First Day in Jakarta

The school loaded us into 3 of their vans and took us to our new home for the next year. The apartment complex is HUGE. Driving up to it at night, there were 4 massive towers that appeared to be 40 stories high. One of the guys in our car said, “Oh yeah, we are definitely in the 1% here.” I was pretty tired at this point and just wanted to find out who my roommate would be and what our living quarters would look like. We could tell that the people shuttling us around were tired and just wanted to drop us off and get the heck out of there. We were all being dropped off at different towers at the complex. Jenny and I got dropped off at the 3^rd stop. I knew she would not be my roommate, so I was anxious to see if my roommate was there already or if I would be waiting on him (or them) to arrive. I was told at the UNI fair that I would probably be rooming with 1 or 2 other teachers the first year. The second year they would give us an allowance to find our own place. I get up to my floor. Get to my door. The nice gentleman opens it for me, and I see:

Obviously, this was taken after I unpacked, but that’s it?! I said, “So, I will be in this one by myself?” He replied, “Yes.” He asked if I needed anything else. I did not and he was off. My only instructions at this point (at roughly 1:00am Thursday morning) were that I needed to be in the lobby for pick-up by the school bus by 7:00am Friday. No roommate. No idea where any of the other teachers (except Jenny) were staying in this massive complex. No way of communicating with anyone (my Indonesian is, how do I say this, non-existent). No Internet. I was fully planning on unpacking a few things and getting some sleep. This was the first time that I got a glimpse (still don’t think it has fully hit me, yet) that I am HALWAY ACROSS THE WORLD. I felt lonely that night. I did not second guess my decision, but I did realize more clearly the uphill battle that I have in front of me to mesh with a new culture and build new relationships. I was a little disappointed that I do not have a roommate, but maybe this will be a blessing in disguise. Instead of coming back to the apartment to hang out with him, maybe this will force me to stay out of the apartment and be outgoing during my year at this location. I unpacked a good number of things, took a little shower to cool off (below: this is my whole bathroom; swimsuit is covering the shower head), and then said a few prayers.

I did not cry that night, which is shocking. If you know me, I am a very emotional guy and the fact that I have not cried at all during this process is very surprising (you could have gotten me not cryingat 20-1 in Vegas last week). I just prayed that the other teachers didn’t feel lonely/lost that night. We all signed up for a crazy adventure, and this is the hand we have been dealt. I also prayed for my health and safety during my time in Southeast Asia. Once I was ready for bed, I went to turn off the bathroom light. All the lights went out. I think by turning off the light I caused a fuse to blow and all the electricity in my room went out. Indonesia, mane. Thankfully, the only thing that stunk was not having air conditioning that night. It is very hot and muggy, here. I got about 5 hours of sleep that night. I think that I heard the Muslim call to prayer around 5 that morning, but it is a very hazy memory. I woke up around 8:00am and it was fully light out. One thing that will take some getting used to is that the sun rises every morning at 6:00am and the sun sets every day at 6:00pm—because we are practically on the equator. Just before 10:00am Thursday, a nice young fellow from Bina Bangsa came by to make sure that we had our water (can’t drink the tap water here, so they have hooked me up with a Danone office-esque water cooler) and that everything was alright. I informed him that my electricity was out and he left saying he would tell someone about the situation. About 45 minutes later 3 gentlemen came by to investigate. Later on that day, my power was restored.

I was fortunate enough to meet up with Jenny and Aaron to do a little exploring around our apartment complex for our first day in the city. We found a nice restaurant with wifi (I wanted to send a text to mom and let her know everything was going fine) that had tremendous food. I got the Momma’s Fried Noodles with chicken. It had the little pepper next to the name of the dish to signal “spicy.” The noodles had a great kick and I demolished that meal. The people there were very nice and I had my first photo request from one of our waiters. I had been warned about people wanting to take photos with you randomly, and sure enough it happens. He must have recognized me from the blog. We continued to walk around for about an hour and I’m sure a lot of locals went home talking about the crazy white guy with the phat (yeah, I used a “ph” phat) smile on his face walking around town. A lot of people yelled, “Hey Mister!” and there I was like Kramer responding to “Assman” with a wave and a smile for everyone. When we got back I ran into Cindy, a teacher from Canada, in my hallway. She was part of a group that was taken to the mall to get a few necessities. She said that she had been told that we were not permanently staying in this apartment and that this was only temporary. I’m not sure how I would feel about moving. On one hand, I would love a roommate and possibly a bigger/nicer space. Having someone to talk through the highs and lows of this year would be great. But I am already somewhat settled in here and it isn’t that bad. I guess I will find out in a few days after our orientation is done.

We ended our first night by heading to a spot with wifi to enjoy a beer and update everyone back home on our whereabouts. It is going to be an adjustment, but I hope to make the most out of every day I get to spend in Indonesia.

Minumlah!

Travel

I am in Jakarta. Sorry this has taken so long to post. The internet isn’t set up in my apartment and probably won’t be for the near future. This post will be about the 51-hour trek from Wichita to Jakarta.

The time leading up to my departure from America was not as stressful as I had imagined it would be. Packing was easily the worst part of the preparation for my trip to Indonesia—probably the only time where I was even a little frustrated. Saying goodbye to friends and family was not as hard as I had imagined it would be. I kept thinking all along that reality would strike when I said goodbye to my parents or when I got to the airport. My flight from Wichita to Chicago was delayed by 2 hours and gave my dad and I plenty of time to just sit and enjoy each other’s company one last time (mom recently had knee surgery and didn’t make it to the airport). Once I got to Chicago, I was the 2^ndperson in our traveling group of 10 to arrive. I met my new friend, Aaron, at the ticketing window for Qatar Airways just before 3:00. The window didn’t even open until 5:00, so we had plenty of time to get to know each other and get a feel for what each of us was thinking about this experience. I met Aaron a little bit after he had said goodbye to his dad and brother. It was evident that he comes from a great family and cares deeply about his family members. I didn’t show much emotion when saying goodbye to my family and I hope that they realize that doesn’t mean I am excited to not see them for a year. I am so lucky to have my family in my life. From the time I got to Wichita on Saturday until I left Monday morning, everyone in my family was extremely supportive of my upcoming adventure. How do I describe the love that my parents have always shown me? Embarrassed? No. Ashamed? No. I think the right term would be “not worthy.” I cannot imagine a set of parents being so consistently supportive and loving of a child as they have been to me. My parents always say that the way I pay them back for everything is by doing the same to my children. A) I hope I get the chance to be a great husband/father and B) I have a really high bar to live up to from what my parents have done for me. Long story short, I am overly blessed to have the people in my life that I do.

On to the travel! The first big flight was from Chicago to Doha, Qatar. Qatar Airways does it right. If you ever have a chance to use their product, I highly recommend it. The plane was a 3-3-3 seating arrangement and each seat had a personal entertainment system placed in the headrest directly in front of them (below: image of the personal entertainment system of the plane on a compass with an arrow pointing towards Mecca).

The personal entertainment system was a touch screen and had a lot of different features. You could watch movies (over 200 to choose from), watch TV shows (a very good selection), listen to music (didn’t even get around to checking this out), read up on Qatar, and see the flight’s progress on rotating maps. I watched “Silver Linings Playbook,” and an episode of “How I Met Your Mother,” and read up on the airline and the country where I would be spending the night. The food was pretty good: very good for airplane standards. And there was always more coming our way. On the 13.5 hour flight to Doha, we got two meals (dinner and breakfast) and stewardesses kept coming around with drinks and snacks throughout the flight. We landed around 6:30pm local time but didn’t get settled in our hotel room until around 9:30. On the drive to the hotel, we were able to see the beautiful architecture that painted the Doha skyline (below: my favorite skyscraper).

The hotel was very nice and came with a free dinner and breakfast. The meals were both buffets and had incredible spreads. We did not leave Movenpick Tower & Suites hungry. Each of us got our own room, so we felt like we were living as kings and queens. We had to be in the lobby for our shuttle to the airport the following morning at 7:00am, but we all figured that we probably weren’t going to be spending many more nights of our life in Doha so we went exploring. The few people we saw out at night (granted, it was from 12-1) was surprising. After walking around downtown Doha, we went back to the hotel to grab a few zzzs before our flight the next morning.

The flight to Jakarta was a little over 8 hours. I don’t know if it is typical for long international flights to be delayed, but both of ours got in around 45 minutes after they were supposed to. I’m sure that has to do with loading 40+ rows of 9 people. I got lucky on this flight and got to sit next to Brad, the one person I had met at the fair at UNI that I knew was going to Indonesia, in an exit row. The extra leg room on an 8 hour flight cannot be understated. The only (not negative…) different thing about being in an exit row was that when it was time for Muslims to do their daily prayers, they came to the exit row to face Mecca. I tried to keep my feet out of their way while they were kneeling, but multiple times contact was made. No one made any note of it, but I wanted to be as respectful as possible. I can tell that Muslims are a very faithful group and I am excited to see what my interactions are with them in the near future. Once we landed, there was someone there to greet the 10 of us traveling together to help us go through customs and get our visas inspected. After making it out of the airport, Jane, our HR director, greeted us with a goody bag that included a converter, bottle of water, and (wait for it…) KFC!! My first meal in Indonesia was a thigh and a lot of steamed rice. Traveling with 9 other people in the same boat as me was awesome. It really helped me stay calm the whole way. I kept waiting for me to freak out that I was somewhere between Africa and Australia, but it hadn’t come…yet.

I have my next post typed up already. It will detail getting dropped off at my apartment and the 30ish hours before the school picked us up for our first of 5 orientation days. I could post it now, but what fun would that be? I gotta make sure you keep checking the site! Check back in a short bit for the story of when I really felt lonely for the first time in my life.

Spidey-Sense

Before I start this post, I hope all of you know that I try to answer all of the fan mail that I receive. But the enormous quantity means that I cannot ensure a response for everyone. One e-mail I got recently, from Matt in Arizona, said,

“Long time reader, first time e-mailer. You talk about how blessed you have been with the friendships you have here in America. What do you plan to do to ensure making lasting friendships in Indonesia?”

Great question, Matt. I am a firm believer that life is all about confidence. When I did umpiring for 4 summers my boss used to say, “if you dress like an umpire and act like an umpire, people will treat you like an umpire.” It may be a stretch to relate that to life in general, but I think that if I go about my business in Jakarta with confidence I will be able to make friends. A couple other things that I will try to continue to do is be myself and keep a smile on my face at all times. I am so lucky to have this opportunity to meet new people and see a different part of the world. Why wouldn’t I have a smile on my face? If anyone ever wants to get a hold of me or ask me any questions, my e-mail ismattsphillips@cox.net

What a crazy last few weeks it has been. I have been trying to spend time with every person that has had an impact on me becoming the person I am today. Trying to see and hang out with everyone has further opened my eyes as to how blessed I am. I truly believe that I am the luckiest man on the face of the Earth (Lou Gehrig voice). After spending time with so many amazing people, I have thought, “what the hell am I doing leaving all these people and these strong relationships?!” But I am as far away as possible from regretting my decision to see a different culture and interact with non-Americans while it is a possibility. I leave Monday and it really hasn’t clicked yet. Probably won’t until I’m at the airport or in the air. Later on this evening some of my good friends in Lawrence are throwing me a going away party. Maybe it will start to hit me then, but I doubt it.

In the last few weeks I have played my last round of golf with my dad for at least a year, worked my last shift at Alvamar, and said goodbye to all 3 of my grandparents that are still going strong. I was lucky enough to play in the Carlos O’Kelly’s golf tournament for the 3^rd year in a row with my dad and 2 of his best friends (Kim and Stefan). Our group’s goal each year is to have the most fun out of all the foursomes. We are 3-time defending champs in that category. The last 4 years I have been lucky enough to be a part of the Alvamar family. They took a chance on me in the 2^nd round of the 2010 Cart-Boy Draft and I think that my accomplishments speak for themselves. My dad’s only sibling, Carl, is in Kansas City to visit their parents right now. Luckily, after getting back from Colorado (we’ll get there in a second) I was able to stop by to see him, his son, and my grandparents. My entire family has always been over-the-top loving and supporting of everything I do—very lucky to have them on my team. I took a trip to visit my mom’s mom in San Antonio with her and my little brother, Craig, last week. It was great to see her as well as my Uncles David and Rich and their families. I really hate everything about the drive there: from the Texas traffic in San Antonio and Austin to the 4-cylinder Dodge Journey I get to maneuver. I channeled my inner Kyle Busch on the way back and made it door-to-door in 9:20 with 3 stops. But everything else about the trip was awesome. Some good Texas barbeque and a lot of quality time with everyone made the drive well worth it.

After arriving in Wichita after the 9+ hour drive, I continued on to Manhattan to start a bro trip with my great friends Ian and Chance. The main reason for this trip was that Ian is not sure exactly when he will be getting engaged/married, and it is very possible that it happens within the next two years. If that happens, I really hope to be able to come back for the wedding. In case I am unable to attend the wedding festivities, we decided to take a 3-day trip to Colorado to celebrate the importance we all have in each others’ lives (below: Chance, Me, Ian).

The trip started by making it to Denver in time to catch a Rockies game at Coors Field. I had not been to Coors and it was a great place to watch a ballgame (conservatively I’ll say it was top 10 I’ve visited). We sat next to a friendly gentleman who was originally from Wichita and is a proud graduate of the University of Kansas. He was awesome to chat with during the game about everything from life in Colorado to how excited we are to see the Jayhawk basketball team mature next year. Maybe the best part of our conversation was when he introduced us to Dale’s Pale Ale. A locally brewed beer, it was fantastic—one of the better tasting microbrews I have ever had. He was one of the many instances of the people of Colorado being very friendly. After the game was over, we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Camping/hiking has never been something I have really done, so I let Ian and Chance organize everything for that aspect of the trip. The scenery in RMNP is like nothing I have ever seen before. “Beautiful” doesn’t even begin to describe the gorgeous views that the park provides. Ian made sure that we hiked the 2.7 miles to Mills Lake; he and his family had been there before and he said it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The lake was very impressive…until we continued our hike for another 2.5 miles to Black Lake (pictured below). The snow during the last mile of the hike was a little annoying, but the trek was well worth it. If the woman I end up proposing to is a nature lover, Black Lake might be the spot. Absolutely stunning. The hike down was an adventure as Chance had the great idea of taking us off trail on the way down. He referenced his spidey-sense (yes, spidey-sense) multiple times on the trip when we didn’t know what we were doing. I have to admit, every time it worked out. Props to you, Chance. But you still suck at FIFA.

The packing is almost complete and I am excited to be back in Wichita Saturday to spend my last few hours with lifelong friends and family. But before that, I am pumped to celebrate the amazing group of people that have put up with me in Lawrence for the last few years.

Cheers