Hari satu= Day one

I made it!

Aside from the immensely long flight from Seattle to Taipei and then to Jakarta (aided by in-flight entertainment from the fine films In the Land of Women and Disturbia), I managed to endure the trip in one piece, albeit a sweaty piece who desperately wanted to shower and brush her teeth. I spent the rest of yesterday (Tuesday) hanging out with my Uncle Patrick, with whom I'll be staying with while in Jakarta. He leaves in a couple of weeks to see his wife and kids in Singapore, after which I'll be all by my lonesome self in his house (which isn't too shabby) with two maids and a driver. Pictures to come once I can get a hold of the USB cord for my camera (unfortunately, I left it in Seattle).

I've never, ever had "servants" and am extremely uncomfortable with the idea of having two people wait on me and one person whose sole purpose is to drive me around. It's a very, very strange living arrangement. But my housing situation as arranged by the Jakarta Post was way out of my spending league ($800 US a month!), so I decided to rely on family connections. It's ironic that the more opulent living arrangement ended up costing me nothing as opposed to an apartment that would have cost me $1600 to live in for two months--minus maids and driver, I'm certain.

My first meal in Indonesia was Chinese food at a fancy restaurant inside a huge Indonesian mall called Taman Anggrek, one of the newest and fanciest malls in the city; this is a perfect characterization of my uncle, who is Chinese-Indonesian. We had straight up Cantonese food: some shu mai and ha gao (dim sum staples), fried noodles with seafood, bitter melon, pumpkin soup, tsa siu bao, tsa siu chong fun, lotus seed buns, taro buns, and some chrysanthemum tea to wash it all down; afterward, I was disgustingly full. I also got to visit a Target/Fred Meyer-like shopping center called Carre 4, which is a huge, huge, huge store selling produce, prepared food, clothing, electronics, furniture and everyday necessities. Tonight I'm going to the Carre 4 wholesale store (read: Indonesian Costco) with my uncle to stock up on supplies before he leaves for Singapore.

I had my first day at work today as well. Initially I'll be working with the Jakarta Post's webmaster, named Iwan, uploading stories and helping him with an overhaul redesign of the newspaper's Web site. Any suggestions about the Web site (http://www.thejakartapost.com) are extremely welcome; in fact, you'll be making me look good with all your brilliant ideas! The layout is decidedly dated. I don't think the Web site has been changed much since it launched in 1998. Later, I'm supposed to moved around to the features section and will also write for the Sunday edition. The Jakarta Post also publishes a pretty cool weekly supplement called Weekender; it's like mini magazine clearly geared toward more upper class Indonesians and rich expatriates. That's not necessarily an insult but more of an observation on the content (fashion & lifestyle pieces, articles on celebrities, editorials criticizing the state of Jakarta, photo essays about the ethnic minorities of Indonesia, etc.). I hope to contribute something to this section, eventually.

My first real story, however, will be covering the Miss Indonesia pageant. Having just attended and participated in the Miss Chinese Seattle 2007 Pageant festivities (I was giving away my title of Miss Talent), as soon as I saw the commercial for Miss Indonesia I hunted down someone who could get me there. I'm attending with a co-worker, a Web reporter named Augustina, who will be my escort/translator for the night. In the same way that we have both a Miss USA and a Miss America pageant in the United States, there are two Miss Indonesia pageants; the winner of one goes on to Miss World while the other moves on to Miss Universe. The one I will be attending is the slightly less popular contest (according to my co-workers) and the winner will eventually participate in the Miss World Pageant. I'm so excited to go!