Ibu's back in town

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been to the US and back again. In the four months that I have been here, this is the first time I have made it out of the city of Jakarta. It sounds odd, but life can get complicated with this kind of a move.

There are many routes that one can take to get between the US and Indonesia. As you may remember, the initial trip out was Houston to Moscow to Singapore and then Jakarta. This trip was Jakarta to Singapore, to Hong Kong, to San Francisco, to Houston and then a drive to Sherman, TX. Whew!

We saw Hong Kong only briefly out the window, but it looks like a city that could be interesting to visit. Since I was in the center seating area of the plane, I couldn't really get a good look. I did see mountains and boats in what I assume is Hong Kong harbor. I took snapshots of the airport and the various views of the planes and such. Also on this trip, we had more time to experience the fabulous airport in Singapore. The terminal we were in had orchids everywhere. There was also a sunflower garden up a couple of levels from where we were walking to catch our connecting flight.

There is major shopping to be had in all of the airports we passed through. Pretty unbelievable the high end stores there. I felt more like I was in a mall than an airport at times. In one of the other terminals in Singapore, they supposedly have an outstanding butterfly room. Not sure what the proper name for that is, but I have no doubt that is is beautiful as the Singaporians seem to do it up right.

Before leaving Jakarta, my brother, David, made a suggestion that I should collect coins from the various countries that I fly through or visit and make a charm bracelet out of them. I think that is a stunning idea. So, while in Hong Kong I exchanged $5.00US and got some very colorful paper money and some cool coins. Thanks for the great suggestion David.

I really wasn't sure how I was going to feel touching down on US soil after my four month long sleep-over in Indonesia. I have to say, it felt really great to land in a place where you know how the money works, what is on the menu, people drive on the right side of the road and folks say ya'll. With that said, we did experience a tiny little bit of reverse culture shock while we were in Texas.

Living in a land where 88% of the population practice Islam, most woman are pretty covered up. We were a bit taken aback by all the cleavage and leg we saw just walking through the US airports. Here, there are short skirts on some of the young Indonesian woman working hard to attract a bule husband. But, it is a decided minority. Heck, you hardly see sleeveless blouses here for that matter. I've never been overly prudish about these things. It just caught me by surprise that in such a brief time shorts and tank tops would look strange to me. After a few days of getting re-acclimated, it looked pretty USish and I didn't stare in disbelief.

Since we haven't driven in four months, my local honey was worried that he would feel uncomfortable once behind the wheel. Well, it was not a problem at all. Sweetie pie got behind the wheel of our truck and motored us to all of our destinations with no problem. I, on the other hand, never did drive while I was home. I am now being accused of being a diva that will require someone to chauffeur me everywhere once we return to our native land on a permanent basis. Not so sure of that, but I have found it is kind of nice to not have to think too much about what the traffic is doing and being able to check out the action around me, roll down the window and poke the camera out for a quick picture, text message or just zone out until it is time to get out of the car.

The reason for our trip to the US was to share in the celebration of college graduation with our son. After four years, lots of bucks, and lots of growing pains (for all of us) we are the proud parents of a college graduate. It was a great day and we are all shocked that it really did seem to happen so quickly. Four years really flew by. I am in the "Holy cow. My son is all grown up." phase. I know we have other milestones to cross with him, but this is a biggie.

Having to leave him and fly back to a distant land was as difficult as the last time we did it. Not sure that will ever go away. A sobbing mom in the car at 5:30AM is a gruesome sight. But after an hour or so, I regained my composure and the promise of breakfast at the Waffle House made me feel better.

The last paragraph reminded me of a couple of other things that we experienced on our return visit. Since the days are pretty close to being 12 hours long all the time(you remember that is why my blog is named It's always a 12 hour day), you kind of forget that it is almost summer in other parts of the world and the days are getting longer. On one of the first nights in the US, we had dinner with friends and I looked at my watch and couldn't believe it was almost 8pm and it was still light! Who would have thought this would be such a marvel? Coming back to a place that is familiar but getting to rediscover things that have been so common place but are now so novel is a wonderful experience. It is like you've never seen this before and it is so marvelous but somehow so familiar. Almost the feel of waking from a long sleep and seeing the world with rested eyes.

The other thing is I can't believe how much bacon we tried to consume. Normally, we eat bacon only occasionally at our house. But for some reason we had to have it while we were home on this visit. I am sure it is one of those psychological things about desperately wanting something that you can't have. Please, no psych analysis in the comments about this post.

I am not sure I have discussed the most prevalent kind of bacon that is served in Indonesia. It is made from beef. Beef bacon is very low on my list of products that I ever want to consume again. It is on the list with octopus balls that I see advertised on a restaurant banner hanging in the mall(no comments again please) and the chicken feet that I see wrapped up in the much beloved plastic at the grocery. It is like someone couldn't decide what they wanted this poor piece of beef to be. It is like beef jerky gone horribly wrong. Therefore, we did indulge in a lot of pork products while we were home. It was delicious. However, I hope it will not become a habit on each return visit as my cardiologist will have a cow, and that would just lead to more beef bacon.