Jenny’s Journies

Saturday, December 02, 2006 @ 10:30pm. Time is going so fast! I can’t believe it’s already December. I was supposed to go home in November, but it looks like I’ll be here in Indonesia for a bit longer. Departure plans are still up in the air, but I’ll keep folks posted in the coming weeks. The past couple of days I have been under the weather, probably because of the weather! Apparently, it’s pretty common to get headaches, muscle aches, and other aches when the seasons change, in this case from the dry season to the rainy season. The rainy season is actually starting late this year, and many people I’ve talked to attribute this to global warming.

I hope my American family and friends had a nice Thanksgiving. I had a really good time. It was funny when we all first entered our hostess’s house - the smell of traditional food cooking instantly told us it was Thanksgiving and everyone smiled at the familiarity. To my amazement, our group enjoyed turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, salad, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, pumpkin pie, apple pie, ice cream, and even ginger-molasses cookies! I found out that the turkey was from the American Club in South Jakarta, which is a combination meeting hall, gym, pool, recreation center, store, etc. I currently can’t afford the club fees, but maybe in the future, right? Other stuff was purchased from specialty grocery stores.

Let’s see…what else? Oh, of course, happy birthday to all of the November and December babies!!!

Before I sign off, here’s a random assortment of recent pictures:

Dodol (traditional candy) is similar to taffy. Dodol comes in many flavors such as chocolate, strawberry, and even durian! This picture was taken at Carrefour.

I went with friends to Ratu Plaza expecting to peruse the DVD stalls, but they were all closed because of a recent police raid for illegal products.

I saw this interesting parking sign in front of Kem Chicks, an upscale grocery store with lots of foreign goods. It is located in Kemang, South Jakarta. I saw all kinds of European, Australian, and American items (including Halloween costumes), but the prices were much too high for this student’s budget!

This is me and my friend Yosef at his birthday party, which was held at Eastern Restaurant at the ITC - Permata Hijau building. The restaurant has great dim sum, though there was more gorengan (fried foods) than dim sum places in the U.S.