King Pin

Currently there is only one other pilot from Chris' company living in Indonesia.  Andy has been out here since March and recently went back to Phoenix to help his wife, Debi, move out here as well.  We are SO excited that Debi is finally here!  We all LOVE her!!!  I love having someone to commiserate with.  Emilie has found that Debi likes shopping and shoes almost as much as she does and Dustin loves to share all of his toys with her.  Poor Debi is pulled down to the floor to play trains or legos whenever she visits!

A couple weeks ago, while Chris and Andy were flying, we spent Saturday at the bowling alley with Debi. We had a great time and the bowling was fairly cheap by Arizona standards.  We were also lucky that they didn't charge us for all the dents we put in the floor as our bowling balls literally went bouncing down the lane.  We did learn that when you pay for one hour, they mean one hour.  As the clock struck 60 minutes, the lights went out on our lane and we were finished...as I was mid stride in the middle of my frame ;-)

This kid means business!

                                                                                                                                                  After 1-1/2 games the final score - 

Emilie - 95

Debi - 128

Jennie - 129

Dustin - 173

The D-Man didn't just beat us...he mopped the floor with us.  Next up for him, the Professional Bowlers Association!

After being beat so badly by a 3 year old, we treated ourselves to a good old American lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe!

Nanny to the Ranch Rescue!

Nanny & Papa made Emilie's day when she got home from school and found a little package waiting for her!  My guess is that if the customs agents knew how good this stuff is, this package would have been "lost" in the mail! Thank you Nanny & Papa!!!

The Dog Days of Dustin

One of the hardest adjustments Dustin has had to make has been going from having several friends at our house five days/week to spending all day, every day, with only Chris, Emilie & me.  Add this to the fact that we could only fit so many of his toys into our limited amount of suitcases and I would say he has been getting a little bored.  He has definitely been ready for a little social interaction with some kids his own age!  We were lucky to meet a great family from Florida right away!  They have a four year old daughter and she and Dustin get along very well.  

Dustin and his new friend Miley!

We have been trying to fill his days with fun things like swimming, playing at the playground, going to the library and building rockets!

Dustin LOVES the library at the elementary school campus!  

And of course he has to get his haircut with Daddy!

Then there is Tennis!  Dustin has lessons once a week with an amazing set of instructors.  Finding a kid-sized racket was quite the process in Jakarta, but it has been worth it! (After about 3 full days of looking at countless stores with endless hours in traffic, we FINALLY found one - If only there were a Target out here!!!)

Dustin's favorite activity - His weekly circus class! Circus class is taught by a former traveling circus clown!  They have been working on juggling (first with scarves, then with balls).  They also spin plates (which might just be Dustin's calling in life!), balance wands, and have fun with all sorts of games and tricks.  

The tongue is always needed for a little extra concentration!

This is a fun game where the kids try to pass the spinning plate back and forth down the line.  They are actually pretty good at it!

"Juggling"

What class is complete without a little air guitar?

And the pure agony when class is over...

Bule, Bule!

One of these things is not like the others. 

One of these things just doesn't belong. 

Can you tell which thing is not like the others, 

By the time I finish my song?

In Indonesia, there is a special word for foreigners  - Bule.

We have found that, at times, we even get the "special" Bule pricing and get to pay more for things than those that do not stand out in appearance!  Most of us have gotten used to being stared at when we go places.  Dustin is the exception.  It seems that Bule children are especially interesting to look at, talk to and touch.  He is not fond of the attention and typically shrinks behind me when others try to touch him.  One man found him in a particularly good mood;  When he tried to touch Dustin's cheeks, Dustin firmly told him to "STOP IT!"  I was very embarrassed, but luckily the man did not speak any English!  

Last weekend, while spending a little time at a museum, a group of 20-30 high school aged girls approached Dustin and me with their cameras.  I interpreted their Bahasa and gestures to mean that they wanted me to take a picture of their group.  I agreed, put my camera away and learned that what they really wanted was a picture WITH Dustin and me.  Apparently they wanted proof of the strange things they saw at the museum.  I wish I had thought to get a picture with my own camera, but was so shocked it didn't cross my mind until after they left! I can only imagine what it will be like for a true Bule celebrity, like Ed Hochuli, to visit us!

Mini Indonesia

Last weekend we spent a few hours at a very interesting place called Taman Mini (or Mini Indonesia).  If you click on the link, you will notice that the majority of the website is in Bahasa Indonesian so we were not sure exactly what we were getting into. It was well worth our trip.  It cost us a whopping $4 to get everyone into the park and most of the attractions cost an additional $0.90 or so. Taman Mini is basically a giant park representing many of the major regions of Indonesia.  There are huts from each region showing the differences in everything from architecture to traditional dress.  There are also several museums ranging from a Komodo Dragon museum to a Military museum and everything in between.  We spent the entire morning there and still only got to see about a quarter of the park.  Here are a few highlights from our trip!

We started the day at the Indonesian Museum.  Here we learned about some of the differences between the regions of Indonesia including housing, clothing, jewelry and some customs.  

We toured a traditional hut from one of the regions of Indonesia (I wish I remembered which one, but the next time we go, I will take notes (-:).  This hut was about 1500 square feet and would house 8 families.  The 2 smaller buildings in the front are for rice storage.  There is also a small building in the back for worship and another building they use as a meeting room.  We met the nicest women in the building.  She was so happy to practice her English on us and she told us all about the customs of the region.

Next we moved on to the Komodo Dragon Museum.  We were the only ones here at the time and were invited into one of the Monitor Lizard exhibits.  We were able to pet the Monitor Lizard named Godzilla. Emilie was not as adventurous and decided to stay OUTSIDE the exhibit.  Regardless, Godzilla seemed to be very interested in her!

 

 They brought out a python for us to pet as well.  Dustin and Chris chose to keep their hands to themselves, but I took a turn as did our driver Pak Firman.  

 Godzilla was not excited to see us leave and decided to block the exit!

 They had all types of crocodiles, lizards, frogs, etc. for us to check out!

Inside there was a very cool exhibit showing all of the different animals found across Indonesia - Lucky for Chris and Emilie, these animals were not alive!

We took the Sky Ride to get a bird's eye view of the park.  One of the coolest things to see was the lake with islands laid out to make up the 17,508 islands of Indonesia.  From the air, it really did look like the Indonesia you see on a Google Maps!

 We were lucky enough to visit the Freshwater Aquarium during feeding time so we followed the fish man around as he fed all of the different fish.  We saw fish eating right out of his hand.  He had to feed the Electric Catfish with a long wooden pole to avoid being electrocuted! At one point he had a giant pole with what looked like a comb sticking up the side of it.  He put food on the teeth of the comb and told us to stand back.  As he laid the pole over the pond, the fish spit water at the comb causing the food to fly up and eventually drop into the water.  He told us that in their natural habitat, these fish spit at insects flying above the water in order to eat!

We also visited the Insect and Butterfly Museum.  I was impressed with the vibrant colors on the butterflies.  There were butterflies of every color under the rainbow.  The butterfly exhibit was awesome - not quite like the Monarch Butterfly Exhibit at the Phoenix Botanical Garden, but it was fun to see fun to see butterflies of all different colors! 

 

 

We had a great day and learned a little more about the culture of Indonesia.  We are excited to go back and check out the millions of things we missed!