Happy Thanksgiving back

Well I don't know about you, but I'm stressing Thanksgiving.

You know my cooking track record (not great).  I'm also completely incapable of stepping into a kitchen without my internal negative chattering robbing me of any and all confidence.  Find me physically in a kitchen then know my inner child is curled up in the corner, probably sobbing.

So naturally I'm having Thanksgiving at my place for 30 people this year.

And I came to host this event through a tad of drama.  Earlier this week I received an invite to attend a friend's Tgiving with a handful of other families, basically the very top tier of bosses here.  I stalled our answer because I was at once worried about all these family-less guys stuck here, and all the other families not invited in our neighborhood (and not in upper management, what would THAT look like?).  I can't help but be built that way, you know, with the bleeding heart.  So Mike and I discussed and decided the only way we could both get through Thanksgiving 2012 is to either ignore it and stay home, or invite everyone not already invited somewhere...and that's 30.   I went out of my way, over email and in person, to let my gracious friend who invited me know that this Thanksgiving thing is my weakness, it's the fault of Mike and I that we can't just accept her hospitality but have to get all annoyingly noble.

Looks like I'm going to be able to order the turkeys.  Is two enough?  I have 8 forks so that's a problem.    I have about 3-4 other stay-at-home moms who can help me with the sides so the actually food doesn't stress me (that's a lie) as much as the logistics of it.  As you can see, I'm in WAY over my head and welcome (begging here) the comments and advice of you more experienced Thanksgiving and entertaining survivors out there!  Please?  Truth be told, every time we had Thanksgiving (twice) at our place, Mike cooked everything because he's one of those people who does everything well (read here control freak who would rather exhaust himself and spend no fun time with his kids then let anything come off less than perfect).  I think I did the crescents.  Yay.

Idiots' Guide to Indonesian Cooking

I'm a profoundly bad cook.  I mean, it's impressive how terrible my instincts are.  I can't season properly or gage when any protein is ready to eat.  I'm also truly terrible with vegetables.  They either come out raw or soggy.  I also can't make side dishes or salads.  If the sides don't come out of a microwavable bag from HEB I'm lost.  As for salads I am the undisputed champ of picking the worst bunch of lettuce or greens, tasteless tomatoes, and, well what else do you put on them?  Bottled dressing I guess.  And that was back in Texas when I could buy virtually everything cut up or pre-packaged.  Now I am adrift in this country where the cilantro and basil smell different (so I can't find them) and I'm intimidated by the carrots because they are all the size of eggplants.  Don't even get me started on the greens.  Are they okay to eat raw?  Surely they were not treated with the bottled water I'm forced to cook with (learned that the messy way) so can I ever really wash them enough?  So yes, we have eaten out many many times during the past two months.

This weekend I tried to do something about this.  I don't know how successful this will prove to be, but I put myself out there.  I've mentioned our driver, Rody, and his wife Ian before.  Yes, she's a she.  "Ian" in Indonesian is probably spelled Eyan or something else purely phonetic because that is how this language rolls.  Apple is apel, cable is kabel, taxi is taksi, you get the drift.

A few weeks ago Ian asked if I like to cook.  I'm very bad, was my answer.  When I asked her the same thing she shrugged and said she has three kids so she has to cook everyday.  Earlier this week I begged and pleaded with Rody to broker a deal so Ian would come over and help me learn to cook one Indonesian dish.  She agreed, I whooped, and was dispatched to buy 1 kilo each of beef and chicken.  (buying 1 kilo of anything made me feel edgier, like I could qualify for a neck tattoo now).

This weekend she came over with her BEAUTIFUL daughter Asia, who played for hours with Cassie, and a ton of fresh produce I sort of recognized but had managed to mostly ignore until now.  And I mean ignore the past 37 years.  I almost deleted that sentence with my age.  How am I not 28??

While I'm meandering down this tangent I just want to acknowledge the masterful job Rody and Ian have done naming their children.  They have a Johannes, a Fantasasia, who goes by Asia, and a another boy whose name I don't recall but I recall breathing it in when I heard it like my favorite Scentsy flavor, French Kiss.  I don't have the balls to give my kids epic names.  Growing up my dad used to talk about how your kids' names will look in the headlines after they committed their unforgivable crimes.  Apparently this is why my brother is not John H. Mallard, Jr., but he totally could have been because my brother is, and has always been awesome sauce.  Still, too big a risk in 1971. My dad was also convinced that I would end up with the married name of "Schlochenbachen".   In college I did sort of stalk the only other Mallard in the directory, a David my age.  How wonderful not to have to change your name!  I'm practically already a hillbilly so I'm totally fine with my family tree not seeming to branch out.  During our second senior year I actually met him at a bonfire party--he was from San Marcos and had gone to high school with my Mike, who cheerfully told him about my creepy wish to marry him.  He left pretty quickly.

So back to the cooking lesson.  Ian took a look around my huge but poorly outfitted kitchen and told me I MUST go buy a blender.  She then meticulously washed (in bottled water) and masterfully chopped the garlic, scallions, ginger, thing that looks like ginger but isn't, green onions, the things that look like green onions but aren't, cilantro, and some leaf that looked like a small magnolia leaf but smelled like heaven.  I want some to put in my pillowcase.   She got everything from a market, not a grocery store, but told me all I have to say is "lanco lanco" and the stall keeping will bag everything up for me, including fresh coconut milk.  So you see why I gave up learning all the different vegetables and instead wrote down lanco lanco.  She then inspected my beef, basically told me I bought crap meat, which is par for the course with me, then used it anyway, bless her.  We made rendang, which was dang good.  We could have chopped up chilis to add, but my white-girl-ness scared her from doing so.

Yummy Rendang

Time for the chicken dish: I brought out my packages of skinless boneless chicken breast and poor Ian had to tell me this was such crap she couldn't even cook with it.  Apparently you need chicken with skin and bones to stew and help flavor the dish.  So I'm supposed to go buy a whole chicken tomorrow morning and she'll come back at lunch to show me that one.  Being a chub American worked against me there.

Then we cooked prawns or shrimp.  Shrimp sold in Indonesia always comes with not only the shell on, but also the legs and head.  This is when I went from liking Ian to loving her: when she pulled out a package of cleaned shrimp.  Bless her!  She knew her audience.  She again thoroughly cleaned some leafy greens, then wilted them in a sauce made of oil, garlic, white pepper, cornmeal (or something super close to cornmeal, she left me the box), chicken salt (not bullion, best way I can describe it is salt) and some kind of umani shrimp sauce she also left me.  I felt like a "Chopped" judge on the food network going on and on about the broth she made.  If I'd been alone I would have sucked at the spot I dribbled on my shirt.

Ian wouldn't look at me for this picture
because she wasn't wearing any make-up.
A world-wide concern, my dear!

On Saturday Ian came back with the lovely Asian and immediately sent me out to BUY A BLENDER.  I obeyed and this time she blended all the herbs, garlic and onions in water and left it on the stove to simmer.  She then pulled out this whole chicken, head and feet included, and chopped that mother up to stew.  Lesson learned, the skin and bones add tons of flavor.  This dish turned out to be opor ayam, which is a chicken in a coconut milk curry-ish sauce.  Delish!  Everything she makes is amazing!  Whenever Rody has to work really late to take us to a big dinner or goes above and beyond like helping us move we have always sent him home with lots of pastries or donuts.  Once Ian sent us a cake in thanks and dear me I wish I had taken pictures.  The heavenly thing consisted of all these teeny tiny layers of both chocolate and vanilla.  It was perfect and the kids and I had it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert for days.  I asked where she had bought it.  Joke's on me, she made it.

Last Ian took out this container full of what looked like unfried egg rolls.  Half were stuffed with chicken sausage and half were full of this perfect and tasty potato-carrot filling.  I implored her to bring me more for this week's wife potluck.  She won't take my money because she says we do a lot for her family but I hired friends all the time for sweets and cakes.  I'm going to figure out to pay her no matter what.

So the weekend was gastro-tastic and I'm positive I will never be able to successfully duplicate what she showed me, but I will gamely try.  I admit that I am self-aware enough to recognize that I have never had to learn to cook.  Economically speaking, even in our leanest years, there was always Taco Bell.  Ian, who is my age, has not had that luxury.  No popping out for take out for this mother of three.    This is also most like why I probably weigh "two Ians".

And I'm done with this monstrously long post!  If you even read this far, you could only be my parents.  So hey Mom and Dad!  I'm sorry I kept missing FT today, please still work on coming for Christmas.  XOXO Embeaux

Finally a (temporary) house!

I've been a little out of pocket because we finally moved out of the hotel and into a temporary home!  It's not in Nongsa, the beach neighborhood I blogged about last time.  This one is in Villa Panbil.  Jack and Cassie's buddies all live in Villa Panbil and we've had tons of playdates since moving.  Here are a couple of pictures of our permanent house under construction.

I love the location!  The views are wonderful, jungle on one side and overlooking the whole neighborhood on the other.

Looks pretty close to finished, yes?  Well....it's still two and a half months away from completion.  The biggest reason is that the construction crews here use only hand tools.  No electric saws, nail gun, or anything else you and I are used to hearing at a construction site.  You hear "bang, bang, bang"--one dude with a hammer!

The house we are currently in has three huge bedrooms and three and a half baths.  I don't mind telling you I don't feel like I fit in with such opulence!   Not that everyone on Batam lives this way, as I said before we see lots of examples of tiny little huts with lean-to walls and no running water or electricity.  Or they may have only cold water.  Squat toilets are also somewhat common.  No idea what that is?

Squat indeed.  And no, the squat toilet is not the toilet I'm counting as the half bath.  Not even the maid and driver use it.  The other four toilets, thankfully, are what we think of as typical.

Check out this nice crown molding.

It's in the laundry room!

This is what the bedroom ceilings look like.  Below is Jack's room.

All three bedrooms have king beds.  Cassie's has a big pretty canopy that makes her call it her "new crib".  

Now that we are in this one-story, I'm not sure I even want to move to the larger two-story.  Mike and I have never had a big house, our Maryland house is only 1100 sq ft and the Beaumont house was not quite 1500.  Both our current and future homes are MUCH bigger, but I don't know that I want to be any further away from the kids.  Must be a sure sign I am not yet living with teenagers!

So I mentioned a maid and a driver.  Yes, I am a spoiled girl with both now.  Our maid is a very sweet and young bubbly thing from another Indonesian island that just finished working in Singapore, so her English is wonderful.  She comes three days a week, no set hours--she leaves whenever she's done (usually 3-4 hours), and I pay her around $55 a month.  A month!  Before you begin to think I'm taking gross advantage I know of maids in our neighborhood who work six days a week, eight hours a day and they make $100 a month.  So actually I'm really overpaying, but I can barely bring myself to pay her that little.  Unlike the other expats, I do pay her twice a month.  I myself used to find it almost impossible to budget for one paycheck a month.  I have not seen any kind of "red flag" behavior from her.  I even hang out while she's ironing (I would pay her whole salary just for ironing, which I hate) and chat with her about her life and family.

I also chat a lot with our driver, because we spend a ton of time in the car.  This island is tiny, but there's always congestion so going anywhere takes a while.  It's not as bad here as Mumbai, India, where an acquaintance I know used to spend two hours in the car taking her kids to school one way.  Our driver is my brother's age, and his adorable wife is a "dealer"in that she sells lots of stuff from catalogs.  I love dealers!  I've had love affairs with Southern Living at Home, Pampered Chef, Tupperware, 31, Scentsy, Gillian and Dot, basically anything through home sellers so she is one of my new BFF's.

Here's the only road sign I see in Batam.  It could mean "Time to shout an expletive!"

I know expats who drive here, mostly Australians and Americans who have been here for years.  I still can't see myself ever trying.  There are no speed limits, as least none posted, and many roads have no lines.  There are many more scooters than cars, and they don't get their own lane and space EVER.  It's nerve wracking!  Plus, sounding American here, they drive on the wrong side of the road.  Our driver is also always trying to carry everything for me, also, which is okay but not necessary.  I used to mow my own lawn for crying out loud!  He knows Mike is the boss, and a tough one so finally I told him it's okay, I know how to carry groceries because I'm married to mean Mr. Mike.

I'm trying to feel more settled and slowly getting there.  I still miss so many of you.  There is a wonderful circle of expats here and it's easy to find someone to do something with everyday.  It took me years, literally to find my circle of friends in Beaumont, but ex-pats are all in the same boat so the walls come down so much quicker.

There have been a lot of reports of Muslim unrest and riots.  I'm happy to say that life here in Batam is going on very much the same.  Our driver, who is Indonesian and Catholic, assures me that we are safe here.  Our neighborhood is full of Westerners and the only entrance is guarded so if ever we feel a little unsure (and we haven't!) we can just hang out at home.  Besides the pool, we have a mini mart and a restaurant owned by an Australian serving good burgers, pizza and even bacon.  You want your kids to clean their plates, withhold bacon for a month!

Now what?

I was in a bit of a funk last week.  Jack's school opening has been deferred until this yesterday, when all the insurance people involved in insuring his campus are back from their vacays.  Over here is the equivalent of Christmas in the west, only the whole office can apparently shut down for weeks.  They call it Hari Raya, which I'm sure is not the full title, and it celebrates the Prophet Muhammad began receiving revelations of the Quran. So it's a BIG DEAL and closing your office for a couple of weeks is apparently the norm.  Schools are all out anywhere from two to four weeks.

So the kids and I were sitting around our little hotel, having just enjoyed the many spenders of Singapore, and we were all kind of like "now what?".  I swear I can't remember any differences between last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  We slept in, walked to the mall, swam, ordered food or ate out with Mike in the evenings.  On Saturday I couldn't believe it was Saturday, and asked Jack about it several times.  I had some major misgivings about my being able to function here without becoming a full-blown alcoholic or drug addict if all the days run together four measly weeks in.

Thankfully this week looks more promising.  I think we may actually get into a house in two weeks.  Not our permanent house, but one in a beautiful setting.  It's a beachfront community called Nongsa.  There is a fishing pier, large pools, and all the houses are built on stilts on the side of a hill.  Here are some views from some of the houses.  It's a beautiful place.

We got a couple of care packages from home, which was really lovely.  Mike got lots of snuff from a sympathetic buddy in Houston.  The downside is that he still dips, the upside is that he doesn't have to move down the hall as I'm not sure we could accommodate his winning personality while he quits tobacco and runs this job.  My parents sent a big box full of treats like magazines, paperbacks, ranch packets, jerky, maseca (to make corn tortillas) and JIFFY!  Cassie took to carrying around a packet of taco seasoning.  She would walk around talking incessantly about tacos or just sit and smell that packet like it was a Strawberry Shortcake.  I couldn't decide if it was unbearably cute or just unbearable.

Also in the care package was our photo disk with some beach pictures we had done a couple of weeks before we left.  Would you just look at these cuties!

On one of our mall wanderings I bought this small dollhouse for Cassie that seriously cost about $1.87. It came with a couple of family members and some little plastic pieces of ambiguous furniture (is it a chair or a toilet?  a closet or a cabinet?)  The reason I couldn't resist is because the mom is wearing a
head scarf!

Awesome, right?  I'm sure we've already misplaced the little mom somewhere in the couch, but I was reminded again what a great blessing it is to give my kids this experience.  You don't see many Muslim moms wearing head scarves in our part of Texas, and my kids are beyond over the novelty of seeing women cover everything but their faces.  The dad figure is wearing a hat as well, but it's just not as impressive as the little mom.

Over dinner last week a coworker of Mike's asked if anyone had stopped us to take pics of the kids.  No they hadn't, I replied, why?  She then blushed and stammered about how some people stopped the kids she was with to take pictures of their light hair and eyes.  I let her off the hook easy.  I told her they stare at us all, trying to figure out what kind of Asian my kids are.  Inside I was thinking Really lady?  You are on your first glass of wine!  Locals do, coincidentally, notice I don't quite match my kids, and my kids don't quite match the island.  Not that I care.  My family is perfect as far as I'm aware.

I can't find any "church" shirts for Jack in the shipment boxes, and I'm not willing to unpack any more stuff in our temporary and tiny home so after services Sunday we went to a store and bought Jack some collared shirts.  Just for reference, Jack is 5 feet tall and weighs about 85 pounds.  He is a men's small here!!!!  Our new Church is in a mall, so it's super-handy for dinner, shopping and haircuts after!  I know its different to think of a church in a mall, but most of the stand-alone structures are subpar.  The many malls are really the nicest buildings around.

Last night right before bed my mom face-timed us from my aunt's house and showed us our dog!  Oh how we miss our 3-legged Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!  She sheds a lot, she's actually quite dumb, and she's scared of everything but I have to tell you I cried seeing her.  No one, and I say this as a mom of a an almost-teen, but no one is as cheerful to see me than her.  She is perfectly happy at my Aunt Em's.  I could tell she loved it there when we took her.  But oh I miss that awkward creature.

It's easier to write about missing my dog than my parents, family and friends.  I absolutely felt it last week, the four-week mark.  With Jack starting school and us moving into a house soon, I can no longer pretend this is just a long strange vacation.  I thank God for technology, but it's not the same as that house on Charles St. in Centerville.

Food and Singapore

calimari

On Wednesdays for dinner we typically go to this place known as The Food Court with other Bechtel people staying in the hotel.  It's a large open-air square lined with counter-service eating places.  Tables are in the middle and many have lazy susans so everyone sitting at the table can share the dishes.   Last week we ordered the "wrong" calimari and ended up with tiny squid fried whole, or as I called them, "ewwwwwwwww".  Jack tried them, as he's a fan of the calamari that looks like pieces of fried chicken.  

The kids and I are doing okay with Asian food.  It is a lot of fish and rice, and the noodles are even made from rice, and most things are at least a little spicy.  I've had tummy and headache issues for years, and laying off the bread and wheat is doing wonders for how I feel.   One of the kids' junk food treats is a weekly trip to KFC and they are both now used to eating the chicken "spicy" as our local KFC almost never has any "original recipe" available.  




We also checked out this place Mike loves, right on the beach.  Mike, who is one of those people who can do most things easily, has adjusted to Indonesian cuisine and life seamlessly, except for tobacco, but more on this later.  This place doesn't even have a sign, I think it's name is the location of the beach.  Anyway its' s large and usually busy.  What is unique is that you pick out your fish and crabs from tanks where they are just swimming or snapping around.  Here's our Mr. Grouper before and then sweet-and-soured. 
 I complained about the heads always served on the fish but was informed that many Asians pick at the head meat and eyes.  Suffice it to say I'm not there yet. 

Singapore

Jack at Jurong

Orchids!  So beautiful!

Hey gorgeous! 

I didn't love this bridge.  It was pretty high.

This past weekend marked the end of Ramadan, which is the biggest holiday of the year for the Muslim calendar.  Mike had a long weekend so we spent it in Singapore, a pretty impressive city!  We stayed at an amazing hotel, please stay at The Mandarin Oriental if you ever get the chance!  They are all over Asia, but also Europe and the States.  We took a city tour and it is true that everything is available in Singapore.  We were most excited to find Quaker Granola Bars and Goldfish!  We visited the zoo, which had an amazing rain forest setting.  Also most of the primates were loose, something you would never find in the lawsuit-y states.  The zoo had this great Night Safari where you could see shows and take a ride through the nocturnal animals.  Very crowded, but very very cool!  Finally got to see the large cats up and about!  The most impressive place, however, was the Jurong Bird Park.  You know that opening scene in the movie Rio when all those exotic birds are everywhere?  The whole place was a lot like that.  The trees and other fauna were incredible, and there were so many opportunities to interact with the birds, not just see them in cages.

Singapore is a very clean, very beautiful city that is also its own country.  They are very interested in unity, and have four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, with English being the main language.  It's REALLY easy to be a westerner there.  It's a crowded place so most people live in flats, and it is a very expensive city.  A four-room (not bedroom, room) flat is $250,000.  Sorry to the gents for the following image, it's even MORE expensive to "be a woman" in Singapore than the states!

Here are some reasons it's such a clean and well-mannered place...Littering is illegal, gum is illegal, not flushing a public toilet is illegal. You cannot call a woman a bad word, you cannot say the word "bomb", even jokingly, you cannot say disparaging things about any religion, and you cannot hug someone without permission.  These offenses are punishable by fines, caning and sometimes jail.  As for Mike's snuff, needless to say they did NOT sell it in Singapore (that pesky spitting thing).  It is also unavailable in Indonesia so...he bought some cigars and hoped for care packages from Texas.  

I love love love this beautiful waterfall!  I also loved how the park described it, "come see the largest man-made waterfall inside a rainforest aviary park in the world!"   I mean they were DETERMINED to have it come off as impressive.  There was no need to bother.
I could have stayed for hours.   

Money and Housing

Mike works a LOT.  He goes in six days every week, and will until this project is finished.  He's very high on the ladder here, and feels his responsibility for the project heavily.  More than any other change, I was completely unprepared for how much of this country I need to navigate alone.  I'm not brave AT ALL.  I'm quite shy and definitely not the smartest person I know.  So to Batam I say "sorry I'm unleashed on you, yo".  It helps to have lots of prayers and good wishes from home.

Fried chicken is BIG here.  As in popular.  I'd seen a show before on KFC being the #1 fast food chain in China.  We're not in China, but we are close (map here, again with me and the maps sheesh). So every mall has a KFC and often a BFC (Best Fried Chicken) and they are usually busy.  The grocery stores here have many varieties of nuggets, unfortunately all we've tried are pretty gross.  I don't have an oven in our hotel, just an induction hot plate so I usually fry them.  You know that nugget is nasty when it tastes bad fried.  There's also lots of pizza, but beef pepperoni is not so awesome so we all have cheese.  The answer to the food conundrum is to learn to eat Indonesian dishes.  Mike is there, he has a stone gut and an adventurous palate so it's no big deal for him.  I'm getting there.  I still go for lots of recognizable Asian dishes, but I'm branching out.  The kids try something new maybe every other day. It's toughest for them.

We've been to a couple of social events and have met some other expat families.  Everybody seems very friendly and willing to help us acclimate.  We're the only family left in the hotel now though, I'd love to move into the neighborhood so the kids could play with someone other than me.  I have tried to keep an upbeat attitude during all of the planning, moving, and living here with all our things stacked in the corner.

One topic of discussion at the expat dinner with some wives was hiring and training the domestic staff we will all have.  I cannot begin to tell you how much this topic makes me squirm.  I didn't even have a cleaning lady back in the states!  I think here the locals consider working for westerners a desirable job and it's part of us helping out the growing Indonesian economy.  Or so I tell myself.  Actually the poverty here is crippling.  I gave a doorman the equivalent of a $5 tip for moving all our boxes to our room and I really thought he was going to hit the floor when he bowed.  It's embarrassing and uncomfortable to suddenly be considered so wealthy.  I'll have to try to get some shots of some of the poorer housing.  It's like nothing I've seen in the US.

The kids and I go to arcades each week.  They are ALL OVER THE PLACE!  The mall by our hotel has three arcades.  Here's Cassie in a ball pit.  I couldn't help but think "oh good, let's expose her to some more exotic germs".  But there was no stopping her.

Jack found what he called the Ultimate Asian Leatherman.  We didn't buy it.

And new iPhone's autocorrect was in Indonesian so I made no sense for a while.  Here's a snippet of some texts I was trying to send Mike when Cassie and I were out shopping then heading home.

Here's a picture of part of the mall that sits beside our hotel.  It's pretty typical of the many Batam malls.  There's a large grocery store, several places to eat, and tons of little shops selling shoes that won't fit me, clothes that won't fit me, and knock off Prada, Coach, and LV bags.  I need to gird my loins and go negotiate some Hello Kitty stuff for Cassie.  That's right, you bargain for everything, even in the mall  There is TONS of Hello Kitty here as well.  I have to assume I can get it cheaper here than at that store in the Galleria.  Also our mall has a movie theater.  You never know what's going to play, we have to walk over to check and it changes all the time.  Most movies are in English, but there's also often Asian stuff playing.  The kids and I hoped to go to a movie yesterday and all the movies were in English, but I didn't think Cassie would sit through The Expendables 2, Step Up Revolution, Chernobyl, or The Dark Knight.



We are nearing the end of Ramadan and soon Mike will have a short vacation.  I think we will spend it in Singapore.  I'm a little stir-crazy from being in this hotel so long am I'm looking forward to a change of pace!

Just a few changes...

So here are a few differences between Beaumont, TX and Batam, Indonesia(map here).

Language
Here the language is Bahasa Indonesia.  You say both words because "bahasa" translates to "language".  Bahasa Indonesia sounds a little like Spanish to my untrained ear.  There doesn't seem to be as much inflection as other Asian languages.  I know I'm a "goo lag (outsider)" and we "macaw (eat)", and when I knock into these people I murmur "permisi".  Mike is rocking the language, me not so much.  I may need to take a page from Cyndi Whitnell and have hire someone to come give me lessons.

Islam
Indonesia is a Muslim country.  On some islands, such as Jakarta, they can be quite strict about the dress and behavior expected of women.  Here there are lots of expats so I can get away with my capris and no head scarf.  We get some looks at the swimming pool when it's busy because I don't swim in a catsuit  and my kids don't wear one piece suites that look like long underwear.  During the week we don't stick out as much.
There are call-to-prayers five times a day and I think they sound beautiful.  This is where loud speakers mounted at the top of mosques broadcast prayers sung in Arabic.  Muslims are expected to stop, kneel on a prayer blanket and pray five times every day.  I like this idea of everyone stopping to pray, meditate, just find some peace each day.  Jack does not share my high opinion.  The first day he asked "why do they keep yelling at us?".  I explained and can hope for sensitivity but let's face it: 11 years old is 11 years old.
There are water sprayers with all the toilets.  Apparently bodily cleanliness in the Muslim world is a big deal.  Here's an article I found in Salon about why.
We are currently in the holy month of Ramadan.  Until August 18th Muslims refrain from eating or drinking dusk to dawn.  I'm not sure if that's why, but nothing opens here until 10am or later--even coffee shops, much to Mike's chagrin.  There are also extra prayers called each day, as Jack has noticed.    All the shops and restaurants stay open later than we are used to as well, so maybe it's just us being westerners.
Although we are not the only Christians in Batam!  There are several expats who attend a church that starts at the incredibly human hour of 4pm on Sundays.  Plus here's a picture of a baptism that took place in our hotel swimming pool on Sunday!

We Might Be Giants
My family are all tall with huge feet here.  At 5' tall and 90 lbs, Jack is the size of most of the women, and I'm as tall as many of the men at 5'6".

$$
Here the currency is Rupiah.  The exchange rate is like one dollar to almost 1000 rupiah.   I'm happy to have Jack with me for cash transactions, he's slick at fast math, and the different bills don't trip him up as much.  Basically that whole "I'm 11 and master of the universe" thing.

No driving
Here's a one minute video from youtube that shows a typical road.  This is what a lot of the roads look like:

We have a driver named Rody (pronounced Roadie).  There's no way I could drive here.  They drive on the wrong side of the road, at intersections people just GO and there are more scooters than cars.  It is not uncommon to see a whole family on a scooter.  Parts of the island are beyond beautiful--lush and tropical, but there is a lot of very recent industrial development, so most buildings are newer, crapier and ugly.

The Suite Life
We are currently living in a hotel and to be honest, it's a little isolating.  I'm anxious to move out to our neighborhood.  Our house is currently under construction until November but we hope to move into a rental in a couple of weeks.  The hotel is fine, we have a large suite and breakfast downstairs in the restaurant each morning.  The breakfast food can be interesting.  No pork at breakfast (Muslim island) so you can expect chicken porridge, chicken sausage, sometimes curry, noodles, and such.  I try to try the local stuff, lots of it is good!  And some is a disaster!
Our hotel is next to a mall, but I bet you've never been to a mall like this.  There is a grocery store usually, but no flagships you would recognize.  Also it's knock-off city, wall-to-wall fake Prada, LV, electronics, and pirated videos.  We could buy the new Spiderman movie for a dollar, right out in the open.  There are always arcades, too.  But I really miss how clean and nice Colorado Canyon is--these places require lots of Purell.  Jack does well at the games, so usually there are little boys following him around.

The last minute panic

We moved to Indonesia Tuesday, July 24, on the 5:30pm flight on Singapore Air.  I'll never forget standing in our Houston hotel room, the four of us in a circle carrying or pulling our bags.  Mike said "ready?" and I began to tremble and quietly cry.

I want to go, ever since last fall when Mike came home excited about moving to an island not even Google Maps can find.  I'm in, I'm up for it, but I'm ashamed to say I freaked on the final day and during the taxi ride to the airport held panic-fuelled text conversations with Amianne, Tracie, and my mom where I demanded everyone tell me uprooting my kids from a life they love was absolutely the right thing to do.  Everyone came through, GG even had news (gossip!).

While Mike and Cassie dropped off our rental, a small dark man (who totally looked Indonesian) drove me and Jack to the airport, both of us sniffling.  Me from crying, Jack because I think he has a mild form of Tourette's and always has to sniff, sigh, blink, or shrug.  It's on my list of things I need to Google, along with how to work this rice cooker in my hotel room.

Flying to the other side of the world will knock your internal clock completely off.  I'm posting this on Monday, but I feel like it should be Friday.  We flew for about a dozen hours to Moscow where we had to get off the plane for an hour and a half.  We were there during the day and that airport was a happening place, tons of pale blonds, too.  Then we loaded back onto the same plane and flew another 10 hours or so to Singapore.

We landed about 5am on Thursday, July 26.  We took a Maxi-Cab (yes I made a lot of under-appreciated jokes) to the Singapore ferry where we waited for the 8am to Batam.  The ferry was very civilized!  I was expecting something out of Momma Mia but this thing was air-conditioned and no one smoked in our area.  We were the only anglos on board, and it was a full house (boat?), but I was very pleased not to be next to a crate of chickens or a chewing goat.  Mike made me pop two Dramamine because I had a bad moment years ago on a tour boat of the San Antonio Riverwalk (it's so interesting to live with me) so the massive rocking didn't bother me at all.  Most of the people on the ferry headed to a casino on the island which sounds like a plan to me at 8am on a Thursday.

In Batam we unloaded and the first thing we saw were monkeys, I kid you not!  It must have been a little family, there were a couple of babies clinging to moms and probably a dozen altogether.  I took it as a good sign since Cassie has been saying for weeks that we would Move to Indonesia to See Hello Kitty and Monkeys.  They were smallish, maybe the size of groundhogs, and brown.  I wonder what kind--something else to Google.

Our handler Junie showed up late, Mike said I should count on most everyone running late, and took us to Mike's office where I met lots of people I don't remember and can only hope I wasn't too embarrassing.  Who does a meet and greet after two flights and a ferry?  Really?  Junie then drove us to a McDonalds for lunch.  One of the Happy Meals had a drumstick and the red sauce in the stainless pump was chili sauce instead of ketchup, but the fries and nuggets were the same so the kids ate.
We finally made it to the hotel but first the manager had to take us on a tour (again, really?).  The hotel is pretty new and they are quite proud.  We toured the restaurant, conference rooms, penthouse, and ballroom where I probably shamed us all by having a huge hacking coughing fit and had to step out rather that oooh and ahhhh.

It was noon when we were finally left alone.  Cassie and I fell into bed and didn't wake up until 3am when we ate granola bars and played on the computer, giggling over Pinkie Pie and the rest of the ponies until we fell back asleep at dawn.  Jack made it until about 8pm the first day before he surrendered.  Yes, Mike went in to work Friday, and Saturday.  I don't think the kids and I were quite right until Sunday or maybe today.

The kids already miss their friends.  Jack keeps checking emails, Cassie asks about Libby.
 
Reading over this post I have to apologize that there's so little about Batam here.  You are just going to have to give a small-town girl a break here, I've never been anywhere so different.  I've never been on a plane longer than a night's sleep.  My senses are saturated, I just need a little time to absorb and observe.  As my lovee Tracie said, "the first thirty days are the hardest".  So I've decided to make no judgements for a month.  I did lapse once when I discovered no hot water runs to the kitchen faucet.  That's just unsanitary y'all.

Indonesia

What a difference a year makes!  Since my single post last summer, we have since sold our house and are awaiting our move to Indonesia!  As in the string of islands between Asia and Australia.  As in far, far away from all things Texas.  
We are all of us very excited about this move.  Jack (who is days away from turning 11!) is excited to experience Asia and island life, Cassie (who is 3 1/2 and has been home 3 years now!) is excited to see monkeys, Mike is excited to work internationally and I'm so pumped that Mike will work in the same place we live (no more hour and a half commutes).
I think we only have 4 to 6 weeks left stateside.  The goodbyes are getting a little harder...I'll absolutely keep up with things here.