How long 'til I feel at home?

Culture shock: When the lack of familiar reference points and behavioral norms leads to overload and emotional stress.

• Begin to miss home, family, friends, home culture - yes I'd like some snow too
• Begin to question yourself, your values - not really...
• May feel lonely, withdrawn, frustrated, irritable, angry, bored or anxious - If crying  of frustration and impatience in a waiting room of a hospital counts, then yes. :)
• May experience physical ailments, fatigue or depression - My blood pressure's never been so low, yes.
• Experience disorientation regarding how to work with and relate to others - Because it's not about them? :)
• Notice differences between the two cultures (and with the stress of adjustment, these differences seem more irritating than they might normally be) - YES YES YES YES YES YES
• Become critical and impatient of the new culture - Couldn't have said it better.

I have to say it doesn't help that the Hostility period ( as they call it on the graph) correlates with 1: my first scooter accident, 2: me getting robbed on the street at night 6 days before Christmas break...

So anyways... according to the graph things should get back to normal by the end of January. 

On Thursday I am leaving the country to go to Australia for 18 days with Fanny! We'll be road tripping the western part of Australia (From Perth to Broome) and enjoying every bit of clean fresh air, wearing shorts and tank tops without feeling inappropriate, clean roads/malls/restaurants/hotels and cheap alcohol! 

Merry Christmas to you all, ours is going to be AMAZING. 

Playing guitar on your must-do list.

        Living in Jakarta definitely has many downfalls: one of them being the considerable amount of time spent indoors... mostly due to a lack of open green spaces and overwhelming traffic.

"Increasing Jakarta's green spaces is not a priority for the city administration, which focuses more on transportation and housing, a spatial planning expert says." "Green areas have long been an issue in the thriving metropolis of Jakarta, and some observers have said the lack of green spaces makes the city less livable." Jakarta Post June 06 2010

       Though, many of us expatriates have chosen to look on the bright side and simply convert this particular problem into an opportunity: in deed we have decided to dedicate this precious time to pursue our passion for some, improve a skill or take on a new activity for others. For me, I have chosen to take on ...drum roll.. guitar! 


      The fact that guitar is to Indonesia what soccer is to France... helps the learning process. The price of a brand new guitar starts at 80 euros and the opportunity to see extremely talented guitar players endless... In pubs, bars or at concerts like the one I had the pleasure to go to on Wednesday: Dewan Budjana.

  "He is the lead guitarist and songwriter of the band Gigi. Budjana’s style changed dramatically to jazzas he got to know John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Jeff Beck, John Abercrombie, Chick Corea and Weather Report. Dewa Budjana has collaborated with many famous guitarists such as Tohpati,Ridho and Abdee Negara. His ability to combine jazz and rock has put him among the top Indonesian guitarists. Wikipedia"

Love C-

Ranch market is my new vision of Disney World.

     Have you ever noticed how sometimes what you used to consider mediocre food brands suddenly become delicacies? After a long day of work and my first scooter accident, walking through isles of JIF Peanut Butter, Campbell's Soup, Kraft Mac and Cheese and Aunt Jemima Pancakes Mix almost brought tears to my eyes...

Fanny and I cutting the turkey

          
          When I read three weeks ago that Ranch Market every year imports hundreds of turkeys from the United States and sells already made Pumpkin pies, I had the idea to organize my first Thanksgiving dinner in Indonesia. I sent out detailed recipes of different typical dish to my French guests and agreed on meeting at my house on November 25th.

Thanksgiving plate

Appetizers

     Fanny's and I first Thanksgiving dinner couldn't have been better (aside from the small oven accident that almost blew the house out :). 

     I thank all my guest for contributing to this wonderful American tradition while keeping their undeniable culinary French touch. Thank you also to our house keeper Purwanti, that made sure to startcook the turkey while we were at work.

Because games are fun!

    

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends. I miss you more than you could ever imagine.

Love, C-

Ring, ring why don't you stop calling?

                On Tuesday night I teach a weekly adult yoga class at my school. The more I teach, the more I want to learn. It is an amazing experience and I am very grateful to have returning students every week. Yesterday we had it all: new softened lightning, available yoga mats, air conditioning, a great sound system and a subtle smell of incense. 30 sun salutations later, my students and I were finally relaxing in Shavasana (dead's man pose). As we were laying there with no movement, listening to our breath coming back to its natural state, our relaxation was brutally disturbed by a cell phone ring tone obviously set on maximum volume. The owner of the phone stood up, frantically searched her purse and finally... answered the call!

              The person in question is Indonesian and what she did right then is not considered a lack of respect at all in this culture. From a outsider's perspective: it really seems like blackberries, Iphones, cellphones are Indonesian people's best friend. Definitely a very annoying aspect of Jakarta.

             At the end of the class, while reflecting on culture differences, I approached the woman and kindly asked her to never bring her phone back to class again. That day I practiced yoga.

Is it PETA* approved?

             While for some of us November is referred to as a turkey, pumpkin pies and American football indicator, for other it is synonym of hundred of goat and cows waiting in the street to get their throats cut open.

   In deed Eid al- Adha or "Festival of sacrifice" is coming up on Nov 16! It is an important religious holiday that commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God. On this particular holiday, "the meat is divided into three equal parts to be distributed to others. The family retains one third of the share, another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors, and the other third is given to the poor & needy." (Wikipedia) 

You know you've been living in a big city when:

• the smell of cows and goats along the streets of Jakarta is appealing to you because it reminds you of the country side. 

I've fallen into that category.

Love C-






PETA *: People for the ethical treatment of animals

Komodo dragons: myth or reality?

        Today we arrived in Jakarta on time. None of ours flights were delayed and the landings and take-offs were excellent. A beautiful way to end what I count as one of my favorite vacation of all time.

        After an eventful first part in Sumatra, Fanny, Laurent, Ophelie, Tony and I embarked on a small cruise ( 18 passengers, 5 crew members) 5 days ago in Lombok (a heavenly island east of Bali). On board there were 2 Germans, 2 Dutch, 7 French, 4 australians, One Polish, and 2 Canadians... A total blast! On our first few days on the boat we spent most of our time snorkeling through turquoise waters, spotting rays, cow fish, baby barracudas and much more.  

       Our third stop was Komodo Island: one of the 17,508 island that make up the Republic of Indonesia; Also known for its unique fauna: the Komodo dragons. There are more than 5,000 Komodos dragons on the island and a 98 percent chance for visitors to experience a face to face encounter with a giant lizard. So we thought...

      Komodo dragons are cold blooded animals, they spend most of the day regulating their temperature and avoiding being too hot or too cold. To make sure we would see the reptiles, our group set off for the "adventure trail" at 7 a.m in the morning. By mid-trail people were obviously getting anxious to see the dragons. By the end, we were part of the 2 percent visitors every year that don't see a single Komodo dragon EXCEPT for the one visibly high on xanax near the restaurant for emergency cases like ours. :) Everyone had a really good laugh and we all jumped back on the boat for our final destination, the island of Flores. 

Thank you again to Fanny, Laurent, Ophelie and Tony without whom I wouldn't have spent and shared such great laughs and moments.

I apologize for the lack of pics- I am currently in the process of collecting pictures and videos from my friends of our trip to make a movie montage which I hope I will be able to publish online soon. 

Love C-

We survived Mina (the Ourangutan not the hurricane)

Untitled from Caroline Hendel on Vimeo.



o·rang·u·tan. n.

• An arboreal anthropoid ape (Pongo pygmaeus) of Borneo and Sumatra, having a shaggy reddish-brown coat, very long arms, and no tail.

In Bahasa:

•  Orang, man + hutan, jungle

       On Saturday October 23rd, Laurent and I started our Toussaint vacation by setting off to the island of Sumatra.We stayed at the Garden Inn, a beautiful guest house owned by a colleague of ours and her husband in Bukit Lawang,a village only 96km northwest of Medan. Our number one motivation for this particular destination was the proximity (right in front of the hostel) of the biggest orang-utan conservation programme in the world, operated in the Gunung Leuser National Park.

   

Oman fighting the Orangoutan

          With more than 5000 animals thought to be living in the wild, we were certain to come across many during our 2 day trek in the jungle. At 8.00 a.m we started our ascent and soon spotted a female Orangutan and her baby hanging in the trees. 

          

Female orangutan,give birth to one child every 6 years. The offspring is known to stay near his mom until the age of 10. In other words: a strong bonding you don't want to mess with.

No more fruit for us!

           A couple of hours later of profuse jungle sweating we had our first encounter with Mina the Orangutan you don't want to see. Although Mina is a semi-wild Orangutan (which means that she is used to being fed and taken care of by humans), she will not let you pass her without giving her food. Our guide, who's been bit by her before wasn't ready to give in again. The inevitable happened: Mina slowly started to come down the trees, and we were told to walk (as fast as we could) in the other direction. End of the story.

Waterrrrrfall

"Mina, who arrived at the rehabilitation center in 1979, is an ex-captive, rehabilitated and released orangutan who now freely roams the forests of the GLNP."Lonely Planet

           Another memorable moment during our trek happened as we were snacking on fruits along a small river in the middle of the jungle. The guide had just opened a pack of delicious Indonesian named lychees, when suddenly a mom utan and her baby came out  from nowhere right in front of us, stole all of our fruits and sat down literally 5 foot away from us. She obviously was used to human presence and was soon recognized by the guide as one of the semi-wild orangutans. Pictures and videos to come!!

FABULOUS EXPERIENCE!

As we were in the jungle, a tsunami hit the western coast of the island of Sumatra, on the opposite coast of where we were...

Love C-!

 

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