Oh Yeah... Indonesia

Oh yeah... Indonesia

September 11, 2015
Jesse

So I had a moment the other day where Nick Brandle's voice popped into my head: "So there I was at rush hour in Jogjakarta, driving my scooter up the sidewalk to bypass the line of cars ahead of me with my sleeping toddler son on the back..." Because the only way that random ass phrase really makes sense is if it's something that Nick's beard told him to say. But then I remembered 'Oh Yeah... Indonesia'

That's the phrase that has really dominated my life as I start to become somewhat comfortable and then I see something that just should not be. I wonder, then I remember. Here's a list of examples:

Oh cool I wonder if this is some kind of scooter rally... Oh Yeah... Indonesia. 
Why is there a man selling toy airplanes in the middle of this four lane highway?  Oh yeah... Indonesia. 
Why did the plumber say he'd be here at 10 on Tuesday morning and just showed up at 3pm on Wednesday? Oh yeah... Indonesia.
Why is this group of schoolchildren all pointing and laughing at me? Oh yeah... Indonesia.
Is that guy wearing a Yankees jacket and a Red Sox hat? Oh yeah... Indonesia.
Why is this the most beautiful restaurant I've ever been to and the most expensive thing on the menu is 6$? Oh yeah... Indonesia.

We're eating at incredible restaurants every night and we've made a nice cross section of friends. Everyone from traditional Muslim (and catholic) families, to crazy sexy European students, to the Expats. The expat community is amazing, they are perfectly our speed, they don't party till 6 am and then go home to presumably have hot, fashion-conscious orgies like the Europeans but they still like their booze and Cards Against Humanity. They have kids to play with Benny and there's an actual real live North American to talk to! When we got to the BBQ it was like prison yard introductions. "This is the guy who can get you any pork product you're after. If you want whiskey talk to this man here..." It was very bad ass. The pork guy did not fail to deliver. We ate smoked ribs, double smoked bacon, back bacon, double smoked chicken that tasted like bacon, incredible homemade pepperonis and jerkey and then they go "Okay time for dinner, here's the steaks." Oh my god it was amazing. Then the beer guy showed up, it's illegal to sell beer in the North end of Jogja so he brought beer for everyone from the south. It felt like Canada once again.  But next time I jumped on my scooter I thought:

Why is that guy balancing what seems to be 6 dozen inflatable beach toys on his head while driving a scooter down the highway?
Did that scooter just cut off a 5 ton truck narrowly avoiding death by mere inches?!!?! Oh yeah... Indonesia.

Driving a scooter in Indonesia has changed my perspective of living in the moment. Because it is absolute chaos and believe me when I say there is no time for one second of daydreaming . Trying to do little errands has changed my perspective on communication. Do you have any idea how hard it is to venture into Downtown Yogyakarta at 8pm in search of four M6 screws? Damn right I failed. But I did get directions to an address I half forgot from a guy who didn't speak a word of english. Didn't fail to find the party!  So maybe it comes down to how bad you want to understand.

Hey... Why is that woman picking up Benny and getting her picture taken? Oh yeah... Indonesia.

Benny is absolutely tearing it up. He loves his celebrity status and he has definitely made the most friends out of all of us. When there are other kids around he becomes the happiest little dude just running around, counting loudly, whipping the ball everywhere. He hates leaving though and says bye to every object in the place. "Bye fish, bye ball, bye slide, bye mow (a cat), bye 1,2,3 (if there's any numbers in his view) bye up the stairs, bye turtle, by lizard, bye motor bikes." God forbid you are actually trying to get something done and he sees a basketball net somewhere. He just wants to go look at it. Seriously, he'd be happy just watching an unused basketball net for an hour or so.

Why is there a chicken in the office of international affairs at my university? Oh yeah... Indonesia.

School has been awkwardly inspiring so far. The Language and Culture class is my favorite for sure as we have a teacher who likes to challenge us and our perceptions and students who react with nervous humor. This has led to some of the greatest unintentional comedic moments of my life as we discussed sex and romance as a class the last two sessions. However, that deserves it's very own blog post. I hope you enjoyed this blog post as all of the computer rooms are closed for Friday prayers so I just jumped on the librarians computer. Been here an hour, no one has said anything. Oh Yeah... Indonesia.