Having lived in the US for 2 years, I thought that I would
still behave normally when I returned to my home country. However, maybe I
started to get used to the lifestyle in the US. For example, as soon as I
landed, I and my friend went to the nearest restroom in Cengkareng Airport, and
then we noticed that there was not any tissue left, we then asked for a tissue
refill to the cleaner lady, and she responded us by pointing at the napkin
dispenser next to the sink. Then I realized, I`m in Indonesia now where the
toilet is flushed and wet and you should provide your own tissue.
Upon arriving, the first thing I really wanted to do is
eating meatballs soup, and I made it. It was deliciousss… (Actually I`d never
been able to differentiate which meatballs that are delicious and which are not
hehe) Even though I was worried to the fact that most of my friends who had returned
before me said that they had a temporary diarrhea upon arriving. Luckily until
now, I don’t have it.
The first day was all about sleeping. In addition, I did not have much
rupiah, so I asked my cousin to take me to the bank, she took me to the nearest
branch, however, they just accepted 100 dollar bills. The cashier suggested me
to go to the branch in one of the malls, which is quite far from the house. My
cousin said that they were picky, they would only select bills with good
condition (I wondered if that was true).
The next day, my other cousin took me to this mall for a
currency exchange, on the way, things have changed quite a bit, I noticed that
people would prefer to go through short cuts rather than main roads to avoid
the traffic jam, meanwhile, short cuts are unbelievably narrow, and yet cars
and motorcycles are trying to fit in at the same time. Often our cars almost
hit some motorcycles, and I was freaking out inside, but our driver easily told
me, "That`s usual in Jakarta that you`re almost hit."
I had a funny story about changing the currency. When I
arrived there, I took out all my 20, 10 and 1 dollar bills that made more than
200 dollars and gave it to the cashier without saying a word. He said to me
that he would just accept the bills with good condition instead the bad,
folded, and scratchy ones. And then he asked if I understood what he said, I
responded that I got all of them from the ATM in the US
(which was true) and they were all original. He then noticed that I did not
speak Bahasa very good, FYI, I didn’t do it by purpose. He asked me how long I
have been back in Indonesia (while selecting the dollar bills), I said yesterday
(which was true), and he said it seemed that I had not been home for a while, I
said, “That’s true!” After finished separating them, he said, “You know what, I
would take all of them and change to Rupiah for you.” He then gave me new
Rupiah bills, coins and told me that some of the designs have been changed
since I left (I never told him how long I had been abroad, but I assumed that
he thought for a long time lol). I was happy because before my cousins
predicted that the bank would not take many of them. Thanks to my foreign accent hehe..
When we were walking around in the mall, I was having a nice
conversation with one of my cousins about how high the price of branded shoes
and clothing lines in Indonesia are. We went to several stores to check if our
hypothesis was right. Our findings were that some of them were extremely higher
than the US price, however, some were almost similar, if converted to Rupiah. He
told me that some faked-brands even had much better quality than the original
ones, with a very much lower price. I did hear that when Asians go to Hongkong,
they would bring empty big suitcases, and later fill them with various
faked-brand products. There are terms they use as KW1, KW2, KW3 and I guess
KW4. KW1 is for the you-can’t-even-notice-any-difference ones. And this type is
still very expensive. It can still be more than USD 1000, however, it would be
like 75-80% cheaper than original products. KW1s are not displayed in public,
it`s like when you buy a limited edition of Rolex watch, the store manager will
firstly observe your appearance, and later take you to his/her office for a
private display. I was on the same flight from Hongkong to Indonesia with
groups of women who went to Hongkong for a big shopping, I noticed from their
carry on hand bags, which I was pretty sure that they were all fake, and their
conversations about how and where they got this bag, that clothes, these
jewelries, etc. when they were in Hongkong, and they felt proud of it. I did not
mean to disagree since I had some faked-brand products that have a better
quality than the originals, and you are barely able to differentiate them, and
the most important thing was the price was much cheaper.
another thing that happened during my first week back
home was just enjoying the jet lag. I would sleep after 5 pm until 1 am most
of the days, and stayed awake after midnight, chatted with whoever was online,
watched movies, hunted mosquitoes, tried to work on my thesis, blogged, had
some friends visited me, played with my cute niece and nephews and chatted with
my cousins about many things. Oh yeah, and also enjoying the hospitality where
food is served, dishes are washed, driver request. It was kind of weird for the
first days since I got used to do most of the things myself, sometimes I felt
bad asking for the food to be served, or even asking the housekeeper to open
the gate, moving the dirty glasses and plates to the sink, etc. But that`s how my family do it here in
Jakarta.
My internet connection? Don’t ask. My cousin lends me his
mobile internet modem, and I was surprised that I can Skype my friends without
getting disconnected. However, there are some days when the signal is away for
vacation, I couldn’t get connected at all. Sometimes it feels like I`m losing
one of my feet since it was so easy in the US to detect Wi-Fi everywhere I go.
But I`ll get used to it!
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