Despite, or maybe because of, the jet lag, we slept pretty well but were awake early anyway. We waited in our room until about 6:15, then emerged to spend the morning with Carter and Briton. Carter leaves for school at 6:45 and has a 49 minute bus ride to the Jakarta International School. Classes begin at 7:30 and he is home at 2:30. Because Jakarta is on the very eastern edge of the time zone, it is fully daylight although we don’t know what it will be like in the depths of winter. We lost track of the time and he almost missed the bus, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so no harm was done.
Briton went back to sleep and we checked the computer, clearing out ads and junk mail waiting for Caiden to awaken and the day to begin for real. Mariati fixed us all French toast and then Ati, the nanny, got Caiden ready for day-care school which he attends three mornings each week. His school is the same one Carter attended until this year.
The adults sat and relaxed at the breakfast table while Kusnadi took Caiden to school, finally rousing ourselves when we realized that we had only until noon to run errands and shop. And shop we did! Briton was in the market for handicrafts today, but first we stopped at a bureau de change to convert US dollars to Indonesian rupiah. The exchange rate today was 9480 rupiah to the dollar; our US$200 became 1,896,000 rupiah [yes, almost 2 million], not so far different from the rate when we were here two years ago. It’s easy to think of it as 10,000 rupiah to the dollar. After exchanging the US currency, we stopped so Briton could withdraw local currency from an ATM.
We stopped at several craft/furniture stores on our quest today. At assorted venues, we bought a large wooden bird for atop Jon and Briton’s chest in the living room; cinnamon coasters for us; and a case for MA’s sunglasses. We looked at but did not purchase a wooden wall hanging for us. The piece was marked at 460000 rupiah, about 45USD. It was too big to pack and too big to take as a carry-on; the staff at the store called to find out about shipping which would have been at least $125, so they and we laughed and went on to other things.
We picked Caiden up at school and met his teacher, then went home for lunch which was left over tempe, rice and pizza. After Caiden went down for his nap, Briton and MA went for facials and a massage for Briton. D stayed home to await Carter’s arrival at 2:30. The two of us played and talked until Caiden got up from his nap. Carter, in full Darth Vader regalia, decided to ride his bike, so Caiden had to do likewise. Carter and D wandered through the community until Carter met some of his friends and he played with them in various houses until we all went looking for him around 4:30. Ati kept Caiden occupied until Briton and MA returned and we all went in search of Darth.
The boys had baths, Carter fell down a few steps and we had dinner [roast chicken, rice, gravy and steamed veggies]. The boys decided that they wanted to watch television, so they and Briton went upstairs while we stayed on the first floor and read. They came down for hugs and kisses before bed and then all was quiet. MA is still jet-lagged but refused to go to bed before 8 o’clock on principle.
Jon is due home tomorrow night after his trip to the States, but he won’t get to the house until after 10 p.m., so the children won’t see him until Wednesday. We don’t know if has to go to the office that day, but if he does, he will be a zombie. We don’t know what tomorrow’s are other than school for both of the boys. Why do we foresee more shopping in our futures?
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