Arriving In Jakarta - Craving The Heat

First off lets start with these awesome adventure shots Negin took of me an hour before JFK cause you will all feel better that my sense of humor is still in tact....
Phew glad we got that out of the way now you've all laughed at me so you know I'm still alive and very much myself. Some notes from the beautiful notebook Jane F. gave to me before I left -

10 PM EST - JFK - bought a watch. A last minute splurge but a much desired item as I try to orient my body and mind to different time zones. I ended up buying a junior's watch because I have abnormally small wrists... seriously its a freakshow. The damn thing wouldn't set so I spent the better part of my wait at the gate winding and winding in order to bring the calendar fully around to the 1st.
9 PM on the 4th - The gate is too full to have a seat I find a corner on the floor.
4 AM on the 8th - I am trying to figure out where all my neighbors are headed - mostly they look Indian and very few appear to be Jakarta bound.
6 PM on the 14th - CNN is interviewing Jimmy Buffet about the Gulf Spill. Without the sound I imagine it to sound something like " The Streets of Margaritaville have forever been tarnished by this environmental calamity! We are showing our solidarity with our pelican brothers and sisters by smudging our Hawaiin shirts with chocolate, recognizing that we are forever mired and dirtied by the fetters of blackened capitalist hearts pumping the filthy black blood of their souls into our oceans."...
12 AM on the 19th - My fingers really hurt.
4 PM on the 21st - Lining up.
5:47 on the 28th - Handing my boarding pass with one last longing look at US soil.
11:30 on the 1st - in my seat and the damn thing is finally set.

Thankfully my neighbor was the kindest young Indian newly wed. We bonded. She works on several month long projects in the US and is between there and her new hometown of Bengaluru in the South of India. I asked her if she could give anything to America from India and vice versa what would it be. She mulled it over and settled on giving America the family values and unbreakable ties one finds in the Indian family structure and for India she would give them America's glass ceiling, "Its there but its much higher for you American women". As we got off the plane she offered me a place to stay in the South of India, not sure I'll go but so so grateful to have made a friend it bodes well for the trip and I do hope to meet her again perhaps back in America.

Doha Quatar is the first bout of culture shock I experience. The people of Quatar LOVE the AC ... it was something to the tune of 50 some odd degrees Fareheit for 13 hours... 13...hours. As I sit and watch people pass and eat my TERRIBLE meal voucher food - it occurs to me that head coverings are as much a determinant of feminimity in the Arab world as they are beacons of political and religious outrage/fervor. When you are the only woman with out your head covered - or well one of them - you feel like the lesbian at the Burka party...I meander down to the duty free (by the way Quatar airport is like 13 % airport and the rest is ALL duty free - I took a picture that I will upload later before a cop stopped me of the CARS in the duty free... they have cars... in a duty free). I look for an affordable headscarf but everything is Ferragamo and upwards so I give up and look for a place to settle..... UNTIL I realize that my comrades in late night airport excursions had found a window into the business lounge to watch the end of Ghana's loss to Uruguay. There is nothing like watching the world cup with the world.

I made friends with a Japanese man who could in some english communicate the scores, we were most of us cheering for Ghana and I flirted with a Kuwaiti who had only just moved back home after 15 years in the states. We both expressed extreme sadness over the loss of the last of the African teams - agreeing it would have been great, while the games were in Pretoria, to see Ghana advance. I expressed extreme sadness inside my head at the state of my appearance looking like I'd been hiking through the apocalypse with the sisterhood of Gaya.

The hellish wait ended and I was on board the second leg of my flight unable to stave off sleep any longer. Upon arriving in Jakarta I rushed through customs to catch Germany winning by 4 points! Whats going on. The Indonesians are crowded around a screen and shouting me and my taxi driver stall to watch a few minutes before my exhaustion propels me towards the backseat of a barely airconditioned car (for which I am extremely grateful).

My hotel, Bumi Johar is located past all of the super Americana in the heart of old Jakarta. Its nice and a bit grungy which I appreciate. I watch the end of Wesley Snipes defeating some other vampires in Blade... and I'm out cold.

I figure tonight I will go watch Twilight with the Indonesians...I'm thrilled .. the guy in the internet cafe is blasting and singing American Pop songs - the kind you hear on the backdrop of MTV reality shows ...the kind that are written for the back drop of MTV reality shows. "Its immpoossssible to fiiiyynnnnddduhhh, Tallkkkk is cheaapppppuhh....Cause tonight will be the night I fall for youuuu"...sigh.

Everyone wants to take me to Obama's house.

PS I've done something horrid to my hair. I needed to trim my bangs and now they are so short... like bad short... oh well. Hair grows and I've retained very little of my dignity to begin with.

Love love love