SYESTEM RESET

well hello...this didn't work the way I hoped...it's been over a year and a half since my last post...the speed (or lack of speed) over the Indonesian airwaves at my apartment tested my nerves early and I failed the patience exam! There was no way that I was going to be able to try and post and upload things to this blog site on that super slow system.
Then life got super busy (as usual) and I forgot all about this site until one day recently, I re-found the link to this blogsite.
Here I am...not sure if I'll have any more time to write things down, but I can try...
It's already 11pm on a week night, so I have to sign off to head to bed...just had the urge to see if I remembered how to post things again ;-)

Later!!!

BOGOR

About one hour south of Jakarta is a town named Bogor. I went there with Treena (Canadian work friend who is in Jakarta for one year, like me). We spent the afternoon at the Botanical Gardens. It's a beautiful little oasis outside of town. There is a very large variety of trees, plants, cacti, etc. (I stink at botany, so that's about as detailed as I can get). There were a ton of locals there that kept on walking up to Treena and me saying "Sir, sir, picture, picture". All these people wanted was their picture taken with one of us...it was very weird!!
After the gardens, we went in search for the gong factory in town. It was closed for the day, but there was a guy there that showed us around (it's actually a concrete shack-type building with the words "gong factory" spraypainted on the front). They heat up the metal and pound it into the proper size and thickness and hand carved wooden frames for the gongs to hang on. I haven't bought any yet, but I defintely plan on it...wouldn't a gong look good in my front hallway?
Then on to the main purpose of our trip to Bogor. Dinner with some new friends we met in Ultimate Frisbee...all in all a great daytrip. We still did partake in one of Bogor's most famous pasttimes...shopping!! Bogor is well known for it's outlets for clothing, bags and purses. We'll save that for the next trip!!!

MY MOVE TO INDONESIA

So begins my adventures in Indonesia. I moved to Jakarta one month ago and have already found time to get into trouble. I'll back track a little to get up to date with my life from then until now.
Moving from the middle-class world of the USA to the expat world of Indonesia is defintely a change. Albeit not a bad change at all, if you have a little patience and are open-minded. I have never been to SE Asia before...I took the work transfer sight-unseen.
My first perception of Jakarta...cough, cough, cough...HORRIBLE POLLUTION!!! It makes anything you can think of in the US seem like roses...no joke! Not only is the air horrible from car (and motorbike) exhaust, but also burning garbage, and burning forests. The water/canal through the city looks (and smells) like a septic tank.
BUT, once you get past that, the city is amazing!! Indonesians are such a nice group of people, always with a smile on their faces. I have a driver here. That sounds fancy and all, but seriously, if I tried to drive with them, I would shorten my life span just with the stress. But, sitting in the passenger seat and admiring the scenery is great. There is such a dicotomy in this city between the poor and the wealthy. It's very interesting to see on the streets.
The apartment I live in is a serviced apartment that feels more like a hotel than an apartment. I'm on the 15th floor and have a pretty view of the city. I found a group of guys from work to play soccer with, and joined an Ultimate Frisbee team that practices twice a week. It's a blast!!!
And the location of Jakarta makes it extremely easy to get away and travel on the weekends...segway to the next posting...

European Cup Footbal Tournament 2006

My company puts on a football (soccer) tournament every year on Labor Day weekend. This past year, it was in Krakow, Poland. There is a womens and a mens division. Our office "USA" brought both teams. The women play 5 v. 5 and the men play 8 v. 8 both using FIFA rules. The womens teams that played were USA, London, Warrick, Hamburg, Krakow. The USA team won the tournament!!!!!!!! We lost the first game to London, then won the rest (all shut-outs). WAY TO GO CHICAS!!! And, just to put the cherry on the top of the sundae, I received the "Golden Boot"/Best Striker award, which is given to the player that scored the most goals in the tournament. As always, I couldn't have done it without the girls. The Poland crew did a great job of making the tournament fun and exciting!!! Everyone was super friendly and the city of Krakow is an amazingly beautiful city. It's got the oldest (Medieval) town square in the world and has some amazing history.

Germany-Day 2

I stayed at the Art 'Otel in Berlin, Mitte. A very nice place. Walked around Mitte area of Berlin, went to Checkpoint Charlie and a monument about the Berlin Wall. It was interesting to see the area...but, you can't tell where most of the Berlin wall was. It was taken down and buildings were built up right in its place. I also found out about an intersting little story about a difference between east and west Berlin...the stop-go guy. At traffic intersections, the green "walk" guy (and red "don't-walk" guy) is different looking in east and west Berlin. After the wall came down, the west Berliners wanted all of the traffic guys to be changed to theirs, but the east Berliners faught it and wanted to keep their own guy, which is much more detailed and "uppidy" looking. So, when you're walking around Berlin, you can tell which side of the "wall" you're on by the walk/don't walk green guy ;-)

Germany Trip-Day 1

So begins my adventures to Germany and Poland!! I'm just going to mention a few highlights of the trip...first of all, I booked my hotel through a website called booking.com. Excellent last minute hotel availability to just about anywhere in Europe. And, you don't have to pay for the room in advance like Orbiz or Priceline, you just reserve the room on line and pay at the hotel (it's also very easy to cancel reservations on line.

Geology in South Carolina

So, does this look like a fun classroom to learn in?? The beauty of being a geologist...
I went to South Carolina in July to learn about beaches and geologic settings. There were a bunch of great peeps there from companies all over the place. The weather was great, the company was great, the geology was great, and the food was great!! Charleston, SC...the best crab cakes and She Crab soup I've ever had!!!

World Cup Finals

Wow...what a way to end the World Cup...penalty kicks, Zedane getting red carded (very much deserved), called back goals by Italy, questionable penalty kick for France...
Again, wow...even though France seemed to control the ball more than the Italians, the Italians were definitely able to finish their offensive plays. And again, Zedane...at that calibre, with that many people watching, during your last professional game EVER, what where you thinking??!! Very unprofessional, that single play will mask much of your greatness, and it has definitely dropped you down on the list of my favorite athletes!! But on a side note, what a killer headbutt ;-)