Experiencing Jakarta

If I ever thought Surabaya, Boston, NYC or any city I've been to is big or busy, that thought has been crushed by Jakarta. Even though the population of 9 million is just a little bigger than NYC, it seems so much bigger and overwhelming! My friend from my kos, Kurnea, invited me to come visit her and her family while she is home for break from university. I got the chance to got there for 5 days and stay with her family(her parents and 2 younger sisters). It was a blast!! I wish I could have video taped the time there, so you could get a full image of the city and what my experience was like, but I only have a few pics to share. The first two days we mainly just stayed and hung out at her home because of the rain. it rained constantly there and Jakarta is prevelent to flooding. So, that mixed with all the traffic, we didn't have a desire to go anywhere :)

I got to visit a lot of her friends and neighbors. Her neighbor across the street just had a baby 5 days ago!

This is the only child that'd take a picture with me...all the other kids ran away from me because I'm white haha. They finally warmed up to me the last day!

On Sunday we had a packed day! We left at 5am to go into the center of the city and around Jakarta. We went to one of the popular sites, Monas, and wanted to walk around until 10 when you can go to the top of the tower and look out to Jakarta, but the rain foiled that plan. It started downpouring!

Me with Kurnea's family and her sister's boyfriend and his mom. Please take note of how much I'm crouching down :)

Me in front of the tower, Monas

After going to Monas, we drove around other parts of Jakarta and then they took me to the "Old City." This is the part of the city that has a lot of influence from the Dutch when they colonized Indonesia. We went to one of the museums that has a big courtyard and ate lunch there.

When we got there, there were people practicing for a performance. There were traditional dancers and musicians playing traditional instruments.

One of my favorite things was a place where you could rent "antique" bicycles with special hats. It was so much fun. Most of the bikes were 2 or 3 seaters!

For some reason, I just think this is a funny picture of us in action riding the bike :)

On the last day there, I went with Kurnea to her old high school, where her mom teaches. They asked if I would help do conversation in one of the English classes there. There were about 40 students in the class, ages 15 and 16. The teacher had me talk a little bit and have them ask questions and then we played a game together. It was so much fun to interact with the students there! I did, however, get asked to be someone's girlfriend about 10 times...these kids are bold!

I had such a great time getting to experience a different part of Indonesia and a different culture in Jakarta. Thank you so much, Kurnea, for your hospitality and the memories from that trip!!