LifeInContrast.com

We arrived in Bandung the day before yesterday, in the afternoon.  Finally figured out how to get online this morning.  We’re sitting at a little Japanese cafe on the top floor of a massive department store, happy to be connected.

The first couple of hours here were marked by a sort of “Oh crap, what have we gotten ourselves into?” type of feeling.  This place is just SO totally different from the United States.  After a very cold shower at our hotel (make that icy-cold) we were reeling from the realization that this was our new home for the next year.

A couple of native employees from English First knocked on our hotel door with welcome bags containing fruit and water, and introduced themselves to us.  Very nice!

Then Denise’s boss (Adam) met us at our hotel to take us to dinner.  We hopped on an angkot, which is a little minibus used for public transportation (like a tap-tap), and off we went.  We also walked part of the way on uneven sidewalks with huge gaps for drainage, as hundreds of scooters and cars whizzed by us just inches away.  I was struck by the bustling activity that was taking place at night, well after the sun had gone down.  The dizzying headlights in the dark, accompanied by the lights of the street vendors and the lingering vertigo from the plane flights made for a slighty disorienting and surreal experience.

The three of us met up with my boss, Chris, at a nice warung (small stall/restaurant) where I had nasi goreng (fried rice) with black pepper, including tofu and kropok (rice crackers).  I believe my dinner cost $1, and my lemon iced tea cost about $.70.  We talked with Chris and Adam for quite a while, riddling them with questions, as they put our minds at ease about a lot of the things we’d been worrying about.  Malaria is not an issue in Bandung, nor is personal safety.  Very relieving.

Then we went back to the hotel and conked out, sleeping right through the morning call to prayer.