our contact outside the terminal. The catch: we couldn't find him. We looked all over, tried a few numbers, etc, but were stumped because none of us had remembered to write down his cell phone number. Two hours and four coffees later, he found us. As it turns out, he had been told that our flight was coming into another terminal, and he had been waiting there since before the time we landed. Oy!

The 1.5 hr drive back to Sentul was too dark to see much, so we missed out on the incredible views that night. We made it to our new house around ten thirty local time and were welcomed in by our new maid, Samini. The house seems big to us in contrast to the small apartments we have spent the first year of marriage in. Exhausted as we were, we stayed up only long enough to briefly meet with our maid before retiring to our rooms. There met our new "pet" Alfred the lizard. He lives on our ceiling and eats any mosquitoes that dare enter our domain. We noticed that there were no mosquitoes, which is, of course, because Alfred ate them all. Good ol' Alfred.

Today we woke up early, not quite realizing how early, and got to work inventoring what we would like to do around the house. Samini woke up around seven and was quick to making us a nice breakfast of toast and some delicious local jam. The coffee was really good, too. After that, we spent a good amount of time talking to Samini and trying to learn some Indonesian. She is a very patient and easy teacher, but I am afraid I have a long way to go!

Another teacher, Steve Church and his wife dropped off our new car a little later (pictures pending), and we took it for a spin. With the steering column on the right, the new rules of the road, a new car, and a stick shift, it was a few too many things at the same time, but we survived... barely. A few motorbikers also survived... barely. (Kidding).

So, that brings us to the now. We are over and Steve and Julianna's house, relaxing and writing this blog entry. They are going to take us on a tour of the area and then into Jakarta tonight. Should be great!

It is a good thing that we have 2 weeks before school starts, because there is so much to do!!

And so... the conclusion:

Praises: contacts with the other expats and the beginning of some great friendships with them. The house and maid are both wonderful. The safe travel. The time that we have to get settled in, etc.

Requests: That we might be able to continue to develop positive relationships with others at the school. That we might be able to effectively prepare for the coming months. That we might have the strength to put other people's needs before our own.

Thanks so much for your support of us, we miss you!

Blessings,
Eric and Christine