Movin' on up

I'm officially moved into my new place in Benhil! I can now take a 10 minute ojek ride (like a motorcycle taxi where you negotiate the price before you get on the bike) to work. After my trip to Cerita, I stayed at my friend Barbara's apartment, which is in this monolithic complex called Taman Rasuna. There are about 18 towers with 30+ floors of rooms. It's kind of an eyesore, actually, and the buildings loom over a slum neighborhood which, according to Barbara, is in danger of being pushed out to make room for MORE towers.

In any case, she has a pretty sweet 2-bedroom apartment, fully furnished with a sleekly modern kitchen and bathroom. I can't deny that I love my creature comforts. It was nice to stay with Barbara in her quiet, cozy apartment and not have to worry about getting devoured by mosquitoes in my sleep. It was also nice to watch English-language TV channels and have some quality girl-talk time. We did have a minor ant infestation on my first morning there, but ants are quite harmless anyway.

Now I'm in the new room at Benhil, which is decidedly less posh than Barbara's place but very homey nonetheless. I share the second floor with four other girls; the bottom floor is occupied by two other people, plus the landlords and their two kids. My landlords, Martin and Jackie, are a married couple of German and Colombian descent, respectively. It's kind of a relief that I can actually communicate coherently with them. Martin speaks five languages, which totally astounds me: German, Spanish, English, Indonesian and Mandarin. Jackie can also speak Indonesian very well, and I suspect she knows some German too. The house is mind-bogglingly international. There's me, the American, one Austrian girl (Andrea), one German girl (name starts with a V), one Indian guy (Yousef), one Malaysian girl (Lillian), one Australian girl (Sarah), one Japanese girl (forgot her name) and a girl named Olivia of as-of-now unknown origin. Whew! Plus the landlords, it's like a global potpourri living in my house.

The room is quite decent, with a wardrobe, a desk and a nice bed stand with an excellent lamp. I also have a mosquito net to cover my bed, which I tested out last night to pretty unsuccessful results. I woke up this morning to find three new bites on my right arm. I'll try to perfect this situation in the near future, but tonight I'm leaving on a train to Jogjakarta, which is an 8 hour ride from Jakarta. It's more in the center of Java and a popular travel destination as well. It's known as the "student city" due to the number of universities located there; many of my colleagues at the Jakarta Post graduated from a school in Jogjakarta. Since it's Independence Day tomorrow, everyone has a long weekend and getting a ticket to anywhere outside Jakarta was like murder; I attempted to buy my Jogja ticket earlier this week and was simply too late. The one that I have now actually belongs to my housemate Yousef, but he has a big project for his advertising company to work on over the weekend and thus had to opt out of the trip.

All this traveling has really taken a toll on my wallet, but it's been absolutely worth it. I don't regret one trip that I've taken. I still have an excursion to Bali to pay for (will have to be by credit card, I suspect), but money is no object at this point. The experience is what matters, and I refuse to squander any travel opportunity I have while in Indonesia. In a few weeks I'll be home and will feel much less like an international citizen. But there are so many things I desperately miss back in Seattle (largely food-related like good sandwiches, mac n' cheese and salads, but also things like clean air and buildings within walking distance) and people that I'm dying to see again (family, boyfriend, friends), that my time left here will be bittersweet. I've grown pretty accustomed to life here and have made so many new friends. But nothing beats home. Nothing.