The new taste of home ... just 3 months away

Chimichurri Tender and Lasagna at
Bisou, Bandung. (Photo by Icha Rahmanti).

We're getting excited about moving to Indonesia. We're going to language school in the fall, learning how others think by wrapping our brains around their words.

Two years ago, after writing my dissertation, there was too little brain left to remember another language. Recently, I've begun to enjoy picking out words from BBC Indonesia and reading news from the Jakarta Post.

Indonesia's population is the fourth-largest in the world. Rankings of countries by number of people: China, India, USA, ... then Indonesia. So why don't we read more news from there?

We're looking forward to the food. We love trying new dishes, whether local or locally-prepared global foods. For a taste of what's ahead for us, check out this "Hidden Eateries" page and the "Top 5 Chinese Restaurants" page. Could anyone think they wouldn't like to come along for dinner? (Think of what you'd miss!)

The student life

Waldemar and I love to learn. Whatever catches our interest, we read up and study until we satisfy our curiosity. We seem to be perpetual students.

We have a bunch of books and links for learning the Indonesian language. We're researching about Bandung itself. Whenever we can, we talk to people who have visited or lived there.

Sometimes I think my head will explode. It takes longer to capture information, but if I can tuck it into what I already know, it makes good sense.

One of the things we look forward to when we get to Bandung is seeing how other people live. It will be our fourth live-in culture. In each one, people have unique worldviews and expectations. There's no perfect setting ... so there are many ways to adjust within the community.

W likes to gather information on how things work and how things are done. I love the stories people know about themselves and their surroundings. Who will we meet? And what will we learn? We're excited to find out!

Where in the world is Bandung?

The simplest way to describe the place where we're going to language school is to spin the globe to the lower right of Asia. Islands dangle below the bulk of China and cruise the ocean between India and Australia. The longest east-to-west island is Java, Indonesia. A fourth from the left, smack in the middle (north to south) of Java, lies Bandung. It's surrounded by volcanos. in hill country.

"You're so lucky to be going there," say Indonesians. "It's cooler than Jakarta and Singapore." It gets down to 66oF some nights and days are in the 80s and high 70s. I'll take a few sweaters for those cold nights. And maybe I'll be able to wear the shoes I abandoned for my month of flip-flops in Singapore.

There's also a lot of rain. Growing up in Chilliwack, a BC valley town surrounded by coastal mountains, I should feel at home. Actually, I hate rain and dark clouds overhead. But everyone assures me that the sun comes out most days. And the rain is warm, unlike the icy downpours of SW Canada. Whew.

We first heard of Bandung in March this year. Now we're bumping into people from there at every turn. Yesterday we picked up a table from CL couple. The wife is indonesian, and her sister is at a Bandung university. A gal on the video capture team at NU comes from Bandung. Etc.

When we decided to go in March, people asked us if we were excited. Ummm, maybe not right away. There's too much to leave behind. Now our anticipation is building with every encounter and each conversation.