I made it!

Well, it has been a crazy past few days. After a LONG day of travel and an even longer search to find a hostel, I'm happy to say I am alive and well. For the sake of my parents, I will spare the details, but let's just say that last night I didn't get out of the airport until midnight. Long story short, I owe a lot to an amazing Chilean couple who let me tag along with them all night so I wasn't wandering the streets alone until we found a hotel. Fun fact about where we stayed: they served fried rice for breakfast. mmmmmmmmm.. that was something new to wake up to.

I am currently staying in a hostel on Jalan Jaksa, a street in Jakarta that is full of hostels and cafes and is pretty much known as the backpacker's haven around here. Jakarta itself is a very interesting place. One of the books I read before I left described it as "overwhelming" and I couldn't find a better word myself. It is a huge, dirty, crazy, busy city. I am terrified to cross the streets. The cars zig-zag everywhere but mostly the mopeds and litte rickshaw things could care less about you ever getting across. Oh, and there is only a cross walk about every mile or so. Basically to get across the street, you have to hold you arm up (only your right, since the left hand is never used to do anything because it is considered unclean) and hope for the best. Hopefully I master that by the time I leave.

Indonesians seem very nice, but the language barrier is much greater than I had anticipated. Hopefully this won't hinder my research ...That's all for now, don't want to bore you all with my rambling. Just wanted to announce that I made it. Hopefully more interesting things to come soon. Or at least some delicious food escapades.
selamat tinggal! (goodbye)

Liza


PS- I am writing this at noon, sitting in an outdoor cafe drinking freshly squeezed apple juice, and the call to prayer is echoing throughout the allyways. Its gonna be an exciting month.