Crazy Start

Well I can honestly say it has been a wild week for my family and I. This week was my first week of school. My new school is the bomb! I love my old school and all, but seriously it doesn't get better than Jakarta International School. The campus is absolutely beautiful. Everyone there has a smile on their face and as soon as I walked into a room I was bombarded by a bunch of kids introducing themselves to me. It kind of got a little creepy at times. If you want to know more about JIS and see pictures, go here --> http://www.jisedu.or.id.

The second part of my week is just me sharing with you some crazy things I have seen on the road here. The other day I was going to the mall to get some school supplies after school. On my way I drove by a man on a motorcycle with a pouch carrying two goats. Yes, I said goats! They were in canvas bags on either side of the vehicle. All you could see were their heads popping out of the bags.  It was the weirdest thing. But like my driver, Jamal says, "Anything possible with motor scooter." Ain't that the truth. Some other interesting things I have seen here are, a scooter with over 20 propane tanks on it. Also some women here ride side-saddle on the motorcycles. Usually it is if they are taking the motorcycle taxi and are unfamiliar with the man driving.

On Wednesday I had very late notice to go to the immigration office in Jakarta, which meant I was going to miss school that day. So that morning I left with my mom and we drove for about an hour and half to the office. When we arrived I walked in and a security guard came up and started yelling at me. I had no clue what was going on and could not understand a word he was saying. He started pointing at my legs and repeating two words over and over. I finally made out what he was saying, "No shorts!" It was one of those WTH moments that annoy you so much but I guess that is just the culture over here. So, my mom called the immigration agent who scheduled our appointment and he came down and tried to convince the guard it was ok. But security would not budge. After a while of my mom looking up words in her English to Indonesian dictionary and completely failing at trying to talk to them a young woman came up to me. She poked me and when I turned around she said, "Trade pants?" I just stared at her for a second then she repeated herself," Do you want to trade pants with me so you can get in?" So that's what happened. I went to the bathroom with the girl and we switched pants. I went upstairs, signed a couple documents, got a picture taken and I was fingerprinted. Then I came back down and we switched our pants back. I couldn't believe someone I didn't even know had offered to help me in a difficult situation where she could have walked away and not have bothered with even glancing at me. You can think all the rude things you want about Indonesia about how it is a bad and unsafe place but that is not the truth. The truth is that that people here are genuinely caring and special people that you don't often meet every day.

New beginings are very exciting!

Kaylin