trip home

I had some pretty productive meetings with people from the Ministry of Agriculture's (HPAI) Campaign Management Unit & with the FAO HPAI program before I left. I've got quite a bit of work ahead of me, writing my preliminary paper, going through data, and starting the risk analysis portion of the project.

My last couple of days in Jakarta with Thersya & her family were lovely. It was nice to have a few days off and a friend to spend them with. One of her sisters was also visiting, and we took it easy for the weekend. Ate some good food, sat in some outdoor cafes, did some more gift shopping, slept in...it was nice to be lazy. Thersya's family has cable (with ESPN) & I woke up early-ish Sat morning and got to watch a Yankee's game (the Fri PM Devil Ray's game- Chien-Ming Wang's 2 hit, 2 walk shutout). Since I've been living in Red Sox Nation for several years, I appreciate every opportunity to watch Yankees games, especially in a non-hostile environment. Thersya's family is quite close, and spending time with them made me miss my family a lot. I'm heading down to the beautiful Garden State to see them in a couple of weeks, and I'm really looking forward to that trip...except for the unavoidable traffic in CT and the car with no air conditioning.

On the subject of good food, Kobe beef is absolutely heavenly...I think I'm ruined for steak for a while.

The trip home went smoothly. LAX was a rude awakening after the Hong Kong airport, but I figured that my 6-hour layover in LA would not exactly be fun. We don't do airports or air travel well in the States...Singapore & Hong Kong do airports & air travel really well. The jet lag Monday was fierce. With help from Peter, I managed to keep myself awake (save 2 short naps) until after 9:00 Monday night. I was apparently pretty entertaining on both sides of those naps. Peter said that I was practically delerious, babbling away about who knows what. I spoke briefly with my parents shortly before the 2nd nap. They're spending some time in Britian with my sister, Megan, and her husband's family. I forget exactly where Andy is from...somehwere in Suffolk. They're all having a nice time, despite the fact that Gabby had decided to hold off on theething until they left for England. I have a funny feeling that I was somewhat incoherant during that conversation. I slept like a rock last night, and I feel OK so far today. Fingers crossed.

As I go through my photos, I'll probably post more.

Hope you're all well.

-Janine

photos from Jakarta

Here are a couple from the day of museum-going I had with Thersya in Jakarta. Unfortunarely, I have no photos of Thersya. Oh, well. More reason to go back to Indonesia! She & I sketched out a rough agenda for a trip...maybe that Peter & I can take with Mike & John? Or Josh & Anna? Or Meaghan? Or Kirsten? Hmmmmm? A few weeks in Java & Bali?

Anyway, I wrote earlier about the staircases & cannon, but here are some brief details again. The cannon was brought to Batavia, the center of Dutch culture in Jakarta, when the last of the Portuguese territories were taken over by the Dutch. These beautiful spiral staircases were one of Thersya's & my favorite parts of the museums. The collections weren't curated well at all, but the buildings were incredible...Dutch colonial structures with beautiful windows & staircases; big, old, wide floor boards; and some gorgeous old pieces of furniture.

photos from the last week in Lembang

We had an unexpectedly short work day during our last week in Lambang. We (Utari, Dedi and I) took this opportunity to stop by the Buddhist meditation center in Bandung district. It was gorgeous!

I like this photo of Dedi. He usually made funny faces when I took pictures of him.


Since I hate having my picture taken, here is one of the few photos I have of myself from the trip.



It was a lovely afternoon, and Utari, Dedi & I had a really nice time.